Suggestion for the new-new-map-format

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 19 Jan 2006, 04:07

Can we please, please, PLEASE have a way to set the water height in the SMD file? This would make the map making process SO much faster.

FizWizz · Post by **FizWizz** » 19 Jan 2006, 06:18

that would be a nice option. It's a pain (not a big one, but still a pain) to have to figure out max and min heights and what grey is the waterline....

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 19 Jan 2006, 08:54

umm just a note, not sure if this will help or not but...

if you compile your maps at
max height 300 and min -100

set your regular ground color at

r 81
g 81
b 81

you will get a perfect height above waterline. Anything black on your heightmap will be in water.

Just a technique I have used before and it works rather well, but it is neither a rule or law, possibly a simple guideline to help?

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 19 Jan 2006, 08:55

oh damn sorry for the double post but I forgot to agree...

Setting water height in smd would be a godsend.

Weaver · Post by **Weaver** » 19 Jan 2006, 09:23

Good idea it would be a nice addition, but will it ever happen?

With that in mind...

I've been thinking of making some more mapping tools, the ability to change the water height on an already compiled map would be good place to start.

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 19 Jan 2006, 09:24

maelstorm made some nice program for determine the waterheight.

which can be found here:

http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=1726

Post by **jcnossen** » 19 Jan 2006, 14:40

It could be implemented as an offset function in sharpmap, that's probably easier than putting it actually in the map format.

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 19 Jan 2006, 14:51

arg, I forgot to mention that prog noize. It is a very nice tool, but it is only a bandaid, imo.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 19 Jan 2006, 17:56

I can see why it'd be hard to implement, after all it would mean having to instruct the engine to re-path a map even when there haven't been any changes made to it, or know to look for a specific tag...

I've not used Sharpmap, it's been "out of date" since before I started making maps. If it allowed you to dynamically see how high the water would be on a given map (ie, you adjust a slider and in realtime the water level rises on a minimap which is based on your heightmap), that would be more than good enough.

Post by **jcnossen** » 19 Jan 2006, 18:33

I'm making my terrain renderer avaiable in a DLL to sharpmap. The plan is that buggi loads it and that would allow him to use a sortof WYSIWYG view inside sharpmap... this makes check water levels a lot easier too ofcourse...

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 19 Jan 2006, 22:55

I'm really confused... Is there going to be another mass re-release of maps?!

FizWizz · Post by **FizWizz** » 20 Jan 2006, 00:13

No, not unless they feel like it. I believe that is has already been said that the current map format will still be compatible.

Neuralize · Post by **Neuralize** » 21 Jan 2006, 03:46

Curses, I vote for a purge! We must burn it all down and rise from the ashes!

AF · Post by AF » 21 Jan 2006, 17:37

Forget about that, I'm looking towards the new new new map format!

Slamoid · Post by **Slamoid** » 21 Jan 2006, 19:26

Ok, I'm confused... Won't the new format make map sizes like way bigger? And my main concern: Will there be multi-layered heightmaps?

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 21 Jan 2006, 19:41

From what I've seen, if anything maps will be far smaller.

Gnomre · Post by **Gnomre** » 22 Jan 2006, 00:36

Yeah, maps will have a few textures (1024x1024 I assume, with detail textures defined most likely? Probably something to that effect) which are repeated across the map and layered. An alpha map will tell the engine how much to blend the layers together. It's basically the same approach many other engines use (dawn of war, the unreal engine, etc) for terrain.

FLOZi · Post by **FLOZi** » 22 Jan 2006, 01:41

Spring just keeps getting better and better, i can't thank the devs enough.

Slamoid · Post by **Slamoid** » 22 Jan 2006, 07:34

Sounds good, but how about platforms? Things like bridges going over land and water, like static meshes in UE. Will those be implamented?

Post by **jcnossen** » 22 Jan 2006, 15:03

No it's just a new rendering/texturing method, no actual gameplay changes. (Bridges would require changing pathfinding/los and other unit AI code).

Spring RTS Engine

Suggestion for the new-new-map-format

Suggestion for the new-new-map-format