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.
