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[Armok]

Now I feel stupid.  

Should I defend my point or realize all hope is lost?

[KrunkSplein]

quote:Originally posted by Armok:
<STRONG>Now I feel stupid.  

Should I defend my point or realize all hope is lost?</STRONG>

No, *I* feel stupid - I'm looking at Ancien, one of the two maps linked at the top of the page.  I have virtually NO idea what the hell is going on.  There's lava maybe?  I don't know how magma smelting has changed in the new version, as I've only played for a few hours since its release.

[Shadowlord]

Yes, the dark red numbers are lava (one level down - they'd be bright red instead of dark red if they were on the current level). The volcano is surrounded by a (dwarf-built) wall. The volcano was tapped a couple levels down to fill a channel which has a few smelters built to use it.

I came up with a better (and safer) way later, which you can see here: http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-1903-magmaworkshops

I tapped the volcano to fill a (approximately) 35x6 room with magma, and built a room directly above it with well-placed channels to provide access to the magma. For safety, I didn't dig the channels until I had sealed the tap by dropping water onto it to turn the one-tile-entrance to the volcano into obsidian.

I completely overdid the water-transportation to form the plug, though. I probably could have just dug a channel over the space I wanted to turn to obsidian, and then designated the open space as a pond (dwarves would theoretically then bring water up with buckets and dump it there). (I built three pumps and water wheels to bring water up to the plug, another pump and water wheel for drainage, a great many floodgates (some of which you can't see since they're open), five levers to control it all, and of course two gear assemblies and one horizontal axle to connect each pump and water wheel to each other...)

[Markavian]

Update!
2007-12-07

Fixed Points of Interest sharing

Added new version of map viewer; has buttons to change layers and zooms with the mouse

New map version is a big part of the fixed point of interest sharing, but these are minor details in the big scheme of things.

Removed important information message

Improved spam checks- may interfere with posting comments but I suspect not

Still haven't got round to the winter season banners yet

http://mkv25.net/dfma/

So, I spent hours and hours, almost six by the looks of things, writing a one-time application for converting layer numbers from the database into layer depths from the encoded map files. It was a cool application. 453 points of interest layer, and one blindingly quick SQL update... the database is up-to-date. Both the map viewer and the forms for adding and editing Points of Interest have now been updated with new code to handle map depths.

The map viewer has had a slight facelift with a few new clickable buttons to help mouse users navigate up and down through the layers, and change the zoom level. You don't need a keyboard any more, and you can see the level (depth) as reported by DF when you output your maps. I call it depth, its not really depth, its more like height. Higher numbers are high in the air, lower numbers are low.

I've also spent time reworking the backend code, making it easier to manage, and hopefully easier to extend. I will be looking at side-slice views next, linear views of the map data from the Front and the Side by remapping x, y, z to x, z, y and y, z, x. This may look really bad, or it'll look really cool. I have no idea yet. People have been pestering me to make a 3D view, or an isometric view. It's possible, but only crudely. If I were ever to get these a 3D viewer working it'd be using a 'slice'/cutaway through the landscape, and it wouldn't account for sky or anything useful like that. Frankly it'd be like moving through a block of cheese, or a trifle, you'd see alot of layers but not much overall detail. That was a terrible analogy. At least you can eat trifle.

Featured maps

Axgear - by Markavian, shows PoI sharing, the top two (cliff pois) don't work for good reason

Strapdiamond - by ScatmanJohn, this place has an effective magma workshop space and plumbing

Bannercall - by Demosthenes, if you venture lower, there is a 9 story tall block of bedrooms underground!

^ Picked on a whim

Enjoy,
- Markavian

[Zemat]

Nice update!

Also everything works faster now. Although I don't know if you changed something there or my machine is being more cooperative.

Just one comment/suggestion. When clicking the points of interest links on the sidebar of the viewer the page url doesn't change to reflect the new point of interest viewed. So I have no idea how I could link to an existing POI from there. I would have to browse the POI section and search for the POI I'm going to post for the link. It would be nice if by clicking the POIs on the viewer page the url reflected the change. Although I know that probably that would require a page reload.

[Demosthenes]

I can't seem to comment on one of my maps. It keeps saying I've failed Spam Check A.

Edit: I'm honored Bannercall was featured.
I didn't think the bedrooms were that good, either.    :p
And even with 9 stories of Bedrooms, most of my dwarves chose to sleep in the Barracks. Stupid Economy.

[ December 08, 2007: Message edited by: Demosthenes ]

[Armok]

But still nothing of Copperblazes caliber.  

