Smong Posted May 7, 2004 Report Posted May 7, 2004 Oooh, think you can have 32-bit tile support?I would imagine the limiting depth of the tileset would be the depth of your desktop. An editor using generic bitmap functions would accept any bitmap, not just 8bit like SSME. I assume you will be adding some kind of mask system to hide specific layers (AfterBackground, AfterTiles, etc).
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 7, 2004 Author Report Posted May 7, 2004 actually im not quite sure how i will handle this area. one would be a user type array with all the layers. another would be a relational DB. that would be prolly a bit easier. but performance concerns. a mdb would handle the editing aspect of things pretty well i suppose. why is this important? well, i know for one that with amke level, you can draw as many image on the same layer as you want, and the order displayed would equate to the order of that entry in the ini. so one could draw lets say an animation of light pulsing, and add that to the after ship layer cuss you dont want bomb explosions to ever cover it up. and on top of it you could place an array of diff types of "light fixtures". now you could do this with one image, but lets say you want to change its color or use the same fixture and have a diff pattern light. conserving lvz size. and increasing performance by onle making it draw the light animation, not the container. now you also want the fixture afterships. so its quite an array of things that need to be considered to make it truly dynamic.i dont know how far ill take it. ide say it makes me pretty happy allready just draggin the mouse around to diff tiles and seeing lvz lines magically appear
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 8, 2004 Author Report Posted May 8, 2004 and let there be lvz... still need to fix the offsets and layering. but all i did to get that result was double click a map and double click a ini ooo ahhh....no ss server involved. and yep itll scroll all around the map displaying all of the tiles and lvz the only real shortcoming at this point is it wont display lvz's that u cant see the upper left corner of. ill get to that later.
Xeterax Posted May 8, 2004 Report Posted May 8, 2004 Should be. I rather use GIF images though for animation! Can I beta test? My email is Xeterax (at) kamiart.ssxh.net
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 11, 2004 Author Report Posted May 11, 2004 im currently rewriting the display in DirectDraw, the same interface SS and cont use im pretty sure. anyhow, hold tight. ive allready got it sorta working, and the intial speed results are great. ssme scroll around the map speed.
Himura Kenshin Posted May 11, 2004 Report Posted May 11, 2004 i wana beta test to when its ready send me a version at w!@#$%^&*ef@adelphia.net
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 13, 2004 Author Report Posted May 13, 2004 ok im back to the point i was at before i decided to re-write into directdraw. it was well worth it.
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 14, 2004 Author Report Posted May 14, 2004 slowly with the directdraw stuff, but i have it displaying all the lvz and propertiles in DD. and its pretty darn fast, even when ya get some larger images going, im working on the layer of the lvz now, as well as deciding amongst a few diff methods of displaying the map. this display part of everything will take the longest. mainly cuss what i knew about DD you could write on the back of postage stamp as of like a week ago. once i get this display area ironed out. things will speed up. i know a bit about VB. im also deciding what the limitation of things will be, largest images that it will display properly whilst editing. and such.
AoS Posted May 16, 2004 Report Posted May 16, 2004 OMG y cant i see them? i click on the links and it comes back cannot be found! aww i wanna look
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 19, 2004 Author Report Posted May 19, 2004 just a little update, and some possible limitations. things are still moving along, havent had much time lately, and i hit a few walls that took me a bit to get over. max image size that the editor will display correctly will be 1280x1280 at this point. thats most likely way beyond anyones needs, at least it should be, if it isnt, you need to reconsider the way your designing things LVZ image placment is based on the same 16x16 pattern of grid elements, so lvz images are stored internaly in the program based on what tile thier upper left corner would appear in. while later on i plan on making this completely dynamic, intially there will most likely be a limitaion of 10 images per tile, inlcuding all the layers, but not the tile itself. that should also be way beyond anyones needs, and again, if it isnt, back to the ole drawing board. or wait till i make it totaly dynamic. hehe. dynamic is always better. i think i need to add at least a basic map tile add tool as well, so that you can place odd shaped images, then tile in behind them(while they are loaded, no guessing involved) next up is the clipping of the images, i wont get into the specifics but basically when you draw an image, if its not completelty on screen, it doesnt draw at all, so you need your program to check for that, and cut the image down to size if needed(while you scroll it offscreen) speed....its very fast, if you just load the map, its just as fast as ssme, if you load up the images, its still just about as fast as ssme, but a bit of flickering occurs. this really doesnt concern me...as this is an editor. of course, if this all works out like im planning, much more complicated LVZ's will be alot easier to produce, so those might impact the speed a bit more, lots and lots of images. another nice thing for the possible future, is that it seems it would be rather easy to convert a windowed DD program into a FUllscreen one. so full screen, spectator like view mode, is not out of the question. -zig
Twerp Posted May 19, 2004 Report Posted May 19, 2004 Wow, I really can't wait till this comes out, Twerp_2004@yahoo.com please
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted May 22, 2004 Author Report Posted May 22, 2004 10241600 Still some issues to work out with the clipping. And the layering needs to happen. most likely ill have some options in there to choose which layers you want to see.Grid is kinda strange too, but accurate. no more image flickering. prolly gonna take a bit of a break from it now. brought it this far in a few weeks those images slow it down, but they are quite large anyone know the state of those other editors i heard mentioned?
