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[Riemann]

It occured to me this week that in all the hours I've spent scrolling around world maps looking for start locations (even with regional_prospector) I could have just written a tool to do it. Damnit Jim, I'm a programmer not a map... looker ... guy.

Based on the info on Ricks page I've got a tool underway to decode world.dat with the intention of eventually making it able to search for locations on the world map that meet certain criteria.

So far (~3 hours into the project) it just opens the file, grabs each 20K chunk and deflates them into an output stream.

If this turns into something more useful I'll start posting source code. It's a damn big file though (that ~20 meg world.dat uncompresses to a good ~85 megs of data).

Edit: Forgot to metion, the code is entirely in C# 2.0 / .NET 3.0 with WPF as the UI.

[ February 22, 2008: Message edited by: Riemann ]

[beorn080]

I know this is way down the road but If you could make it so it can deparse the data stream, you could make custom embark zones that contains chasms, above and under ground rivers, HFS, magma, and all the other goodies in one 2x3 spot and that would rock.

[Riemann]

Hell, right now I just want to figure out the basic struct for map data. But if I can make it work the possiblity is open to making an actual map editor / creator.

But damn it's been 10 years since I've done this kind of thing (eg: decoding an unkown binary).

[penguinofhonor]

Would you be able to input anything you want, instead of being forced to look for maps with magma, adamantine, cave rivers, iron, flux, a chasm, trees, no aquifer, and the cure for cancer?

Because some of us don't like those kinds of maps.

[Riemann]

Well, again if I can figure out this binary parsing shit, mostly what I am interested in is creating a good search UI to look for as wide a range as possible. Eg: Other than perhaps an initial test-setup it will not be hardcoded what to look for.

This is not intended to just be a searcher for "perfect" locations. More what I have in mind is: I want to try a terrifying map in X climate with some limestone.

Or whatever. I imagine it might be useful to Toady as well just to be able to search up a location that meets certain criteria for debuging / testing.

[Derakon]

Bumping, as I have a similar interest. I'm on a Mac, though, so I'd probably have to write my own program to do the searching. Did you have any success in parsing the map data?

[Earthquake Damage]

Name:  Riemann
Status:  Writing a utility

Are you a math/comp sci major or something?

[Rick]

There is a lot of data in world.dat, and making changes without knowing its structure is probably a bad idea.

[Derakon]

I don't think anyone who was actually interested in making a utility was thinking of making one to modify the map data; just to read it. Like the original poster, I want to have a program (well, more likely a script of some sort) that would parse through the map data and say "there is a site with magma, an [underground] river, flux, iron ore, and skeletal puppies all within 3 squares of each other at <84>". To do that, I need:

* To be able to read the binary world.dat file
* To know where the map region data begins
* To know the structure of the map region data

I downloaded a basic hex viewer program and loaded up a pocket world.dat, but I wasn't even able to find basic things like the world's name (or, on embarking, the fortress name). I am on a Mac, but it's an Intel Mac; there shouldn't be any endianness problems.

[Rick]

Pretty sure my world.dat page says that the data is compressed in blocks using zlib?

[Derakon]

D'oh, I missed that one line at the top. Okay, then. Guess the first thing to do is write a program to uncompress everything. Thanks, Rick.

[numerobis]

quote:Originally posted by Derakon:
<STRONG>I'm on a Mac, though, so I'd probably have to write my own program to do the searching.</STRONG>

The save files are compatible, so you shouldn't need any such.  And if you're on Intel mac, you wouldn't even need to worry about endianness.

[Derakon]

It's more that the OP was talking about using .NET, really.

[numerobis]

quote:Originally posted by Derakon:
<STRONG>It's more that the OP was talking about using .NET, really.</STRONG>

Mono supposedly mostly works.

[Rick]

Mono should have no issues with file related stuff, WPF/WinForms on the other hand...