Tileset use

[D2kEditor]

Hi there, new to the community, longtime player!

Back when Shai-Hulud was actually useable without a virtual machine I used to play with the editor, but seeing as there was no support for placement of buildings, the interest soon waned. I came back to the game when I ran across the Dune2k+ site, which is fantastic by the way.

My question is about the 7 tile sets BLOXICE, BLOXTREE, etc:

Is there a way to combine them? Has anyone else wanted to liberally use the doodads from each set all in one map, and done so?

And lastly, were these tile set divisions invented by fans, or by the developers?

I make no claims to being advanced. I would appreciate, if there is a solution, a... gentler explanation.

*******

I read from Feda that Shai-hulud remains the choice map editor for tile placement. I don't remember anything of that old program- is this true for you mapmakers?

Cheers, I'd appreciate any answers,

K.

[Feda]

Yes, Shai-Hulud is the best editor for placing down tiles & making the terrain. As for building placement, the best is the Campaign Map Editor from the D2K+ Toolkit as it actually displays the buildings. You can still place buildings with Shai-Hulud (they look like worms or spice on rock - see one of the missions for instance) by copy-pasting them from original/custom missions, but they don't display, so you gotta know where each building u wanna copy is in each map. Shortly, use Shai-Hulud for the terrain and Camp. Map Editor for placing bases.

 

I don't think it is possible, although I've never had a look at tilesets, Shai-Gel98 could tell you more maybe as IIRC he did have a look at the TILEATR*.bin files.

 

Umm, Shai-Hulud works on all Windows OS from what I know (haven't tested it on Win8 though) without the need of virtual machines. 

 

Oh, and welcome back Commander! ;)

[athanasios]

I have already proposed that. That's where a patch is needed. But there is no such patch available, and none so experienced coder to make one. Ideally we could even use 32bpp graphics, layered sprites, combine all tilesets to one and add even more. The patch would wrap the game and make this possible. You could even add more buildings this way. I do not know what the guys in OpenRA have done about it, but that game engine does only support indexed palettes (256 colors only).

[shai]

Yes, Shai-Hulud is the best editor for placing down tiles & making the terrain. As for building placement, the best is the Campaign Map Editor from the D2K+ Toolkit as it actually displays the buildings. You can still place buildings with Shai-Hulud (they look like worms or spice on rock - see one of the missions for instance) by copy-pasting them from original/custom missions, but they don't display, so you gotta know where each building u wanna copy is in each map. Shortly, use Shai-Hulud for the terrain and Camp. Map Editor for placing bases.

 

I don't think it is possible, although I've never had a look at tilesets, Shai-Gel98 could tell you more maybe as IIRC he did have a look at the TILEATR*.bin files.

 

Umm, Shai-Hulud works on all Windows OS from what I know (haven't tested it on Win8 though) without the need of virtual machines. 

 

Oh, and welcome back Commander! ;)

It could be possible if you edit the TileData.Bin file. I haven't really had the chance to check that one out. But it is most likely coded in to the dat file. 

[Feda]

Idk but I think OpenRA combines all the tilesets. Even though the engine is kinda poor, not so much fun playin it tbh compared to westwood d2k, they need to improve it. Also I've never seen ppl around on OpenRA d2k mod so...

 

It's a shame Westwood/Intelligent Games made 7-8 tilesets that are almost identical except a few tiles. Really what were they thinking about =/

[THE AQIB]

well due to that I've edited some in my mod so only two will have desert.. one will have ice..

one or two will contain grass..

etc..

but I've gone according to the original tileset..

well actually there are seven tileset for different locations on arrakis..

but they have not implemented all of 'em in campaign..

[athanasios]

Idk but I think OpenRA combines all the tilesets. Even though the engine is kinda poor, not so much fun playin it tbh compared to westwood d2k, they need to improve it. Also I've never seen ppl around on OpenRA d2k mod so...

 

It's a shame Westwood/Intelligent Games made 7-8 tilesets that are almost identical except a few tiles. Really what were they thinking about =/

I agree. Honestly I cannot play properly in OpenRA. It looks like a different game to me. Limited gameplay and different rules.

-

Don't blame Westwood. With the hardare available at those times they had to resort to such measures. Every single byte counted. What more could you do with 16MB RAM and 1 to 4 MB graphics cards? 256 tiles like the palette (8bit), 512, 768, 1024? I guess 1024 could be a target.  I have not counted how many different tiles appear in all the tilesets-if they are more than 1024 then it would be impossible. And maybe some slots reserved for special functions? So then even less then 1024. OK, TTD had thousands of sprites and was released earlier. But it had only 8bit graphics, not Hi-Color, and simply you cannot have genius coders available everywhere regardless the money you pay. ;-)

[D2kEditor]

Guys I appreciate the responses. Not what I wanted to hear, but I trust there's a solution.

There's an old 2012 discussion somewhat on the topic here:

http://www.sleipnirstuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=83&p=283604

Cmd. Matt wrote there:

"Yes, this seems to be the #1 wish from the Dune 2000 community. They have few, but very popular maps. Coding a legacy import is not the preferred method here as the original map format is horrible. They don't have combined tiles, but 1x1 squares that are defined in a grid. Someone tried to write a converter, but he had to recreate whole new incompatible tilesets that are unusable for humans. He also vanished, never published any code and the results required manually fixing errors afterwards. We also merged all redundant Dune tilesets into one Arrakis theme. This simplifies mapping and we can have more decorative details side by side. So I suggest you continue your project. You can even make them more beautiful than the original because you are not bound to tileset restrictions."

Apparently he figured out the tiles set restriction....

Also: how on earth does one get Shai-hulud working without a VM? Grey screen crap as usual!

I suppose I can make maps in Hulud (if I can get them working) and port them over to Dune2k+, a program which is Christmas come early for me.

[Feda]

did u watch my tutorial? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U--xEaMYeM

 

6:04, to fix the grey thing. It doesn't matter what OS you have the grey problem will be in all of them. It is not caused by windows 7 or XP, I know that for some ppl the fact I used a Win98 VM may be confusing but I explained why I used it, it certainly doesn't have anything to do with te tilesets.