Thought I''d share this with you. Entering maps as arrays is often tedious work. There is a simple solution: Draw your map and convert it to a bitmap. Then run it through one of the many BMP to ASCII art programs. You now have a text file which contains different characters for coastlines, mountains, oceans, forests, etc. Now you just need to read in the map (easy - it''s text) and use the correct tile for each character. Some tweaking is required, but it''s a lot quicker than the old ways... If anyone else has good methods for inputting map data, feel free to share it here. "NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..."
"When you are willing to do that which others are ashamed to do, therein lies an advantage."

I just render the whole scene and then mark various obstacles and the like with max and min x and y coordinates. But then I am not using tile sets.


Glen Martin
Dynamic Adventures Inc.
Zenfar

Array of structs of MAPTILE type + tileset of BITMAPs appended to the end is my map file.

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A wise man once said "A person with half a clue is more dangerous than a person with or without one."

The Micro$haft BSOD T-Shirt

I have considered the following system involving Big Bitmap engines. Create a utility that loads the bitmap data for a map, then it allows the user to set the depth values for the coordinates, as well as the other required values. It then stores this information in a new file format that includes all the information for each coordinate. There would be another utility to convert a bitmap file containing the graphical data, and a text file containing the other attributes, and converts them into the new data format.

I am not sure if this is what you meant, but what the hell.

-Brent Robinson

I mentioned this not as saving the map data, but rather as entering in a map instead of using a tile by tile editor or manually entering the values into arrays.

It''s not a way of saving it for the game... it would waste too much space.


"NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..."
"When you are willing to do that which others are ashamed to do, therein lies an advantage."

In that case, I might suggest you write a utility that takes a template detailing the major map features and tile sets, and some parameters regarding the random filling of landscape features such as trees, then you can edit the level using your normal method. Am I closer?

Forgive me if I am STILL off topic, but I am having problems making sense of the orriginal post... No offense intended.



Brent Robinson
"Ich bin deinem Vatter!"