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Messages - Grizzly

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31
Maps Of The Month / Re: The 2012 Maps Of The Month Thumbnail Puzzle!
« on: December 30, 2012, 01:54:07 pm »
June/July, August/September: Little Samson has a dragon, Wonder Boy III's subtitle is about a dragon. And dragons are, in comparison to armored horses, flying armor.

June/August: Both have giant staircases compared to the rest of the world.

32
Map Gab / Re: The Final Fantasy Legend (GB)
« on: September 25, 2012, 10:14:14 am »
In my Secret Of Evermore maps, I used splitscreens for the parts that changed after returning to early locations with a flying vehicle obtained late in the game (Windwalker). For example on https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/SuperNES/SecretOfEvermore-Prehistoria-WesternSwamp.png. For very small changes, I added them directly into the original maps.

33
VGMaps Social Board / Re: vgmapper, get while it's there
« on: September 22, 2012, 01:00:57 am »
If you just want to paste a list of links, Free Download Manager works fine for me. But for downloading from this specific .csv file and maintaining the folder structure, I used this selfmade piece of Java code instead:

Code: [Select]
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.TreeMap;
import java.util.TreeSet;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class DownloadVGMapperCSV {

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
if (args.length < 2)
{
System.out.println("Run with java DownloadVGMapperCSV <csvpath> <savedirectory>");
return;
}
String filename = args[0];
String savedirectory = args[1];
if (savedirectory.equals("."))
{
savedirectory = System.getProperty("user.dir");

}
savedirectory.replace("\\","/");
char lastchar = savedirectory.charAt(savedirectory.length()-1);
if (lastchar != '/')
{
savedirectory = savedirectory + "/";
}

File load = new File(filename);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(load));
String line = null;
ArrayList<ArrayList<String>> table = new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>();
int part_i = 0;
Pattern patt = Pattern.compile("\".*?\"");
TreeSet<String> imagespages = new TreeSet<String>();
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.length() > 1) {
ArrayList<String> parts = new ArrayList<String>(5);
Matcher match = patt.matcher(line);
while (match.find()) {
String ma = match.group();
parts.add(ma.substring(1, ma.length()-1));
}
if (parts.size() > 1) {
imagespages.add(parts.get(0));
imagespages.add(parts.get(1));
}
}
}
br.close();

String begin = "http://vgmapper.com/";
byte[] bytes = new byte[1000000];
int i = 1;
int size = imagespages.size();

for (String g : imagespages) {
System.out.println("Getting element "+(i++)+" of "+size);
String httpfilename = g.replace(begin,savedirectory);
String[] parts = httpfilename.split("/");
for (int k = 2; k < parts.length; ++k) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int ind = 0; ind < k; ++ind) {
sb.append(parts[ind]);
sb.append('/');
}
File dir = new File(sb.toString());
if (!dir.exists()) {
dir.mkdir();
}
}
File file = new File(httpfilename);
System.out.println("File: "+file.toString());
if (file.exists()) {
//Picture already exists, must not be downloaded again.
continue;
}

URL imageurl = new URL(g);
HttpURLConnection imageconnection = (HttpURLConnection)imageurl.openConnection();
imageconnection.addRequestProperty("REFERER", begin);
try {
InputStream imageis = imageconnection.getInputStream();

FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file);

int len = imageis.read(bytes);
while (len > 0) {
fos.write(bytes, 0, len);
len = imageis.read(bytes);
}
fos.flush();
fos.close();
imageconnection.disconnect();
} catch (java.io.FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
System.out.println("File not found: "+fnfe.getMessage());
}
}
}
}

(Precompiled version, ready to run)

But I am sure there are already professional alternatives that can download from CSV files?  :-X

34
Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: Scene Manipulation and Rendering Tools
« on: August 25, 2012, 07:23:57 am »
This looks certainly useful. Good luck on your progress :)

Will there be multiple fonts available later on? Especially custom variable-width bitmap fonts (so that it fits the current game)?
Also for RPGs I sometimes added a small icon in front of text boxes (for item chests, for example). A grouping option for that would be useful so that image and text can be moved together. But of course if bitmap fonts are supported, it should be no problem to put the icons on unused positions of the ASCII range so that the icons are interpreted as text and moved with the text box. So custom bitmap fonts are the most important thing that I would need because I most likely would use bitmap fonts anyway.
And I miss an invisibility option for the text background. For putting small text right onto the map without hiding too much of that map.

35
If it's possible to get the game to display a parallel projection (display objects in distance at the same size as near to the camera) combined with an isometric angle, the game could be mapped even with the sprites. Similar to what has been done with the Wolfenstein 3D and Doom maps.
But forums with more people with hacking experience will be a better place to ask. If they can help you, please write back here. :)

36
The credits for the game say:
3D Landscaping: Tom Loughry, Cyndi Kirkpatrick, Tomi Quintana, Jerry Pape

So if one could contact, for example, Tom Loughry, it might be possible to find out how (and where) the maps and objects are stored. If he is allowed to talk about that and still knows it after all these years.

Another Accolade game from 1992, Grand Prix Unlimited, uses a tile based editor and from two short tests I made I am confident that the data is also stored with tile references instead of full vector data. The graphics look similar but I don't know if the same engine and data model is used. Could also be totally different. But if Test Drive III uses a tile based option to store the maps, one would need to find out where the single objects like houses, tunnels and mountain parts are stored after getting the map data itself. And then combine all this.

