Staredit Network

This project is mainly spearheaded by Darkzerox, I have just taken interest in the project because it's related to some work I did previously but never finished. But working together with zero I think I might have the attention span and motivation to create something very cool together.

So his idea is to create a global map database of all the maps known to starcraft. He has already finished interfacing with the linux SCX/SCM extractor and created a CHK file interpreter. A working demo of this is available here:

(Accepts .scx/.scm files)
http://mnbayazit.syndsys.net/index.php

Alpha version of Database here:
http://mnbayazit.syndsys.net/display.php

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A required component of our database will be a PHP minimap render script which I am mostly finished now.

edit: Just finished an online working version, here:

http://int64.syndsys.net/mapimagegen.php

Here is a few demo map images generated from the script.. the script is capable of producing full sized 1:1 image maps which is very cool!!

Full Render - (4)Lost Temple.scm (3.1mb)
Thumbnail - (4)Lost Temple.scm (43KB)

Full Render - (8)Hellfire.scm (5mb)
Thumbnail - (8)Hellfire.scm (40KB)

Full Render - (8)Wheels of War.scm (5.9mb)
Thumbnail- (8)Wheels of War.scm (42KB)

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Finally other plans for this project include recreating my old battle.net game tracker that records all the games currently being played on battle.net. Using the map database we can track the creator of the top maps being played along with a bunch of other neat statistics we haven't thought up yet.

a 5mb render, gee i feel sorry for 56k user on that. So far only upload feature and no search?

http://mnbayazit.syndsys.net/display.php

no searching yet, but.. it does show a list of maps. I've got finals right now, so I'll work on the user interface later.

Here is a working version of the map renderer:

http://int64.syndsys.net/mapimagegen.php

There is a few bugs to be worked out...
- some tilesets there are missing tiles that appear as black boxes.
- some maps will give an error message "Could not find scenario.chk"

I'm guessing that the render only shows terrain, because I don't see any units.

This is just the start, eventually it will be able to show doodads, units, locations.. also you will be able to specify what you want it to show.

Wouldn't doodads and units sort of ruin RPG style maps? It would show where everything is, like secrets and such. I say you allow the uploader to choose what they want to be shown.

locations? you're really going all out aren't you?
would be nice if you could toggle them on and off in that case. maybe just an image swap...



alternatively.. we could allow the uploader to choose one of "melee","rpg","madness","defense","bound","survival" or whatever else you can think of... and disable the map gen for RPG's.



now a question to everyone... my map reader/uploader thingy tries to pick out the map author. it does a pretty good job, but it's not perfect. I figure I could have it automatically fill a text box with the suspected authors, and allow the uploader to modify it if it's incorrect.. but then how easy would it be for the uploader to change it to his own name?.. or maybe that's a good thing. I didn't even put my name in a bunch of my maps. so what should I do?

leave it unknown seems to be the best bet.

i like ducky's idea, for letting people choose what they want to see, although the author should still have the right to disable the options for his map.

see... therein lies the problem. who says the uploader is the map author? someone could upload an RPG and not uncheck the map gen option...

and i really don't like the idea of leaving it unknown.. would be nice to be able to search for maps by an author you like.

personally, i don't think its such a big deal showing 'secrets' on an RPG map, its only ruining that person's fun.

as for the author issue, no solution

no solution?!? unacceptable!
i guess maybe i'll leave the author uneditable, and i'll have to make my author-grabber a little more...successful. but right now it seems to work on like 95% of maps

You're going to have a hell of a time making an author-grabber that's reliable enough to use for an automated system, since even if you manage to handle things like using terrain to sign the map, some people don't use their exact name on the map, and others might not put their name on it at all (but still not want people revealing all of their map's secrets).

That's their fault.. people who used sane methods to credit themselves will get credit. Also a map is like a movie IMO, it's the persons choice whether or not they want to spoil it for themselves and forward to the end. Lots of people enjoy things better if they able to hack their way through a game. If it's not ruining other peoples gameplay, go nuts.

edit: Yes lots of fake / edited maps will make it into the database but thats good because it will also be a good database to expose the thieves and the original authors.