Bringing your own game to life is extremely rewarding and, as you will soon see, with MapView the process is easier than you ever could have thought possible!

In brief, creating a User-Defined Module (UDM) involves combining a set of image files and a definition file using a program called the UDM Compiler to create your own module!

Before you Begin

When creating a game module, be aware that using scanned images of published games may be an infringement of copyright laws.  Owning a copy of a commercially published game does not generally grant you any kind of rights in regards to reproducing it.  While a game publisher may look the other way when you and a far-flung friend create a module to PBEM a game you both own, they are likely to frown upon seeing their hard work being offered up for free on the web. 

We recommend that you use image editing software (such as Paint Shop Pro) to create your own game boards, maps, and other images.  

Files and File Types

Steps to Create a Module

1. Create a directory (folder) to hold all of the files you'll be using to create your module.  It can be named and located wherever is convenient for you.  This is called your work directory.   

2. Create the images you wish to include in your game and place them all  in your work directory.  You can use just about any image editing software to create these images.  

3. Create your module definition file and place it in your work directory.  The module definition file is basically a text file with HTML-like structures in it.  The specific contents of the file will be covered later, but the important thing to know now is that it is just a text file with a .xml extension instead of a .txt extension.  You can use Notepad (or any other text editor) to create and maintain this file. 

   

   NOTE:

   When using Notepad to create and maintain an XML file, you must be sure to include the .xml extension and also select All Files from the Save as type list.  Otherwise Notepad will default the file extension to .txt.

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Creating a module

The procedure to create a module for Mapview is fairly simple.  You will need to have a registered version of Mapview to enable your games to be saved.

Here is the quick basic procedure to create a module:

First thing to do is create a working directory.  This can be in any location and have any name you wish.  I usually like to have it in the Mapview directory since you will be copying the completed udm file here anyway.

In this new directory you will need to have the udmcmp12.exe, xml file, various graphics files.  

Edit the xml file with a text editor and then save it.  Drag and drop the xml file onto the udmcmp12.exe and if all of the code is correct and all of the image files are in the working directory it should create a new udm file in the same directory.  Move this file into the c:\program files\Motcreations\Mapview\usermods directory.  You can now restart Mapview and the module should be available when you start a new game.

Editing the .xml file

The xml file is the main component for your custom module.  In it you will specifiy all of the module parameters and tell the compiler what graphic images to use for all of the game pieces.

Below is a small portion of the main parts of a xml file.

There are several sections to the xml file.  All of the sections start with <text> and end with </text>.  For example, if you look at the section that contains information about the German infantry units you will see the following:

The first several lines specify the main configuration about the module and we will come back to them later.

The next section is tabs.  When you open a Mapview module, on the left side of the screen there is all the unit icons for a game.  If you expand the tabs section of the xml file you will see that there is also categories underneath.  These categories are where you define each individual player force or any other miscellaneous tabs for a game.  In an A&A type game you will have a category for each country such as Germany, Russia, USA, UK, and Japan.  You will also have a category for a miscellaneous items such as industrial complexes and arrows.  In the program these will show up as the various tabs players click on to access the different countries pieces. 

When you add a new countries pieces you will need to create a new <category> under tabs and then close the </category > when you have added all the units. 

Once all of the categories are specified you will need to make sure they are all within the <tabs> start and </tabs> close.

General game configurations

All of the modules main information is contained in the first few lines of code in the xml file.

Here is an example:

- <module_def format_version="1">
- <game_info>
<title>Battle of the Bulge</title> 
<author>Der Panzinator</author> 
<url>www.AxisDomain.0catch.com</url> 
<copyright>n/a</copyright> 
<min_mv_version>1.2.0</min_mv_version> 
</game_info>
- <game_id>
<unique_id>Battle of the Bulge</unique_id> 
<version>1</version> 
</game_id>
- <board_settings>
<board_image>bulgemap.jpg</board_image> 
<label_font_name>Time New Roman</label_font_name> 
<label_font_size>10</label_font_size> 
<label_is_transparent>False</label_is_transparent> 
</board_settings>
- <image_settings>
<mask_html_color>#FFFFCC</mask_html_color> 
<pallet_img_width>44</pallet_img_width> 
<pallet_img_height>24</pallet_img_height> 
<map_image_width>44</map_image_width> 
<map_image_height>24</map_image_height> 
</image_settings>
+ <tabs>
<initial_setup_cmf /> 
</module_def>

This is from a new module I am working on for a Battle of the Bulge game.  The first line specifies the module default format version.  You can just leave this as 1 for now.  I don’t think its necessary to change this. 

The game info section is fairly straight forward.  You just need to put in the name of the module and fill in text that is highlighted in bold.

Under the game id section you will need to give the module a unique id and version number.

The board settings is where you will specify the map image.  This is the name of the file in your working directory that has the mapboard image.  It should be either a jpg or gif file to keep file size down.  I believe that a bmp file will also work but will make for a much larger udm file when compiled since bmp’s are large file size.

The font can be changed for all of the text in the game by change the font fields.

The image settings section is where you will specify the general image size for your game piece icons and mask color.  If you intend to use square icons you can change these values to all 44 for example.

The mask color is the hex value for the color that you will use in your unit icon graphics to denote transparent.  When making your icon graphics you will simply use this color for any area you want to show up as transparent.  If you make a tank you will make your outline and then maybe a one pixel white border to help make it stand out and then the background will all be #FFFFCC which is a sort of beige color.  Mapview will take that color and make it transparent.  This way you have a small tank icon instead of a tank picture inside a rectangle box.

Be careful not to use this color for your image since Mapview will make it clear.

Compiling the module

Once you have completed your xml file you can save it in your working directory.  The name you give the xml file will be the name of the udm module once it is compiled. 

After you save the xml file you just simply click and drag it onto the udmcmp12.exe file and it will create your udm module.  You can then move the created udm file to your c:\program files\Motcreations\Mapview\usermods directory.

After you open the module you can now place all of the pieces where they need to go for any initial setup for the game.  You can then save the file into the working directory as a .cmf file and then edit the xml file on the last line by putting in the name of your saved file on this line:

<initial_setup_cmf>your file name goes here</initial_setup_cmf>

Then recompile the module and when you open a new game all the starting pieces will be where they need to be.

In a nutshell that is the procedure for creating a Mapview custom user-defined module.  After you complete one it is easy to just edit some lines of xml code to create additional modules.

Any additional questions and information can be found at www.Motcreations.com 

You can go to the website forum and there will be someone to help you out.