Mini-Howto and Newsletter

• Newsletters (i.e. e-mails I attached when sending updates to the testing people :)

• Dragging Map, Java-Package, Internationalization
• DeleteMap (dm), rename (Map)
• landscape- and map-element types, set landscapes, set attributes and flags for multiple nodes, special symbols/icons for single nodes
• global zoom, polygons with pictures, listing, editing polygons
• demonstration map MUD Morgengrauen, RandomPicture, URL-Icons,TiledPicture
• connecting ZMud, general requirements for connecting to mud clients
• demonstration map MUD Morgengrauen, Icons,
  GUI (ButtonBar, Icon-,Color-Chooser),
  Take parameters by clicking in map,
  no zoom out anymore when adding nodes, caching of fonts,
  How can be set for which node attributes symbolic icons can appear in the map (e.g. pub)
  sizes of elements in the map,
  different node attributes in menu (nodes), TODO
• Suggestion: HOWTO

• HOWTOs

english (18n) should work everywhere by now

the map can be dragged using the mouse, just click an drag 
(thanks to sahadoom@mg.mud.de)

some internal changes (own java package, all java classes in a single zip file)

Mesi

On Tue, 20 Feb 2001 sahadoom@mg.mud.de wrote:

> Hi,
>
is there a possibility to rename a map or to delete it?

Hi there,

by now its not possible but easy to implement

The map names are kept in a file named map, either they are changed there
or I implement it :)


deletemap (dm) is like removing a map but it just removes all nodes contained in the map except one

removing a map would be very complicated as all references (map numbers)
must be updated,
by just removing the nodes from the map it can be reused

rename oldname newname renames a map

new types:
general info-attribute-types:
node, background, akt, house, up, down, visited, mapswitch, pub, port,
shop, post, tank, ways, tport, npc, 

landscape types:
path, road, plain, cave, dungeon,
house, castle, mountain, hill, river, beach, desert, sea, ice, snow,
forest

at any node that ist set to be visited (visited by mud client) (there the 
visited flag is set, manually by sf +visited)

do

ai type forest

then the type is diplayed that is defined as foresttype in the mapper.def 
file

e.g.
foresttype=Picture tree1.gif

let me direct your attention to the addtional parameters of ai (AddInfo)
little woods can be created with ease that way :)

ai type forest -r map
ai type forest -r level
ai type forest -r marked
ai type forest -r region 10 10 0
ai type forest -r nodes 0-100

setzt for the given nodes the node attribute "type" to "forest"

this works for all attributes a node can contain (e.g. color,short)

sf (SetFlag) may also be interesting

sv +visited
sf +visited marked
sf +visited map
sf +visited level
...

sf sets the flags of the nodes

see ? visited

see ? selection syntax

each single node can be given a special type (symbol/icon)

e.g.
ai icon FilledCircle
or
ai icon Picture wizard.gif

e.g. for a mage guild

Mesi

Here it is:

this version now uses the different landscape types
types see mapper.def (mapper.ini for personal preferences)

other new things:

the global zoom suggested by Olli@mg.mud.de is implemented, just one zoom
for all maps

polygons may contain images as background these are first tiled and then
painted with the invers polygones to the border of the original one
(as setClip(polygon) does not work for Motif (at least)

Using this _was_ not that easy
now you can just click the polygon button in the button bar, then click
inside a polygon on the map and press return (command: ep  
(for EditPolygon)

old way of doing this:

oi polygon (Object Info)
lists all polygons

oi number lists the details of each polygon

and
ei number shows an edit dialog for the polygon

there can the image-filename can be set at the attribute "image"
e.g.
tree1.gif

See you

Micha
PS: 
ep , then clicking the map and return also shows up the edit 
dialog (also to be found in the button bar)

Here it is:

P.S.
the type RandomPicture uses one (random per node) image of n for displaying

this is quite useful for not so boring landscapes

The needed icons can be downloaded from

http://emw.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mh14/tf/makros/icons.zip

and should be unpacked in the installation directory

btw. general tiling of images is done by the Type TiledPicture 
(this one can be used with a wallpaper for the background)

Hi There (to lurchi@mg.mud.de),

i already asked you for doing the connection zmud to mapper

I know that ZMud has its own mapper, but the people who want to use or 
try mine on linux or windows shoul be enabled to do this from zmud as well

Generally the Mapper opens a local port (default 2000) to which the normal
movement or mapper commands can be sent

the script should be able to do the following

1. open a connection
2. catch movement commands (s,se...) and send them to the mapper
3. contain a command which sends its parameters to the mapper 
e.g.
map jump over the river
or
map ae n e ne (addexit)

3. alternatively the command can be implemented with a prefix character-sign
e.g. *jump over the river

that the mapper doesn't have to parse all commands send to the mud
(for instance there will be problems with aliases)

4. a automapper functionality, i.e.
I set a variable and the script sends per successful movement command
a
ae direction
and
direction
to the mapper
e.g.

ae ne
ne

5. Possibilities to transfer information from the mud/client to the mapper

in tf I did this for the MUD Morgengrauen for the following attributes:
P_SHORT,
P_LONG,
author,
npcs,
exits


Do you think this is possible?

Micha

Hi folks,

here you get a new version with a lot of changes

1. Demonstration map of the MUD Morgengrauen is included for really using
 this you should have the icons extracted into the installation directory
http://emw.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mh14/tf/makros/icons.zip

2. GUI:
the compass in the lower left corner may either use the image or buttons 
(set in mapper.ini (copied from mapper.de)

at the upper edge the button bar visible can be created by anyone customizing the mapper.ini
(the command after the color : is needed for the right mouse button)
(the text after the (question mark) ? appears as help text in the status line)
the color- and icon-choosers appear in the lower right corner an in the
edit window for objects (polygons by now)

3. Using the mouse: a lot of commands can be supplied with parameters 
(nodes, coordinates) by clicking with the mouse in the map, the clicked
coordinates are marked by the marker-type

the mapper recognizes different pattern in the command string and replaces
them with the correct data needed when clicking in the map

Pattern         Data

 	Many coordinate-pairs with 0.1 precision
  	Many coordinate-pairs with 1 precision
 	One coordinate-pair with 0.1 precision
 	One coordinate-pair with 
		One node
		Many nodes
-p -m

As I recognize that the already very long documentation of the mapper
does not contribute to its ease of use, I wanted to listen to your
suggestions:

I thougth it would be more sensible to write little howto's not from my
perspective as programmer but from a user's perspective.
These should be short but nonetheless exact and not that technically :)

What do you think ?

I thought about the following ones:

* How to start (Sniper@mg.mud.de)
* How to use the GUI (Sniper)
* Adding node attributes/information (Strohalm@mg.mud.de)
* Handle multiple maps (Olli@mg.mud.de)
* special exits 
* Colors, Icons etc.
* personal preferences

I don't know if these are sufficient or to technically again :) or if a FAQ would be even better


Mesi