ID:2008810
 
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
the map could use a way to have the user select a group of icons or icon states and set a % chance to use them when use the brush. Like you pick a group of flowers and set roses to 5% tulips to 15% dandelion to 2% etc and when you use the brush it picks randomly based on % chance what is put there. I think it'd be a great way to help map makers diversify maps in terms of detail if they could use this for faster mapping
I know I'd appreciate this. If this ain't feasible, how feasible is it to open source the dmm parser? So people can more easily build custom map editors. I know someone mentioned they were working on one with some people.
The .dmm format is pretty basic; there's really nothing to it.
In response to Lummox JR
Yeah I know, I wrote my own in DM but there's some edge cases that cause me a headache. I suppose I could fix them but only with a lot of debugging. Open sourcing the parser that is used could save people some trouble is all.
In response to TheDracheX1
open sourcing the parser would do absolutely nothing. you'd be confused by it and be unable to work with it

.dmm is an extremely trivial format and the "edge cases" you mentioned are easy to solve. become more acquainted with programming instead

edit: i guess you can say he open source it, even though i personally would never need it, cough, http://www.byond.com/developer/LummoxJR/SwapMaps
In response to Lummox JR
Quetion, Lummox. Can you shine some light on how you parse dmm files?
They are plaintext.
In response to Ter13
That's not what I was asking. I mean specifically how.
...They are plaintext.
In response to Ter13
"How are C++ files parsed?" "They're plain text" Am I asking this wrong?
Why is the "how" relevant? The format is obvious by looking at it, and you can't hook into BYOND's parser (at least AFAIK). Not seeing anything that'd be improved with knowledge of how BYOND specifically parses the file.
In response to GinjaNinja32
I get that the format is obvious, I've written my own parser for it. I guess I'm asking for some information is that so bad?
In response to TheDracheX1
Evidently neither me nor Ter sees any practical use for having the information. What would you do with knowledge of how BYOND parses DMM files?
Curisoity, improving my parser, I suppose. Also how some edge cases are handled that I'm having a bit of an issue with.
Evidently neither me nor Ter sees any practical use for having the information.

Different actually. There's plenty of use for knowing how to parse something, but parsing something is a process that is self-explanatory once you know the format. If the format is plain-text, then there's no real question.

I've written my own parser for it.

Then I really don't understand, because if you've written your own parser, you'd know how to parse them. Are you asking a different question than how to parse them?

Because they are parsed by writing a parser that parses them. I... I'm not sure what you are after. At all.
In response to Ter13
Forget it.
Also how some edge cases are handled that I'm having a bit of an issue with.

What's the edge case you are having an issue with?

If your parser needs improvement, it'd be better to know how you are parsing things than to just ask how it's already done.
I'm not sure there's any info I could give you that isn't apparent from studying the format. I get what you're asking, but the actual parsing process is basically a chunk of C++ code, and I don't think it has any insights to offer.
In response to Lummox JR
Can you share the code?
In response to TheDracheX1
TheDracheX1 wrote:
Can you share the code?

Not really, but it would be meaningless without context anyway. The code isn't really doing anything different in terms of parsing than what you would do writing your own parser, though. I think if there are any lingering questions in your mind about the map format, the map parser code would not be able to answer them because your answers probably lie in the obscure black-box portions.