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A request to all of you making new Map Makers
Soldat Forums - Soldat Talk - Developers Corner
Deleted User
February 14, 2005, 1:13 am
I have a bit of a problem here. You see, I really enjoy making maps and other such things for video games. When Heavy Gear 2 dominated my life, I made over 60 maps, more than were included with the game, and many of them larger and much more fun than anything the creators produced.

So, when I first got into Soldat, of course I sat down to try out the editor. However, disaster struck:

Soldat's Map Maker accesses a shell entry command that my modified Windows Explorer shell doesn't support. So when I click on Open, Save, Compile, etc. Few of the buttons work. It's like playing a piano without strings.

Edit: 34 views and no one wants to help me out? Hrmm.

Let me make it easier for you. The kind Japanese fellow who made his version of the map maker - in his version, many of the buttons work, but the most important ones, Save, Load, and Compile, produce no results.

I hope that helps you guys out. I've posted my request in as many of the map-maker topics I could find,.. hopefully one of you will get around to making this work.

I have never been able to make a map for Soldat, even though I can make interfaces and weapon graphics, the maps are beyond my PC.

I have tried all the other variants created by the other prominant Map Maker guru's, and all of them exhibit the same flaw.

What I'm asking is, would it be possible for one of you guys to make it so that the map maker's buttons will work on my PC? For reference, if it can work on Windows 95, it will work on my computer. I'd be glad to give anyone any extra information or help they need to remedy the problem.

Vijchtidoodah
February 21, 2005, 1:59 am
Have you tried running the program in Windows 95 compatibility mode?

Deleted User
February 21, 2005, 2:25 am
Perhaps I should clarify, I use Windows ME, with a modified Windows 95 Explorer shell.

You can visit this page here for more info.

Anna
February 22, 2005, 5:06 am
If EditPro didn't work for you then chances are my editor won't either. But if it's just the buttons, my editor will have keyboard shortcuts and stuff so you might be able to use those :P

Deleted User
February 22, 2005, 6:40 am
Ahh, thank you, Anna. Hopefully the keyboard shortcuts will work.

Edit: Map Edit Pro now works on my PC, I can Save, Compile, and everything, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. That's not important though - Map Edit Pro seems to work flawlessly, I can't, however, compile my maps into PMS files.

Chakra
February 26, 2005, 9:24 pm
heres a request SHOVE IT

Deleted User
February 27, 2005, 1:25 am
Now that's just not very nice. ='/

Vijchtidoodah
February 27, 2005, 1:28 am
MapEdit Pro works on the older map files (waypoints and map info are separate) so you can't compile for PMS. However, you can send your file to someone else who can compile it for you.

EDIT: Just as a warning, once you have someone else compile it into PMS, you won't be able to edit it anymore.

Deleted User
February 27, 2005, 1:33 am
Yeah, the problem is that I can't use the other map-makers enough to compile the maps, otherwise I could do it myself.

I suppose I'll just have to fiddle around with MapEdit Pro until Anna releases her map editor.

Vijchtidoodah
February 27, 2005, 1:53 am
Arg, I've been trying to save PMS maps into the old PMP format but when I try to open them up, I get this wierd "Runtime Error '9' : Subscript out of range" error. Anyone know how to get around that?

Deleted User
February 27, 2005, 2:55 am
I get the same thing too, whenever I open them with Soldat. I get a red screen and I can actually play after I get the error.. I just can't see anything.

Anna
February 27, 2005, 4:07 am
I haven't shown any screenshots in a while... might as well post some here :P
[IMAGE]
[IMAGE]

N1nj@
February 27, 2005, 4:12 am
holy [IMAGE]! that's look fuking nice

Deleted User
February 27, 2005, 5:55 am
Damn that is sexy! Can I test a beta of that?

Vijchtidoodah
February 27, 2005, 5:58 am
Me too! Can you select and move scenery like in meitzi's?

Solidarnosc
February 27, 2005, 6:15 am
Yeah, that looks really cool. You even have included the Soldat "Look & Feel". Was that done with Delphi? The form's icon sorta looks like the standard Visual Basic one, but I'm not sure. Also, does it use shared vertices? In any case it looks quite professional.

Anna
February 27, 2005, 7:15 am
^____^ I'll have something up for testing within the next few weeks. There is still a LOT of work to do though. My brother wants me to have it done by march break but that's a little too soon... I should at least have it mostly finished by summer. I haven't done anything about the scenery yet and the probably won't be any scenery stuff in the first release. I'm using Visual Basic btw.

Deleted User
February 27, 2005, 7:29 am
Well, if you're ever in need of a beta-test release, feel free to let me know. I'm very interested in this new map-maker.

Solidarnosc
February 27, 2005, 11:28 am
Is your brother some kind of slave driver? Anyhow, have you got it to write the map format yet? My suggestions are that you replace the opacity text box with a slider (or whatever those horizontal things are called). You could even do the same with the RGB values. Another cool idea would be including a mini-map display showing a small zoomed out shot of the map with the location of the main display illustrated in it. Also, you could use grouped toggle buttons with pictures instead of the combo box for the collision type.

