MapGrue - auto-mapping and auto-navigation tool for IF

Technical Development Interpreters
1

Hi Guys.

So, Zorkmid’s goal was human-generated maps, but I wanted to also provide an automated solution that can be utilized right now, without any extra preparations, so I went ahead and created MapGrue, a tool that is based on Zorkmid and has the following features:

  • Automatically maps locations as you explore (similar to Zorkmid).
  • Display the current location and locations around it, including one extra level of navigation (ie: locations around locations around it :slight_smile: )
  • Location names are links, click the links and MapGrue will calculate and inject a path leading from the current location to the target location
  • Similarly, you can simply type !goto right from the input line to auto-navigate
  • Add notes to any location to mark important information, items you have left etc…
  • Type !note to add a note to the current location right from the input line
  • Switch to map navigation mode to look around the map without moving (magnifying glass icon)
  • Supports both Z-Code and Glulx games, plays them directly from wherever they are hosted (IFDB or otherwise)
  • Copy and paste IFDB “Play Online” links directly into the website to play with MapGrue.
  • Many other features inherited from Zorkmid, such as hotkey navigation, map export\import etc…

I’d be happy to know what you guys think, and if you’d like to use it to play IF.
Also, feel free to share the play link anywhere you want to allow your players to play with MapGrue support.

Here’s the link, it includes two demos (one with a complete map, and one with a blank map) and also allows you to copy and paste links from IFDB to play:
mapgrue.co.nr

Thanks!

1 Like
2

Testing it out with some Glulx games, and it looks great! Just one critique so far: long room names tend to collide with the room to the east. (E.g. in the Basic Spell Collection in Scroll Thief, the “Library Antechamber” to the west overlaps the name.)

1 Like
3

Thanks Draconis, glad you liked it.

I’ve added your suggestion to my TODO list for v2, I think the best solution would be to truncate the name after a certain length and have the tooltip list the full name.

4

Centering the names of other rooms might help with that too, but only to a limited extent (really long names will still overflow).

5

Can’t start, CORS security broke Parchment. (That’s also why iplayif.com doesn’t work.)

6

Did that happen in a particular game? Because every game I’ve tested worked.

Also what browser are you using and on what platform?

7

The names are already centered but I’ve now modified it so that names which are too long are truncated with an added ellipsis (…) so this will prevent text overlapping

8

Oh? For me the name of the current room is centered, but other rooms have the left edge of the label starting at the middle (or corner) of the box.

9

The boxes for the other rooms (surrounding the current room) are divided 3x3 so that they can show the room and rooms leading off it in all directions, are you referring to one of the smaller light gray links? do you see the (…) for long room names? otherwise you might need to clear your browser’s cache

10

Looks nice! Once I figured out what the map was showing me it was quite cool! This makes me want to implement the map for Transparent, at a loss of sound capability. I doubt anyone uses or cares much for sound sound in parser stories though anyway!