Spring RTS Engine

tested nvdxt with -quick, it is faster than tex compress.

i will post some screens of the results of the first test of smoothing,

it looks like i will have to use a better way to make it work.




next one will use some cool, very complex mathematical functions.

it is using a very simple function at the moment, but it is a good one.

it is almost done, and i think it will work.

how it will work:

there will be a new option in the options file, it will be used to define the smoothing value, the options will be:

smoothverystrong;
smoothstrong;
smoothmedium;
smoothlow;
smoothverylow;

the parameter -k will be used to define the number of iterations aplied
on the heightmap.

after some search, i found out how lowpass works:

it bases each point in the heightmap, in a 3x3 matrix with a small smoothing value, the 3x3 matrix is all the neighbours of the current point.

so what it does:

it uses the values of the 3x3 matrix to calculate the new value.

and about smoothing, it is currently working,but it generates some ugly points at the map border, i will try to put smoothing to verystrong and
about 15 iterations to see the result.

the problem of this algorithm, is that it "moves" the heightmap up in the z axis, and doesnt smooths the x axis.

i will make it use a 5x5 matrix for smoothing the heightmap, this will result in very very rough terrain becoming a good looking terrain.

or steep slopes looking better.

Could you include a few sample .bat files with the next version so people without a intimate understanding of texture compression can know what they are supposed to do?

I posted about this earlier in the thread, but I dont think your solution worked and I forgot about it. Anyway, my problem is that it doesn't write temp files. It creates the directory if it doesn't exist (so it does have write access), and seems to be under the impression that it's writing the tiles, but it doesn't actually write them. If I look in /temp while its working, nothing is there.

Here's my command line (c&p of one you posted earlier), and the result. (missing the beginning as the smiley face spam makes it too long to copy)

MapConv.exe -z line.txt -x 460 -n -180 -l -f feature.png -m metal.png -a height.png -t map.png -y typemap.png -o Torn2.smf -c 0 -q 100

with

nvdxt.exe -file temp\*.png in line.txt

A subdirectory or file temp already exists.
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Creating dds files
texture program: nvdxt.
Version 8.30
calculating map id...
map id:18144905777559227904
map id:978963968
saving heightmap...
saving type map...
creating minimap...
Version 8.30
Reading mini.png [Processing] Writing .\mini.dds
saving minimap...
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Saving metal map...
current metalmap width:1025
current metalmap height:1025
Writing 0 features
Could Not Find C:\games\torn2rec2\mapconv\temp\Temp*.*
Could Not Find C:\games\torn2rec2\mapconv\temp\Temp*.png.raw
Could Not Find C:\games\torn2rec2\mapconv\temp*.dds

create a new text file, and write this to it: formatpng;

and add the parameter -w (the name of the file)

then it should work.

smoothing is working now, it is different than what i said before, on the
text file, the options will be:

smooth 3x3:

it uses a 3x3 matrix for smoothing, good when the map doesnt have problems with slopes,

and smooth 5x5:

it is the solution for every heightmap problem, very steep slopes will easily get smoothed by this one.

1.1 is done, uploading it.

new features:

-k now works, it is used for smoothing the terrain, -k takes a number,
the number is the number of iterations to be applied on the heightmap.

added 3 new options for -w option file:

featuretolerance, when used, instead of removing all features that are 1
pixel close(16 in texture space), it will remove just a few of them.

smooth3x3:
use a 3x3 matrix for smoothing, good for small heightmap problems.

smooth5x5:
use a 5x5 matrix for smoothing, 1 iteration is good for heightmap problems, 2 should be enough to fix every problem.

for the next:

make a 7x7 matrix,
find out how to use nvcompress,
fix some bugs,
make new -w options,
any suggestions?

i will post here a comparison between the old mapconv and this, just to show how this version is way better than the old one.

Awesome! I'll test it when I get home tonight...

Bear in mind most mappers are just interested in something that can compile a map without scanlines. Currently I need to provide about 12 arguements in my compile line, and point it to two additional text files with more arguements just to get it to work at all... I think that's getting overly complex. I'm sure it all makes sense to you, but look at it from the perspective of the average user who really doesn't know or care how it works, they just want it to work.

I've spent at least two hours just trying to get a map to compile correctly, with this or this being a fairly typical result. I've tired all the lines you provided in line.txt and only found one to compile correctly... which still gaves scan lines. I dont doubt I am doing something wrong, it's just a touch difficult to troubleshoot when dealing with such an unfriendly thing you know nothing about the workings of...

If you've managed to isolate what was causing the scanline problem, would it possible to just make a "patch" to the old one that just fixes that, without all this confusing new stuff? Ultimately I just want to compile a map, if I want to rescale it or smooth it i'd do it in photoshop.

would it possible to just make a "patch" to the old one that just fixes that, without all this confusing new stuff?

