Outpost Universe Forums

Projects & Development => Outpost 2 Programming & Development => Topic started by: Kramy on June 30, 2004, 04:01:10 PM

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: Kramy on June 30, 2004, 04:01:10 PM

Map Editor ( Beta Version 1.6 )
http://www.kramy.net/projects/Outpost2/Outpost2 Editor16.zip (http://www.kramy.net/projects/Outpost2/Outpost2%20Editor16.zip) (1.36 mb)

If you have XP or NT, switch the exe to windows 98 compatible mode after unzipping, or XP/NT will most likely crash it.

Features:
1) Create new maps(works now)
2) Load maps(works now)
3) Save maps(works now)
4) Minimap
5) TileStack
6) Tile Copier(works 95% of time)
7) Map Resizer
8) Map Filler
9) Other stuff

-----Controls-----
Scrolling:
--Arrow Keys
--Dragging Screen around on minimap

TileSet Scrolling
--Clicking TileType Hotkeys
--PageUp/PageDown

Selecting Tiles(from TileSet)
--Left Click to select
--Right Click to add another tile

Manipulating TileStack
--Left Click or drag on stack somewhere in the 6x6 grid.
--Left Click the blue square in the top-left of the tileset to clear the TileStack

Copying Tiles
--Right Click in the main window, drag a box down-right.
--Drag box up-left to cancel

Pasting Tiles
--Left Click in main window.
--Transparent overlay shows where it will be pasted.

Grid Coordinates
--0-based.(unlike in-game) Updates when you move mouse, to show which grid-tile your mouse is over(and which you'll be pasting tiles to).

-----Menu Features-----
"New Map" - Asks what size of map you want.
--Note: Some sizes are not valid. Ex 512x64. 128x64 also seems to crash the game.

"Save Map" - Asks where to save map.
"Load Map" - Asks for a map to load.

"Exit" - exits.

"MiniMap-->Fast Redraw" - Updates Minimap to include newly pasted tiles.
"MiniMap-->Slow Redraw" - Updates Minimap to include newly pasted tiles.(and looks pretty. On small maps "Fast Redraw" can look odd.)

"Map-->Resize Map" - Resize the map to the given width. If you accidentally resize to the wrong size, just resize again and it should be fixed.
"Map-->Fill Map" - Fill map with the given tiles. Useful to quickly create realistic terrain. Uses Tile Stack.

-----Features to implement-----
1) Tile Pallette(like editors where you click "cliff 1" and it picks all the tiles for you.  This will lower map creation times to 1/100).

2) (possible)  Auto-decider to pick tiles from the Tile Pallette, as you drag a specific terrain type over the map. Note: this feature may be scrapped if it proves too difficult to implement.

That's about it....I think I've fixed all the glaring bugs, and several memory leaks, and I remembered to clear the memory before mapping terrain speeds this time, but you never know with all these new features. :P I'm sure I forgot something obvious though.(as I did in every other version :heh: )

Edit: Anyone going to fix the link yet? :whistle:
Edit 2: Yup, just did.

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: plymoth45 on July 18, 2004, 12:53:02 PM

I thought OP2hacker was making the map editor, he got up to version 1.9, where he is on version 2.0 idk.

Oh, and the thing I like bout your version, the minimap helps a lot, and you have the tiles set into clickable categorys, but, your missing some tiles, and the tiles you ahve need to be put into a grid so we can see which one we are really picking.

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: BlackBox on July 18, 2004, 03:34:09 PM

Kramy: Please don't double post like you did earlier if no one replies... thanks.

Not bad. However -- the coordinates NEED to start at 1,1 not 0,0.. this can cause confusion.
Also, other things to add should be:
- Scroll bars and normal controls. using the arrows to scroll isn't the BEST way... it's fine for beta.. but you'll have to implement stuff like that. Also the copy/paste functions etc should be in menus, toolbar, or keyboard shortcuts... It's easy to forget how to do certain things.
- The user shouldn't have to click a button to redraw the minimap. It should just update the affected pixels everytime the map changes.
- The blue tile should be usable and the user should be able to override passable/impassable/superhighway for any tile. Also, the hex value of any tile should be shown when the user points to it.
- The tile set should be stored externally. Not in the program EXE, it's smarter to store it externally so users can update a small ~200-600 k EXE, not a 2.5 MB one.

Other than that, not too bad. (See if you can fix that compatibility problem, though)

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: Kramy on July 18, 2004, 05:00:29 PM

Thanks for the replys. :)

Op2Hacker: The coordinates in the game are 0-based though. Position "32,32" ingame is position "31,31" in the dll's. This way is easier for dll stuff, since no conversion is necessary. I'll think about it though, since it might be more of a pain converting 31 to 32, just so it can automatically be decremented.

Scrollbars are a good idea...atleast for the tileset. The current way is more like what's used in games where the editor is built in. I figured it was a  fairly simple set of commands. Not much harder than MS Paint. :heh:

I'm aware of the minimap thing, but I figured a manual minimap(like TA) is better than none.