I cannot do any of the needed tasks, I fear. I tried, but I don't understand enough of the materia. If it would be possible to log all file accesses (and the exact number of bytes and offsets read from those files and in which order) via DOSBox, it could be possible to narrow down the exact data that is accessed when loading a new map, but from my few-minute check it looks like the built-in debugger doesn't log these informations.

37
VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« on: May 26, 2012, 04:43:01 am »
Nice to hear that VGMaps still lives after 10 years. Although I first submitted something in 2005, I started with my first map set in 2003 and I am sure I mostly did it because I knew of this lovely place to share them afterwards. So I must have known VGMaps.com since 9 of the 10 years.

It's gotten quiet from my side - but I will keep an eye on VGMaps.com and plan to return with new maps someday. It's just that I first want to make use of my programming skills first to write an easy to use program that helps with manual map making (like automatic pre-snapping of two pasted screenshots and batch processing with autostitching) while still being fully controls compatible to Windows XP Microsoft Paint but also adding layer capabilities and some random tools (like often-used transparencies (GBA,SNES)). It's just difficult to do and my first try from two years ago was very clunky and didn't work promising at all. With the adequate distance to that work I might work on a new attempt with refactored code and all soon. :)
But better don't start waiting on it - it might most likely take another two years with my current work speed. :P

38
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2011/04: Spear Of Destiny (PC) - DarkWolf
« on: November 10, 2011, 03:53:46 am »
Not natively, but it's not possible for new Microsoft OSS either. Instead, you may want to use DOSBox (http://www.dosbox.com/) to play it on Linux and other new Operating Systems.

It's a straightforward process getting a game to run in new DOSBox versions. If you have got Spear Of Destiny in a directory path named <sodpath> (e.g. "/home/username/games/sod"), then just start DOSBox and write
Code: [Select]
mount c <sodpath>
Afterwards, switch to C: and run the game. If it's too slow, try the command cycles=max for maximum CPU cycles.

39
Map Gab / Re: Sword of Mana (GBA)
« on: October 19, 2011, 08:29:13 am »
Yes, I am definitely interested in how you do those maps and what the program does for you.

I also already tried creating a program like the Autostitcher but for slower paced screenshots (i.e. not each from each frame but when pressed a key manually) with visible sprites. The program had to find overlapping portions of each two screenshots and also recognize sprites. But I already had difficulties with finding overlapping portions when using it on Indiana Jones 4: The Action Game, as seen below - although most screenshots fit perfectly to form a map, some are misplaced and at the moment there's no possibility to interact with the map creation process of the program. So I never got around identifiying sprites. I plan to work on it again in the future, though - by first adding an assisted mode where the program tries a map layout automatically and the user chooses which screenshots have to be placed at a different position. But I didn't have time for it lately.

40
Map Requests / Re: Corrider 7 and Catacomb 3D on the PC?
« on: July 14, 2011, 02:00:14 pm »
Do your sources include scripts for decoding the level data out of the GameMaps file? Or do you have a different program for doing so? Because I've read (on the linked site) that Catacomb 3D uses the same maps format as Wolfenstein 3D and getting the level data seems the hardest part because it uses multiple compressions (RLEW and Carmack compression) and I don't feel like writing a decompression script if I am not sure that it will work afterwards (the wiki description is a bit vague about how RLEW (de)compression is done for the GameMaps file).

41
Maps In Progress / Re: James Bond Jr.
« on: June 13, 2011, 10:57:56 am »
The more colorful version of the first level looks much better than the one with the darkened palette. The first, darkened, version reminds me of Back To The Future III on the Sega Genesis which was also way too dark due to a failure during cardridge production (as described by David Haywood at http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/, see attached picture).

42
Maps In Progress / Re: Any LOTR nerds here?
« on: April 28, 2011, 11:49:30 am »
I don't know if the LOTR online game used the same regions as the books (and the SNES game), but here are annotated maps for Lord Of The Rings Online: http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=Maps.List. Maybe they help.

43
Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: Unusual layer toggling
« on: February 09, 2011, 02:16:58 pm »
The problem is that, while on gaming computers like the Commodore 64 and consoles like the Super NES the hardware's video modes supported scrollable background layers and the concept of sprites, and games also used them in almost all cases to hava a major speedup and more available CPU power for the actual game logic, there wasn't such a standard on the IBM compatible PCs. Early PC video adapters (CGA, EGA) just supported special text modes for displaying text on screen and general image modes where an array of color values was submitted to the adapter to display an image on the screen.

Wikipedia says that the proceeding VGA standard supported smooth hardware scrolling, but I have no clues in which ways this might open a possiblity to extract a scrolling layer out of the data that is submitted for display in each drawing cycle. Also maybe that wouldn't mean that multiple layers could be distinguished because each game engine was programmed differently. But I don't know anything about that for sure because I never programmed a VGA game. Might be a question that is best lead to a developer of the DOSBox, for example.

44
The repopulated version of Ebon Keep has been added to the maps section of the site (VGMaps.com).

45
Yes, the Rice and spice cave. I think that's the name. I wanted to mention it because that would be another nice addition to maps with all wild ingredients included.

I don't know anything more about the code, but if it doesn't work correctly for you, I could try to map the repopulated Ebon Keep.

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