Command and Create: Map Creation Kit

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Download V0.023!

What is this?: The Map Creation Kit is a custom map tool kit intended for Red Alert 2/Yuri's Revenge. It automates many things, fixes some issues, and makes mapping a breeze. Hopefully increasing the productivity of mappers all around. Currently it features 4 additional tools for mapping workflow and a hacked FinalAlert.

Bugs, and such: This was NOT an intended public version. Things are broken. I will not help with troubleshooting or problems that users encounter. This is being released as is. I believe I wrote up a manual in a subfolder of the editor folder root called Help or something. Consult that.

Save your work often if you use these tools.

Tiberian Sun Counterpart: Attention! I am also releasing a Tiberian Sun counterpart I was working on. It's basically a watered down version with some differences. It also has a new program I was working on that analyzed except files.

Download TS Map Editor V0.001!

Feature List:

User Interface Update: The graphical part of the user interface plus the layout has been updated. This includes the button images, the window style (updated from that win95 look), the main executable icon, some useless menu items dropped (like beginner mode, etc.), and positioning of various things.
Strings updated: The internal strings have been updated to suit this editor.
Reg file look-up removed: Before, the executable would check the reg files to see what the install directory was for RA2. This proved to be bothersome, especially with a standalone mod. Regardless if you changed the directory in FinalAlert, it would check the reg files. Now this has been removed and instead uses the manual settings defined in FinalAlert.ini.
Map size restrictions maxed within crash limit: The creatable map sizes are now capable of being smaller/bigger now. The limit is between 5 and 208. Hardly that much of increase, but anything past 209 crashed the program. If 209 was selected it caused mini-map issues and the program crashed upon exit. If anything went below 5 then the start locations couldn't appear correctly and would crash if you tried to move/edit them.
New Dialog: Map Tools added (Found under Options -> Additional Tools)
- Map Renderer Integrated: Once a map is saved out a final image can be rendered for megamap previews or minimaps (By Frank Razenberg)
- Trigger Tracker V0.005: Capable of finding trigger related problems in map files. Can open .MPR, .MAP, .YRM. Also capable of re-organizing the map file and 'cleaning' it, making it much neater in a text editor.
- Lighting Diagnostics: This tool is capable of taking your newly made Yuri or Tiberian Sun (Yes, Lighting Diagnostics has the capabilities of loading TS maps.) maps and generating them into a lighting environment. Once loaded you can tweak the lights in real-time to see if you can get the desired lighting you are looking for. The GUI will be built to include a display so you can write down the values and insert them in the map editor. This tool does not take into account Levels yet. The only thing this engine loads is a map with terrain on it. No objects or light posts yet, sorry!
- Lighting Quick Edit: Tired of typing in values for your lighting? Got a color in mind that you think would fit your new map? That's where Lighting Quick Edit comes in. Instead of firing up Lighting Diagnostics you can choose to use this tool. Like L.D., you can use sliders to adjust the values of the lighting. However, this also has a color picker built into it which affects Red, Green, Blue, and Ambient (via the brightness of the color in the picker). Additionally this is capable of saving your edited values to the map, which Lighting Diagnostics can't currently do. It also has the capability of editing the storm and dominator light values. (Instead you must type the values displayed in LD into the lighting options in the map editor) The only downside to this tool is the inability to view in real time.
Pop-up box removal:
- Reg pop-up: Appeared after I fixed the reg lookup, this message box is now gone.
- Tips pop-up: Tips is disabled and there is no option to re-enable it unless done so by the ini file.

Planned:

New user guide under help
Paved Road Painter
More to come...

Wishful Thinking

Debug mode: Enters the game in a split second taking you instantly to the edited map to see how things are ingame without the hassle of firing up YR.
Cliff/Shore randomizer: Randomly swaps already painted cliffs/shores.
Passable mode: Paints passable/impassable areas on the map in red.
Improved UI, different style
Random map generator
More to come...

Stay tuned for more info.....

Credits: pd (the initial engine for lighting diagnostics, some coding help), Hyper (some coding help), DCoder (some coding help support)

By Joshy

Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

I'll be waiting.

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Deformat · Defense Minister **Joined**: 17 Sep 2007

One issue which was annoying was that it was scanning custom terrain files ONLY if you were putting all the files in their respective mixes.It would be nice if it could also scan in the folder too.

Also,nice work.

CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

Why the feck is this under Inertia? Confusing shit...

Anyways, really make sure the credit to pd is plastered over this for the engine, because its quite a advanced engine and deserves rights.

BTW, C&C typeface is in Futura family Wink

Blade · Cyborg Commando **Joined**: 23 Dec 2003

This sounds great, when you say "hacked" FA2, does that include some fixes to things that need fixing/expanding such as the YR script action support do it doesn't remove them when you load a map with them in it?

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Thanks for the comments.

Quote:

One issue which was annoying was that it was scanning custom terrain files ONLY if you were putting all the files in their respective mixes.It would be nice if it could also scan in the folder too.

I could look into it, but no promises.

Quote:

Why the feck is this under Inertia? Confusing shit...

Not really.

Quote:

Anyways, really make sure the credit to pd is plastered over this for the engine, because its quite a advanced engine and deserves rights.

Of course dude. It's not like I'd just make a credit list and make his name this small at the end: and thanks pd for stuff. #Tongue

Quote:

BTW, C&C typeface is in Futura family

Ah well, doesn't really matter. I wasn't going for that spot on look really. #Tongue

Quote:

This sounds great, when you say "hacked" FA2, does that include some fixes to things that need fixing/expanding such as the YR script action support do it doesn't remove them when you load a map with them in it?

