Wercator Weturns! (v. 0.6.3; Web interface back)

Discussion and development of scenarios and campaigns for the game.

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Quensul
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Wercator Weturns! (v. 0.6.3; Web interface back)

Post by Quensul »

EDIT: I'll be updating this post as I release new versions. Wercator 0.6.3 is now out, and a web interface to the development version is now up at http://www.sellner.org/wercator

My apologies for the title, but Wercator is back! :-) Starting with version 0.5, Wercator is a complete rewrite in C++, with many changes behind the scenes to improve maintainability and extendibility.

For those of you who haven't encountered Wercator before, it's a Gimp plugin that takes BfW maps and renders an "ink and parchment" version, usable for campaign images, as well as non-BfW uses such as role-playing games.

Wercator now supports all three BfW map formats (old/1.2, the new 1.3 maps, and the even newer 1.3 maps with a header), as well as a number of shiny new knobs. See the list below for details. The focus of version 0.6 is mostly on functionality; version 0.7 will primarily address art-related issues (improving brushes, adding brush sets, expanding the parchment selection, etc.). While I do have a few more features planned, Wercator 0.6 is nearly feature-complete.

0.6.1 is identical to 0.6, except for the inclusion of various generated files to remove a dependency on bison and flex. If you were able to compile 0.6, don't bother with 0.6.1.

0.6.2 adds an option to the Config tab to vary the amount of debug information printed to the terminal. If you're having trouble, set this to DEBUG4 and send me the result. In addition, there's now a '--disable-optimization' configure flag; if you're seeing random crashes, and don't have the time / inclination to go back and forth trying to diagnose them, turning off optimization might help. 0.6.2 also patched a number of bugs related to differences between gcc 4.1 and 4.0.

0.6.3 attempts to patch some problems seen on platforms I don't have access to; see the rest of the thread for details.

The web interface to Wercator has been completely rewritten, and is available at http://www.sellner.org/wercator. It doesn't expose a few of the more esoteric options of Wercator, but should do the trick for most users. Please report any problems with the web interface (or with the rendered maps) in this thread. It is currently using the development version of Wercator as its backend, which will eventually be released as 0.7.0.

I'm taking the same stance as the BfW developers with respect to releases: I will release a source package that should build everywhere, and will post any binaries provided to me by users on the Wercator website. Wercator development occurs on Ubuntu Dapper Drake with Gimp 2.2.11 and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon with Gimp 2.4.2; I would appreciate any feedback (or patches!) about compilation problems on other platforms. This is my first foray into autotools-land, and I haven't written code intended to compile on Windows in a long time, so it's likely that there initially will be problems with non-Linux platforms.

See http://www.sellner.org/wercator/download.html for requirements, download links, and up-to-date installation instructions.

NOTE: Due to limitations in the Gimp plugin API, you need to either have the paintbrush or a non-drawing tool (e.g. not pencil, pen, blur, eraser, etc.) selected when you run Wercator, or coastlines, roads, and castles will not turn out well (if at all).

What Wercator 0.6 is / has:
  • * Functionally complete map rendering. There may be tracing artifacts, but there shouldn't be many.
    * Support for BfW 1.2, 1.3.0-1.3.9, and 1.3.10+ map formats
    * Complete brush set
    * 8 parchment backgrounds
    * Damage to the edges of the map
    * Damage or stains applied to the contents of the map.
    * Rendering of a wooden frame around the map
    * Rendering of 3 inked borders: Greek key, braided, and square wave
    * Multitiles: larger brushes that are used only when a specified pattern of tiles is found. In this release, the only multitile is a compass drawn on a 7-hex "metahex" of sand, grass, or water.
    * Brush jittering of smaller terrain brushes to further break up the hex grid
    * "Grunging" of coastlines
    * Forcing of output image to a particular size or aspect ratio through either brush placement or distortion.
What Wercator 0.6 isn't / doesn't have: (each item is annotated with the release in which it's expected to be included)
  • * More pen-like treatment of traced lines 0.7
    * Wrinkled / creased parchment 0.7
    * Additional brush sets 0.7
    * Parchment generation 0.7
    * Web interface 0.7?
    * Optimization 0.7 or 0.8
    * Additional front ends ???
Contributing:
See the help file for details, but I could use help with the following:
  • * Debugging: Please let me know about compilation, installation, and rendering problems!
    * Brush sets: Wercator will provide support for multiple brush sets with version 0.7. vonHalenbach has volunteered to create one, but the more the better. Each brush set should have a distinctive feel (e.g. elvish, orcish, crude, calligraphic, etc.).
    * Packaging: I could use some volunteers to build binaries for new versions of Wercator for (insert your platform here).
    * Front ends: Wercator is highly modularized, and separates all map parsing and path generation from the actual rendering into several C++ static library. It should be relatively easy to add additional frontends, assuming a plugin/extension system is readily available for (insert your graphical tool of choice here). Inkscape springs to mind. :-) I may eventually look at alternative frontends, but would love to have others take the lead.
Enjoy!
Attachments
...and the final eye candy
...and the final eye candy
demo3.png (452.36 KiB) Viewed 14444 times
...and one more.  Note the multitile compass on the left side.
...and one more. Note the multitile compass on the left side.
demo2.png (334.69 KiB) Viewed 14487 times
An example of what Wercator can do.  Note the (damaged) Greek key border
An example of what Wercator can do. Note the (damaged) Greek key border
demo1.png (468.62 KiB) Viewed 14485 times
Last edited by Quensul on March 8th, 2008, 6:47 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Post by Iris »

