[Request] maps browser

[rainrider]

Hello developers, since we already got shitloads of weapon editors and taunts managers, why not make something new.
Something useful.
Something people need!

A soldat map viewer.

Or even better - soldat map browser!




HELL YEAH!




Features it would have to have (or at least in my opinion should):
- being ultra lightweight. map loading shouldn't take longer than 2 sec
- native support for standard gfx formats (png/jpg/bmp/gif + animated gifs) - no 3rd party dlls!
- enabling/disabling various layers of scenery, polygons (checkbox for each polygon type), polygon textures, background, spawnpoints, waypoints and so on
- wireframe support for each of above separately (radiobox table 'Element: show/hide/wireframe' + grouped 'bonuses' 'players' 'sceneries' etc?)
- highlighting polygons based on their types
- autozoom map to its dimensions on load
- tabbed user interface
- aspect ratio aware viewports in tabs
- map browser (custom view styles - detailed, icons, etc + THUMBNAILS)
- internal database containing useful summary of every map and its thumbnail
- custom sorting styles available via program's menu (support for columnclick in detailed view style) - via file name, creation date, modification date, file size, map dimensions (database entries); descending on/off
- browser has to resemble explorer - explorer's context menu on right click, ctrl+c ctrl+x ctrl+v, f2 f3 f5 f11, ctrl+o ctrl+s etc
- map preview mode should support as many of above as possible
- regular expressions in browser's address bar (will show only appropriate results instead of all files, type nothing to show all files back)
- error reporting (if map file is errorous, report it. if texture is errorous, report it. if program encountered an error, don't! polyworks does and this sucks.)
- old maps support (if map is old - look at modification date - show appropiate yes/no dialog and relating to the result treat polygons normally or as full-opaque, despite the alpha byte)
- gostek tool for scale measurement, rendered above everything else
- distance tool, similar to photoshop's one
- screenbox tool, darkening everything except for rectangle of size resembling soldat's screen size
- zoom and pan tool (mouse wheel and ctrl+drag)
- running maps via commandline (mutliple at once)
- drag'n'drop system
- displaying lots of unnecessary yet sexy information in a sidebar (polygon count, used scenery count, linked files which aren't present in official soldat version, map dimensions, size of all the unofficial files, link to SFD, .....)
- antialias, transparency on/off

Optional features:
- find shortest paths between flags
- custom transparency modes like GL_ONE + GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
- bullet trail tool (user inputs weapon speed - combobox for predefined values? - and then moves cursor around - program will draw hypothetical bullet's trail from gostek model)
- search for simliar maps (performed on invisible for end-user, black&white polygon renders stored in program's database, or if someone's clever enough, right on polygon coordinates)
- plugin system with huge api for generating automated informations about maps, compressing them into mappacks, etc
- switching between directx and opengl

And that's all I can think of now.
Since it's a request I'm not going to participate in development progress - this thread is meant to point you that there's no such program yet but there's need for it, so if you're seeking for an idea of soldat-related program, here you got one. It's going to be tough, however; I spent almost an hour only on thinking of all that stuff, development will probably take weeks. So if you're going to do it you will most likely fail. Yep, you're just too weak. Better give up now.




Challenge it! Ha!

[iDante]

Soldat Polyworks.
The only thing it's missing is a better browser (with thumbnails and such).

Actually I think it's a pretty good idea, and that might end up being the final product of something I've been working on.

[jrgp]

But dude....something like this exists...and was made by you.

http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=14081.0



:-/

...But yeah, having a more modern one with more features and a less green UI sounds fun.

[Shoozza]

Funny how could he forget about his own tool

@jrgp If you want to change the color you can find the sourcecode on his site: http://rrhp.info/soldat/soldat%20map%20packer/
I guess this could be used to create the map browser.

_{Btw I can see rainrider has my map .}

[iDante]

That tool is missing a lot of functionality that he wanted.
I think a tool that lets explorer actually see .pms thumbnails when you go to the folders would be cool. I have no idea how that works though.

_{Btw I can see rainrider has my map .}

_{But he's missing blood and 1st_V2}

[yv3]

I began to develop such a tool some month ago. I didn't finished it but its almost complete. I lost motivation because i dont wanted to render the maps by myself so i had to create screenshots via Polyworks for each map.
All new maps and thumbnails are imported into a local MS Access database. You can also drag and drop the maps to defined categories and then easily start a server with the selected maps:



I am searching for a command line tool that converts a map to an image file, then everything would be automatic. If someone can provide me such tool, i will complete the application. The quality will be quite equal to ySoldatStat (http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=19410.0 / http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=24990.0).

[DarkCrusade]

Could somebody reupload rainriders map browser? It seems to be very interesting

[jrgp]

Could somebody reupload rainriders map browser? It seems to be very interesting

http://rrhp.info/soldat/soldat%20map%20packer/

[DorkeyDear]

This can definitely help when you want to try to find a map by the way it looks, but haven't a clue what it's called or even prefixed with. If anybody is going to pickup / if you are going to continue, I suggest an all category as well as unsorted too. Or rather, putting "labels" on each map, and having an unlabeled category. This way you can have more than one label per map. I also suggest filters, so you can more easily apply labels to maps.

[DarkCrusade]

Could somebody reupload rainriders map browser? It seems to be very interesting

http://rrhp.info/soldat/soldat%20map%20packer/

Try rainriders program.

Thanks a lot

This can definitely help when you want to try to find a map by the way it looks, but haven't a clue what it's called or even prefixed with. If anybody is going to pickup / if you are going to continue, I suggest an all category as well as unsorted too. Or rather, putting "labels" on each map, and having an unlabeled category. This way you can have more than one label per map. I also suggest filters, so you can more easily apply labels to maps.