Ok here's the deal. I think we should make a new map editor. SCMDraft is great and all, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

Now making a full fledged editor by yourself is a very difficult task, so I thought the community could come together and do it modularly. Each person could make a different editor, and each editor would edit a different portion of the map. For instance one person could make a terrain editor. Another could make a trigger editor. This way people can focus on doing one thing right (for example the person making the mission briefing editor might be able to add in a preview function) instead of trying to do everything.

So I'd like volunteers for this project. Here are the details:
*Select a single orange section in the collapse box below. (I might not mind if you select more than one, but try to avoid picking too many).
*You can code an editor for that section in whatever programming language you choose.
*The editor must be open source.
*Must interpret protected maps as protected and unprotected maps as unprotected (as in respect protection, but don't confuse a unprotected compressed map with a protected one)

If you adhere to those details then you'll earn:
*Unlimited programming help (many languages offered) from me, and perhaps Doodle77 to.
*When you finish the program I'll mail you a box of homemade brownies/cookies I swear.
*Other nice things perhaps.

So lets gather together as a community, build some awesome map making tools and help drive starcraft map making forward!



Project claims:
scwizard: A map grafter. Will split maps into the invisible and visible portions and graft those portions together again. Goal is to make it so that the visible portion of the map can be edited in SCMDraft for now, without running the risk of getting the invisible portion corrupted due to opening it in SCMDraft. Will also possibly have other functionality. C++ and MFC winAPI.

A_of-s_t: Plans on creating a trigger editor of some sort. C#. Details will be revealed publicly in due time.

Elvang: Expressed strong interest in contributing to this collaboration.
ClansAreForGays: Expressed interest in contributing to this collaboration.
TassadarZeratul: Expressed interest in contributing to this collaboration.

Post has been edited 11 time(s), last time on Jan 9 2009, 6:24 am by scwizard.

SEN cannot support this project.

What I thought you changed your policy.



I'm not that strongly against protection, it's just that saying that is a way to make sure that the editor opens sections without bugginess. Anyways fixed.

If you mean the way SCMDraft 2 voluntarily respects protection and does not open protected maps, then that is fine.
Protection is not a bug.

True true. Fixed etc.
I'm just worried about people being lazy and making stuff that will confuse protection and compression. I'm pretty sure I've seen SCMDraft do this on occasion.

Just saying, shouldn't this be in Tech?

Nah, tech isn't read enough.

(although if a mod wants to move it, I wouldn't complain, but apparently moose didn't see any problem with it being here or else he would have moved it, so I would assume that it's fine with him that it's here.)

This post is gonna turn into a protection war, fix em quick moose. ;o

Actually, http://www.staredit.net/forums/3/

I would like to help, but I only know C#(I don't know how anyone can live w/o AutoComplete) and I'm a novice at it(never really got file streams to work). Still, I have 3 very good C++ books that I spent good money on and MS Visual Studio 2K5 PRO(C++/C#/J#/VB). You're offer to help show how to do the things required is what caught my eye. The incentive you give is more than enough of a reason for me to put myself out here and risk rejection(which I'd understand).

Risk rejection? I don't remember saying anything about rejecting anyone.

I'll help you with learning C++, I don't know any C#. I could probably learn it (it's like java right?), but it would be a bother.

I'll PM you my contact information. Just pick a module you'd like to work on and then feel free to contact me with any questions anytime after Monday (gotta get finals week out of the way).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 20 2008, 8:47 am by scwizard.

anyway.. we can't add actions/conditions without a Loader....
I either don't know how to programm things like that, but good luck on doing so

When did I say anything about adding conditions or actions?

Did you reply to the wrong topic?

No, but I guessed that you wanted to do so, sorry, my fault >.<

One module we need is a "home screen", from which the people can load everything else. Basically, I was thinking it could read the scenario and break it down into the various pieces (Terrain, Units, etc), and when you load a module it sends that module the portion(s) of the file it needs to work. (eg. if someone tries to edit the terrain, the "home screen" module gives the terrain module everything related to terrain.) In particular, this will stop people like me from breaking stuff if their module reads/writes something incorrectly. (Basically, it provides a standard way for the various modules to communicate with the rest of the program: They send the information in whatever way is easiest for the module's programmer and then the "home" module converts that into the standard format that SC reads. Without some kind of standardized communication, the editor would probably work about as well as a triangular hamster wheel, and this is easier than making the individual programmers convert stuff themselves.)

Myself, I have some (limited) knowledge of Java and might be able to help. I'll try to do the briefing editor, but I'm not sure if I can.

This really shouldn't happen if you have any amount of competence what so ever, which is why I don't think a "home screen" module is strictly needed.

Well if the people volunteering are new to programming, it's probably best for their first task in creating a program to be splitting up a map into section and loading those sections into memory. That way I'll have an easier time walking them through the first steps, and the learning curve will be more gradual.

Finally, having some kind of "base" or "home" module would but an unnecessary burden on the person writing that module. One of the point of this project is that each program can stand on its own and the project as a whole doesn't depend on a single person to survive.

I know Java (certainly enough for your signature to make sense at least) I''ll need to brush up a tad, but I can definitely support you on that front.

Also I believe in you

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 20 2008, 4:26 pm by scwizard.

Could you please increase the size of the white text in your module box. I can't read it.

I was thinking "you can zoom in on a module you're interested in reading the technical details of by copying and pasting."

But ya I'll increase the size a step, it's under a drop down box anyway.

I can't really give you any sort of help in this, but I want to wish you the best of luck. This has the potential to be a really useful tool.

*gulp* I know I'm going to break something that way at least a few times before I get it to work...

I suppose... *is still afraid he's going to mess this up*

It would still be a good idea to have a main screen with buttons to load all the other modules... (Basically a menu screen.)

Actually, Centreri says I made a very noobish mistake in my signature code, which is one of the reasons I'm afraid to try this...

Thanks... I'm not sure if I do though...

First of all: GL on this.

I hope that your editors will support some of the following abilities:
-fully EUD support
-text based triggers (maybe same syntax like scmdraft's syntax) (allows everyone to save all triggers and write all triggers with text programs, even EUD triggers)
-ability to save maps with more than 1024 strings (can/should be another format)
-ability to delete all location names to use up less Strings (Starcraft doesn't use the location names to use it, I guess they use an index number; maybe support direct index number input, if that is possible)

I hope you will be successfull with this.