Any kind of a way I could get started on coding a module to export the terrain as a DF Designer map?
For instance, have you sorted out an interface yet for modules? (Or better still, is the Obsidian source on a public repo?)
It's just that 'terrain import' is, like, my top requested feature.
Alas, Obsidian source is not yet in a public repo. I have to sort out a few things before I can do that.
As to the module interfaces, there is no set interface. An Obsidian module is nothing more than a Lua module/package, either written in pure Lua, a Lua shared library or a mixture of the two.
The only real interfaces will be with the rendering engine (which I still need to design) and the internal Cell engine - which I'm working on right now. The Cell engine will represent a fortress as a collection of C++ objects, exposed through Lua. It will start with an xml and binary serializer, but you are more than welcome to write a Lua module that will export to a DF Designer map.
I still need to nail down the internal representation of a fortress - it will directly affect the interface and available operations. I'll create a wiki page with the latest version of the representation and where we can discuss what info needs to be in it.
I haven't yet looked into the internals of DF, i.e. how terrain is represented, etc., so any input from anyone who has done that before will be MUCH appreciated.