Simplified maps

[htamas]

This topic was originally available at http://popuw.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=698. I tried to salvage posts from my locally saved files and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. If you have some additional material, please share it. Thanks.

I've exported the .plv files from prince.dat using pr and processed them to produce some maps. While it forked out from this thread, I thought it might be generally interesting.

I know that the images are fairly large, but this was the most practical way I found. Modem users, you'd better press escape .

Numbers written in the top-left corner of the screen are the room numbers. In cheat mode, you can get the current room number by pressing Shift+R. This may help you finding where you are.

The prince.dat file contains 28 level resources, the first 14 is for playing normally whereas the next 14 is used for the "gameplay" command line option. It's a different built-in levelset, probably they've used it for testing.
I've also been surprised that the game only contains 14 levels, since I saw 15 everywhere. The reason is that the tower level is already the final one, you only warp to a new room.

The sources for the program I used to generate the images are on my personal webserver here.
I don't promise they'll be there forever, so grab it if you need . It's gpl'ed and you'll need the ImageMagick library to compile it.

Level 1:


Level 2:


Level 3:


Level 4:


Level 5:


Level 6:


Level 7:


Level 8:


Level 9:


Level 10:


Level 11:


Level 12:


Level 13:


Level 14:

Awesome work HTamas

I have few questions though:

1. Why rooms aren't sorted correclty in the game? Example in level1: Room number 1 is located on the fifth screen to the left. And in other levels room1 is located far away from others rooms. etc...

2. Rooms number 28, 14, 10 and 11 in level 6 don't exist, you enter directly from room 27 to room 3. And some rooms exist but your can't enter them (dieing or pass to a new level)

3. I guess that all those [?] like in level2 are viewable when you press SHIFT-B; they will appear (they are moving objects)

4. In the mosque screen (last level) if you check the peter_k's gifs here, you will notice some bugs (this was the old version) so maybe if you extract the maps for all three versions of pop2, you will notice the difference or better the improvement of pop2 (what was added in each new version)

5. (Off-topic question) : What does the F3 key suppose mean on cheats mode? (PLAYER ON/OFF) It doesn't do anything! , does it?

ad 1) Maybe PoP2 uses another editing system than someone would expect. Probably You had to design every room alone and then connect them - Not like in Princed/roomshaker, where you designed all level at once. If that was true, it would mean Room 1 was designed first... etc. And then they were linked together, with room numbers preserved. It makes sense if they're swapped somewhere. You also don't design levels from left to right, do you?

ad 2) what do you mean, they don't exist? probably they are just empty and the game doesn't show them. Andthe room 28 is necessary here. If it wouldn't exist, it would have some errors in effect, I suppose. Like when you run-jump into the gate. It's just fool-proof, to ensure nothing will happen.

ad 3) yes, it seems so. inlevel 14 they're dead spider's mandibles and jaffar's face on a chess-piece. I wonder where are the snakeholes, though. It seems they're added somehow different.

ad 4) that would be worth trying

ad 5) I tried F3 cheat in every version, but bothing except "player on" or "player off" message on the bottom happens. I have no clue. Maybe it started a CD player? I'll try it in my old PC w/ DOS.

does that mean that there is a pop2 level editor?

ad 1) Maybe PoP2 uses another editing system than someone would expect. Probably You had to design every room alone and then connect them - Not like in Princed/roomshaker, where you designed all level at once. If that was true, it would mean Room 1 was designed first... etc. And then they were linked together, with room numbers preserved. It makes sense if they're swapped somewhere. You also don't design levels from left to right, do you?

I know, and you are right... But I ment that it would be better if the rooms were sorted correctly (right to left ; or when the player starts is number 1 and so on ...)

The game should take in consideration the player 'satisfaction' not their unsorted rooms, am I right?

ad 2) what do you mean, they don't exist? probably they are just empty and the game doesn't show them. Andthe room 28 is necessary here. If it wouldn't exist, it would have some errors in effect, I suppose. Like when you run-jump into the gate. It's just fool-proof, to ensure nothing will happen.

