Map Renderer Phase Plan

Phase 1

Goal: tighten the current viewer flow without changing the map semantics.

remove the explicit manual build button because map selection and filter changes already trigger builds automatically
hide the viewport's "choose a detected map" message as soon as a map is selected and a build starts
add build feedback in the side panel with a spinner and a simple phase-based loading bar
remove visible tile seam lines and the synthetic background grid so the map reads as one surface
use a more efficient streamed visualization format for interactive tiles while keeping PNG as the final export format

Phase 1 implementation choice:

interactive tiles switch from PNG to lossless WebP because it is broadly supported in current browsers and is more bandwidth-efficient for repeated server-rendered tile delivery
full-map download remains PNG so export quality and compatibility stay unchanged

Goal: promote editor-only content from "baked into the raster" to interactive overlay objects.

completed: keep the base map rendered as a flat server-generated tile surface
completed: extract editor-only objects into a standalone overlay data stream
completed: render editor-only overlay items in the client as positioned sprite overlays above the base map
completed: remove editor-only records from the base raster so overlay shapes are not duplicated in the map tiles
completed: fix overlay transparency so the sprite background stays transparent instead of fading black
completed: add an inspection mode checkbox that shows metadata for any rendered shape under the cursor, not just editor overlays
improve roof detection before or during the overlay split because the current roof filtering still lets some roofs render when they should not
identify occluding helper geometry such as invisible walls and render those semitransparently so they remain legible without hiding too much of the map beneath them
fix pipe rendering because pipes currently are not showing up correctly
investigate force-field rendering because they appear yellow instead of the expected blue semitransparent look; this may be a debug-shape choice issue or a palette/color-rendering issue
likely revisit ScummVM Crusader handling in D:\source\scummvm to confirm what editor/debug records carry and how best to decode them for display

Current phase 2 status:

the server now builds three outputs from one map build: base raster tiles, editor-only overlay sprites, and a shared inspectable-shape metadata stream
editor-only shapes are interactive overlay sprites rendered from their original decoded frames rather than synthetic markers
when inspect mode is active, the cursor reports metadata for whichever rendered shape is currently under it, including base-map shapes

Next steps:

use inspect mode on representative maps to identify which visible structures are true roofs versus normal geometry so roof filtering can be tightened with evidence
decide which helper/occluder families should stay semitransparent overlays and which should eventually be hidden or toggled separately
inspect broken pipe shapes and compare their metadata against ScummVM handling to determine why they currently render incorrectly
inspect force-field shapes and compare palette or translucency traits against expected in-game appearance

Open questions for phase 2:

which helper/editor families should stay as overlay sprites versus gain their own visibility toggles
what exact metadata fields are reliable enough to expose in the tooltip long-term
whether some editor-only entries should be clustered, filtered, or toggled by family to keep dense maps usable