Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas repairs.

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  • And those are CC3 files on the desk that I might be able to pull off update and edit?

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer

    Yes. Well, CC2 files actually, but they are fully compatible with CC3.

    roflo1
  • CC2, well I will probably come back to this thread if I find my CDs. Sounds like a lot of work has gone in to provide update to fix links etc. Thanks to those that did this.

    Maidhc O Casain
  • Thanks. I love this project.

    I am to busy with another project at the moment to finish this off.

    My intention is to create a step by step to get it to 100% without editing any files, just by getting all the updated files added in the correct order.

    After that would be to fix the remaining broken links, there are a bunch where the link is incorrect. So those files need to be edited with CC. I can't remember all the stats, but when fixed it will add a lot more maps into the function of the product.


    I got a lot of help and interest from a lot of great users.

    JimP
  • edited November 2023

    During the pandemic I introduced a new group to D&D and the Forgotten Realms. While I was running my go-to introductory campaign Ruins of Adventure/Pool of Radiance I noticed a few maps were broken or missing entirely as I was converting/recreating FRIA maps for vtt. I made these maps in the Schley style to keep them consistent with the current official maps.

    6600 Thi-kreen Village Below Ground from FRC1 Ruins of Adventure is a blank map

    The Caverns below Haptooth Hill and The Tower of Dracandros from FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds were missing.

    The scale of this one is a little problematic but I kept to the standard dungeon scale of 1 square = 10 feet.

    Gothyl's Tower from Secret of Spiderhaunt is missing.

    I decided not make a Perspectives map for this one, was too tricky for vtt.

    Maybe someone can use these. They could easily be converted into the same style as the FRIA maps. I'll also gladly share the .fcw files for my other FRIA->Schley conversions. It's an ongoing project but I'm not planning on redoing everything, just what I need for my campaign.

    MonsenJimProflo1Ricko HascheAleD
  • Well, @Steven Nentwig (Steven!) I think the time spent drawing maps is time well spent.

    But if you want to get the "best" (or working) versions of each map in the FRIA... this is what this thread has been all about. I haven't updated my personal XLS in a while, but I'll still drop it here in case someone finds it useful:

    The 6600 Thri-kreen Village Below Ground.fcw map was introduced in update1, but was then corrupted by update3, so you could grab either it from up1 or up2.

    I don't think the maps for Caverns below Haptooth Hill, The Tower of Dracandros, nor Gothyl's Tower were actually drawn for FRIA.

    But back to your maps... I like them very much. Thanks for sharing them.

    Steven_
  • Thanks. I wasn't aware the Thri-kreen map got corrupted by the update. Good to know next time I have install the program.

    You're right about the other maps, afaik they weren't drawn for FRIA but it struck me as odd these maps weren't included whereas other maps from the same adventure modules/source books did make it into FRIA. I assume nobody got around to draw them before support for FRIA was dropped.

    JimPDon Anderson Jr.roflo1
  • Guess who found there Forgotten Realms Atlas this weekend? Now just need to figure out how I am going to connect a CD drive to one of my PC's :-)

    JimPDon Anderson Jr.roflo1
  • I essentially bought a external Blu-ray writer for this project as well as making physical copies of all my data.


    I'm glad people are getting use out of what we have done so far.

    Maybe if I get far ahead enough in my other project I can devote a day to messing with this.

    JimPSteven_
  • I have the media somewhere... but it could be out in my storage shed, in about 100 storage boxes.

    Don Anderson Jr.

  • I think I once managed installing it by mapping a network share as a drive. The sharing computer did have a CD drive, of course, but perhaps knowing this allows you to get around the issue if you have a friend or neighbour willing to lend you their computer for a while.

  • Sadly none of my PCs have one but I was contemplating checking to see if my BlueRay Player shows on the network and if so I might be able to map to that. Worse case I have a DVD drive I can hook up while the case is open or something :-)

    JimProflo1
  • 12 days later
  • Finally found and installed my old Atlas DVD. Now applying the 3 patches. Are there updates I should apply after that before I start..experimenting?

  • My DM is interested in the area top left of Toril the Ice Flow area not anything really linked there. There are not any updates for that area or resources that I can use to create more detail for that area and provide to the community?


  • There's just 3 updates.

    Do note that some updates managed to "break" previous maps, so if you want to have the best version of all maps, you might have to save a handful of maps before aplying each update. To figure this out, your best bet is to follow Don's advice above (after visually comparing them all). This was Don's last post:

    My effort (currently stalled) is based on listing all entities, paste them into a text file compare tool, and try to figure out the differences. But I haven't done much in a long time (it becomes tedious quite quickly). I uploaded an XLS file with my findings here:


    The last column in the roflo1 sheet is called "cherry-pick" and advises which version of each map is best. Empty cells mean I haven't compared them. Oh, and do know that many rows are hidden: those that are identical in all updates. There's a few other sheets where I'd paste results from DonV or thehawk, to make sure I wasn't missing stuff.

    My DM is interested in the area top left of Toril the Ice Flow area not anything really linked there. There are not any updates for that area or resources that I can use to create more detail for that area and provide to the community?

    I don't think anything exists yet. At least not officially. I haven't found any detailed maps in any of the updates.

    JimP
  • I don't know if I detailed this. I used my large 4K tv and launched 4 instances of CC3+.

    Original disc maps----------1st update


    2nd update---------------3rd update


    So I looked over all instances of all maps at once. File sizes were the same on some files, but a broken link would render all the lower maps "lost" While the updates fixed some problems, they caused other problems. That is why certain files are needed in order from each update. To maximize the full functionality of the maps.


