Swarm Racer mapmaking

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 01:00:57 UTC

Eventually, I shall post here much more information I have documented on how to make maps --- a.k.a. spacefields --- for the classic Swarm Racer.

First, you'll need a palette of swatches for your image editor. Here is one for GIMP; I also have one for Photoshop, but that one isn't text.

GIMP Palette
Name: Swarm Racer ed-2-11 spacefield
Columns: 1
#
  0   0   0 empty
255 255 255 bee
255   0 255 nectar gem
 61  85 137 lighter obstacle
 25  41  95 darker obstacle
255 129   0 intermittent obstacle 1
255   0   0 intermittent obstacle 2
  0 255   0 elastic obstacle
255 255   0 sticky
194 194 194 push to bottom
158 158 158 push to top
123 123 123 push to right
 88  88  88 push to left

Targa data are unusable for a spacefield if other than

32 bits per pixel

no RLE compression

Spacefield size is [160,121]. The bottom row is first excluded and used for the trophies: [160,120]. Second, the edges are always rimmed by the light obstacle tile inside that limit: therefore, the playable field is always [158,118].
If that is exceeded, then the resultant field will be truncated; it thus shows these limits for trophies: 2 bronze; 1 silver, 0 gold.
If the field is smaller, then it will resize as it does with larger fields, but expanding with additional empty tiles rather than truncating.

The deadline limits for each trophy are established by:

1# bottom row of the image is all transparent pixels.
2# a bee pixel is placed along the bottom row at the <x> location with same integer value as the number of seconds for which each trophy is obviated.

Please note, however, that the system of reading the trophy marks is rather arcane: I have not yet ascertained how exactly it works.

Filename display limited to 24 units of text.

P.S. My web browser is having problems with the BBS. I attempted to post this via https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?cat=2&sub=5&action=editpost&epid=0; now, I am able to change its category when I edit it, but only to the User Blogs. so, it would be nice if a moderator or someone could move it to the Workshops subboard. Thanks!

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Swarm Racer mapmaking