http://mkv25.net/dfma/ - DF Map Archive
With the exceptional help of SL and his very useful DF Map Compressor - you are now able create viewable DF Maps which are only 100KB. Compare this to the 50-150MB .BMP maps exported from DF and you can see how big a difference this makes..
With this smaller file size you can now upload maps to the DF Map Archive and share them with friends. On top of this; I've created a Flash based map viewer for SL's compressed file format (.fdf-map) which means you can show other users your map without wasting -their- bandwidth as well.
New Features
As of 2007-11-08, SL released version 3.0.0 of his map compressor and I updated the DFMA viewer to support multi-layer map fortresses to coincide a week after DF v0.27.169.33a was released.
As of 2007-09-23, the site was updated with gonbon's Flash based CMV player (thanks!). In the spirit of the Map Archive's map viewer, the CMV player lets you upload and view CMV files online without needing to use a standalone player.
Addtional Features
Reason for the site:
I have enjoyed many hours playing DF, and quickly joined the IRC and Forum and Wiki communities to learn more and talk about the game. There were many people who were trying to share their maps, but this was difficult because of bandwidth limits and image compression problems. It wasn't until I found SL's map compressor that I realised there was a plausible way to share full quality maps at a manageable filesize. The missing part to the puzzle was a convenient way to share/view these maps for people who couldn't decompress the files without using SL's utility. By creating the Flash viewer, this opened up the possibility of sharing maps to anyone with Flash and a webbrowser. This led to the creation of the Map Archive with an upload form and database to track submissions. The result over the past 5 months is a system full of contributions from all types of DF players, of which I am very grateful as it has widened my view and understanding of DF and in my mind strengthened the community. My hope is that the DFMA will continue to be a resource for DF players and communities as well as to help publicise DF to new players.
Visit http://mkv25.net/dfma/ to learn more, and upload your maps.
Rest of Original Post
Ok, so its name is actually just "DF Map Archive". But 'the' sounds so much cooler.
...
Feedback is more then welcome. There are a few things that might need ironing out, but over six different people (yes, you read right! S-i-x) have uploaded maps successfully. Be the seventh today!
Regards,
- Markavian
If you need to contact me, there is an email address available on the left side of the Map Upload form, and you can always send me private messages on this forum. Or reply to this post.
[ May 07, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
[ September 23, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
[ November 08, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
compact, efficient, fitting neatly between the river and the chasm, with every room planed in advance and only a couple places where i had to improvise around unforseen mountain features.
but ohmygod. Copperblazes. I didnt know it could be like that. i just didnt even imagine.
the scale of it all, and how it boldly incorporates and wholey consumes natural features rather than designing around them or cringing away from little bits of geography. it sprawls grandly from one edge of the map to the other, and manages to do it with beauty and order, but still manages to look like it just happened that way on its own.
its... awe inspiring.
Unfortunately, as cool as this is, it might not work so well once Toady updates the game again (which probably won't be for quiet a while). Still, I also want to see the final pictures of forts other people have made, which is half the fun of this game.
Selkie - use the mousewheel to scroll out/in if you have one. Then you can view the map from way above.
I'll ask Veryinky to confirm the age of his fort and update the entry when I get chance.
Genuine - I spoke briefly with ToadyOne last night on IRC and gave him a few suggestions about useful file formats for the future. I'm sure he'll consider the options and come up with something useful.
At worst, I think he could output a BMP of the current visible layer - then that would still be compatable with our map viewer.
Anyhow, I rather get the new completed version of DF with 3Dness then worry about my map archive being incompatable.
Thanks for your sumbissions so far, look forward to future fortresses; Big, small, and failed!
I think I'm going to start over.
And yes, Copperblazes is simply breathtaking to look at. I already find myself trying to make a few at least half that detailed buildings. By the way, how did the creator manage to dodge the ore veins so well? Was some mod used or how was that possible?
quote:
Originally posted by Selkie:
<STRONG>what year is copperblazes? its absolutely incredible, my only gripe is that the picture is too zoomed in....</STRONG>
I checked, the year for Veryinky's fortress Copper Blazes is definitely 1065 - 14 years in.
Zooming: - Try the scrollwheel on your mouse to zoom out/zoom in.
Jusal:
As for dodging the ore veins I don't know.
[ May 09, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Dodging ore veins: I would highlight the exposed ore to be mined, then repeat. Using my engravers to smooth out the tunnels to find any ore hidden in a diagonal since smoothing acts funny near ore veins.
I did use two hacks. granite.exe to allow ore smoothing (you can see a smoothed out gold vein in the cooridor between the ore depots). Otherwise, I would just dig out the ore and try to plan out the fort so it looked like I planned it that way. (look at the wall which seperates the fort and the giant tree farm, most of those "side entrances" were simply me trying to get access to ore and then making it look like I ment to do that)
The other hack is teleport.exe, since my fort has 22 children right now, and at any given moment, one is starving or dieing of thirst while stuck on the magma smelters (I /HATE/ that bug)
The axe is a 1200+ 1x1 bridge made out of silver, bronze, brass blocks (plus grey, white, dark stone). If you've ever watched lord of the rings, you'll figure out who my fort's patron saint is.
At this point, my fort is mostly gearing up for taking out the demon pits and finaly "too deeping" it so adventurers will have something interesting to explore. (my elite soldiers are equiped with masterpiece steel plate, studded with gold, decorated with unicorn leather (yeah I modded them to be butcherable after they killed one too many dwarves) and dimple died silk). The non elite dwarves get simple exceptional steel with bronze trim and unicorn leather. Fort guards get simple exceptional bronze and the newly formed royal guards get masterpiece bronze.
My fort's favorite features are the "Castle", the arena gladiator pit (designated as a barracks by a weapon rack, which goblin prisoners are released to fight my training soldiers), and the "Vault")
... that's about it.
Oh, edit. My fort's net worth is now 23 million. Lots of gold/platinum crafts along with steel armor/weapons helped. My goal is for 100 before it "too deeps".
[ May 08, 2007: Message edited by: veryinky ]
[ May 08, 2007: Message edited by: Slartibartfast ]
quote:
Originally posted by Slartibartfast:
<STRONG>So... Anyone know how to get the Adobe Flash Player 9 to work on firefox, or should I just skip this site?)
</STRONG>
It would be a terrible thing if you couldn't visit the site. Try the link on this page to install the latest version of Flash in FF: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows.html#Flash
and read the information here: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/flash.html
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>It would be a terrible thing if you couldn't visit the site. Try the link on this page to install the latest version of Flash in FF: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows.html#Flash
and read the information here: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/flash.html</STRONG>
Thanks, works great. The site is really cool too :)
By pressing F1 to F... (or 1 to 9), the user could navigate from one bookmark to the other. And a little bit of text would be displayed at the bottom. So it would be easier to show the interesting spot, and link comment to it.
Any comment ?
of course, i hate to volunteer other people for work. unless its Herrbdog.
Volunteer me to reprogram it? Sure, I can squeeze it in, on the 38th of Februtober! =D
Boss is gone for the day, working on 16x16 now! (almost done! of course, is art ever done?)
quote:
Originally posted by flap:
<STRONG>To shadowlord, a suggestion for DF Map Compressor :
That might be interesting if we could add bookmarks on the map, with a bit comment associated to each.By pressing F1 to F... (or 1 to 9), the user could navigate from one bookmark to the other. And a little bit of text would be displayed at the bottom. So it would be easier to show the interesting spot, and link comment to it.
Any comment ?</STRONG>
Map Archive Update:
I've come up with the next best thing. I definitely took your suggestions to heart because its a great way to improve maps as a resource and implemented a "Points of Interest" system (couldn't think of a better name)... that lets you do something very similar to the above.
Speaking to SL, adding map zoom points to his compressor wouldn't really be easy since its more of an encoded and less of a viewer.
However, take for example: http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/viewmap.php?view_poiid=5
Look to the left hand side, "Points of Interest" - I've added a list of places around the fortress you can visit at the click of a button - complete with descriptions.
And you can add your own, to anyone's map. Be kind, be constructive, or just be funny - try it out.
