Mapper

This article is still being written. Feel free to help :)

Mapper is a program that takes a game.xy file and rearranges the planets according to a standard GIF file. You can download it here:

download mapper07.exe v0.7 88kb.

How to Use Mapper

Mapper is a command line utility, but you can easily make a shortcut (or group of shortcuts with different flags) to use it.

• Example: "mapper game.xy file.gif"
• Generates: mapped.xy, mapped.gif
• Change mapped.xy to game.xy and move it back to the folder the game is in.

Notes

game.xy is from the game you have generated. You MUST use Mapper BEFORE any turns or saves have taken places or the resulting mapped.xy will be corrupted.

Flags

• -d
  • The game.xy is dumped to a B&W GIF file without modification. Note that the GIF file is 1 ly smaller than the original universe (i.e. small is 799x799).

• -j NUMBER
  • (Planet Position Jiggling) Randomly moves the placed planets around by NUMBER light years. Can be useful for breaking up unwanted patterns.

• -m NUMBER
  • (Minimum Planet Spacing) If used -j must also be used and -m MUST be smaller than -J

-js NUMBER

• • (Jiggle Seed) A seed value for the -j option if you want to repeat a randomization of the pattern, used mainly for debugging. I don't think this works in this version

-s NUMBER (0 to 7)

• • (Universe Size) The program uses the largest X & Y locations to guess the universe size. If it guesses incorrectly, re-run the program and use the -s flag to specify the universe size [0=tiny (400x400), 1=small (800x800), 2=medium (1200x1200), 3=large (1600x1600), 4=huge (2000x2000), 5=huge+ (2400x2400), 6=huge++ (2800x2800) and 7=huge+++ (3200x3200)

Tips and Tricks

• Mapper can sometimes make diagonal lines of planets especially if one gives it large areas of white to place planets in.
  • You can sometimes get around this by using PIBACK.GIF (see below) instead of white.
  • You can get around this by making a map with very few white dots on black so that Mapper will have to use almost all of them.

• Mapper should distribute planets by the rgb values in the GIF namely 255,255,255 white is 100% likely, while 0,0,0 black is never. This is very unreliable. The best way to make the game.xy look exactly the way you want is to not give Mapper any lattitude. For example if you are trying to place 500 planets then make a GIF that has about 510 white dots on a black background.

• Mapper can sometimes place planets very close together (like 2 ly), which makes it hard to see them both.
  • You can use -J -M functions (see above) to spread out planets but this 'fuzzies' the image.
  • You can use an underlying grid (see below) for you GIF.

Known Bugs

• If you make a map with large areas of black, Mapper can sometimes 'squish' all the separate planets together, especially East-West.
  • You can avoid this by placing a few planets in those large black expanses.
  • You can also generate another game.xy file and try again, sometimes this works, but sometimes it won't.

• Sometimes for no apparent reason the generated map will be rotated 180*
  • You can just ignore it and play anyway
  • You can also generate another game.xy file and try again, sometimes this works, but sometimes it won't.
  • You can take the original GIF and rotate it 180* and then use Mapper again.

• Mapper can sometimes not read GIF files made with certain programs, like GIMP.
  • Open the GIF with MS paint, make a small change (like black on black), and resave the GIF.

• In Huge+++ GIFs (3200x3200, see below), the maximum Y location = 3095 (105 ly from the bottom). If you make a Huge+++ map don't put planets closer than 105 units to the bottom, mostly they will just get squished up, but sometimes planets can be 'lost' and the game will become corrupted after the first turn.

• Very rarely, a starting world will be 'lost' off the map and the game will become corrupted after the first turn.

List of GIF files for use with Mapper

Naming Conventions

Mapper can create universes in the following sizes, please use the _Numbers below in your uploaded GIF files so that the size is easily known.

• _0=tiny (400x400)
• _1=small (800x800)
• _2=medium (1200x1200)
• _3=large (1600x1600)
• _4=huge (2000x2000)
• _5=huge+ (2400x2400)
• _6=huge++ (2800x2800)
• _7=huge+++ (3200x3200)*

Tiny 0

[RESIZER_0] 10ly PIEBACK grid. Will resize any universe to Tiny. (Can even do a Huge/Packed universe down to Tiny)

Need some Wiki help here. See Discussion Page

Other Info

Number of Planets
|---------------------------------------------------
|        | Tiny | Small | Medium | Large | Huge    |
|---------------------------------------------------
| Sparse | 24   | 96    | 216    | 384    | 600    |
| Normal | 32   | 128   | 288    | 512    | 800    |
| Dense  | 40   | 160   | 360    | 640    | 945±10 |
| Packed | 60   | 240   | 540    | 915±10 | 945±10 |
---------------------------------------------------