    Damn I should have made a chart on how effective each update was for using all the maps as a percentage value. That way people who don't want to manually rearrange the files could get the best functionality.

    I am hoping to have some free time just before Christmas to revisit this and maybe get the Atlas to 100% of all links working.

    There were a bunch of maps that had to fix typo's in hyperlinks.

    roflo1
  • Well if I can help do a little to make it less tedious I will. Let me know if there is some grunt work you can farm out to me

  • Hi! Just noticed this work, is fantastic!

    I'm reading about the concerns to make the modified files public and the copyright trouble, may I suggest a solution? I've already used it for the Core Rules 2.0 errata in this project (https://github.com/Alby1987/AD-DCoreRule2.0Errata), maybe I can help making it for the Forgotten Realms Atlas too.

    Because using only the binary differences, is possible to make an installer that still asks for the original installation and can not extract the data if not using the original installation. Because there are maps not included in other updates, you still need to install Update 1 before Update 3 (I understand there aren't map in update 2 missing in update 3, am I right?).

    Are you interested in this?

    Monsen
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer

    Sounds like a good approach to the problem to me @Alberto Giuffrida. Would be nice just having a simple script to run that can be distributed without having to distribute copyrighted material.

    Alberto Giuffrida
  • Thanks for the offer @Alberto Giuffrida . It would be nice to have an automated way to do it. :)

    I understand there aren't map in update 2 missing in update 3, am I right?

    Unfortunately, no. There are a few maps that should be fetched from update2. For example, 30005 Aru.FCW was introduced in up2, but was then corrupted in up3 (thought I assume this is more of an exception).

    Also, I haven't finished checking them all, I still have 360 maps to check.

    JimP

  • That wouldn't be a problem: a corrupt map in update 3 is still a "base file" where we can do the patching progress. I'll better explain the process. If a good file is in update 2, and then it was corrupted by update 3, there will be a binary diff file to revert it to update 2 version will be provided. The only thing I cannot do is if a file is missing from an installation: if (for example) the Secret Cave map is only in update 1, if I wish to include it in my patch but no base file is present in Atlas + Update 3, it would be necessary to provide the whole file, and that's a problem. I hope to have explained myself :)

  • Oh, ok.. so it only has to exist in CD+Up3 regardless of status, right?

    I haven't tested going directly from CD to Up3... it would be an interesting test.

    Alberto Giuffrida
  • This sounds like a pretty cool concept.

    When I first started this project it was just for me to personally get my own copy running smoothly.

    If an installer can do all the grunt work for fans, that would be mind blowing. Thanks for your interest Alberto.

    I know I have put in a ridiculous amount of hours to compare every single map in it's multiple instances. If it can be done with just a few mouse clicks, it would be more than I ever imagined could be done.

    roflo1Alberto Giuffrida
  • That's perfect! When you have completed fixing the maps, just send me via private message a zip file with all the modified maps and maps from previous updates that were corrupt. Then I will release the patch files 😁

  • 3 months later
  • Hey, quick question. I'm on a little project that requires me to get PDFs of every one of the maps, with as much text as possible; I use it to search them faster. I found later that there was a file, INDEX.something in the root folder; it had much of the text of the maps.


    I was wondering, how do updates affect the contents of the INDEX file?

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    edited March 26

    You can rebuild the index file yourself at any point, using the INDEX command in CC3+.


    Also note that CC3+ do contain a feature to search for text in multiple files already, you don't need to move them over to PDF to do that.


    I use the index file for the search feature on the community atlas website to allow you to search in map text.

    Italian Karsus
  • Oh, I know the atlas software can search itself. The point of it is to do it with other programs I was working on, so I can give myself greater flexibility.


    Thanks for the tip!

  • 6 days later
  • Hi guys, I just want to thank everyone for this effort! I recently bought the CC3 + and started translating the FR maps into my language (Portuguese). This is part of a personal big project for AD&D, because i started to translate the AD&D Core Rulebook CD too to a single Tiddlywiki, and i adding all sourcebooks from FR, changing the core text to be deep linked with FR.


    So here's some question's:

    It's better to convert the old maps to CC3+, or i just work directly on the maps?

    I notice if i translate the text, i have a english white text in the background. How can i change it?

    PS: I'm newbie with the software, i'm sorry if this is not the right place to ask


    Probably i will depare with some broken link's, so i will post here what i found.


    Best regards!

    JimP
  • Hi @Hildebrando Santos !

    I don't have the old FR Interactive Atlas, so I'm not sure what the "white text" in English after you've translated it may be.

    However, so far as I'm aware, you can open any older version Campaign Cartographer map in CC3+, so you don't need to convert any to CC3+ at all. If you redraw any map using CC3+, it will then save the file in that format, but that would only be a potential problem if you used an older version of the software to try to open the new map file.

    You may find it easier to keep track of replies to any further questions you have by starting your own topic, or topics, on the Forum; with long-running topics such as this one, there's always the danger things will get lost along the way otherwise!

    Loopysue
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer

    @Hildebrando Santos wrote:

    I notice if i translate the text, i have a english white text in the background. How can i change it?

    This is because these maps were made in CC2, before things like effects. So to have a outline on the text, it is actually two text entities with the exact same text, one with regular filled text, and the other set to only show the outline. This was done to make the text more readable.

    However, this means that you will need to do the edit twice, once for each text entity. If you have trouble selecting the right one for edit, try hiding some of the TEXT layers (either everyone marked OUTLINE, or everyone NOT marked as such.

    As Wyvern said above, it is better that you start your own topic if you have any follow-up questions that are related to your own work and not the atlas repair project.

    LoopysueJimPDon Anderson Jr.
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