Dungeon Master Forum

Hi George,

A couple of things that I would like to clear up/suggest for those people editing using the RTC engine.

- Is there any way/chance that the compiling of a map could be seperated from the game itself, maybe, when compiling a map it does so without starting a graphics mode and just uses a standard windows form to show the results, this window could then display any critical errors and have a list box that contains the entries that are normally written to teh log file. I ask this because when a map compiles and has errors, it goes into the game anyway. It can still (of course) be in teh same EXE file but would be a great increase in speed to those editing maps.

What I would like to be able to do is complile a map first in a standard windows app (without having to start graphics mode, go through the swoosh, etc) and get the output from the compile. Then I can decide if if I want to run the dungeon or not. If there is a definition on how the RTC files are formatted (of course only you would know this) then I may be able to help out.

As a further point to the above, is there any way to pass the TXT file to compile on the command line, rather than in teh config.txt file?

Something like RTC.EXE /Compile dmymaps\mymap.txt

- In the text file the section headings seem to be case sensitive (i.e. [DESCRIPTION] did not work but [Description] did) is there a way to make it less picky about what it is reading or is that just part of the deal? - this is not a major issue but thought I would mention it.

- In the [Main Data] section of a dungeon, I missed out the AUTHOR property and it was reported as a critical error. Is it a critical error to miss some of this meta data or does it just expect it to be there.

- Are there mandatory properties for certain types of item , I had an item of a monster, and it complained that there was no health. Does it not draw on a default or calculated value for health depending on the party strength? Or does a base strength have to be defined?

Please dont think that the above are showstoppers at all, they aren't at all, and it is still a very impressive engine and game.

Thanks George,

These are all excellent suggestions, and I agree with all of them. Certainly a standalone compiler, or compiler 'mode' for the RTC.EXE file would be really useful, and something that Sophia also mentioned some while back.

Quick reply:

1) A good idea but I'm not sure it would save much time. During the swoosh etc, RTC is doing lots of work setting data up ready to run / compile a dungeon. Even the loading of the bitmaps etc after the intro is needed for the compile to work;. However I'll look into it and putting in a command line switch.

2) That's just changing a strcmp to a stricmp; I think I can cope with the one character change for you ;-)

3) Missing the author isn't a critical error per se, however as the code is written it is (i.e. it was expecting some data and it wasn't there). There's an argument that if it doesn't find something then it should cope better!

4) Yes; some items do have mandatory properties (e.g. monsters health). Others have optional properties (e.g. a standard items charge). If you think any specific ones need changing, then please let me know.

Thanks George for the swift response. I assume that graphics are packed into RTC files as well (only the ones used in the dungeon) as the graphics are loaded.

Yep - all the references to graphics and sounds in the {New xxx] sections of the text file are packed into the RTC file during compilation. That way when you distribute the final RTC file, that's all you need to distribute.

Oooh, that reminds me, could you check out this post please George: http://www.dungeon-master/forums/viewtopic.php?t=98

Thanks!

Implemented command line dungeon option for V0.27

Is that for the command line compiling GG, if so that is absolutley fantastic.

Cheers

You can now start RTC with an aditional parameter of a filename. If that filename is of a text file then it will compile and run it (i.e. exactly like the COMPILE option in the config file), if it is of an already compiled *.rtc file then it will immediately run it (going straight to the dungeon entrance not via the "pick a dungeon" screen).

The second option should allow you to put a link on the desktop to RTC so, say, always run the DM dungeon.

I resurrected this from the archive because it's buggy:

If you specify a path name with spaces in, RTC can't find the file. It does this even if you put quotes around the path name.