DF Map Archive: http://mkv25.net/dfma/
[ May 20, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Thanks to everyone who's submitted a map so far and helped test that it all works. Hopefully the site will continue to grow as a resource for people to reference from, and a maybe learn a few tips and tricks from other players.
Edit: There have been 73 maps uploaded and 36 points of interest (ok, most from me) added so far!
If you've not seen already, two very cool maps:
Sigunlokum - 1065 by puke - http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/viewmap.php?view_mapid=61
Copperblazes - 1065 by Veryinky - http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/viewmap.php?view_mapid=13
[ May 21, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
There are now over 100 maps uploaded by DF players! And what a great selection there is. I'm always seeking to improve the site, so any suggestions are welcome. I'm thinking a 'view random map' feature might be useful.
Now you can comment on maps, useful I'm sure.
2008-05-20
[ May 28, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Recent points of interest:
[ May 28, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Zhentar - I'm a fraid not - you'll have to tell me which map you've messed up and I'll remove it for you. Since I've got your name I'll scout the system and try and figure out which one...
http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/browseby.php?author=Zhentar
^ One of the steelfields maps? Please give me the Map ID if you can.</STRONG>
Map ID 100 should be 1054. Thanks.
quote:
Originally posted by Zhentar:
<STRONG>Map ID 100 should be 1054. Thanks.</STRONG>
Zhentar, Your map has been updated!
Steelfields - 1054 by Zhentar - From an SA succession game. This is after turn three, by myself, Zhentar.
(I wish their was a preview function on this forum)
[ June 02, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
2007-06-02
New points of Interest
quote:
Originally posted by Elshar:
<STRONG>Cool. Just keeps getting better. You know, I was thinking maybe one good thing to add might be some kind of voting/ranking system for the maps or mapsets. Would be kind of cool to see at a glance which ones people really like.</STRONG>
It would also suck for newbies who would be afraid to post simpler maps for fear of being rated as losers.
quote:
Originally posted by Slartibartfast:
<STRONG>It would also suck for newbies who would be afraid to post simpler maps for fear of being rated as losers.</STRONG>
Yeup, that was my thinking as well. The simplest system would be to give a map a "Star" rating, but I'd have to restrict that per user (to stop vote spamming)... and that'd mean setting up user accounts and logging people in... And for a voting system, that's quite a bit of effort for little benefit.
Update
Keep up with your suggestions, if you have any problems, e.g. had trouble finding a map, or something you saw on their before, give me a shout; I'm always looking to improve the interface.
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Zhentar, Your map has been updated!
Steelfields - 1054 by Zhentar - From an SA succession game. This is after turn three, by myself, Zhentar.(I wish their was a preview function on this forum)
[ June 02, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]</STRONG>
Awesome, thanks.
You can get the java version from the same place as the C# version: http://shadowlord13.googlepages.com/dfmap-index.html
All in all, if you can use the C# version, it's better - There's no reason to use the java version unless you can't use the C# version (which means anyone on a Mac, on linux, on anything non-windows, or on a really old windows like windows 98).
The java version uses Swing to show a simple GUI, which means you can't run it without being able to run graphical java stuff in general.
P.S. I used the 1.5 JDK (meaning for java 5), which means that if you have a Mac, or if you don't have Java 6 (1.6) yet, you should still be able to use it (as long as you have java 5, at least).
Limitations in the java version: Can only read image files and write fdf-map files, can't show a preview of the map, doesn't try to guess your DF folder, always requires you to specify the tile size, uses more RAM (despite using the same amount of data in the same size buffers as the C# version), may take a little longer to compress than the C# version, and currently doesn't remember where you last had it compress an image or what the last tile size you specified was (but I may attempt to implement those last two things).
There's more information on the page for the compressor.
[ June 05, 2007: Message edited by: Shadowlord ]
[ June 05, 2007: Message edited by: Shadowlord ]
2) make it a bit more efficient, if possible. it jerks badly half the time in opera when scrolling in any direction via any means x.x
How about making it so both the Add Comments menu and the Add Point Of Interest menu are hidden by default. Or perhaps both visible by default.
If you'll look at the latest map I uploaded (which is interesting, as well as recommended for begginers since I tried to describe in detail with explanations most of the important and interesting areas) Gasolurvad you'll see the slew of comments I accidentally made trying to add points of interest.
EDIT: Also, it was said that you can use UBB code, but as you can see from this map, IMG doesn't work, or doesn't work as I use it over here, so perhaps some clarification as to how to use it would be nice (hopefuly that clarification will also be clearly visible in the map archive for future uploaders)
[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Slartibartfast ]
quote:
Originally posted by Slartibartfast:
<STRONG>A suggestion:How about making it so both the Add Comments menu and the Add Point Of Interest menu are hidden by default. Or perhaps both visible by default.
...
...you'll see the slew of comments I accidentally made trying to add points of interest.
...
EDIT: Also, it was said that you can use UBB code, but as you can see from this map, IMG doesn't work, or doesn't work as I use it over here,[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Slartibartfast ]</STRONG>
Hi Slartibartfast,
RE: Comments / POI Form - I was thinking of 'merging' these two forms with a checkbox that differentiates between a 'comment' and a 'point of interest'. That way people could attach comments to viewable areas of the map.
RE: I've cleaned up the comments that were meant to be PoIs, sorry about the bad form design - even I've been caught out myself.
RE: BBCode - I've updated the BBCode function to account for your BBCode, so your images work now. Previous I was searching for the format: [img=someurl.gif]image label[/ img].
Now it picks up [img]someurl.gif[/ img] as well.
I will make a summary page of all the BBCode supported at somepoint, haven't got round to doing that yet.
Great map btw.
- Markavian
quote:
Originally posted by Jaqie Fox:
<STRONG>Great site! two requests:
1) make it so the height of the viewing window is adjustable or we have a couple choices in that.2) make it a bit more efficient, if possible. it jerks badly half the time in opera when scrolling in any direction via any means x.x</STRONG>
Hi Jaquie Fox,
RE 1) Adjustable - possible to do, but how? At the moment (if you've got javascript enabled) its designed to fill the vertical viewing area of your screen once you scroll down past the title + description. I presume you'd want to make it 'shorter' to fit the map + text on at the same time? Can you tell me more?
RE 2) About it jerking badly, can you give me your system specs, e.g. Process type/speed, amount of memory, operating system?
- I've not tried the map viewer in Opera but I believe it uses the same viewer plugin as Mozilla/Firefox (as apposed to the IE version). Anyhow, most lag is caused by one of two things 1) the rendering of the map from the downloaded map data, 2) a lack of memory causing page faults - the maps when fully rendered can be as big as the original BMP.
If you have a fast processor and plenty of memory (2GHz, 512MB of memory) then the problem may lie with Opera's display of the Flash viewer, e.g. its memory management / memory allocation.
I make no excuse that the program may not be as efficient as it could be, but does create a large amount of image information from the data stored in the fdf-map files, and that process uses memory and processing power. I'm not sure there's much I can do to make it run more efficiently without knowing more about your system.
Thanks for visiting (all!), its great to hear from the users.
Regards,
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/
[ June 10, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
The viewer runs swimmingly on my work station, a 2.8GHz Pentium, with 512MB of memory, Windows 2000. It works fine on my Home PC a 1.6GHz Athlon, 768MB of memory, Windows XP, and on my laptop 2.0GHz Pentium 1GB of memory, also on Windows XP - using a combination of IE6/FF (and IE7 on my home PC).
Thanks for the info Jaqie, I'll look into it.
So my lovely statue garden will still be a POI when I upload a version of my map the next year.
2007-06-18
Visit the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive - http://mkv25.net/dfma/
quote:
Originally posted by Slartibartfast:
<STRONG>Another suggestion, how about an easy way to copy POIs from previous versions of a map to newer ones?So my lovely statue garden will still be a POI when I upload a version of my map the next year.</STRONG>
Very good suggestion. I have considered this before, but I haven't yet decided on the best and simplest way to implement this.
I'm thinking that the best way is to have a button/links titled 'Share PoI with future maps'...
... this would make a PoI available across any future maps from the moment of time that it was created. The shared PoI would then be displayed across multiple maps of the same name and ascending year numbers.