[Markavian]

quote:Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>When clicking the points of interest links on the sidebar of the viewer the page url doesn't change to reflect the new point of interest viewed. So I have no idea how I could link to an existing POI from there. </STRONG>

Hey Zemat, you can copy PoI links by right-clicking on them in your browser. I have the same problem tho. It should be possible to update the address bar without reloading the page, I'll look into this. If you disable JavaScript the default action is to refresh the page with the map centered on the PoI you clicked on.

Demosthenes, sorry about you not being able to post. Could you do me a favour and PM me a message containing the text you tried to post in your comment? I won't explain why your message failed the spam check, but I can use your text to improve the checks and allow messages that I know aren't spam.

*Markavian prods veryinky to upload one of his new forts to the map archive*

- Markavian

[ December 09, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]

[Markavian]

Updates for http://mkv25.net/dfma/  

2007-12-12

Incorporated Point of Interest display into map viewer

^ Tell me if you don't like this change, either by forum or email

Linking directly to a poi will still bring up the full text below the main description

Text fields in flash only supports simple HTML, so images will be converted to links

Winter banners

In the pipes for the following month:

A side slice viewer (toggle between top/side/front views).

A new version of the map format and SL's compressor with recognition for map tiles based off the font tileset and colours from init.txt

(Continued backwards compatability support)

Regards,
- Markavian

[ December 12, 2007: Message edited by: Markavian ]

[Markavian]

Updates for http://mkv25.net/dfma/  
2007-12-16

New multi-view map viewer - now view DF maps from the front, side and top

Updated Point of Interest system to support new view orientations

Examples: Magma Vent (vertical), Temple to Armok (side)

The new viewer lets you view DF's third dimension in a whole new way. Getting a sense for depth is difficult with the ingame view only. Now you can appreciate the closeness of the layers, and maybe that will encourage you to spread your forts out a bit more on the vertical level.

The new viewer may have some kinks in it. If you find any, please tell me right away! I know it doesn't initialise the view properly, so pressing the in-viewer buttons from the off resets the view to some useless position. Moving the map before using the buttons cures this, but its not right as it is.

The updated Point of Interest system (forms) might have bugs in it too, its been a bit of rush getting it all working, but I couldn't post the new version of the viewer without updating the PoI code as well. The database update was straightforward this time: all old PoIs are from the default view 'top', all new PoIs will have the view angle recorded.

Note: As always, you don't need javascript to view the PoIs, but you do need flash, and you do need javascript to post PoIs.

Enjoy.

- Markavian
http://mkv25.net/dfma/

[Ralje]

First person to make designs along the Z-axis wins free internets  

[Zemat]

Awesome as always, Markavian!!

The first obvious comments on the slice visualizer:

The icons you show on every slice are still shown as viewed from the top. This is more obvious when seeing walls. Of course I realize there's no way for you to change walls to display "sideways" since they are basically 2D sprites or icons. A quick fix tough could be to replace wall icons and show them as solid rectangular chunks of the appropriate material color as if they where smoothed rock. This will give more the proper illusion of seeing walls from the front.

The other thing that doesn't look so good sideways is the surface water. When you see water from the top you can see the same water level or icon on the +0 level and the +1 level (in a darker color). This reflects badly in the slice view because you'll continue to see the darker water icons on the level where there supposed to be no water. The same goes for lava. This maybe could be fixed by hiding the water and lava icons that are darker in color.

Anyway those are minor annoyances.

By the way. Any thoughts on integrating the recently released awesome 3d visualizer by sinoth? Maybe you could just let people add 3d fortress screenshots from the visualizer as an addon to the POIs.

Maybe you could make your visualizer more like google maps by adding the POIs into the maps as little icons that the users can click and will spawn the POI comment. And inside the comments the viewer can show either a 3d picture of the fortress or even a cmv movie.

Anyway, these are not requests. Just ideas for future features  :p

[Red Jackard]

quote:Originally posted by Zemat:
<STRONG>The other thing that doesn't look so good sideways is the surface water. When you see water from the top you can see the same water level or icon on the +0 level and the +1 level (in a darker color). This reflects badly in the slice view because you'll continue to see the darker water icons on the level where there supposed to be no water. The same goes for lava. This maybe could be fixed by hiding the water and lava icons that are darker in color.</STRONG>

Do you have an example of this? I couldn't find it on an earlier fortress: http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-2478-crosssectionofcourtyardfront

If you mean brooks, well those are floor tiles - of course they'd show.

[Zemat]

The Magma Vent example posted by markavian clearly shows this.

The upper magma vent level where the darker lava flow icons are shown are actually open space which would be walkable if floor tiles or bridges where built over them.

[Ralje]

It's a bit odd to see the zoomed-out tiles above ground tiles, but it also proves just how well the front/side views work! Nice job Markavian.