Exile (ECS) map

[DeAdLy_cOoKiE]

For those who know the game, and who are interested.

I have been in the process of mapping the world of Exile ECS version, for quite some time, off and on. It's 99% done, basically. It's pixel accurate - no objects/doors/visual artifacts. It's approx 135 MB - BMP format. And yes it was/is is PAIN to do (harder than it seems) - it took quite a few nights/weeks. However, the 1% that needs to be done, theoretically it takes another night to complete. But currently I am unable to finish it off, due to memory problems, both harddisk and onboard, making it impossible to edit any further. Have to fix my puter first/. And I'm really busy at the moment.

When it is done (in the near future) I will send the map T.R. Smidt's for his site (if he's interested). And a reply here.

The map not only looks cool, and has nostalgic value to me, but it is a goal for me to see an exact Exile ECS port on PC in high resolution. With programming help from others or perhaps the original Author himself.. babble..

[cv643d]

Will you compress the image? how small will it get in jpg in descent quality?

Ive been thinking of making a map of the light/dark world in Zelda3. Do you snapshot images and then past them in photoshop?

[rattus]

aye, I remember reading sega magazines which had entire sonic levels printed out... how the hell did they do that?

[killergorilla]

I remember those exact magazines.

The Sonic 3 maps were very big indeed. I presume they just took screen grabs (captures) all over the level and put them all together.

[rattus]

yeah, those sonic3 levels were huuuge!

*runs off to play Sonic Mega Collection*

I wish there were prints of those maps on the internet somewhere... would make great posters for my room

[killergorilla]

I just scoured the web and couldn't find any Sonic maps apart from some of the special stages

Might have to switch on my Megadrive again just to get that feeling back. Lucky I've still got it set up

[DeAdLy_cOoKiE]

Map of Exile can be found on HOL

[Dalai]

Holy wow. They don't make games like that anymore.

[Shoonay]

OHHHHH MYYYYY GOOOOD!!!!!



GREAT WORK!!!


PS: Now the AGA version, right ?

Originally Posted by DeAdLy_cOoKiE

Map of Exile can be found on HOL

Good work but it would suffice to say that. That attachment is 3mbs and I had to wait a bit...on a 2mbit connection.

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by Burseg

Good work but it would suffice to say that. That attachment is 3mbs and I had to wait a bit...on a 2mbit connection.

Well that's what you're gonna get if you want a map of a game that big. You can't skimp on quality when it comes to Exile Maps you know

[JohnnyWalker]

This is absolutely completely totally frikkin' AWSOME!!!

How did you did this as I see you even came across the hidden (C) notice in the middle of the map!

Is the image in HOL 100% fullsize, BTW?

This game NEEDS to be turned into a Win32 version!!! With easy saves, a better designed HUD and a TUTORIAL... so finally even the average joe can appreciate the true awsomeness of this amazing game!

It's weird to note that the AGA graphics are MUCH worse, they don't even blend together as well as they ECS version does (note how the background smoothly changed color as you go deeper underground... it must have taken AGES to do that!). The ONLY decent thing about the AGA version was the simple parallel background they added. It actually looked quite nice without detracting from the game.

Now all we need are the sprites ripped and someone to decode the game engine. I had read that they produced a really clever game engine where each item had a set of attributes. They all were affected by the game's "world" in different ways because of this.

The controls for Exile were a bit fiddly, but I found a PSX controller adaptor for the PC (which works like a treat!) and a PSX controller is PERFECT for playing Exile... SELECT = Remember current position, START = Transport etc. REALLY simple and easy to play with a controller like that!

*sigh*

I think I need to lie down. I've been waiting YEARS for this map!

DEADLY_COOKIE you ROCK!!!!!!

[JohnnyWalker]

I even posted a request for this in May 2004!!

