BackWoods

A WOODS.WLD Editor by Sean Weinmann


There is an updated version of this program by the same author under the name WLDthing. It requires 32-bit Windows and can be found at Andux' Daggerfall Studio.

What is BackWoods?

BackWoods is a fairly non-flashy utility for editing Daggerfall's WOODS.WLD file. Dumped BMP files are about as graphical as this program gets. You can edit the entire file with this program if you know what you're doing, but the built-in LargeMapData editor and the BMP dump/import stuff are the only functions I'd call idiot-proof. Any other editing is best done with a hex editor.

Notes on CLIMATE.BMP

Areas with a SmallMap height that's below sea level are colored in a darker shade than the rest in the ClimateType dump. This is for ease of editing only. The program does not treat the darkened colors any differently from their brighter versions.

How does it work?

Well, it hasn't blown up yet, so I'd say fairly well. As for the technical aspect, everything it does is based on the description in Dave Humphrey's format guide. Feel free to look at the source if you're interested. If you've ever done anything in BASIC, I'm sure you'll be utterly confused by my code within 5 minutes.

How can I distribute edited maps?

Well, Bethsoft (not to mention people on dialup) probably won't like it if you distribute the whole WOODS.WLD file, so if you want to make your version available to others, you can either:

  1. Distribute your edited BMP files (you'll have to convert your LargeMapData image to GIF if you want it to download in a reasonable amount of time. Even after compression, it's still up around 3 megs, and zipping doesn't help.)
  2. Find a diff/patch generator.

Source

Feel free to add whatever you want to the source code, compile it, and distribute it, as long as you also include your source code with the new distribution, and give me credit somewhere. Compiled with QuickBASIC 4.50.

Download BackWoods ([an error occurred while processing this directive]B)

Last modified 2004-11-01