Op2mapper 2.1.2 Released

[BlackBox]

Well, with work going smoothly on the mapper, I've decided to release OP2Mapper version 2.1.2 with some new features.

The new features are:

-- The mapper now has complete support to work with VOL files. It can load as well as create new, and has all the features you'd expect from any other program: it can add/delete/extract/rename files in VOL archives, and save the archives.

-- The mapper can load a .map or .vol file passed as a command line argument to the program after startup. (Do not specify the name in quotes as you normally would, the command line parser is very simple at the moment)

-- For new tileset makers/users who use the VOL override option in the tools dialog, the mapper will read a file called tilesets.ctl from the VOL. This is used when creating a map from scratch, it tells the mapper what the names of the default tilesets are. This file must have at least one entry, for the 'default' tileset which is added when "no tilesets" is checked. Extra entries are added when "no tilesets" is not checked, i.e. the user is creating a default "full map". The file format is a simple ASCII text file, with one tileset name per line. (The tileset name should not have .bmp at the end). Blank lines are skipped.
The mapper falls back to the well0000-well0012 tilesets if this file does not exist.
For tileset developers, please place a tilesets.ctl in your VOL file so the mapper can read it for default tileset names.

-- Simple cosmetic changes, e.g. you can now double click on an entry in the File>New dialog to create a new file of that type.

-- The mapper now uses a full fledged EXE installer instead of the .bat files.

Known issues/problems:
-- Save bug with Win9x. I need to talk to Hooman to get this working right.
(Note, this may create problems with the VOL saving. If VOL saving doesn't work either, let me know, because then I can be *certain* that it's the backend)

-- Tile Set entry in New dialog, and .bmp files in Open dialog can be seen. They don't work yet, this is functionality that will be in a coming mapper version (probably next release!)

You can download the new mapper from:
http://www.outpostuniverse.net/files/mapper2_1_2.exe (941 KB)

Before installing the EXE, remove any existing mapper installation with the mapperremove.bat in older versions.

This version will install an icon for easy access into your start menu. You may still need Administrator access to complete the install.

Good luck with it! Keep posting those bug reports and feature requests!

-- op2hacker

[TH300]

vol-saving doesn't work either. And now I get nice error description that I can paste here

Non-fatal error: VOL Save failed
Occurred in: VolManager::SaveVol

Intrinsic: -2147467259 Automatisierungsfehler
Dll: 0
Erl: 0

I should include that a .vol file is actually created, but the file is empty. (size = 0 Bytes)

[coolzero]

i am good in getting error messeges

Non-fatal error: Map mouse event handling error
Occurred in: MapManager::HandleMouseCmds

Intrinsic: 9 Subscript out of range
Dll: 0
Erl: 0


nothing serieus ... just pressed shift and started clicking >.>  :rolleyes:  

[BlackBox]

Well coolzero, can you reproduce the error? and is it obviously something that shouldn't be happening? or you're just going and clicking everywhere.. :find:

If it's a real bug report that comes from *proper* use of the mapper, sure I'd like to hear it. But if it's stupid bugs that result from an ID10T error that would come up in any program, don't tell me about them, since I don't have time to go track down tiny errors that *shouldn't* ever happen under normal use.

However if you can reproduce the error, and it *is* a routine thing that a user might do, then tell me about it. Can you give more information on the error?

Also: Confirmed the saving problem on Win9x machines. It was similar to the file loading problem a while back, and I talked to Hooman about it. This will be fixed shortly (like at next release).

Also remembered a couple of cosmetic changes I did. One was to make the splashscreen visible as a button on the taskbar (by TH300's request). The second was to show the tileset ID and tile ID, as well as the mapping when you select a tile. The "paste consecutive tiles" also has a second mode of operation, where you can specify the ID to start from rather than specifying it with the mouse.

Things to wait for in next release:
-- Saving in Win9x
-- A functional tileset editor, which makes mixing together single tiles into a tileset BMP, and editing them, easier. (No built in image editor, but it will have support to load your favorite image editor for working on the tiles).
-- Who knows what else?

Also, on a side note, I've added a complete tutorial on how to make new tilesets. Go to http://wiki.outpostuniverse.net/How_To_Make_Tilesets for it.

[coolzero]

whel i was trying to figure out how to put multiple tiles on in one click so i used shift ... buf after i did that and after i posted the post i continued and everytime i put a tile on after that i got the bug again so i shut the programm down leme just check if i can repreduce it   .


.....




......


k i cant at this instant ... but when i clicked a lot the programm just crashed ... while tabbing shift alot to ... but nvm it go work on important things  B)  

[Eddy-B]

Things to wait for in next release:
-- Saving in Win9x

wtf is up with XP ?? why doesnt stuff that saves in XP doesnt save in 9x ? i mean .. come'on!  _creat(...); write(...); close(f) ??
 

[BlackBox]

no, it uses CreateFile directly. and it uses CreateFileW where possible because that supports longer filenames (but has the side effect of only being available on unicode)

Not to mention VB uses unicode directly, so no string conversion is needed for file names..

[Hooman]

Yeah, I didn't use the standard library functions. I just used the Windows API directly. The original thinking was that I can avoid a conversion from UNICODE to ANSI when creating or opening files, but then I was forgetting that CreateFileW isn't guaranteed to be supported on Win9x (although, it can be). Also, Since the original bug reported was to do with loading data, I worked on the opening of files first and forgot that saving files had the same issue for a few days. The source has already been fixed, but I haven't sent the changes to Hacker yet. I wasn't really expecting a new release actually.

