Why does my map not work[solved]

[starslayer]

I went to the trouble of extracting a heightmap and terrain from google earth, and when I put the map together it looked ok in the taspring map editor.

Thanks to assistance here the map is now functional; the solution was to load the map in the TAspring map editor, and then save it again, as well as fixing my .smd file which was incomplete.

Further questions now relate to improving the map and to putting UTM style grid markers on other maps.

map here:
http://drop.io/so018a3

[SinbadEV]

It's been a while since I've mapped but that SMD file seems a little sparse... At the very least I think you need to enclose the whole thing in a [MAP] { } construct...

check http://springrts.com/wiki/Map_development or crack open the archive of some existing maps.

[Forboding Angel]

Trust me on this, using satellite imagery is a bit of a nono. Mainly because it consistently looks like crap ingame.

Victoria crater being an exception... Depends on how well you do it really.

[Jazcash]

Vicy's Texture was like super super high res. And it was of space and space is sexy because it's untouched by humans!

[Tribulex]

victoria crater ftw. i love that map.

also its good sat imagery because its a nice color and its also hi res.

[starslayer]

ok, so I changed the smd to be more accurate, and it still does not even show up in my map list; any ideas?

Code: Select all

[MAP]
{
	description=Bordon with grid lines;
	tidalstrength=25;
	gravity=40;
	maxmetal=15;
	extractorradius=20;
	maphardness=70;
	autoshowmetal=1;
	[ATMOSPHERE]
	{
		FogColor=0 0 0;
		FogStart=0.9;
		CloudColor=0.85 0.6 0.8;
		SkyColor=0.2 0.1 0.6;
		SunColor=0.79 0.4 0;
		CloudDensity=0.8;
		MinWind=25;
		MaxWind=25;
		Skybox=CorePrime.dds;
	}
	[WATER]
	{
		WaterSurfaceColor=1 1 1;
		WaterPlaneColor=0 0 0;
		WaterBaseColor=0 0 0;
		WaterAbsorb=0 0 0.37;
		WaterMinColor=0 0 0;
		WaterDamage=100;
		watertexture=black.jpg;
	}
	[LIGHT]
	{
		SunDir=0.383 0.508 -0.308;
		GroundAmbiantColor=1 1 1;
		GroundSunColor=1 1 1;
		GroundShadowDensity=1.5;
		UnitAmbiantColor=1 1 1;
		UnitSunColor=1 1 1;
		UnitShadowDensity=1.5;
		SpecularSunColor=1 1 1;
	}
	[TERRAINTYPE0]
	{
		name=default;
		hardness=1;
		tankmovespeed=1;
		kbotmovespeed=1;
		hovermovespeed=1;
		shipmovespeed=1;
	}
	[TEAM0]
		{
		StartPosX=983;
		StartPosZ=3334;
		}
	[TEAM1]
		{
		StartPosX=3244;
		StartPosZ=467;
		}
}

[starslayer]

conversely, if anyone has an idea on how to get UTM gridlines <even made up ones> on an existing map that would also save me the trouble of making custom maps.

[KaiserJ]

errr... do you mean as part of a texture? shoop them in! i can explain to you how if you arent familiar with such things, but i feel like im misreading your intent

as far as the map not working, try loading your textures/maps into springmapedit... if they fail to load, there may be a problem with the size or format of the base images...

some of the mistakes i made when making my first few maps...
-didn't put everything in the right folders. examine a working map and observe the structure of the dirs. make sure your archive has a sd7 extension and the correct compression settings (iirc solid archive causes fail).
-renamed smt/smf files after compiling... causes fail. (i think this causes redness though, not the map to fail to appear)
-improper smd... i would suggest plucking a smd file from an existing map and use that temporarily (with the necessary name editing) to make sure the issue isnt with the smd.

just tried to list things that i did for my maps to fail in the past, hope it helps

[starslayer]

errr... do you mean as part of a texture? shoop them in! i can explain to you how if you arent familiar with such things, but i feel like im misreading your intent

as far as the map not working, try loading your textures/maps into springmapedit... if they fail to load, there may be a problem with the size or format of the base images...

some of the mistakes i made when making my first few maps...
-didn't put everything in the right folders. examine a working map and observe the structure of the dirs. make sure your archive has a sd7 extension and the correct compression settings (iirc solid archive causes fail).
-renamed smt/smf files after compiling... causes fail. (i think this causes redness though, not the map to fail to appear)
-improper smd... i would suggest plucking a smd file from an existing map and use that temporarily (with the necessary name editing) to make sure the issue isnt with the smd.

just tried to list things that i did for my maps to fail in the past, hope it helps

Yes, as a texture; however grid lines are absolute; there may be say, 16 grids on a 16x16 map, but the grid in the bottom left will be 0,0, and top right will be 16,16; with small grid lines within each going from 1-10, so it has to be a single texture covering the whole map to be
accurate.

Hence why I came up with the concept of 'I will simply use an existing location on google earth with the grid lines attacked, then greyscale the relief map, and have a perfectly accurate grid system established on a real location with proper relief'

http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs07701.html.

