I know this has been talked about before, and I'm sure someone will post here saying 'use search n00b' or something similar, but a) I have already read all the old posts, and b) I have already used search.

What I would like to know is has anyone come up with a way of generating a .txt map file from the .s3d(?) game files ?

All I have been able to find is this:

Here's how I do it:
* use Mitselplik's zone converter to get a povray file for the zone
* convert each mesh in the povray file to its own showeq map
* generate gif images of those maps
* pick which maps to use and merge them together
* spend a day running a map optimizer on it
Looks fairly simple.

1: Use VBZoneConverter and POV-Ray

2: "convert each mesh in the povray file to its own showeq map"
This is the difficult bit, HOW ????

3: "generate .gif images of those maps"
huh ? isn't the idea to get a .txt file ?

4: "pick which maps to use and merge them together"
merging .gif files together ? *getting really confused*

5: "spend a day running a map optimizer on it"
the only map optimizer I have seen is Mappie, which optimizes .txt files

If anyone could shed any light into this dark confusing mess it would be appreciated. Apparently it seems at the moment that unless you know a whole load of graphics stuff there is no way to get decent amps out of the would files

Thanks for any replies

Angahran.