Zugg Software :: View topic - zMapper feature questions -- database stuff

Newbie Joined: 14 Jul 2002 Posts: 7 Location: Canada

I've looked through the zMapper tutorials, and toyed with it a bit, and I think it looks pretty cool. But for most of my mapping needs, the existing mapper in zMUD works very well. (The modifying of individual rooms is a neat idea, but I won't do it very much as my maps are up into the tens of thousands of rooms.)

Two features mentioned really caught my eye, and I wanted to learn a little more about them and any timeline that might have been established for them.

The first is being able to import every map file into one huge map, and then designate some arbitrary rooms as a zone. I'm thinking along the lines of being in a city, and seeing the map of that city, then zooming out and seeing a map of the countryside (ie. no details of city zones, just the cities and roads between). Perhaps I just haven't figured out how to do this well yet, but is possible yet?

Second is something that I may have thought up myself, I don't know if it was ever officially mentioned as planned. With the porting of maps to a database, I would really like to be able to set up a map database server (either within zMapper or externally) so my friends and I can just sync with what's in the central database instead of trying to share files. It'd be simpler and keep maps much more up to date.

Those are top two on my wishlist, anyway. As it stands now the ordinary mapper does everything I need it to do, so I hope that zMapper does go above and beyond that.

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2002 7:05 pm

Yes, a hierarchical zone structure is planned so that you could have an overland map, for example, and then double-click a city to open a map of the city, then double-click on a sewer to open a map of the sewer dungeon, etc.

I don't have a specific timetable for specific feature, so all I can do is say that this is planned before the first public version of zMapper, which means within the next couple of months. Also, it's still not clear how much of this functionality will be available within zMUD rather than zMapper. My *guess* is that you'll be able to select heirarchical zones (for example, "display Parent Zone") and double-click on "subzones" to open them (like double-clicking the city to open the city map). However, you probably won't be able to *create* the hierarchical zones within zMUD yourself...you'll need to set up the zone structure in zMapper.

In general, the mapper in zMUD is the *display* program, and zMapper is the *editing* program. The exception to this is that zMUD can still edit the maps the way it always has been able to in the past. You just can't edit "new" stuff in zMUD.

Regarding the sharing of maps over the Internet, or the ability to set up a map database server...this will definitely be part of zMapper. zMapper will have to ability to "send" maps to a remote server. Then, both zMUD and zExplorer will have the ability to "retrieve" a map from a remote server, or "update" an existing map with any changes from a remote server. Again, these features should be added within the next couple of months since they are a core part of the zMapper vision.

But again, to repeat: If you want to "send" maps to a remote server, you will need zMapper. So, the master person or persons in charge of editing a map will require zMapper. But the people who just want to download the changes to a map and use them to MUD can just use zMUD.

Newbie Joined: 14 Jul 2002 Posts: 7 Location: Canada

quote:

Yes, a hierarchical zone structure is planned so that you could have an overland map, for example, and then double-click a city to open a map of the city, then double-click on a sewer to open a map of the sewer dungeon, etc.

Sweet! That's exactly what I meant. I'm glad to see it's been considered and planned!

quote:

Regarding the sharing of maps over the Internet, or the ability to set up a map database server...this will definitely be part of zMapper. zMapper will have to ability to "send" maps to a remote server. Then, both zMUD and zExplorer will have the ability to "retrieve" a map from a remote server, or "update" an existing map with any changes from a remote server. Again, these features should be added within the next couple of months since they are a core part of the zMapper vision.

Woo hoo!

quote:

But again, to repeat: If you want to "send" maps to a remote server, you will need zMapper. So, the master person or persons in charge of editing a map will require zMapper. But the people who just want to download the changes to a map and use them to MUD can just use zMUD.

I have no problem buying a copy of zMapper, I just wanted to determine whether the features that I would like to see were really in the plans or just in my head. I don't regret buying zMUD at all, and I doubt I'd regret zMapper. I just wanted to know if I needed to pay attention to zMapper, if it would do things that I cared about or if new versions of zMUD would be adequate. Thanks! ^_^

Wanderer Joined: 16 Feb 2001 Posts: 57

I do not have zMapper, so I do not really know how it works, but I might get it later on.

I was just wondering about the hierarchical zone structure. Would it be a 'zone map' that can be zoomed into? Or can it be a picture and certain places can be enlarged?

The picture I had in mind is for the mud Medievia. They have a world map with zones and clan towns.

http://www.medievia.com/MedMapAllGrid.html

Is zMapper able to create 'links' to each zone and then go into them to show the individual rooms? The world map is mostly wilderness which are rooms that have a room description of an overhead view.

^^+:+
++::+
n+#++
nn:++
n+:+n

It would not be too efficient to make 4million rooms of just wilderness. ;)

Also, any compatibility with non zMapper users? Any method to preserve the interactions of the overhead map and linking to zones or each one would be exported individually.

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2002 6:24 pm

HariKari: Exactly! If you take a look at the AC Explorer project, you'll see that it does exactly this for the Microsoft Asheron's Call game. The whole idea behind zMapper and zExplorer is to provide this functionality for *any* game.

Your link to the Medievia map is a perfect example (and that's a nice map! thanks for the link!). You would take the graphical image of that map (the island with the rivers, mountains, trees, etc) and then "overlay" the graphical image with "rooms" that represent the various towns and dungeons.

This would then be your "top level" zone map. You could then assign each of these town and dungeon icons to their own zone maps so that when you double-click one of the town icons, a map of that town appears. Within that map of the town you could have normal rooms and exit links, and you could also have rooms that are further linked to other maps (like a sewer within the town for example).