Mini Map Fix for v56 SCMAP files

[D4E_Omit]

Can't figure it out guys.. The skyboxes are packed inside textures.scd btw if you want to try yourself.

[Duck_42]

That picture is from the outer map "border". When you zoom out in-game, you see that Faction-dependent background. It isn't actually a background, the map the "screen" embedded in this tablet-like environment. The height of the this tablet is higher than the usual heights the map itself ranges in. That's why you see a black strip, it's essentially a wall.

Yes, it is. Adding fog helps some with hiding the black border, but it doesn't obscure it completely. Even on the stock FA maps, it's there. One just has to look closer to see it.

From my research so far, I think they added some sky cube/atmosphere/space background changes and tweaks in v60. I could write a tool that would copy the relevant portions from a v60 map file into a v56 (essentially, it would upgrade the map to v60). Since I don't understand the structure of the new v60 data, we'd be limited to just copying what already exists in the stock maps. Converting to v60 also means you wouldn't be able to open the map in the editor anymore (AFAIK, none of the maps editors can read v60). To address that, I'd probably need to write a tool to regress the map back to v56 for editing purposes.

All that being said, I really don't care that much about the aesthetics of the sky box since I rarely use the free camera mode. If I get bored one day, I might throw something together, but it's not high on my to-do list.

FYI, the SCMAP Reader/Writer library (adapted from Hazardx' SCMAP loader) is part of my random map generator project. If someone wants to explore making a "Sky Cube Fix Tool", the code is available.

https://bitbucket.org/Duck_42/supreme-commander-random-map-generator/src/0fc3e810dee21a69843dd2651538b2eff258def2/Source%20Code/SCMAP%20Reader%20Writer/?at=default

[nine2]

I tried to run the tool (v1.1) against two maps and in both cases it crashed, corrupting the files.
firelight.v0001
Coastal Bridge v2

Unhandled Exception: System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at Decal.Save(BinaryWriter Stream, Int32 Index)
at Map.Save(String Filename, Int32 MapFileVersion)
at Minimap_Fix_Tool.Program.Main(String[] args)

any ideas?

[Duck_42]

There was a bug in the SCMAP load/save library.

When I converted HazardX's map SCMAP library from VB to C#, I used one of those online conversion tools. It did a pretty good job with most stuff, but it also introduced a few bugs (this being one of them). I don't use decals in my random map generator, so I haven't noticed the problem until now.

Anyway, I've uploaded the fixed version and replaced the link in the first post. If you run into more problems with it, please let me know.

[Omnipotent]

That picture is from the outer map "border". When you zoom out in-game, you see that Faction-dependent background. It isn't actually a background, the map the "screen" embedded in this tablet-like environment. The height of the this tablet is higher than the usual heights the map itself ranges in. That's why you see a black strip, it's essentially a wall.

Yes, it is. Adding fog helps some with hiding the black border, but it doesn't obscure it completely. Even on the stock FA maps, it's there. One just has to look closer to see it.

From my research so far, I think they added some sky cube/atmosphere/space background changes and tweaks in v60. I could write a tool that would copy the relevant portions from a v60 map file into a v56 (essentially, it would upgrade the map to v60). Since I don't understand the structure of the new v60 data, we'd be limited to just copying what already exists in the stock maps. Converting to v60 also means you wouldn't be able to open the map in the editor anymore (AFAIK, none of the maps editors can read v60). To address that, I'd probably need to write a tool to regress the map back to v56 for editing purposes.

All that being said, I really don't care that much about the aesthetics of the sky box since I rarely use the free camera mode. If I get bored one day, I might throw something together, but it's not high on my to-do list.

FYI, the SCMAP Reader/Writer library (adapted from Hazardx' SCMAP loader) is part of my random map generator project. If someone wants to explore making a "Sky Cube Fix Tool", the code is available.

I've literally just posted about this in an old thread:

"Changing Skybox" - Mapping forum, can't post URLs because forum thinks I'm a newb.

Also I'm the creator of Coastal Bridge, so the fact that this editor can't read it irks me.

If you could fix the SkyCube thing however, I will love you forever.

Omni.