TEST: New minimaps

[Jenalya]

Quite some of our maps don't have minimaps and a lot of the existing ones are outdated.
Now there were new minimaps generated with a tool from the Invertika project.
Thanks to seeseekey for making it work with our maps.

The new minimaps are available on the testserver, please test and comment here.

[Alige]

I have just tested on some maps. Note that 024-4 is the biggest map we currently have and you need to have a look at its minimap while testing, I guess that this is important.

I really like the work that has been done about that however, I suggest having minimaps just slighlty bigger for a better overview of the whole map. Do not forget that each map has minimum 20 collision tiles on its borders so that means that the minimap's focus should change if the minimap's dimensions change.

Best regards and thanks a lot!

[Bertram]

Hi,

Now there were new minimaps generated with a tool from the Invertika project.
Thanks to seeseekey for making it work with our maps.

Could (or is it already that tool imported into one of the TMW repository?
Or do you think seeseekey may agree to share it more globally?

Regards,

Yohann

[Derpella]

I haven't tested the new minimaps everywhere yet, but from I seen, they are very nice and they will be actually helpful.

[Frost]

I too like the new minimaps. They're easy to see and understand, and all the ones I've tested look accurate. This is a real improvement over the old minimaps.

Could (or is it already that tool imported into one of the TMW repository?
Or do you think seeseekey may agree to share it more globally?

The Invertika tool is easily available; I think cody mentioned a download URL in IRC. Not every computer can run C# code, though.

[Jenalya]

Could (or is it already that tool imported into one of the TMW repository?
Or do you think seeseekey may agree to share it more globally?

The Invertika tool is easily available; I think cody mentioned a download URL in IRC. Not every computer can run C# code, though.

There were some discussion about this in IRC and I think the tool should definetly be included into our repository if we decide to go with this new minimaps (which is likely given the positive feedback).

[Der Loisl]

The new minimaps are definitely an improvement compared to the old ones! There is just one things I'd suggest to change. At the moment, mobs and NPCs are white colored dots, how about differentiate between them and make Mobs for example black while NPCs stay white. Also, you may differentiate between regular mobs and boss mobs liek this.

[Bertram]

Hi,

The new minimaps are definitely an improvement compared to the old ones! There is just one things I'd suggest to change. At the moment, mobs and NPCs are white colored dots, how about differentiate between them and make Mobs for example black while NPCs stay white. Also, you may differentiate between regular mobs and boss mobs liek this.

According to the code, the color of the dots used for NPC, Monsters, GMs, and party Members should be different and customizable in the Setup->Color tab.
Yet, you might have found a bug since there is something there that I find not logical. (The color is set twice for monsters and NPC with the second time being always white.)
I'll add that in the known bugs. Thanks!

[Bertram]

Hi cody,

It's indeed a good idea. If you can push, I invite you to push this path onto mainline with my review.

I'll import it in my fork right away.

Best regards,

[Jenalya]

As far as I see the feedback to the new minimaps is positive. I think if we want to add them it'd be good to also add the tool that is used to generate them to our repository, since otherwise they'd be outdated again after a while.

I assume it's the thing called ivktool in this repository: https://github.com/Invertika/tools (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

It'd be great if someone could look into how the tool works and prepare a patch for our server-data repository. Ideally it would be integrated in such a way that invoking 'make maps' (which currently compiles and runs our converter tool) would additionally run the tool to generate the minimaps.
According to the invertika website everything developed by the invertika team is GPLv3, so it's ok to use it.

[Frost]

it'd be good to also add the tool that is used to generate them to our repository, since otherwise they'd be outdated again after a while.

I completely agree that if we use this tool, we should try to include it. On the other hand, adding a snapshot to the TMW git repo might result in an unintentional fork.
Maybe add a snapshow of the source code, with a README that clearly directs people to the Invertika ivktool URL as the preferred location?

Ideally it would be integrated in such a way that invoking 'make maps' (which currently compiles and runs our converter tool) would additionally run the tool to generate the minimaps.

C# is not well supported on Linux. tmwAthena code is no longer really supported on Windows. Certainly it would be good to integrate ivktool into the update process, but that could be difficult to achieve.

[Bertram]

Hi,

I would like to also add that later porting the tool to cpp or any "easier" language can be done, especially when it's a common initiative from both groups.

I wonder what Invertika thinks about porting the tool to another language, though.

Best regards,

[o11c]

I would like to also add that later porting the tool to cpp or any "easier" language can be done, especially when it's a common initiative from both groups.

I was *planning* on adding command-line options to Tiled to handle export a map as a png, but got kind of stalled.

Things to keep in mind:

• Not all layers should be rendered. Use many command-line arguments, or trust the visibility settings in the .tmx file?
• Multiple .tmx files can be specified in a single invocation of tiled.
• The user might want a .png filename not directly relatable to the .tmx filename.
• When adding the rule to the makefile (which inputs a .tmx file and outputs a .png), can the tilesets be specified as dependencies? How much does this matter?

If any post-processing need be done (e.g. transparency or grayscale), there's a program for that: ImageMagick

[HendrikBoom3]

Don't go overboard with options in the first instance. Just the ability to load tmx and save png would do most of what your users need for tool automation!

-- hendrik