This assumes that once a Point of Interest is created and 'shared', it never dissapears from future maps. There may be the situation where a PoI is created and shared for say 'A farm', but then the farm is moved/abandonned, inwhich case the shared PoI would be out of date. An issue, but not a major one.
From a technical side of things, I think I would make this work by creating a new table to store references to 'shared PoIs'. This would simply be a relational table referencing the original PoI ID (poiid) and its Map ID (mapid).
When selecting PoI's for a map, the query would then take into account additional PoIs that in the Shared PoI table, for PoIs that have the same fortress name and a fortress year <= the current map.
This brings up another issue with the 'Fortress Year' which is a bit messy at the moment and needs revising. I might limit it to a 4 digit number, and add an additional field 'Season', which will either range from 'Spring', 'Summer', 'Autumn', 'Winter' OR to 'Mid-Spring' to 'Late-Winter'.
See: http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/User_talk:Markavian/DFMapArchive
well it seems to only have this issue in firefox. and i can't play any flash.. so never mind >.<
[ June 22, 2007: Message edited by: nicholasneko ]
Try visiting http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer/ - install flash, then try again.
Its been working fine for me in FireFox, so I don't think anything is wrong with the server code (which was tweaked a few days ago).
(But if the black bars aren't in the bmp, then yes, it would be the fault of the compressor, and if so I would like you to convert the bmp into a png using an image editing program, and then upload the png somewhere and link to it (after making sure whereever you uploaded it didn't resize it) so I can do tests with it.)
Assuming that the bands are in the bmp too, meaning it isn't the compressor's fault:
If DF isn't destroying any image data (and it doesn't look like it is), then in theory I could make the map compressor try to look for this kind of thing and strip out the black bands. But right now, I don't know whether the black bands are always the same size in pixels, or in tiles, or whether DF always adds the bands if the map is a certain width in tiles, or if the tile size is a certain value, and so on.
From looking at that map, it looks like your tiles are 10x16, the valid area between black bands is 800 pixels wide (or 80 tiles), and the black bands are 320 pixels wide (or 32 tiles). (I only measured one section each, and I'm assuming that the width doesn't vary)
I have a couple questions:
1. Do all your bmps from that fort have banding? (and how many bmps from that fort do you have, from different years)
2. Do you have multiple forts, and if so, do all your fort bmps have banding?
3. Did you make those bmps from windowed or fullscreen mode?
4. If you have more than one bmp with banding, could you check the width of one of the valid areas and the width of one of the black bands, in each image, to see if they are always 800 pixels and 320 pixels for you?
If anyone else has a bmp written by DF with black bands in it, can you report what your tile size was, what the width of the valid areas and of the black bands were for you, and whether you exported the images from windowed or fullscreen?
(As a side note, the map compressor already checks for and works around one or two other oddities in map bmps written by DF, one of which is that DF sometimes writes map bmps whose width is not a multiple of the tile width)
[ June 22, 2007: Message edited by: Shadowlord ]
Map Archive Updates - USER LOGINS
2007-06-30
2007-08-02
[ July 01, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Though I doubt you added some features in the future :eek: perhaps you meant 2007-07-02
just he didnt write that there as it is top secret and only usable by admins of that site..
[ July 03, 2007: Message edited by: Faces of Mu ]
quote:
Originally posted by Slartibartfast:
<STRONG>Pretty cool, I registered yesterday.Though I doubt you added some features in the future ;)
I'm just trying to wake myself up to program in the edit features for PoIs and comments.
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>I'm just trying to wake myself up to program in the edit features for PoIs and comments.</STRONG>
xxxx.xxx@yyyy.com
(It ACCEPTS it but doesn't send the email, while when I used a 'normal' hotmail one it got sent instantly)
Nice idea and great site though :)
quote:
Originally posted by Haedrian:
<STRONG>For some reason or other it didn't want to send the email to my ISP's account, because it has a . in it?xxxx.xxx@yyyy.com
(It ACCEPTS it but doesn't send the email, while when I used a 'normal' hotmail one it got sent instantly)
Nice idea and great site though :)</STRONG>
Do you get an error when you use your ISP's email, or do you just not receive an email, because there's no reason why it shouldn't send. Looking at the current list of users, there are several other's with "."'s in their email addresses who have registered and confirmed their account without issue.
Its more likely that @maltanet.net is blocking the email as spam or some such. I only request an email address to confirm your account, and make clear that you are non a spambot - which I can confirm from this discussion ^_^.
Regards,
- Markavian
[ July 21, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
2007-07-22
2007-07-20
If you want more "top secret" details about whats up next, then read down to the Future of the Map Archive section on the news/development page.
Then a message by each map would say "This map has been favourited 12 times". (for example).
rewolf31, if you really want, I could add a 'watch this map series' function that sends updates each time a new map is added. Like you suggest, this would be tied loosly into the favourites system. I'm not sure it'd get much use though (hence is it worth the effort?).
puke, I want to keep away from 1-5 ratings if possible. I really don't want to discourage new players from uploading their maps. If its just a simple 1 star favourites system, at least you (the visitor) can keep track of your favourite maps, and new visitors to the site can see popular maps, without implying/making anyone feel like they posted a 'bad' map.
At the moment I'm writing a "browse points of interest" page, similar to browse maps and browse comments.
Next I'll be reworking the map year numbering system, simplifying year to a four digit number and adding an extra field for "season".
This will allow / lead onto points of interest sharing across multiple fortresses in the same series.
2007-07-26
Points of interest:
(Corrected Green Glass road PoI)
[ July 28, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
quote:
Originally posted by nicholasneko:
<STRONG>tryed that, eventually just removed firefox completely and all its subfolders, works fine now ^.^</STRONG>
You're not actually using Internet Explorer, are you? *gasp*
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Update:2007-07-26
- Added Browse Points of Interest page
- Improved page numbering of entries over 20 pages
Points of interest:
- Oddomnol, (Cloistertongue) - Twin swords
- Knotshot - Green glass road
- Bad World Map - The Lake of Straightening
http://mkv25.net/dfma/</STRONG>
Woohoo! My infamous bad map has made it onto the forums! Woohoo! :)
I've actually lost the original world data, but it was created while running MIRC in the background and browsing the web. I seem to get the BMP error (lines or gaps) when I run external programs while creating my worlds. I'm fairly positive it's just a BMP writing glitch. Toady, perhaps you can look into this? As soon as I leave DF in the foreground and don't touch anything else, it makes a good map and writes a BMP with no lines, perfectly, every time. As soon as I multi-task, that's when the BMP's get all out of whack.
[ July 26, 2007: Message edited by: schm0 ]
quote:
Originally posted by schm0:
<STRONG>...I'm fairly positive it's just a BMP writing glitch. Toady, perhaps you can look into this? As soon as I leave DF in the foreground and don't touch anything else, it makes a good map and writes a BMP with no lines, perfectly, every time. As soon as I multi-task, that's when the BMP's get all out of whack.[ July 26, 2007: Message edited by: schm0 ]</STRONG>
Toady has already tweaked the BMP writing code to stop this sort of thing from happening, so no worries! He's been on the case already!
2007-07-28 - Map Archive News
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The map archive will be going through some structural changes in the following weeks that will affect the numbering of fortress years. The field for year will be changed so it only accepts integer characters, in the format ####, e.g. 1054. A new, separate field will be added for season (Early Spring, Mid Spring - Late Winter). If you have uploaded a fortress map more frequently then twice a year, the order of your map listing may change. You may need to edit your map information after the change. This change is being introduced to allow new features of the system to be developed.
I've added some count statistics to the Recent Activity page. I may add some graphs at a later time.
then I get this error:
Could not find specified item! Please check the mapid (Received: 0).
Halp?
quote:
Originally posted by Xgamer4:
<STRONG>If I try to do anything involving the comment box... then I get this error:
Could not find specified item! Please check the mapid (Received: 0).</STRONG>
Hi Xgamer4, this is fixed now, you caught a bug midway through me updating the system. Sorry that you had to be exposed to that grueling error, but it does work now!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The old map field "Fortress Year" has been superceded by "Map Year" and "Map Season". This change has been made to give a more consistant numbering and ordering to each map series. This tweak paves the way for new features in the system, including shared Points of Interest and Map Histories. The old information stored in the "Fortress Year" field should still be available if you view the map, but you will not be able to edit or post to this field from now on. Posted 2007-07-31
News!
