Spring RTS Engine

.

. When the next release is TASpring gets released will it include
the new map format? Also, with the new map format will the
map sizes get smaller? Any info would be nice ...

What's the deal with the periods? They make me want to choke the cat in your avatar.

The next version of Spring will have a grand new map system that will break all the currently existing maps, however it will allow for the modifying of unit speed behavior over select parts of your map and allow for hardness of the map in certain places to be modified. Further effort has been put into the new format, making it much easier to add things without breaking everything again.

Buggi, is a converter planned for old>new? Somethign that generated a tileset file and the new map out of an old.

The system also makes it quite possible to script "Camouflage Zones" so that forests and other things can be programmed to kill radar, or force units to cloak when they enter, etc.

It will also likely be the foundation of the weather effects system, so that multiple terrain maps can have different weather effects, etc.

yeah genblood... what is with the periods... and why do you have a cute little fluffy cat as you avatar when your name is genblood...

*awaits new spring version in a state of catlike readiness*

weather effects...

does weather affect perception of the units/radars/los?

does trees have built inn radar jamming?

hm.. not sure if i want to let map makers decide on jammed spots..
the actual radar system works very well doing that job.

any talk on day/nigth times?, and ligth system.. well... who wants to waste the surprise element spotting its attack..
aditional "nigth view" or.. thermal view may be usefull at nigth time.

To answer the question that started this thread, yes, the new map format is totally integrated into the source now.

My tool will be updated to meet the new specs. But I've had a rough weekend so I couldn't get the time to mull over the map format. Once I know the new format a conversion system shouldn't be too hard.

-Buggi

Thats great Buggi, I cant wait to get my hands on it.

I bet it comes out while im on holiday... just typical. Everyone will have to do without my maps for a while if that happens...

aGorm

Sorry, I'm foreign and ignorant. What's all this about new map formats? What's the difference between old and new? For the love of god, will placing features be easier??!

There will be texture packages (like modern FPS games) which should help lower filesizes for maps with common textures, there will be a hardness map (so different parts of the map can have different levels of hardness), there will be terrain types (road, mud, whatever), etc... read other topics in the maps and dev forum for all the details.

Careful Gnome, don't go on about features you don't know the techincal details about, you might get something wrong.

Let's clarify a few things. First of all yes, you can share tiles, but these are 32x32 tiles not the huge monsters TA had in them. And with sharing of tiles you could get a odd pattern effect if your compression is too high. Where sharing of tiles would be most beneficial is the gargantuan number of Metal maps around. If someone were to create a "smt" or texture file from one of these maps with low compression and then release it as a metal texture file to use for other metal maps, THEN you would get smaller sizes. The trade off is the more files you use in your map the more maps/files someone else will need to get it to work. So if I took my Asia Pacific map SMT texture file and shared it with a newly created Eternal Struggle map, someone would have to have the Asia Pacific Map to get Eternal Struggle to work.

Secondly, there isn't a "Hardness map". It's called the "Type Map" and can manipulate many things including hardness. This layer uses the red channel only and correlates with the SMD file [TERRAINTYPEX] entries. Where X is the value of red on the map. It can modify speeds and hardness and can be given a user-visable text name. I assume SY has future plans with this layer. So obviously your limited to 256 types of terrain. [TERRAINTYPE0] to [TERRAINTYPE255].

Hopefully this clarifies a few things.

-Buggi

Indeed it does :)

wow, this is exciting!

Sounds very cool! Makes me want to start making maps...

is there going to be a hotkey to see 'hardness' of a map? if so is it going to be in the readme??? can't wait for next version of spring! :)

Dear god, con you imagin it... Core pyramid where the ptramid is rock solid and the ground nice and deformable... it would rock!! Just you wait till I re-release my maps cause they gonna rule...

aGorm

TRUE!!!! make the UK solid in Eternal Struggle coz we're hard :D