Here's a question for you. I'm trying to use image files as a way to store information on what terrain type is at each of 1000x1000 points in a game zone. Since I'm using a limited set of terrain types, I figure I can just use a 1000x1000 BMP or PNG file where each pixel represents what tile to draw, or what terrain (or transition between terrains) to use at each point. In fact I've done this using stark blue and green for water and grass, ripping the overworld map from "Final Fantasy I": <http://kschnee.xepher.net/pics/070325demo.jpg>
But since I want to figure out where to put transition tiles like coastlines, and prefer not to calculate their position on the fly, it's important to have exact control over the pixels. But Photoshop is being too smart for me! When I select an area of an image and try to fill it in with one color, I get fancy shading regardless of what I do with layers. When I want (0,255,0,255), I don't want variable translucent green at the edges of a landmass! I could use MS Paint, but that's not exactly a full-featured graphics program; specifically it's limited in selection areas and layering. Any ideas? As an alternative, is there a better way to rapidly read one million data points from an image (or a raw data file) and convert them to a honkin' big list of terrains or tiles? I don't mind it being a one-dimensional list since I can say "value at (x,y) = biglist[y*1000+x]", but I'd like to have two general options for making parts of the game world: loading from images where they exist, and procedurally generating new ones where they don't. As a side note, a zone will need a file to store data on objects, so sticking image data into a raw data file rather than storing as an image would be OK. Kris
