BlameThePixel!

I'm not sure who is in charge of BlameThePixel these days, but whoever is, this post is meant for you. I would like to request that you establish a new section under the maps for the two new wwp map formats I am soon to introduce. (SuperBits and SeekerBits) This is a little complicating, but it is actually very simple once you understand it.

SuperBits: These contain map data and settings for a game. The average SuperBit is generally 100 - 150 KB; although ones with custom backgrounds can become around 400 - 600 KB each. Map makers need to upload the SuperBits they create to websites, such as BTP.

SeekerBits: These are regular .bit type map files with URL(s) stored in them. (generally 5 - 50 KB) When you load a SeekerBit in wwp, CutWorm reads the URL(s) stored in the map and then proceeds to download the SuperBit the URL points to, and loads then loads it.

I am primarily concerned that BTP offers support for SeekerBits. These are what players use to share their SuperBits with each other. If possible though, I would like you to allow people to upload their SuperBits and offer the bandwidth needed to support them.

Example: 5 people join a game that uses a 200 KB SuperBit stored on BTP. That requires about 1 MB of bandwidth from this site for the one game. If 100 games are hosted like that in a day, all of which had the SuperBits uploaded on BTP; then that would be 100 MB per day. 1 month would be 3 GB of bandwidth.

I doubt it would actually require this much bandwidth, but it is possible if SuperBits become popular and no other sites are used to store them. Anyways, it's something to consider. Even if you do not want to support SuperBits, you should at least make a section for SeekerBits.

So basically, the "seekerbits" redirect the map to a map that is hosted online?

yeah, pretty much...

They tell CutWorm to download/load a SuperBit that is stored on on a website.

They also contain the name of the SuperBit that their download points too. CutWorm has the option to automatically steal every SeekerBit, SuperBit, and normal type .bit you encounter while playing online. RegularBits automatically get named "unknown". SeekerBits and SuperBits automatically get named by the name stored in the SeekerBit.

SeekerBits are also used to provide a preview of the SuperBit you are playing.

The idea of this is to have a website with centralised maps so that the creator can update them and have the changes propagate to all users?

I'm a little skeptical about this, the change to mark certain maps as SeekerBits is trivial, and we can probably add this.

As for the superbit files, i'd like to know a bit more about how map files are cached, and some more info about cutworm itself. Obviously the takeup/popularity of this format will determine how feasible it is for us to add support for such formats to the site.

Final say will be Zogger's but i'd like some more info on predicted usage figures before we go blowing loads of bandwidth on this.

The idea of this is to provide players with a site where they can upload and download the maps they create in this format. They need to be able to share the SeekerBits with players. When a SeekerBit is loaded, it tells CutWorm where to download a specific SuperBit. The SuperBit needs to be downloaded from somewheres (such as BlameThePixel).

A SuperBit contains 3 map layers, object placements for the start of a game, and customized water/gradient palettes. SuperBits allow WWP players to play color maps (up to 112 colors) in online games. They are like the .png maps used in W:A, except that SuperBits have more features. SuperBits can also double as a regular .bit file.

I decided to change something that would greatly reduce bandwidth consumption. I'm going to make CutWorm check a folder for a SuperBit before attempting to download it. Players will be able to store the SuperBits on their hard drives and use them instead of having to download them everytime.

I'm pretty confident that this new format will become popular when it is publicly released. The thing is, if you do not make a section for these files, you will probably regret it. Players will probably start uploading SeekerBits and SuperBits in the regular bit sections. The BTP database would get all disorganized and messy.

Please ask questions if you need something cleared up. I would like this to be done before the program is released to prevent your maps section from getting sloppy.

Sounds great, really. I don't think the bandwidth will be an issue, it's not much different to downloading maps manually.

If I've understood correctly, here's how I think it should be:
- Players upload their SuperBit to a seperate SuperBit section, and this gives them the URL which they can put in their SeekerBit.
- They can then upload their SeekerBit to the normal maps section, optionally with a preview. They should also either be able to indicate that it is a SeekerBit, or we should detect that automatically, so that people who want to download SeekerBits can find them.

If the URL can't be reached, can the game go ahead with all players using the normal .bit in the SeekerBit? What if some of the players had already downloaded its SuperBit previously?

Also, a suggestion: the ability to put more than one URL in a SeekerBit, in case one happens to go down.

You've got it figured out bloopy.

SeekerBits can already support more than one url. They can have more than 100 if wanted to. They work their way through the list and download from the first link that works. You hear a drum beat if the SuperBit download succeeds or the scales of justice SFX if it fails. Text will also be written in an online game telling you if it worked or not.

The URL's are stored in the .bit's image data. However, the level preview does not get distorted because CutWorm skips every 8th byte when writing the text data. You can play a SeekerBit as a regular .bit if you do not have CutWorm running or if the SeekerBit contains dead links. The bottom line in the image has corrupt pixels where the text is saved.

SuperBit's are not cross-compatible with people not using CutWorm. Even though both players can have the exact same collision layer (the actual land), the game will still desync. So players must be using CutWorm if the host is, or not be using it if the host isn't, for them not to desync. The ß symbol gets placed at the beginning of a game name to signal that a host is using CutWorm.

Here's some screenshots to give you a better idea of how it works:

http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo1.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo2.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo3.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo4.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo5.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo6.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo7.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo8.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo9.png
http://etho.wormsrenegade.com/screenshots/demo10.png

So you can choose which colors you want for the gradient bg? Thats pretty nifty.

Nice program homes.

Nice program homes.
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It seems rather underspecified in the data caché department, and checks for correct versioning of the SuperBits being downloaded, but aprt from that it seems alight.

Would you be able to email us some info on the technical specification of both seekerbits and superbits to admin @ blamethepixel.com So we can see how best to implement this in the files system. Obviously this will need a rigidly defined specification that is reliable up until the public release.

Etho, you win way too many points. This may be an excuse to install WWP again.

sounds good now I understand what it does. Things have been a bit tricky for me lately without an internet connection so I can't really do anything atm.

also I'm not sure that admin is a valid email address or that all the email addresses are set up. I would tell you but I don't have my cPanel password here. I think it's a blackhole now though due to spam. My suggestion would be to start a conversation in the Beta PMs with at least Readme, CBWhiz, Bloopy & Me.

This is certaintly interesting. /r/ W:A version though.

This program has been released a few days. You may want to do something about catagorizing the files now before it is too late. (if you plan to)

Could you discuss this topic in this thread instead of PMs? I'm very interested in this, so I'd like to see what's going on.