Warhammer Dark Omen Forum

I am working on getting Rob's c# files to load in my editor, so the models can be loaded as is(.m3d).  I have some general d o questions maybe someone can answer in the meantime.  Assume I am referring to b101.

I am guessing that the m3x file is for culling parts of the terrain.  Is this correct?  Can you delete either the base.m3d or m3x and not crash the game with software processing?

The terrain block heights are two sets of data.  Does anyone know why the sets are different?  Since the first set does not show the river at the top, I am guessing the first dataset is for sight, and the second is for rgt height. 

Using the command line tool from this site, can you remove or replace units from either arm file without it crashing?

Assuming you renamed the arm file in the btb header, can you swap arm files from a different map?

Are the aud and are files the same as the arm file?

What is the trac block in the prj file for?  Is it a path for the camera?

Is the furn.lst file necessary?

Thx

There was some purpose of m3x files I cant remember. There is a "map gridder" available to generate a m3x from a m3d.

Hm, I can't remember the reason. But your idea sounds logical, because one file always contains the furniture (to block for line of sight) and one is without furniture (height only).

Here is a command line tool for TERR:
DO Heightmap Generator (https://github.com/Ghabry/Dark-Omen-Heightmap-Generator)

Command line tool? You use Wh32Edit and BtbEdit for this.
And of course, there are many mods for Dark Omen that replace the armies.

You can ask me more questions about this, should be able to answer them.

Assuming that they have the same UnitID and the same UnitType: yes. (otherwise it could crash when you dont adjust the CTL script)

You can ask me more questions about this, should be able to answer them.

Yes.
AUD is what you can buy. ARE is the template for new armies.

Yes. A note about the camera: If I remember this correctly the camera uses in Singleplayer the first heightmap data and in multiplayer the second ;).

No idea.

Great questions and answers - keep them coming ->

1) Rob created the map gridder tool and described the .m3x as a chunked version of the .m3d terrain map, that DO uses for its calculations.

2) The Terrain block of Black Pyramids investigation =
1st Height Map = Line of Sight (as blocked by small pyramids in both Single Player and Multiplayer)
1st Height Map = Single Player Camera (Roaming Camera will rise and fall over the small pyramids)
2nd Height Map = Troops movements following gradient of Terrain (Armies walk on flat terrain where small pyramids used to be but do walk in the air over the large pyramid since it appears in both Height Maps) 
2nd height Map = Multiplayer Camera (Roaming Camera passes straight through small pyramids and Rob found that the small Pyramids don't appear in the 2nd height map, hence the flat terrain for troops and camera not altering)

So I just make both height maps the same on any of my new mod maps.

ATTR Block sets the type of terrain for special effects for when artillery hits water or rock. So on the Black Pyramids map I changed all the 22 hex entries to 00 that eliminated the areas where the Pyramids stood, allowing a new flat map. Troops can not engage in combat on designated ATTR blocks, if there isn't a BTB boundary to stop them entering.

The furn.lst file is necessary as far as i know to avoid crashes but not necessary to modding. I remember when using Mikademus' .PRJ tool that i would add in my furniture to the .PRJ FURN Block and then be able to assign it in the INST block. However, my Fortress Map is a Flat modded Black Pyramids and I didn't have to alter its original FURN.list which just says Tempfurn.

:)

So, you don't really need anything to be able to create and play custom maps?

Yes, we're currently limited to reusing original sized maps and ideally the height map generator tool will eventually accept more detailed 24bit .PNG files instead of 16bit.TIFF files to avoid "stepping" when troops walk up slopes instead of more detailed finer gradients that 24bit.PNG will hopefully offer.

Apart from that I've got flattened map templates ready to go in Blender, to allow fans to create hills and new terrain, take a shaded greyscale top down screen shot of the terrain height map and then export to BASE.M3D, to then convert to BASE.M3X and apply BTB boundaries around any new furniture or cliff edges etc.

It would be nice to automate the ATTR areas where water and cliffs are somehow and also the EXCL block (has it been proved that all it does is make some FURN see through for Line of Sight as same can be done with BTB boundaries (block line of sight and Magic/Arrows). A nice tool to set the camera travel in the TRAC block would be great but I guess this all requires a Battle Editor!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/map2q.jpg/ (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/map2q.jpg/)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/map1lwf.jpg/ (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/map1lwf.jpg/)

Or did you just mean don't need anything in the Furn.lst to create and play custom maps.

:)

Creating custom maps should be possible already but using one tool that combines everything is easier then using 10 different tools. ;)

A few more questions:

Is there an easy way in blender to create and view a bounding sphere for a model?

Using the tools you currently have, if you wanted to create a map with forest sections rgts can move into, do you need to have 2 versions of the map?  Like one with the forests and one without to make 2 separate heightmaps.