What was the blue tile used for in op2? I figured it was useless, since it's not exactly pretty terrain, so used it as a tile-stack eraser. We seem to disagree about the hex values of the speed bits. It seems much easier to just let the editor figure out thousands of bits, than have the user alter them all manually. The editor is also more efficient at figuring out different speed values for different terrains, but hey, if they really want to they can always touch it up in your own editor. :)

As for showing the hex value of the tile....again, most games with built-in editors don't have this.(and while my editor is obviously not built-in to op2, I'm sure some people won't want to know about the hex stuff if they don't have to. I know I wouldn't want to learn how to make civ3 maps in hex. :heh: )

As for storing the tile set externally, true. :) That would drop it down from about 1350kb to 550kb zipped. I just put it all in there because I'm always annoyed when I have to download 6 different components to get a game or program to run. :heh:

Thanks for the suggestions though. I'll consider a some of them. :)

Edit: Oh, and the compitability thing. I'm not sure there's much I can do. Jamagic just makes them that way. People on the forums though assure me there's no problems with the exe's on XP when ran in compatiblity mode, so I guess it'll just be a pain for XP people, switching the exe. :lol: I guess this is just what you get when you have one exe trying to be compatible with all windows versions.


Oh, and I'll avoid double-posting again.(although I'm somewhat curious why that's a problem?....other than the 5 credits, I mean.)

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: BlackBox on July 18, 2004, 07:51:28 PM

I'd say most games have scrollbars for their editors. Look at staredit for example (starcraft map editor).

Here, I found the speed values in Kevin's old editor (i KNOW these are accurate).

Code: [Select]

  // 0, 2, 3 , 4, 5, 7    = passable
  // 1, 6, 8 ,9 , A, B, F = impassable
  // C, D, E     = superspeedway

Remember, the tile's representation in hex is 4 letters - the 2nd letter is the speed value.

(This would be the low nibble of the high byte)

1 base tile indices should still be used, because you still have to add and subtract to the X and Y values when coding a DLL due to the technicalities in OP2, so it's not a big problem anyway. Maybe make it an option to change. Same for the tile hex codes - this CAN be useful in the DLL's and other places when you need to know the tile hex value for SetCellType and other places.

The blue tile is not used in OP2.... Nevertheless, it should be an option to use. (If you want a value for resetting the tile stack, use FFFF - that's unused by any tile)

btw. reason for not double posting = breaks the forum rules.

Thanks op2hacker

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: Kramy on July 19, 2004, 01:48:14 AM

I'll have to add scrollbars then. :P

As for the speed bits, I already mapped them.(except for one - the one you can't build on, but can move over) Thanks anyway though. :D

I'll switch my editor to displaying coordinates+1 instead of 0-based coordinates.

As for the hex codes, I'm not exactly sure where I should display them. I'm thinking I need a new status bar or something. The Windows' Caption is getting kinda full. :P

Maybe I'll just add a big red X for resetting the Tile Stack.

As for double posting, I'm a bit curious why that's worse than posting a reply to every single topic?(*cough* Sammyk *cough*)

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: BlackBox on July 19, 2004, 08:30:27 AM

For the hex codes, can't you do a tooltip? (You know those tips that pop up when you point to toolbar buttons that say the name of the button)

If you can't do those directly in Jamascript, I can help you with doing it thru the API (that is, if Jamascript supports directly invoking the Windows api)

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: Kramy on July 19, 2004, 11:57:48 AM

Hmm....I guess it can't do those. That or it's hidden away so tightly that it's impossible to find. :P I could always fake it and just use a sprite. Ofcourse, then it wouldn't reflect any styles on the person's computer(or does that even affect tooltips?).

Jamascript can load dll's and call functions from them though, so I think I'll take you up on your offer. :)

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: Arklon on September 18, 2004, 03:08:17 PM

Quote

I thought OP2hacker was making the map editor, he got up to version 1.9, where he is on version 2.0 idk.

Uh, he is. These are two seperate editors.
...
I think someone said that already...

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: HaXtOr on October 20, 2004, 08:07:02 PM

is ther a updated vertion of this maper yet?  realy like it
 

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: PlayingOutpost0-24 on October 21, 2004, 10:21:16 AM

naw, i dun think

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: BlackBox on October 21, 2004, 02:30:00 PM

Kramy's pretty much disappeared, so again I am the 'lone ranger' doing the map editor.

I'll continue working on OP2Mapper v2 once I get a few items out of the way that are higher on the priority list. (I might even get them done tonight).

 

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: HaXtOr on October 21, 2004, 03:37:32 PM

I rely like the left click drag ccopy function and the little tile aranger at the lower right corner, and the mini map viewer. you should incorperate them into your map editor

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: HaXtOr on October 21, 2004, 03:43:11 PM

through some investigation i found a email for him to be drjakeos@netscape.net <drjakeos@netscape.net> what the heck ever happened to him?

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: BlackBox on October 21, 2004, 04:46:48 PM

Um, plz don't double post. thats what the edit button is for. Thx

I'm not sure, he seems to have just disappeared from here, oh maybe a month ago.

Title: Outpost 2 Editor v1.6
Post by: PlayingOutpost0-24 on October 22, 2004, 05:45:09 PM

simply he is gone... but he couldve improve this map editor...