Curse

FooB · Aug 04, 2005, 11:08 PM // 23:08

The NEW Map Project. thanks moomanibe!
looking at moomanibes incredibly impressive map, loved and used by hundreds if not thousands of guild wars players daily, one cant help but wonder how much bandwidth the 5MB JPG eats up as people reload it through IE constantly. and by the amount of hosts its gone through already, it gives a pretty good idea.

so, i have taken it upon myself, being given the consent of mooman, i have created the map viewer program, in the hopes of cutting the bandwidth usage of the map by a lot. simply by forcing people to use an exe rather than the jpg through IE and thus you only download once, cutting bandwidth by a lot.

At the moment, i have a finished version. albeit basic, its good enough for release for testing. it doesnt exactly take long to code. testing on my own machine i see no major problems with it whatsoever, and while it has a tendancy to eat up a bit of ram, it eats no more (slightly less infact) of what the map eats when being loaded in IE. but thats windows' fault, not mine.

now, before i release this i have sent it to mooman for his opinion on it. he will ultimatley decide what happens to it or not, as he does all the effort, i just do handfuls of coding.

i will however release the screenshot of what it looks like running on my own desktop. please feel free to comment your opinion on it and mention what you think needs changing/doing here in this thread.

http://foob.mysite.freeserve.com/mapviewer.jpg

the viewer is 1024x768 in resolution and my desktop is at 1600x1200.

also the map used in the viewer is an old one as the mirrors are down so i cant get the elite skills maps. or the individual location maps. rest assured, these WILL be added as soon as i get my hands on them to add.

FooB.

and yes i know there already is an executable map laready available, but it needs a 30MB .net framewrok just to run, and it has all this other crap built into it. this is intended as a "no frills" version, friendly for modem users and the likes. and people obviously not wanting to install the .net framework.

Tactical-Dillusions · Aug 04, 2005, 11:12 PM // 23:12

I prefer to shuffle my tracks in my playlist...the map looks great by the way.

Will it cover all of tyria?

Sentao Nugra · Aug 04, 2005, 11:15 PM // 23:15

>< yes tactical, that is just a screen, it uses moonmanibe's full map in a new customized smaller(quicker) exe viewer.

btw good idea!

FooB · Aug 04, 2005, 11:18 PM // 23:18

currently, it already DOES cover the whole of tyria, but obviously you cant view the entire map on any screen ive seen because moomans map effectivley covers over 8000x6000 pixels. (well over). so all i did was put the viewer in a common screen resolution (1024x768) which should cover 95% of people using it fine. plus if your desktop resolution is 800x600 you deserve to be operated on with a rusty spoon anyway.

anyway, the map is just not up to date with skill locations, which it will be once i get the maps to update it with.

plus, shuffle or linear, as long as a playlist has "my chemical romance" in, its a good one as far as im concerned.

powdahound · Aug 05, 2005, 12:00 AM // 00:00

Would be nice to have more of the application window dedicated to the actual showing of the map, instead of tons of wasted blank space for buttons and little text boxes. It looks like you went a little VB crazy.

It'd be a lot cleaner if it were simpler.

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 12:23 AM // 00:23

theres actually an issue with changing size.

any bigger, its too big for people running in less than 1600x1200 desktop resolution.

and smaller, and its too small for you to see any worthy part of the map.

i had to credit mooman clearly, which d#took up a blank row at the top, so i filled it with a logo and put the buttons there.

and the rest, well. i figured i might as well make it look a little different. colouring doesnt resize stuff, just makes it lok a little cooler. but if i get a lot of people saying they hate the blue then ill take it away. or just put an options button in or something. cant be that hard

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 12:25 AM // 00:25

ht etext boxes are there because mooman stated that he wanted to be clearly credited on the application. otherwise it would all be conatined in the "?" button. but quite rightly so, as hes the one that does all the work and effort.

