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Patrick

MAPINFO generator

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So I had this idea to make a program that would generate MAPINFO scripts for ZDoom. Is this a good idea? is making MAPINFO lumps easy enough that we don't need a script generator? what does everyone think?

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Janitor said:

is making MAPINFO lumps easy enough that we don't need a script generator?


Yes.
Infact it'd be more cumbersome and limited to use a generator instead of writing it manually
what's the point
i think people can take the time to learn use of script syntaxes. If they don't
maybe we don't want their maps in the first place

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leileilol said:

Yes.
Infact it'd be more cumbersome and limited to use a generator instead of writing it manually
what's the point
i think people can take the time to learn use of script syntaxes. If they don't
maybe we don't want their maps in the first place

I agree, if you are that lazy then you do not need to map. :P
I'm sure there is a way to do this but why???

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Yeah. MAPINFO is very easy and I'd say that a specific editing tool is not required.

However, if you just want to write it to practice your programming or something, fine, knock yourself out. Perhaps something that would have fields for all the possible MAPINFO entries for a map and you just go down it entering info (or not) as required and then your prog spits out a text file with all the filled in entries included?

Although I'd still suggest working on something that there is, perhaps, a greater need for.

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Better yet, write it straight to wad lump. I'm so tired of there being so few tools that can just write to wads instead of expecting you to embed the data with a separate utility. It breaks up your workstream and makes repeated operations tiresome.

We need an all-in-one suite that does EVERYTHING, at least save perhaps level editing. Though if it did that too, that would be an extra bonus. I wish that I had time to create such a thing.

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Quasar said:
Better yet, write it straight to wad lump. I'm so tired of there being so few tools that can just write to wads instead of expecting you to embed the data with a separate utility. It breaks up your workstream and makes repeated operations tiresome.

As far as MapInfo is concerned XWE does that just fine. You can create a new lump called MAPINFO and then select it and type the text in, saving it with the script menu.

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Quasar said:

We need an all-in-one suite that does EVERYTHING, at least save perhaps level editing. Though if it did that too, that would be an extra bonus. I wish that I had time to create such a thing.

XWE sort of does this. It requires some external tools for some things, but they're generally accessible in editor. Also some peoples definition of all-in-one suite might be different than another persons.

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Stealthy Ivan said:

I agree, if you are that lazy then you do not need to map. :P


To be honest, at this point in the community, I'd encourage ANYONE to map.

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is the XWE source available? i could probably add a feature to it. another thought i had was a DECORATE generator. i know such programs exist, but they dont seem to really be useful at all..

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Personally, I really despise it when tools write straight to the WAD. I like to have my various lumps separate so that I can do what I like with them as stand-alone items before I put them into a WAD when I want to.

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Enjay said:
I like to have my various lumps separate so that I can do what I like with them as stand-alone items before I put them into a WAD when I want to.

Well, as you may know XWE is helpful there too, as it edits standalone lumps!

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Lorenzo said:

Why not a DECORATE generator ?


this would be a rather ambitious project, and it would really depend on what version is being used, that is ZDoom .96x, ZDoom, or GZDoom, since there are some inconsistencies with the Decorate Format in those different versions.

So, If I did make a DECORATE generator, what features would people like to see in it?

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Janitor said:

this would be a rather ambitious project, and it would really depend on what version is being used, that is ZDoom .96x, ZDoom, or GZDoom, since there are some inconsistencies with the Decorate Format in those different versions.



So?

ZDoom .96x doesn't count. It's old, unofficial and no longer maintained. Who would want to map for an engine that's dead?

The minor differences between ZDoom and GZDoom can only be attributed to a lack of updates of ZDoom for a year now so that 'standard' will become obsolete soon as well.

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That would be exceptionally difficult to create, seeing how DECORATE and EDF are both still in development, and they also possess disjoint feature sets. Some things that can be done in DECORATE cannot be done in EDF and vice versa (though strictly for DECORATE to EDF conversion, the latter would not be an issue).

A visual EDF editor would be a useful thing IMO, but in order to work at a high enough level and be flexible enough, it would need to rival the complexity of major programming IDEs, such as Visual C++. I'm not sure that the development of such a thing would be practical with anything less than a team of programmers with no other projects to hold them back.

Now, simpler visual editors that are not an all-in-one deal for EDF would be easier to accomplish. They would leave a lot to be desired, though.

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To be honest, at this point in the community, I'd encourage ANYONE to map.

Careful, people were saying that in 1994 also...    :>

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Xeriphas1994 said:
Careful, people were saying that in 1994 also...

Did your mom tell you that?

Personally, I don't remember anything from the year I was born in...

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I think a MAPINFO generator could be useful, personally I require some time to make one. I know I'm not the only with this problem, as in a recent wad, an author used a MAPINFO form other wad. Also I think that even if you are an expert with MAPINFO, if the utility is friendly, it could save a lot of time (I mean, I'm sure that even Carmack uses calculators for counts that he can easily do mentally).

Also if it's a tool that automatically insert it into a wad, that'd be great.


BTW, that was funny.

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Personally, I don't remember anything from the year I was born in...

 ** LOL ** 

I wondered how many posts I could make before somebody said that.

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