( search forums )
openMapper0.1b :: Still in beta testing!
Soldat Forums - Soldat Maps & Map Making - Improvements / Suggestions
Elephant_Hunter
October 27, 2004, 7:37 am
[IMAGE]

This is a picture of openMapper0.1b (NO, IT'S NOT A MAC!) [:D]

New Features :
-- Update 0.1.2b

-- Update 0.1.1b
- Full Screen Button enabled (watch! you may get a slow fps)
- Static and more visible grid
- Selecting polygons is now a tad easier
- openMapper does not need to be in any specific directory

-- Update 0.1.0b
- Automatically opens PMS files
- Right-Click Menu
- Regular file menu
- "Save Map?" query on exit, load, or new map
- Toolbar (I'm hoping to move everything into the toolbar)
- Integrated into winXP skinning/theme
- Able to run Soldat / Old Mapmaker
(or compile + save + soldat)
- Uses common shortcuts (ctrl + z, del, ect)
- Zooming cursor (Not quite finished!)
- Regular saving instead of always Save As

Fixes :
-- Update 0.1.2b
- Fixed grid bug

-- Update 0.1.1b
- Some mistakes I made :D
- You can no longer drag polies by dragging from the outside

-- Update 0.1.0b
- A couple of bugs in MapMaker 1.0
- Fixed text message box bug

Misc Changes :
- To scroll screen is now alt + right mouse button
- Move polies just by left click and drag

Download : ZIP

Installation Instructions :
Unzip anyplace and run openMapper.

openMapper Full Source : ZIP

Source Comments :
I've taken the time to comment most all of the code. There's alot of it that I don't quite understand yet. Feel free to use anything I publish. Thanks Michal!

Remember that this *might* not work on your computer and isn't an actual release until 1.0c

Terms & Conditions :
If you download you agree to give me input or give me death. :P

bintz2000
October 27, 2004, 7:58 am
Looks cool, i'll have to check it out tomorrow. I'm going to bed

bucky_brad
October 27, 2004, 8:56 am
good job, nice to see people doing somthing with the source code.

Leo Da Lunerfox
October 27, 2004, 9:40 am
Imma 100% download this when it reaches version 1

F@NTOM
October 27, 2004, 12:46 pm
Nice 1! If it shoves to good i'll use on a regural basis....Keep on the good work and try to fix the bugs that the current mapmaker has.

Try to implement minimize and maximize options.

Hercule Poirot
October 27, 2004, 12:48 pm
"the text key file was not found" or something like that and it keeped popupping it all the time altf+f4 can't quit press and hold esc nope cant quit... ctrl alt delete aaahhh finally i could shut it down :/

tried in c:/openMapper tried in c:/soldat/openMapper

Subslider
October 27, 2004, 12:55 pm
gj.. nice to see that ppl arew actualy working on the code..^^ GJ!

frogboy
October 27, 2004, 1:10 pm
quote:Originally posted by Hercule Poirot
"the text key file was not found" or something like that and it keeped popupping it all the time altf+f4 can't quit press and hold esc nope cant quit... ctrl alt delete aaahhh finally i could shut it down :/

tried in c:/openMapper tried in c:/soldat/openMapper


I got the same bug...

Rhombus
October 27, 2004, 1:23 pm
one thing. let us be able to see how big a soldat will actually be in the game, so we know if the map will be to big or itll be the right size. plz, thatss what i allways wanted. furthermore i love ctr+z, i couldnt believe michal didnt put that in, but whatever.

GluLm
October 27, 2004, 3:03 pm
This first version would kill a regular CPU! xD
Good job, it looks good so far. Not many interesting improvements yet but heh, you're the first one to try.
Don't dismiss the suggestions and... don't forget EditPro? (yuck VB)
You're doing a good work there, keep it up and good luck. :)

Elephant_Hunter
October 27, 2004, 3:14 pm
I've made an update. Try downloading it again to get rid of the text file problem.

enjoyincubus
October 27, 2004, 4:16 pm
"Could not find Textures/banana.bmp"

I'll try creating a textures folder and putting the textures in there.

-EDIT-

Moved textures to a texture folder, but now I just get an access violation error. :/

Deleted User
October 27, 2004, 6:59 pm
Okay Elephant Hunter, first things first.

I love you.

Now thats out of the way, lets look at the program. All in all, its not changed much from the official map maker, but its only version 0.1 :P

Bugs: Go onto the scenery tab and the list says -

quote:Level:
Behind everything
Behind map
2 - In front of everything

Theres also a bug thats been in the map maker for ages...I right clicked and made a spawn point, but then when I used ctrl + z to undo, it made the background colours black.

