Create Maps from scratch

[hartnell]

It would be nice to be able to create and maps from scratch while the game is running. And modify them in-game as well. --hartnell

[u9]

Yeah

[Guilect]

Well aren't all the commands to do that already available?

you would have a tileset graphic.
You can load this with the command
Graphics.LoadImage

then you would want to make a map
You can use the command
Graphics.CreateImage

Set this image (your map) as the render target so you can draw your tiles on it
You can use the command
Graphics.RenderImage

then you would want to pick the tiles from the tileset and place them on your map
You can use the command
Graphics.CopyRegion

When done making your map you can display it
You can use the command
Graphics.SetImage


VBScript does not have READ and DATA commands but the following few lines do the trick.

example:

Dim myMap(15)

myMap(0) =  "1212121212121212"                                      
myMap(1) =  "2900100000000001"                                      
myMap(2) =  "1000004356560002"                                      
myMap(3) =  "2013422000023001"                                      
myMap(4) =  "1210002140012202"                                      
myMap(5) =  "2000400070001001"                                      
myMap(6) =  "1084300000001202"                                      
myMap(7) =  "2070000004541001"                                      
myMap(8) =  "1060010001002202"                                      
myMap(9) =  "2051213011000001"                                      
myMap(10) = "1040000024242202"                                      
myMap(11) = "2031000000300101"                                      
myMap(12) = "1021100000000102"                                      
myMap(13) = "2012345454556301"                                      
myMap(14) = "1000000000000002"                                      
myMap(15) = "2121212121212121"                                                  
                                                                           
' read level data                                                          
Dim grid(15,15)
Dim temp
                                                           
   For y = 1 To 15
       For x = 1 To 15
       Temp = myMap(y)
           grid(x, y) = Mid(Temp, x, 1)
       Next
   Next

[hartnell]

I meant a whole ninja-quick map system where we can poke and peek the tilemap like commodore 64 memory, among other neat things. --hartnell

[Guilect]

What commands did they have, what did they do, and what where their parameters?

[hartnell]

commodore 64 poking and peeking?

poke memory_location
peek memory_location

so..

poke 1024, 1

would store 1 in the memory location numbered 1024

A = peek(1024)

would retrieve the data in memory location 1024

-- hartnell

[Guilect]

Oh, well while not exactly the same verbage as the Commodore...
B2D has memory peek and poke; its just undocumented.
It was implemented by me to try to find a faster way to create a UDT rather than using Classes.
Tests showed that Classes were just as fast.



Dim objstat  
Set objstat = UDT
objstat.allocate 2                  
Const old = 2                  
objstat.poken old, 55

system.debugPrint objstat.peekn(old)


you can :
allocate
DeAllocate
Peekb
Peekl
Peekn
Peeks
Pokeb
Pokel
Poken
Pokes
Size

(where b = byte, l = long, n = integer, and s = string)

here is another example where I needed to define a PixelFormatDescriptor.

Option explicit
' byte = 1, integer = 2, long = 4, string
Dim PFD
Set PFD = UDT

PFD.allocate 40
 const nSize  = 0
 const nVersion  = 2
 const dwFlags  = 4
 const iPixelType  = 8
 const cColorBits  = 9
 const cRedBits  = 10
 const cRedShift  = 11
 const cGreenBits  = 12
 const cGreenShift  = 13
 const cBlueBits  = 14
 const cBlueShift  = 15
 const cAlphaBits  = 16
 const cAlphaShift  = 17
 const cAccumBits  = 18
 const cAccumRedBits  = 19
 const cAccumGreenBits  = 20
 const cAccumBlueBits  = 21
 const cAccumAlphaBits  = 22
 const cDepthBits  = 23
 const cStencilBits  = 24
 const cAuxBuffers  = 25
 const iLayerType  = 26
 const bReserved  = 27
 const dwLayerMask  = 28
 const dwVisibleMask  = 32
 const dwDamageMask  = 36
 
 system.DebugPrint  PFD.size

[u9]

I was thinking more along the lines of the following commands:

MapSetTileset( image ) - New image to use for tiles
MapSetTileSize( width, height ) - size of each tile
MapSetTile( x, y, tileValue ) - change tile at x,y to a specific tile. I can imagine this is the most important one
MapGetTile( x, y ) - read tile at x,y
MapSetAtt is already implemented
MapSetSize( width, height ) - Set the size of the entire map (probably in num of tiles in each direction)
and while we are doing so well there might as well be a MapSave( filename )

basically stuff like that. I have never used the tilemaps myself so i'm not the right man to ask. I am just thinking what might be useful for people who do use it. With the ability to set a given tile it can be animated

We really shouldn't go poking in memory addresses, that is very low-level.

[ptrxyz]

Oh yes, that would really be a nice! That would allow to create dynamicl maps for RPGs or something. the commands u2 suggests sound really good.