Choosing the map format

There are a number of ways to have map information stored in the computer. One way is to represent the walls as vectors. This gives you a lot of flexibility, and can be processed into bsp trees for very quick software rendering. This works, but I went with an even easier approach known as tile maps (again, the approach used by many of the games that inspired this series). Quite simply, the map is broken into a grid. Each box of the grid is considered to be a tile. Each tile has a value attached to it which describes what belongs in this tile. If you are into pen and paper role-playing games, you will see that this technique is pretty much what most module designers do.

What can go into a tile? In the case of the first coffee quest, the tiles are as follows:

Number	Text code	Description		Number	Text code	Description
0	-	Empty		8	g	Coffee Filter
1	+	Coffee Maker		9	h	Cream & Sugar
2	a	Fountain		10	i	Green Key
3	b	Coffee Grinder		11	j	Blue Key
4	c	Power Outlet		12	k	Unlocked door
5	d	Beans		13	l	Green locked door
6	e	Cup		14	m	Blue locked door
7	f	Coffee Pot		15	n	Wall

The number is the actual number used internally to represent that tile and is also the number used in the original .rtf file format which I will be talking about soon. The Text code is the actual letter used within the map file format that is used by the open source version. When loaded, the game converts the letter into the appropriate number. Before we get into how the game uses this information, lets quickly look at the file format for the map.