Well, Take a look at map number 6 and play level 6. At the entrance gate, you will move from this room (27) directly to room number 3.

And for room number 28 in level 6 and number 4 in level 3 etc... I guess those rooms move you from rooms to rooms or room to cutscene (or copy protection screen)

And if those rooms are supposed to link rooms, then many rooms should be compacted or removed.

Maybe it started a CD player? I'll try it in my old PC w/ DOS.

Is that possible? Why only in cheats mode.

1. Why rooms aren't sorted correclty in the game? Example in level1: Room number 1 is located on the fifth screen to the left. And in other levels room1 is located far away from others rooms. etc...

ad 1) Maybe PoP2 uses another editing system than someone would expect. Probably You had to design every room alone and then connect them - Not like in Princed/roomshaker, where you designed all level at once. If that was true, it would mean Room 1 was designed first... etc. And then they were linked together, with room numbers preserved. It makes sense if they're swapped somewhere. You also don't design levels from left to right, do you?

I wonder what "correctly" means. These numbers are for internal purposes and probably represent the order in which levels were made. But it's the same with PoP1: if you need a new room for a level, it gets the next unused number. Its value is probably unimportant for you, unless you need to use it for a game effect where the room/tile number is hardcoded.

2. Rooms number 28, 14, 10 and 11 in level 6 don't exist, you enter directly from room 27 to room 3. And some rooms exist but your can't enter them (dieing or pass to a new level)

ad 2) what do you mean, they don't exist? probably they are just empty and the game doesn't show them. Andthe room 28 is necessary here. If it wouldn't exist, it would have some errors in effect, I suppose. Like when you run-jump into the gate. It's just fool-proof, to ensure nothing will happen.

Exactly. When you go left from room 27 and would enter room 28, you're warped to room 3 and (with the exception of the IR version) the door closes. Touching a floor tile wouldn't work here since you might evade it. To make it possible to go into that room, they must add one to the left. This technique was also used in PoP1 on levels 0, 6, 12 and 14.

3. I guess that all those [?] like in level2 are viewable when you press SHIFT-B; they will appear (they are moving objects)

ad 3) yes, it seems so. inlevel 14 they're dead spider's mandibles and jaffar's face on a chess-piece. I wonder where are the snakeholes, though. It seems they're added somehow different.

Blue question marks mostly refer to animation sequences, where I found it unnecessary to create a simplified design for each one. Red question marks all refer to the same tile type, and while I can identify them, I can't substitute them with a single image, since it's used e.g. both for the bridge in level 5 and the flame in level 13. I would need to branch based on the modifier or the level number which I didn't want to. After all, everyone knows what's there .
By the way, did you notice that there is an opening switch to the right to the flame? This opens the exit door. You don't need to die and get the flame .

4. In the mosque screen (last level) if you check the peter_k's gifs here, you will notice some bugs (this was the old version) so maybe if you extract the maps for all three versions of pop2, you will notice the difference or better the improvement of pop2 (what was added in each new version)

ad 4) that would be worth trying

I've tried it, there is an extra floor tile (room 2, tile 19). The picture is not much different, so I won't post it now.

5. (Off-topic question) : What does the F3 key suppose mean on cheats mode? (PLAYER ON/OFF) It doesn't do anything! , does it?

ad 5) I tried F3 cheat in every version, but bothing except "player on" or "player off" message on the bottom happens. I have no clue. Maybe it started a CD player? I'll try it in my old PC w/ DOS.

I don't know. The cd player sounds strange, why do you need the cheat mode for that?

does that mean that there is a pop2 level editor?

No. It means that there is a resource extractor (pr) and a partial format specification (poirot's one). I don't know about pop2 level editors atm. But you might edit the resource file. (Repacking .dat files didn't work for me, so you might have to edit prince.dat directly.) With time, it might get easier .