2007-07-31
Visit the DF Map Archive today - http://mkv25.net/dfma/
Recent points of interest:
[ August 15, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
quote:
Originally posted by Gaulgath:
<STRONG>I think I found a bug. I went to submit a comment to a map and the "Your Name" box was filled in with the map submitter's username.</STRONG>
Hey Gaulgath, I've uploaded a patch that might fix the problem... but which page did you see the problem on? If it is still happening, please send me the page URL. Is it before or after you submit your comment that it is filled out?
I knew there were going to be a few bugs lying around... this last batch of code has been a bit thrown together.
Kind regards,
- Markavian
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Added Points of Interest (PoI) Sharing </STRONG>
Very cool!
However, could you perhaps do it so if you input a year-start and year-end for a POI it automatically put a V on POI Sharing? (Just a minor suggestion :))
Although mentioned below, a big thanks to gonbon for approaching me with his Flash based CMV viewer.
2007-09-22
Ref: CMV files are copyright ToadyOne, I hope he doesn't mind me redistributing them on my website.
Turgid Bolk, ^_^
Slartibartfast, I understand, but I decided that it would be incorrect to assume a PoI should always be shared. There are many 'instance' based PoIs such as herds of elephants, dead goblins, etc. that get documented; the submitter is less likely to accidently submit these types of PoIs as shared then they are deliberately making them shared when need be. This prevents confusion of PoIs which weren't meant to be shared displaying something completely different (such as a patch of grass where once the elephants were). Don't mind me, I think about these things too much.
[ September 22, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
I just had some great drama go down in my fortress, if I had seen this I would have captured it!
I don't use Flash or JavaScript, and don't plan to use it. I could work with JavaScript but I'll never install Flash on this computer. Would there be a way to see the maps without use of Flash?
Probably not a good question, I know... But since you asked... ;)
Edit: Erm, didn't noticed the other pages... Sorry for that. :p
The question still stand, though.
[ September 22, 2007: Message edited by: Eagle of Fire ]
The only non Flash option I can suggest at present is getting ShadowLords's (SL's) compressor, download the map files to your computer and then manually decompress to .PNG files. If you want to do this, I can make the file download link more accessible (since it isn't visible at the moment).
I'm actually adverse to using JS; you don't need JavaScript to access the site, its only there to enhance some of the features. I'm limited by what I know; by which I mean I know how to use Flash and I saw an opportunity to display maps in a bandwidth friendly way across the internet.
These maps are simply too large to display without some kind of utility (I'm thinking google maps, yahoo maps), but those types of mapping solutions require a huge amount of server and bandwidth investment. Unless anyone knows how to create an alternate image decoder plugin that you're happy to install, then the Flash viewer is the only option I can offer. However, I wouldn't be suprised if that an image decoder plugin was less tangible/accessible/featureful then installing and using Flash.
I suppose it would be possible to create a Java based map decoder/viewer, would that interest you? My only objection to that is that less people have access to Java then Flash and I'm not sure the time required would justify making it.
If you use FireFox, and are adverse to Flash because of adverts, might I suggest the Flashblock or FasterFox plugins. They both come with Flash blockers that require you to click (play) to begin a Flash applet. The DF Map Archive seems to work quite well with FlashBlocker without allowing Flash to be a pain.
Best regards,
- Markavian
For example, the Titan Hates Nobles video would probably fetch a high'ish rating along with a "Funny" tag. (Although, it might also warrant "Informative" for showing the correct way to deal with a mostly-Noble immigration wave.)
quote:
Originally posted by TetrisChili:
<STRONG> I recommend a rating system (and/or Slashdot-style tagging like "Funny", "Informative", or "Toady").</STRONG>
Hey TetrisChili, I was planning on a Favourite's system for the site so that registered users could keep track of their favourie entries (maps, pois, videos). The number of favourite 'stars' would be displayed next to each post.
e.g. "This video has been favourited by 29 people".
I'm not sure I like the Informative/Funny tagging, although there's no reason why I can't add something like that in. For example, when the user clicks to 'favourite' an item, there could be a drop down for 'reason', 'Funny', 'Informative', 'Cool', 'Stylish', 'No reason', etc...
... the favourites would also come up on the User page, showing what you or another user liked most from the website. Haven't started on this yet, but that's my intention.
- Markavian
To be frank, I never understood the need of a special site to host DF maps. I think everybody could do just fine hosting those maps on sites like Imageshack, I don't understand why everybody love your site so much. I am guessing that there is some functionabilities that appeal to them, but since it's Flash I'll never realy know from this computer.
If there would be a direct link to the map files instead, it would be way fine for me. I then could do whatever I want with it from here. And if I need a special program to uncompress them first, fine by me again as long as it's not something which require Java or Flash installed on my computer again (note that Java is different from JavaScript). :)
Eagle of Fire, I have added a message that should display in an orange box below the map applet that should say:
quote:
Don't have Flash?
You can download the compressed map file: map_name.fdf-map but you will either need the .NET or Java version of SL's DF Map Compressor to convert to the .PNG image format.
I had intended that only people without Flash see that message, but apparently Firefox has decided to show that message all of the time. Its hidden for IE users who have the Flash control disabled.
To answer your other points Eagle, be you interested or not: I created the DF map archive mainly for people to share maps in a bandwidth friendly manner that preserved the quality. This was made possible by ShadowLord's compressor. However, without the Flash based map viewer, ShadlowLord's compressor wasn't very well used/distributed and not many people knew how to view maps. With the Flash viewer, statisticly speaking, at least 89% of internet computer users can view the maps. So this isn't the 100% coverage that exists when you use .JPG or .PNG files shared at various places around the internet but the quality is perfect (unlike .JPG) and the filesize is 10x smaller then a fullres optimized .PNG. Having compressed files that are on average 70KB (as apposed to 700KB) makes a huge difference to people on slow connections.
Other benefits of the map archive + viewer include: central place to find DF maps, story tagging, fast zooming, points of interest / labelling of map locations.
I completely know the difference between Java and JavaScript. I illuded to Java because its an alternative to Flash. I considered that if you didn't like Flash, you might be willing to use a Java viewer as an alternative. I hope you don't mind installing .NET because that's the only other program format (other then Flash or Java) currently available that lets you decode/view fdf-maps.
I'm a long time supporter of Flash, I'd encourage you to install and use it for accessing the map archive. If you don't like it, uninstall or disable it.
As a side note; the map archive has received many fewer visits this month then last. Although map submissions have still been strong the statistics suggest to me a curb in peoples' interest.
Regards,
- Markavian
[ September 24, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
As for why there are fewer visits this month... it is September, which means school or college starting for a lot of folks. That would be my guess. Or maybe the close proximity to the new version has made people less interested in current fortresses?
I downloaded the compressor, but it appears I don't have the .net 2.0something required to run it... Any idea where I could get that?
quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire:
<STRONG>I downloaded the compressor, but it appears I don't have the .net 2.0something required to run it... Any idea where I could get that?</STRONG>
To use SL's Map Compressor you need:
I'm suprised that the orange message didn't show up with JavaScript disabled. That does worry me. What web browser are you using Eagle?
Hey Mzbundifund, I'm glad you like the site. Maybe you're right about people being busy with other things - even I have started visiting the site less over the past few weeks.
Best regards,
- Markavian
[ September 24, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Odd: When the flash animation is blocked by Flashblock, the orange box only shows after I allow the flash animation.
quote:
What web browser are you using Eagle?
Edit:
quote:
System Requirements* Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 98; Windows 98 Second Edition; Windows ME; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition; Windows XP Service Pack 2
[ September 25, 2007: Message edited by: Eagle of Fire ]
quote:
Originally posted by Savok:
<STRONG>Can you try to remove the orange box for Firefox users?</STRONG>
Hey Savok, I've moved the orange box to the left bar and grouped it with the original "Problems" box. Both are now hidden when the map successfully loads (provided JavaScript and Flash are both working). If things are working as they should, uou can see them for about a second before the map loads.
