DOW Advanced Mission Editor (v0.41 - 08.01.2012)

[Dark40k]

Hi everyone,

I tried to make a tuto for the new assault maps but I came to a dead end. This was mostly because the param file requires too much knowledge of how the assault engine is working.
This is why a friend of mine did start an external editor to be able to create the param file.

Then (following JL suggestion ) I came to the feeling I could maybe try to make a tool that fills the gaps in the ME. To list a few :
- no copy/paste between maps,
- no resizing or mod reassignent,
- no help to create map installer,
- Egroups and Sgroups management is too limited and this is problematic for SCAR coding...

I also wanted to see (mostly cause I find it funny) if I would be able to make a program that helps on these issues.

The code is written in Java using standard JOGL library for maximum portability. It is Open Source (LGPL).

How to install Advanced Mission Editor

1 - upgrade to Java SE 6 upgrade 11 or higher (JRE should be enough)

2 - Download latest AME zipped file from link

3 - Extract zip file and move folder where you want on your computer.

4 - Edit (with Notepad) the file runMapEditor.bat to set your current map directory.

5 - Run by launching runMapEditor.bat

What's DONE

Installer generator:
Create a windows installer for your map in a few clicks. This installer will include custom decals, specific files (icon, minimap, scar,...) and license file if needed.



Note: NSIS from http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page is required to create the installer.

To create installer:
1/ Open map in AME
2/ Select "Generate NSIS Installer" under the "File" menu
3/ Fill the frame. Checked files are installed.
=> a license message can be included in the installer. It must be written in RTF. This file can be generated using the wordpad (not the notepad).
=> decals are automatically selected, you can remove some if need by unchecking boxes
4/ Select "Export NSIS" and provide name and location for nsis file (example map.nsi)
5/ Right click on created nsi file and select "Compile NSIS Script". NSIS then creates the installer.
6/ Test installer, you are done!

Create minimap:
The create minimap function creates a vertical display+resize and captures the minimap in tga format. No more picture distortion correction is needed.


Move + Resize + Rotate Map:
This last picture show the two advanced map editing tools that are functional:
- change map size while keeping all objects, terrain and decals.
- move all content of the map either by one grid step or by one tile step. Should be quiet useful when you find that your beautiful castle is too close to one borders.
- rotate map by 1/4 turn steps (clockwise and counterclockwise).


Copy/Paste Areas :
It is possible to select an Area and Copy/Paste it in the same map or on another map. All objects, including height, ground texture, decals,... can be selected independently and copied.
When pasting, you can select what types of entities are to be pasted and where.


Height Map : Ramp Editor
This tool allows user to easily create flat ramps. A section of the map is selected and several tools are provided to change the area. Sliders are included for direct view of the changes. See post #85 for more details.


HeightMap : height filter
This filter modifies very slightly the heightmap in order to remove blocking patches. Squares that cannot be crossed are overlayed in red when the tool is active.
Hit Apply when you are satisfied with the changes.

1st picture : No filter applied : the monolith won't pass
2nd picture : Filter applied : he monolith can now pass and changes are barely visible.
=>

Edit decals Table
This tool allows user to edit all decals inside the map. The main possibilities are:
- direct position entry with keyboard to get precise positionning
- set scale or angle for mutliple decals at once without changing their position
- multiple tools to help with selection
- replace decals by another one (decal preview included).


Edit Tile Table
This tool allows user to edit all tiles inside the map. Functionnalities are similar to decal tool (including mass replacement and preview).


Edit Entities Table
This tool allows user to edit all entities inside the map.
- selected entities blueprint replacement (for entities not belonging to a squad), a dynamic 3D preview is included to ease searching for available entities.
- direct position entry with keyboard to enter precise position
- set scales and/or angles without creating new entities. WARNING: changes are canceled by vanilla ME and there may be stability issues (also none has been found nor reported so far)


Edit Marker Table
A dialog allows to edit all markers data at the same time (names, position, radius,...)


