Tips for /locs - How to keep your mapper happy and final map sexy

[SaintPeter]

Tips for /locs
- Do as many as you need, but not TOO many.
I know that directions say to 'spam' /locs, but more judicious use can make my job easier. Don't do lines with 1800 locs!

- Use the 'natural' geometry of the level as a guide. The whole level is made up of triangles, so there are natural verticies that you can move to. Sometimes, if you run scaping up against the wall, it's really easy to tell where the wall changes direction by looking how it effects your movement speed. If it's sharp enough, you'll actually stop moving.

- Corners are our friends! Always get solid corner points, since they define the absolute extents of a room. The remaining points in the walls, for details, etc, can be reference against inside corners. Outside corners can also be referenced against inside corners.

- If it's a long straight line, there is no need to do more than the starting and ending points. Again, look for the verticies in the walls to tell you when to drop another point.

- If the shape of the room is clearly geometric, be sure to emphasize that. Even if you can't get the corners, try and get two points on either side of the obstruction. I can recreate the obvious natural shape in post.

- Curved walls can be cleaned up in "post" - For example, in a large center circle shaped room, I can use Inkscape to draw a circle that matches it and pulled the points out to the circle. That gives a really nice curve.

- Break up your lines between rooms and halls. There is no need to have one single line that goes on forever. Just break it at doorways.

Doors
- Always map with doors closed, from both sides. That makes the room a complete shape. Doors can be added in, in post production.

- Doors can make great stopping and starting places, since you can usually snug up into the corner of the door and jamb.

Accents and Details
- Don't forget to draw the outlines of significant floor details. In particular, if there is a contrasting color center of a room, outline the section of color. This will really help make the map stand out.

- You don't have to outline every single detail of the wall, but adding the right bumps can really bring the map to life. Decide on the level of detail you will add before you start, since they can add significant amounts of time to your mapping. Also, once you start doing high detail, you really can't stop.

- The bigger the map, the less the fine details matter. If you're in an area with a /loc value range greater than 500, details less than 1 /loc will not even show up on the final bitmap. IE: If you're mapping antonica, worrying over missing .5 of a LOC is not useful. If you're in a tiny little room, .1 /loc will be significant and noticable.

- BE CONSISTANT about how many points you use to outline common details. For example, if there are squareish posts lining a wall, ALWAYS use 4 points to define them.

[SaintPeter]

Previewing as you go
If you're mapping, even if you don't plan to do the final map, it can be REALLY handy to preview as you go. It's also really easy to set up to do a preview.

Get the tools you'll need
ActivePerl - Download "Standard Installation" from here:
http://www.activeperl.com/Perl.plex?hdr=1

InkScape v0.42 SVG Editor.
http://www.inkscape.org/

Mapper2 Perl Script
http://www.eq2interface.com/download...fo.php?id=3936

Getting Set Up
1) Download and install Activeperl and Inkscape using their default install options.
2) Create a 'Mapping' directory on your harddisk to store your tools and partial maps. For example, "C:\My_Maps\".
3) Unzip Mapper2 to your mapping directory.
4) Create a copy of mapper2.bat - Rename it to the name of the map you'll be working on.
5) Edit the new batch file to point to the right input and output directories.

perl c:\My_Maps\mapper2.pl "C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest II\logs\Guk\eq2log_Peter.txt" > c:\My_Maps\New_Map_Dir\New_Map_Name.svg
start c:\My_Maps\New_Map_Dir\New_Map_Name.svg

See that I am actually pulling my active log file straight from my EQ2 directory.
"Start" will launch the new .svg file with your registered SVG editor, in this case Inkscape.
6) Drag your new batch file onto your windows Quick Launch toolbar. This should create a shortcut to it.

Using your preview
Run your game in windowed mode. You may take a bit of a performance hit, but it will make your life easier. To preview, simply click the shortcut to the batch file. This will pull in your current set of data and start it up in the SVG editor. You'll be able to see everything you mapped thus far. Don't bother making changes to this file, since it will get overwritten every time you preview.