Unofficial maps in game

[tonyis3l33t]

diztorded,
one last step...now that i have zonerect i can get arrow on map.
I need you to load up the attached map window, and the map_blank.dds if you dont already have it. Go to those NSEW locations again and take a screenshot of your map at each of the 4 spots. This is so i can resize map to the right places.

If the zonerect is off too far the arrow wont show up...its based off your coords so ill assume its good

This ought to be a good learning experience...you can probably do your own maps from all the steps im tellling you..but im more than happy to do it this way too.

[Zonx]

Originally Posted by tonyis3l33t

Maps are separate files. They do not have their own page. The game replaces the zonemap (you can find in UIBuilder) with the single DDS file that contains the map.

I think you misunderstood me. I realize the map images are external, but everything else that makes up a specific map (icon positions, pathfinder locs, etc.) are all currently embeded into a page object which is embeded into the eq2ui_mainhud_map.xml file.

If we make those page objects external files, Edits to the window format/behavior wont be as likely to conflict with someone else's edits to a specific map.

It should also allow folks to develop alternate versions of the same map without causeing versioning issues with everything else.

All the map data would essentially become includes. Updates would consist of downloading a map file and image, then adding a page include line to the map window file.

[Eloa]

Originally Posted by taco-man

i know you said disregard but i cant help it lol, that looks like VB? is it or is it some other language?

Heh, yea its vb...kinda, Its the VB thats bundled with office, I use MS Access to program a little at work since we dont have real VB there. So if I wanna work a prog at work, I have to convert the stupid VBA code to VB code. The differences are just plain dumb though...I love VB, just got VB again and .NET (the .net I have never tried before.)

[tonyis3l33t]

zonx,
as far as adding your own pages and stuff to the mod...
i havent seen any of the main team get confused or anything. If the people want to add a map we will add it. Not a big enough problem to where i want to spend the time separating the xml's...but thats just me

[Quib]

"All the map data would essentially become includes. Updates would consist of downloading a map file and image, then adding a page include line to the map window file."

The biggest problem is you couldn't change the zonerect from what it is in the main maps window. You might think that the zonerect is a set value per zone, but it isn't; Tony and I set up very different zonerects for example. His go right up to the edge, while I put a 10-20 pixel buffer around the edges.

This would also hurt the efficiency of the file. You all use UIBuilder, and don't realize that it often throws in tons of unnecessary property values that bloat the file.

Diztorded, thanks for catching that error at line 961. Fixed.

I'm gonna edit the download description like Tony suggested and list the maps we have, because many people really don't understand what we're providing them with.

Quib

[tonyis3l33t]

yea...i think ill stop doing that map to the edge thing...the only thing that bugs me is that the map must shrink, lowering detail in those tight places.

[Feebb]

Someone please come up with a map for the Crypt of Betrayal.
Feebb

[sunthas]

Originally Posted by Feebb

Someone please come up with a map for the Crypt of Betrayal.
Feebb

I made one, but it wasn't complete and I didn't lilke the way it came out. COB is tough because of so much crap in the way along the walls, makes it hard to use our loc method of mapping. My stormhold maps came out nicely though.

[diztorded]

Here are the NESW screenshots from within Fallen Gate. Did I mention I love the scout classes and their abbility to sneak?

[Quib]

Here's a new version of Stormhold floor 2. I finally got to the west edge of the second floor to get some screenshots for proper alignment.

Quib

[diztorded]

Does or can enything we do change or mess up the current, as in default, EQ2 game maps? Reason I ask is because I was in Stonestair byway today and notices the WP trail for one icon leads you to a different place entirely and the icon for that place is located somewhere else.

[Quib]

We CAN mess up default stuff. I used Zonx's (aka Fetish) re-tuned Freeport loc icons and either he musta had a mistake that I copied over, or I messed up when copying the data... There IS the chance that the pathfindlocation is bad in the default version; SOE did a really horrible job with the loc icons for Freeport.

I'm headed to Stonestair Byway right now to check the problem out. Can you tell me which icon is wrong?

Quib

[tonyis3l33t]

i know the icon going to the mage tower in SQ (i think its south..) goes to some place way SE of the whole zone...