Arkan15, yes; ShadowLord has already updated his compressor to make a 3D .FDF-MAP file format that is generated from a series of sequentially numbered bitmap files. I still need to write a new version of the map viewer that supports this format. I also need to update the map viewer to provide better caching / re-rendering of tiles to keep the memory footprint down. I imagine I'll have use the Page Up / Page Down keys to move vertically through the levels. I may add a control toolbar in the next version for people who prefer to use the mouse.
Eagle of Fire, if you haven't upgraded to SP2 yet then I'm labelling you as a lost cause. I've done as much as I can to support you, but you have to help yourself at somepoint along the way.
- Markavian
quote:
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Slartibartfast, I understand, but I decided that it would be incorrect to assume a PoI should always be shared. There are many 'instance' based PoIs such as herds of elephants, dead goblins, etc. that get documented; the submitter is less likely to accidently submit these types of PoIs as shared then they are deliberately making them shared when need be. This prevents confusion of PoIs which weren't meant to be shared displaying something completely different (such as a patch of grass where once the elephants were). Don't mind me, I think about these things too much.</STRONG>
I never upgraded to SP2, and this was donne willingly. SP2 cause more problem than it solve for old games, and that's mainly what I play.
I am intrigued, though, why does people who make some programs for fun (and thus are not professinals who do that all the time) always either use Flash, Java, or something which require that .net thing. All external programs which need to be installed on a computer prior to use. And which are security risks for computers (well, I am guessing the .net thing is one too).
I've read such a discussion in another forum not too long ago. They were saying that using aforementioned programs is way easier in term of code than what it was before with, let's say, C. But which is probably also why there is such a slipup in coding (and thus bugs) in new games, as the effort required to do something so big so good is now gone, reducing greatly the time needed to do the coding itself...
I guess I'm just wondering why we just don't see some standard executables (.exe) files for things such as the map archive or another other fan made programs anymore...
quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire:
<STRONG>I am intrigued, though, why does people who make some programs for fun (and thus are not professinals who do that all the time) always either use Flash, Java, or something which require that .net thing.</STRONG>
[ September 26, 2007: Message edited by: Slartibartfast ]
quote:
Originally posted by Eagle of Fire:
<STRONG>I am intrigued, though, why does people who make some programs for fun (and thus are not professinals who do that all the time) always either use Flash, Java, or something which require that .net thing. All external programs which need to be installed on a computer prior to use.</STRONG>
Also:
quote:is just laughable, especially considering your suggestion:
<STRONG>And which are security risks for computers (well, I am guessing the .net thing is one too).</STRONG>
quote:Which is a much greater security risk than flash could ever be.
<STRONG>I guess I'm just wondering why we just don't see some standard executables (.exe) files for things such as the map archive or another other fan made programs anymore...</STRONG>
And your point about new games being more buggy because of .NET/Java/whatever is pretty much moot considering most new (large, commercial) games still don't use a managed language because of the performance hit.
2007-11-08
Here are some examples:
Here's hoping for a new generation of fantastic creations.
> 'LET THE GAMES BEGIN.' <
(http://mkv25.net/dfma/artwork/instructions_v2.png)
SL's DF Map Compressor: http://shadowlord13.googlepages.com/dfmap-index.html
Call for action
Please, if you have spent your time uploading multi-layer forts as separate layers, I salute your efforts... but this is not the way the map archive was intended to be used. It is my own fault for not publishing a warning sooner, but; Anyone who has uploaded multi-layer forts as separate layers, please remove them and upload a new version using the new .fdf-map compressor.
(Any forts not switched over will be removed some time in by the end of next month.)
[ November 08, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
I'm using Firefox and the Flash 9 plugin, if that matters.
quote:
Originally posted by Freddybear:
<STRONG>Stupid question, but how do I navigate between layers on the map viewer?I'm using Firefox and the Flash 9 plugin, if that matters.</STRONG>
Echo.
I'm using a laptop with no numpad either, and 4 6 8 and 2 don't seem to do anything when using the numbers across the top.
quote:
Originally posted by Gaulgath:
<STRONG>Page up and Page Down to view different z-levels.</STRONG>
Yeah, I just saw that on the front page. Should be added to the navigation instructions on the fortress view pages.
Any idea why this might be?
Change layer:
To the Map instructions box. I'm planning to add visible control interface in the top left or top right corner in the next version. This will allow you to view the number of layers and the actual layer depth (as reported by DF). I'll put zoom in, zoom out, move up layer, and move down layer buttons on there as well.
The Firefox and IE versions of Flash should work the same (they do for me!), sorry the keys weren't more obvious. I'll remember to mark <and> (and , and .) as valid keys in the next version, since thats what I use when playing DF. (Stairs up, stairs down...) ... are those the default? sinoth, the only reason <and> don't work at the moment is because I pencilled in the shortcuts months ago before DF even looked like it was going to be released, and have been used to using Page up / Page down ever since... it never crossed my mind to make the viewer more like DF :) ::doh::
Fun fact: Shift+Arrow key moves faster around the map
Any other suggestions or preferences for keys shortcuts are welcome, there are plenty of keyboard combinations after all.
If you -are- using FireFox, and you click on the Add Point of Interest link, you will see a working Select menu that displays the current layer, and the number of layers. The javascript I've used for for Select menus doesn't work in IE though.
quote:
Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>I have a performance problem with the new viewer. On the first try the viewer completely froze my browser (Firefox) for 30 seconds for every action I made like moving on the same level, changing level, or zooming. Then after some minutes it began doing things faster but still it takes like 5 seconds or so to complete any action.Any idea why this might be?</STRONG>
Hey Zemat, which map were you viewing? Did you zoom all the way out?
The biggest challenge with the new viewer was trying to manage the memory usage of flash so that it wouldn't crash lower end computers, like mine. Each layer is a huge, fully decompressed image. It hurts, it really does, and I'm abusing your processor as much as possible to rerender blocks as quickly as possible, but there needs to be a trade off between performance and memory usage.
The memory manager runs every 4 seconds, looping through all blocks, in all layers, to see what it can clear out. It is possible to go over the maximum number of blocks limit by switching up and down through the maps quickly, rendering more tiles then your computer can handle and quicker then the memory manager can clean them out.
At the moment, the maximum number of blocks is 2 x map width * map height... so that at least two full layers can be held in memory. On big maps, this is double what the old viewer would handle, and this may cause significant pain. However, the viewer has also been improved to -only- render the blocks that are visible, so, as long as you don't move around too much (say, only viewing the Points of Interest) you should find it nippy. I may, if more problems are reported, reduce the maximum number of block to 1 layer's worth at the cost of more re-rendering of tiles.
There are plans for an even newer version of the viewer that supports zoom-level caching, which will be much more memory efficient, but I don't know when I'll have time to implement it.
For now, please test your forts, and get back to me or SL with any problems! I think SL has done a sterling job with his compressor, its even easier to use then ever, and he's integrated my viewer in so you can preview maps offline.
Regards,
- Markavian http://mkv25.net/dfma/
It also seems to go slower during the first minutes of watching a map regardless of not changing level at all or if I zoom or not. Then after some time it still goes slow but faster.
[ November 09, 2007: Message edited by: Zemat ]
Right now if you tried to feed the compressor an exported image or images from a max size fort (~450 MB here), it would very likely run out of RAM and virtual memory while attempting to read and process the image (even though it only keeps the data as long as necessary and then frees it, and only reads and processes one image at a time) - but not before Windows had forced everything else into virtual memory in an attempt to provide more memory. (Yes, I actually tried it to see what would happen. I only have 1 GB of RAM, however, so it MIGHT work if you had 2 GB or more.)
P.S. You don't have to worry about overloading the compressor by asking it to process 29 layers of images. If it can handle one image, it can handle just as well 29 images which each have the same filesize as the first image.
(Its either that, or spend a lot of time rewriting the way the viewer handles zoom levels, which I don't have the time for right now.)
(This was meant to be an edit of the above post).