Thanks. It depends, really. I'm only capable of so much; however, my knowledge of FA2 is slim when it comes to bugs, etc. So, if you guys want I can make a request topic for new tools/features and bug fixes. (Don't expect miracles though. #Tongue

)

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CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

Deformat wrote:

One issue which was annoying was that it was scanning custom terrain files ONLY if you were putting all the files in their respective mixes.It would be nice if it could also scan in the folder too.

FS and FA use pretty much XCC file system for everything that is a C&C file type, and a old version at that. Did try messing with this in FS, the result cuased the file system to break.

Deformat · Defense Minister **Joined**: 17 Sep 2007

CCHyper wrote:

Deformat wrote:

One issue which was annoying was that it was scanning custom terrain files ONLY if you were putting all the files in their respective mixes.It would be nice if it could also scan in the folder too.

FS and FA use pretty much XCC file system for everything that is a C&C file type, and a old version at that. Did try messing with this in FS, the result cuased the file system to break.

Fvck it.

Nyerguds · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:31 am Post subject:

So.... I guess this is for TS and RA2/YR then?

Might be handy to specifically put that somewhere at the beginning of the text. RA1 also uses the .mpr extension.

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CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

This is for Yuri's Revenge, i started hacking FinalSun but then i worked out what a pile of shit it is.

SMIFFGIG · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:33 pm Post subject:

Joshy wrote:

[*]Lighting Diagnostics: This tool is capable of taking your newly made Yuri or Tiberian Sun maps and generating them into a lighting environment.

CCHyper wrote:

This is for Yuri's Revenge, i started hacking FinalSun but then i worked out what a pile of shit it is.

Ok im confused... so its just the Lighting Diagnostics that is for both RA2/YR and TS but the rest is just for YR right ??

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Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Quote:

so its just the Lighting Diagnostics that is for both RA2/YR and TS but the rest is just for YR right ??

Yes, Lighting Diagnostics has the capabilities of loading Tiberian Sun or Yuri's revenge maps. The rest are for RA2/YR.

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CCHyper · Defense Minister **Joined**: 07 Apr 2005

I was talking in regards to what Joshy did to FinalAlert and didn't touch FinalSun. The engine p is versatile and works for TS and RA2.

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Quick update..

I made a comparison image of the lighting tools so you guys can get a feel of how well they work. I loaded my map into Lighting Quick Edit, adjusted the values and saved it. After which I did a render with the Map Renderer and the loaded the map file in Lighting Diagnostics. Take a look... (I am only linking to it because it is a huge image)

Something to note: The actual brightness in the color picker and the brightness in the rendered shots is different. Why? Simply because I haven't linked the ambient control in Lighting Quick Edit to the brightness value in the color picker. So, the ambient was only adjusted via the slider.

Comparison Shot (1.49MB)

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SMIFFGIG · Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:24 pm Post subject:

Joshy wrote:

Quick update..

I made a comparison image of the lighting tools so you guys can get a feel of how well they work. I loaded my map into Lighting Quick Edit, adjusted the values and saved it. After which I did a render with the Map Renderer and the loaded the map file in Lighting Diagnostics. Take a look... (I am only linking to it because it is a huge image)

Something to note: The actual brightness in the color picker and the brightness in the rendered shots is different. Why? Simply because I haven't linked the ambient control in Lighting Quick Edit to the brightness value in the color picker. So, the ambient was only adjusted via the slider.

Comparison Shot (1.49MB)

Does it show how light post lighting will look too ? #Tongue

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Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Quote:

The only thing this engine loads is a map with terrain on it. No objects or light posts yet, sorry

Currently the only tool capable of that is the Map Renderer.

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Nikademis Von Hisson

Hate to bump this old topic, but is there any status?

_________________
I am authorized to send out the TMP Studio, PM ME IF YOU WANT IT And check this out, these were sent to me for help with terrain and zdata help along with TMP Studio/Builder

http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27714

Deformat · Defense Minister **Joined**: 17 Sep 2007

Nikademis Von Hisson wrote:

Hate to bump this old topic, but is there any status?

Probably with girlfriend.

On a serious note, its done when its done.

Nikademis Von Hisson · Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:00 pm Post subject: kit

that's cool, i stumbled across this post by accident. was just curious

_________________
I am authorized to send out the TMP Studio, PM ME IF YOU WANT IT And check this out, these were sent to me for help with terrain and zdata help along with TMP Studio/Builder

http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27714

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Well, it's hard to say what's happening, but a lot is going on behind the scenes... it kinda dissolved to another thing..

All in due time...

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DaRTzO · Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject:

I would really appreciate if you could take a look into adding a tool that would enable selecting and displaying the resource value of a single ore patch. So it would be a lot easier to balance resources on all sides of the map.

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

I forgot about this.

I'm not using it or developing it anymore. Consult the manual, etc.

Have fun.

Edit: TS version included.

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Scorched Earth · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:57 am Post subject:

That's like getting bored of a pet, and throwing it to the wolves! Or, something along those lines. You get my point.

Anyway, this sounds interesting so I'll look into it later today.

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Nikademis Von Hisson · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:52 pm Post subject: C&C

208 by 208 is nice thought, but why can't we go bigger?

_________________
I am authorized to send out the TMP Studio, PM ME IF YOU WANT IT And check this out, these were sent to me for help with terrain and zdata help along with TMP Studio/Builder

http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27714

Joshy · Schwing! **Joined**: 13 Aug 2006

Quote:

208 by 208 is nice thought, but why can't we go bigger?

Joshy wrote:

Map size restrictions maxed within crash limit: The creatable map sizes are now capable of being smaller/bigger now. The limit is between 5 and 208. Hardly that much of increase, but anything past 209 crashed the program. If 209 was selected it caused mini-map issues and the program crashed upon exit. If anything went below 5 then the start locations couldn't appear correctly and would crash if you tried to move/edit them.