Automatic Map Viewer Program

Bytor · December 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">View NS maps during the game</div> Hey all,

I got tired of fumbling through my printouts of my overhead maps at the beginning of a match, then trying to find a place on my crowded desk to put the map so that I could refer to it during the game, so I made a program to solve the problem for me.

This is a simple Visual Basic program that queries a Natural Selection game server every 10 seconds, and displays an image of the map that's currently being played on the server. Obviously, this is really only useful if you run multiple monitors or have a second windows computer next to your gaming computer. This will work with any map images that are appropriately named, because it sizes the program window according to the dimensions of the current map image, but I've only tested it with my overhead maps.

The program, and my maps, can be found here:

<a href='http://www.tribes2maps.com/ns/' target='_blank'>http://www.tribes2maps.com/ns/</a>

(Click on the link in the menu at the top to get NSMapMon)

Feel free to make suggestions for improvements. Enjoy!

Marik_Steele · December 2002

Oh my. This is just what I've been looking for to make my Voodoo4 for my 2nd, 15 inch monitor useful. You deserve a hug--maybe not from me, but you deserve one.

:: checks to see whether or not the HL client program coughs at my primary video card for making it run without having minimized all other programs ::

D3n15 · December 2002

I have a GF4 TI 4200. I've tried running HL with a 2nd monitor enabled and it just coughed a bit, sputtered, then died. Do you need a 2nd video card to make this work in HL? (I have a spare GF1, but it uses an AGP slot too darnit). Or perhaps it is just Win98 being not up to the task?

/me idiot. I have other computers in my den.... wtf do I need to use my 2nd monitor for anyway!

Thankyou very much for this program. I know the maps pretty well by now, but ns_caged still gives me trouble, even with the printout in front of me (not the printouts of your maps though, I'm using something far less polished looking).

Recommend a link to OCX files that are needed for the l33t map switching program:

<a href='http://www.megasecurity.org/Needed_files.html' target='_blank'>http://www.megasecurity.org/Needed_files.html</a>
Mswinsck.ocx <--- Needed to make the app work

Bytor · December 2002

I dunno about the dual head cards. I run 3 monitors, one on a AGP card, the other 2 each on their own PCI card. The only glitching I've seen is that it likes to slide the windows around when it changes resolution. Like, it piles up all my windows on my right monitor, but it leaves stuff alone that's on the left monitor. (While I play NS on the center monitor.) It may pile stuff up on the right monitor (stuff that WAS in the center monitor) because the right monitor is the "default" monitor, i.e. the one that shows the booting screen.

Arkaine · December 2002

Neato! The maps are pretty too. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>

It works great on my WinXP box, but not on Win98SE (my laptop) that I run on the side.
Error upon execution:

ianski · December 2002

sounds like the file that is needed (linked to previously...) is not in the correct folder and registered. Bytor should use visual studio 6's built-in packaging wizard. it'll find out what files are needed to run the app and include them in the setup program. the setup prog installs and registers all needed files.
aside, great idea bytor.

ElvenThief · December 2002

For anyone who's dual monitoring (or more), OpenGL's specifications were not designed with it in mind. So if you're running in O-GL, you'll get crappy fps if Half-Life even runs at all. I tried doing something like this, keeping messaging programs and winamp on one monitor, play NS on another, but I got many errors. NVidia has confirmed that any Quake or opengl based engine will fail in opengl.
Can't do it unless you run Direct3d. Unfortunately, even D3D dropped to like 10 fps on my GeForce2 Ti, 64DDR. But my setup has the 2nd monitor on an extra pci vid card. If your agp supports both, you might have good luck in D3D.

Bytor · December 2002

Yes, I know about the packaging wizard, but I feel that it makes bloated install packages, especially for a 23k executable. I also figured that something so common as the winsock control would be standard on win98, but I guess not. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'> At least they started including it in XP.

Arkaine, copy that file from your XP box to the windows\system directory on your laptop and reboot it, and it should work. (You don't need to reboot if you know how to register DLLs manually.)

Bytor · December 2002

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (E-Th33ph @ Dec 15 2002, 04:08 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>For anyone who's dual monitoring (or more), OpenGL's specifications were not designed with it in mind. So if you're running in O-GL, you'll get crappy fps if Half-Life even runs at all. I tried doing something like this, keeping messaging programs and winamp on one monitor, play NS on another, but I got many errors. NVidia has confirmed that any Quake or opengl based engine will fail in opengl.
Can't do it unless you run Direct3d. Unfortunately, even D3D dropped to like 10 fps on my GeForce2 Ti, 64DDR. But my setup has the 2nd monitor on an extra pci vid card. If your agp supports both, you might have good luck in D3D.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
I don't understand ... I run OGL, triple monitors, and I run NS in 1600x1200 and get very good FPS. The o/s is win2k server.

Arkaine · December 2002

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Bytor @ Dec 15 2002, 04:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Yes, I know about the packaging wizard, but I feel that it makes bloated install packages, especially for a 23k executable. I also figured that something so common as the winsock control would be standard on win98, but I guess not. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'> At least they started including it in XP.

Arkaine, copy that file from your XP box to the windows\system directory on your laptop and reboot it, and it should work. (You don't need to reboot if you know how to register DLLs manually.)</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
I've done this before with other DLLs (MSVBVM60.dll) required by my proggies, so that's the first thing that came to mind...strange though...I searched for the .ocx file before but couldn't find it...but now it's there...heh. Oh well, it's working now that I found the file to copy. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>

Would you consider making this 800x600 compatible? My laptop isn't exactly new. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>
By the way, is there any chance on seeing the source code? hehe

Bytor · December 2002

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Arkaine @ Dec 15 2002, 04:41 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Would you consider making this 800x600 compatible? My laptop isn't exactly new. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>
By the way, is there any chance on seeing the source code? hehe</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
In order to make it compatible with another resolution, all you really need to do is use smaller maps. The program resizes itself to match the size of the map (plus a border) each time the map changes. So, just take the overhead maps (mine or any others) and resize them to something like 700 x 500 and you should be fine.

As for the source code, it's on the web site in both .html and .frm format.

If you do anything with the code, please let me know what you come up with. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>

Arkaine · December 2002

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Bytor @ Dec 16 2002, 03:12 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Arkaine @ Dec 15 2002, 04:41 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Would you consider making this 800x600 compatible? My laptop isn't exactly new. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>
By the way, is there any chance on seeing the source code? hehe</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
In order to make it compatible with another resolution, all you really need to do is use smaller maps. The program resizes itself to match the size of the map (plus a border) each time the map changes. So, just take the overhead maps (mine or any others) and resize them to something like 700 x 500 and you should be fine.

As for the source code, it's on the web site in both .html and .frm format.

If you do anything with the code, please let me know what you come up with. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Thank you. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>

othell · December 2002

I actually have a GF4 460mx which has dual VGA out. HL runs (for the most part) fine on my primary monitor (FPS is at 60, even though it should be 100). It does push all windows, except HL, over to my secondary monitor though. Never had HL crash with it either.

Automatic Map Viewer Program

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