Possibility of a BMP2Civ4 Map Converter?

[Son of moose]

I was wondering whether any of the talented and industrious programmers in our midst would be interested in making this utility (which is currently available for CTP2 as the BMP2CTP2 Map Converter)?

I am currently working on a map for CTP2 and would be really keen to see it work (perhaps with some minor adjustments) in the soon-to-be-released Civ4.

[General Ludd]

What would the point of it be? The map isn't 3D, so it couldn't convert elevation maps and you could paint terrain in the editor more or less the same way you could paint a convertable map in a graphics program.

[Son of moose]

General Ludd:

Thank you for your reply.

The only reason why I thought that such a programme might be useful would be as a possible time saving device for oversized maps (which should be possible in Civ 4 .... although they are not officially endorsed).

I am currently busy with one for CTP2 and would be keen to see how it plays in Civ 4. Nevertheless, as you suggest, I could manually create it in the Civ 4 editor.

[Atahualpa]

General Ludd: Civ4 does use elevation maps? I thought its the same as in Civ3, just projected in 3D space than in 2D.

Son of moose: This would be hard to do, given that we don't yet know about the file format for civ4 maps

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Atahualpa
General Ludd: Civ4 does use elevation maps? I thought its the same as in Civ3, just projected in 3D space than in 2D.

Yes, what I was saying is that the Map is 2d and so elevation maps (which is what bmp converters are usually intended for) would be useless.

[Solver]

It's not useless in CtP2, though, and that game doesn't use elevation map either.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by General Ludd
What would the point of it be? The map isn't 3D, so it couldn't convert elevation maps and you could paint terrain in the editor more or less the same way you could paint a convertable map in a graphics program.

Because there are a number of Civ2, Civ3, and SMAC/X map-to-bmp converters.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Because there are a number of Civ2, Civ3, and SMAC/X map-to-bmp converters.

If it's converting it from another game that you want, why not just make a CivX - Civ4 converter?

[Kuciwalker]

Because it's simpler, easier, and more useful to make a generic Civ4-bmp converter?

[Vince278]

Re: Possibility of a BMP2Civ4 Map Converter?

Originally posted by Son of moose
I am currently working on a map for CTP2 and would be really keen to see it work (perhaps with some minor adjustments) in the soon-to-be-released Civ4.

A 2000x1000 Civ4 map like the CtP2 map we're working on would be quite a beauty but it sounds frighteningly difficult to do in 3D (and would be a bigger PC resource hog).

[Son of moose]

I see that some most interesting discussion has taken place while I was asleep.


Vince278:

Yes .... you are most definitely correct on both counts:

It would most certainly be a beauty

BUT

It would require a pretty powerful system to run it.

[Sirotnikov]

eh

the 3D you see is just a 3d proection. The map, as mentioned above me, does seem to basically remain that same 2D map, even using the same types of tiles!

therefore, I don't think there'll be any major problem with the conversions.

[Vince278]

Sirotnikov - I forgot what I was going to say. I've been staring at your avatar for the past five minutes.

[Son of moose]

Vince278:

Same here.

[GeoModder]

It's an easy, if not cheap, way of 'winning' arguments.