Jancsika and Lowell have encouraged me to write a guide for CIC (Clean Install Compatible) maps.
The CIC concept is a straightforward, open standard, developed by Lowell and myself for advanced SMR maps. It simply requires that a user-written map will run successfully (crash-free) to completion in a newly patched but otherwise unmodified ("clean") SMR installation. A CIC map is self-contained (stored in a single map folder with all required files), in the USERMAPS folder.
By now, any current SAM map (as defined recently by Jancsika here) would also be CIC, but for two small remaining differences:
- the use of the .fpk files (even that is now optional in SAM, I see, which moves both concepts even closer together).
- event files are optional in SAM - that is not CIC, because a map without its own event file is not self-contained and will crash sooner or later.Citation
Except for these one or two issues, the current SAM guidance will produce a CIC map. The advantage of the CIC standard is that it leaves the door open for future discoveries and improvements. The advantage of SAM (as currently summarized by Jancsika) is that it provides clearly structured guidance, which is a great help to new map-makers.
The history is that both Lowell and Snoopy arrived at similar, good SMR user map formats from different starting points. Both deserve a lot of credit for that. From my own, extensive tests, Lowell's maps are fully crash-free, and SAM maps without their own event file can easily be fixed to be crash-free.
In my opinion, the first to have the core insights needed to construct stable SMR maps was Universum with the "Utah" map. It introduced the idea of switching on and off the "Goods, Difficulty and Tunnels" files for stability (this issue is now solved by having only a single user map active at a time) and it introduced the idea of replacing compressed .fpk files with transparent asset files, which minimize maintenance problems for map-makers, testers and players.
I pointed Lowell to Universum's map, and he developed his own filestructure from there. It is important to note, and Lowell would be the first to agree, that Lowell's file structure is not the only way to a CIC map. I am quite prepared to believe that Snoopy got his ideas independently, inadvertedly making SAM maps "self-contained" by reducing unnecessary/harmful elements being loaded into memory.
The path to harmony is accepting that variations are possible in achieving a crash-free SMR map: Lowell's, Rodea's, my own (which is based on the Utah style of Universum), and, of course, SAM. For beginning map makers, Jancsika's current SAM guidance here is (almost) perfect CIC guidance as well. But I don't see any benefit in trying to force all advanced map-makers into the exact same format.
CIC Guide
Re: CIC Guide
As noted above, a CIC map needs to be self-contained to ensure stability, that is, all the necessary files not provided by the patched SMR game itself need to be provided in a single map folder that goes into the SMR usermaps folder on its own.
Two important conditions for a CIC map are that it has its own event file and that its additional assets are provided in an "Assets" folder within the map folder. The second requirement is also inspired by Universum's "Utah" map. There are certain efficiency advantages to not using .fpk files for assets in user maps. But the most important reason is transparency of contributions on what is, after all, also a forum to help and encourage SMR modders.
CIC is a certification, a confirmation that a map achieves desirable stability standards, preferably by external review. CIC confirms that a map is easy to install and that it runs crash-free to completion because it is self-contained. This includes problem-free restart of a saved game.
So, to answer your question, a SAM map with its own event file and which does not compress its additional assets in a .fpk file is likely to be CIC. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating - ie an experienced player should have run the scenario successfully to completion to confirm (preferably with some visual evidence) that there are no other hidden problems with the map.
At the end of the day, CIC simply tries to achieve what most of us presumably want: maps which load and run without problems, and which help others to create more great maps. But it is not hugely prescriptive about how to achieve this goal, to leave space for future improvements and discoveries on making better maps.
Two important conditions for a CIC map are that it has its own event file and that its additional assets are provided in an "Assets" folder within the map folder. The second requirement is also inspired by Universum's "Utah" map. There are certain efficiency advantages to not using .fpk files for assets in user maps. But the most important reason is transparency of contributions on what is, after all, also a forum to help and encourage SMR modders.
CIC is a certification, a confirmation that a map achieves desirable stability standards, preferably by external review. CIC confirms that a map is easy to install and that it runs crash-free to completion because it is self-contained. This includes problem-free restart of a saved game.
So, to answer your question, a SAM map with its own event file and which does not compress its additional assets in a .fpk file is likely to be CIC. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating - ie an experienced player should have run the scenario successfully to completion to confirm (preferably with some visual evidence) that there are no other hidden problems with the map.
At the end of the day, CIC simply tries to achieve what most of us presumably want: maps which load and run without problems, and which help others to create more great maps. But it is not hugely prescriptive about how to achieve this goal, to leave space for future improvements and discoveries on making better maps.
Re: CIC Guide
The answer is YES ans NO. We need a little history here:There is still one thing though that I am unclear on, besides the event files would all SAM file also be CIC?
From the beginning there was a problem with novice mapmakers: the file structure of a new map!
Everybody had a different setup and a different way of making a map. Complicated installation instructions were given (Remember Basin And Range?), or semi-operable installer were provided.
The SAM maps solved that. Now everybody with very little technical knowledge could make a map. All he/she had to do is follow simple instructions, and no installer was needed.
I myself have made more than 20 SAM-s, and a quite a few other types.
We are trying to define a problem,that Firaxis left for us when they released the Terrain Editor (patch 1.10).
It leaves us with different variation of a map structure.
For example:
Globals, or No-Globals? Where to place them?
FPK files , or only loose Assets files?
The XLM, will work in the UserMaps folder, but also in the CustomAssets\XLM folder.
...And there is the CutomAssets\XLM\_SCENARIOS_ folder. You can place your scenario in there. That's what Firaxis was doing.
Therefore nobody can state if this or that way is better as long as it works.
In my humble opinion all of them work and all of them are great.
Jancsika
Re: CIC Guide
I think the answer is all YES, as long as it works - because we really don't need to reopen all those old issues which were solved by having self-contained maps. As I have stated repeatedly above, once map-makers follow a few simple rules, such as summarized by you for SAM, with a map-specific event file, it is very gratifying to see how rock-stable the resulting maps run (If a map-maker comes up with an even better solution in future, great!)
And if the main current achievement of the CIC standard is better awareness in the wider map-maker community of the importance of map-specific event files for stability, that for me is already sufficient justification for its existence.
(If a map-maker comes up with an even better solution in future, great!) And if the main current achievement of the CIC standard is better awareness in the wider map-maker community of the importance of map-specific event files for stability, that for me is already sufficient justification for its existence.
I think the Firaxis programmers did a great job, by the way, considering that the ship they were working on was sinking fast.We are trying to define a problem,that Firaxis left for us when they released the Terrain Editor (patch 1.10).