[ November 09, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
To be honest, I run a lot of crap at the same time, all the time (Winamp, Bitorrent, Firefox, DF, Programming IDEs and research experiments), so maybe that's why the viewer is slow. But still it's only the viewer. Every other flash app I deal with runs just fine. Even the old viewer.
I will give it a try again. Maybe my machine is on a bad mood and needs a reboot (can't do that often because of the experiments).
quote:
Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>To be honest, I run a lot of crap at the same time, all the time (Winamp, Bitorrent, Firefox, DF, Programming IDEs and research experiments)...</STRONG>
Heh, that's ok Zemat, if the old viewer didn't cause problems, theres no reason this new one should either. I'll see if I can make it move to an 'idle' state where its not trying to do any work if you've got it open in the background. At the moment, its set to check the memory usage every 4 secs, which is fine while using... but probably over the top for an idle state.
Updates!
2007-11-12
2007-11-10
No time for the map viewer this week, not if my conciense and work ethic for uni have anything to say. (appologies in advance).
I finally curbed into the pressure of not having a comments section on the movie player. Even I was finding it frustrating not being able to add my banter to the submissions. There's a load of new movies on there, I can barely keep up with watching them myself (but its always a pleasure to see something new!). There are some neat forts going up as well, check the Recent Maps page to see!
Also:
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/
I know this sound ambitious, but it might be easier (or harder) than it seems.
In addition to maps and movies, I think it may also be good whit an world/seed section at The Archive, depending on how thoroughly you implement it it will most likely be an copy-paste job, as this is actually technically very possible -and even done by uploading the world map as a fortress map and including the seed in the map description, however, as I have understood it based on mostly the names of data entry fields this is not proper use of the DFMA.
This could reduce forum clutter and make seeds easier to find by collecting them all in one place, replacing treads like "The perfect seed"(good place for initial content if you implement this)
This would as I said probably not need a new application, the old pre-Z map viewer would probably be the best choice considering the world maps 2D nature.
The seed archive should probably contain:
- The seed (naturally)
- The name of the world it generates
- Any parameter exept the seed that may affect the outcome (theorized parameters in this category; custom name(y/n), OS, DF version)
- General description of the world
Maybe a "starting sites" in addition/instead of "points of interest"?
I have a some more ideas on this if you are the slightest interested, just ask me in this very tread. (unless I forget them)
Also; on both this suggestion and the normal map archive; it would be nice if the poster could include an link to an eventual save on some [whatever it called, somewhere you upload, rapidshare is a bad but sufficing example], this would not be required by any means, but might be useful in case there is already an save file anyways, for example a succession game.
If my seed-archive suggestion comes true, this will also be of great help to people that have a different OS or for some other reason can't generate the world properly.
just my +copper coin[2]+.
Great job Markavian! :D
quote:
Originally posted by Armok:
<STRONG>Suggestion:
- The seed (naturally)
- The name of the world it generates
- Any parameter exept the seed that may affect the outcome (theorized parameters in this category; custom name(y/n), OS, DF version)
- General description of the worldMaybe a "starting sites" in addition/instead of "points of interest"?
...
Also; on both this suggestion and the normal map archive; it would be nice if the poster could include an link to an eventual save </STRONG>
Hey Armok, I can't say your idea isn't a valid one, but I'm struggling to see the benefit. It may be better to deliniate fortress maps from world maps. World maps could then have information about their seed number. The name is already covered, but a field for "Dwarven name" (for forts and worlds) is probably required. Points of interest would be same. Description is covered, but Parameters could a separate be the txt file that comes with the map. The view itself is backwards compatable, no need to go back to the old viewer or compressor.
Mapping 'seeded' world maps to the existing map structure is most sensible way to go about it.
My next point: is it worth it? Do we really need a library for specific seeded maps? How many people would that benefit? How many people would view them? (Time spent viewing is arguably time well spent).
My personal opinion is that generating seeding maps, and map previews, (for download?) defies the point of having seeds, and that the seeds are likely to change massively depending on player mods and thus become invalid very quickly. Documenting seed maps then becomes a case of 'look, a cool map, if you don't want to go exploring for a decent map, use this' ... does that need documenting?
I think current maps and movies are a good way of showing user centered game play, oddities, bugs, clever design, and funny stuff. Seed maps... just seem a bit pointless. I'll entertain the idea as long you like though.
If anything, I'd prefer to do a unified upgrade, where any new features benefit world maps, fortress maps, and any other type of tile based map you can think of. (Potentially the compressor and viewer has a scope outside of DF).
RE: Your point about a download link, you can bbcode to descriptions on the map archive, including links [ url ] or [ link ]. Read about them here: http://mkv25.net/dfma/bbcode.php
If people want to put a file on rapidshare and then link to files, they are more then welcome. I don't think its something that needs to be added to the upload form.
You can also use [map=idnumber] [/map], [poi=idnumber] [/poi] and [movie=idnumber] [/movie] to form internal links around text.
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/
Should I defend my point or realize all hope is lost?
quote:
Originally posted by Armok:
<STRONG>Now I feel stupid. :(Should I defend my point or realize all hope is lost?</STRONG>
No, *I* feel stupid - I'm looking at Ancien, one of the two maps linked at the top of the page. I have virtually NO idea what the hell is going on. There's lava maybe? I don't know how magma smelting has changed in the new version, as I've only played for a few hours since its release.
I came up with a better (and safer) way later, which you can see here: http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-1903-magmaworkshops
I tapped the volcano to fill a (approximately) 35x6 room with magma, and built a room directly above it with well-placed channels to provide access to the magma. For safety, I didn't dig the channels until I had sealed the tap by dropping water onto it to turn the one-tile-entrance to the volcano into obsidian.
I completely overdid the water-transportation to form the plug, though. I probably could have just dug a channel over the space I wanted to turn to obsidian, and then designated the open space as a pond (dwarves would theoretically then bring water up with buckets and dump it there). (I built three pumps and water wheels to bring water up to the plug, another pump and water wheel for drainage, a great many floodgates (some of which you can't see since they're open), five levers to control it all, and of course two gear assemblies and one horizontal axle to connect each pump and water wheel to each other...)
So, I spent hours and hours, almost six by the looks of things, writing a one-time application for converting layer numbers from the database into layer depths from the encoded map files. It was a cool application. 453 points of interest layer, and one blindingly quick SQL update... the database is up-to-date. Both the map viewer and the forms for adding and editing Points of Interest have now been updated with new code to handle map depths.
The map viewer has had a slight facelift with a few new clickable buttons to help mouse users navigate up and down through the layers, and change the zoom level. You don't need a keyboard any more, and you can see the level (depth) as reported by DF when you output your maps. I call it depth, its not really depth, its more like height. Higher numbers are high in the air, lower numbers are low.
I've also spent time reworking the backend code, making it easier to manage, and hopefully easier to extend. I will be looking at side-slice views next, linear views of the map data from the Front and the Side by remapping x, y, z to x, z, y and y, z, x. This may look really bad, or it'll look really cool. I have no idea yet. People have been pestering me to make a 3D view, or an isometric view. It's possible, but only crudely. If I were ever to get these a 3D viewer working it'd be using a 'slice'/cutaway through the landscape, and it wouldn't account for sky or anything useful like that. Frankly it'd be like moving through a block of cheese, or a trifle, you'd see alot of layers but not much overall detail. That was a terrible analogy. At least you can eat trifle.
Featured maps
^ Picked on a whim
Enjoy,
- Markavian
Also everything works faster now. Although I don't know if you changed something there or my machine is being more cooperative.
Just one comment/suggestion. When clicking the points of interest links on the sidebar of the viewer the page url doesn't change to reflect the new point of interest viewed. So I have no idea how I could link to an existing POI from there. I would have to browse the POI section and search for the POI I'm going to post for the link. It would be nice if by clicking the POIs on the viewer page the url reflected the change. Although I know that probably that would require a page reload.
Edit: I'm honored Bannercall was featured.
I didn't think the bedrooms were that good, either. :p
And even with 9 stories of Bedrooms, most of my dwarves chose to sleep in the Barracks. Stupid Economy.
