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I have officially released the next iteration of ScmDraft 2, 0.9.
For those that do not know what this is, this is a StarCraft map editor with support for all the capabilities of staredit as well as all sorts of advanced features, such as extended ramps. The original ScmDraft 1 was a project I worked on during high school written in Dephi, released in 2001 and 2002. At some point I restarted the project switching to C++ and the first release of version 2 took place in 2003.
Overview of the editor, with various palette windows open:
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/CMDC1ko.jpg)
View Screenshot Album
This release contains many many changes compared to the previous 0.8.0 and 0.8.1 versions. While the full set of changes is too large to list, here is an overview of the major features added:
- Vastly expanded visual overlay abilities. (Terrain properties, unit ranges, transparent creep among others)
- New unit, unit sprite, pure sprite palette windows.
- Completely redone doodad, user-defined brush, and terrain palettes
- Completely redone map properties window, including string filtering.
- Overhaul of the entire UI to support HiDPI / font scaling, nicer looking controls, better resizing, etc.
- Expanded terrain symmetry options, to support rotational symmetry with various parameters.
- Preview of the in-game pathfinder regions
- Added support for the vorbis OGG sound file format in triggers.
- Lots and lots of performance improvements and bug fixes
- Much nicer code, and cleaner error handling
- Enhanced logging to simplify error reporting, available via -console command line or in the debug menu.
And just to forestall the most common question, does it support SC:R graphics?
- Not at the moment. I would like to add support for those at some point, but adding a second graphics engine is a large undertaking, and this is a project I work on in my free time as my full time job allows. However all of the changes I have done in the past 9 months have been designed to eventually support the new graphics.
Download links:
Installer
Portable Zip
Nightlies (Newer, but potentially less stable)
Additional screenshots:
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/Ctx796J.png)
Rotational Terrain Symmetry.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/CM59OGA.png)
Pathfinding region preview, and terrain height display.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/ytrCMqQ.png)
Terrain height overlays.
OS Support:
Windows: This should work under windows XP, however I have not personally tried it on anything older than Windows 7.
Mac: Poiuy_qwert has provided a step by step guide on how to run ScmDraft on a mac, view it here
Linux: Similar to Mac, WINE is required. ScmDraft will run, but some of the windows may occasionally glitch.
If something does not work as expected, let me know so I can fix it. Worse, if it crashes for any reason, save the generated minidump and pass it along so it can be fixed in the next version. I cannot fix bugs unless they are reported.
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5392 Posts
I haven't made a map in years, but I am excited that you are still developing scmdraft and I'll open it up this week to give the new features a test.
When you say 'will it support SC:R' -- obviously the maps will work on SC:R just fine. I assume you mean having the ability to view the map/doodads/units/spells/etc as it would appear in SC:R?
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This looks fantastic. You get so much credit for still working on this piece of software after all this time. Without ScmDraft 2 the Brood War scene would be a very different place.
I don't know much about map making, and I've only messed around with ScmDraft a couple of times. Does this update let map makers create some new things in-game? I don't know if there are any barriers like that left unbroken.
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On August 28 2017 12:12 pheer wrote:
When you say 'will it support SC:R' -- obviously the maps will work on SC:R just fine. I assume you mean having the ability to view the map/doodads/units/spells/etc as it would appear in SC:R?
Ya, I'm just referring to the HD graphics. Everything else is unchanged between SC and SC:R.
On August 28 2017 12:26 Aylear wrote:
This looks fantastic. You get so much credit for still working on this piece of software after all this time. Without ScmDraft 2 the Brood War scene would be a very different place.
I don't know much about map making, and I've only messed around with ScmDraft a couple of times. Does this update let map makers create some new things in-game? I don't know if there are any barriers like that left unbroken.
Thanks
Mostly it makes a few things that were difficult to do/edit much easier, adds better/faster access to various editing layers and objects, and likely the most important thing is it includes various diagnostic views to find map bugs without needing extensive play testing.
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That's excellent. I know map makers have had to use third party tools and extensive testing to make sure their maps work right, especially with pathfinding and the like. I'm sure v0.9.0 will be a godsend for that.
