Readme.txt for Hauck Minogna's TradeWars Mapper

General:
This mapper maps the universe in a unique way, it maps from a depth perspective.
Normally you won't see all warps with it (a toggle), this was intentional to reduce clutter.
The main use of it is to quickly find a place to set up camp.
Just remember your enemies will also be using this!

On the top right side of screen is a circular buffer list of the last mapped sectors (if on in the ini)
On the bottom right side of screen is a list of special sectors you listed in the ini (if on in the ini)
Click the numbers to map to them sectors

If you run it and nothing seems to happen you should probably capture stdout, it's likely a missing ini file
or the path to CIM data isn't what you intended.

Hardware:
Windows ver? XP here
DirectX Ver? no idea, mine is 9.0b, will likely run on 8.0, will be curious how far back it works on
Monitor 21" :)
Video card faster the better, mine's an ATI Radeon 9600
Memory uses all of 8MB
CPU faster the better, built on 2.8Ghz and runs smooth

Files:
mapper.exe may be ran by double clicking it or from a dos prompt
there is some output to standard output and potentially some to standard error
redirect them if you want to see them

mapper.ini needs to be in same directory as mapper.exe and should be ran with that dir as the current dir
this is the default by double clicking it.
Be sure and read the help in that file.

image.zip -> mapper.bmp is what you should see if you run it as is.
It's compressed, bmp's seem to be huge.

Sample data:
cim1.txt and warps1.txt are a small clip of sectors from the current game I play 20k sectors
cim2.txt is from a 4k sector game I played a year or so on, no warps.txt supplied here

Bugs:
Umm there are none.
But if you happen to "create one" send me a check for $10 and I'll attempt to fix it.
ICQ: 22233979 no spam me please.

Keys:
q
escape  Exits mapper

s       starts the get input for a new sector to map
        Example: type s1000 then hit enter it will map to sector 1000
        acceptable keys after s consist of numbers, backapace and enter.

f       toggles FPS display, you want 30 or more, but really since it's a static snapshot who cares!
        good indicator of how fast your system is at a given depth if nothing else

w       toggle to show full warp paths out to depth of what's in the ini

d       map deadend sectors from a stack of them, cycles through the list

c       map potential clusters of sectors from a stack of them (not all will prove to be worthy)
        also cycles through the list

cursor keys
        these move the map around, the extents are 5 times your screen resolution

shift cursor keys
        holding shift with cursor keys moves it faster

home    recenters map after moving it

+/-     increase/decrease the depth to map away from target sector

,/.     decrease/increase the radius of the depths

r       map a random sector (this is awesome for finding a place to setup camp if you have good warp data)

alt-tab will switch task like normal

print-screen
        will paste the current screen image into the clipboard

alt-f4  will exit the mapper


Mouse:
left button
        when clicked within a sector it will map to that new sector
        previously mapped sector is blue. helps if you're moving along a path

right button
        rotates the map counter clockwise
        on fast computes try holding r key down while right mouse button is down

Future:
Hrmm, maybe I'll give one more go at redistributing sectors at higher depths better. (tried 2 approaches already)
A terminal front end? Probably not, but ya never know.
Scanning of logs for things like figs for twarping to, planets found/owned, enemy bases, etc.
Improve performance for slower machines.
Get a paypal account to collect donations for all my efforts!


If anyone ever sees Shane Gooseman playing tell him to turn his commlink on.
Hauck Minogna Out.

