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Can anyone tell me how DarkBASIC Pro reads the ASCII map? I was following the tutorial "Huge Dungeons", but how does the compiler actually place the right object at the right place?

Second, less important question: Is there a way to take an image and store it as ASCII?

Thanks,
ZeroB~

I'm not exactly sure about the HD example, but firstly, the compiler doesn't place the object. The compiler converts the code from "English" to machine code and produces the executable. That is all.

Basically if you have an ASCII map, which is say 10 characters wide by 10 lines deep, and you have different characters for different types of entity (floor, wall, enemy). Eg "F","W" or "E". You then decide on a scale, eg: the world will be 100 units from side to side. You then divide this by the number of characters in each line = 100/10 = 10 units. The first character on the first line goes at position 0,0,0, and then you increment the position by 10 units in the X direction for each character.

So if the first line of the ASCII map was WFFFWFFFFW, then the fifth character is a "W" for wall, and is placed 50 units along on the X axis. Similarly each line represents 10 units along the Z axis.

An ASCII character is just a way of representing a number from 0 to 256. For example character 9 is a tab. ASCII is not really a file format, its just a way of associating a particular character with a number.

The actual contents of the file may be 0x00001001 (that is what the computer sees), this is equivilent to the number 9 in decimal format, and Windows interprets it as a tab character.

Still, that doesn't answer my question. Would the code by something like this?:

rem Assmue that each 'tile' is a 10x10 object. Technically, a
rem wall can head in 1 to 4 directions. So, you could have up to 15
rem combinations of wall tiles. Values like -, +, and | would make
rem much more sense than 'w'. Unless 'wall' really means 10x10
rem block of stone. Then perhaps - and | could be used for doors.

if map(x,y)="w"
nextID = nextID + 1
load object "wall.x", nextID
position object nextID,x*10,0,y*-10
endif

Why -10 for the z axis? That's because while we read top to bottom, positive coordinates on the Z axis go away from the camera and not down the page.
--
TAZ