You really don't know how long I have been waiting for this. Yays. :D
EDIT: Oh, it doesn't work with Mordante's terrain system yet? Nevermind, I'll generate some maps with 1.2.6 then. I look forward to 0.6 anyways.
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Post by Quensul »

Shadow Master wrote:EDIT: Oh, it doesn't work with Mordante's terrain system yet? Nevermind, I'll generate some maps with 1.2.6 then. I look forward to 0.6 anyways.
Nope. The change isn't difficult, but I wanted to resolve all the various release-related quirks in parallel with making the switch (plus all my corner-case maps are old-style at the moment). 0.6 should be released in the not-too-distant future (my goal is a week or two).
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Post by SkeletonCrew »

Quensul wrote:
Shadow Master wrote:EDIT: Oh, it doesn't work with Mordante's terrain system yet? Nevermind, I'll generate some maps with 1.2.6 then. I look forward to 0.6 anyways.
Nope. The change isn't difficult, but I wanted to resolve all the various release-related quirks in parallel with making the switch (plus all my corner-case maps are old-style at the moment). 0.6 should be released in the not-too-distant future (my goal is a week or two).
Note that I'm busy with a slightly different map format atm. I hope to commit the changes this week and will update the map format wiki page after that.
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Post by turin »

You wascally wabbit! :D Sounds cool. I probably won't get around to testing it out until 0.6 comes around anyway.
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Post by Kestenvarn »

Welcome back.
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Post by Quensul »

SkeletonCrew wrote:Note that I'm busy with a slightly different map format atm. I hope to commit the changes this week and will update the map format wiki page after that.
Thanks for the heads-up. Will BfW support both the current 1.3.x format and what you're working on, or will the current format be replaced wholesale with your work?
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Post by Quensul »

I'll be releasing Wercator 0.6 this weekend (probably sometime Sunday); the tentative feature list is below. Have either of the two of you that downloaded it had any problems that I should address with this release? :-) Are there any features / fixes that anyone definitely wants (see top post for some possibilities)? I have enough time to shift a few things around in the priority list if there's interest in something specific.

Items marked with a '+' are implemented and tested; items marked with a '*' are partially completed, and lines with a '-' are not done yet, but are slated for completion prior to 0.6.
  • + Support for 1.3.1-1.3.9 maps
    - Support for SVN (1.3.10+) maps
    + Brush jittering
    - Forcing output dimensions
    + Wooden frames, and a variety of inked borders (Greek key, braid, square wave)
    * "Grunging" coast interiors
    + Fixed many problems with castle/encampment and coast tracing
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Post by Boucman »

quensul, I'd love to have some screenshots of all that :)
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Post by Iris »

Quensul wrote:
SkeletonCrew wrote:Note that I'm busy with a slightly different map format atm. I hope to commit the changes this week and will update the map format wiki page after that.
Thanks for the heads-up. Will BfW support both the current 1.3.x format and what you're working on, or will the current format be replaced wholesale with your work?
BfW will support the header-less 1.3.1+ map format until 1.3.14.
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Post by Quensul »

Shadow Master wrote:BfW will support the header-less 1.3.1+ map format until 1.3.14.
Thanks! I now support all three map formats, so we should be good.

v0.6 is ready, and would have been released ~4am U.S. Eastern, if the forums hadn't gone down. :-) I'll post it when I get home from work tonight.
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Post by Quensul »

...and version 0.6 is released! I've updated the first post with the details; this version adds support for all 3 map formats, border fun, and a wide variety of bug fixes and UI tweaks. This is primarily a functionality release; 0.7 will focus on art-related issues. Let me know if anyone has trouble!

Boucman, I've updated the first post with three examples of version 0.6's output.
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Post by Quensul »

Sorry to triple-post, but here are a few full-map examples, linked to avoid making this page crazy wide. All are HttT maps from the 1.3.9 release:Needless to say, there are a few rendering artifacts here and there; I'll be working on those for future releases.
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Post by martenzo »

Looks like there's compilation trouble on Debian. My comp is a little screwed up to begin with, but here's the last few lines of the make process. Everything before that went smoothly as far as I could tell.

Code: Select all

Making all in src
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/marten/Allalaaditud_kraam/wercator-gimp-plugin-0.6/src'
Making all in wercSlicer
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/marten/Allalaaditud_kraam/wercator-gimp-plugin-0.6/src/wercSlicer'
/bin/sh ../../ylwrap TileClassParser.yy y.tab.c TileClassParser.cc y.tab.h TileClassParser.h y.output TileClassParser.output -- yacc  -d ../../ylwrap: line 111: yacc: command not found
make[3]: *** [TileClassParser.cc] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/marten/Allalaaditud_kraam/wercator-gimp-plugin-0.6/src/wercSlicer'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/marten/Allalaaditud_kraam/wercator-gimp-plugin-0.6/src'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/marten/Allalaaditud_kraam/wercator-gimp-plugin-0.6'
make: *** [all] Error 2
PS. Is this the right place to put this?
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Post by Iris »

PSA: This thread has been stickified by truly yours.
martenzo wrote:Looks like there's compilation trouble on Debian. My comp is a little screwed up to begin with, but here's the last few lines of the make process. Everything before that went smoothly as far as I could tell.

PS. Is this the right place to put this?
I suppose so, and I can tell you need to install yacc, it seems. Not sure what that means, though.
Last edited by Iris on November 7th, 2007, 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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