Can I donate you $20 for your work? I don't know if you accept donations anywhere.
Edit: Found a donate button on the website, assuming it still works. =)
Edit 2: Done. Hope it went through all right. <3
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On August 28 2017 17:07 Aylear wrote:
That's excellent. I know map makers have had to use third party tools and extensive testing to make sure their maps work right, especially with pathfinding and the like. I'm sure v0.9.0 will be a godsend for that.
Can I donate you $20 for your work? I don't know if you accept donations anywhere.
Edit: Found a donate button on the website, assuming it still works. =)
Edit 2: Done. Hope it went through all right. <3
What third party tools for pathfinding? I've only ever done it through in-game testing...
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Wow! Thanks for this. I had no idea you wrote ScmDraft while in high school. I've always felt that it was a well designed piece of software and I've really appreciated working with it.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Very nice overall. Thanks for sharing this information S.I. Looking forward to future releases 
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On August 28 2017 17:07 Aylear wrote:
That's excellent. I know map makers have had to use third party tools and extensive testing to make sure their maps work right, especially with pathfinding and the like. I'm sure v0.9.0 will be a godsend for that.
Can I donate you $20 for your work? I don't know if you accept donations anywhere.
Edit: Found a donate button on the website, assuming it still works. =)
Edit 2: Done. Hope it went through all right. <3
Thanks, appreciate it !!
On August 28 2017 23:51 jncraton wrote:
Wow! Thanks for this. I had no idea you wrote ScmDraft while in high school. I've always felt that it was a well designed piece of software and I've really appreciated working with it.
Just to be clear: ScmDraft 1 was highschool, this is ScmDraft 2 which I wrote when I started college (and then continued incrementally improving until I got a full time job, then only did occasional work on it until I heard about SC:R)
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If you have a google docs spreadsheet for bugs, feel free to post it here and I'll be more than happy to QA it.
If not, I can I just make one up.
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wow great job. maybe u can find some helpers in here for the implementation of the SC:R graphics.
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Amazing!!
What about indoor tileset maps playable in melee mode? :D
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On August 30 2017 03:06 AntiHack wrote:
Amazing!!
What about indoor tileset maps playable in melee mode? :D
Installation tileset is all unbuildable I think. You wouldn't be able to build anything anywhere.
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On August 29 2017 08:27 Junseba wrote:
If you have a google docs spreadsheet for bugs, feel free to post it here and I'll be more than happy to QA it.
If not, I can I just make one up.
So far there have only been a handful of reported bugs and in general I could verify and fix em within a day. As long as the reports don't increase to a level I fall behind I think that's overkill.
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Man, it won't work on Linux, duh!
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On August 30 2017 03:57 JungleTerrain wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2017 03:06 AntiHack wrote:
Amazing!!
What about indoor tileset maps playable in melee mode? :D Installation tileset is all unbuildable I think. You wouldn't be able to build anything anywhere.
I know and I asked this question because as far as I know Blizzard is willing to put resources to improve the map editor.
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On August 30 2017 04:31 letian wrote:
Man, it won't work on Linux, duh!
With WINE it runs on Linux.
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On August 30 2017 04:31 letian wrote:
Man, it won't work on Linux, duh!
I run it with WINE just fine (unlike SC:R D: ). Only some menu minimizations don't work and window scaling is a bit glitchy.
On August 30 2017 04:54 AntiHack wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2017 03:57 JungleTerrain wrote:On August 30 2017 03:06 AntiHack wrote:
Amazing!!
What about indoor tileset maps playable in melee mode? :D Installation tileset is all unbuildable I think. You wouldn't be able to build anything anywhere. I know and I asked this question because as far as I know Blizzard is willing to put resources to improve the map editor.
The problem is not with the editor but with the game engine. Since so far it seems like Blizzard's "don't change gameplay" policy does extend to even serious terrain bugs (among some other stuff that effectively changes melee gameplay between 1.16 and 1.18++) I wouldn't expect this to happen. And even if, Installation is utter crap for designing melee maps for for lots of reasons. So on my list of priorities for possible improvement's from Blizzard's side this is far down.
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Weird posting glitch... Can be deleted.
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