MOOMANiBE · Aug 05, 2005, 12:37 AM // 00:37

Normally this is where I'd jump in and mention (as some people seem to be confused) that there is a topic for the original map project in the commmunity works section, but unfortunately the map is kinda.... down. It'll be back up soon >_>;

By the way, it's nice of you to put my name in there and all, especially on the front of the application ^^;
But I'm curious, are the rest of the credits in there? The map wouldn't exist without many of those people, so it's kinda important

Red Locust · Aug 05, 2005, 12:47 AM // 00:47

Does anyone actually view the map off the internet? I just downloaded it and view it on my hard drive whenever I need it. Much faster and more convenient.

MOOMANiBE · Aug 05, 2005, 12:48 AM // 00:48

I'm afraid you're a rare exception locust, because nearly everyone I talk to says they just bookmark it >_>;

Weezer_Blue · Aug 05, 2005, 01:02 AM // 01:02

I just saved the picture so I can view it using whatever program I want, and zoom in where I need to.

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 01:30 AM // 01:30

actually, they are in there, but on the map as you listed them yourself, its just your jpg that is being viewed. the problem i came across is infact its an outdated map, so once the updated one gets available, i can get a full list of the credits, and stick it all in a new form and put a nice big CREDITS button somewhere. as ive said previously, this wont get released until youre actually satisfied with it.

infact, i may go learn some object.qcolor(#) commands and put them on timer, and make the credits screen one big colour-cycling epilepsy fest.

and probably have it play techno music.

but alas, i was one of the few that saved the map to my machine for use. but tbh 95% of people just reload it from bookmarks. and thus hose bandwidth.

also, incase you posted here before you checked your email, ive sent you the current working version so you can have a look around it yourself.

Ilya Khan · Aug 05, 2005, 06:16 AM // 06:16

Thanks so much

Usually, I wold have to go to another site to find a map like this, but now, GWguru is my home

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 11:12 AM // 11:12

its actually nice to see a lot of positive feedback.

the last time i tried something like this 95% of the forum thread was

"OMG YOU ARE SO LAME STFU AND STOP THIS USELESS CRAP BLAH BLAH BLAH WE DONT LIKE PEOPLE TRYING TO BE HELPFUL BLAH BLAH BLAH"

Divinitys Creature · Aug 05, 2005, 11:46 AM // 11:46

Might have been nice if the game came with at least a paper poster size map we could pin things to.

Three cheers to Moomanibe for creating such great maps and you for making the viewer

Diarrhea · Aug 05, 2005, 11:47 AM // 11:47

can u gimmie a link -to download it?

Divinitys Creature · Aug 05, 2005, 12:01 PM // 12:01

Lol there is no link for the exe. But looking at Foob's desktop, we see a whole lot of wrong. Well he has My Chemical Romance, thats cool, but then he has gay porn? And the Hot Chocolate mod - how sad. GET OUT MORE!

Diarrhea · Aug 05, 2005, 12:02 PM // 12:02

oh *embarrased* but dont blame me ijust looked at his desktop and didnt read anything else

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 12:07 PM // 12:07

not just yet, before i release it id like to include everybody in the credits properly, and id like to iron out a few features (like scroll bars or something).

its about 90% done, im just waiting on the actual credits list. i can finish it all today. the major problem is finding someone to host it. as i have no hosting of my own cos im a student in the UK, and therefore i will be automatically poor for the next 4 years of my life.

FooB · Aug 05, 2005, 12:11 PM // 12:11

HOT COFFEE! oh come on. the mod alone has got the entire GTA:SA game completely banned outright in australia, it has to be worth a look to see what all the fuss is about. i havent installed it anyway.

and that video is actually a video of eve-online. made by an alliance of a battle that took place. its nothing but them getting thoroughly dominated by me.

why do you think i put the viewer where i did? all the gay porn is hidden behind it. er...

**EDIT** oh i see you mean the jpgs. if you really want to see them, theyre actually for an earlier post i made expressing my discontent at the 60k female gladiator armour looking about as aesthetically pleasing as a gunshot wound.

if you REALLY want to see them theyre uploaded.

http://foob.mysite.freeserve.com/gayarmour.jpg
http://foob.mysite.freeserve.com/gayarmour2.jpg