[Eddy-B]

Yeah, I didn't use the standard library functions. I just used the Windows API directly. The original thinking was that I can avoid a conversion from UNICODE to ANSI when creating or opening files, but then I was forgetting that CreateFileW isn't guaranteed to be supported on Win9x (although, it can be).

well - i used the above functions from io.h in renegades
.. they work on dos3 .. until xp i guess..

[xamlit]

Fatal error: Loading of essential editor files failed.
Occurred in: main()

Intrinsic: -2147467259 Automation error
Unspecified error
Dll: 0
Erl: 0


Thats just when I led it to my op2 dir.
 

[BlackBox]

Be sure you are installing it logged on as an administrator.

xam, what OS do you have? can you give any details as to what exactly is happening?

[BlackBox]

Some more news: Win9x save support coming soon. (If Hooman doesn't get to work on that backend, I'll just release the modification I did to allow saving in 9x).

Tileset editing support eventually.

Also, a bit of trivia, just so people can see the size of the Mapper project as of now, the project contains 10408 lines of code. (Even more if you count the backend part of the mapper, and the OCX files which implement the fancy parts of the UI.. Maybe someday I'll get around to counting the code lines in those).

[Leviathan]

Great work, look foward to using it once im back online.

Thx for doing the How_To_Make_Tilesets page, I was gonna do that Well ill go thru and edit it later.

[BlackBox]

So you can look forward for what's to come:
The next version of the Mapper will have support to place units directly in the editor and generate C++ unit generation code for you to use, speeding development time. (Ever tried to place a base using code? it's not easy and takes a long time to get right. Especially how structures are placed using the location of the tube intersection underneath them, not the upper left corner).

It will probably be able to generate two 'flavors' of C++ code: First, just a procedure with a bunch of TethysGame::CreateUnit calls. This way you just have to call the procedure in InitProc to make the units. Or the other way, it will generate the unit sets used by Hooville maps. So to start using them, you remove the unit sets defined there and just include a header file that the mapper generates.

[Leviathan]

Great, make sure you update the mapper project page on the wiki with info etc, and a features list would be good.

[BlackBox]

Well, to keep people on their toes here's a screenshot with rudimentary unit editing support. It's very ugly at the moment, as you can see, and has some of the following limitations:

- You can place structures on top of other structures, nothing is in place to prevent it.
- As you can see, the black backgrounds everywhere since I haven't bothered to write code to handle transparencies. (I don't know how the arts handle transparency in the palette yet, is it always color 0 or some other thing? Maybe if someone would care to enlighten me on this)
- You can't undo or delete units (well you can, by hexediting the unit data file)
- It won't draw the blue parts in a different color for other players. (Also, someone want to enlighten me on how the game does that)?

Anyway, it's a start. It can't do anything yet, like exporting C++, but that will be next in order after I write code to handle undoing, deleting things, and making sure you can't put stuff on top of each other.

Here's the screenshot:

[Eddy-B]

Good work, hacker - this saves a lot of time placing units in code. Make sure it can export in CreateUnit style AND hooville-base struct style

[Leviathan]

Looking great.

As for the building placing, op2 has no prob with overlaping buildings, you can place buildings over each other when coding and its fine in game, its just not correct

GP's on buildings is good tho

[BlackBox]

Alright, so I won't bother with checking for structure overlaps, just to let people do some of the exotic things.

Eddy-B: I plan on making it so you can specify any template to create unit code with. The CreateUnit and Hooville struct styles will be built in, but I'll make it so you can write templates to create them using your own functions.

Here's an example of the template design I was planning (say, you wanted to do it with building groups):

Code: [Select]

$$Begin // code inserted above everything
void SetupBase()
{
 BuildingGroup b;

$$Player // code inserted before each player
 b = CreateBuildingGroup(Player[ $PlayerId ]);

$$Unit // code inserted before each unit
 b.RecordBuilding( LOCATION( $x, $y ), $UnitMapId, $WeaponMapId );

$$EndUnit // code inserted after each unit
 // nothing

$$EndPlayer // code inserted after each player
 b.Destroy();

$$End // code inserted at the end
}

So as you can see, it would parse a bunch of sections and insert them as needed, and substitute variables. This way it's fully flexible, and actually could be used for totally different languages.

Example generated code from template above:

Code: [Select]

void SetupBase()
{
 BuildingGroup b;

 b = CreateBuildingGroup(Player[ 0 ]);

 b.RecordBuilding( LOCATION( 10, 20 ), mapCommandCenter, mapNone );

 // nothing

 b.Destroy();

 b = CreateBuildingGroup(Player[ 1 ]);

 // . . .
}

Seem simple enough? Need it more or less complex?

[BlackBox]

Alright, some more improvements that are looking really nice:



As you can see, transparency and color support.

Edit: Oh yeah, for those who are interested how I did the color support, the game has a 1x1 bitmap COLOR.BMP in maps.vol. This bitmap contains a palette with all the player colors. There are 24 colors for each player, and they come in sequence in this palette. (Blue is colors 0-23, Red 24-47, etc)
(If you want to see it or edit it; look at the palette in color.bmp).

[zigzagjoe]

oo nice. gj as always!

[Leviathan]

very nice!

any chanch of tube gfx? on/off type thing

make sure you keep the project page up to date
wiki.outpostuniverse.net/Mapper

[Freeza-CII]

Hmm cool will that be compatible with green world maps?

[Leviathan]

yea it allready does.

also take a look at
wiki.outpostuniverse.net/Making_Greenworld_Maps

[Leviathan]

it should have a basic notepad.

there should be option for extract and open on files when you load a vol.
so u could click it to open a map from the vol, txt etc

also should be able to open and create tilesets.ctl file.