[ December 08, 2007: Message edited by: Demosthenes ]
quote:
Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>When clicking the points of interest links on the sidebar of the viewer the page url doesn't change to reflect the new point of interest viewed. So I have no idea how I could link to an existing POI from there. </STRONG>
Hey Zemat, you can copy PoI links by right-clicking on them in your browser. I have the same problem tho. It should be possible to update the address bar without reloading the page, I'll look into this. If you disable JavaScript the default action is to refresh the page with the map centered on the PoI you clicked on.
Demosthenes, sorry about you not being able to post. Could you do me a favour and PM me a message containing the text you tried to post in your comment? I won't explain why your message failed the spam check, but I can use your text to improve the checks and allow messages that I know aren't spam.
*Markavian prods veryinky to upload one of his new forts to the map archive*
- Markavian
[ December 09, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
2007-12-12
In the pipes for the following month:
Regards,
- Markavian
[ December 12, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
The new viewer lets you view DF's third dimension in a whole new way. Getting a sense for depth is difficult with the ingame view only. Now you can appreciate the closeness of the layers, and maybe that will encourage you to spread your forts out a bit more on the vertical level.
The new viewer may have some kinks in it. If you find any, please tell me right away! I know it doesn't initialise the view properly, so pressing the in-viewer buttons from the off resets the view to some useless position. Moving the map before using the buttons cures this, but its not right as it is.
The updated Point of Interest system (forms) might have bugs in it too, its been a bit of rush getting it all working, but I couldn't post the new version of the viewer without updating the PoI code as well. The database update was straightforward this time: all old PoIs are from the default view 'top', all new PoIs will have the view angle recorded.
Note: As always, you don't need javascript to view the PoIs, but you do need flash, and you do need javascript to post PoIs.
Enjoy.
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/
The first obvious comments on the slice visualizer:
The icons you show on every slice are still shown as viewed from the top. This is more obvious when seeing walls. Of course I realize there's no way for you to change walls to display "sideways" since they are basically 2D sprites or icons. A quick fix tough could be to replace wall icons and show them as solid rectangular chunks of the appropriate material color as if they where smoothed rock. This will give more the proper illusion of seeing walls from the front.
The other thing that doesn't look so good sideways is the surface water. When you see water from the top you can see the same water level or icon on the +0 level and the +1 level (in a darker color). This reflects badly in the slice view because you'll continue to see the darker water icons on the level where there supposed to be no water. The same goes for lava. This maybe could be fixed by hiding the water and lava icons that are darker in color.
Anyway those are minor annoyances.
By the way. Any thoughts on integrating the recently released awesome 3d visualizer by sinoth? Maybe you could just let people add 3d fortress screenshots from the visualizer as an addon to the POIs.
Maybe you could make your visualizer more like google maps by adding the POIs into the maps as little icons that the users can click and will spawn the POI comment. And inside the comments the viewer can show either a 3d picture of the fortress or even a cmv movie.
Anyway, these are not requests. Just ideas for future features :p
quote:
Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>The other thing that doesn't look so good sideways is the surface water. When you see water from the top you can see the same water level or icon on the +0 level and the +1 level (in a darker color). This reflects badly in the slice view because you'll continue to see the darker water icons on the level where there supposed to be no water. The same goes for lava. This maybe could be fixed by hiding the water and lava icons that are darker in color.</STRONG>
If you mean brooks, well those are floor tiles - of course they'd show.
The upper magma vent level where the darker lava flow icons are shown are actually open space which would be walkable if floor tiles or bridges where built over them.
All this means the way is paved for new developments in map viewing quality. When the new version of SL's compressor is released I encourage you to use it to upload your maps such that there is an improved quality and quantity of maps for future versions of the map viewer to make use of. Certainly the prospect of 3D viewingness would be very cool; and the data is there, but the interpreter is not.
Oh, and check out the fullscreen mode. Thx Turgid and Silveron for the prompts. Now you can make the viewer take up YOUR ENTIRE SCREEN. (Manic laughter).
Regards,
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/
As for Zemat, lots of ideas there, I'll tackle what I can manage:
Its always fun thinking through the possibilities, keep 'em rolling, some day they might happen! And tell me what you most want, I work on a whim.
- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/
quote:Wouldn't work as is, sadly, the terrain data in the fdf map just isn't there, for example if a dwarf is standing on a staircase, then you can't see it, thus it'd be invisible in the 3d viewer as well.
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>I also think sinoth could support the fdf-map format now, and do the reverse: download maps from the DFMA and have them open up his 3D viewer- wouldn't that be cool? A common format could benefit us all.</STRONG>
We could however use the maps to supplement the memory terrain data and have a cheap and easy way to get buildings and creatures visible. It would not be perfect by a large margin and a lot of guesswork would be involved, but better than nothing
However that is only a dream, as the creator of the fdf format objects to it being public, which means i can't create a script to read it. Maybe sinoth could do it, but he honestly has better things to do with his own code imo.
quote:
Originally posted by Mithaldu:
<STRONG>Wouldn't work as is, sadly, the terrain data in the fdf map just isn't there, for example if a dwarf is standing on a staircase, then you can't see it, thus it'd be invisible in the 3d viewer as well.</STRONG>
Good point, but you don't know until you try. Its as least as good as looking at the bitmaps we already have, but in 3D. I think that's workable. I am suprised and angered at your lack of vision.
quote:
Originally posted by Mithaldu:
<STRONG>...the creator of the fdf format objects to it being public, which means i can't create a script to read it. Maybe sinoth could do it, but he honestly has better things to do with his own code imo.</STRONG>
More over Mithaldu, ask and you will receive. There is plenty of information available about the fdf-map format.
...
Is that any use?
- Markavian
[ December 24, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
[ December 24, 2007: Message edited by: Red Jackard ]
quote:Actually, you're right, i'd forgotten about the slicing option. So as long as one doesn't mind not being able to properly traverse vertically, it'll work. :)
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>Good point, but you don't know until you try. Its as least as good as looking at the bitmaps we already have, but in 3D. I think that's workable. I am suprised and angered at your lack of vision.</STRONG>
quote:I asked, i received, i cautioned my code will be open source, i was asked not to use it. Unless i get told otherwise i will honour that. :)
Originally posted by Markavian:
<STRONG>More over Mithaldu, ask and you will receive. There is plenty of information available about the fdf-map format.- File format for fdf-map v2 (by SL)
- Summary of fdf-map formats v0, v-1, v-2 (by Markavian)
- DFMapDecoder g1.as (v-2 compatable) - Flash AS3 Implementation of multi-version file decoder
- DFMapDecoder f2.as (v-1 compatable)
...
- File format for fdf-map v2 Same as above, but from SL's website
Is that any use?</STRONG>
In unrelated news, for anyone who can't run the .NET version of the compressor due to not being on Windows XP or Vista, I just tried running the latest version of the C#/.NET version of my compressor (3.2.1, currently) with the latest version of Mono (1.2.6), and it ran and was able to compress a multi-level map properly. (I tested it by running mono --debug DwarfFortressMapCompressor.exe)
The only question is whether it'll still write out a compatible fdf-map if your computer has the opposite endianness of windows. I think so, but I'm leaving momentarily and can't check now.
(However, the integrated flash viewer will not work - Mono cannot run COM/ActiveX stuff (at least not yet). If you try to preview a map)
quote:
Originally posted by Mithaldu:
<STRONG>If you can point out however which files are solely your intellectual property, i'll be able to use those. =)</STRONG>
As far as I know, SL has come up with the initial file format. I've asked for additions and changes so that it was possible to work with Flash. The second text file is a summary of the first used for comments in my actionscript files.
The two actionscript files are my intellectual property, but I don't mind them being used as bases for writing similar applications using the fdf-map format- that's why I've made them available off my site. (The code I want to keep to myself are the other parts of the map viewer.)
quote:seeing how i'm only writing a DEcompressor and won't even get close to attempting to write a compressor, there's a really low chance of that ever happening. :)
Originally posted by Shadowlord:
<STRONG>My main objection to it becoming open source is mainly that I don't want the format or compressor to get forked.</STRONG>
Markavian: Thanks. =)
2007-12-29
Please make use of the new favourites system, have a browse through old entries if necessary and pull out some of the gems from earlier in the year. At somepoint in the future I may make user favourites public so we can see each others lists.
