Edit Maps Dialog

This is probably the most involved dialog in GameDev. For this reason, the documentation is split into 6 parts:

• This page describes the overall dialog in general terms, and provides information on editing attributes of the map itself in the top half of the dialog.
• Help on the Layers tab is available in Editing Map Layers.
• Help on the full screen map editor (accessible from the Edit button in the Layers tab) is available in The Full Screen Map Editor.
• Help on the Layer Quick View Window (accessible from the Quick View button in the Layers tab) is available in Layer Quick View Window.
• Help on the Player Interaction tab is available in Player Map Interactions.
• Help on the Special Functions tab is available in Special Functions.

At the top of the dialog you will see the list of all the maps in the current project. Clicking on one of these loads the remainder of the dialog with information related to this map. If the map has been saved to a file, this filename will appear in the "Path" field. A map must be selected in the top half of this dialog to use most of the bottom half.

A map is somewhat separated from the individual layers that make up its main contents. This is because, while a map can have an overall size (dictating how far the player on the map can travel), the individual layers may scroll at different rates. Therefore the size of the map itself and the size of the individual layers must have some inherent separation. To begin understanding how to use the Edt Maps dialog let's step through a short description of each of the fields associated directly with a map:

• Map Name determines how the map is referenced within the project. This is separate from the filename. If you decide to change the filename or path of the map (by clicking Save Map), the map name can remain the same and still be accessed by the rest of project without requiring changes anywhere else. Map names must be unique within the space of all the map names in the project.
• Map Display: The Left, Top, Width and Height fields of the map display indicate where on the screen the map is drawn. This is useful if you want to reserve one portion of the display just for the map, and another portion purely for display of the inventory. Left should be in the range 0 to 639 and Top should be in the range 0 to 479. The sum of Left and Width should be no greater than 640 and the sum of Top and Height should be no greater than 480. For the map to occupy the entire display, 0, 0, 640 and 480 are the values for Left, Top, Width and Height respectively. New with version 1.4 is adjustable screen resolution for the game. If you have selected a screen resolution other than 640x480 in the Player settings dialog of course the numbers described above would be different, and would correspond to the selected resolution instead of 640x480.
• The size of the map is determined in pixels in the Width and Height fields. Since (as mentioned above) the map can consist of multiple layers that may scroll at different rates and may use different sized tiles, it's necessary for the overall map size to be determined in pixels. The size of the map in pixels is used to determine the size of the layers added to the map based on the layer's scroll rate and tile size. This allows the size of the map to be changed (using the Update button) so that all the layers within the map can be automatically resized.
• New with version 1.3 is a Background color parameter for the map. Click the "..." button to select a background color to use when this map is active. The background color will occupy space not covered by the map. For instance if you have empty spaces in and around your inventory area that you want to be a particular color, or around the edges of the map, use this property to specify that color.
• New with version 1.4 is a series of inventory checkboxes. If you click the "Inventory..." button, a list of defined inventory items will be displayed. By default, all inventory items will be displayed on all maps (if they are defined to be a displayable item). But you can turn off display of certain items if they are not supposed to be visible on most or all maps. Or you can turn off all items if a certain map isn't supposed to display any inventory items.
• The Path is a read-only field indicating where the map file is saved if it has been saved. To change this, use the "Save Map" button and specify a new path name.

The Name, Path and "Map Display" parameters are saved in the GDP project file while the width and height (and everything else related to a map) are stored in the MAP file indicated by the Path parameter. The distinction here is that the Width and Height are very closely tied to the remainder of the map (the size of the layers), but the display parameters, name and path are attributes that the project needs to know in order to reference, load and display the map.

Entering the parameters described in the top half of the dialog and clicking the "New Map" button creates the new map object and adds it to the list. Do not specify inventory display parameters before clicking the "New" button. Inventory display checkboxes can only be altered on an already existing map, so create it and then update it if you need to alter the inventory items that are displayed. Note that the map object consists of very little data -- just the parameters that were entered. The main content of a map is stored in its layers.