Atlas Suggestions

[Stan`]

I opened an old level editor and I found some stuff that may be nice to add to the atlas if times permits

- If one day scenarios are functional and are scripted would be nice to have a little text editor in it

- Also a wizard to make levels, like setting diplomacy, start ressources, type of AI, agressiveness.

- Also layers would be nice to have, like Entities, terrain, water , effects, shadows,

- A function to mirror the map following axis x, and Y if you plan to make balanced multiplayer maps.

- There is an option to load height maps, but one to load texture maps would be nice. ie :

Texture file (Here matching the size of the map +1

1.bmp

Before :

After :

(Quality is bad because image is bad X))

A random Map generator, I believe there is something close in the mods forum

//Basic map

//Select the seed and the type of map biome you want

// Now that you have it, you just have to fix the areas where you want to put players

- A snap to grid would be nice if you want to do something well square like. Also would be nice to have the grid without the wireframe.

Just suggesting.

Regards Stan

[feneur]

A wizard might indeed be a nice thing to have, probably best to wait a while before implementing it though so we know all the features and can plan how it should work a bit better than having something using the features we have now and then add on other things later (and risk that they just feel tucked on at the end or something).

Could you describe a bit more how you envision the layers? Something more like an outline of all the things in the map file? (Could probably more or less just be a more organized/visual display of the contents of the map file.) Or something else entirely? (Layers as in texture layers over each other?)

I don't know enough to say for sure, but a map texture function seems reasonably difficult to implement as the texture is set per tile iirc, so it would have to convert the file you'd load into many separate texture files and try and match them together etc. Maybe it's possible, and the terrain texture system might be rewritten anyway as it's nowhere near perfect the way it is now, but it certainly sounds difficult to me.

Random map generation is included in Atlas:

It does require you to set up players in the players tab before running the map generation, but that's what the "Change players" button is for

[niektb]

What bugs me about the Atlas is that it tends to crash very often. For example if you have written an RMS with a little syntax error in it Atlas instantly crashes without error logs. The main game however loads the script, gives a few errors and then returns to the main menu as it should.

What's more I like to see some kind of possibility to use scripts in Atlas. For example: I've just created some kind of heightmap inside Atlas. Now I want to use some scripts (like a erosion script) to give the hand painted version a more realistic look. Same goes for texturing: A general layout and the script takes care of the rest (of course you might have to code/edit these scripts yourselves to get something that exactly fits your needs)

Edited March 16, 2014 by niektb

[Stan`]

A wizard might indeed be a nice thing to have, probably best to wait a while before implementing it though so we know all the features and can plan how it should work a bit better than having something using the features we have now and then add on other things later (and risk that they just feel tucked on at the end or something).

Agreed.

I don't know enough to say for sure, but a map texture function seems reasonably difficult to implement as the texture is set per tile iirc, so it would have to convert the file you'd load into many separate texture files and try and match them together etc. Maybe it's possible, and the terrain texture system might be rewritten anyway as it's nowhere near perfect the way it is now, but it certainly sounds difficult to me.

In that game, texture were made as follow, and the texture importer had to be map size here 64x64 +1 so 65x65

As you see its by block of texture here 4blocks which use a number of tiles.

Also they had two types of textures, one overlayed others while the others blended with the rest. That was a quite nice thing if you consider this

Random map generation is included in Atlas:

It does require you to set up players in the players tab before running the map generation, but that's what the "Change players" button is for

Oh my bad

Could you describe a bit more how you envision the layers? Something more like an outline of all the things in the map file? (Could probably more or less just be a more organized/visual display of the contents of the map file.) Or something else entirely? (Layers as in texture layers over each other?)

Here is how it worked I included seasons too because It was an awesome feature

Layer SNOW

Layer FOG OF WAR Not really relevant

Layer decals

ON

/OFF

There was also, Entities, Shadows, Effects, Script Entities (Ambients = Looping sound areas, and script entities = like prop points), Terrain, Water. I can make other screens if you like.

[Stan`]

What bugs me about the Atlas is that it tends to crash very often. For example if you have written an RMS with a little syntax error in it Atlas instantly crashes without error logs. The main game however loads the script, gives a few errors and then returns to the main menu as it should.

What's more I like to see some kind of possibility to use scripts in Atlas. For example: I've just created some kind of heightmap inside Atlas. Now I want to use some scripts (like a erosion script) to give the hand painted version a more realistic look. Same goes for texturing: A general layout and the script takes care of the rest (of course you might have to code/edit these scripts yourselves to get something that exactly fits your needs)

In this Editor there was a lua editor, with a tester which said LUA_OK or LUA_ErrorSyntax

[FeXoR]

What bugs me about the Atlas is that it tends to crash very often. For example if you have written an RMS with a little syntax error in it Atlas instantly crashes without error logs. The main game however loads the script, gives a few errors and then returns to the main menu as it should.

What's more I like to see some kind of possibility to use scripts in Atlas. For example: I've just created some kind of heightmap inside Atlas. Now I want to use some scripts (like a erosion script) to give the hand painted version a more realistic look. Same goes for texturing: A general layout and the script takes care of the rest (of course you might have to code/edit these scripts yourselves to get something that exactly fits your needs)

You can see the error in the mainlog.html.

Sometimes however it's not very helping (like a missing vital ";").

[niektb]

You can see the error in the mainlog.html.

Sometimes however it's not very helping (like a missing vital ";").

Not necessary to crash in case of an error, is it?

[historic_bruno]

Not necessary to crash in case of an error, is it?

It shouldn't crash and I've never heard of that happening, you should report it on Trac, http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/ReportingErrors

If you include a sample script with an error that leads to the crash (or maybe it's a simple change), we can try to reproduce it and debug the crash.

[Stan`]

Also is the Variations drop menu working ?

[feneur]

Also is the Variations drop menu working ?

Capture d'écran 2014-03-21 17.40.04.png

Nope, not sure it will soon either. It was working before Philip reworked the Entity system, not sure why that drop menu is still left though =)

[FeXoR]

It would be nice if Atlas had something like:

Misc hack -> Camera: Map overview

...that would set the camera to a distance at the current angle so the entire map is shown in the main frame (at least roughly and maybe in a fixed quite high angle).

Start camera bug on random maps:

While the camera is set to the 1st players start location after generating the first random map it's just set to (0, 0) for the following generations.

EDIT:

And it would be nice if in the actors selection as well as in the texture selection

right klick -> copy relative path and filename

or something similar was available so a moder don't have to search through the directories to get the exact filename (and relative path).

Also selecting something (like the seed number), moving the cursor away and then press strg+c will do..

nothing since the GUI element lost focus when you moved the cursor.

If a terrain texture is written wrong (like space and underscore mixed up) Atlas will hang.

In this case a fallback should happen IMO.

Those annoyed me for some time now.

Edited March 22, 2014 by FeXoR

[Stan`]

Maybe we should create tickets for all of this ?

[Radagast.]

Or for each of it?

Nope, not sure it will soon either. It was working before Philip reworked the Entity system, not sure why that drop menu is still left though =)

Rather than removing I would prefer fixing. Anyone knows what the core problem is. To leave it is cool, because otherwise I never knew it existed.

Ah yes, if it's useful of course. For what do you need it, Stan? Is it a random variation generator?

I like the visual layering. It should only be a filter for certain objects/effects just before rendering. At least that's the most dynamic and easiest way I can imagine currently.

[Stan`]

Nope it's not. It's a drop down menu that allows you to select variation_a b c d e f. Not really useful but maybe for scenarios, and if you want a particular building. and of course for testing purposes.

Edited April 10, 2014 by stanislas69