Advanced SGroup/EGroup management
Here are the functionalities which are available at the moment for both Egroups and Sgroups:
- regroup/add/remove/intersect tools : this makes things much easier to manage the content of the groups (only regroup was available with the standard ME)
- highlight content : when clicking on a Sgroup, all components of the groups are highlighted. It should be much easier to check what's in and what is not. Highlight color can be changed using the color button on the down/left corner of the window.
- alphabetical sorting, renumbering : these tool allow to renumber the groups so that they are alphabetically sorted. It's then much easier to manage large number of groups, especially if you have to revert to standard ME. Trailing numbers are treated separately when sorting: Group10 won't interlace between Group1 and Group2 but place afterward.


Open vanilla maps (maps stored in sga files)
This tool allows user to open maps stored in mods without having to decompress sga files. The tool lists all available maps inside a mod and allows to open them. Direct saving is not allowed to avoid braking mod files but SaveAs is working.


User defined colors for terrain type display :
Below is a picture of the terrain type display. Colors can be changed by user (click on color button) for improved readability. However, terrain type itself cannot be edited right now, only display is available.
Outside terrain shows in a different color (I'll make it editable in the future) to have a good view of the borders.


User defined colors for units (easier to find which player owns what) :
This picture shows that, based on player owner, units can be shown/hidden and displayed as textured (standard view) or colored. Color is editable for players and for world.


Height Map : Pathsize display
This view (PathSize) can be turned on in the "Terrain preferences" from the "View" menu. This is the raw data that sets the maximum unit size for each map square. This data is directly used by the engine to calculate pathing for units.
It is useful to check if a path is large enough to allow the biggest units to cross (size=7) or on the opposite make sure they can't.

In this example there are no green squares the monolith could follow, which means it won't pass!


What's TODO
Following are the functionalities I think could be needed :

Well, I guess I have completed what I wanted to do!

Conclusion

The TODO list is now becoming much smaller but I probably have forgotten / not tought about many things.
So if you think of something that you feel would enhance this software, please tell me.
Also, if you think you may find some use to this program then tell me, this will fuel me to get this program working.

Lastly, I would like to thank Corsix, Mudflap and Riakath, to name a few, for all the codes and informations they have released.

Link to latest version + sources (MediaFire).

Greetings.

[Finaldeath]

If anyone is interested, there is cross-copy-paste of maps - you can copy terrain, decals and even objects by either editing the map's TGA files, or just using CTRL + C, CTRL+V to copy between maps you open and close

But yeah, I like the other advanced things of this. Sounds good I'll sticky a thread you make when it's complete and ready to download.

[Jaguar-Lord]

you can copy terrain, decals and even objects by either editing the map's TGA files, or just using CTRL + C, CTRL+V to copy between maps you open and close

true but it is painfull as hell because the heigth parameters (relative to terrain and/or adjusted heights are not exported) when it comes to object export/import function.
note: the export object is proned to corupt destination maps,we experimented it in a painfull way with Incarnate.

if you think you may find some use to this program then tell me

YOU BET i'm interested !! and i'm not the only one...
a ME dedicated to campaign and scripted map is what is lacking to the modtools for mappers.

Keep the EXCELENT work going on Dark !!

JL

[britzrules]

can't wait!

[Darkbladecr]

this looks like an amazing project great idea!

[Corsix]

Very nice

[potemkis]

Coolness! Looks like making maps is gonna get a little easier!

[britzrules]

did you ever finish your tutorial on the assault scar code for fortress and/or battlefield by the way?

[Jaguar-Lord]

Looks like making maps is gonna get a little easier!

may be, it will surely make mapping and scripted mapping a lot more simple, but not easier imo. Imagine the actual mission editor implemented with new tools and new feature ( like a mix of the Me and Corsix Mod Studio as an extreme example) this make the main tool more complex.






about the new function i'm thinking of the folowing:

the actual way of scripting maps relies on three tools:
-the ME to place mandatory features on the map and assign egroups and sgroups
-a scar code editor (notepad or Scite) allowing code autocompletion and code syntax debugging
-the game (DC or SS) to test map in progress.

a very usefull feature would be a scar coding interface running along the ME in a bidirectional way :
example: "i want to have a squad of ogryn patroling between point A and point B and only reacting to encounters on the patrol way IF they are attacked"

it would be very usefull to be able to :
-place the squad on the map (already possible in the actual ME)
-assign patrol route :
by clicking on several point of the map and making a patrol PATH , not only assign patrol point and let the computer pathfinding logic deal with it.

