RE: Creating maps for scrolling............

[Kevin Wolfskill <kevin.wolfskill@jadesolutions.com>]

Not sure what you are creating a map for, but let's assume you are creating
an orthagonal view map for something like a Real Time Strategy game (RTS).
Typically, what these games do is to create their world with tiles (like a
custom character set).  That way you can create a small set of bitmaps (the
tiles) which when used together (placed side-by-side), look like a much
bigger bitmap.  The key here, is that the tiles have to be of something that
is generic enough (like the water in the middle of a lake), that they can be
used repeatedly together to make the bigger bitmap.  With the water example,
you could create 1 or 2 tiles with waves for water away from shore, and then
some number of tiles that are the shoreline (don't forget that each one of
these might be able to be rotated 90 degrees and used as the shore on the
top, bottom, left, and right sides).  Then, you keep placing the same tile
over and over to create a larger bitmap.  To pan the display, you just
scroll the display for the stuff you will still see, and place the new tiles
at the leading edge in the direction you are panning.

OK, what does this gain you?  Two things:  1.  Huge memory savings because
of the small bitmaps being used over and over.  2.  Much less effort
creating a few small bitmaps instead of a set of large bitmaps.

Hope this helps!

Kevin Wolfskill
JADE Solutions
Office US   (303) 448-1019 ext. 23
Fax US      (303) 449-1548
Kevin.Wolfskill@jadesolutions.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Josiah Avery [mailto:josiahavery@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:48 AM
To: gameprogrammer@gameprogrammer.com
Subject: Creating maps for scrolling............


Hello,

I am trying to write a routine which combines all the images data of x 
amount of images, and combines them into one large image. That way, I can 
create another function which pans over the large image. Here is a bit of 
code:

byte *
LoadMap(image * padtMapList , byte * pfcDestinationMap , magnitude_var 
iNumberOfMaps)
{
  byte * video = (byte *)0xA0000000L;

  try
  {
    pfcDestinationMap = new byte[RESOLUTION * iNumberOfMaps];
  }

  catch(xalloc error)
  {
    TerminateGraphics();
    printf("Unable to load map!!\n");
    exit(1);
  }

for(long_var iTotalIndex = 0,iMapNumber = 0;iMapNumber < iNumberOfMaps; 
iMapNumber++)
{

for(long_var iIndex = 0;iIndex < RESOLUTION;iIndex++,iTotalIndex++)
{
pfcDestinationMap[iTotalIndex] = 
(byte)padtMapList[iMapNumber].buffer[iIndex];
}
}

return pfcDestinationMap; // <- this points to the beggining of the newly 
initalized map
}

If anyone sees anything that I may have missed, please let me know...

  Josiah

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