Region size limit and string compression

[Kenoriga]

Is there a maximum size limit for regions?

From what kind of information or data does Warcraft III generate and render tiles? I'd like to use the same method to create destructables, e.g.:

XXXXX
XYXYX
XXYXX where X and Y are unique destructables.

I am thinking of using a string array to store the required information as: "XXXXX", "XYXYX" and "XXYXX", then create the destructables accordingly. If I do it this way, I will need an average of 8000 characters and 200 to 500 over strings.

I am sure there are better ways to do this, but unfortunately I am not very adept in such compression techniques or array manipulation. Perhaps you may have an idea?

 

[Jedi]

Map area itself is a region too, it seems there is no limit.

 

[KJP]

1) yes there is, it is the maximum size of the map. ie a 256x256 map the maximum size of a region will be 256x256 (or in warcraft units 32,768x32,768)

2) i believe the tiles are of an image type which i think is blp, which is a blizzard format image similar to a tga file. Destructables are models and use mdx files with skins in tga format

3) if you are refering to dynamic placement of the destructables, it might be worth using co-ordinates, setting a real variable array to store each value of x and another for each y, a starting x and y and spacing x and y if different.
Using a for each i to x loop you can then dynamically plot the destructables creation location just before its needed.(the range of these goes from -x to +x and -y to +y with the co-ordinates (0,0) generally being the centre of the map (if its default)

If you want to actually generate the destructable model in game i dont think its possible

 

[Kenoriga]

Thanks for the region limit answers!

I am indeed referring to dynamic placement of the destructables. I play to have more than a single layout of destructables to plot, so I don't think I am able to use a real variable array to create the destructables.
That's why I decided to use strings and then create destructables based on each (row of) string information. I have researched a fair bit on lossless compression and decided to use run-length encoding to keep the strings short and small.
Unless decoding long strings don't take up much time or memory, or there are better compression methods available, I guess that's what I'll do.