Improvements: Lock to grid feature - make it so the grid doesn't float around behind the map and when you look around the map the grid moves with the polygons. This'll make keeping things in line a lot easier.

...speaking of which, how DO you move the map around in this? :| try putting some up down left right buttons in the toolbar to move around, which work when you press the arrow buttons.

I got plently more suggestions but I'll leave you with that to be getting on with :D

PS: You forgot to add the "Do you wish to save?" box that appears when you try to exit the program into your features list :)

PPS: Enjoy, try reinstalling. Sounds like you're missing the entire "gfx" folder, or something. Sure you didn't have the exe file selected when you extracted?

Soulsnipa
October 27, 2004, 8:08 pm
is there anyway to set the "red" team health boxes and "blue" team..or w/e the update means on 1.2.1 where u can "steal" opponents health boxes. If so u need to make that.

Also Add more zoom/unzoom....and have it keep the pictures of the spawn points when u zoom.

enjoyincubus
October 27, 2004, 8:11 pm
Ok, I have it working. Thanks. I love you too.

As for comments...I REALLY don't enjoy the highlighted polygon being dragged when I start clicking, because it messes me up a lot.

Overall, for a few day's work, it's very lovely. I'm hoping for some defining capabilities that push this over the top!

Elephant_Hunter
October 28, 2004, 4:22 am
Okay, another update. I've done everything in Stalky's list that he mentioned so far. (give me more, you're on a role)

I'd really like to get the zoom button working, but I decided after a few days of messing with it to leave it be and maybe someone else will be able to fix it.

@ enjoy : How did you fix your problem? Does it still exist with the new version?

Soulsnipa
October 28, 2004, 4:26 am
make sure to get it so when u zoom in real close and the poly's vertices are close, that you can clearly click on r g y to move and not inside or outside. Also get the undo to undo every step. Maybe an undo poly and undo scenery button.

liquidis x snake
October 28, 2004, 4:42 am
That looks sexy.


Glad that you're tinkering with my map, Aerydin ;x

Soulsnipa
October 28, 2004, 5:20 am
More stuff...Add a click and drag thing to select all polys.

If you implement a click and drag I have an idea for automatic shader.

Add a control panel to input controls. Like I think having just single click would be good instead of control click for polys. Then hold use to select a poly.

Add a button that brings you back to center of map.

Elephant_Hunter
October 28, 2004, 5:41 am
quote:
Add a button that brings you back to center of map.

Already did :D it's the last toolbutton (the one that has the magnifying glass and the 1:1)

quote:
Glad that you're tinkering with my map, Aerydin ;x

Ya, I thought it looked pretty.

quote:
Add a click and drag thing to select all polys.

My goal for 1.0 is to have all polys, spawnpoints, and scenery selectable and groupable.

Soulsnipa
October 28, 2004, 6:01 am
Like i said, if you do that, we can go really complex.

Have it read how the polys are setup. Snap them into position. Create least amount of polys for a simple shade. Then have it read the colors that are set...then it will "set colors" to the appropriate polygons. If it reads its a curve (by degrees) it wont need to alternate colors...but if it is linear then it will know to check for alternating colors, where V3 is on top sometimes and bottom others.

Deleted User
October 28, 2004, 10:24 am
You did it already?! Do you have a social life? :P

Wow, I'm really impressed. That static grid feature is beautiful...I'm gonna get onto this right away and figure what needs adding/fixing.

It would be nice to have a better lock to vertices system - the current mapmaker does it but only on a very small scale. Check out Meitzis to see how he did it, because his was perfect :D it'd be good to have a switch which turns lock to vertices off in the toolbar, so people could place polygons where ever they want, in case the locking feature screws their work over or something.

Also, if you select a polygon and then try to use the darken vertices tool, you can only darken the green vertice, which normally darkens faster than vertices should usually. If you could make it so you can select a polygon and darken all vertices on it (rather than just the green), at a normal darkening rate, then it means people can use the darken tool easier because they can tweak polygons without affecting all the other polygons around it.

I'll post more ideas when I think of them :)

EDIT: Here we go -

Can you add the copy and paste shortcuts to the right click menu? Most programs have that.

Also, when you select polygons and copy-paste them, can you make the new copy of the polygon appear in the centre of the screen rather than on top of the original polygon. It gets confusing sometimes :P

Vertices snap to grid - with the new static grid this would be cool. A little checkbox you can select that locks vertices into the grid lines.

