beta 30

wow4ik81 · Grenadier **Joined**: 30 Nov 2023 **Location**: Germany

In my opinion, the grid should be shifted slightly to the left so that the building is completely within the grid.

The new grid system is confusing because you don't know if the building is in the right place. This was very clear in Beta 26.

beta 30 vs beta 26.png

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Banshee · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 1:54 pm Post subject:

I have started to use my toolbox of "workaround solutions" here.

Is it better on Beta 31?

G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

Looks right now.

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http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai

wow4ik81 · Grenadier **Joined**: 30 Nov 2023 **Location**: Germany

yes much better, but even better if it was like before (beta 26)

hopefully in beta 32.png

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Banshee · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2025 3:27 am Post subject:

Which feature do you like in the previous grid? The stronger lines? Like this?

StrongerGrids.png

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wow4ik81 · Grenadier **Joined**: 30 Nov 2023 **Location**: Germany

Only the fields that actually contain a building should be considered; the remaining fields are pointless and only cause confusion.

In my opinion, the boundaries should remain narrow.

As can be seen in beta 26.

strongergrids_899.png

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Banshee · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 3:36 am Post subject:

Ok, final offer (I wanna move back to OS SHP Builder 4 #Tongue

):

wow4ik81 · Grenadier **Joined**: 30 Nov 2023 **Location**: Germany

thank you Banshee

Banshee · Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2025 3:19 pm Post subject:

These grids seem to be doing a good job! Smile

What do you guys think?

G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

I personally don't mind the grid stopping at the top cell....

BUT, remember Ares has custom foundations, that can go into negatives! Might want to make it optional ?

_________________
http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai

Banshee · Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2025 3:57 pm Post subject:

The latest release already has the option to display the full grid. That covers the negatives from Ares.

wow4ik81 · Grenadier **Joined**: 30 Nov 2023 **Location**: Germany

ooh, I didn't even think about ARES, good thing Banshee thought of that

Mig Eater · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2025 10:14 am Post subject:

SHP Builder can edit tmp files?

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Banshee · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2025 3:13 pm Post subject:

Finally, someone noticed something odd! Wink

Banshee · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2025 3:21 am Post subject:

Mig Eater wrote:

SHP Builder can edit tmp files?

I'm working on it. At the moment, I made it open these files on my internal version here. Saving them will be a kind of challenge because it will have to detect the filled tiles and their extra data.

Edit: Here is a bonus!

Banshee · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2025 5:49 am Post subject:

And a final addition!

TD TMPs are more complicated to render correctly because the height and width of the tiles is hard-coded into the source code of the game (!!!). At least they have fixed that problem in RA1.

My height/width guess algorithm seems to be doing a good job. Here are some samples:

Mig Eater · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2025 9:14 am Post subject:

All TMP editors that have been made thus far can only copy and paste the image in to another image editor, it will be nice to finally have a program that can directly edit the image Smile

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G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

TMP Builder will let you pixel edit per cell... not the same thing, but good for small fixes.

_________________
http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai

Banshee · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 11:09 pm Post subject:

Today, I finished the code to save TMP (TD) and TMP (RA). The funny thing that you learn with the official source code (in the case of TMP RA, it is located at https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WWFLAT32/TILE/ICONSET.CPP is how things end up for those who manually decode the format like in XCC's source code here.

A variable Allocated, for instance, is only supposed to change in game. So, I don't know why in the hell someone decided to save it in a file. In XCC it became zero1, because it is always zero. Moving forward, skipping some bits, you have an offset for a Palette.... except that someone noticed that this kind of file isn't supposed to store palettes, so it is always zero. For XCC? zero2. And then, the funniest thing: an offset for remaps is in a memory space far, far away. XCC called it unknown1. It is not wrong. That variable makes no sense at all. Moving next, we have a transparency flag that points to a list in the end of the file where 99% of the times the value is zero and few times it is 1. Here is Vladan Bato's words on it:

Quote:

Index2 is an array of NumImages bytes where NumImages is the real
number of images in the file. However it's always filled with zeros
(sometimes there's a 1 somewhere but I don't know it's meaning).

Following the TransFlag, we have a ColorMap.... It points to a real address in memory. If you look at Iconset.bak, it was really supposed to be something.... but back to iconset.cpp, it doesn't even care for whatever is in the list that is in that address.

In short, it is funny and bizarre to figure out this kind of thing!