@Dark40k : a interesting way to deal with this is to use Spath and Epath directly in the scar file not only in the nis (yes SPath works perfectly well in the main scar and are not exclusively for Nis usage)
like :

SPath_StartEx("egroup_name","frame_name_start","frame_name_end","path_name",integer_speed,boolean)

it allows to create complex route and loops in a path not possible with the markerA-->markerB-->markerC usual method.

-assign Stance state (IDLE, ATTACK move, STOP and so on ) and behavior...now its becoming a lot more complex because it means having ready to use behavior style and this is bording AI coding imo.

bidirectional because

so i need a scar menu into the ME displaying the above parameters. this is an extension of the the SGroup/egroup actual manager, and you could have the same windows as actual website cretion sofware like MacromediaFlash, a code window (the scar window) and a rendering window (the Me)
any modification in the code window is directly apllied in the ME.


select squad,
clik "assign task"
choose "create patrol"
create patrol name "ogryn_guards"
"create a new patrol" (or "choose an existing patrol path")
the patrol tool allows me to clik on several point of the map
and draw a patrol route.
hit the "end patrol path" button
select "behavior" menu
choose "armed response" and select "if attacked" as an option then "by player1" as an additonal parameter.(but it can propose to choose between other sgroups as well or "any blueprint type"...

all the above implies a HUGE work of translating SCAR functions into plain and clear english wich can be quite difficult (this is called ergonomy and i think it is a work in itsef in sofware interface design)

the same could be applied to attack waves, guards, or event more precise (trigger fx, trigger victory or environmental conditions, artillery calls on specific areas, air survey for a specific type of fying units, detection of daemon invocation and so on....)

did you ever finish your tutorial on the assault scar code for fortress and/or battlefield by the way?

i think there is a thread for this...

[Dark40k]

Thanks to all for the feedback.

@britzrules: I started a few things for the assault tuto but the code is far too linked with the engine structure. It allways falls back to the engine object structure. I did not see how I could make a tuto without explaining the engine and then explaining how to use objects in lua. I don't think I have the skill to write such a tuto and also very few would find interest in it.

My feeling is that an advanced ME would be a much better way to deal with lots of controlled units. (And also more fun to do. )

Thanks for the suggestion JL. This is the kind of bot that would be neeeded.
I think I will need to find a way to allow "plugins" in the ME so as to allow anyone to extend the ME with custom bots.

[potemkis]

like a mix of the Me and Corsix Mod Studio as an extreme example

Ahh I see. If it makes scripting easier- I'm totally game for it. I'm one of the most sucky scripters to ever exist! I can model, I can animate, sometimes texture, write a storyline, but when it comes to scripting- forget it! lol

[Dark40k]

As you can see units are now showing up.

However, I am stuck with a little problem of displaying units (and buildings) in the default configuration and would gladly welcome any help. See this question.



Everything is extracted from sga, whm and rgd files. This should ensure mod compatibility. As a side note, it should mean that using the soft to map for Soulstorm should not be a problem in the end. However I have not tried at the moment.

[Jaguar-Lord]

See this question.

link is not working Dark.

[thudmeizer]

Actually its THIS THREAD -- something copy/pasting links on rn forums truncates em.

[Dark40k]

Yeah, so it seems thud : although working better I have some problems with your link in Firefox (frames not showing properly for some reason). So here is a new try: Question LINK
Hopefully, we should get through this linking problem someday!

I guess modders that know how to create units from 3DSMax and put them ingame should find the question quiet easy.

[Dark40k]

This is not working a 100% but I managed to improve how the units are showing. Thanks to Danimator's help. Still, I won't be able to avoid the user to edit the unit look by hand. It is not worth the effort to access all the vis data and related conditions to get the right animation.

