Spring RTS Engine

This map was my first experience in mapmaking for spring. The terrain was borrowed, almost all the textures were SME defaults, I used the most generic possible skybox.. bring the hate. :)



http://springfiles.com/spring/spring-maps/living-lands

When trying to start I get the error message:

Ah you're right. It didn't give me that error when it wasn't compressed, I'll fix that.

EDIT: I accidentally added the outer .sdd folder into the archive, which screwed up the directory structure. Uploading the fix now.

Do not put the .sdd inside the zip, just the files. (compare to a working map)

For testing I unpacked it and then it worked. Howerver in springlobby I could not select it and no mapname showed up, which is maybe related. (did not look if that was a cache/lobby problem or something in map itself)

Lua: where did you get that? It has problems. Ask in #moddev why they do not matter.

Otherwise good choice for a remake and looks nice.

8611 wrote:Do not put the .sdd inside the zip, just the files. (compare to a working map)

Fixed. Obvious derp on my part.

8611 wrote:For testing I unpacked it and then it worked. Howerver in springlobby I could not select it and no mapname showed up, which is maybe related. (did not look if that was a cache/lobby problem or something in map itself)

Springlobby won't recognize any map that isn't "official", ie which it didn't download itself. ZK lobby does that too; I had to use standalone spring for testing and development because of it.

EDIT: springlobby is -supposed- to recognize maps with reload maps/games. That's probably a bug.

8611 wrote:Lua: where did you get that? It has problems. Ask in #moddev why they do not matter.

http://springrts.com/wiki/Mapdev:mapinfo.lua

That replaced the old mapname.smd files completely and is now the standard way to make maps.

8611 wrote:Otherwise good choice for a remake and looks nice.

Thanks.

Springlobby won't recognize any map that isn't "official", ie which it didn't download itself.

SpringLobby uses Spring to locate maps - it will find any map that Spring can find. You might sometimes have to restart SL or wipe the cache, especially if you are making maps, because then the files for the "same" map end up in multiple locations at different times and confuse the caches index.

My guess is that he has not made his 7zip archive non solid thus SpringFiles didn't recognize it as a map.

springlobby definately works with not-SL-downloaded maps. After lobby restart it worked, so I guess nothing is wrong with the map itself and that it was a caching problem from first starting with broken archive and then impatiently unpacking to see the map. (archivecache.lua or whatever)
By "Lua" I meant creating the features in LuaGaia\Gadgets\
Did you use custom config for SME auto-texture-script system?

8611 wrote:springlobby definately works with not-SL-downloaded maps. After lobby restart it worked, so I guess nothing is wrong with the map itself and that it was a caching problem from first starting with broken archive and then impatiently unpacking to see the map. (archivecache.lua or whatever)

Ah, well glad it's working for you.

8611 wrote:By "Lua" I meant creating the features in LuaGaia\Gadgets\

Tbh that stuff is part of the new map template. I have no idea what it does or if I even really need it. As such I don't feel safe removing it, either.

8611 wrote:Did you use custom config for SME auto-texture-script system?

No, just a lot of patience and attention to detail. I did use stamp sometimes to break up the ugly tiling artifacts that SME creates though. I want to try scened but I haven't gotten that working yet, and I've been kinda busy polishing this up.

EDIT:

Orfelius wrote:My guess is that he has not made his 7zip archive non solid thus SpringFiles didn't recognize it as a map.

Sure did. That explains some other things, too. >.< Fix#2 going up now.

I would suggest less contrasty texture on the edges of the cliffs, or updating heightmap (and size) to make the map an island.

The reason would be to get rid of those zebra stripes on map border. And no you don't get to say that "zk will stick on 91.0 forever".

The day draws very near.

Of course, i'd also suggest not using SME default climate, but if keeping it is your decision, there's little to do about that so just focus on making it better.

Got several error messages when loading current springfiles version: It's very shiny (much too much for my taste). Probably related with the file "specularTex = specularmap_inv.bmp" defined in mapinfo but I can't find it in the packed file.

An smd file with just: inside the map folder is probably a good idea for compatibility.
And if you upload a new version IMHO it is better to give it a new (minor) version number. Avoids clashes with cached data and problems with autohosts.

qray wrote:Got several error messages when loading current springfiles version..

Most of that stuff has to do with featureplacer being stupid. It dumped a bunch of crap in my set.lua that I never placed on my map in the first place. None of that is anything to worry about, and while I'd like to fix it that's just not practical without tools that work properly.

qray wrote:It's very shiny (much too much for my taste). Probably related with the file "specularTex = specularmap_inv.bmp" defined in mapinfo but I can't find it in the packed file.

