Cyd
b1b82d5da1
Pan with the arrows, zoom with plus and minus, [ and ] for the next track. Self-contained HTML with the track data and palette embedded; nothing here ships, and pack-dist.ps1 does not look at it. It follows the engine rather than approximating it. NavDisplay derives metersPerPixel from the zoom and sets LODIndex to it; L4GaugeImage::Draw takes the first LOD whose scale is at least that value and draws nothing once the value runs past the largest, so objects vanish rather than simplify. Both map gauges are here because they disagree - nav is the 448x416 radar screen with LOD following zoom, gps the 125x203 panel whose config pins LOD at 1.0. The HUD reports what is dropped, and is honest that this content barely exercises it: every placement in every track is cn3 with one LOD at scale 1000. The map is not a phosphor screen. Primitives carry palette indices and the palette is whichever the port was configured with - for the pod's secondary port, configure(0,sec,270,0x00ff,clut0,rgb,secpal.pcc). PCC is PCX, so the palette is the last 769 bytes. Walls are grey because index 51 is #4b4b4b; background is index 0, black; a primitive with colour 0 keeps the display's staticColor, 0x3C. Per-file palettes, not a global one - 39 of 40 gauge PCCs differ - so the port's configured palette is the one that counts.
mapview
A dev tool: every track drawn the way the pod's map screen draws it, with pan and zoom, so you can ask "what does the map actually show here?" without booting the game. Nothing here ships — pack-dist.ps1 does not look at it.
python tools\mapview\build_mapview.py <rpl4tool-listing.txt> tools\mapview\mapview.html
Then open mapview.html. It is self-contained: track data, palette and all.
| key | |
|---|---|
| ↑ ↓ ← → | pan north / south / west / east |
| + - | zoom in / out |
| [ ] | previous / next track |
| F / A | fit the course / fit everything |
| G | GPS or NavDisplay LOD behaviour |
Dragging pans and the wheel zooms.
What it reproduces
NavDisplay::CalculateBounds (RPL4GAUG.cpp:1587)
derives metersPerPixel from the zoom and sets LODIndex to it. L4GaugeImage::Draw
(L4GAUIMA.cpp:908) then walks the LOD scales:
for (lod_index = 0; lod_index < LODCount; ++lod_index)
if (LOD_value <= LODScales[lod_index]) break;
if (lod_index < LODCount) { ...Draw... } // else nothing is drawn
Scales ascend, so index 0 is the finest and running past the largest drops the
object entirely rather than simplifying it. The viewer does the same and reports
the count, though this content barely exercises it: every placement in every
track is cn3, which carries a single LOD at scale 1000, so nothing is dropped
until 1000 m/px and then all of it goes at once.
Two display modes, because the game has two map gauges and they disagree:
- NavDisplay —
nav(A,ModeAlwaysActive,(448,416),0x00,0x3C,...). The 448×416 radar screen, LOD following the zoom. - GPS —
gps(R,ModeAlwaysActive,(125,203),1.0). The 125×203 panel, LOD pinned at 1.0 by the config however far out it is scaled.
Colour
Not a phosphor screen. Primitives carry palette indices and the palette is
whichever the port was configured with; for the pod's secondary port, where the
nav display lives, L4GAUGE.CFG says
configure(0, sec, 270, 0x00ff, clut0, rgb, secpal.pcc). PCC is PCX, so the last
769 bytes are 0x0C and 256 RGB triples. The walls come out grey because index
51 is #4b4b4b; the background is index 0, black. A primitive whose own colour
is 0 keeps the colour already set, which is the display's staticColor, 0x3C.
Palettes are per-file, not global — 39 of 40 gauge PCCs differ from each other — so the port's configured palette is the one that matters, not any convenient nearby image.
Orientation
Seen from above with +Z up the page, the engine's +X runs to the left. The console's own picture of Brewer's Bane is what settles it: long leg up the right side to Score Zone 1, the corner, then the run out to Score Zone 2. Drawn the other way round every plan comes out mirrored, which is the bug this shares a fix with in ../pages/.