Ryandor.com

Hey, it's me again. I have a few more questions, here.

Firstly, where can I get WorldMaker Map Editor? I've read that it is more advanced than WorldForge, so I'm looking to get a copy.

Secondly, in MapGenerator 2, how do I retain my altitude stuff from prior altitude maps when I generate an altitude map? Sometimes I add a bunch of map features, but I don't want to get rid of my old altitude features for prior elements. But I need to generate altitude for those new features.. and when I generate the altitude map, it wipes clean. Very annoying!

Lastly, how come I am getting OSI map-elements in my map? I've started from scratch with this bitmap, and I discovered that I have old OSI stuff coliding with my map. What in the hell? Bah!

Can you guys help out? I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

I sure miss the days when punt had a file repository online! Give me your email address by PM and I'll send it to you.



This is just a guess, as I don't have access to my MapGen2 here - but I think you only need to generate the altitude map once. After that you should just modify the base altitude map you originally produced. You don't need to re-create it to generate your map, that option is just to provide you a base map to work with. Again, just taking a shot in the dark on that one.



OSI uses "dif" files for map patches. The "dif" files also contain the differences between Trammel and Felucca.

Replace these files with 0-byte files:

mapdif0.mul
mapdif1.mul
mapdifl0.mul
mapdifl1.mul
stadif0.mul
stadif1.mul
stadifi0.mul
stadifi1.mul
stadifl0.mul
stadifl1.mul

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

This is just a guess, as I don't have access to my MapGen2 here - but I think you only need to generate the altitude map once. After that you should just modify the base altitude map you originally produced. You don't need to re-create it to generate your map, that option is just to provide you a base map to work with. Again, just taking a shot in the dark on that one.

Well, the problem is that certain terrain types (especially certain stuff like sandstone tiles, etc) have this weird altitude that generates automatically when you run an altitude map. For example, I painted a few straight lines of various tiles just to get an idea of what they looked like and how they transisted.. then ran the altitude generator. The altitude map that resulted had many of these particular type types with an odd altitude color purple.

The only other problem is that you have to generate a new altitude map to reflect changes in your map. For example, if I create a new island with a new mountain chain, if I don't regenerate the altitude map, I'd have to manually copy over the landmass/terrain features and change their colors to the altitude map swatches.

I think it more or less means that you're supposed to lay out the landmass, your features and such.. and when you're satisified, do your altitude work.

I don't know about that.. though..

I'll PM you for those files, I appreciate it.

The altitude generator is only intended to give you a base altitude map to work off of.

You have it right, you want to do all of your terrain first (or as much of it first as possible); generate the altitude map; and then customize the altitude bitmap with the various heights you want to use.

Once you generate your first altitude map you should work entirely off of that and not re-generate it for the reason you just mentioned - it will always overwrite your existing and there is no way for it to know what changed you have made.

For additions later, you can always create a new altitude bitmap and then cut and paste the changed pieces into your working altitude bitmap. That seems to me to be the easiest way to make changes after you've started.

The "purple" you are seeing is defined as "Other" terrain. Basically any terrain type that Map Generator doesn't have a direct altitude translation for, it will place as "other" terrain. It doesn't really matter because all those colors on the altitude map are only to make it easier for you to tell what is what on the altitude bitmap. In theory you could paint your entire altitude bitmap in the "Other" terrain type (shades of purple) and it would still make your map correctly.

All of those translations are in the files terrain.xml and altitude.xml in your data directory. The "BaseAltIndex" entry in terrain.xml matches that particular terrain up with a palette index entry in altitude.xml. By default, Map Gen 2 has "Water", "Land", "Mountain", and "Other" terrain types for your altitude bitmap.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

Well, this is giving me a headache.

I've got World Maker up and running, pathed to my files, and I can display the map in Map Edit just fine. I was not sure which facet to pick, so I simply chose Feluccia each time. I had to copy over the palette file to the MapEdit folder from the MultiEdit folder, which fixed a problem where none of the categories were displaying.

So, I go find some messed up terrain (a dirt road, which seem to mess up every time with MapGen 2) to tidy up. I try to drag a tile down to replace an error spot.. and it simply won't let me. It has a "no" sign, like what you see on no-smoking signs - the circle with the line through it.

What in god's name am I supposed to do? *laughs*

Other than that, my map is coming out fairly nicely, I must say. Anyone able to help me iron this out?

One may want to check the edit mode one is in. There are two modes, terrain (which lets one modify terrain tiles that are stored in map#.mul), and art (which lets one modify art tiles, also known as "statics", which are stored in statics#.mul).


One should be able to edit via the drag/drop, or "painting", by double clicking on the tile in the palette, and then "painting it on the map, or by "clicking" it on the map.

Tried both. Wasn't working, for terrain or art. =/

Just gave me that "not possible" circle/line icon all the time. Blast it.

Can you post a screenshot of the area you are trying to fix? Maybe punt can determine what the issue is.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

Sure. Here you go.

http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=worldmakerprobit5.jpg

Ok, this is a focus issue, when Windows did a update, it changed the focus manager, and I never got around to updating (again, it wasn't my native development enviroment, but I realize that is just an excuse on my part).

After selecting your tile, select the map window again, then try the drop/edit. It is saying "no", because it doesn't realize the map below is in "focus".

If that doesn't work, do the "paste" approach, paint approach, or "insert" approach.

Also, edit mode is different from view mode. Ensure edit is terrain for that example, not just view.

Any chance of an update to fix the problem? This sounds like a fairly crippling issue.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

It isn't as crippling as it sounds. First, I am not sure in this case, it is in terrain edit mode. The arrow was pointing to the "view" menu, saying it was in terrain. Edit could have been in art, which cause this problem.


Second, the solution is one more mouse click (on the map) to regain focus. Most users don't use the drag/drop from the pallet, they use the select/click, or paint (based on input I got). So it affects a small amount, with a rather simple work around.


As for fix, not sure how to fix it. It was a QT/window interaction error, so it isn't exposed to me at the code level. It is possible, the latest version of qt has fixed it (which would be a simple recompile to find out).