Dims mapper troubleshooting

Guys, maybe you want to just fix the broken maps and submit that to the repo, rather than adding bandaids?
I'd look into this myself, but my mapper knowledge is pretty much non-existent.
 
After reading the teamx docs for structures/formats I could trace the program and understand it better.

The 0x0FFF mask from epax roof tiles just comes from the frm ID format, where the lower 12 bits hold the index. (teamx). Without the mask, some other maps (other than epax) are displayed incorrectly, like the Glow maps.

The problem with EpaMain1 is that there are 17 objects with nonsensical values in elevation 3 HexID:0 (botanical garden, top right corner). Even in BISMapper and the game itself the map crashes if you move the viewport there and try to render the objects (disable edge clipping in high res patch). I deleted them with a hex editor and the map now loads (and doesn't crash in BISMapper/game engine)
EpaMain1

The problem with EpaMain2 is slightly worse. It also has again 17 objects with nonsense values in elevation 3 HexID:0, but also it is a map with elevations {1+3}. 2 is missing. Dims can do elevations {1},{1+2},{1+2+3}, but the other 4 ({2} {3} {2+3} {1+3}) don't really work. Technically it wouldn't be difficult to make it load the map, it's just ~2 lines of code, but the rest of the code (adding objects, deleting objects etc.) would have to be adjusted which would require work.

NewR1a, NewR2a, oacave, oaenter, oamain are the same problem really. Some are {1+3}, some {2+3} etc...

I guess the takeaway from this would be, what are the 17 objects in EpaMain1/EpaMain2? Is this some sfall scripting map hackery? Both have precisely 17, which makes me believe they aren't part of some sfall scripts? But I don't know scripting :) ...

Output from BISMapper -> epamain1 epamain2

all of them have pid -1 and some other nonsense. And therefore crash the game.
 
Last edited:
I'm playing around with the maps for the Restoration Project 2.6 ATM, cleaning them up and reducing some of the clutter, eventually I'll get to the EPA at where I might do a major fix. I'm adding new tiles and artwork from Mutants Rising, that will IMO improve the maps, but it's nothing over the top, it's quite subtle actually. Hopefully they will included in a future release of the Restoration Project.
 
Will you also review the maps in UP to port over some mapping fixes (if there's any)?
 
I'm just working on RPU. I will need to add quite a few new tiles to the game, probably hundreds, which means hundreds of new extra prototypes to the build, it's just a cosmetic overhaul of the RP maps I worked on 10 years ago with Killap. I'm not touching the Unofficial Patch, which I assume uses the original maps from F2.
 
I compiled the source from Radegast's repo. I don't fork repos if I don't plan to make pull requests or edits, or it'd be like spamming my own repo page.
 
Last edited:
I archived my fork of the Dims Mapper and I will keep it in my repositories in case Mr. Stalin takes the original down. I did not merge the fixes as I don't have the virtual machine with Windows installed anymore so I couldn't test them. In my opinion, Dims Mapper was an amazing piece of software 20 years ago but now it is time to lay it to rest and create a real alternative to the original mapper. Anyway, this was a useful endeavor because of the discovery of the 0x0FFF mask - it is not documented in the map format wiki.
 
Back
Top