Deleted User
October 28, 2004, 1:57 pm
You should add a tool that works like the shading tools but instead of shading, it would change the colours. :P

Elephant_Hunter
October 28, 2004, 10:47 pm
I made another update, just a quick fix. There was a bug in the grid.

Edit :

Mapmaker updates on pause until I implement a better polygon system. Right now I'm looking at Meitzi's code and will use his as a model.

Please still tell me bugs and I will fix them all to the best of my ability.

chrisgbk
October 29, 2004, 6:44 am
its hard to try to build off of Meitzi's source, because he doesnt use directx, just vb line methods, that updates the entire display after each click

[edit] clarification, only redraws the area of the map that is visible in the window

F@NTOM
October 29, 2004, 9:43 am
PROBLEMS/BUGS
I encountered some problems when I was using your mapmaker last night...well I was making a map and using the zoom in/out and suddenly i get an access violation error and the zoom icons just disapear and I can't use them any more.

I don't know if this is a bug or I was just doing sth wrong but when I zoom in or out I can't manipulate the polygons I just keep zooming.

SUGGESTIONS
Implementing a feature thet instead of using zoom icons you can use the mouse wheel to zoom.

This was in the mapmaker pro: That you can select more than one polygon and than edit them instead what's in the mapmaker now that you need to select one polygon at a time and then edit them.

That's for now from me. You are on a good path to making an awesome mapmaker. :)


Aquarius
October 30, 2004, 3:15 pm
Great job, but the zoom doesn't work very well. I think the transition should be more smooth.

SigHunter
October 30, 2004, 6:47 pm
what is special about it except the skin? (which nobody needs)

Elephant_Hunter
October 30, 2004, 7:19 pm
The first post should have a list of improvements I made.

cooz
October 31, 2004, 7:44 pm
first of all, great job, keep it up!

and my sugestion is that it would be cool if u could add options to change position of poligons (behind all, in front of all, etc) just like Edit Pro has it ;)

LazehBoi
October 31, 2004, 8:13 pm
I found an access violation :o
If you click on the shading tool with a polygon selected, and then click outside of the polygon, you get an evil violation.

bb_vb
November 3, 2004, 8:36 am
Brilliant work, really. It's gonna be sweet now, having someone constantly working on it, and the possibility to have suggestions implemented quickly.

I have a tonne of ideas, but I'll wait till you've got all the basics down cause that's the important part atm.

One thing though, I thought the "Have you saved?" prompt system could do with a little tweaking, something like the following:

-----------
Edit map
Click close
"Do you wish to save?" (Yes, No, Cancel)
Yes
"The map requires compiling, would you like to compile now?" (Yes, No, Cancel)
Yes - Compiles and then opens save dialog
No - Opens save dialog
Cancel - Returns to normal use, no save and no close
----------

That would be much nicer I reckon.

Anyway, keep it up, you're doing great.

PS: Also just noticed the normal save doesn't seem to work, it always opens the 'Save As' dialog for me.

PPS: ALSO noticed that if you load a map, delete some polygons and then click the close button, it doesn't ask to save it.

grand_diablo
November 7, 2004, 9:30 pm
Does this nice prog already support selectable and sizable scenery, like it was in this Mapmaker Pro proggie? (The normal mapmaker doesnt let you resize or move sceneries once theyre placed, just to make clear what I mean). Would be cool if Sceneries get edges like - for example - normal windows. So they could be resized or moved anytime.

gj so far, cant almost wait for the first final release :D

Deleted User
November 8, 2004, 1:36 am
Great job Ele, The regular map maker has always discourages me from making my dream maps, but with this tool i might map make to my heart disire. I am really waiting your final version. :D

AWH_ReApEr
November 14, 2004, 3:59 am
Mmmmm... I've been looking forward to the new version. It looks nice. Keep up the good work.

Skate4Razors
November 15, 2004, 11:38 am
Elephant, it's not running for me. A retarted error message keeps popping up. I guess I'll download the finished version... Keep up the good work!

Elephant_Hunter
November 15, 2004, 2:04 pm
What does the error message say?

Cookie.
November 16, 2004, 9:48 pm
MMM good map maker nice and easy to use
makes map making a bit easier
-I dont really like the having to press alt to move the map around but i can deal with it
suggestion
-Mousewheel zooming ^_^
scroll with yuor mouse wheel moves in and out would be awesome

Vijchtidoodah
November 17, 2004, 2:01 am
Good job! But please make sure that in this version there isn't a limit to the number of scenery objects or waypoints. That was such a large problem with the official editor.

grand_diablo
November 17, 2004, 2:17 pm
quote:Originally posted by VijchtidoodahGood job! But please make sure that in this version there isn't a limit to the number of scenery objects or waypoints. That was such a large problem with the official editor.


