Working on a map as a team // Using Neodex

[Zhall]

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering how I would work on a single map with 4 people at the same time?

I assume one perosn could create the terrain, and the triggers and other assets could be copied in?


Also, I've always wanted to make custom models for Warcraft 3. I assume I need Max 9, which I have, but Ive always been so lost as to how to use neodex.

Porting models to sc2 is sooo much easier :d

 

[Dr Super Good]

Unlike SC2 (especially LotV which is said to add a "merge" feature) there is no easy way to manage maps in a team way. All files being binary in WC3 does not help.

You either need to write a "merge" program for each file WC3 uses or you need to write a converter program that can take in a map and produce text files describing it (and visa versa). That way you can then use source code managed tools to manage the map and people can merge in changes even made in parallel.

Otherwise you are stuck with someone constantly having to import all the changes down in parallel.

 

[Zhall]

Hmm.. Seems like only having 2 people in the editor and the others making assets would be the best approach.

 

[Flux]

Coding the spells in vJass allows easy copying of spells. So you can assign one person to do the spells and when he is done, just copy-paste his work to your map and you are done. He doesn't need to have a copy of the map since he can do the spells in test maps.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

This is basicly what I did back in the days when I still had a team working on Gaias:

- upload your newest map release to a cloud service like Dropbox
- if someone does terrain changes, he should get "map priority", as terrain is the only thing that is hard to copy & paste
- object data can be imported/replaced easily, so if someone is f.ex. working on items only, then he can create a copy of the map, edit items and then export all item settings from the object manager
- external files can be imported easily aswell, so you can have unlimited team members working on models/skins 24/7
- scripts and triggers can also be imported and merged easily, so you can have someone working on that externally aswell, however, there's one caveat:
preplaced unit variables will lose their reference if imported in a different map - all these variables need to be reassigned after importing triggers


However, the easiest solution to have a team working on a map is if you are working in different time zones. We had the luck that our terrainer (when Gaias still had one) was basicly from the opposite side of the globe, so our working hours never overlapped.

 

[Chaosy]

- scripts and triggers can also be imported and merged easily

Depends on who is doing the triggers

Anyway I recommend using Google Drive for sharing, very easy to use. We use it for programming group projects at my school.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Depends on who is doing the triggers

QFT. In general Jass is easier to import than GUI triggers. Basicly, the more skiller your coder, the easier to import (because experienced coders will always build with modularity in mind).