MapTap Released - Install Custom Maps Simply!

[Hectic Glenn]

​

[br]I love playing mods and custom maps from the super talented mod community. Mods can sometimes be easy to install with an executable but individual maps can be a bit of a pain, browsing for the correct folders to paste the folders to. MapTap is a great new tool to make the process far simpler. What does it do?

• No need to open or use the console, maps launch from Maptap
• Manage your maps - Add / Delete maps from within the application with only a few clicks
• Multiple Steam accounts can be used, by selecting which account to install to
• Starts Steam if it's not currently running.

The tool has been developed by our friends from PlanetPhillip.com, any excellent source for mods and maps which you can trust. You can find out more and download the tool from the MapTap website.

 

[YouKnow]

Neat. They should do something similar with skins, model replacements, and sound packs so my brother can stop bothering me about that.

 

[Overwatch Sector]

Off topic and probably old news but but I came across Robin Walker's steam profile (the founder of TF) and he has over 100 hours on Dota 2. I guess Gabe was right when many people at Valve were addicted to it.

 

[kineaesth]

Certainly is off-topic!

 

[Dinnesch]

Seems rather useless at my first impression. Can only install from 7z archives(many people use rar or zip) and you can't just drag a bsp file to it.. Guess I'll just keep copying them to the maps folder myself if I want to play custom maps.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Rar is the devil. Also, "Windows only" and "English only" shouldn't be selling points. :\

 

[Dinnesch]

Rar is the devil

Yet still many people use it so it makes sense to support it for a tool that's supposed to speed up an already-not-so-difficult task.

 

[Acepilotf14]

This seems horribly overdue and shoddily done.

 

[planetphillip]

Also, "Windows only" and "English only" shouldn't be selling points. :\

I only put them there because I needed to fill those bullet points. Better you focus on the application itself, rather than the website.

This seems horribly overdue and shoddily done.

I agree it's way overdue, but it's taken me a long time to find a coder.

What part do you feel is shoddy?

Can only install from 7z archives(many people use rar or zip) and you can't just drag a bsp file to it..

It's specifically designed to be used with maps downloaded from my website, which is why it uses the 7z archives.

Dragging a bsp onto the app is an interesting idea, although if you have gone to the trouble of extracting it from the 7zip already you don't need the app anyway I suppose.

 

[ríomhaire]

It's nice to have tools like this but surely it'd be easier if we could just get everyone to put their mods on Desura?

Thanks for making this though Phillip. I really must get around to playing all the mods and custom maps and your contest winners that I've been ignoring.

 

[Dinnesch]

Dragging a bsp onto the app is an interesting idea, although if you have gone to the trouble of extracting it from the 7zip already you don't need the app anyway I suppose.

If it's technically possible I think it would be nice to just have a BSP file association in Windows that opens the game with the correct launch options. I play quite a lot of Portal 2 maps downloaded from the ThinkingWithPortals community(typically packed in zip/rar/7z), and it would be nice to be just able to double click the bsp and have the game launch with the map. Now I still have to go to steamapps/common/portal 2/maps and put it in there, launch the game myself and type the map command in console.

I personally wouldn't be able to write such a program and I don't know if it's even possible to detect the game from a BSP file, but I believe your program would be useful for a lot more people if it did this.

EDIT: maybe I kind of missed the point of the program if it was only made for PlanetPhilip mods.

 

[planetphillip]

It's nice to have tools like this but surely it'd be easier if we could just get everyone to put their mods on Desura?

Thanks for making this though Phillip. I really must get around to playing all the mods and custom maps and your contest winners that I've been ignoring.

You are most welcome. Remember, this doesn't manage MODS, only maps, so all my contest mods don't use MapTap. Can you add maps to Desura?

I don't know if it's even possible to detect the game from a BSP file, but I believe your program would be useful for a lot more people if it did this.

EDIT: maybe I kind of missed the point of the program if it was only made for PlanetPhilip mods.

I've added it to the list of possible future features and we will look at how this can be implemented. One possible issue is the multiple Steam accounts and users dragging the BSP onto the apps icon and having it install to the wrong account. It's not a killer issue, but we just need to consider it.

It's not for MODs, just MAPs.

 

[ríomhaire]

You are most welcome. Remember, this doesn't manage MODS, only maps, so all my contest mods don't use MapTap. Can you add maps to Desura?

Oh sorry I didn't understand it properly. Glenn's first sentence
"I love playing mods and custom maps..."
gave me the impression that this was going to work for both. No Desura doesn't work for maps. In that case double thanks for making this.