Spring RTS Engine

Yes it bugs me, because I don't own l3dt. And while its cool that It can do all this stuff, I still have no intention of spending money on buying a piece of software to make a map I can make fine by hand. Soory Forb I know you love your l3dt. I'm not knocking the program, just I don't have it and as such "use l3dt" is not the answer.

Like Pxtl is implying, We need an open source complier for those of us that like the old fashioned way!

aGorm

No one wants to rewrite mapconv I guess.

Aaron has bent over backwards to make l3dt run smoothly for spring mappers. It originally wasn't retail, but god forbid he make a little cash

Blame mapconv. Make a new mapconv. Stop whining j/k

just send it to someone who has l3dt and let them do it (but not me as i am very lazy), or ask aaron for a month-long trial

Hay, I'm allowed to whine I been here long enough.

Does Aaron's exporter include the mipmaps, or is that why there are no stripes (no mips to get fuked)? Or is that a question only he'd know the answer to?

Problem is I bet mapconv's issue is like a 1 line fix or something.

aGorm

So this is a mapconv issue? I thought it was the spring engine that created the lines... Hmm, somebody rewrite/fix mapconv !

Eh, anyways I'll probably buy l3dt if I decide to start mapping again. If it can export directly to the spring map file type.. that is just too sweet.

L3DT can compile the maps, but It dosn't have a way to import your existing metalmap, featuremap, ect. Or I just cant find that option. Not to mention well... it costs bling bling. As opposed to mapconv which costs no bling.

Pxtl wrote:Does it bother anyone else that maps for a free, open-source program can only be properly made in a retail program?

Yes, greatly.

LOrDo wrote:L3DT can compile the maps, but It dosn't have a way to import your existing metalmap, featuremap, ect. Or I just cant find that option. Not to mention well... it costs bling bling. As opposed to mapconv which costs no bling.

A post in the l3dt forums and I'll bet that you get that feature...

Agorm whine all you want, but l3dt has a 90 day trial...

If you lads need a figurehead/sacrifice, I bought a license and can request it.

Agorm whine all you want, but l3dt has a 90 day trial...

What is your problem? I've told you l3dt isn't the answer (just because your in love with it doesn't mean its the only way you know). Why would I want to use the 90 day trial, its only 90 days. What about when thats over? Do you think I'll magicly decide "oh I'll buy it after all! Forb was right what a dick I am!" afterwards?

Grrr, stop trying to make me angry. If l3dt is all you have to say then you don't need to post in this thread anymore, youv'e raised the point, now if we can get on with finding someone to fix mapcov for those of us that don't want the l3dt way.

aGorm (with a big G)

Hi Guys,

As far as I can recall, this is a problem in the way MapConv calculates the mipmaps. If anyone would like to see how the L3DT plugin does it, the source code is freely available under LGPL:

• L3DTio_SMT (for making SMT files, doing the DXT1 compression, mipmaps, etc.)
• L3DTio_SMF (for making SMF files.)
• L3DTio_Spring (for coordinating the SMT and SMF plugins, and providing a user interface.)

The mipmaps are generated on-the-fly when saving the SMT file in the 'ExtSaveTextureSmt' function in the L3DTio_SMT plugin. The code is not documented very thoroughly, but it's not a very complex function, so it should be understandable to a C++ programmer that is familiar with the SMT format specification.

doesn't l3dt only support square maps? (also isn't the max size 16 x 16?).

Non-square maps are fine. The max size is 131072 x 131072 pixels for heightmaps and 2M x 2M for textures. I don't recall how large that is in Spring units, but I'd bet it's a big number.

Does Aaron's exporter include the mipmaps, or is that why there are no stripes (no mips to get fuked)?

Yes, it includes the mipmaps, as per the SMT spec. Otherwise the textures would go black in the distance in Spring.

L3DT can compile the maps, but It dosn't have a way to import your existing metalmap, featuremap, ect.

You can import the metal map in the more recent versions (I suggest you try the latest dev build.) To do this, use the 'Extensions->L3DTio_Spring->Create Spring Maps' option to create the metal/feature/etc maps. Then, use the 'File->Import->Custom map layer' option to import the metal map image (8-bit greyscale png/bmp is recommended). When importing the metal map, set the layer name to 'Spring-Metal' and the type to 'BYTE'. I'll put a note on my to-do list to make this more ergonomic in the next release.

At the moment the feature map support in L3DT is a bit dodgy (hard-coded values for metal patches, etc.), but I'll try to fix this up for the next release as well. If you'd like to make any suggestions as to how you think this should work, please let me know. Ditto for vegetation maps.

If aGorm or anyone else would like a free 3-month trial of L3DT Pro with the Spring plugins, please register for a trial using these instructions.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

Edit: I've just added an 'Import->Metal map' option to the plugin for the next release, which bypasses the above steps for importing the metal map. It will be included with the next developmental build of L3DT Pro, which should be available sometime in the next fortnight.

Thanks for the offer Aaron, I will take a look at a later date.

However, it still stands we need someone to take a look at mapconv, seeing as programmers are less likely to be here than in feature requests, I'm going post asking for someone to fix it there.

aGorm

Are this our latest sources? https://spring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring/t ... s/MapConv/

What about mothers MapConv? Do we have the source too?

very_bad_soldier wrote:Are this our latest sources? https://spring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring/t ... s/MapConv/

What about mothers MapConv? Do we have the source too?

Here are screens of this well known issue :

I'll have a go at rewriting mapconv.

Go you then. Im sure no one will object to a new mapconv.

Kloot is already working on a fixed version... He's already sent me a map which has compiled fine, but there are a few issues with windows vs linux...

aGorm

For clarification, maps compiled with a Linux build of the
SVN MapConv source (using texcompress to generate the
dds textures) don't show the lines at all and load fine on
both platforms. The Windows vs. Linux issue concerns a
custom cross-compiled Windows build of MapConv that I
sent aGorm which removes the hardcoded dependency
on nvdxt (it doesn't work ).

Yhep, so we await loot finding an XP machine to debug on

aGorm

Ubuntu

Its free, superior, fast, and takes < 30 mins to install.