Keep it up all :D

Split maps and a bit more magic
 

Congrats everyone. If I was a quest NPC, I would give you a reward. Alas, I am not. So how about some more details:


For most of Beta, people may remember, EQ2 only had maps for the cities. The additional maps for Antonica/Commonlands/etc are encrypted and map icons are sent down from the server (along with the fog settings.) We wanted characters to have to explore to discover these regions. Nothing however should prevent you from adding your own versions of the images/locations -- you'll just need to find the name and zonerect. I suspect the fog will reset itself if you change the ZoneRect though.

Sidebar: Calculating the zonerect if fairly simple if you know the /loc and map pixel location for two places on the map (as far apart as possible in x & y). I'll leave that up to the reader. "Ratios are your friends."


Added at the same time was the ability to split maps. It's actually much more complex than that -- and I don't think I left any examples in the XML -- so here are the two additional map properties:

AvailableRect (x1,y1,x2,y2) -- similar to ZoneRect except it specifies the zone area (current location) when this map should be displayed. This defaults to ZoneRect. Overlapping split maps (Antonica/Commonlands) set the shared edge to the point you want to switch to the second map. This allows the maps to switch without moving all the way to the edge.

AvailablePriority (n) -- sets a priority for a map if more than one map has an AvailableRect that contains the current position. This defaults to 0. Lower numbers get preference. The current map is used if there is a tie. This allows detailed maps to be displayed for subsections.

For example: You could break Antonica up into 6 individual maps. Or one overall map with details maps if you travel within an area. Or...

For instance (with fake numbers):
MapStyles
qey_south_0
zonerect -200,-200,200,200
AvailableRect -200,-200,150,200
AvilablePriority 2
qey_south_1
zonerect 100,-200,500,200
AvailableRect 150,-200,500,200
AvailablePriority 2
qey_south_2
zoneRect -50,-50,50,50
AvailablePriority 1

If you are within the zoneRect of qey_south_2 that map will be drawn
based on priority. Otherwise it will pick from south_0 and south_1 appropriately. Note the _N attached to the zone names forn multiple maps.

And as correctly pointed out, the maps currently do not support changing on the Z axis.


I hope that helps.
MrBobble

First off: Thank you very much!
Second: /ponders how many more hidden properties and such there are...
Third: Wow, this looks like it could be very fun, very useful, and a big PITA...
If someone would like to go on and switch mine over to this window, go for it, use my code or whatever. I personally am going to finish up my project as I think I like it alot better than the original map window. Though just some things off the top of my head on what he was saying is You could have a map of the area (antonica) and when you walk into the forest, one could draw up a detailed map of it and have it swap over to that. But again, I like big maps, and lots of information, hopefully they will implement the dynamic data where we can get a constant /loc update and then I will find SOME way to put in a position marker on all my maps. Guarunteed. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and trying all these useless things while figuring out the keys of how to get the UIBuilder to work for us instead of just moving around information. I know that everybody who uses our interfaces is very grateful.

Thanks again MrBobble.

It helps indeed. :)

And thanks for the "currently". ;)

Holy jeez, that was a lot to soak in Mr. Bobble. I've managed to make Oakmyst Forest into a proper map, and I couldn't find the internal name for Stormhold, so there's a selection menu and no-loc dot version of the first floor of that zone. I only marked the zone lines in Oakmyst Forest. Now that I know about the AvailableRects I can do more interesting stuff in some places eventually.

Anyway, check this out everybody.

Quib

where'd you get the negatives from?

I couldn't tell you where he figured it out, but that's definately what you have to do to get it to work correctly. My best guess is he looked at the other rects in the map xml file.

I'm working on "mapping" the freeport newbie areas right now, and then will finish up the Qeynos ones in a day or two (after I hike back, it's an unpleasant walk).

Quib

Know what would be funny? If they released, with the "big patch", all of these maps in-game with fog:)

Nah, i dont think so....and they sure as hell wont have as many toolltips!

Just thought id make ya sweat a bit:)

heres TS Icons Page

As Haliken suggested, I looked at the existing ZoneRect entries and saw that all of the X values were negatives while (most) of the Y values were positive. Comparing them to the listed corner locs on the ***************/eq2 maps I deduced that the X axis was negative.

Update .07
Added Nektulos Forest and Crypt of Betrayal Maps. Added icons on Thundering Steppes. Some code optimization.
Downloads to date: 64

ill make the icons for those two, as well as stormhold if you havent gotten them yet...

EDIT:

heres the xml with Nek, SH1, and SH3...ill do 2 later today or something

The maps are looking really good. I'm working out some quests and such right now. One thing I wanna know, but can't check cuz im at work and cant load up the game is making the waypoints, its supposed to be in the update today, so when it comes back up and someone test this for me? Just go into the Icons page, such as IconsAntonica and do a few of the icons, just go in and make a property called pathfindlocation and set the property to the loc coordinates without commas, like 128 54 -288, just do that for a few of them but leave the middle one at 0 and see if it sends to the right locations. If so I'll start putting in all the waypoints. Well I'll put them in right now with 0s and hopefully it will work but if not I can just update the middle #. Post the findings asap please. Thanks.

i logged in and didnt get any updates...stealth update or what?

supposed to be that BIG update today

awesome! i cant wait!

ok here we go one with Nek, SH1,2,3 and Crypt of Betrayal Icon maps
Eloa,
can i get the plugin you used to enable dds editing in Adobe Photoshop? thx :D

I have it if you need it Tony.

Get the Photoshop DDS plugin here:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/n...ure_tools.html

Hosted (and created?) by NVidia

Quib

Haliken, thanks for the link!

everyone else: check it out!

i got a hybrid here of two mods on in this topic

if ya'll keep pumpin out the maps made to fit with the original map window i will be more than happy to port them over from the icon maps i made for eloa's map window!

This is just too cool! Keep going! :)
I have read through the posts but where do we stand on getting the location indicator on these custom maps?

Thanks for all your great work!!!

I'm trying to make all the maps in the basic map window, so far I have 3 zones added that have the loc indicator. Eloa has made a seperate map window and is hoping the loc data becomes un-hardcoded so it can hopefully be sued to mvoe an indicator around.

Quib

weeelll...the base map i used that has stormhold in it was someone else's (couldn't find original post/poster) and it claimed to include the youarehere dot. unfortunately th SERVERS are DOWN! so i cant check for myself:)

Also Tony, thank you for porting those map icons over to my window. I don't have access to UI Builder (it won't run on any of my computers, I suspect it only works on WinXP and I'm running 98SE) so placing those is a serious pain in the butt. I'll include the Stormhold ones you did in my next beta release (after I update my map file for today's patch). I guess I need to start a file giving credit where credit is due for my window.

Quib

P.S. - Ok, the map window didn't patch... I guess the changes are serverside and piped down to us as we play?

could someone plz post the internal name for stormhold keep lvl 1?
trying to get the cursor to work in Haliken's port of that SHK1 into the original map window

also if someone could get an entire list of all the internal zone names, that would be SO awesome!

Haliken, post what you've got now and ill throw the icons in them as well :)

Will do, as soon as I log in I'll finish off the zonerect for The Sprawl. I THINK the itnernal name for Stormhold is "holdofprexus" but seeing as I'm back in freeport, it'll be quite a walk for me to get to Stormhold to test.

Quib

I modified icon_map3.dds to be little cleaner and more "pixel-perfect" (I'm a little insane about graphic files being as "perfect" as possible). Attached it to this post.