Spring RTS Engine

It would be nice if you could have different versions of the same maps. This could mean you could have:

1. High quality and low quality versions of the same map (so you're able to quickly download a map with a smallish connection so people don't have to wait ages for you to download it if you're in a game room).

2. Completely different texture map themes for the same map.

I know atm there are problems with file names. Maybe you could have a seperate identifier for the texture map, while keeping the same main map/map name identity, so you could select map then select which version you want, though this would need lobby support too.

I don't think syncing should be too much of a problem since only the texture map is being changed so all calculations should be the same.

when SM3 becomes a more viable option this will not be an issue.

well, the issue is that the height map is tiny compared to the actual texture... making multiple maps that use the same textures is easy and already implimented... what your asking for, with the current "the texture is just one freaking huge image" format is a wast of bandwidth for very little aesthetic gain, and you would need to to find a mapper willing to spend their time retexturing a map instead of making a new one...

what I'd like is a simple way to EDIT a map's feature list, heightmap and feature map without re-rendering the whole texture every time... sometimes you want to tweak... which again becomes a non issue when the new new map format is ready for public consumption.