Not quite sure why I wrote this program.

[SMartin]

I decided one day to write a program that creates isometric tile landscapes (for no good reason, really) in the vain of games like Transport Tycoon.

The idea was to have it create and save a bitmap of an iso-tile landscape to be used for....well....I guess I should have thought that one out a little bit first.

Anyway, I thought I'd share it here. Maybe someone (with a little free time to spare) might spark me with an idea of what the heck to do with it.

Here's a screenshot:


Here's a link to the zip:
http://members.cox.net/smartin1803/Pure ... pMaker.zip

Insert/Delete will rotate the map
Mousewheel will zoom in and out
Left Click on a cell corner will raise the corner
Right Click on a cell corner will lower the corner
Click in the middle of the cell to raise the whole cell (or lower it if right clicked)

[Rook Zimbabwe]

This is great... I plan to see if I can make a map editor out of it to use with the HGE Lib. Possibly with the Chipmunk as well!

[Kaeru Gaman]

what is the base of your algorithm?
on the screenshot it looks a bit squary, like the mountains in "lokomotion", not that fine like in "sim city 3000"...

[#NULL]

that's cool. i like such stuff ..especially isometric engines.
thanks for sharing.

[Derek]

That looks good, just need someone to base a game on it now.

[SMartin]

what is the base of your algorithm?
on the screenshot it looks a bit squary, like the mountains in "lokomotion", not that fine like in "sim city 3000"...

Yeah, you're right. They are squares. I think Transport Tycoon/Locomotion uses something other than a 1 to 1 ratio, but I'm not sure...also I just used Pure's 2D drawing commands and solid color flood fill for the tiles so that makes it look even more blocky.

Using textures instead of flood fills would help smooth it out...maybe I'll look into that.

Rook: Thanks for the complement. I'm glad to hear someone might find this usefull

[Kaeru Gaman]

you used drawing commands for creating the landscape?
...or did I misunderstand you....

if so, really interesting approach.

and additionally: it really looks useful, good work, squarish or not.

[SMartin]

Kaeru,

I used 2D line and fill commands on four sprites to draw every possible configuration of the tiles (79 of them if I remember right) The four sprites were for the four different colored tiles. They get redrawn when the zoom (cell size) changes.

Then I just clipped those four 'template' sprites to the correct cell to composite yet another sprite that is the total landscape.

After that I just moved the landscape sprite around to make it look like the map is scrolling and slapped that rusty metal/bubble graphic on top.

[SMartin]

Well, I have continued working on my 'project without a cause'
So, for those of you that have time to waste...here's what's new.

Added heightmap import. 256 grayscale works the best, but any jpeg or bmp will load. It resizes the image (200x200 right now) and averages the RGB values and divides by 16 (pretty low height resolution)

Added a pair of recursive procedures to pull up or push down cell corners so that surrounding cells will react without breaking the psudo-mesh. Still breaks every now and then (I haven't chased that bug down yet).

Program now saves the cell templates (all sizes) to png files so that it doesn't have to recreate them if they already exist.

Added a fake wireframe view.

Added cell border blending to smooth out the look a little bit.

Added a few 'screen windows' to implement cell and terrain editing and such. They're movable and close-able.

Added loading and saving of maps.

Added a few (poorly drawn) graphics, trees mostly, to experiment with cell overlays and to set myself up for the cell editor 'screen window' that's coming next.

Divided out and organized the folders that the graphics files are saved in.

Added compass letter overlay so you know which way is north after you rotate the map.

Probably some other pointless junk also...I don't remember...

The links at the topic head will take you to the new version, if you're interested.

[Rook Zimbabwe]

SMartin, I wrote my first game WaHoo!!! because I was learning how to solve a multiDIM array in Blitz3D. Thats the only reaon the game came in to being. I had a different game and idea in mind.

Relax and let serendipity lead you.

Have you tried to integrate a layer for animated tiles? A layer for collisions?

If so you nearly have a map editor for 2D and isometric games...

[SMartin]

Rook,

I haven't even thought about animated tiles and collision detection yet. I've been knee deep in drawing cell overylays for roads and rails. The problem is, I'm half color-blind, and a lousy artist...and the work is really slow...all of this because I want to code a window that allows you to set up cell properties and add trees or houses or roads and I need graphics to do that with.

I guess that's the problem with Isometric tile programs...you have to have this huge commitment in little diamond shaped drawings of all kinds of stuff.

[byo]

Very interesting. It must have taken you a whole lotta time.

Rook: we should meet on MSN or something and get something done about our little project. Especially on weekends.

[Rook Zimbabwe]

Steve... I ave a source mate!
http://reinerstileset.4players.de/englisch.html

byo... I got AIM but not MSN...

[SMartin]

Rook,

Thanks for the link. There's lots of great little diamond shaped pictures of stuff there, as I'm sure you know.
If I had one tenth the talent of that guy, I'd be doing good.
He also had a few links to freeware programs that draw trees and bushes and such.
The first thing I'm going to do is replace my sad little trees with some nice ones, especially now that I think I've figured out how to select all the pixels of a certain color in Paint Shop Pro and replace them with my transparent sprite color.