The Mana World Forums

I've been working on a tool to programatically generate minimaps. It works by mapping each tileset tile to an opacity and merging the layers of opacity. I've run it on maps 1 and 3 (Tulimshar and the desert south of it) using three different methods to merge layers:

Method 1 (last non-zero opacity):


Method 2 (most opaque value):


Method 3 (average of non-zero opacities):


These methods treat extra hight tiles as single height tiles, though this is easy to change.

I can't see the difference between the three methods, but I like them

Matt wrote:I can't see the difference between the three methods, but I like them

The differences are hard to see on these two maps, but you can see a slight difference in the booths in the bazaar.

I see only a slight difference.

Would it be possible to scale the maps? Like using SVG? I think that was one of the big bad things about the current maps.

Like has been said, the differences are minimal.

I agree that they are beautiful

One question, though? What's the purpose of the 'If you see this, go back'?

Shaggy wrote:One question, though? What's the purpose of the 'If you see this, go back'?

That is part of the actual map, and it's just a bit of humor.

An easter egg of sorts... very funny...

I think the third looks best. While the difference is nominal, it's a bit less harsh while still providing all of the necessary information.

I think it's very well done. How did you implement the code? Tiled plugin or stand-alone program?

leeor_net wrote:How did you implement the code? Tiled plugin or stand-alone program?

It's stand-alone.

I've done some more:

Desert Mine, level 1


Hermits Cave, level 1 (Bat Cave)


Desert Mine, level 2


Underground of new desert map southeast of snake desert


You can see some slight differences in the upper right of desert mine, level 2.

I've done the snow maps. I hope they're close enough to the desired style for my utility to be used.

Snow field


Snow village


Here are the opacity maps used (they're text files, but the server thinks they're images ):
Snow building
Snow x2
Snow x3
Snow set

Would your code reveal any secret passages or not?

Shaggy wrote:Would your code reveal any secret passages or not?

Retouching minimaps by hand afterwards for that effect is not out of the question.

Shaggy wrote:Would your code reveal any secret passages or not?

Only if you create a map for the collision layer.