I have also added coloring based on player owner. It's much easier to check who's owning what.
I can also open several maps at the same time in the same environment. Looks like my small video car (128MB) holds the line even with two big maps and a small one.

[Finaldeath]

Neat stuff!

Leave in the option, if you ever get to doing more advanced unit rendering, of showing only team-coloured units/buildings (make one special one for "World" too ). That is actually quite useful, although if you add SCAR stuff to a map, usually for performance and ease of debugging you place markers instead.

[Dark40k]

Yes, I have the same feeling. My goal is to provide a display filter to be able to set how units are rendered (default texture, color based on owner, on egroup,...).
I also think that providing some way to set up script controlled units using models instead of markers could be part of what this ME could provide.

Anyway, it is still a bit buggy but textured units are coming!


If some would like to give a glance, I may make a first alpha release when major bugs will be corrected (no problems with loading all the maps that I have).

[thudmeizer]

Wow Dark40k.. Bloody exciting this. I can only imagine that Jaguar-Lord is one of your biggest fans for this amazing tool. Anyone doing DoW1 campaign/map work will be flying so high here.

[Jaguar-Lord]

you bet i'm !!!
What Dark40k is trying to create is the best mapper tool ever made for DC. Once it will be completed,this tool + our new campaign linear manager for DC, there won't be any excuse to the creation of a lot of campaign for DC and SS.
Given the growing number of newcommers in the SCAR area we may survive the dowII revolution by bringging to the players an access to a whole new entertaining area.

[King_Malekith]

oh snap!
yes please This looks so amazing.
I just poked my head into mapping again (BfG team needs another adrenaline shot xD) and i see this amazing tool and news of some major advancements in campaigns/scripted skirmishes. this is like heavan! Soo many new toys. And i must say minimap creation would be immense, personally anyway.
My hat is off for you Dark40k and if you want someone to test it im more than willing to help out. See how an intel GMA950 chipset handles it

Mal

[Dark40k]

I am currently fighting with some textures transparencies but I start to see the end of the tunnel. I think minimap will be the first provided tool as it should be one of the easiest to make.

As far as I understood, there should be no problem with not too old hardware (OpenGL 1.4 compatibility is probably required). We'll see this.

[Jaguar-Lord]

plus the fact that the ME already produce the minimap and the icon each time you save your map, the images are saved along the map.sgb in the Data/scenarios/mp folder.

Great work Dark, why are you dealing with transparency btw ? decals and detail texture or model textures ?
in case you are thinking about it, a decal viewer and detail texture viewer may be a fine tool but the usage is not that mandatory, most of the time it is better to put the decal on the ground and see if it looks good or not. a viewer would be a optional tool.

about detail texture : it could be usefull to have a "bucket fill too" alowing the detail texture to be aplied on the whole map area with a simple mouse clik, so an optional "fill whole map with detail texture" seems a good idea. may be by designing a detail texture brush that automaticaly have the same size of the map.

The more i think about it the more i think it is really needed;
the Resize Map tool is much than needed, more than that it could be a major advancement in mapping if ever we could get rid of the ancient bug about map dimension, this will allow us to create new map type.
Speaking aboutmap size : the playable area size,
i have no idea of the engine limitation and inner working about it but do you think it could be possible to expand the playable area beyond the current size in order to get more space to play in on maps, particulary on 1024x1024 maps?

[wereturnip]

Absolutly Epic!!, between this and the linear campaign manager, I'm not fearing our campaign anymore.
It is a noble thing you do here.

[Dark40k]

Thanks for the comment.

I have never used the minimap from the ME as it looked only like a resizing of the ground base texture. My point is to include world objects and map decals in the picture to get a better visual.

This is were transparency comes in : most textures need transparency information to display properly.
The problem lied with one of the DDS format (DXT1) where transparency is implicit (black color). This was a bit problematic with OpenGL (DirectX provides a workaround).
The visual result was that trees looked like big black umbrellas. Real ugly. However, it is now solved.

About resizing, I think we could give a to sizes which are not theoretically allowed. There is a very small chance that sizes higher than 1024x1024 may work in the engine.
However,If I remember it right, the 1/2 ratio between global map size and playable area is hardcoded in the format so it probably won't be changeable.

