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Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

i have noticed several metions that you will be working on SWG db. whats the status on this? simply pu. I can't wait to start creating SWG points of interest. expecialy with multi world maps, and can only veiw the one your on in the game.

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:47 pm

Yep, this is still in the works. As usual, things are taking a lot longer than I expected. I needed to update zMapper and then zMUD, which is happening this week. Next I'll be working on zExplorer again and adding the features from AC Explorer like tracking and terrain-path finding for AC1.

The recent work on zMapper finally added the features to the core mapping engine that I needed for SWG. Also, the work on the server database scripts was done last month and those seem to be working fine for AC2. So, I think everything is in place for SWG support. It's just a matter of getting time to capture some graphics for the planets and stuff.

If you are interested in helping with this, what I need is the high-res background images of each planet. I was just going to capture these from the game itself, but it's going to take some time to get myself to every planet. If this is something you or your guild want to help with, I'm always happy to put your information in the corner of your map (or a URL for your guild, or whatever).

If you want to capture the maps, please be sure to turn off all City and Waypoint information. I just want the raw terrain. Or, if anyone knows how to extract these graphics from the game files themselves, let me know. Terrain isn't an issue at all in SWG since it lets you walk/swim anywhere. The trickiest part of SWG support is trying to prevent people from posting location info for the dynamically created mission stuff.

The other thing that zExplorer will support is detailed city maps as you zoom in. The new zMapper engine allows the display of scaled bitmaps. So, if you can capture any graphic showing the building layout of a city, we can add that to the map and it will show up as you zoom into a city. Or, we can make cities into seperate zones and show stuff like mission terminals, etc. So, if you have any clever way to capture the city map line drawings, let me know. So far I haven't figured out how to get the city map without a lot of work in eliminating the background graphics.

And definitely spread the word. I'd like to get an idea as to how much interest there is for zExplorer on SWG. The ingame maps are *so* much better than we ever had on Asheron's Call, so I wasn't sure if there would be as much interest.

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Posts: 2

yeah, the in game maps in SWG are useful, but there are problems..

1) you can only see the map of the planet you are on. if you have to go to someplace on another planet, you need to find a map of the planet online or at a shuttle terminal to figure out which city is closest, "swgExplorer" would make that much easier.

2) the in game map doesn't have anything useful except cities on it. there's no default things for where fort tuskan is, or anything like that.

3) if you need a starting DB, these guys have lots of stuff going on, i bet they'd help:
http://www.simantix.co.uk/swgmaps/

i've been using ACExplorer for forever, even though i don't play AC that much anymore, thanks to SWG... i did play AC2 and used zExplorer for a while for that too, but that wasn't as fun because the map didn't follow me around :). The tracking was the part i used the most!

Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Sounds like a job i can very much happy help on. just post a list of details of where you want me to start. "still have nightmares of configing AC2/zExplorer beta map coords". only idea i can come up with for an overhead shots of cities is a veiw of the onscreen overhead map and do some major slice and dicing. omg those bright green squares, lol!

adding to the list of problems of the in game maps. if no one has noticed they don't really match the actual terrian. biggest issue is char placement dosn't match. map says your in water but in reality your running by the water or evan sometimes a good distance from it. if anyone spends time on Corellia ther are alot of rivers and water ways missing on the maps.

jgardner those maps won't are a bit lacking in info (Coords), along with cluttered and not raw terrian images.

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 7:40 pm

Yep, I agree with you on the ingame maps. But even though they don't match the terrain accurately, they are about the best we have to start with.

I remember the early days of AC Explorer on Asheron's Call before we figured out how to get the terrain data from the game itself...we were using an "artist rendition" of Dereth that was really bad. But even that was better than nothing :)

On the overhead maps, the fact that the "HUD" is in green means that it's in theory possible to have a graphics program like Photoshop convert all other colors to something else (like white) which can then be made the transparent color when stored as a GIF image. Then we can overlay the transparent GIF of the city onto the terrain background.

But let's start with the planets. Just going to each planet and capturing the in-game terrain map at the highest zoom level possible would be a huge help. I think it will require a couple of screenshots that are then edited and pasted together to make a larger image. It's those non-starter planets like Endor that will be the hardest...I don't have a character with much money to get there yet. But I've been so busy with programming, I haven't even logged into SWG for about a month. Hopefully I can get back to playing soon.

Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

oh yeah! my main char is Galileo and he lives mostly on Corellia and Naboo on the Scylla server. but i have some on the Lowca, Bria, Eclipse and valcyn servers also..

Newbie Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Posts: 2

quote:
Originally posted by CKnightWolf

jgardner those maps won't are a bit lacking in info (Coords), along with cluttered and not raw terrian images.

I wasn't suggesting using the images, etc, but i'd assume from the looks of those maps, someone is generating them from a DB of some kind....

Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Understood! sorry didn't mean missinterrupt your statement.

here are some other map links i found on Warcry
http://swg.warcry.com/index.php/content/playerguides#Planets

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 7:42 pm

Yeah, but those kind of maps aren't very much use. I need just the raw terrain background without all of the added locations, text, etc. None of the maps look very database driven at this point. All of them look like they have had major work done in a graphics program of some kind.

Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

Ok here it is all 10 worlds plus the galaxie map. maybe can use it somehow to link to each world.

http://swgkov.50free.net/images/swg%20maps/

now i'll let you stress over the coods placement, lol.
Galileo

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:58 am

Wow! That is wonderful CKnightWolf! That is exactly what I was looking for. You have been a great time saver!

Here's what I will try do schedule-wise:

1) As some of you know, I've been sick for the last week and am just now getting back to stuff. So, I'm even more behind schedule than before, which is bad.

2) I've committed to zMUD users to fix some remaining bugs before the v7.0 public version is announced. My goal is to finish that within a week.

3) After zMUD 7.0 is released, I need to spend a few days marketing it, uploading it to various sites, etc.

4) Once zMUD is settled, I will start work on the next version of zExplorer with the specific goal of setting up the server for SWG and organizing the maps. The specific changes that I need to make in zExplorer is to handle Server-specific locations. The code is already in the database to handle this, I just need to add it to the zExplorer user interface. At this same time, I'll add the Tracking feature from AC Explorer to zExplorer. I will *attempt* to make a server module to track location within SWG. I have no idea how easy this will be to do, nor do I know how much the memory locations change with the periodic updates to the game. But as a fellow player of SWG, the tracking feature would really be a huge help in the game, so I really want to give it a try.

My overall goal will be to have the SWG game up and running with the new version of zExplorer released by the end of November. I don't like to give exact deadlines and only release code when it's ready, but that gives you a feeling as to what I'm shooting for.

And CKnightWolf just saved me probably a week of work getting those maps, so we should all thank him!

Beginner Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 12 Location: USA

was easyer than i thaught swg screenshots about the best detailed imagery for ingame screenshots. as for the city maps! i about blew a blood vessel just trying to organise the screenshots and keep them alligned. my first few attemps failed. unless you can hack them from swg, a scetched version may have to do at first. unless someone else has better patience than i do. lol better yet get in good with a dev and try to squnder city maps from them, lmao.

Galileo SWG/Scylla