MapperGUI FAQ
- 1.1 Can I run this on some other operating system if I have Python?
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There is a shared extension library, _dxt1, written in
C that is needed to decode the high-definition terrain files from SI and TOA;
I have included both Windows DLL and Linux shared .so lib versions of
this library in the main package. If you wish to run on some other
platform, you will need to build a Python extension library for your
own operating system. The source and build files for _dxt1
(dxt1-decoder) are available for separate
download.
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- 1.2 Can I use an earlier version of Python?
- This code will work with earlier versions of Python (2.1+) if the
shared extension library _dxt1 is re-compiled to work with that
version. It may work 'as-is' on a Linux system, but I know the
Windows version needs a DLL current to that version of Python. Again,
the source and build files for _dxt1 (dxt1-decoder) are
available for separate download.
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- 1.3 I have a problem with (Python, PIL, Windows, Windows installer, Linux, Linux installation, Dark Age of Camelot, my hard disk... ). Can you help me?
- No.
- 2.1 I forgot to save my rendered map! Do I have to render it all over again?
- Not if you haven't made any new maps in the meantime. Your map is
temporarily stored in the
mapper sub-directory of your
MapperGUI installation under the name thumbnail.jpg.
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- 2.2 I can't render New Frontiers zones! All other zones render okay.
- Short answer: I know, fixed in MapperGUI 2.4
- Long answer: Mythic quietly changed the way they render backgrounds around
the time TOA came out, and some New Frontiers installations just don't
have the old background textures that mapper.py uses. I had to
re-write mapper.py to look for the new background textures if it can't
find the old ones, and that fix comes out in MapperGUI 2.4
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- 2.3 I tried to render Cothron Gorge and it's all dark! What's going on here?
- There are holes in the boundary walls of Cothron Gorge, Gripklosa
Mountains, and Avalon Isle that cause the boundary drawing algorithm
to freak out and flood-fill the zone. Render those three zones with
'Draw Edge Boundaries' unchecked, until Mythic fixed those
boundaries.
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- 2.4 Why is the battleground boundary drawn inside out? It shows the outer edge as usable and the part we all fight in as beyond the boundary wall!
- The battleground is an especially weird case. It has no entrance
gap in the boundary wall, which fools the boundary-drawing algorithm
into picking the outer edge as the usable side of the boundary
line. None of the programmers have come up with a good way to fix this
without breaking how it works on the rest of the zones. Just render
the zone with 'Draw Edge Boundaries' unchecked.
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- 2.5 Why aren't any structures or trees showing up on my maps?
- You are probably using an older version of MapperGUI than 2.1;
earlier versions did not support the NIF 4.x format files used by
SI and later expansions. Get and install MapperGUI 2.1 or later, which do.
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- 2.6 Why are some structures showing up, but others aren't?
- Windows: Python on some versions of Windows
(like my Windows98 install) runs out of memory when decoding very
large structures. I've modified mapper.py to just skip those structures
and release the memory when this happens.
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- Linux: Many NIF files are not consistantly
capitalized because Windows does not care about case-sensitivity.
Linux does. So if a DAOC configuration file calls for bpinetre1.npk,
and it's actually spelled BPineTre1.npk, Linux thinks it's a different
file and won't find it. I've modified MapperGUI to look for some of
the commoner variations on capitalization, but some of the weirder
intercapping variants would require serious natural language AI to
predict. At home, I've just created soft links between the expected
spelling and the actual file.
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- 2.7 Why is it taking so long to render some zones?
- Certain zones, particular in TOA, have very numerous or very
complex structures that take a long time to decode and render. A
very long time. Go have lunch, and ponder that 80,000 polygon forts
might have something to do with all that lag in Volcanus.
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