Modding M1 Tank Platoon 2 (Again)

Polak, PM them to get in touch, it should go through to their email I think.

Apologies for the tardy response.

Funny you should mention the GS! Spreadsheets. I only found that M1TP2 data-cd because I was rootin’ around for some GS! materials for Flyboy and HawkI.

Unfortunately, the disc with all of my GS! Files did not survive those many years in storage. I tried in vain to open that bugger in three different computers. I’m certain that I have those files backed up on a thumb-drive somewhere, but I haven’t seen that thing in a few years, either. If the thumb-drive resurfaces, I’ll send you the spreadsheets. Sorry that I can’t be of more assistance at this time.
Have you ever used GSmangler.exe? You don’t need to know any offsets. It will let you edit several gunship.exe data tables directly. Hex-editor not necessary. There’s a link to the program on this page of Flyboy’s site: http://flyboy.epizy.com/gs/s6/index.html
Look for gunship.exe editor.

What a great piece of work on this document by Psyklik! That all became available to me from Flyboy and Hawkl and maybe ... they have gotten all that from you. If so - thank you!

(From RandonPinhead)
There are 5 mission files in the Battles\Armor folder with titles like Static Gunnery Range, Crew Coordination, etc. The briefings all contain a section heading Training Objectives. I dunno if these are what you’re looking for or not.

(from Polak earlier in thread)
I knew that the structure and the guts of the program were somehow similar to later one Gunship! and since my primary modding specialty is terrains I hoped to play with it a little more.

Do you have any information to share about the terrains? I know almost nothing about how they work.

The M1TP2 map files
===================

This file describes everything I have been able to figure out about
the M1TP2 map files. There should be enough information here to
allow a programmer to code a minimum function map display for use in
scenario editors, etc.

All the map files for a particular area will be found in the
c:\m1tp2\WORLD\xxxx directory. For example, \WORLD\POLAND has the
map files for Poland. Note that the tutorial missions are set on the
Poland map.

What you need to know first:
============================

The map is divided into 256 by 256 map cells, each 750 meters square.
For terrain types, each map cell is further subdivided into two halves
by a diagonal line running from upper left to lower right, creating a
lower left map halfcell, and an upper right halfcell. The
information in the *.DAT files encodes the map terrain starting in
the upper left of the map and going left to right, top to bottom. The
first values in the *.DAT files are for the top row of the map.

The specific files
==================

HEIGHT.DAT - contains the elevations at the upper left corner of each
map cell.

TERRAIN.DAT - contains the type of terrain in each map halfcell.

TREERUN.DAT - contains the locations of the tree lines for the map.

OBJECTS.TXT - contains locations for the roads, buildings and
individual trees.

TILES.TXT - contains graphics information for each type of terrain.

The contents of each file
=========================

HEIGHT.DAT
----------

This is a binary file containing elevations for the upper left corner
of each map cell. Each map cell consists of four bytes, least
significant byte first. A cell coded "36 02 00 00" indicates a
height of 0x236 or 566. I'm not sure of the units, but it may be
meters. Note that you can read this file directly into a C language
buffer in a single read statement, then reference the individual map
cells using standard array subscripting.

Note that there are some bizarreisms in the way this data is
displayed in the game. If you put a single high spot in the middle of
a flat plane, you won't get a square hill. It will look something
like a square with the upper right and lower left corners cut off on
the diagonal. See my remarks below.

TERRAIN.DAT
-----------

This binary file containing the terrain types for each halfcell.
These values are single bytes ranging from 0 to 7, and reference a
terrain type in the TILES.TXT file. Each bite is the terrain type in
a single halfcell, lower left then upper right. Note that values 0
through 5 are usually variable, 6 is trees, and 7 is water. I don't
believe that values above 7 are used, even though they have entries
in TILES.TXT. Also note that value 7, water, is not displayed on the
map view in the game, but is displayed in the 3d view. If you are
using this information to code a map display, please consider
displaying the water.

The use of halfcells means that the only diagonal lines in the
terrain will be upper left to lower right. There will be no lower
left to upper right diagonals.

