See http://lmr.googlecode.com

I'm currently working on a legacy map reader for Blizzard Entertainment's true legacy games, in hopes that it can be used to convert Starcraft UMS maps (including triggers) to Starcraft II. I won't be writing a converter, just a reader.

The reader is intended to accurately interpret data (voiding all possible forms of legacy map protection) and may have other applications.

I hope to receive feedback. Please let me know if you are interested in joining the project.

(Wasn't sure where this would fit, so I put it in Starcraft II: Miscellaneous, since I'm hoping someone will come and write a converter)

Looks nice. Unfortunately I don't have the coding skill to help This could be extremely useful if you find someone to write a converter.

This has many potential uses, but what form would the interpreted data take?

Right now I'm just reading the raw data into global variables.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand the possibilities of use of a 'reader'.
I'm not even sure of what is a 'reader', even though I read your description.
All my mind come up with is a converter that actually doesn't convert data.
Sorry again for that, but this looks cool, so I wanted to understand...

It's so someone else can write a converter, they don't have to write the code to read the files.

So it can't be practically used by map makers, though a coder could use it to facilitate his task to create a converter.
Am I right?

Good luck with this. Thinking that someone will write a working converter seems a bit far-fetched to me. Hell, they never did it for WCIII.

Well it's a side project anyway, and I enjoy working on it. If someone wants to use it that's fine, if nobody will ever use it, that's fine with me too.

SC2's editor comes with one .. It doesn't do triggers or anything, though. It just murders your terrain.

Yeah, and they don't convert Marines -> Marines, instead they reference a unit type that doesn't exist. Most units aren't converted at all, and they don't read any unit properties. In some cases the terrain can't even be read correctly. It only reads like 5 sections and that's it. Everything else is garbage. The conversions are intended to be melee-oriented, so I'm hoping someone decides to convert triggers into their format.

I think I'll read triggers soon.

Farty, terrain conversion is the easy part. Converting SCI or, lord save us, WCIII units or triggers into a system that works very differently is the hard part, and it ain't gonna happen. SCI, okay, it's remotely possible - not WCIII. Completely different unit/spell/etc system, and though the trigger editor is similar it's also much more complex and even harder to completely convert.

I think the way to do it would be to compile the WC3 triggers into whatever language they have, jass or whatever, and then convert that to galaxy's language.

Until I see a PHP -> Python converter or similar...

Yeah.

Then why does it not work at all?

Well if the terrain appears black, it's because there are textures missing, which you can assign yourself. But other than that, it's more like a re-interpreter for the terrain layout. It doesn't convert all the tiles, or even perform an actual conversion. You can see the failure mostly in square terrain.

Worked for me, Farty. The one thing is fails at is converting cliffs into cliffs - it converts them into elevated terrain, as in higher-up and lower-down. It's nicer looking that way, and works as well with some pathing modification. You just need to properly assign SCII textures to SCI textures to replace them.

SC1 doesn't have textures. The conversion adds those nonexistent textures. Also, SC1's terrain uses cliffs. Why does it convert them into hills?

Yeah, yeah, tiles to textures, you get the point. Don't get all technical. I don't know why, but if I were to guess it would be because SC had weird heights - the elevation on space, the rusty under-platform in space, the raised jungle in jungle - it wouldn't work with SCII at all. So they convert them to hills, expecting you to manually add water and a pathing map. It's not ideal, but it's workable.

But especially for space platform ... D:
Also with space platform it works ... Make high platform +2 cliffs, platform +1 cliffs, and low platform/rusty pit +0 cliffs. Say good-bye to elevated catwalk.
For Jungle, high raised temple is +2, high dirt is +1, dirt is +0. Raised and high raised can work to be hills.

Also, the stupid thing is that when I imported a picture map (just to see what would happen), it generated cliffs.