resource/geog/*/*.map

What I want to do is create a mod with my own starmap (specifically the Sol system in full detail including every moon/major asteroid I can find with real distances and approx orbits). I've looked at clusters.ini and it makes sense. And the .lws for each cluster looks easy enough to figure out. But the .map file for each cluster is a binary file. I popped one open in WinVI and it looks fairly simple, but the only strings I found were the names of Bodies (I think), but there were no references to resource files (at least in easy to read strings) that I could find.

I've seen a few mods out there that seem to include custom maps (mostly multiplayer mods), but I haven't had any luck finding any information on the structure of the .map files yet. Hopefully somebody out there can give me a hand.

Thanks in advance for any info/prods in the right direction. [8D]

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

There's a discussion on this topic at the ina board. There's also a cool tool that might help speed things up, called "It's Full of Stars!", link provided here

www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/ ... /index.htm

Goo luck.

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Hot4Darmat

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I just read nearly all 6 pages of the geography sdk thread. I must say i was dissapointed at the end when they never actually released it, but I grabbed a bunch of hex format listings and I'll try them out on my own.

Has anybody heard anything about that Geography SDK that tech2kjason was working on (from the ina boards)?

And does anybody have a complete and tested format listing for the map packages?

If i can get a jumpstart on the map format and tech2kjason's SDK is unavail, i may make a tool myself.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

Tech2kjason (from the ina forum) is EricMan64 on this forum. He's the highest poster here. Probably pretty easy to reach him by giving a 'shout' on this forum.

Now that you mention it, however, I've not seen a post from him for about a week.

I do hope he hasn't taken up with some new flirt of a game...

No confusion; just wrong or right ... Only Solutions

Hey, thanks all for the info. Using AXE3 (there has got to be a better hex editor that has a structures feature)and snippets from the ina boards I was able to make my own system and link up the lpoints for it. I have 3 AXE structures for anybody that wants 'em (Entity Entry, lpoints Header, lpoint entry).
I'm still looking forward to nov15'th though.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

Actually, Tech2kjason and I are completely different people. My ina name is EricMan64 where I have about as many posts as I do here. It seems that Tech2kjason doesn't ever post much, but he said his tool would be done early november, so I wouldn't worry at all yet. I assume it'll probably be ready right around when he said it will be.

I've actually spent some time making a Sol myself, I believe last time I worked on it, it had all planets and moons up till uranus. Jupiter and Saturn had a lot of moons. Lots of work.