I believe that the only difference between the terrain types 0
through 5 is the color displayed on the ground in the 3d map, with
the actual color and texture displayed are taken from information in
the TILES.TXT file.

TREERUN.DAT
-----------

This binary file contains the tree lines. Each pair of bytes
describes a single cell. If there is a 01 in the first byte, there
is a vertical tree line on the left side of the cell. If there is a
01 in the second byte, there is a horizontal tree line at the top of
the cell. Note that the first row of cells won't display tree lines
at the top! Also note that tree lines may not be displayed if there
is other terrain in the mapcell, like forests or roads.

OBJECTS.TXT
-----------

This is a text file containing roads and other objects, like
buildings and individual trees. For roads, coded as "ROAD n", and
there are several types, there is a pair of coordinates showing where
that road segment begins and ends. Note that in the game, these
segments will not be displayed as straight roads, but will meander a
bit.

Other objects are coded as "TOWN n" where n is the type of object,
and a single coordinate for the location. We should expect some way
to code the direction a building faces, but I'm not sure where that
code is. Perhaps something in the coordinates handles it.

TILES.TXT
---------

Another text file with information about what graphics files are used
for each type of terrain, and for the sky. Each group of files,
numbered 0 to 5, has a different type of terrain, and that number 0
through 5 is used in the TERRAIN.DAT file. I believe 6 is always
forests, and 7 is always water. There are additional groups of files
in TILES.TXT, with comments on what they are for, but I don't believe
they are used.

Other info
==========

There are no specific river terrain types. Rivers are shown as a
complete map halfcell being water.

I'm not sure what the WORK.DAT file does.

Note that the HEIGHTS.PCX file doesn't seem to be used.

Terrain heights
===============

I'm still working on this one.

>From any given point in this file, draw lines to the next points in
the following directions: N, NW, W, S, SE, E. Do not draw lines SW
or NE. On each line, mark off points corresponding to contour lines
you wish to display. Connect the points on adjacent lines.

If this is a little confusing, don't worry. I can't figure it out
either. Try changing the elevations on the top left corner of the
map, running a scenario there, and looking at what you get. Try to
predict what the map will look like before you see it in the game.
If I am able to come up with an algorithm for displaying contour
lines, I'll post it later.

If I am able to come up with an algorithm for displaying contour lines, I'll post it later.

With the help of Larry Hookings' research, I was able to generate tiled maps of the m1tp2 Worlds.

Terrain system and files of M1TP2 are very similar to that of the Gunship! The major difference is the lack of Treerun.dat and more types of tiles in Gunship! It was never done or attempted but it would be a real treat to play M1TP2 in Gunship! environments.

There are no complementing NE->SW corners and each lower bottom corner of the forest and water is sharp.

… it appears that there are no transitions between the tiles as they are in later Gunship!

Then, I changed the first byte in the NTC world’s terrain.dat file to 07. According to the Tiles.txt file in the World\NTC folder, the 7 would refer to water.pcx files. The first byte in terrain.dat refers to the first triangular half-cell on the world’s map. It’s a lower half-cell. The next byte would refer to a triangular upper half-cell. The triangular half-cells alternate from lower to upper for the entire length to the terrain.dat file.
Here’s the result of altering a single half-cell in terrain.dat:

Weird!

TITLE: PolNWCorner
BATTLEFIELD: poland 60 60 0 15 1 1
ENGAGEMENT: BLUE MISSION_BLUE_CONTACT 0 0 266
ENGAGEMENT: RED MISSION_RED_MEETING 0 0 86
RUNAI: RED
SIDE: 0
MACHINE: 1

PLATOON: 0 60 60 274 0 400 400 1 5
ORDER_MODE_WAYPT:

PLATOON: 9 60 70 274 0 400 4001 11
ORDER_MODE_WAYPT:
SUPPORT: 86 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6

PLATOON: 60 800 800 274 0 400 400 3 0
LOGIC: LOGIC_RECON

hello!

great stuff everyone!

I too am interested in bringing this game/sim back to life
my objective is to bring the game up to modern funtionity standards

such a resupply, ready racks etc

Yes i am aware of SB i have been playing that sincce i moved away from M1TP 18 odd years ago.