Utility for generating preview images of StarCraft: Brood War and Remastered maps (.scm and .scx files).
All of the actual work of parsing map files and generating the images is done by the scm-extractor and bw-chk libraries made by the ShieldBattery project. To make it work, you need the required tileset, sprite and unit graphics from StarCraft.
This script is designed around two common use cases: generating lossless, full-size PNG images of maps, and generating smaller AVIF preview files for use on the web.
After installation, see bwpreview --help for usage information:
usage: bwpreview [-h] [-v] [-d PATH [PATH ...]] [-m] [-f] [-q] [--preset NAME]
[--suffix STR] [--type TYPE] [--size PX] [--skip-existing]
[--skip-obs] [--rel-path PATH] [--out-path PATH] [--gfx-path PATH]
[FILE ...]
Utility for generating preview images of StarCraft: Brood War and Remastered maps.
positional arguments:
FILE StarCraft map files (.scm, .scx) to generate images for
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --version show program's version number and exit
-d PATH [PATH ...], --dir PATH [PATH ...]
directory containing StarCraft map files to process
-m, --map-name use map name, not filename, to determine output filename
-f, --flatten flatten output directory structure
-q, --quiet no output except for errors
--preset NAME generation preset to use ("preview", "full"); sets --suffix, --type, --size
--suffix STR suffix string to include in the image filename
--type TYPE type of image to generate ("png", "jpg", "avif", "webp")
--size PX size in which to fit the image (e.g. 500 to make up to a 500x500 image)
--skip-existing skip generation when an image of the expected name already exists
--skip-obs skip generation of observer maps (with "(Ob)" in the name)
--rel-path PATH path from which to calculate relative paths (for use with -d)
--out-path PATH path to save image files to (if unspecified, same as map file)
--gfx-path PATH path where the StarCraft graphics files can be found
The path to the StarCraft graphics defaults to ~/.config/bwpreview. If an output path is not specified, the images are saved to the current directory.
Let's say we've got a collection of maps at ~/BWmaps/, with maps being grouped together in subdirectories.
To generate full-size images for each of them, putting the images in the same location as the original map file, we can do the following:
bwpreview -d . --preset full
Here's an example of how that works:
$ cd ~/BWmaps/
$ ls -l ASL\ S12/
.rwx------ 87k msikma 19 Jul 2021 (4)GOOD NIGHT 1.3.scx
.rwx------ 461k msikma 5 Jul 2021 (4)Largo_1.4.scx
.rwx------ 94k msikma 8 Jul 2021 (4)Lemon 0.95.scx
.rwx------ 73k msikma 14 Jul 2021 (4)Revolver0.95.scx
$ ls -l BSL\ S13/
.rwxr-xr-x@ 42k msikma 24 Nov 2019 (2)Heartbreak Ridge 2.1.scx
.rwxr-xr-x@ 71k msikma 1 Oct 2021 (2)Vertebrae_1.33(n).scm
.rwxr-xr-x@ 91k msikma 1 Oct 2021 (3)Ascension_1.0.scx
.rwxr-xr-x@ 42k msikma 29 Jul 2018 (3)Aztec 2.1.scx
.rwxr-xr-x@ 89k msikma 1 Oct 2021 (4)GOOD NIGHT 1.31.scx
.rwxr-xr-x@ 73k msikma 1 Oct 2021 (4)Revolver1.0.scx
.rwxr-xr-x@ 98k msikma 1 Oct 2021 (4)Wavelet_2.06(n).scx
$ bwpreview -d . --preset full
Generated image: ASL S12/(4)GOOD NIGHT 1.3.png (png, 4096x4096, 3155 ms, 7.88 MB)
Generated image: ASL S12/(4)Largo_1.4.png (png, 4096x4096, 3001 ms, 8.88 MB)
Generated image: ASL S12/(4)Lemon 0.95.png (png, 4096x4096, 1667 ms, 8.14 MB)
Generated image: ASL S12/(4)Revolver0.95.png (png, 4096x4096, 1496 ms, 6.39 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(2)Heartbreak Ridge 2.1.png (png, 4096x3072, 2994 ms, 6.22 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(2)Vertebrae_1.33(n).png (png, 3584x4096, 1585 ms, 8.62 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(3)Ascension_1.0.png (png, 4096x4096, 3651 ms, 8.42 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(3)Aztec 2.1.png (png, 4096x4096, 1440 ms, 8.84 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(4)GOOD NIGHT 1.31.png (png, 4096x4096, 1750 ms, 7.93 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(4)Revolver1.0.png (png, 4096x4096, 1492 ms, 6.39 MB)
Generated image: BSL S13/(4)Wavelet_2.06(n).png (png, 4096x4096, 1959 ms, 7.84 MB)
If we instead want just small preview files, and we want to save them all to a flat structure, we can do the following instead:
$ mkdir map_previews
$ bwpreview -d . --preset preview --out-path ./map_previews --flatten
Generated image: map_previews/(4)GOOD NIGHT 1.3-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 1961 ms, 263.77 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)Largo_1.4-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 2132 ms, 304.36 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)Lemon 0.95-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 2009 ms, 285.33 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)Revolver0.95-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 1784 ms, 228.55 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(2)Heartbreak Ridge 2.1-preview.avif (avif, 1000x750, 3479 ms, 184.5 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(2)Vertebrae_1.33(n)-preview.avif (avif, 875x1000, 3580 ms, 311.09 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(3)Ascension_1.0-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 3889 ms, 247.8 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(3)Aztec 2.1-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 1951 ms, 264.51 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)GOOD NIGHT 1.31-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 3354 ms, 264.84 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)Revolver1.0-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 1788 ms, 228.55 kB)
Generated image: map_previews/(4)Wavelet_2.06(n)-preview.avif (avif, 1000x1000, 2582 ms, 318.27 kB)
Note that the generated previews are much smaller in both image size and in filesize, and that all resulting files are in the same directory as opposed to in a directory structure like before.
To be able to generate preview images, you'll need to extract the required graphics from StarCraft.
A copy of the required graphics can be found here (18.4M), provided for convenience reasons.
You can also extract them from the game files directly using a program such as CascView.
The following files are needed:
- all files listed in units.js and sprites.js files from bw-chk;
- for all tilesets
['badlands', 'platform', 'install', 'ashworld', 'jungle', 'desert', 'ice', 'twilight'], all files of extension['.cv5', '.vx4', '.vr4', '.wpe', '.vx4ex'].
All filenames should be lowercase, as that's how bw-chk expects them to be (although on case insensitive filesystems this doesn't matter).
MIT license