Red question marks all refer to the same tile type, and while I can identify them, I can't substitute them with a single image, since it's used e.g. both for the bridge in level 5 and the flame in level 13.

The code of flame is 0x2B, bridge is 0x2C, spider is 0x28 and the breaking window on level 1 is 0x27.
There's a bug in drawmap.c:

Code: Select all

si=data[wall(r,di)];
if(si>39) si=39;

So the program interprets tile numbers > 39 (=0x27) as tile 0x27.

By the way, did you notice that there is an opening switch to the right to the flame? This opens the exit door. You don't need to die and get the flame .

Yes, I knew it. The shadow triggers it if you die.
Before I knew the solution, I used to change into shadow (left-right-...), jump over, then back. The only problem was the prince had too few energy, but in fact I never played all the levels in order.

does that mean that there is a pop2 level editor?

In PoP2 for Mac I found this:

Code: Select all

Editor
Open... O
Save S
Save as...
-
Map
Room
Pieces
Backwall
Play P
Return to Editor E
-
Go to level... G
Boost Kid's Life B
Back to life
-
Add Piece
Edit Guard...
Edit Generation Pt... G
Edit Linkages... L
-
Frame Editor... F
Sequence Editor... C
Test Opponent Dist...

It seems the game has a built-in level editor. Does anyone know how to start that?

And I'm working on a level editor, and I've modified some levels, and it works!

Red question marks all refer to the same tile type, and while I can identify them, I can't substitute them with a single image, since it's used e.g. both for the bridge in level 5 and the flame in level 13.

The code of flame is 0x2B, bridge is 0x2C, spider is 0x28 and the breaking window on level 1 is 0x27.
There's a bug in drawmap.c:

Code: Select all

si=data[wall(r,di)];
if(si>39) si=39;

So the program interprets tile numbers > 39 (=0x27) as tile 0x27.

Thanks for the correction, it was my stupid mistake. It seems that I looked over those tiles when I checked that there is no tile > 0x27.
The truncation code was there to avoid extracting a nonexistent part of the picture.

The corrected version, with some other changes and maps for PoP1, is available here: maps and sources.

In PoP2 for Mac I found this:

Code: Select all

Editor
Open... O
Save S
Save as...
-
Map
Room
Pieces
Backwall
Play P
Return to Editor E
-
Go to level... G
Boost Kid's Life B
Back to life
-
Add Piece
Edit Guard...
Edit Generation Pt... G
Edit Linkages... L
-
Frame Editor... F
Sequence Editor... C
Test Opponent Dist...

It seems the game has a built-in level editor. Does anyone know how to start that?

This looks like a menu, but I'm not sure. I'll check that. Maybe I will be able (probably using ResEdit and maybe hex editor) to add this somewhere into the game.

I've checked it on my Mac. The game has also a NIS menu, that contains cutscenes, I think (but I'm not sure). Anyway - there are six menus in this file. I have changed some resources to use the Editor menu instead of one of the rest. But unfortunately, I've got an error. Good thing is that the menu appeared, but I was unable to use it, because after displaying the error box, game exited. So I've tried to add the Editor menu as a submenu. But it didn't worked - the File menu has Editor position, but submenu didn't displayed ;( Then I looked at other resources and I've found a dialog box, which I don't know how works. After that, I changed some resources and got the same menu error when starting the game. But wait - the OK button changed into a very cool button! Yes - I changed resources of game - so the error is caused by the game, not by system... And there is some [http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/4681/zdjcie9ej0.jpg]interesting code[/url] in game... I don't know how to launch it, but maybe I'll try do something. And then I have opened other data files, not the executable one... And I've found this. It looks like the PC levels file, doesn't it?

And something that may interest few people from this forum... ;]

One more image - how the Editor menu could look - this one was displayed by ResEdit.

