I figured it was something like that.

I actually don't mind that his stuff is getting some publicity out of this... they really are nice third-party tools.

Well, 1337 mentioned the random map generators, and nothings, so I just looked it up real quick.

The hell are you doing browsing these dusty old threads anyway?

Something like that.

Jeez sorry, I guess this forum is srs bzns right?

@Kaede-Chan: Nah, that was pretty easy to call.

Fucking bloody hell 1337101, get out of my head.

<3

Inb4 necrobumping accusations.

This is amazing.

I can't wait till people can put up a rotation of these map gens, leading to strings of maps that are all different, but has one theme.

Whoops.

Hmm. I don't think that would fix it, because then it should try to load an extra color, does that really work?

Basically, the code should never work if top_colors_start == top_colors_end. It's designed around the assumption there will always be some top_colors.

I believe the correct fix is to add the following to is_surface, after is "if (map[...])" check:

if (z == 0) return 1;

which just says "if a solid voxel is at the top edge of the map, it is visible, so it is a surface voxel". I believe this was even mentioned in the voxlap documentation, and I just forgot to enforce it.

But I haven't tested the fix.

I currently use the save_vxl function for pyspades, and I've found a rather fatal, admittedly rare, bug with it. Sometimes, top_colors_end can be 0, and since the code sets it to top_colors_end - 1, it wraps and becomes 255. Doing a simple

if (top_colors_end == 0)
    *out = 0;
else
    *out = top_colors_end - 1;

fixes the problem, so it's a rather trivial problem also :)

Sure is bumpy in here.

>bump<

<bump>

one query though, how do i use the gens when making a server?

The server asks you what vxl map file to load. So before you run the server, you run one of the generators to create a vxl file, then you load that on the server.

When Ben puts in victory conditions / automatic map resets, this will change. If all goes according to plan then at that point you'll be able to hook these generators up to to the server so it can automatically generate a new map itself.

really amazing work and thanks for sharing, one query though, how do i use the gens when making a server?

@nothings

Thank you so much, the html file about the map format is going to save me a lot of time!

C source code to all 7 generators

All in the public domain; do anything you want with them. (See license.txt for a more legally explicit "do anything at all".)

Each generator is a single C source file; just compile that file (they #include their common shared code so you don't need a makefile).

I built these with MSVC 6, but they should work with any Visual C. In fact, they should work on mac and linux too, except I'm not sure everything in the library file stb.h builds properly cross-platform.

I attempted to move everything into a common library and get rid of all the cut-and-pasting and duplicate code between the seven generators; in the process I changed how the terrain generation works so you won't get the same map for a given seed as the executables I released. It's also possible I introduced bugs while doing it, although I tested every generator once.

moar >:O i need moar >:O

Absolutely, you can use them for anything you want at all.

sweet generators, can I use some of them as bases for making maps in voxed?

also needs more cowbell

incase you missed it the first time, im hosting caves again on the same server
oh and rainbow columns needs MORE columns and bridges needs less bridges

Yeah, all those gameplay issues make sense, and personally for me gameplay matters first (over realism and prettiness). However, I can only implement the things I can think of that are implementable, so I figured I'd try them out and see how they play anyway. Plus. I think the way to fix your complaint about Sinc is basically "make the map the same as AoS default", which obviously isn't very interesting.

Also I think asymmetry of some kind is important to try to keep the aspect that blue and green have reason to play differently. It has not been my experience that green owns the default maps (at least not back when rifles could damage blocks, although certainly now you get some megadefenses that seem to only ever get defeated by griefing).

I do like the much subtler way Ben's maps do it, but I'm limited by what I can come up with and most of these things don't invite subtle approaches (skybridge and rainbow towers are more subtle about it).

Regarding your swampy map:

I've been thinking about making an interactive landscape-only generator for creating terrain that's not so much for making final maps but as starting places for people making generators, which I think would help for what you're talking about. The problem is expressing features like the river in the regular AoS maps is hard to do without writing code specifically for that (so I can have a configurable river, but then somebody says "i want two rivers", or "I want the river to be stylistically different, well, they're screwed).

Wow, great work.
I don't really like most maps design, but whole idea is great.
Here some criticism:
-caves makes attacking too easy (easy to hide in caverns system and snipe enemy base), which makes defensive buildings kind of useless, and that lead to players spreading and generally unorganized gameplay.
-sinc looks nice, but there are no strategic points (except middle island) that could canalize gameplay. It leads to random running rather than teamplay.
-I haven't played on slope, forest or unfinished fortress, but default map shows that even small difference between green and blue lands gives huge advantage to one of the sides (greens generally own with their river). So I dislike asymmetrical maps.
-haven't played bridges nor rainbow towers, but I prefer more realistic maps

And suggestion for next mapgen - swampy river front:
man-made structures are optional, I could add them manually, but making natural-looking terrain by hand is real pain in ass.
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/8739/mapmiddleriver2.jpg
red circles: 5-10 ground height, optionally some soviet-like buildings and few trees
orange circles: 0-5 ground height, 50/50 swampy water and small islands, optionally bunker or small tower here and there and some trees
outside circles: mostly water
optionally single bridge in the middle of map from one base to another, 6 wide (4 road + 2 one-block-high-barriers), 2 thick(+barrier), with two 2x2 columns every 15 blocks

The thing about that is, unlike vietnam, you can run around on the treetops.

But maybe that would be a good thing.

great generators!

caves is also my favorite, even though it's not the prettiest. i think i'd like it better if it looked more natural; a slightly curved mountain, not so flat on top, a few crevices bleeding into/through it, and some smaller mountain ranges branching off east and west.

i love the natural look and feel of forest river. the combination of trees, hills, and water is a pioneer's dream come true. i wish it had higher mountain ranges, though, because the resources that come from them are needed after a map has been played for a while. i'd also like to see more trees of various sizes.

speaking of trees, i would love a jungle generator that floods the map with several different types and sizes of trees. i'm talking tons of trees everywhere, so that the map is mostly green. in addition a mix of some hills, swamps, beaches, rivers (mostly through the center), and bright green flat patches would make it ideal for me. think Vietnam.

i hate having to post everytime, rather than just being able to edit >.>
anyways,my server was down cause i was hostin a test server for sombody, but now its up with teh fortress :P, which i like, but caves is still my favorite :P

doesanyone know where i can get the original borville from?

i think ima start telling you my opinions on them as i host them :3
im hosting forest atm, and it looks so much nicer than caves, but i think i like caves better XD