Dune 2000 Maps

[Duke Leto III]

I don't know if this topic already exist, but does anyone have all the unrevealed dune 2000 maps, missions and skirmish? And the same with Emperor?

[mvi]

I can generate them for Dune 2000 if you want them.

[mvi]

Here you go, just spent the last 4 hours writing a tool to generate them from Dune 2000. Hope this all makes sense.

Some release notes:

There's no error handling, so if you feed it a file which isn't what it should be it'll break.

There's no special index indication.

It only supports exporting to PNG files (compressed lossless images)

How to use:

Click the open button, you will be asked for two files. First, the map file you wish to convert.

Secondly you will be asked for the tileset, since map files don't contain a reference to which tileset they use, you'll have to tell the program yourself. You can find the tileset by looking in the relevant mission file (you should be able to get away with opening it in notepad, going right near the end and finding the string BLOX****, that string indicates which tileset is being used.

The program will then load and interpret both files, the generate button will then become enabled if not already enabled. Click that, and the program will ask you where to export the image to.

Download:

Two download options:

1. Download attached to this post (you must be logged in to see to the link)

2. Download from my site here

MapRenderer.zip

[D2k Sardaukar]

Hey that works cool.  ;)

Only problem is that when I open the image my program (Irfanview) says it is an jpg and if I want to rename it.

[Duke Leto III]

Thank you so much, im working an a map with all dune 2000 mission maps in it. But do you know if the same works with emperor?

[Duke Leto III]

I think i'll finish the map this weekend. I will place a screen shot on this topic. So many thanks to you help mvi!!

I want to do the same with emperor.

[mvi]

Only problem is that when I open the image my program (Irfanview) says it is an jpg and if I want to rename it.

I think it might be exporting Jpg files as .Png, if you rename it or open it in Windows Picture Viewer it should work fine. I'll take a look this evening when I get back home from work.

I think i'll finish the map this weekend. I will place a screen shot on this topic. So many thanks to you help mvi!!

I want to do the same with emperor.

No problem, best check out the emperor guys on here, I've not touched that game.

[mvi]

Both Dune2k forum upload and my site's version have been updated, now exporting PNGs rather than JPGs which are named .PNG

[D2k Sardaukar]

Thanks. You can see that quality is better now with png.

In what program did you make it, it is so nice small in filesize.  :)

[mvi]

Thanks. You can see that quality is better now with png.

In what program did you make it, it is so nice small in filesize.  :)

I used Visual C# 2008, with the GDI+ library for the graphics. I did start using the GD library, but the implementation for C# is absolutely terrible, for one thing it gives you the option of making a true colour image but never lets you add anything but indexed colour to it. GD is what you'll see on dynamic image forum signatures of say Xbox 360 profiles for example, GDI+ is a core part of Windows XP, Vista and 7 and is used for drawing windows and menus (etc.).

[Duke Leto III]

I dont get the thing with the tile set, opened it with Notepad, found the string, and then???

[mvi]

Then when you come to select the tileset in the program I made, you use the filename you found from notepad. Which should be BLOXsomething. If you want I can record a video of the process?

[mvi]

Probably the best topic to mention it in, with regard to tilesets, I've long since known that R16 files are as follows

XRRRRRGG GGGBBBBB

But in the past I had some trouble with R8s, just had another look at them and they seem pretty simple. As the name suggests they store one byte per pixel, this byte is a colour index for the palette.bin file. The palette.bin stores 256 RGB triplets. However I assumed that each colour byte in the palette would go up to 255, instead they seem to go up to 63 so it is necessary to convert from 6 bit colour channels to 8 bit colour channels.

[mvi]

Can anyone guess what's next?

[mvi]

Exported tileset image, changed hue in Photoshop, imported back in and saved over original tileset. Just to test the tool, kind of cool result tho.

[Gruntlord6]

Exported tileset image, changed hue in Photoshop, imported back in and saved over original tileset. Just to test the tool, kind of cool result tho.

too bad I can't use photoshop. a real ice tileset would be nice.

[mvi]

Seems to load and save R8 files perfectly too. Bear in mind that because R8 tilesets use a preset palette, when you import an image it will compare each pixel and use the closest colour in the palette. This is a bit of a slow process because it has to do the calculation for nearly a million pixels when you import an image - on my PC it takes about 15 seconds, if you've got a decent rig it'll take less and if you have a particularly old PC it may take a couple of mins.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Seems to load and save R8 files perfectly too. Bear in mind that because R8 tilesets use a preset palette, when you import an image it will compare each pixel and use the closest colour in the palette. This is a bit of a slow process because it has to do the calculation for nearly a million pixels when you import an image - on my PC it takes about 15 seconds, if you've got a decent rig it'll take less and if you have a particularly old PC it may take a couple of mins.

This was posted today? MVI is alive and with an tile editor? Where can I download it? I'm decent at modifying images/sprites... I wanna try this!

This is great news!

[AMIgaBot]

good idea , maybe create vulcanic scenery and fight near magma spill area? i mean replace spice texture with liquid magma.

the ice texture on map is nice, can you release it ? or atleast small tool to create colorful ridges cliffs etc.

[mvi]

This was posted today? MVI is alive and with an tile editor? Where can I download it? I'm decent at modifying images/sprites... I wanna try this!

This is great news!

:D The Tile Set Editor along with the other new tools can be downloaded here

AMIgaBot, I'll write a short tutorial on how to do it if you like :)

[Gruntlord6]

This was posted today? MVI is alive and with an tile editor? Where can I download it? I'm decent at modifying images/sprites... I wanna try this!

This is great news!

You are missing out on all the other great tools! if you are good at editing these images, give me a shout!