JAVA programmer? (and Win-DomMap, and some GIMP)

[Joe Bedurndurn]

If you can point me to a site that explains the PNM format and a sample image, I can give it a go.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Joe Bedurndurn:
If you can point me to a site that explains the PNM format and a sample image, I can give it a go.

Targa is what the game uses (.tga format). The PNM is just a passthru on its way to JPG (I couldnt find a tga2jpg converter so I go tga2ppg then ppg2jpg)

The JPG exists for web viewing and so that WebMagick can make thumbnails (which does use imagemagick to do it). I did see that ImageMagick had a blur switch but didnt see where I could hold 255/255/255 white aside. Maybe something where I could copy the white pixels to another file then merge it back after the blur?

Of course these are also all work-arounds for the old DomMap program which is in C source code if anyone is interested.

[ January 31, 2004, 17:22: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[BugRoger]

If I'm correct you can use the map switch. Give it a color map file to select specific colors (I'm totally clueless about the file format though). Pass that output to the matte channel. You might have to create a temp file for that.

In the docs there's an example about using a matte channel to filter only certain areas of the image.

[gladestrider]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Of course these are also all work-arounds for the old DomMap program which is in C source code if anyone is interested.

Gandalf,

Please send me the source code when you get a chance. I'd like to take a look at it.

I'm a bit late to this party. Why are we looking for a blur filter?

gladestrider

[Gandalf Parker]

PhilD is managing the source code now. The Last batch of changes were his. He has pretty much gotten it to create maps which will work for Dom2. His Version is Linux only and there are people who would love to get just a working Windows compile made available.

The blur story is this. Dom1 had a very restricted use of color. The maps made for Dom2 have a much greater range of allowance. There are alot of possible ways to go as far as making the random maps look much better. But the EASIEST thing Ive found is a blur.

In a few steps, using GIMP, I can layer the white capital dots, layer the blue borders in water provinces, layer the brown color used for land borders, blur the rest and then save. I can provide links of the before and after if you wish.

With DomMap I can generate 100 maps a day and make them available on my web site. But they are ugly. Ive tried to find a way to automate blurring them while not touching 3 colors (or even 1, the 255/255/255 white capitals). But a better answer would be the fact that DomMap has all that info in an array at one point. There are alot of ways to go. Blur then insert the capital pixels to the file would be one.

Id also be interested in whether the C code actually generates a more extensive fractal map then "dumbs it down" to the old Dom1 map format. Such as... does it squeeze everything between height 100-150 into the green tree color because the old Dom1 limited the map to a total of 16 colors? Letting it assign each level to a slight color change could result in a great map.

[Gandalf Parker]

Found PhilD's link to the newer DomMap code.
http://duchon.philippe.free.fr/dom2/index.html

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
PhilD is managing the source code now. The Last batch of changes were his. He has pretty much gotten it to create maps which will work for Dom2. His Version is Linux only and there are people who would love to get just a working Windows compile made available.

More specifically: I'd say the program is pretty much standard C. Not really my problem if people cannot get it to compile on their system

(more truthfully: I don't know what it would take to get it to compile on non-linux machines; it's most likely very little)

Id also be interested in whether the C code actually generates a more extensive fractal map then "dumbs it down" to the old Dom1 map format. Such as... does it squeeze everything between height 100-150 into the green tree color because the old Dom1 limited the map to a total of 16 colors? Letting it assign each level to a slight color change could result in a great map.

Yes, it actually generates two full fractal maps (one for altitude, one for "richness"), then sorts it into a few color categories to only include a few colors in the output.

I can easily change it so it outputs more or less the whole range (of one map), or something like that: it's a very minor change. Or to output the province borders and capitals to a different .tga file, if you want to do some automated image treatment. Not that big a deal (will use more memory, though).