There might be some way to specify comment lines to be loaded onto a map that I am unaware of, if so that would work great, it's a repeating number sequence so I should be able to program it into a map if so.

I actually built this whole map in the springmapedit program and it will load in it with no issue. The only thing that seems to be different about it compared to other maps is that it is huge due to using a single scaled up texture file.

[starslayer]

ok, got the map to work by reloading it into the spring map editor and re saving it, who knows why that did ot work the first few times.

Now I just need to get a reasonable minimap as the generated one looks like crap. Thank you very much for the help.

Now downsides; when you are zoomed out a fair distance the grid line markers are no longer visible; any way you can think of to fix that?

I updated the first post file to include the finished map in case you want to check it out and suggest improvements.

[SirArtturi]

Ah, where do I begin...

First, you are giving so little info about the actual problem that based on this its just quessing whats wrong. At least give us the infolog.txt and it would be a big plus if youd give the exact sizes and format of your 4 maps (height, texture, metal and feature), also the mapconv line with parametres.

Whatsoever I think that your folder hierarchy is wrong, or the map itself is wrongly packed. In proper folder hierarchy the .smt .smd .smd files goes to /maps folder.

Couple more comments concerning your other issues. The height map in the first link wont work like that. Heightmaps cant be "3D" they are just 2d grayscale images... And as others already has told, satellite maps most probably will fail...

As for the grid, I don't actually know what you are talking about, but You could just draw/shoop it to the maintexture easily. Other way is to make a map gadget with lua...

[starslayer]

Ah, where do I begin...

First, you are giving so little info about the actual problem that based on this its just quessing whats wrong. At least give us the infolog.txt and it would be a big plus if youd give the exact sizes and format of your 4 maps (height, texture, metal and feature), also the mapconv line with parametres.

Whatsoever I think that your folder hierarchy is wrong, or the map itself is wrongly packed. In proper folder hierarchy the .smt .smd .smd files goes to /maps folder.

Couple more comments concerning your other issues. The height map in the first link wont work like that. Heightmaps cant be "3D" they are just 2d grayscale images... And as others already has told, satellite maps most probably will fail...

As for the grid, I don't actually know what you are talking about, but You could just draw/shoop it to the maintexture easily. Other way is to make a map gadget with lua...

Before I had no infolog because the map did not load at all I could not even try it to get an error. Then I was getting errors for a scant 20 minutes before KaiserJ's suggestion of reloading/saving in the spring map editor fixed whatever issue was still preventing it from functioning.

With respect to the heightmap I'm not sure which file you are looking at, but the heightmap provided is a greyscale 2d image of the actual area relief and actually works great (better then the texture). The satellite imagery is a bit bury if very zoomed in, or very zoomed out, as to be expected, but is otherwise functional, I don't think anyone would actually recognize what's going on as a real place, but it does look like a natural landscape, and is suitable bumpy like a real location. Also very importantly for what I am trying to do; the grid lines are visible at many zoom levels.

The grid I am talking about are UTM gridlines, they are the normal standard for navigation over terrain used by GIS departments, the military, wargamers, etc. Here is the link to the explanation again

http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs07701.html.

From what I have been reading I would like to look into an LUA widget for drawing these rather then trying to embed them into the map so that they can go into higher detail the further you zoom in (and I could possibly embed them into some function key combo as a layer), I am an adequate coder and have a program that does this on google earth, but have no idea how to embed such a function using LUA into a spring map, some pointers to 'here is how to draw lines and make text in springs LUA' would be great.

[KaiserJ]

woohoo! trial and error ftw.

i havent a clue about drawing via lua, so sorry about that, but im glad that you got your map to work

also i can agree that adding such lines would look much nicer as lua rather than having them as part of the map texture.

post a pic of your map, we love pics!

[SirArtturi]

Before I had no infolog because the map did not load at all I could not even try it to get an error. Then I was getting errors for a scant 20 minutes before KaiserJ's suggestion of reloading/saving in the spring map editor fixed whatever issue was still preventing it from functioning.

Well, It's certainly a fix, but we are still missing the reason.
And its kinda strange that you didnt get any error message.
It should always report something...

With respect to the heightmap I'm not sure which file you are looking at, but the heightmap provided is a greyscale 2d image of the actual area relief and actually works great (better then the texture). The satellite imagery is a bit bury if very zoomed in, or very zoomed out, as to be expected, but is otherwise functional, I don't think anyone would actually recognize what's going on as a real place, but it does look like a natural landscape, and is suitable bumpy like a real location. Also very importantly for what I am trying to do; the grid lines are visible at many zoom levels.

I was basically saying, that you made a heightmap out of 3d greyscale image. That does not work! In praxis, this means that you have now a hill on the place of a lake...

Btw, I looked at your map and as much as I'd like to be supportive and not offensive. It's one of the ugliest things I've seen around

[Jazcash]

I'd like to be supportive

It's one of the ugliest things I've seen around

[Beherith]

I think I should sticky that people should not make maps with satellite textures. You have to be extremely pro to pull it off.