Lastly, I would be surprised that the map dimension bug was related to ME but if so then it should correct it.

Bucket fill should be easy to include.
Direct texture (or decal) drawing is an interesting extension but I don't know how hard it would be to code.

[King_Malekith]

how about setting it so that the when the player is asked what size map they want to create/resize to it's asking about playable area and then have the program calculate the total size of the map. it might also be useful to have some sort of representation of where the playable area ends, if that's possible, like a new permanent overlay or grid, both of those aren't essential just more convenient and probably rather helpful to newbies who pick it up.
Also I like the idea you're having with the minimaps

Mal

[Dark40k]

@King_Malekith : I think I could give a try to some sort of a function that increases the map size. There's a chance it may be easier to code rather than creating a new map (I have only to modify sections I know).
I agree with the permanent overlay to display playing areas. I will try to add this feature.

Good news! It seems I am through with the following:
- show/hide units sub-parts to allow user to control how units are displayed.(see 1st picture below)
- set if units should be displayed or hidden, textured or not, based on the player owner.
- added water display (only static of course).
- Create minimap with very low distortion (see 2nd picture below).


Concerning the minimap I could eliminate completely the distortion (remove perspective effect) but I am not sure it is worth the effort as distortion is already very low.

I will try to post an alpha version in the coming days. If only for the minimap, I guess some could already find the tool useful.

Side question: When making maps, I have always used the same ratio between the size of the minimap and the size of the map (256x256 pixel for a 512x512 map). Was it realy necessary or any ratio would work?

[Dark40k]

This is the download link for the early alpha version.
http://www.savefile.com/files/2141597

To install : unzip the files in an empty directory then launch by double-clicking the jar file. That's all!

This version is only able to create a minimap at the moment. I hope to add more features.

A few hints for creating minimaps:
- you can hide entities which are not belonging to world using the Display/Edit Display Params menu. Just hide all players (but not world).
- minimaps are created so that the biggest dimension is 512 pixels.
- colors may look a bit different (clearer most of the time).
- program seems to be slower than in the dev environment. I will give a look to this.

[King_Malekith]

downloaded and can't wait to put this to good use.
just waiting on somebody to sort out my skybox problem and to get the mod files from our coder then I'll upload some nice piccies of some BfG maps
Everything is looking very sweet Dark40k, thanks man!

Mal

[Dark40k]

Any feedback from those that downloaded the file?
Did you have it working?

Also, I was wondering what would be the next most needed function:
- automatic installer : generate an exe to install map with all that is needed (decals especially), this would be done through generating an NSIS script similar to the one in the assault maps.
- advanced terrain editing (map resizing, copy/paste, scaling,...)
- robot parameters (automated SCAR generation)

Greetings to all.

[Kresjah]

Just a quick reply, haven't tried it as I'm not much of a mapper (although I'm guessing people on some of the teams I'm on are gonna have good use of this), but I'd say it's more important that the actual application gets more features than the installer. If people can't do a simple unzip operation, then I'm guessing actually using an "advanced mission editor" will be, for many, a far-fetched achievement.

[Kontuz]

If people can't do a simple unzip operation, then I'm guessing actually using an "advanced mission editor" will be, for many, a far-fetched achievement.

Actually, I think the user of the editor would want this automatic installer so when he packs up his map, it will automatically have all decals, etc, that are called out in that map.

Or have I misunderstood?

[Kresjah]

Actually, I'm the one who misunderstood. I obviously read your post quicker than I should have... apologies. I thought you meant creating an installer for the application itself.

That said, a map installer isn't a bad idea by any means then. More useful than the app installer (). Although, there should be some "failsafe" then to make sure you don't overwrite a decal which is different but has the same name (something that shouldn't happen, but alas probably will at some point unless people devise a common naming convention). Maybe just having a "do you want to overwrite this file" dialog box would suffice. Possibly even with a preview of the decal so people can compare and confirm/deny overwrite, and a backup function. These are of course just suggestions.