I guess thats more a problem with Soldat itself, not the mapmaker. I think Soldat cant load more than the limit set in the mapmaker ;)

Vijchtidoodah
November 18, 2004, 12:07 am
quote:Originally posted by grand_diablo

I guess thats more a problem with Soldat itself, not the mapmaker. I think Soldat cant load more than the limit set in the mapmaker ;)


Not true, Meitzi's maker somehow got around the 255 limit

yeast
November 18, 2004, 8:46 am
very nice work!

A few suggestions:
It would be great to be able to select vertexes and snap them together manually with a button.

you could have a button for "select polygon" amd another for "select vertex" and be able to select them by dragging a box. and deselect them by dragging with the right mouse button

to be able to scale and rotate polygons would be nice too!

Deleted User
November 19, 2004, 2:39 am
Definitely nice work, Elephant Hunter. You have my support.

However, I should let you know that the File|Open command does not work on Windows 95 systems. It makes an invalid shell call. (in otherwords, it does nothing)

Vijchtidoodah
November 19, 2004, 5:36 am
I'm going to repeat what I said on Mark.jp's thread, you should include the following in your map maker:

*A group select option, not just temporarily but so that every time you select a polygon from that group you get the entire group. And just in case you forget, this would necessitate an ungroup option.

*A polygon rotation tool, so that instead of completely resizing it you could just grab a corner and rotate like you would the objects. It would also be great if you could use this with the group option so that you could easily rotate entire groups of polygons.

*And I know this has been said before but please, please add the ability to select and resize or rotate objects after they have been placed.
*

Inquisitor
November 19, 2004, 1:01 pm
please contact Mark.Jp.
he has created a very nice update called MAP MAKER PLUS.
he already has progged the colorization option and added a button to

CLEAR THE FACKIN SCENERY LIST

you should use this , too.

Soulsnipa
November 19, 2004, 6:31 pm
obviously he already knows that if he responded in his topic

Vijchtidoodah
November 29, 2004, 5:48 am
Did you give up or is it just taking a really, really long time?

Soulsnipa
November 29, 2004, 5:57 am
busy on other stuff

Vijchtidoodah
December 1, 2004, 1:57 am
Still waiting...

Inquisitor
December 1, 2004, 3:49 pm
were all gonna die

Vijchtidoodah
December 1, 2004, 8:58 pm
Let's just hope that the update is extra spiffy.

Michal
December 9, 2004, 1:39 am
OK, so I finally got it to work, but I had to put it in the default MapMaker directory. Looks pretty good so far, keep working on it, update soon :D



...This may seem like a silly question but... How in god's name do you pan/scroll the view?

\/ Thanks Vijchti, I dunno how I missed that :s

Vijchtidoodah
December 9, 2004, 6:51 am
I think you have to push alt+the right mouse button...it's in the first post somewhere...

That's what I'm here for :)

Elephant_Hunter
December 14, 2004, 5:26 am
Sorry for not responding for a long time. My update will take a while because there are several hurdles to jump. Maps nowadays aren't really that great. I want to create a program where even an idiot will be able to work wonders compared the the crap we have now.

The mapmaker will be released along with a map that I am making... 'Meld'. How can a programmer make a good tool without using it? Art is relative. You all will be asking me what is in the new openMapper, and how it will be better than anything else. Let me tell you now there is no comparison.

How long? Until I say we are ready to release it. These past few weeks have been hectic with finals and christmas, not to mention smc (I am a busy person). Something catches my interest and then I move on. Please spare me from the suggestions and bugs in this version. The next release will be rock solid.

Vijchtidoodah
December 14, 2004, 5:38 am
DAMNIT!
I was so excited that you had responded to this thread because I thought that you had finally released the next version...alas, you have not and I am heartbroken.

Oh well, your assurance that it will be the best mapmaker ever will stave off my anxiousness some more, but it greatly enhances the suspense.

Inquisitor
December 14, 2004, 2:09 pm
'Yesterday.....all my troubles seemed so far away....now it looks as if they're here to stay, Oh I believe in yesterday.....
.....Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh....Da da da da da da da da da da da...........da da da dada da da da da da da da yesterday'

*feeling very sad*

Yukwunhang
December 14, 2004, 2:13 pm
sometimes i create a polygon that cannot select or edit...it ruined my map and i need to do again :(

Vijchtidoodah
December 15, 2004, 1:56 am
Just in case you haven't seen my eyedropper thread yet, it would be a great tool for your mapmaker

http://archive.forums.soldat.pl/topic.php?topic_id=19244

Vijchtidoodah
December 17, 2004, 6:27 am
I thought of a new feature that you should add: the ability to turn on and off certain aspects from view.