The display of comments has been changed so that they are visible across an entire map series. This means comments posted in 1050 will still be visible in 1054, but greyed out to show they were posted to another map. As stated, this is to help track discussions that span multiple maps. It means there is more clutter on the comments now (more to read) but there should be less 'missed comments' when people submit new versions of maps.
Also, not noted in the above update, two pages Edit Movie Entry and My Movies have been added, so can now edit the title and descriptions of movies and view a summary of all your submissions.
Best regards,
- Markavian
[ December 29, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]
2008-01-19
Bugs still with the map viewer, haven't found the cause of the viewer glitch yet. Plans are afoot to make use of the new encoded data, but uni priorities prevent me from working on new versions of the map viewer. Bah.
- Markavian
I've also included more detailed instructions on running it with MONO for people who aren't on Windows. For those of you on Ubuntu, I would suggest getting it directly from the Mono website - they have a .bin installer - so you KNOW you're getting what they wanted to release for 1.2.6. If you just try to get Mono from your package distribution thingy you wind up with 1.2.4, but won't be able to run the map compressor at all. There are possibly devel-tagged versions in the ubuntu package dist system but who knows if they are the beta or the final versions, and they're tagged with warnings that they MAY NOT WORK ON UBUNTU BLAH BLAH ETC. I'd say just get it from the Mono website.
P.S. The filesize improvements did not require a change to the fdf-map format, only an improvement to the program itself - specifically, it is able to identify the random ,.`'% tiles in the blackness, and change them into black tiles, and so compress those all more effectively. Since that doesn't require a change to the file format, it doesn't require a change to the map viewer either. There is another filesize improvement which I coded, but it is disabled until Markavian has time to update the viewer to support it, at which point I'll release another version with it enabled.
Suggestion: We have an archive for fort maps and an archive for movies, maybe we shuld have one for worlds?
The data would include:
These are just suggestion on what COULD be in it, some of these might be harder to implement than I thought, and there are probably many ideas that never crossed my mind! :)
[ February 05, 2008: Message edited by: Armok ]
Good suggestion with the world maps, I'm not sure about all the information, such as gods and such like- alot of that seems buried in the game at present, to be explored by the player, I guess Toady intended it that way. So far I've tried to make the representation between normal maps and worldmaps as seemless as possible, but perhaps a reskinning of the upload form and viewer to make it easier to link multiple fortresses to a single world. I could always add an extra field for map type that makes a difference betweens worlds and fortresses, and any other types that we can think up.
Another suggestion was to have a tileset archive, or a mod archive along side the current maps, though I'm not sure if either are necessary.
I'm hoping to add hotspots to the maps in a future release, i.e. visible clickable points of interest on the map that say what they are when you hover or click on them.
Thanks axus for your comment.
Back to work as a student for the time being, more updates planned.
Regards,
- Markavian
I also added improved tips for how to install Mono 1.2.6 on Ubuntu near the top of the page. I'll repaste it here:
If you use Ubuntu or the like, and 1.2.6 isn't in your repositories, go to the Mono website and click 'other downloads', and get the .bin file. Mark it executable, and then run it. It should install mono 1.2.6 for you. (For me, after it finished it said something about missing some libraries, but mono still ran the compressor fine - some other things, like monodevelop, didn't work though)
(Obviously, you don't need monodevelop to run the compressor)
Mono's downloads page is here: http://www.go-mono.com/mono-downloads/download.html
Mono also has a Mac OS X installer (if that's what a dmg file is) on their website - I haven't tried the compressor with mono on OS X (I don't have a mac, it isn't free, and I don't have an emulator for it or anything like that), but hopefully it should work just the same as it does on linux.
My site: http://mkv25.net/ is being moved to a new server. I have upgraded the webhosting package from its puny homebrew setup to a full business account, with shiny 10GB file storage and 200GB/month of transfer.
The migration shouldn't take longer then an hour, and you should see no difference when the site is moved over. My webhost tells me links from the old site will be forwarded to the new while DNS propogation takes place.
DFMA currently has over 400 registered users, and attracted 1200 visits a day on average last month. That's not a huge number, but it keeps the server ticking over, and there's always new maps and movies to see. So thank you for using the service, and I hope you and I enjoy playing DF for many years to come.
- Markavian
[ April 27, 2008: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Oooh, spinning hexagons...
*Browses some more*...
*Realization hits with force of twenty tonnes of concrete brick*
ZOMFG MARKAVIAN FROM SPACE EMPIRES?!?!
...
Not that you'd know me, I'm not a registered member. But I do own copies of IV and V.
2008-05-01
In other news: My final year project for university is done, handed in, finished. Just three exams to go and I should be a qualified Software Engineer. Yay. I'll be looking for jobs as a Flash / Web developer in the near future.
[ May 01, 2008: Message edited by: Markavian ]
More updates:
2008-05-07
[ May 06, 2008: Message edited by: Markavian ]
Other news
Kinda excited by Toady's annoucment on the dev now (http://bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_now.html) page that he's "added ability to leave notes on the map in dwarf mode". This sounds very cool. I would be very interested to see this information exported with maps so that I could write a script to display this information along side maps on the map archive (http://mkv25.net/dfma/).
- Markavian
Maybe make it an option, when uploading maps, to select notes and automatically make them points of interest?
Of course, Toady would need to make it export them.
By the way. I haven't figured out yet what the (+1), (+2), (+3), (+4) aside from each map or comment link means. At first I thought it was some sort of rating system.If you hover over the (+2) numbers it says "Consecutive comments" or "Consecutive points of interest". It means I've ommitted multiple results for the same map so you get more entries in the list rather then spam from the most recently active map/movie.
Hi, I'm having trouble uploading my map. I'm getting this error
Error uploading frm_mapFile (Chasmwalled-altregion3-450-35005.fdf-map), file type not allowed on server.
I searched the thread, but this hasn't been mentioned before. I'm on a mac, and used mono to run compressor 3.3.2. I'm not really sure why this is happening.
I bet that'd be it- both Chrome and Safari use the webkit rendering engine last I checked, and they both have the same issue with the DFMA.
I'm not sure if I ever said how much I like and appreciate the Map archive Markavian but I do (I'm unbeltedsundew over there).
Anyways, it occured to me while uploading a recent site (and I'm not sure if this is the right thread or not) that it'd be nice to have some certain information. Like what types of stone that are available on the map (from looking at the exposed rocks or gems and what not). What types of wild life is there and so forth. Certainly not required or even remotely necessary, but it would be a nice little extra feature for those of us obsessed.
Is there any good workaround yet for the uploading with Chrome bug?My appologies nil, I have not looked into fixing this yet. I can only suggest that you use a different browser for the time being if you're wanting to upload maps. I haven't installed Chrome and haven't investigated the problem, so can't suggest a Chrome fix yet.
Markavian, I get embarrassed emailing you every few months asking for a new password because I forgot my old one. Will you be putting in an automatic password recovery system soon? :P
I've been having trouble adding a map to a series. I click "add map to series," select the map file I want to upload, but when it is uploaded, it does not show up as part of the series.
Sorry that you encounted the "Failed Spam Check" messages- I'm sorta impressed that you managed to activate all three of them, but unfortunately it stopped you posting a valid message.
Usually its because you've used too many lines/paragraphs in your posts. Most spam comes on multiple lines, so that's one of my checks. If you sign in and create an account your posts aren't subject to this restriction. I suppose the unregistered post box is just meant for people to leave short comments.Sorry that you encounted the "Failed Spam Check" messages- I'm sorta impressed that you managed to activate all three of them, but unfortunately it stopped you posting a valid message.
I'm interested in knowing what those checks are and how the comment got flagged by all of them.
Using an old Forum about the DF Map Archive seemed wiser then starting a New one, so this isn't a full Necro...
I have been doing a bit of work with PoI on the Maps I have recently uploaded and as I got around to one of them I noticed that I have Marked one Incorrectly...
Does anyone know how I can Edit it or delete it to place the correct one???
