SMD trouble

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 02:33

Hi, Im new to map making.

Im working on my first map to familiarize myself with the process. Anyways... I was following the tutorials... and when i try to load my map into spring, the battlewindow says there's an error in the .smd file. When I try to save my SMD files it says "Runtime error '9' Subscript out of range" but it still creates a SMD file. Trying to run a compiled map like this makes it crash back to the client.

Then i tried taking the SMD file from a similar map, copying it, renaming it, and compiling with that, and the map will run, but my texture map isnt there. It looks like this

Any ideas as to whats going on? The metal and height maps ARE working.

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 06 Mar 2006, 02:49

Oh snap... I know this one... what does this again...

I think it's a missing typemap or feature map or something like that on compilation. One of the more experianced mappers will correct me...

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 06 Mar 2006, 05:50

Dont use the SMD creator. Its crap. Really.
Im allowed to say this cause I made it. I regret it now.

What map did you copy the new SMD from?

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 06 Mar 2006, 06:27

steal the smd from another map. Use smd creator for misc tags that you need (That's what I use it for anyway).

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 06:28

FF-Asteriod Battle. My test map is kind space themed (as i eventually want to make a new FF map).

so.. if the SMD creator is not to be used... what should i do then... all the tutorials just point to using that.

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 06 Mar 2006, 07:09

Open the SMD file up in Notepad and edit the file by hand. Most of the stuff is pretty self explanitory. If you cant figure something out, make that one tag in the SMD creator and copy that tag into your propper SMD.

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 07:16

It seems like the texture map isnt properly loading or something... asmy finished products arent even a megabyte...

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 06 Mar 2006, 08:13

and how big is this map?

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 06 Mar 2006, 08:20

there's a stupid version of mapconv flaoting around that doesn't produce and smt file... you need 3 files smf, smt and smd, if your mapconv isn't getting the smt built... then get mother's (check the wiki, I'm tired of linking to this thing)... also... make sure that you DON'T RENAME ANY FILES EVER PERIOD AFTER YOU HAVE RUN MAPCONV!!! people keep doing this... if you want to rename your map you acctually need to run mapconv again with a different argument value...

Forboding Angel · Post by **Forboding Angel** » 06 Mar 2006, 09:04

actually you can rename the smf file and get away with it, but unless the circumstance is dire, I would strongly suggest a recompile.

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 09:16

Im using mothers compiler, the smt, smf, and smd files are all present, and i havent renamed anything. My BMP files that i use for compiling range from 7MB to 75 MB, yet the smf and smt files produced by the compiler are like... 25 kb

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 06 Mar 2006, 09:18

please post the exact dimensions of your files

and the commandline you use for mapconv

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 06 Mar 2006, 10:49

If your map is composed of a very few, very small repeating tiles, then a size of 25kb is not unusual. As the map is a space map, and probably totally black because of this, a size that small is to be expected. Try posting the outputted files on FU so people can have a look.

mother · Post by **mother** » 06 Mar 2006, 16:15

Sure looks like what was happening to rabit a week back.

http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3914

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 18:25

[quote=Belmakor]I had *exactly* this problem. After reading the tutorials, I downloaded mother's mapconv because that was what was recommended. However, when I ran it, my test map produced exactly what you were seeing. Then on a hunch (and because I was getting "geovent.bmp not found" and "nvdxt.exe" not found errors) I suspected that maybe I also needed the original mapconv distribution.... So, make sure you have done something like this:

1. Download the original mapconv and unpack it
2. Download mother's mapconv and unpack it over the top of the original

At the end, I think you should have the following files in your mapconv directory:

texconv.exe
nvdxt.exe
geovent.bmp
MapConv.exe
test.bat

Also, I think I read somewhere that it may not work properly if you have space characters in your path to mapconv, so check that too.

That's what I did and the problems disappeared.

Belmakor[/quote]

This seems to fix the problems.. when i load it in spring it actually shows the minimap, but now it says "External Exception E06D7363," loads the minimap, but when you run the game it'll load the map above it. I really suck at this or something >.<.

I've loaded the .sd7 file at FU for you guys to look at here:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?p=showitem&ID=2554

And heres my code for running the compiler. I just edited the bat file that was already there.

@ECHO OFF
ECHO
ECHO.
ECHO Edit this file in notepad.
ECHO.
ECHO Make sure all map bitmaps are present in the same directory as Mapconv.
ECHO.
ECHO Mapconv help will now display.
mapconv -help

ECHO MapConv will now run again with the parameters you have added. If you haven't touched this file yet, something bad will probably happen.
pause

REM Edit below.

mapconv.exe -i -x 40 -n -10 -m metal.bmp -a height.bmp -t texture.bmp -o test.smf -f feature.bmp -c .5
pause

mother · Post by **mother** » 06 Mar 2006, 19:51

AvatarSquadron wrote: This seems to fix the problems.. when i load it in spring it actually shows the minimap, but now it says "External Exception E06D7363," loads the minimap, but when you run the game it'll load the map above it. I really suck at this or something >.<.

Now I think you may be looking at an SMD problem. It's the lobby that gives the Exception, right?

Edit: You're gunna hate yourself... Your smd is named test.smd.smd. Change it to just test.smd and you should be ready to go.

PS Don't bother including the mini.bmp/dds files in the archive- the minimap that the lobby uses is compiled into the smf file.

AvatarSquadron · Post by **AvatarSquadron** » 06 Mar 2006, 21:41

Yeah... that did it. Thanks for all the help and patience... Now i get to try to play and see if i can figure this beasty out.

Spring RTS Engine

SMD trouble

SMD trouble