»ZiGNoTZaG Posted June 6, 2004 Author Report Posted June 6, 2004 http://www.sscentral.com/zignotzag/conted5.jpg some progress. lvz will be show on the radar is various shades of purp based on layer. optionaly showing them on the main map, with the orange being the "origin handle"
Yupa Posted June 6, 2004 Report Posted June 6, 2004 anyone know the state of those other editors i heard mentioned?Dunno about 2dragons'Not sure about Helicon'sI think SOS told me it's possible he could have his done this summer, but he seems busy ContinuuED
Death+ Posted June 6, 2004 Report Posted June 6, 2004 Here are all the info links and download links to all the lvl/lvz editors that are or where in development besides SSLE/SSME/SOS's editor. Craigg's LVZ Suite Info -In Developmenthttp://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?t=2616 Download http://forums.minegoboom.com/download.php?id=575 2dragon's LVL/LVZ tool Info -In Developmenthttp://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?t=2702&highlight= Download -JUST SRC..http://forums.minegoboom.com/download.php?id=591 Clay Jar's FACTS2 Info -Dead Projecthttp://boards.forumhq.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/000048.html SRC -SRC to the mapeditor clay was makeinghttp://forums.minegoboom.com/download.php?id=371 CLE Info - Dead Project SRC http://www.subspacedownloads.com/index.php...ownload&fid=170 Complied Version -last offical version madehttp://www.subspacedownloads.com/index.php...ownload&fid=171 Timmmm's editor Info -Dead?http://boards.forumhq.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/000985.html Download -last version made?http://interphere.port5.com/map.zip -Death+
Yupa Posted June 6, 2004 Report Posted June 6, 2004 here are some quotes from my most-recent discussion with SOS (about 15 minutes ago): I've been working on mine full time ever since school stopped on friday But' date=' heh, right now I'm kind of stuck on deciding what part of it I should do next [img']http://www.ssforum.net/public/style_emoticons/default/blum.gif[/img] The map editor will really be a DLL' date=' so bots/servers can very easily auto-generate or edit maps and all that [img']http://www.ssforum.net/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img]The actual map code is mostly done' date=' just the code that puts it all together is not.[/quote']Tiles are almost forgotten in my editor. There will be no tiling.(what this basically means as I understand it is that the standard tileset will be mostly unused - if you want 16x16 pixel images layed out just like tiles' date=' it will be no problem - you just won't really be using a little .bmp cut up into "tiles" as SSME & .lvl files use - this makes sense [img']http://www.ssforum.net/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img] )
Death+ Posted June 6, 2004 Report Posted June 6, 2004 What we really need is a full development suite for Subspace (Continuum). The suite should bundle together the editors in my list. (Another solution would be to bundle the best versions of the following editors into one Setup Package also containing a nice subspace development guide for newbie’s) Editors List: **Suggest more if i missed any 1.News 2.Front End Skin Editor3.F14.CFG+INI+!@#$%^&*S CONFIG5.GFX rotator’s/Ship or flag GFX rotators u know what I mean. It’d make life easier.6.WYSIWYG-style LVL+LVZ editor with LIE sort of part built into it. The suite or install package could also include server software and bots like ASSS, subgame2, Merv Bot and TW Bot Core. It’s just a thought but if we did actually work together and made something like this a lot more people would consider trying to make zones or help work in existing zones. -Death+
Yupa Posted June 6, 2004 Report Posted June 6, 2004 What we really need is a full development suite for Subspace (Continuum).ya that'd be nice - sscentral.com should have at least a tubby download of development tools at some point The suite should bundle together the editors in my list. (Another solution would be to bundle the best versions of the following editors into one Setup Package also containing a nice subspace development guide for newbie’s)could give people a dynamic installer - descriptions and pick-and-choose what you want 1.NewsI think this exists2.Front End Skin Editorseen one or two of these...might be worth distributing, I forget3.F1ya that F1 editor is purdy good4.CFG+INI+!@#$%^&*S CONFIGmaybe eventually, atm a "Developer's kit" should be the max imo5.GFX rotator’s/Ship or flag GFX rotators u know what I mean. It’d make life easier.there are several for ships6.WYSIWYG-style LVL+LVZ editor with LIE sort of part built into it.several being worked on The suite or install package could also include server software and bots like ASSS, subgame2, Merv Bot and TW Bot Core.again I'd put this in a separate-ish Developer's bundle It’s just a thought but if we did actually work together and made something like this a lot more people would consider trying to make zones or help work in existing zones.here here - at the very least we'd feel good about not being so disorganized
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