Official Map Making Guide

how to start

this is basically for linux/unix but i'm sure it will be helpful for windows and other platforms as well. just have a look at the source!

download+building the needed tools

svn co https://spring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring/trunk/

you will find the needed MapConv binary in here:

trunk/tools/MapConv/

a simple make in that directory will build it.

using the tools

in the directory samples you'll find this:

cat readme.txt | sed -e 's/^/ /g'

These aren't necessarily *good* examples of how to use MapConv, or how to
make a good Spring map.

The .SMDs are modified from Small Divide, to boot.

I haven't learned how to properly package a map for Spring; I just symlink
the .smd, .smf and .smt into the maps directory.

1: The sample map that seems to have come with mapconv, historically.
   Old file names:

     257f.bmp -> feature.png
     257h.bmp -> height.png
     257m.bmp -> metal.png
     2kt.bmp  -> texture.png

2: A tiny map with one feature on it named myFeature, made for testing
   converting models to s3o.

   The metal patch under the feature is probably pointless. :)

example 1

go to trunk/tools/MapConv/samples/1 and type make which should build the sample 1 map. the output should be:

-rw-r--r-- 1 joachim users    2091 Jul  9 18:17 test.smd
-rw-r--r-- 1 joachim users  913468 Jul  9 18:23 test.smf
-rw-r--r-- 1 joachim users    1392 Jul  9 18:23 test.smt

the smd file is a normal text file which has interesting map parameters. you'll find a complete documentation in this wiki somewhere (maybe in different tutorial). the smf and smt file is your graphical representation of the sample 1 map.

testring the map

basically you could copy those three files test.smd, test.smf and test.smt into your maps directory which is ~/.spring/maps/ in case of linux and in windows it's the c:/programms/spring/.../maps directory.

if you want only one compressed file this is what can be done:

mkdir -p map
cp test.smd map/
cp test.smt map/
cp test.smf map/
zip -r9 random.sdz map
cp test.sdz ~/.spring/maps/

i think this code will be added to the sample 1 and sample 2 script but the original author didn't know that or didn't care when the document was written.