Problem with this suggestion is that you'd probably need to write a few plugins to allow some of this to be done (e.g. decal comparison, support for those image formats maybe).

This all said and done, I think the most important thing would still be advanced terrain editing or SCAR automatisation. Having both aspects filled would of course be great, but if I had to prioritize I'd personally feel that an advanced map editor should be more about allowing advanced features to the mapper than easy-of-use features to the player (hence SCAR auto and adv. terr. edit).

[Dark40k]

I had not thought to include such "failsafe". But I agree they would be a necessity. Thanks for the comment Kresjah.

I think I should not spend time to make an improved installer but rather focus on editing the map.
However, if someone has a template to send me that would do it then I will create the installer as I have all the other informations (decal listings mainly).

[Jaguar-Lord]

it will automatically have all decals, etc, that are called out in that map.

However, if someone has a template to send me that would do it then I will create the installer as I have all the other informations (decal listings mainly).

Dark what about reusing or add the folowing map packager i released a few monthes ago http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=216545 as a plug-in in the advanced map editor?

something that shouldn't happen, but alas probably will at some point unless people devise a common naming convention

this as never happened (and god knows i got a loooot of maps instaled on my comp) yet so i don't think it is usefull or even worth the work load.

@Dark40k : about feebback concerning the first version you released, i tested it on several vanilla maps and have to say that the results are quite good, especially on small sized map.
However when it comes to custom maps and more specifically those developed for mods other than dxp2 i encountered several problems:
decals are "flickering" and some of them are not even displayed (this may be because i got a really crappy video card) texture stamping and sometimes details texture is showing through the decals ).
i wasn't able to open severall 1024x1024 maps -- the files takes ages too open, then the window stay white for a long time (several minutes) then freeze. my comp configuration may be the cause again.

I'm convinced that this sofware is a major improvement of the previous (official ME) and i do hope that we will manage to get it working fully. Keep up this excelent project going Dark we really need it.

JL

[Dark40k]

Thanks for the support JL.

I feel the map packager is probably a better tool to create installers as it already lists the required files. If you do not require overwriting confirmations then I can provide the NSIS templates I used for the Assault maps. They are quite generic and it should be easy to update them based on infos grabbed by the tool.

Graphic problems may come from the drivers/video cards but I would not bet (blame first the programmer and next the hardware ).

I had not tested with mods. I have just made a test with the beta of Crimson Spire you sent me and got a crash. I will dig in.

[Dark40k]

Ok, I have found where the problem lies : the .module file does not have the same name as the mod directory for DH. I had not seen that was possible.

Funny thing is that the Relic Mission Editor seems to face nearly the same problem. I have the combiner mod installed and it is the inquisition_daemonhunt_comb.module that gets loaded instead of the inquisition_daemonhunt_DC.module when I load the map with it.
Looks like the Relic Mission Editor scans of every .module file and takes the first whose directory is matching the map (not checking if module is playable or not).

Ever noticed this? Did anyone notice that doing the Relic way might be a problem?

[Chaos Godstone]

I must admit that in my forays into mapping I had 'noticed', but not Noted this fact.
That it does this is explanation as to why I occasionally had to re-direct the ME from DOW to DOW-DC / DOW-SS as I have been 'fiddling' with the maps between the versions!
Appart from the afore mentioned problem, which, no doubt we are used to complaining at there's no complaint here.

Having Winter Assault thinking that it is Soulstorm is a unique twist, especially as the Vannilla Dawn of War mission is the one i've been playing. I would like to have the four campaigns playable through SS from the campaign select screen , BUT ... it's probably another thread

[Varellian]

Impossible, AFAIK, sorry. Involves fiddling with swf files, which we can't touch, due to legal reasons, apparently. You could do try asking Kontuz about camp_ext, and doing it in a linear fashion - the campaigns could be done in a branching fashion - although it's a lot of work to bring in the 25 or so maps from the first two games, and the 30 or so from the next ones, and code them into the camp_ext - that's like 50+ missions.