Well, he could, but it'd be beside the point. The sole reason I got excited about this was because User was amenable to providing us with a much better toolset, which necessarily means more complexity. More power = more complexity, it's just how it works.

When I get done testing his current revision... assuming nothing new is broken, etc., I will very happily post a set of scripts that will work, every time, that you can just plug in and forget about. The whole point of User's work, though, was that he's providing a lot of tools for people, like me, who were never happy with the "black box" tools of Mother's MapConv, and who pretty much ignored mapping for Spring because of that. The fact that User was working on this at the same time I started getting into the final stages of building World Builder was a very happy accident.

Here are files to make a map with the new settings. Tested successfully with 1.0, worked just fine, no lines, very straightforward.

Just save your final map as a TIF (lossless format) and it will be transformed into a TIF during the temp process of ripping the tiles, then transformed into a DDS, using a cubic filter (looks good, on high-detail maps, may not be the best filter for more subtle maps or stuff with a large amount of obvious repeating tiles). Use SMFED to raise your map's highs and lows after compiling.

sorry for taking too long to upload it, i got a small problem with resource files(icon, description, version).

here is it:
http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/4050/mapconv_11/

new features are listed on one of my previous posts.

use texcompress if you really dont like lines, and dont use tga or bmp,
the first screen is because you used dxt3 and 5 which arent supported by spring at the moment, the second, is because you used tga or bmp.

alot of people asked for rescaling, alot of time ago, they just stoped asking, because they got ignored, i wanted rescaling too, because i wanted to make big maps.

and smoothing, the new algorithm is better than any other tool you will find on those image editors.

for me it looks simple, if you do exactly what is said on the readme files.

i can make some batch files, for the next.

the lines are not nvdxt issue, look at the dds image, check the mipmaps, you wont find any lines.

the problems with the old one are:
only bmps could be used.
a very limited lowpass filter.
no rescaling.
the command for texture compressing is allways the same:
nvdxt.exe -file temp\temp*.bmp -dxt1c -dither
allways bmp as temporary tile.
if it failed to load a file, it would not print a warning.
features cant be placed on slopes and 16 pixels in texture space close.
very limited mapsize: max was around 500.000 tiles.

advantes of this new one:
all formats devil supports.
a very good smoothing matrix filter.
rescaling, it may seem to be useless, but it is really usefull and good.
the users can choose the command for the textures.
the users can choose the format for the tiles.
if it fails to load a image, it will warn, and if an image dimensions are wrong, it will rescale it.
an option to allow feature placement when they are very close.
a bigger map size limit.

argh, can you make some more example scripts?, with different values
and options, i will include them on the packages.


i decided to work on mapconv because of some reasons:

i was bored of having to waste over 300mb for every good map.
i wanted to be able to use png, for the file size.
nobody ever tried to compile svn mapconv.
someone had to fix the line issue.
i wanted to be able to use small images to make big maps.
mapconv was very limited.
lots of good maps were about to come, lines would just make them look really bad.
i had finished some really cool lua widgets, had nothing to do.

i made rescaling because some people asked for it.

user,

Have a small issue ..

After it creates the tiles ..
it saves the metal ..

an it fails with a error message
Could Not Find D:\Spring-Maps\Tower-map\Build-4\temp\Temp*.png.Raw
Could Not Find D:\Spring-Maps\Tower-map\Build-4\Temp*.dds


I'm I missing something?

UPDATE:
BAT Syntax

mapconv.exe -l -x 275 -n 53 -m mi-mm10.png -a mi-hm10.png -t T-Delta-Map-1.png -f mi-mf8.png -c 0.5 -o Marble-Isles-V1.4.smf -q 100 -z compressor.txt -w special.txt

compressor.txt

nvdxt.exe -file d:\Spring-Maps\Build-4\temp\Temp*.png -nmips 5 -dxt1 -box -fadeamount 0

special.txt

ignoreheight;
keepminimap;
formatpng;

use this:
there is no need to provide the full path, put only the directory, and it
will find it.

I'll provide some examples here in a bit, testing 1.1 now...

I found out what the problem was ...

I needed to add the proper compress util in the
folder I'm working in ...


It's compiling now ...


Thanks for the help ....

Also, a big thanks for putting all that time in on
improving the Mapconv util ....

is there a version of tasmapmaker than will work with this mapconv?
Or maybe there is a way to adjust it...
That prog makes life easier.

Short answer: well, it'll still work, it just won't take full advantage of what this does now.

Tested 1.1... looks good! I'll get some sample scripts done here in a bit.

not sure if it will still work, because it will lack -z and -w, what i could make is a default -z and -w value, then it should work.

and version 1.2 is almost done.