EQ2Interface - Game Closes when I test my map

EQ2Interface (https://www.eq2interface.com/forums/index.php)

- EQ2Map Troubleshooting (https://www.eq2interface.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36)

- - Game Closes when I test my map (https://www.eq2interface.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19323)

Game Closes when I test my map

Hello there,

I ran Fowlumbra yesterday on Test server and was annoyed, yet again, by the lack of map in the zone.
So I installed mapper and inskape, took a rough outline of the area, grabbed the official Thalumbra map image (after all, the map does exist so it shouldn't be a problem to just convert it), combined the too and went on with testing it.

Well, I failed.
I added the lines in the Usermap as follow:

Code:

<ImageStyle Name="exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01" displayname="Fowlumbra" menugroup="Terrors of Thalumbra" zonerect="-189,-532,1066,929" >

<ImageFrame Source="images/maps/map_exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01.dds" SourceRect="0,0,436,506" />

</ImageStyle>

To make the image, I
- parsed a raw outline
- exported the SVG out with the crosshairs
- combined the thalumbra map with the svg map in GIMP, cropped the image around the fowlumbra zone using the map template to get the right size
- put the UL-LR values and the pixel values of the crosshairs in ZoneRect
- exported my gimp file to DDS, trying several combinations: BC1/DXT1 - default ; BC1/DXT1 - RGBA8 ; BC1/DXT1 - RGBA4 ; BC1/DXT1 - ABGR8
Attached is a list of DDS formats in GIMP.

Every time I launch the game and try to switch my current map to Terrors of Thalumbra > Fowlumbra, the game crashes. No error message, nothing, it just closes off.

I didn't trigger Fowlumbra today so I can't double check locs in zone, it's a bit tricky to map obviously (hence why I added the map to a menugroup).
I double checked zonerects an I think it's fine, hence why I was looking at the DDS format and tried a bunch. Not sure what I'm missing so, after several hours trying, I thought it was time to ask for help!
And I created a brand new account just for that, so hello everyone!

Ill have to check with Pijotre.

Ill be back.

Hey hey Leu <3 ,

so you did a great job for your first map, however a few issues that I struggled with at first too. Also the whole messing around with coordinates is only needed if you make a new custom map where you don't know the zonrect. Since Fowlumbra uses the same map as Thalumbra, the Everdeep we can reuse that zonerect. Sadly on some zones like this which use the online map version you can't find it in your files, but me or Jnils are more than happy to get it to you.
In this case it's: -1499.00, -1057.00, 1296.00, 1036.00
You also want to correct the sourcerect to be inline with the actual imagesize (The image i created has the dimensions 983 x 740, however each dimension needs to be divisible by 4 so we use 0,0,984,740 for the SourceRect).
With those changes and the dds I supplied below could you test this again? Since I don't have access to Fowlumbra :-( Also don't need menugroup, the zone is so rare that it doesn't have to be listed in the menu imho.

Code:

<ImageStyle Name="exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01" displayname="Fowlumbra" zonerect="-1499.00, -1057.00, 1296.00, 1036.00" >

<ImageFrame Source="images/maps/map_exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01.dds" SourceRect="0,0,984,740" />

</ImageStyle>

As for saving the image as .dds with Gimp I use the settings you can find in the attached image.

Hello Pijotre and Jnils, thanks for the answers.

Yeah, had no way of getting the sourcerect infos for the official map, hence while I had to mess with it.

I tried again with your settings but I still have the map show black and game closing without warning when I try to show the map.
Your map works though but appears distorted (and I couldn't manage to fix the size to get it to work but I didn't try very hard).

Mine works if I export using BC3 / DTX5 as compression with default format. File is bigger, but I'm not 100% sure what size the image is supposed to be exactly.

I had used a cropped up version of just the area for Fowlumbra itself, using the oil painting filter on the areas that can't be accessed (see attachment), with the code as said above.

Code:

<ImageStyle Name="exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01" displayname="Fowlumbra" menugroup="Terrors of Thalumbra" zonerect="-189,-532,1066,929">

<ImageFrame Source="images/maps/map_exp12_rgn_umbra02_epic01.dds" SourceRect="0,0,436,506" />

</ImageStyle>

Fowlumbra spawns exactly at the same hour every day, aka 24h since last opening (+/- 1h). If player doesn't come in that time frame, the next player will trigger the zone instantly
Fowlumbra can't be triggered several times on a single character (I delete and recreate the char every time I want to go in). But with the 24h timeline (and the possibility of another player triggering it), I couldn't test the map without having it in the menu, hence the menugroup for testing purposes.

It's the only way to make cash on Test Server, so i do run the zone quite often and it always annoyed me to no end to not have the map and some PoI would be interesting too... but you can't pinpoint the ducks without a map!

BTW, while I'm at it. While waiting for an answer, I mapped another of my pet-peeves (and I understand why it was never mapped, the player who started probably stopped midway), aka The Vigilant. I went with the raid which is the full zone mapped all walls and went straight to turning it into a working file with the raw data. No way I can clean this up without the ingame map, it's way too complex ^^
Anyway, I have a working (and ugly as hell) 10-layers massive map (380x1576), needless to say it lags a lot between maps. What final size should I try to reach? I attached the biggest layer (main deck) as an example.

I finaly got the time to test your map and it shows up fine for me.

Yep, I linked the one working for me (BC3/DXT5 - Default) and not Pijotre setting . When I save my map using that setting, it gives the attached file, which crashes the game.
I must say that the map with POI really helps while running Fowlumbra.

I'm finalizing the Vigilant. Seems to work fine. I have a slight vertical offset and I need to adjust transparency and a couple other stuff then it'll be good to go.