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=148962

[Photon]

Great work dude. I hope someone ports this as Exile is one of the landmarks in gaming history! I worked for Argonaut in London when this was released and a few months later, one of the programmers of Exile committed suicide

I'm a Shockwave programmer and could very well do a port of this, I'm very interested! I can't do it for free since I have my own company and have to prioritize "paying gigs", but if there's money in it let me know...

[JohnnyWalker]

Jeremy Smith commited suicide?! I never knew that, I just thought he'd died. How sad! The man who invented Thrust!

On a happier note I would LOVE to see this project worked into a Win32 version. I don't know how effective Shockwave would be for something so potentially complicated, though. I'd love your professional opinion on the right language to use! You have to remember that the playing area is 8000 x 6700 pixels! Could Shockwave happily and speedily scroll around an image that size?

I doubt there'll be any money in this for anyone as that would immediately become copyright infringing (as opposed to an honest freeware fanatical remake).


Edit: Corrected silly name mistake.

[DeAdLy_cOoKiE]

Some information about the map:

The map is 8160 x 6720 pixels in size, built out of tiles of 32 x 32 pixels (255 x 210 tiles). The exact map size should be 255 x 255 but I left out the top part (which was black anyways, and takes up a lot of space). The original map is in BMP format. It's pixel perfect, no visual artifacts, no doors/objects/enemies. It took a long time to make, I literally had to take hundreds of screenshots, and had to use some tricks.

If you open in it with windows picture/fax viewer, zoom 10x for a nice result (color blending). If you open it in photoshop, and use the marquee function, select the black pixels, and make them transparant, you could use the result map as a collision layer for a conversion.

I already ripped the samples. The mod can be downloaded from internet.

If you were to remake this as a game, you'd have to build an engine which could handle multiple layers: a layer for the map itself, a collision map (which could easilly be made as I discribed above, and a layer (sections) for the animated water which would eventually flood the entire cavesystem, and probably another layer for the animated stars. The engine would have to be based on coordinates (32 x 32 raster, and subpixels within these tiles, for more precise coordinates to overlay doors/objects and such).

Ripping sprites is relatively easy, especially with tools such as TomCat's sprite ripper. The messages can be decoded easilly too. Click here how to decode: http://www.nemmelheim.de/exile/strangetext.txt

Also, I think it would be interesting if you could aim with the mouse, while flying/walking/whatever with keys on the keyboard. This old map of the BBC version has the caves named: http://www.columbusforce.net/files/e...fficialmap.gif which is pretty interesting as well.

The hardest part would be the rest: the particles, to get Finn (and characters) animated properly, the A.I. (which is based on Line-of-sight), you'd have to know the coordinates which would trigger certain actions (caves flooding etc). I think this could only be done with help from the original author himself, if you really want to maintain the feel of the original. Unless it is possible to hack/decode the gamecode.

Not only would this game look great in high-resolution 2D, but I find the Unreal Engine 3 very interesting if you'd want to make a 3D game out of it. It's the perfect engine for exile, since it is also based on physics/particles, and it has the ability to do seamless loading (which would be essential since the game world is big), and the ability to create realistic shadows and so forth. Click here for some vids: http://www.1up.com/do/download?cId=3138759

Just some thoughts...

[terryhan]

Someone needs to figure out the map generation algorithm.
Although it'd take more time than simply using the map you've captured (nice work, btw).

If the algorithm was known, I expect you could fairly easily redraw the entire map by changing just the tiles and a bit code.

[Chuckles]

There most likely was no real algorithm involved, at least not if you define an algorithm as some sort of mathematical formula that determines the shape of the map itself. More likely, the graphical data for each tile would have been stored in one array (the tile array), and the map itself would have been represented by a second array (the map array) with 65,025 elements (255x255), where the value of each element of that array holds the index into the tile array corresponding to the tile that should appear at that map location.

If you take DC's map and overlay a 32x32 pixel grid over it starting at the bottom (since the black part at the top was omitted), then you can break the map down into whatever number of unique tiles are needed to duplicate it. Then just build the tile array with the data defining the graphical representation of each tile, and then defining the map array after that should be fairly straight forward.

