Hi there folks. After some time out of the mod scene (although I did come here to check the news), I´m back on the development of tools.
First, I´d like to propose a joint effort of developers here to create a "unified" library (call it framework, SDK, whatever) with all the usual stuff we all need: Mpq, Blp handling, slk, and more.
My idea is to develop it using Managed C++, exposing the neat stuff to any Dot Net client.
Let´s face it: Dot Net has some advantages and also has some drawbacks. The ideas behind using Managed C++ are obvious: we can reuse some code already written, we have the power of C++ and also it´s much faster.
I´d like to set up a small group to join the effort. Even if nobody shows up, I will still develop it by myself, but with more ppl helping, things can go much faster.
I will also drop here a small proof-of concept of the "base" library. It is using Ladsilav´s StormLib (with some speed improvements) to deal with MpqArchives (read only, write access to come in the future) and also uses Intel IJL to open Jpeg Based BLP´s (version 1) (pal based BLps not finishe d yet). Everything is statically linked, so no external Mpq and Jpeg DLLs are needed. Notice that it is just a "proof-of-concept", it should not be used to develop any tool yet.
What about loading a War3 Map minimap on a picture box? Using C#, it can be as simple as that:
Code:
using Wc3Campaigns.IO;
using Wc3Campaigns.Imaging;
....
String mapPath = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\.......\\(2)AncientKingdom.w3x";
MpqArchive mapArchive = new MpqArchive(mapPath);
MpqFileStream miniMapStream = new MpqFileStream(mapArchive, "war3mapMap.blp");
BlpImage miniMapImage = new BlpImage(miniMapStream);
pictureBox1.Image = miniMapImage[0];
I´d like to hear what you think about that.
