Dif2Map Is it Possible?
by Scott Johnson · in Torque Game Engine · 10/17/2007 (1:39 pm) · 6 replies
After searching the forums I found this old thread...
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=16992
I believe that I found the correct reading code in:
TGE_1_5_2\engine\interior\interiorIO.cc (read(Stream & stream)
Is this a correct spot to start looking at how to read the difs?
Of course my overarching questions are:
1) Can the dif format be reversed back into a .map format? (even if it's hard)
2) If the above is do-able, is this a tool that would be useful?
One of my main reasons for going down this route, is that I had built (a looong time ago) some .difs for some of my old Tribes 2 maps, however I've long since lost the .map files that generated them.
It would be great to recover some of those assets if possible, however I understand there are probably other implications that might arise.
At first glance, it looks like this might not be possible, I think that there is information lost between the .map to .dif conversion i.e. the information that ties the brushes together? Of course I could be totally off here.
I'd appreciate any feedback on this!
Thanks
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=16992
I believe that I found the correct reading code in:
TGE_1_5_2\engine\interior\interiorIO.cc (read(Stream & stream)
Is this a correct spot to start looking at how to read the difs?
Of course my overarching questions are:
1) Can the dif format be reversed back into a .map format? (even if it's hard)
2) If the above is do-able, is this a tool that would be useful?
One of my main reasons for going down this route, is that I had built (a looong time ago) some .difs for some of my old Tribes 2 maps, however I've long since lost the .map files that generated them.
It would be great to recover some of those assets if possible, however I understand there are probably other implications that might arise.
At first glance, it looks like this might not be possible, I think that there is information lost between the .map to .dif conversion i.e. the information that ties the brushes together? Of course I could be totally off here.
I'd appreciate any feedback on this!
Thanks
About the author
#2
altho in searching the forums for it, i've seen fewer requests for something like that than i would have expected.
10/26/2007 (9:15 am)
I [obviously] think dif->map would be a great tool,altho in searching the forums for it, i've seen fewer requests for something like that than i would have expected.
#3
However, I'm wondering if it's even possible to go back to .map, since I can't see anything in the .dif spec that "groups" the surfaces back into "brushes"...
I could see translating it into a mesh possibly like a .3ds etc...
I could be wrong, it was just a cursory look at the .dif spec.
10/26/2007 (1:41 pm)
I agree,However, I'm wondering if it's even possible to go back to .map, since I can't see anything in the .dif spec that "groups" the surfaces back into "brushes"...
I could see translating it into a mesh possibly like a .3ds etc...
I could be wrong, it was just a cursory look at the .dif spec.
#4
10/26/2007 (1:45 pm)
Hm, yeah, you might lose the groupings and end up with a whole bunch small brushes. 
#5
If someone finally made this dif2map and the end you will get the file with "a whole bunch small brushes" in it, as the geometry is heavily parsed during the export breaking everything into peaces.
But even that kind of "map" will be "good to have" instead of nothing hehe :)
10/26/2007 (1:53 pm)
I believe the Orion is right here.If someone finally made this dif2map and the end you will get the file with "a whole bunch small brushes" in it, as the geometry is heavily parsed during the export breaking everything into peaces.
But even that kind of "map" will be "good to have" instead of nothing hehe :)
#6
07/01/2009 (7:02 pm)
This post interested me as I have a bunch of old dif files in tge format without the original map files. Is there any utility out there for converting a tge dif file to tgea dif? 
Torque Owner Scott Johnson
This was separate thread regarding the same info:
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=68626
I'll be posting there if I ever get the time to move on this.
Thanks.