Remaking RRT2 maps for RRT3

[proudcanadian]

Hello everyone, I've had a thought about the possibility of re-making some RRT2 scenarios into RRT3. Some would be fairly easy to remake so long as they were based off of real-world terrain, but it would be difficult to do the same for fictional locations. So I'm just wondering, is it possible to extract the grayscale maps that RRT2 used to make its maps, and convert them to whatever file format that RRT3 uses to create its maps? (heightmaps, possibly?) It would certainly be interesting to find out if this was possible.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Sure it's possible. All you need to do is locate where the heightmap is in the scenario file, export it, and convert it into a "grayscale". A lot like PJays gmp2bmp program. Problem is, no one has figured out where the height info is stored in the game file.

[proudcanadian]

Thanks for the reply Wolvy. The question is, how does one find where the heightmaps are stored in the files? I'm not exactly a very computer-savvy person, so I'm not really that good at tinkering around and experimenting with files and file formats. I'd really like to do this, though, but the problem is, I just don't know where to start.

[Gwizz]

If they are hard coded those files may not be accessible, except to a talented hacker.

[proudcanadian]

Well, I guess the question is, are they hard coded or not? If they are not, then I guess we would need to find how the game creates the .MAP files, and what program opens them, then find where the heightmaps are stored in those files.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone else had the RRT2 map files appear as MP2 files? I think all the maps that come with the game (I have the Platinum Edition) are like that, and the ones I've added from other users are .MAP. I don't know what causes this, although the game works fine with both file formats.

[proudcanadian]

Just a question, but if the possibility presented itself, what RT2 scenarios would people like to see an RT3 version of?

[Gwizz]

If you want one to try, I would like to see the RT2 Apple War Ooze map in RRT3.

[proudcanadian]

Well, there's been no replies to this for a while. I still haven't been able to find how to extract grayscale maps, although a google search yeilded something along those lines, but since I'm not a computer whiz, I didn't really understand it. I don't know if anyone else has any ideas, but I'm stumped.

I never took a look at Apple War Ooze before this, and it's a really interesting scenario. An RT3 version would be great to have.