Do you need the map pic file ie b101.bmp, or will d o crash if it is not there?

The ATTR block, is it only for the explosion sprites?  Does it affect anything else?

The best way I found on my Fortress map, was to have the forest sections as single .m3d FURN INST and then assign BTB boundaries around the section you don't want troops to pass through and blocks Line of Sight. Then the plain terrain without woods can be used to generate both height maps.

The ATTR block is only used for the explosion sprites (water/cliff edges/ground) but troops are unable to engage in melee unless the section is 00 00 in  the ATTR. I found this when removing the Black Pyramids from the Height Maps and 3d Terrain but then found I had to blank the ATTR blocks where they once stood, to allow troops to engage in melee for modded Fortress Map B5_01B.

Just tested and the map pic b101.bmp doesn't crash game when not present

Bounding Box in Blender -> Import B1_01 BASE.M3D and set view to Bounding Box

(http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/4104/4s8d.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/4s8d.jpg/)

The cliffs and the ground actually have different explosions?  I never noticed.  What about the river fords like on b101?

[attachment=1]

It changes for water and ground but not for cliffs, I had misremembered that, sorry.

(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/637/b23s.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/837/b23s.jpg/)


http://wiki.dark-omen.org/do/DO/PRJ#ID:_.22ATTR.22_block_data_layout (http://wiki.dark-omen.org/do/DO/PRJ#ID:_.22ATTR.22_block_data_layout)

ATTR Block

"It looks like this is line-of-sight / accessibility information. attributes are 0 for ’ordinary’ tiles, 2 for blocked ( i.e. unit can’t move there ), 8 for passable water (such as fords), 10 (8|2) for impassible water".

:)

I wonder why they would bother to differentiate the river ford, then.  Maybe, it was something they were going to use that got dropped.

There is a Bridge that they never used in B1_01 as I found the same problems for troops to successfully navigate and cross bridges, you end up having a "too wide" bridge that looks unnaturally wide. The issue is caused when troops automatically assume the widest formation when told to attack. So to navigate the Fortress Entrance gate u must stay in thin formation and manually charge your troops into the enemy, rather than telling to attack (annoying but cant find a work around but kind of makes sense that large cavalry units would naturally find it harder to fit through gates and bridges without assuming the thinnest formations. They automatically use the widest formation on attack to maximize the amount of enemy units they can engage in melee. A rivers crossing works better than a bridge.

(http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8035/woodb.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/woodb.jpg/)

I had seen the textures, but had no idea there was a model for them.  Where did you find it?

Sorry I built that for my Fortress map using their original Dark Omen Bridge textures to recreate it but then found all the BTB boundaries had to be too wide for the bridge, to allow troops to easily navigate.

http://forum.dark-omen.org/3d-scenery-models/new-beta-fotress-siege-map-t1001.0.html (http://forum.dark-omen.org/3d-scenery-models/new-beta-fotress-siege-map-t1001.0.html)

(http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/539/fortressjune2010b.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/fortressjune2010b.jpg/)

So I also had to revert back to a river crossing instead of wooden bridge. My other stone bridge is optimal size after weeks of testing.

So, do you think you could get away with just saving either water or ground for every position on the map?  For the ATTR block.

At this early stage I would say yes as I haven't detected any other side effects on the Fortress Map where everything is 00 00 in the blank ATTR block, which means my water doesn't give different Artillery explosion effect but that was due to me having to manually hex edit the height maps and was too time consuming to trace my new water's shape in the ATTR block. Especially when BTB boundaries block troop movements and line of sight.

Ok, I'll try to just check for water, otherwise set to ground.

Those lousy jerks!! Why the f did they make a block, call it WATR, and then put castle meshes in it?  Why are those not in the FURN block?

[attachment=1]

Bizarre!

:)

I have the ray terrain methods in, but they need work, because they seem to miss if the ray falls right on the edge of a triangle. The same is true for getting an attr block, but I guess it is better than nothing.  I should be able to post the new version on Tue.

Is there an easy way in blender to get a top down screenie of the map?

Olly can you post a before and after pic of the screen that shows your armies when you play MP

Good to see progress resuming, the easiest way of producing a top down view of a map in Blender, is to add a camera and then press F12 to render the scene, after attaching an Black/White texture to the object. Or simply use my ready to go flat Pyramids Base mod map, it has the camera all set up so grab a region of polygons and raise into hill and then press F12 to view the height map and F3 to export as 16bit PNG. Then use Aqrit's new 16bit PNG to Dark Omen height map generator.

http://forum.dark-omen.org/maps/heightmaps-t1222.0.html;msg12486#msg12486 (http://forum.dark-omen.org/maps/heightmaps-t1222.0.html;msg12486#msg12486)

http://www.mediafire.com/download/7cirdgw51hbrdw2/AqritHeightMapv2.zip (http://www.mediafire.com/download/7cirdgw51hbrdw2/AqritHeightMapv2.zip)


:)

*Will try and get you pictures of armies before and after MP, such as the army roster at end of battle showing kills and deaths? *
 

Oops, I meant the army select screen if that is where it saves an arm after a mp match.

