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Myth III Cmaps

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:53 am
by DarthRevan555
Does anyone have or know where to get the cmaps from M3?

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:50 pm
by Pyro
You can get them from Myth 3 using a program made by Killswitch called Patchwork. You can find a Mac and Windows version in his udogs hotline folder.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:39 pm
by GodzFire
I wish Killswitch was still around. He was an EXCELLENT program creator.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:53 pm
by Pyro
Killswitch is still around at times... his most recent post was 18 days ago.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:34 pm
by DarthRevan555
Unfortunately I no longer have Myth III on my computer :(.

Does anyone or can anyone give me a .zip with the cmaps?

Did Gizmo abandon the port or is it he just doesn't have the time for it?

I want to express interest in taking over if he no longer wants to continue working with it or again, simply can't.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:53 pm
by Graydon
Gizmo's hard drive pooped on him. He lost all the model work he'd done with porting units.

And frankly, I don't know many people capable of updating all the colourmaps to myth 2 standards like Gizmo was doing.

The cmaps in myth 3 are rudimentary works at best. All the awesomeness comes with their detail texture masks, which cant be ported to myth 2. It means taking those rudimentary colourmaps, putting them into photoshop, and basically re-texturing the whole map from scratch in photoshop.

It's a huge task you're proposing.

If Gizmo clears the OK with you though, I've got a M3Port local that I could package up. Its definitely not whatever the latest version Gizmo had, but its better than erased files entirely.

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:07 pm
by DarthRevan555
I pmed Gizmo so I'll wait for a reply, probably going to take some time for a reply.

BBL

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:22 pm
by Killswitch
Just throwing in my 2¢:

Basically, converting Myth 3 maps to Myth 2 maps would be taking multiple JPEGs (each capable of producing millions of colors) and flattening them down and limiting it to 240 colors.

But far be it from me to say 'don't do it'. Part of what makes it Myth is the grainy terrain and lo-res units. Like saying Picasso wasn't an artist because his art didn't look like other artwork?

Another couple of points (from memory - someone confirm?): the mesh format for Myth 3 maps (including map actions) is pretty similar to the Myth 2 format. (In fact, the Ballistic instructions say to use Loathing to create your map actions and then place units/models in Ballistic.) So it should be rather easy to convert any Myth 3 map back to Myth 2.

Also, the colormap image for Myth 3 map is not a single huge image; it's a series of small squares (like grid squares). For a colormap, you may have 30-50 small image squares. If you're using the Mac version of Patchwork, I think I included an Applescript to reassemble the images in Photoshop. No promises, though.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:02 am
by Melekor
M2 colormaps tend to be designed with a reduced palette in mind, but that will not be the case here. Once you do the flattening process which Killswitch mentioned, you will be left with an image that has a lot of colors and will likely look very poor after indexing to 240 colors. In order to combat this, a lot of additional photoshop work will be needed.

Also, M3 colormaps do not have any water on them (because water is done as a separate mesh in M3.) So that will have to be added in afterwards in photohop (including grid alignment).

Basically, extracting the cmaps is the easy part. After that, you still have a massive amount of photoshop work. At least if you're trying to get a good quality result.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:23 am
by Eddaweaver
A Myth 3 multiplayer maps plugin for Myth 2 would be a better proposition than a port of the solo levels.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:55 am
by William Wallet
I'd agree with that.

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:02 am
by GizmoHB
I send the guy a PM, all I read above is true, and yes killswitch patchwork can reconstruct cmaps...

Also m3 maps have shadows added to some of the colormap, creating extra colors and problems, most of my documents were lost but I still have a local and a small selection of files, enough to finish the first 5 maps and a few multimaps, if only I had time...

Giz

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:58 am
by Sonixboom
it would be nice to play some M3 ported maps, the netmaps were cool and had some fun times on them.

-Saint †

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:03 am
by DarthRevan555
I understand there will be a LOT of work required for such a huge project.

But if I didn't feel as If I could do it I would not have come in the first place.

I know about the indexing problems. My hope is that before I'm finished (might take about a year if Its by my lonesome) Myth 1.7 will be released and that the massive colormaps would be allowed so I can go back in there and change the colormaps and tweak a few things before final release.

I have more then enough time to be able to work on it daily and produce some results.

Indexing the cmaps will be long and frustrating but Its not my main concern,
The units are.

I have a few of the .3ds models for some of the characters but I don't know how to port to Myth :\

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:29 am
by Renwood TWA
My advice is see how hard this is to do with just 1 myth3 map. Choose your favorite multiplayer level from myth 3, make sure it isnt a model heavy one though, as models in myth 3 rock compared to what myth 2 can do now. Then do the whole job of porting it to myth 2 as outline by those who responded above me,

then you will get an idea of if you want to keep going to do more maps or not, but at least the community will get ported myth 3 map that never exsisted before to be played on myth2.

Check out the myth3 ports to myth 2 that others have made....i know theres a few of them, but i dont remember the names

-Rens