[Finaldeath]

Dark40k, I knew there was issues with maps being "made" under certain mods (thus always starting them in the basic mod is usually a better idea), but I didn't realise it was like that. Very odd

[Dark40k]

I have added a function to check which module file can be used.
It takes into account the playable parameter. If it is not sufficient then the program asks the user to select from the potential module list.
On the practical side, it means the map should be loaded without question in most cases.

So here is the download link to version 0.2:
http://www.savefile.com/files/2153652

JL, there should not be anymore problems with loading maps in the inquisition mods (at least I don't).

I also have added a .bat file for launching the application and display a console, hopefully it should improve speed a little bit and show errors.

I have made a lot of background changes to be able to display ground types and such things in the end. However, at this time, the Overlay display (ground type, passability,...) are not included.

[asdarta]

It seems that the site(Savefile) is now updating and won't be up again till next month, sept 1st, is there another link where I could download the released 2.0 version?

[Dark40k]

After a lot of work, here is a new version of the Editor. It provides map resizing and map moving functionalities. Overlays have also been added.
Moving means that you can make the whole map slip in one direction or the other. All elements are moved (decals, entities, height map,...) It should be very useful combined with resizing.

Below is a new link to the current dev version (MediaFire).
DOWNLOAD-V0-14


Installation instructions:
==================
Prerequisites: JRE1.6 (latest) is probably required.
1 - Extract and copy folder somewhere on your computer. Launch runMapEditor.bat
2 - Edit (with Notepad) the file runMapEditor.bat to set your current map directory
3 - Run by launching runMapEditor.bat

Known Bugs:
=========
- after resizing or moving map, it is REQUIRED to reopen and save map using the Relic Mission Editor to update a few things in the files.
- 2048x2048 maps seems to crash my computer, maybe because of unsufficient video memory (256MB).
- 512x2048 maps are buggy when playing, creating buildings is not allowed on the borders (small ones) of the map.
- markers are not moving

NOTE :
if someone understands (in details) the logic in PathSectorMap. I would really welcome it. It is because I don't know how I can rebuild the Pathing table that the Relic ME is needed after editing terrain.


Sources for Eclipse can be downloaded from here. I use Eclipse v3.4.2 with VisualEditor v1.4.
Files are version tracked using CVS but I don't know if it shows up in the folder.

Although it does not seem to crash often, functions have not been tested a lot. Thanks for sending me back your comments.

[rev_draconis]

just downloaded this and can't wit to try it out, especially as I'm just getting into modding this couldn't have come at a better time. Thank you Dark

[asdarta]

as rev draconis said, after patiently waiting for an ME that works..
this comes along. thanks alot dark40k.

[Jaguar-Lord]

downloaded....

afeter a few growls and groans i was able to run the AME on my brand new comp.

things are taking shape down here ! good work Dark, the more i see this tool the more i like it, i'm eager to see it with the functions displayed in the previous screenies ( object placement and a few more tools) implemented.

what is really usefull :

1)the resize and move tool is an amazing tool that may allow us to combine maps one day (a copy map/paste map would be veryyyy usefull....)
i tried to resize into various format and i di'nt suffer from any problem (though i din't tried to play on the resized map).
it looks like the old size limitation when dealing with narrow maps is still there.

the move tools works like a charm and the cell/tile incrementation is a good idea.

these two function makes the AME a valuable tool for any mappers around here already.

a got a few question :

1)zoom in/out is on the mouse roll, ok !

[rightMouseclick+move the mouse] allow you to pan the camera...

...call me stupid but could you tell me how do i move the map screen, i mean "left"right" "up/down" seems not to work...and to move the map is...usefull...to say the least !

impass tool and impass display :
as i understand it the impass tool is still under work, that would explain the fact that the generated impassable terrain and the generated passable terrain are not different in the AME. is it related or is it a bug ?

some map are not displayed corectly :
entities are not displayed neither decals and ground texture,
2p_abandoned_faith.sgb
2p_altar_of_blood.sgb
2p_Minos Bridge.sgb
2p_Necrontyr Rising.sgb
2p_temple_of_Blood.sgb......
among others...
the above maps were made for DoW vanilla and WA this may give you an hint about the error cause.


here's a screnshot of the error returned by the debug window
beware image is quite big.


hope this help.
i think an error log funtion that would generate a error_log.txt would be usefull during the application dev phase, it would allow us to return you errors in a more usefull way.

i'm here in case you need me to explore the thing more deeply and i'll post later if i find more bugs for the moment.

