map-data.md

Map data

What a map does besides its terrain is moving into data, step by step (maps design). The first part is the sounds of map objects; the light mood of the maps has its own page (light-mood.md).

Object sounds

Data/Maps/ObjectSounds.json says which object types of which maps play a sound while they are drawn: the Kalima waterfalls play their water sound; Kanturu Ruins' objects play their wheel, waterfall, electric and plant sounds, Kanturu Relics' their gear and incubator sounds, and both maps their hum.

{
  "formatVersion": 1,
  "objectSounds": [
    {"maps": [24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 36], "objects": [37, 38], "sound": {"file": "Data/Sound/aKalimaWaterFall.wav", "channels": 3}, "plays": "whileInView"}
  ]
}

Field	Value
maps	The maps, by the number the server sends; {"map": 9, "stage": 2} names one stage of a map (Devil Square). Maps with the same objects share one entry, as Kalima 1-7 do.
objects	The object types of those maps, 0 to 159: the numbers of the models in the map's Data/Object<n> folder, as the Map Editor's Objects tab lists them. Left out: any object of the maps (a map-wide sound, see below).
sound.file	The sound file below the client folder. It gets a number when the map loads it; no SOUND_* id is needed.
sound.channels	1 to 4, default 1: how many copies of the sound can play at once.
plays	whileInView (the default and the only one so far).

While in view plays a sound the way the original client did: every frame an object of the type is drawn (it is on screen), a channel of the sound that has ended starts again and a playing one is left alone. With 3 channels, up to three copies run, a frame or two apart. When the objects leave the screen, nothing new starts and the copies play to their end. A copy starts at full volume within 3 tiles of the hero and quieter the farther the nearest object of its sound drawn that frame is, down to a quarter at 15 tiles (a test of how it feels; the original played at full volume at any distance).

An entry without objects plays while any object of its maps is drawn, at full volume and asked for once a frame: the hum of a whole map, which Kanturu Ruins and Kanturu Relics played from every object they moved (maps design, Q-MP8):

{"maps": [37], "sound": {"file": "Data/Sound/w37/kan_ruin_global.wav"}, "plays": "whileInView"}

The map loads the sounds of its entries when it loads (after its own sounds). The file is read at start; a fatal problem stops the game with a message, as the other data files do.

Problems

Fatal: a value of the wrong form (the problem names the entry and field, e.g. objectSounds[0].sound.channels), an entry without maps, an empty list of object types, an object type out of range or twice, a file that is not a path below the client folder, channels out of range, a plays other than whileInView, and an object type that two entries name on one map (which would play?). A warning: a file that is not in the client folder (the sound stays silent) and unknown fields.

Editing (MuEditor)

The Map Editor's Sounds tab (its last tab) edits the object sounds of the map the game shows. It lists the entries that name the map (objects, file, channels, plays, maps); a click selects one. Add a sound to an object type adds an entry for the map. The selected entry's fields:

• Objects: Any object (a map-wide sound) or Types: the types, each with a button that removes it; Add a type lists the map's object models; Pick an object in the world takes the type of the next object you click in the world (the hovered object is outlined, as in the Objects tab).
• File with Play, Channels, Plays and Maps (the map picker of the monster tools).
• Remove removes the entry.

Changes play at once. Save writes the file after its checks (a fatal problem keeps the file as it was and says why); Revert reads it again. "Not saved yet" shows while the tab has changes the file lacks. Data Checks lists the problems under Map sounds; a click opens the Map Editor.