Good, let's hope there will be a PoP2 level editor (Not only for Mac but for PC). This will be a 'revolution'

And something that may interest few people from this forum... ;]

Awesome

The game has also a NIS menu, that contains cutscenes, I think (but I'm not sure).

It should. In the pc version, the files nis.dat, nisdigi.dat and nismidi.dat are used when the cutscenes are played. As to my knowledge, NIS stands for non-interactive sequence.

" But wait - the OK button changed into a very cool button! Yes - I changed resources of game - so the error is caused by the game, not by system... "

It means that is something that imitates an error window?

It means that is something that imitates an error window?

No. The error window is saved inside the executable file, so the no menu error is in-game error, not the system error. So I think that it's possible to change the game executable file to allow changing the menus order.

Really good job!

I'm not sure but probably sth is missing in simplifed maps (You can enter here in shadow mode):

• at least 8 messages have been lost

[nohoval_turrets]

Nice one htamas! I did some level maps by capping game-play, so it's good to be able to compare with yours I did miss a couple of small things.

I'm surprised though to see so many rooms that must be inaccessible in game-play, like rooms 27 and 28 on level 6. Any idea why they exist?

[betman]

Great..

[Necdilzor]

Nice 8)

[mickey96]

Nice one htamas! I did some level maps by capping game-play, so it's good to be able to compare with yours I did miss a couple of small things.

I'm surprised though to see so many rooms that must be inaccessible in game-play, like rooms 27 and 28 on level 6. Any idea why they exist?

Short answer: To emulate the floor effect.
Long answer: It's because of the sky. The programmers chose not to put the floor tops, so therefore they must be there to emulate the "floor top effect"

[David]

I'm surprised though to see so many rooms that must be inaccessible in game-play, like rooms 27 and 28 on level 6. Any idea why they exist?

Room 27 on level 6 is the room where the carpet lands, room 28 is the room you run into.

[nohoval_turrets]

Room 27 on level 6 is the room where the carpet lands, room 28 is the room you run into.

Ah yes, that makes sense! Thanks.

[RusFan]

I have latest versions of this maps compiled by author in May 2011.

PoP1 Maps: http://imageshack.us/g/854/93454305.png/

PoP2 Normal Maps: http://imageshack.us/g/6/74831678.png/

PoP2 GamePlay Level Set Maps: http://imageshack.us/g/810/75440381.png/

Thank you, htamas, you was send it to me 2 month ago by email.

Latest sources of drawmap utility mentioned in first post you can download from here. Thanks, htamas, once again.

While it forked out from this thread, I thought it might be generally interesting.

"This thread" now available from here and quoted thread from first post from here. Similar thread about PoP1 simplified maps.

I'm not sure but probably sth is missing in simplifed maps (You can enter here in shadow mode):

Room you mean just is room 26. It's extra room and not should to be accessed in normal playing. It even partially haven't graphics.

I'm surprised though to see so many rooms that must be inaccessible in game-play, like rooms 27 and 28 on level 6. Any idea why they exist?

Room 27 on level 6 is the room where the carpet lands, room 28 is the room you run into.

I've made "maps" of all these extra rooms if you interested. Look download link below. It include room 27 from level 6 too, although it visible from the game, because TerraEsperZ forgot to add it in his normal maps. I've also slightly changed pieces of sky in level 6 and 8 for better appearance. I did it when I was tried to make full maps and later I simply lacked the patience to return it back...

In black color places there are no graphics. Completely, because black color is graphics too but there was not even any colors, just a color noise. And I've manually repainted it in black color. All the rest extra screens from the game which are not present in my maps have not graphics at all. So you can imagine it for yourself as black screens.

Single screens are insulated, it can't be reached from any other screens. Multi screens supplements each other.

Part of these rooms are not presented even in simplified maps.

Numerals in screens specifies numbers of rooms.

link: http://imageshack.us/g/402/53728773.png/

Tools I used are DOSBox, MS Paint, RoomShaker II and IrfanView. All maps packed in png format at maximal compression rate.