Keep this project running forward Dark it has some brilliant features already, do not give up !!

JL

[Dark40k]

Thanks for the feedback and for the support.

Movement is not the same as in the ME:
- Right Button + mouve mouse => Rotate
- Center Button + mouve mouse => Pan
- wheel : zoom

This is copied from CAD softwares, I will revert to ME standard or allow both in the future (I personally never liked using ALT key for Rotate which I tend to use a lot).

Entities not showing is a known problem but it should not raise errors. I also thought that was fine with decals and textures. Thanks for the info, I will check and make correction.

Adding a log file is not that easy but I agree I will have to add it at some point.

Lastly, "Cover", "Impass" and "Footfall" overlays are only extracted at this time from the file but I intend to provide editing capability in the future. The difference for Impass is that it does not include datas generated by the computer as what is showed in the ME but for the rest it is the same.

I have added the three other overlays because they come from hidden data that appears to be generated when the ME saves. It is to help me undestand better what they contain.
This data is used for pathing ingame. The first two should be easy to regenerate. My problem is with the third one "Path Sector Map" which also includes a tree like structure (not showing). I made a few searches and I got a basic understanding of it but this subject is very complex.
So if anyone recognizes this pattern and give me a hint as to how it is organized that would be of very great help.

[Dark40k]

The maps which are not loading are probably quiet old and where for DOW or WA. I will try to add compatibility for these old formats.
For the time being the easy workaround is to save a copy using the Mission Editor to upgrade the file to DC. The copy seems to be working as expected for what I have tried.

[Jaguar-Lord]

thats was what i though at the moment, to add old maps (DoW and Wa) compatibility is interesting as it would let mappers open them in the AME and look/edit them to their own taste or to learn from them, but doing so will break online compatibily if they are to be modified and saved via the relic ME, but this is not really an issue because custom maps are seldom seen online anyway. Users should be aware of this imo.

Movement is not the same as in the ME:

i think it should be a good thing to keep the ME eronomy because mappers are used to use it. it depends on you and the workload needed to keep it the same.

So if anyone recognizes this pattern

sorry but i'm quite useless about this, and i think you are one of the rare to work on this aspect of modding, corect me if i'm wrong.

JL

[asdarta]

Got a problm..

I got an error, it seems I can't get the AME to work..

Here's the log

C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War - Dark Crusade\My_Mod
F:\Installers\AdvMapEditor>set MAPDIR="C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War - Dark Crusade\My_Mod\Data\scenarios\mp"

F:\Installers\AdvMapEditor>java -Xmx512m -jar MapEditor.jar "C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War - Dark Crusade\My_Mod\Data\scenarios
\mp"
======================================================
== ==
== MAPEDITOR - CONSOLE LOG ==
== ==
======================================================
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.io.IOException: Could not get shell folder ID list
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolderManager2$ComInvoker.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2.getFileSystemPath(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2.composePathForCsidl(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2.<init>(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolderManager2.get(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.ShellFolder.get(Unknown Source)
at sun.swing.WindowsPlacesBar.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsFileChooserUI.updateUseShellFolder(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsFileChooserUI.installComponents(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicFileChooserUI.installUI(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsFileChooserUI.installUI(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.setUI(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JFileChooser.updateUI(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JFileChooser.setup(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JFileChooser.<init>(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JFileChooser.<init>(Unknown Source)
at fr.dow.mapeditor.MapEditor.selectMapFile(MapEditor.java:105)
at fr.dow.mapeditor.MapEditor.openNewMapFrame(MapEditor.java:51)
at fr.dow.mapeditor.MapEditorMenu.actionPerformed(MapEditorMenu.java:119)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.doClick(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI$Handler.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Could not get shell folder ID list
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2.getFileSystemPath0(Native Method)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2.access$900(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2$8.call(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder2$8.call(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolderManager2$ComInvoker$3.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)