For instance, if you wanted to see what the map would look like without the scenery, you could just turn it off. Or if you wanted to find some missing coliders among a bunch of colliders and scenery, you could easily turn that off from view too.

Not only would this be a great option to have, but it would also speed up the framerate a ton.

(By the way, don't flame me about double posting, more than a day has past and I'm writing about two completely different subjects.)

Elephant_Hunter
December 18, 2004, 10:44 pm
You're a captain, so you really shouldn't be flamed for double posting. I'll see what I can do about the scenery tidbit.

Inquisitor
December 19, 2004, 10:38 am
please release!!!

Vijchtidoodah
December 19, 2004, 12:24 pm
Don't rush him, better a quality product than a rushed one.

Yukwunhang
December 20, 2004, 9:09 am
Suggestion :choose scenery from different directory.

Vijchtidoodah
December 20, 2004, 9:16 am
Why not just place your scenery into your scenery-gfx folder? Because if you don't, then you won't be able to play your own maps.

Yukwunhang
December 20, 2004, 1:37 pm
Cause i dunno which one is custom or not custom..lol, stupid idea

gunny
December 27, 2004, 1:00 am
lol, i've had this for like a week
and i have been trying to fdigure out how you move the map.....
guess i downloaded the wrong thing or one?

Vijchtidoodah
December 27, 2004, 1:04 am
Again, read the original post:

quote:Originally posted by Elephant_Hunter
Misc Changes :
- To scroll screen is now alt + right mouse button
- Move polies just by left click and drag

Vijchtidoodah
January 11, 2005, 2:28 am
For the love of god...when will it be finished?

Have you been in some terrible accident and are now unable to complete either this program or the SML site?

I'm still counting the days...but who knows how many more I have to do?

Aquarius
January 11, 2005, 2:43 am
I'm afraid openMapper is dead already... MapMakerPlus and Anna's Soldat MapWorks are more promising.

Vijchtidoodah
January 11, 2005, 4:12 am
But he had such awesome ideas that he was going to put in! :( :(

Where has he gone, by the way?

Darkspirit
March 21, 2005, 1:42 am
Double post vijchtidoodah...

I love OpenMapper, but WHY IT'S DEAD?? That was a great success.

Oh and ty Elephant for chosen me for testing :)

Vijchtidoodah
March 21, 2005, 2:14 am
For those of you that don't know, Elephant Hunter has been updating the openMapper daily (according to him, but I haven't checked yet) on the SMC Forums. Check it out and tell him what you think.


Darkspirit, look at the two dates on my posts.

Deleted User
June 6, 2005, 1:38 pm
Could you make it possible to test bot(just place a bot somewhere and watch it move) while creating waypoints? It would be much better, because you dont have to close mapmaker and you can fix all mistakes.

miky258
June 7, 2005, 9:19 am
Ehm...link is brokened...:/

Deleted User
June 7, 2005, 10:55 am
topic doesn't exist..

sbu-spyvin
June 7, 2005, 11:58 am
Link dead

rabidhamster
July 2, 2005, 5:22 pm
although these features may aleady be in openmapper,

have it so you can just press a letter key on the kyboard to assign a waypoint (ex. w for up, a for left, q for fly)

make it so that when a new level 0 scenery is placed intersecting a levl 1 scenery, the level 1 goes over the level 0 in the program

a slect by polygon button, to remove unselectable polygons

an option where the polygon numbers can all be shown at once in wireframe mode

a quickpaint option, where you select a color, than simply click on a vertice or connected vertices to paint them that color

an option where you can set the zoom by percentage, or where the percentage is next to the zoom slider

counters that show the amount of something you've used, and the maximum
scenerys
polygons
jet fuel
waypoints
colliders
spawn points
transparency of scenerys
the amount of characters in a map name [max 38, btw]

a send to back function, here you can set the selected polygon's numbers to 1, 2, 3, etc.

Deleted User
December 30, 2005, 9:41 pm
Links OFF.

Elephant_Hunter
December 30, 2005, 9:48 pm
openMapper is now obsolete because of Anna's Polyworks. Personally, prefer her program. Polyworks fixes a lot of bugs that I never had the time to work on. If you really want to try openMapper, there's a working download on Mar77a's site.