ILLUSTRATIONSI wanted to clarify for people looking at this system how it works. The changes I made are difficult to describe in words. So to better explain what I have done, I put together two illustrations. The first is remedial, but serves as background for understanding how areas are laid out in both Jaga's system as well as mine.
CARTESIAN PLANE
The grid is defined by X and Y axes which cross at the origin. The X axis runs east and west and the Y axis runs north and south. Numbers increase to the north (+y) and east (+x) and decrease to the south (-y) and west (-x). All areas linked together by Seamless Area Transitions sit on a grid. A module can have more than one grid, each defined by a string from 0 to 23 characters long.
Note:
The grid used in Jaga's "All-In-One Seamless Area Transitioner" is not Cartesian. Jaga flipped the Y axis so that numbers increase toward the south. My "Seamless Area Transitions" accommodates for this by allowing the user to choose between Cartesian or non-Cartesian.Definitions- A grid unit is the space between parallel lines on the grid.
- A grid node is a location where lines cross on the grid.
- A square on the grid is a space on the grid defined on all four sides by grid lines in which no lines cross.
- Areas on the grid are rectangular or square with each corner touching a grid node. The coordinates of an area are defined by the grid node in its southwest corner. The last 9 characters in an area's tag identify its coordinates.
- Regions are another name for a grid. A module may have more than one grid or region. The region that an area belongs to is defined by all the characters preceding the last 9 characters in its tag. The maximum length of a region's name is thus 23 characters.
- Inflexible Grids are grids with a fixed number of meters for each grid unit. Once the user defines this, the dimensions of every square on the grid are known.
- Flexible Grids are grids in which no real world dimensions define the grid units. One area fills each square, but each area is unrestricted in size or shape.
AN INFLEXIBLE, CARTESIAN GRID
The illustration above is an example of the possibilities one has when using an
inflexible grid.
This grid has Cartesian coordinates. The two bold, white lines crossing the grid are the X and Y axes. The faint white lines are shown to help you visualize the grid. The black text on the outside of the grid identifies the coordinates as used in an area's tag. Those across the bottom identify the X component of a coordinate, and those on the left, the Y component. For this example, assume that the Z component is p00 for all areas on the grid.
Each contiguous field of color is an area. Any areas which touch one another, may be linked by a seamless area transition. Note that each area can be of a different size and shape from those adjacent to it. Four areas are labelled. These are A (which is a red, 1x4 area), B (yellow, 1x1), C (green, 4x1), and D (yellow, 3x3).
For our example, let us assume that each grid unit is 80 meters (the length across 8 area tiles arranged in a row). Thus the two large blue areas measure 320x320 meters, the largest areas that can be created in NWN. This means that in our example 80 meters is the largest figure we can use for a grid unit. The smallest figure we can use is 20 meters because 20x20 meters is the smallest that we can make an area, and we can not fit more than one area within a square.
Example Area Coordinates- Area A - p00n03p00
- Area B - p00p01p00
- Area C - p01p01p00
- Area D - p02p02p00
As mentioned previously, the area coordinates comprise the last nine characters of the area's tag. Each grouping of three characters from left to right identifies the X, Y, or Z coordinates respectively. And the coordinates of an area define the area's origin on the grid - the southwest corner of the area. Since NWN uses Cartesian coordinates inside the areas, the southwest corner of an area is always considered its origin regardless of whether you configure Seamless Area Transitions to use Cartesian grids or Non-Cartesian grids like Jaga used.
So p00n03p00 is X = "p00", Y = "n03", and Z = "p00". "p" stands for positive and "n" stands for negative. This is a convention carried over from Jaga's system so that modules using his script are compatible with Seamless Area Transitions.
Lets say that a player character is in Area A near the northern edge. From our point of view looking at the diagram, we would say that the PC is standing in the square with grid node p00p00p00. If they travelled north, they would enter the square at p00p01p00, which is contained by Area B. Area B just so happens to also have the same coordinates. Likewise if the PC travelled northeast from p00p00p00 they would arrive in the square at p01p01p00 which lies in Area C, and also defines the coordinates of Area C. Once in Area C, the PC travels east for 180 meters, a little over half the area's length from west to east, then turns north. Their position now lies in the square at p03p01p00. If they travel north from this square they will arrive in p03p02p00, which is in the middle of the south side of Area D.
Any questions?
Modifié par henesua, 10 mars 2013 - 10:52 .
