It considered dead because there are no support for the program. There is no way to generate a new map. So you are stuck with the world as it existed in February 2005. The only reason it works so well with the February map is because Turbine released all the expansion terrain before Throne of Destiny.


Going forward, the accuracy will become less and less as Turbine continues to make changes.

perhaps I'm not understanding something.


why doesn't someone just update the program? the changes to the .dat file format are fairly trivial. the superblock data has shifted a bit, and directory entries have some added fields. that's about it -- the remainder of the .dat file structure is still the same.


is the map generating program part of AC Explorer itself? if that's the issue, then I see the problem. but there's an easy solution -- we just need a program that converts the new client_cell_1.dat file into a pre-ToD format cell.dat file. that shouldn't take more than a few hours.


-ken

Its not really an issue at all.


There are two ways of updating the map in ACexplorer


1)use the built in function that reads from cell.dat (broken by file format changes).

2)replace the map manually in the ACexplorer install folder.


The map is the file dereth.bmp and is a simple 2041 x 2041 bitmap, colour depth can be anything from 8 to 32 bits.

The map is not stored internally in ACexp, the built in routine updates this same file.


All you need is a program (such as Paint Shop Pro) to read any current map (such as the png from Dereth Explorer) and save it as a 2041 x 2041 bitmap.


The only variations come from the size of the map file.


ACexplorer uses 2041 x 2041

Dereth Explorer uses 2048 x 2048

Terragen uses 2049 x 2049


The larger maps are identical to the Acexplorer map they just have extra padding on the four sides.

So open the png, remove 3-4 pixels from the top and left and 4-3 pixels from the right and bottom and save it in bitmap format, job done.

ah thx for the input ill give that a try 8)

ok that did it 8).. copied updated map with new islands and changed from png to bmp and replaced the acexplorer dereth.bmp with it.. thx alot guys i really appreciate the help 8)

The map generator is part of ACExplorer. The author (Zugg) isn't going to change ACExplorer because he does not get enough sales per year to justify the effort. So we are stuck at the moment with Zugg isn't going to do it and it does not work.


As you mentioned, there are other solutions to this problem outside of ACExplorer. Someone has to do it. So far noone been particularily interested in writing a small app that generates an ACExplorer compatable map or a Dark Majesty cell.dat from client_cell_1.dat.


If a new map was generated we could probably get it hosted somewhere.

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=89587560


An alternate map which I created with AC Explorer and Arcanor is hosting. Click the link and scroll down to Arcanor's post almost at the bottom of the thread.

That is the February map again.

Yes it is, hence "alternate" and not "updated".

it will take a few hours for sourceforge cvs replication to occur, but when it does you will find a new utility "CellConverter" at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/acdev/DatUtils/#dirlist


this utility will convert an AC:ToD client_cell_1.dat file into an ACM cell.dat file that you can use to regenerate maps, or whatever.


using anonymous pserver access, get the following files from sourceforge cvs:


acdev/DatUtils/CellConverter/bin/CellConverter.exe

acdev/AC.DatFile/bin/AC.DatFile.dll

acdev/AC.Utility/bin/AC.Utility.dll


I think that's all you need, but I didn't check. come to think of it, I didn't really test it at all, other than to run chkdat on the output file to verify that it's properly formatted, but it should work fine anyway. I might package it up into something more easily downloaded in the future, but right now I don't have time.


-ken