[201312290]Map.ini community edition

Introduction:

This is a reformatted map.ini made with emphesis on updatability.

It is also primarily hosted on ffxicyclopedia where it can be edited by any logged in user.

All entries have their japanese/english/french/german names for ease of editing and are ordered as they appear ingame.

Compatability:

• Apradar2: Yes ^*1
• Apradar3: Yes
• FFassist2: Yes ^*2
• Mappy: Unknown/untested

^*1 : Apradar2 cannot read area id's above 255, which includes all zones in SoA, this a limitation of apradar2 and not the map.ini

^*2: FFassist2 cannot read unicode files and must be converted to ANSI/SHIFT-JIS, ANSI will mangle the japanese text but will still function normally

Download:

Files:

• Map-unicode.ini : Version for Apradar2/3
•  map-unicode-201312290.ini.txt   135.77K   2046 downloads
• Map-ansi.ini: Version for FFassist2
•  map-ansi-201312290.ini.txt   131.41K   660 downloads

Remember to remove .txt from end of file and rename to map.ini

The wiki page may be more up to date then the one listed here,

if that is the case you can manually update it.

Source code:

See: User:Themanii/Map.ini - FFXIcyclopedia

Map Errors/Issues:

See: User:Themanii/Map.ini#Map Errors - FFXIcyclopedia

FAQ:

How do you save the file as ansi/shift-jis/unicode?:

Notepad:

1. Open new instance of notepad
2. Copy/paste contents
3. Go to File → Save As (Do not use save)
4. Select Encoding: ANSI/UTF-8 as desired (Notepad cannot natively save as SHIFT-JIS)
5. Save file
6. Done

Notepad2:

1. Open new instance of notepad2
2. Copy/paste contents
3. Go to File → Encoding
4. Select ANSI/UTF-8 as desired
5. Save file
6. Done

Other file editors:

You tell me

FFAssist2 is showing a blank map after updating my map.ini!:

You have saved/used the unicode version of map.ini which is not compatable with FFAssist2

You must either redownload/change the encoding to SHIFT-JIS/ANSI to use it

I have an updated entry I would like to add, do I need your permission to modify it?:

Feel free to modify it yourself, I would prefer a summary of what the changes do if possible
 

I would like to include your map.ini in my map pack:

Please do not include it and instead provide a link to this page

This prevents users from getting a stale copy

It is only a request though as I am not the original author of the contents, it is merely a request.

There is a map missing/a map error:

I only organized the contents of the map.ini, I did not create/modify the entries in it, whatever is there is what was already there.

If you have an updated entry, feel free to add it/make a post and I will add it.

Why is there a .txt on the end of the file?:

.ini's cannot be uploaded to the forum directly

Changelog:

Dec 29, 2013: Initial Page, Version: 201312290

Requests:

• Unify all map.ini entries/contributions/etc under one location to reduce redundant work
• Unicode support for FFassist2
• Support for areas with zone ids above 255 in Apradar2

How has it been modified? I have maintained a modified version myself at FFXIDB for a while, adjusted for several offsets and other things. I would love to merge them somehow for the most up-to-date data. If you're interested in it, could you hop on our IRC channel (irc.ffochat.com, #windower) to discuss some stuff?

Well my companion page was deleted from ffxicyclopedia, so I ultimately need a hosting space for it since the point is that I dont need to manually make updates myself

For the moment the missing content will be added to the thread

I updated your ansi ini file with what I found in the jp forums.

I have included it as an attachment in this message.

I added in some Walk of Echoes lines and some lines for the new areas you did not have.

I will reupload a new map pack to work with your ini.

 Map.ini 12302013.zip   29.4K   322 downloads

Brehanin: Could you please tell me what exactly you changed about it? I don't wanna compare them again, and I could use the data.

I added in lines for the Walk of Echoes.

I also added in some lines that were missing for a couple SoA areas (forget which ones exactly though).

Since your map.ini has a different naming convention from the JP community it will not work with my map pack. The ini lines must match the name of the 256x256 gif files.

Did you create your own map pack or is a new updated one besides mine out there (I looked and couldn't find one)?

Also, we've got to be very careful here about ini and map packs ... they have to match exactly or it won't work.

The JP maps (predominantly black background) are sometimes different from ours and the ini coordinates do not always work.

It doesn't have to be my map pack, anyone can take my stuff and alter it all they want, but there should be only one ini and only one map pack.

I know that they don't match, that's why I said I need a mapping of the IDs they use so I can make them match. I really don't care at all for the map.ini or the map pack itself, I just want raw data in one centralized place. If we had that, it would be easy to export to any format, including that used by many radar-like programs. What you see above is just dynamically generated database output. The actual values in the database are very different, you can check them out here:

http://ffxidb.com/dump/zones

The link I posted earlier just takes that data and generates all the relevant info for the map.ini file. The map pack along with the ini as they currently are is just really bad. It should have been a better format from the start, but it didn't, so now it's too late for them. The Windower FFXIDB plugin, for example, uses the values as they are up there, which reflect how they are within the game. The maps are all in the DATs, map packs should not be needed at all. Neither should ini files. Only raw data, which is what I'm trying to collect.

I've checked out your site and it is really good

I'm very impressed with the data you can collect and display for others.

I use FFAssist myself and I can't see how you say the map pack along with the ini is "really bad"...

I've used it for years, helped put together the maps and ini for years, and I can't imagine playing without it.  It does not rely on dats so it can display positions in Limbus, for example, which I assume FFXIDB cannot because an in-game map does not exist.  I find it superior in that respect.

I'm surprised you can dynamically create an ini file.  It would have made things MUCH easier for me years ago.