Here are the screenshots after a multiplayer battle

[attachment=1][attachment=2][attachment=3][attachment=4]

Im sorry for not being clear.  I would like the screens for the army files, if that is where d o saves the army after an mp battle.  Its been a while so I cant remember the layout.  Is it the same screen where you can see the default armies by coin value?

Oh, almost forgot the updated files

You can generate heights and attribute data, but it needs more work.  Try it out and export pics of the heights to see what I meant in the other post.  You can play around with adding furniture, but until I figure out how to get the inst block stuff right, it cant be used.  For now it just writes 0 for the added furn, so like I said, don't use it to mess with the furn insts. 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/dost032514.zip

Fixed because I didn't realize the game allowed negative heights.  All maps should open now without crashing.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/ParsePRJ032514.zip

Parser working well and very cool to add Furniture to maps in the Scenario tool!

(http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/31/2fdx.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/0v2fdxj)

Thanks

:)



****This is the screen that shows the default armies by coin value and where the multiplayer armies appear*****

(http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/809/jxdf.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/mhjxdfj)

We can always test on Game Ranger if you require any more screen shots. Dark Omen saves the opponent's army in the windows temp folder which can be examined in Wh32Edit.

Say i had an mp army called losers. They would appear on the last screen.  After a mp match, what does the after battle arm have appended to its name? Like loser(2) or something. The opponent arm is it similar?

They have nothing appended.
Every player is responsible on it's own to save the damaged army. (or to just dont save it)

Dump the two uploads from Tuesday and use these instead.  I switched from scaling from 8 to 1 and forgot some magic numbers.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/dost032614.zip

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/parseprj032614.zip

very cool. Thanks

(http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/853/um1l.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/npum1lj)

:)

You can toggle top down view with space bar.

Here is the most recent version

source
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/dost041314.zip
bin
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21362347/Dost%20Release%20041314.zip

Great, can't wait to get home tomorrow to test it (have been super busy house buying etc..)

Thanks

:)

I created a mp army and saved it.  I would like to know where this arm file is located.

in GameData\2parm

It finally occurred to me to use search in Windows Explorer.  On my Win 7 64 laptop, the location is:

C:\Users\USERNAMEGOESHERE\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Dark Omen\GameData\2parm

Copying a renamed arm file to the expected location works.



Is there guide that lists the layout of a savegame header?  Like how this data is stored.

[attachment=1]

This happens because you installed Dark Omen in Program files. That location is only writable by an administrator, therefore all write operations are redirected to the VirtualStore for compatibility reasons.

The information is stored in the regiment and not in the header:
http://wiki.dark-omen.org/do/ARM#Regiment_data (http://wiki.dark-omen.org/do/ARM#Regiment_data)

0x94-0x9B

I'll check my archives for the missing links to the Regiment List and Mikademus' "big honking list" unless you have it Ghabry?

I didn't see kills listed in the rgt.  So I figured it must be in the save header.  

Just one simple question

How can I edit the meeting point for original game (example: to add subtitiles)? There is no "whmtg.txt" file to edit except for mods campaign. Do I have to create a brand new campaign as a copy of original campaign? And if that's the solution, is there anywhere the "default whmtg.txt" to use?

Thanks in advance

Copy Dark Omen 2 mod and rename the folder and match the name to be the same within Mod.ini

Mmm... but in the Dark Omen 2 Mod "whmtg.txt" file, the first "SetDeafultSaveName" value is "Dark Elves" and the first battle in chapter 1 is "B6_01" (a battle with all dwarf units and three skaven units) in a instead of "B1_01"... Am I missing something? Hava I got an old "Dark Omen 2" version?

Ghabry has the original whmtg.txt available here -> 

http://forum.dark-omen.org/tools/mod-selector-t1118.0.html (http://forum.dark-omen.org/tools/mod-selector-t1118.0.html)

That's exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks a lot...
Thus, if I want to add subtitles to the original campaign:
1) Create a new mod folder (with the mod.ini file and all usual subfolders) copying it from an existing working mod
2.1) Copy all the original game data from the original game folders
or
2.2) Emtpy all the mod folders so the mod take all original data
Modify the whmtg.txt that I download from your previous link to add subtitles

This won't add subtitles to the original campaign, but add a new mod (let's say "Original Subtitled") with my subtitiles

Correct?

Only paste files into your new Mod folder that you want to change from original files. Therefore ignore 2.1) Copy all the original game data from the original game folders