Map Help

Post by **trepan** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:29 pm

Koba, I just put the new version of bmp2bzw-v1.1
up on my website. It reduced the number or boxes
from 621 to 91. I left the indenting in, but also added
spacing in between objects.

It's the first time I'm releasing a Win32 native
executable made by cygwin GCC, so I hope that there
aren't any problems.

Post by **trepan** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:39 pm

P.S. Koba, I don't think that you can do much
better then 91 boxes with your test file.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:43 pm

trepan, you should put it as a function in BZedit

Post by **trepan** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:00 pm

Koba, my bad, you can do better then 91.
It looks like there are still some slivers that
aren't getting merged.

PatL, once I get rid of the slivers, I'll post
the source again and you can add it if you
want (prolly easier for you to do then for
me). Just change the dumprect() function
to add a box in BZEdit.

A general comment:
Making maps from pictures is kinda neat, but
definitely doesn't result in great maps. The
box count can go too high (as Koba noted),
and there is so much more that you can do
with rotations and pyramids. It might be a
nice starting point, but should definitely be
touched up and added to with BZEdit or some
other method (by hand, bzmapper parser, etc...)

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:01 pm

trepan, it is working fine for me. Would it be too much to ask to put another switch to force postion z to be something other than 0?

I realize I am getting greedy, but by working in layers, I can generate bmp for each layer, and then convert. I suppose I should be using BZedit to do all of this. If it only had layer management.

Post by **trepan** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:28 pm

Koba, I can add a Z offset switch, no prob.
Another program you could use is bzmapper.
You could define each BMP generate file as an
object, and then move them around as you
please.

Something like this:

define Layer1
include "layer1.bzw"
end
define Layer2
include "layer2.bzw"
end

group Layer1
end

group Layer2
pos 0 0 10
end

I haven't played around with that stuff in
quite some time, but I'm pretty sure that
It would work nicely.

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:36 pm

trepan, yes I like that. I just picked up the grouping conventions within BZedit. Yes, this will do nicely. Thanks.

Post by **trepan** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:18 pm

Koba, sorry, didn't quite get that.
BZEdit does the job for you, or do
you still want an offset option?

...sorry, I'm a bit denser on Fridays

Post by **trepan** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 3:04 am

Just posted bmp2bzw v2.0 on my site.
I've added Z offsets and controllable X/Y
scaling as options.

PatLabor, I also broke out an easy to use
bmp2bzw() function if you want to add it
into BZEdit. There are some notes in the
main header file (bmp2bzw.h).

It turns out that the "slivers" that were
causing my box count to go up were not
the algorithms fault. Some of the corner
pixels were missing after I converted Koba's
PNG to BMP.

Post by **Fiberchunks** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 3:21 am

trepan, might you be so kind as to attach that file here? if file sizes or whatnot need to be changed, let patlabor or myself know

Peace
Fiber

Post by **trepan** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 3:41 am

Sure Fibre, here is a zip file with source and Win32 exe.

Post by **Fiberchunks** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:32 am

danke

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 4:53 pm

trepan, just to let you know i have not forgotten. I am not sure why the corners are missing right now. I have completed the major layout of the map. Bzmapper works as promised, although it was acting a little wierd when I tried to set each layer at different levels.

I set the z parameter to 10, 20, 30, 40, and with every level being the same thickness, they should have ended up equi-distant from each other on the Z boundary. Oddly enough, that didnt happen. The levels heights were all over the place. Anyhow, I found the magic numbers, and it is all working right now. I must admit, it is a very nice flow from VISIO layers to bzmap. It takes about 45 seconds to convert, and most of that time is clicking all the window clickables necessary to do the translations.

I have not tried your new version. I will get to that over the next week or so.

Post by **trepan** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:10 pm

Koba, the oddness is probably due to the
fact that the v1.x versions of bmp2bzw
doesn't treat the "-h" parameter as the
height for each step. Instead, it sets the
maximum height for all of the steps combined.
That has been changed in version 2.0 (as
well as adding the fixed X/Y scale, which would
be useful if you had different size images).

The missing corners are no big deal. The most
liekly reason is that my PNG to BMP conversion
was done poorly. Doesn't really matter much
anyways... :O)

If you make any neat maps, can I see them?

P.S. Writing a .BAT file might save you some
time, rather then having to run the
commands individually.

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 5:56 pm

trepan,
actually, the corner artifacts exist in the original. Under 400% maginification you can just make them out.

as for seeing the maps. My plan was to post them, even if they are poor.

My end goal is to make a map that is less themed, just as complex, but more playable. The end result so far is a map that resembles something out of a random function generator more than a drawn entity. In battles against the BOTS, it does have some issues.

My next targets for this map is to add layers for the transporters, pyramids, and clean up the height/jump issues.

(.bat files: If I trusted windows a little more, I might go there. Right now, I am running with a series of shortcuts.)

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 11:58 pm

Ok, I tried it. Yes, there are significantly less artifacts left behind after the conversion. Good show.

Grumbler · Post by **Grumbler** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 6:15 pm

ok, what determines if a pyramid is a drive-through, shoot-through, or solid pyramid. Is it height off the nearest box, or an additional attribute?

SGI · Post by **SGI** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:10 pm

Probably.....the scale....when is to thin normally you can pass through.
But you can leave a tiny space between two building and you have a consistent building but you can only shoot through.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:42 pm

THat's what I put on my map. A box with thin blocks around it. By the way, does anyone know when the compotision for maps ends?? I need to finish my map before it ends.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:48 pm

in 1.7x if the pyramid is off the ground ( Z >0 ) it's drive thru and shoot thru.

in 1.9+ all pyramids are solid unless they have the drive or shot thru options in the map.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:51 pm

SGI · Post by **SGI** » Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:52 pm

Sorry mistake....I thought you talking about building
DDD.......