I haven't made a specular map for this yet. I think the "shiny" you're referring to is fog lighting effects, which may still be set a little high. If it blinds you when you scroll out then that's the reason.

qray wrote:An smd file with just:

Code: Select all

[MAP]
{
}

inside the map folder is probably a good idea for compatibility.
And if you upload a new version IMHO it is better to give it a new (minor) version number. Avoids clashes with cached data and problems with autohosts.

Eh, if a client isn't compatible with mapinfo.lua then an empty file probably will not change anything. Versions would have been better, but since my archive was 'solid' I don't think it actually got pushed to the autohosts anyway. If I have to change anything else I will though.

anarchid wrote:I would suggest less contrasty texture on the edges of the cliffs, or updating heightmap (and size) to make the map an island.

I think you mean the skybox? No that doesn't match perfectly. I've thought of cooler things you could do with that, but that's not something high on my priority list right now.

anarchid wrote:The reason would be to get rid of those zebra stripes on map border. And no you don't get to say that "zk will stick on 91.0 forever".

Not sure what you mean by 'zebra stripes'. I'm starting to run into compression artifacts wrecking my map from repeatedly saving/editing in sdt format though. :\

anarchid wrote:Of course, i'd also suggest not using SME default climate, but if keeping it is your decision, there's little to do about that so just focus on making it better.

Well, for my first map it'd be too much of a pain to use anything else. Incorporating other textures would require sorting through and finding good ones, which I haven't had time to do, and fighting against constant tiling artifacts with SME' s paint features is not fun and does not lead to good art in general. This map could be tons better, but at least right now I don't have the means to make that happen. Mostly I'm trying to focus on cleaning up minor issues like bad lighting and other stuff that doesn't require vast changes.

aeonios wrote:I haven't made a specular map for this yet. I think the "shiny" you're referring to is fog lighting effects, which may still be set a little high. If it blinds you when you scroll out then that's the reason.

Yes, that's what I meant

Anarchid wrote:

zebra.png

If you scan the mapborders on some map with a barcode scanner, you get a personal insult encoded in ASCII.

But serious- should the 1px border be uniformly terrain coloured (earth-brown or rock-grey)

It reads a bit like you painted the whole map by hand in SME...?
Just in case you really did:
Did you not see the auto-texture function? It applies textures based on terrain height & slope, blends between them etc. It texture the whole map fairly quickly and then you only need to do smaller details.
You can also use different "texture scripts" as brush, so if you paint on a cliff it automatically paints a cliff-texture and on flat land it paints grass.

And if you upload a new version IMHO it is better to give it a new (minor) version number.

...and different filenames too.

8611 wrote:It reads a bit like you painted the whole map by hand in SME...?

Yep.

8611 wrote:Just in case you really did:
Did you not see the auto-texture function? It applies textures based on terrain height & slope, blends between them etc. It texture the whole map fairly quickly and then you only need to do smaller details.
You can also use different "texture scripts" as brush, so if you paint on a cliff it automatically paints a cliff-texture and on flat land it paints grass.

That wouldn't have been much easier than the way I ended up doing it anyway. I spent most of my time fighting off the tiling artifacts created by SME's naive blending procedure anyway, and custom painting every detail was my intention from the start. I wish I could have spent more of my time actually doing that.

And if you upload a new version IMHO it is better to give it a new (minor) version number....and different filenames too.

asjkfohakwnglukhj.

Map is sadly not avaible via Zero-k.info and I would guess that SL autodownload also don't see this map.
Fix your damn solid compression problem ffs -.-
I thought this map was made in regards of Zero-K yet you are not making it acessable via ZKL

Orfelius wrote:Map is sadly not avaible via Zero-k.info and I would guess that SL autodownload also don't see this map.
Fix your damn solid compression problem ffs -.-
I thought this map was made in regards of Zero-K yet you are not making it acessable via ZKL

Lol orf, I fixed the solid problem. It didn't update because I need to change the filename and SF version and map version and update them all together. It'll be up shortly and should update properly then.

@Anarchid: I tried fixing the barcode problem, but there's no way to do that without uglying up the mountains. Spring engine just needs to use an extra blur or something so it doesn't look so extreme.

the barcode problem is that the shadder that draws this is ... unfortunate..

it should take a tiles darkest colour and draw tile bride stripes - horizontal, with sligh distortions..

That way - canyonero, earth history getting layed






Bonuspoints for drawing convection distortions where the derivatives change - follow the mountain down into the crust..