De Savage Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Now when Combat Mission: Afghanistan in announcent it's a perfect time to tell about my idea for custom map maker. Please, please add OVERLAYER to map maker. What I mean: add feature that you're able to load JPEG-picture as a "background/ground" in custom map maker. This picture/overlayer map is only shown here in background and you can draw your custom maps on top of it. This way it's much more easier to import real life maps to CM. Think about it! Take screenshot example from Google Earth, make same size custom map in CM, import map-screenshot as overlayer and draw your custom map easily on top of the original map. What do you think? Could it be implemented? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Field Marshal Blücher Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Not sure if that could be implemented, but if it could, it'd save my Alt and Tab keys from wearing out! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Not sure if that could be implemented ... Do you imply that Charles is unable to scale and show a 2D bitmap? Seriously, I have no idea why this feature is not in already, but there is always hope ... Best regards, Thomm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 What do you think? Could it be implemented? It's been suggested for a long time, but like many editor improvements, the major problem is time. Of course anything can be implemented, but likewise everything, even simple things, takes time to code and test. From Charles' point of view elements of the program such as the editor or the quick battle generator are huge and complex minigames, and working on them takes time which would be more effectively spent working on the main game. Editor features don't sell games (or garner appraisal in reviews) as much as the game features themselves. And I'm betting that currently the marching order is: 1) improvements to main game, 2) improvements to quick battles, 3) inventing a 26 hour day and 4) improvements to editor. Personally my main wish would be that more brilliant coders such as Leland (who made the Mapping Mission) or Pyewacket (creator of Map Converter) would attempt to write 3rd party tools to assist in scenario editing. Maybe there should be a contest with prizes? I can donate a rubber duck for the cause... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Except that tools make no sense without an interface. Heck, I guess it would suffice if the files were not compressed/encrypted. With a hex editor, the file structure could perhaps be re-constructed. I know, because I did it with another game, extracting terrain data and building locations with minimal support by the developers. Was a good exercise in handling binary files with C++ ... Best regards, Thomm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Except that tools make no sense without an interface. That makes no sense. Have you tried Mapping Mission? Of course there's an interface. It's a full fletched map editor for CMx1 that can export its maps to CMBO, CMBB and CMAK. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Have you tried Mapping Mission? No. I never got deep enough into CMx1 to go there. But I understand what you mean now. Best regards, Thomm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Now I get what you meant - program interface, not user interface. Doh! Anyway, these clever programmers got around this by different means. Leland's solution was to simulate mouse clicks. This worked, but was slow on certain video drivers. Pyewackets program wrote the data straight into the editors memory, which was quick as hell. Both required the games map editor to be running in the background. So program interface is not required - but I don't know how different it would be with CMx2... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Pyewackets program wrote the data straight into the editors memory ... Now that is pretty bold! :cool: Best regards, Thomm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoex Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Well both of those workarounds can really be classified as program interfaces of a sort...the first is an extremely quaint simulation of a user actually using the program, the second a bloody brutal hack, but nonetheless - both of them obviously interfaced with the scenario editor! I have a friend who once won second prize in a competition and a free shopping trip to a certain Swedish furniture store by writing a little program that would repeatedly open their web site, navigate to the competition page and vote for his own entry . He also simulated mouse clicks, and it was slow, but it was enough to make second place behind some guy who had obviously written a better cheat machine - they were both several 10,000 votes above the rest of the (um...honest) competition . 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkEzra Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Hey DeSavage: I DL'd your CMSF map from the repository. I liked to use it (with some modification) as a QB Map with credit to you. It would be released as part of NATO/basic patch. OK with you? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Savage Posted February 14, 2010 Author Share Posted February 14, 2010 Hey DeSavage: I DL'd your CMSF map from the repository. I liked to use it (with some modification) as a QB Map with credit to you. It would be released as part of NATO/basic patch. OK with you? Sure yes! Please feel free to use any of my maps. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkEzra Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Sure yes! Please feel free to use any of my maps. They will be renamed something like this: QB A-V DeS_001 Thank you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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