Dune Legacy and Dune 2 The Maker Map Editor Question

[Hammer2k]

Your games are very very impressive! I like it.

I know this isn't a programming forum, but I am currently planning to make a dune 2 clone (not again?) myself. But not an intensive remake though, I want to use my own map format and not Dune2's original *.ini (because I can't understand them).

Is there some algorithm you use to make those tiles connect in your map editors. I mean the spice and rocks automatically connect when you drag your mouse its incredible! :) Thanks!

[stefanhendriks]

When i save the map, i save the map tile data. Each tile is 'smoothed' real-time.

Smoothing a tile aint a big problem, you can figure that out with a piece of paper and all possible tiles. Each has a number and there you go..

'if one side is rock aswell, it should be tile xxx'

'if the other side is rock , well, then it should be tile xxx'

and so on.

I am more interested in the INI file reading atm. However saving the entire map data in a more logical format is still a bit diffictult for me. Since i want the game be modable i would come up with a new format. I will probably do something like:

; Definition of terrain types
[TERRAIN]

[Sand]
Name=SAND
...

[Spice]
name=SPICE

and then save map data as something like:

CELL, NAME
0, SPICE
1, SAND
etc

then i will smooth it after loading. So you can even change the order of terrain types and get the correct terrain results.

[Hammer2k]

Are you using Inis on everything or just the map?

Keep up the good work. ;)

[stefanhendriks]

The DEMO version at my website does not use any INI file. Its all hardcoded. The new version which will take a long time to finish will use INI files for almost anything. Thats a big change but its worth it i think :)

[TonyD]

I use a technique which sounds very similar to stefens, i just store whether a tile is rock, sand, spice etc and smooth only at runtime as well. The smoothing is quite simple but a relatively large problem. U just check whether the tile left, up, down, and right is of the same type or not, and set the tile accordingly.

The dlm format I created is very simple because its binary, just the file size and then a large array of types is fed into the file, although this makes it uneditable outside the editor ofcourse.

Hope this helps too.

[koen]

Do you need an ini editor Stefan?

[Hammer2k]

Your suggestions helped a lot I think I got it. I'll post here too if a demo is available. Thanks! ;D

[stefanhendriks]

i don't need an ini editor yet. As i still have to determine the sections and such. At the moment, i don't have time to code so i cannot work on this stuff. But maybe next week i will be able to do something about this.