[tonyis3l33t]

heres a rough draft, diztorded...i plan on putting some color on it some time this weekend. What color is the floor/walls in that zone? I assume its just like commonlands...desert

[Corren Silverfir]

Originally Posted by Eloa

Heh, yea its vb...kinda, Its the VB thats bundled with office, I use MS Access to program a little at work since we dont have real VB there. So if I wanna work a prog at work, I have to convert the stupid VBA code to VB code. The differences are just plain dumb though...I love VB, just got VB again and .NET (the .net I have never tried before.)

lol If you're used to VB .NEt will give you such a headache, trust me. You were smarter being dumber and not knowing .NET. roflmao

[diztorded]

Tony, I noticed you did not update your mainhud_map file with a mistake I had found in The Graveyard exit to Stonestair Byway being mislabeled. I fixed that and here it is for you, and anyone else who had updated their files with Tony's.

Quib, I am away from home at the moment but it was 2 of the crafting guild icons and waypoints.

[Eloa]

Tony or quib, one of you guys may want to head over to oakmyst and follow the path down to the mariners bell, on the map that we have, its a slightly curving, almost straight path to the bell. In reality it is a curving ramp leading down to it and on the map you spiral off of the path a ways on your way down to it, but the bell icon itself is in the right location as well as all the other stuff about the map, the map's just drawn wrong in that area.

Originally Posted by Corren Silverfir

lol If you're used to VB .NEt will give you such a headache, trust me. You were smarter being dumber and not knowing .NET. roflmao

I cant find my vb6 cd anywhere and all my downloads aren't burning for me, but I finally found my vb5 disc in the garage so .net will have to wait until next time I want to use it and cant find the vb5 cd. The stupidest thing with the VBAccess is that in order to read or right a .text property you have to control.SetFocus first, it really irritates me.

[Quib]

Originally Posted by diztorded

Tony, I noticed you did not update your mainhud_map file with a mistake I had found in The Graveyard exit to Stonestair Byway being mislabeled. I fixed that and here it is for you, and anyone else who had updated their files with Tony's.

Quib, I am away from home at the moment but it was 2 of the crafting guild icons and waypoints.

Don't worry too much about Tony or Eloa getting bug fixes into the map xml when they post; I round up people's map xmls and get all the stuff organized and consolidated. This way, we don't need to worry about everyone modding from the newest version; I simply make sure everything xml side is taken care of in the end.

Eloa, it sounds like you might have an old version of the Oakmyst Forest map.

Quib

[Eloa]

Originally Posted by Quib

Eloa, it sounds like you might have an old version of the Oakmyst Forest map.

Highly possible

[tonyis3l33t]

heres a better version of Fallen Gate. Lemme know if its up to par

[Quib]

Originally Posted by tonyis3l33t

heres a better version of Fallen Gate. Lemme know if its up to par

Could you take the gray fill, and run the texturizer filter over it with the following setting (assuming you have photoshop):
Texture: Sandstone
Scaling: 100%
Relief: 1
Light Direction: Bottom
Invert: No

I really like the thick black borders and clarity.

Personally I find a drop shadow with the following settings looks a little less like a shadow, and more like smudging:
Blend Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%
Angle: doesn't matter
Distance: 0
Spread: 5
Size: 10
Quality -
Contour: x=y (line at a 45 degree andgle up and right, the first choice)
Anti-aliased: No
Noise: 0%
Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow: Yes

However, the shadow is personal preference, and as you have it now does look fine.

I really dislike flat fill colors; the texture helps add to the illusion that it's a handdrawn map on parchment.

I'm in FG testing the zonerect, it's off a little, but I'll have it perfected by the next official release.

Quib

[Eloa]

I'm working on a database program that I will put on my website when I'm finished.

It will have the following funcionality for users:

• add entries to tell us which maps we have not yet done
• add entries for each map of new locations that should be made as POI's
• add comments for the authors
• add quests and automatically generate the xml needed for them.
• and whatever else I think of that could be relevant for us.

For us developers:

• read the users entries in a structured format
• check off entries as they are completed and post the code for that entry with it
• respond with users
• and whatever else I think of that could be relevant for us to do.

Mainly this is just an exercise for me to get used to web programming as I just got my own site, but it will also be useful for us to keep track of all this information that we're trying to wrestle with. Any additional things you guys (devs) can think of that would be useful to implement, send me a PM and ill add it to my checklist

[tonyis3l33t]

here ye are quib

[Quib]

/slap me if I'm being too demanding about dumb little specifics, but dang I believe that map is perfect. Here's my xml, I adjusted the fallen gate zonerect a little.

Diztorded, I haven't fixed the Stonestair Byway icons yet, or corrected them rather, but it's next on my to-do list.

Quib

[Killarny]

The down below entrance in Elddar Grove is pointing to something off the map as well. It should be pointing to 518.58, -17,13, -397.15. I had assumed that this was an SOE bug, but perhaps not? There are many problems with paths in North and South Qeynos as well.