Anyhow, these things are trivial details, and it looks like you've done a lot of the hard work already. :)

Michal
February 27, 2005, 5:07 pm
I made the tool icons :]

MercyM
February 27, 2005, 5:12 pm
Good job for you two Zajaczkowskis ;D

Solidarnosc
February 28, 2005, 12:12 pm
Sorry, I take that slave driver comment back. Michal's tool icons are obviously the greater part of the project's work (why, they're all so colourful and varied). I myself am trying to make a mapmaker from scratch, but I don't know anything about the format. :( I don't know Delphi, but from the map maker source code it seems to me that the 'records' are 'packed'. Does this mean they are compressed or encrypted? If so, how can I read/write the same data without using Delphi (in my case, Java instead)? I am almost considering using Delphi to 'translate' a simple text output from my map-maker into the proper map format.

Kekezam
February 28, 2005, 12:35 pm
quote:Originally posted by SolidarnoscI am almost considering using Delphi to 'translate' a simple text output from my map-maker into the proper map format.
hi Solidarnosc, consider kicking in an xml intermediate format which can then be easily read and written by any map editor while you're at it :-)

Solidarnosc
February 28, 2005, 1:49 pm
I can't say I know anything about XML. I'm not sure if you mean that that is something to do with the current format, but the idea of a universal intermediary format sounds like a good idea. If enough people got on board, we could even pressure Michal Marcinkowski to add extra map items that the format included (I'm sure more than one lunatic out there wants teleporters).

The other option for newbie programmers like me is to hope that the Soldat format gets changed to something simpler to understand, i.e; straight text.

On the other hand, I might have to use an intermediary format; if only because it would allow the user to save data other than the end product (i.e; the map maker could use polygons with more than 3 vertices, but these would be broken up into triangles to compile to .PMS, so they wouldn't appear when the map was opened back up again from the .PMS file).

Maybe this all sounds a little crazy, but I think it could open up a whole new load of ways for Soldat fans to make maps quickly and efficiently.

Elephant_Hunter
March 23, 2005, 2:58 am
I'd be all for a intermediary XML map format. Hey Solidarnosc, I'm looking for somebody to team up with and make a Map Editor... you open?

BTW, on topic... Lapis: http://dyn.u13.net:6081/solder/
Download this and tell me any errors you get (exactly what the error dialog says). I will do my best to fix it.

Deleted User
March 23, 2005, 9:17 am
I am glad someone has taken an interest in my dilemma. To be more specific on my problem, read below:

Nothing happens at all when I try to load a map. Clicking the load button or selecting load from File>Load produces no effect.

Saving a map goes through the warning messages (you haven't compiled your map, etc.) but it doesn't actually save it. There is no 'Save' dialog-box appearing to enter my map name, etc.

Solidarnosc
March 24, 2005, 12:32 am
I could really use some help Elephant! If you know anything about the Soldat file structure or DirectX, you might be able to help me.

I'm working on a map maker in Java. It's completely from scratch and at the moment doesn't use anything like DirectX. It doesn't yet do scenery or spawn points, etc. Also it doesn't save yet either. However, its got some cool features such as independent vertices, easy scrolling and zoom as well as grid with snap. Hopefully, there will be a lot more later (I have some unique ideas). If you don't know Java, you could help by reverse-engineering the current map editor (If you know Delphi) into a translator for a better format that I could use (I still don't know anything about XML, but I'll try to work on that).

If anyone wants to see what I've done, here it is:

http://llsc.us/members/Solidarnosc/uploads/Polidarnosc.zip
(unzip all the files into a folder, read the readme and run the JAR file)

Keep in mind its very basic and incomplete and I've written almost all the graphics stuff myself (i.e. the colour gradient polygons) so it might look a bit bad.

Oops. I almost forgot the obligatory screenshot:

[IMAGE]

vash763
March 24, 2005, 8:08 am
looks nice

Solidarnosc
March 25, 2005, 6:00 am
Can anyone tell me if they can get it to run properly? If so, please give feedback. Remember it still can't read or write any files yet and I can't imagine getting any textured polygons working without help. Also, the shortcut keys haven't been implemented yet. It's more the polygon creation method thats worth taking a look at at this stage.

Elephant_Hunter
March 25, 2005, 6:27 am
[IMAGE]

Looks fine to me... Are you ever on MSN? We should talk sometime.

Solidarnosc
March 29, 2005, 5:08 am
Elephant: Sorry about not being on MSN. I've been pretty busy over these last few days, but I should be back on MSN more often now. I've managed to spend a little time on improving the program. I've added scaling and rotating and I've still got plenty of ideas for more stuff. I'll get round to posting the newer version later.

Solidarnosc
March 31, 2005, 1:35 pm
I've put up a newer version. It is still at:

http://llsc.us/members/Solidarnosc/uploads/Polidarnosc.zip

I've added the ability to move, rotate, scale and color vertices, however it still doesn't open or save files.