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

["Frag_ Daddy" <frag_daddy_@hotmail.com>]

       Great explanation of it, but I just wanted to add that you should 
probably store it in a matrix, or array, or whatever you want to call it.  
For example, if your map is 100x100 units (squares, inches, whatever).  
Then, you'd probably want to store this in a 100x100 array of something (you 
could use bytes, for example, if you only had 256 different tile, or you 
could use ints for 65,000 different tiles).  When it comes time to render 
all of these, you simply determine which tiles are visible, via bounding 
boxes or whatever, and then render those tiles.  Pretty simple, huh?  You 
could also use this for collision detection.  You could flag each tile with 
a clip, or no-clip flag, and then use those bounding boxes...


>From: Kevin Wolfskill <kevin.wolfskill@jadesolutions.com>
>Reply-To: gameprogrammer@gameprogrammer.com
>To: "'gameprogrammer@gameprogrammer.com'"  
><gameprogrammer@gameprogrammer.com>
>Subject: RE: Creating maps for scrolling............
>Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 11:28:55 -0600
>
>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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