Basic structure of a map:
dir - mapname
image - map.png
ini - meta.ini
ini - droid.ini
ini - struct.ini
ini - feature.ini
ini - label.ini
ini - gateway.ini
map.png
a png image describing the map terrain, one pixel per vertex (channel assignments are completely arbitrary)
r the base texture to apply to this vertex
g the decal to apply to this vertex (decals would apply to the tile that this vertex is the upper left corner of)
b reserved
a the height
Cliff tiles could be specifyed by decal or via the blue channel
May be better to use multiple grayscale images.
meta.ini
simple meta data for the map, things like a description and the like
a replacement for the .lev
droid.ini, struct.ini, feature.ini
just like they are now
label.ini
area and position labels? (how are they handled now?)
gateway.ini
gateways (maybe should be in label.ini?)
Did I miss anything?
Pros:
Easy to edit/write editors for, every programing language can load and manipulate images, and you could do simple editing in a image editor so long as you edited one channel at a time
Easy to expand to larger maps at a later date
Relatively easy to understand and document
Cons:
Decal handling is a little odd, then again the way they are handled now is less than perfect
Would need to make a converter/write exporter code for FlaME
In general, if you see glowing, pulsating things in the game, you should click on them.
- Demigod Game Ganual