However, matching up coordinate lines from the JP usage (i.e. FFAssist) and converting them over to your usage would be quite time consuming ><  A person would also have to rename most of the maps.  I'm not sure why Crawlers Nest, for instance, has its first ini line as "c5_16=0.2,127.0,-0.2,167.0,-270,-30,-17,110,450,50" and doesn't start with "c5_0=..."

I'm tempted to take on the challenge, but I'll leave that to someone who has more time and knowledge than I possess.

You, or anyone, can match up the ids by keeping two notepad files open side-by-side and editing line by line.  Sorry I can't commit to more; three years ago I'd have been all over this ...

Not all the maps for ffassist/apradar are even consistant, I'm currently using 2 different map.inis to try and spot bad coords between them.

I cant recall offhand which maps packs differ, but my old black and white one and normal color one have a couple spots where they dont match.

Fortunately there are a lot of zones that DO already match (between the 3 orders below), but they're mainly the areas with only a single map, which does make up a large chunk of all current zones.

I'm a bit busy so i cant roll out a new update right away (mabye within a day or 2), but the next update i plan on adding in the map indexes in addition the region/area indexes already listed.

I will hopefully have a spreadsheet documenting the differences between the index ids (and ffxib's order) / ingame map order / my map.ini around with it.

For future reference: if you/anyone has only a couple changes, could you just directly post the changes needed?

It would be faster since I wouldnt have to diff the new ini against mine.

In a perfect world: yea we should be loading the ingame dats, I dont know why we didnt previously as we are able to decode the maps (polutils for example).

We would really benefit from being able to redirect the maps though if we use the ingame ones, otherwise it would mean having to hard mod them.

Though maps are rarely updated you would still need to be attentive to them during patches

(if we were eventually able to use and redirect the ingame maps the fact the current maps being named incorrectly isnt a real issue, they're not in the right format anyway

the ingame maps are a mix of 8-bit bmps and dxt3's are they not?)

Unrelated: Woh gates map 1 is: ROM\307\21.dat

It's np, we cannot force anyone to do it

I'm not saying those programs are bad, I'm saying the ini files are designed badly. The numbering from 0 makes no sense, because that's not how the game numbers it. For example, the Crawler's Nest map is c5_16, because the internal ID of Crawler's Nest is 0xC5 and the ID of that particular map is 16. They don't always start at 0. Some do, some don't. But the map.ini does not consider that, it makes every map sequence start from 0. That's why I currently don't know which real map ID corresponds to which ID in the map.ini.

Also, the map.ini uses weird values. For some reason it decided to halve the x and y offsets as well as the multipliers. The maps internally are all 512x512, and the maps the map pack uses are also that. Yet, for some reason, the map.ini uses a 256x256 resolution for the offsets.

And finally, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, the map pack uses the GIF for the maps themselves.

Like I said, the programs are not bad themselves, just formatting the map.ini the way it is now was a bad choice.

Anyway, there are three ways to number maps:

1. The way it's stored internally, which follows a very rough pattern. Single maps always have ID 0 while zones with multiple maps usually start at 1 and count up. However, some zones stop counting up early and then continue on from 14, 15 or 16. Not sure why at this point


2. The way the /map command shows them in-game, which is ordered sequentially. Unlike the map.ini order this starts at 1, and unfortunately it does not progress the same way the user-contributed maps do. A current theory of mine is that it counts up in the same order as the internal value, only without the gaps.


3. The way the map.ini currently does it. Unfortunately I have no idea which way it is, it seems arbitrary, but as I said above, it does not correspond to the internal order. I actually found the file I used to adjust the values as they are now from the map.ini (which is where I originally got the data from). You can check it out here

I prefer to keep the first one internally, as it corresponds to what the game uses internally. However, a mapping from 1. to 2. and 3. would be very useful to generate map.ini files (for example, as well as other output, like YAML, JSON or XML, depending on what people need).

I have updated the map.ini for Kamhir Drifts.

The old coordinates did not match up so I edited it myself.

added last ini inside map folder and kamhir map still not work , maybe i do something wrong but all other maps work nice but kamhir one

Sorry but I am there right now and using my map.ini (updated for Jan 24, see link above) and my map pack everything is fine.

Make certain it`s my ini and my maps.  The images must correspond to the coords.

Seems I am the only one updating for now ...

Here is the March 9, 2014 ini file for my Map Pack.

It contains lines for Outer Ra'Kaznar and Outer Ra'Kaznar [U]

How do you go about finding the new coordinates needed for the map.ini file?  I'd prob update things if I was able to figure out how.  I never got further than figuring out the zone id's.

It's a bit of an effort. You need to go to the edge of a map, note the in-game coordinates, then cross the edge to the next map, and note these. That's how you find out the bounding boxes between maps within one zone. Furthermore you need to note your in-game coordinates and then type /map, note the pixel coordinates, do this twice at far away ends of the map, that's how you get the offset needed. The multiplier should be easy to figure out from there.

To find out your in-game coordinates, you can use the InfoBar plugin.

Attached is a copy of the map.ini file i edited to work with the new zone ID's. works for my Apradar 3. Unfortunately the forums wont allow me to attach a .ini file so had to change it to .txt. Please change it so it will work for you,

Final note all the Adoulin maps need renaming, ill see if i can upload a zip of my edited map names.

heres a link to my rar for the whole adoulin map pack with the map.ini in it too. hope link works.
 

dropbox link -> Download

somehow no maps work for me since the last apradar update . had to download and update everything . also used the new map pack / ini . but nothing . 

cant even select map packs . there is only default . 

but somehow the map pack / ini works with mappy ...