- Moo Mapper
-
Moo Mapper Developer(s) Alastair Burr (KCow) Stable release 0.94 / March 31, 2005 Operating system Windows Type Video game level editor Website http://www.chronetal.co.uk/gta/ Moo Mapper is an editor for the IPL file format. It has been developed for the purpose of modifying maps in recent Grand Theft Auto series games for the PC.
Contents
Introduction
Moo Mapper was programmed in Delphi. It features an easy-to-use interface that allows the user to create their own map modifications for Grand Theft Auto as well as modify existing maps (such as the cities that are featured in the game).
Although Moo Mapper is stated as an editor for the Grand Theft Auto series, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas map definitions cannot be edited using the software, due to differences in map structure, which, although similar in implementation as with Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, it had enhancements and tweaks that would be incompatible with other games.
The installation is fairly straightforward, requiring only a basic knowledge of how to extract ZIP archives. Running Moo Mapper is simply a matter of double-clicking the "MooMapper.exe" icon and choosing which game the user wants to "mod".
Background
The Moo Mapper was originally written by Alastair Burr between April and June 2003 in Swindon, England, during the final exam revision period for university. Alastair had written a handful of 3D games in Visual Basic, but was particularly adept at Delphi. He borrowed an OpenGL book "OpenGL Game Programming" (which André LaMothe is the series editor for) from a friend in exchange for an electronic keyboard and within a week or 2 had produced the first beta. The file format was deciphered from scratch with no background knowledge whatsoever.
The "Moo Mapper" is named as such, because of the authors very amusing love of cows, cow-related art work and milk .
Features
File:Moomapper-liberty.jpgAn overhead view of Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City in Moo MapperMoo Mapper is pretty much complete as far as the originally intended features go - map editing is completely supported with only a few rare glitches.
It requires a fair amount of computer memory (RAM) to fully display all of the game's map - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's Vice City requires 30 to 180 megabytes of RAM, and Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City requires 60-210 megabytes of RAM.
Objects can be modified by double-clicking on them, which opens a properties window for the selected object. This can then be used to move the object around the scene, rotate it, and manipulate other details such as textures.
Version 0.94
As Moo Mapper's source code can be freely downloaded from the SourceForge project site, there have been a number of changes by other people. The most prominent, and probably most useful, is simply referred to as "Moo Mapper 0.94" and is developed by Delfi and PatrickW, as well as a few other programmers. The official website, gtatools.com, does not offer an actual download link, but the program can be found with a Google search for "Moo Mapper 0.94" (including quotes).
Moo Mapper 0.94 features a vastly improved interface, and much better texture handling that means users who previously experienced texture glitches may now be able to fully map their game with textured 3D objects.
It also has three prominent, completely new features - the height level of the toggled radar (in the Z-axis), and orthogonal and perspective projection modes. This offers a different view on the map which some may find useful.
The presence of a new setup window allows the user to fine-tune different settings such as the position of the radar on the screen, and the colours of collision displays.
Another useful feature of Moo Mapper 0.94 is the fact that the user can now modify multiple copies of the same game - for example, if they had a modified version of GTA III and the original both installed on their PC, the user could create two separate profiles for them and load them at any time without having to directory-swap.
A user of Windows XP can also enjoy the enhanced interface thanks to XP Manifest file included within the program's resources. This was most likely included using Delphi's TXPManifest component, which was added in version 7.
Other similar products
A mapping program for GTA3, GTAVC (and GTASA) made by Steve-M : GTA Map Viewer.
External links
- SourceForge project page
- Moo Mapper website (no longer updated)
Categories: Grand Theft Auto (series) | Video game level editors
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
