Automap: Skip marking area and use of Thiefmapper?

[schleicher]

Hi

Automap needs per page an bin-File. At the moment I create them with
the Thiefmapper-Program. This program needs pcx-Files where I mark
the areas with the colour of Index 254 (RGB: 0xFF00FF)

But it seems, every bin-file only consists for every area of this byte-
sequence: 0x00 00 00 00 28 02 68 01

So I could write my own program, where I give the number of
Areas and that program simply creates a file with the named
sequence one after another till the number is reached ?

So I don't need to mark the areas with Colour Index-254 to define
that areas and I don't either need Thiefmapper.exe or an similarly program ?

Or can I run into trouble by doing this ?

[schleicher]

I've found an tutorial, where the bin-fileformat is explained.
And this format makes sense.

Its strange, that Automap works here with the bin-fileformat,
that I described in my first question, that consists of only
a series of the same bytes.

So it seems, my question above is obsolete.

[Zontik]

Here's one of my BIN files from Intrface/MissXX folder:



It doesn't look like 0x00 00 00 00 28 02 68 01.
Maybe your BIN is broken?

[schleicher]

Just in these days I started with Automaps and so I didn't had any idea of it.
So I landed at the Thiefmapper-Program. And this program always
created bin-files with the aforementioned byte-sequence.

With that sequence it worked. Strangely enough. Now I know, what the binfile is about.
It consists of area-coordinates and with/height-informations.

My first tests was with fullscreen-areamaps, where I simply marked the relevant
area with some graphics. I have no Idea, why by aforementioned byte-sequence the map-picture
was placed corretly at 0.0.

Now I wrote an program, that creates the bin-files with the correct informations. And now I
am working with pictures, that only show the relevant area that is to highlight. This
pictures are not full-screen (as in my first tests) but instead has only the needed
dimensions. Where such a picure is placed in-game is determined by the bin-file.

[schleicher]

Update:

I can say now, what this "0x00 00 00 00 28 02 68 01"-Sequence means: It refers to a fullscreen-pic with the default
dimension 552*360 , placed at 0,0

[Yandros]

Of course, that's because 552 decimal is 02 28 in hex, and 360 is 01 68 in hex.

[R Soul]

schleicher, you're taking about making your own automap program but two such programs already exist.

In your other thread, I mentioned them both:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post2388165

AutomapPNG is simple (you prepare the map in a similar way to the old way (rectangles and non-highlight masks)) with the bonus of being for PNG files so you can use full colour. DarkMapGen is more advanced: it looks like that instead of the index-254 rectangles, you just draw the shapes of each highlighted area. It also looks like the location number is linked to each shape, rather then the coordinates on the image. So, you should give either of them a go, which will save you the effort of having to decipher the .bin files.

[schleicher]

R Soul, I will have a look on this programs. Thank you for the tips. There is
much to explore at this topic.