Someone who was fairly ambitious could probably whip up an editor that would make the whole process a lot simpler, but it shouldn't be rocket science in any case (it would just be tedious). I suspect that the game's designers either built such an editor or used an existing one, though I don't know what that might have been. The map itself shouldn't require a great deal of memory if it is represented in this way, and creating additional maps using the same tiles would be easy to do as well (especially with an editor).

[DeAdLy_cOoKiE]

A special editor was written to design the map (it's a shame that it wasn't included with the original game). If you look closely there are color shifts in the map, which can not be done if you created your own map using random tiles.

When I mention a raster, I mean a virtual raster/grid, not one that would physically slice up the map in tiles. For a game, the map needs to be fixed in coordinates. You can easilly make the map the original size by adding the hight (top) and fill it with black pixels to regain its original size.

The individual tiles/sprites can be ripped easilly with tomcats sprite ripper. I've done it, but I didn't manage to get the colors right yet. I'm planning to map the demo as well with help of x_to's tool (which keeps crashing on me, maybe x_to can put his knowledge to good use here as well, since it seems like he has figured out a way to created maps using level data and tiles).

The first thing I'd like to see is to get this map able to scroll (in various resolutions - scroll in amiga pixels, not pc pixels), secondly I'd like to engine/map to be fixed in a raster (32x32) so that you could place individual objects/doors over it (layers/priorities), after that I'd want to see Finn up there, after that the water (the particles and the rest would be the last thing). It's not easy to do a remake of exile - not for amateurs. I don't see the point of making a remake if it cannot be done properly.

My preference goes to a Win32 version. I have thought about Java (and shockwave) too. Even HTML.

[JohnnyWalker]

Looks like you've read my mind, DC! I have just been in touch with Peter Irvin, but sadly he won't authorise or help with any fan based version of Exile. His reasons are completely understandable though, with the possibility of more Exile appearing soon, he doesn't want an authorized, but substandard, version having negative associations for the franchise.

He also said he'd rather be involved in a commercial project, as even if it was a part-time project, the quality would probably be higher if the people working on it were getting paid. I'm sure he's absolutely right, too. It's very hard to get professionals to work for free, and even talented fans tend to lose steam after their initial buzz has faded (I've seen it many many times ).

He was extremely polite and cordial and genuinely seemed to understand people's desire for a PC version of/more Exile.

Still, I'm interested in seeing what a talented coder could do with what we've got.

I've ripped the AGA sprites, but I'm having much difficulty getting the ECS ones. Any tips? (You can see the 100% finished, colour corrected AGA sprites in the Sprites forum.)

I'd love to get my hands on as many raw materials as possible (if only for my own pleasure). Could you send me the ripped samples, DC? Also, is there a difference between the PNG version and the BMP version of you map? Aren't they identical? If not, could I have the BMP version of your map, too?

If you send me the Exile ECS sprites I can colour correct them easily. I'd like to decode the entire text as well. It would be nice to have the whole raw materials, even if they're not much use without some code to put them all together

DC, are you sure the colour shifts in the background are done ingame, and not just different shaded tiles? Either way, making additional tiles from your bitmap could allow them to be preserved and still make a nice array of all the tiles.

I've noticed that the AGA version has less difference between locations. The terrain is all the same Also, I couldn't find any 'survivor' sprites, which is odd.

I think Exile could be improved in lots of ways, all of them making a more intuitive game for the player. Even including little "PDA" notes from the lost crew, dotted around the map (in the same way System Shock 2 did it) would add a LOT of atmosphere and provide a few clues to the player (what mushrooms can be used for, the fact that two chromium rocks put together make an explosion etc.). Also, I'd like to see the door locks colour coded. Each key in the AGA version is coloured differently, but not in the HUD or on the doors themselves. I think it would be more enjoyable to play with these little improvements.

The main improvements would be smoother scrolling and a more 'zoomed out' play area, of course.

A Win32 2D version would be great.