[RELEASE] Campaign map editor alpha 0.6 - Cool new features!

[Klofkac]

Hi folks,

so new official release of map editor is here. This is alpha 0.6, which has several additions and improvements from the 0.6 pre-release version.

Download here:

D2kEditor06.zip

 

Changelog (what is new from pre-release is marked with *):

Added: "Mark tiles" option also to Tileset window. Buildable tiles are marked there too.
Added: "Edit" menu with Undo and Redo options
Added: Press TAB key to switch between Structures and Terrain mode
Added: "Show unknown specials" feature
Added: If more events (Reinforcements etc) are placed in one tile, additional markers are dwawn next to that tile
Added: If mouse cursor is moved over Reinforcement or Spawn marker, list of units is displayed. Works in Structures mode.
Changed: Minimap is updated after you finish painting of sand/rock/dunes/spice, because rendering was very slow.
Added: "Fill area" feature: works with sand, rock, dunes and *thin/thick spice.
       - You need to double-click into a tile inside area you want to fill.
       - *Area consists of connected tiles of same "type". There are 4 types: Clean sand, Dunes, Spice and anything other.
Added: *Made block selection from tileset much easier. You no more need to select predefined block size and then click to tileset,
       but you can select any block simply with mouse. (You can still use presets if you want.)
Fixed: *When you resize map, the new empty space is filled with random sand
Added: "Test map" feature: you can now launch and test your map directly from the editor!
       Requirements:
       - You need to have modified version of Dune2000.exe, which supports mission launching.
         (It is distributed along with Mission launcher)
       - Dune2000.exe must be in parent directory of the directory where the map is saved
       - Counterpart .mis file must exist and there must be no map errors (missing Worm Spawners etc.)
       How it works:
       - Added "Test" menu with two options "Quick launch" and "Launch with settings"
       - "Quick launch" simply starts game with last settings
       - "Launch with settings" opens a window where you can set Difficulty, Mission number, Side you want to play as etc.
       - Mission number and Side is detected from map name's last 4 characters (like A4V1 - A for Side, 4 for mission).
       - For map names not having this name pattern you need to set them manually.
       - Before launching, map is saved into temporary file (TESTMAP.map) which is actually launched.
       - Original map is not saved. Don't forget to save!
Added: "Create empty .mis file" feature: Creates .mis file with default settings, no events, no AI. Useful when creating new map.

Added: *Keyboard shortcuts for Resize/Shift map and Change structure owner option

 

I hope you will enjoy the new improvements. I'm looking forward to your feedback and new suggestions.

 

I'm also going to write up some new description for D2kEditor on D2K+ site, because the current is quite outdated.

@Gruntlord6: Please inform me when you are writing a new "news" post for D2K+.

 

And I have one question/survey for you: Do you think that D2kEditor is now good enough so it can fully replace Shai-Hulud editor?

[Feda]

One more thing that i'd like to have: in shai-hulud, when you are adding spice and you click on an impassable region/a region that isn't sand, such as cliffs, it will not add the spice there. I noticed in earlier versions of D2keditor that this happens. Was this fixed and if not, can it be added?

Nice changes btw, might start using this instead of Shai-Hulud :D

[Adriano]

Very good job, Klofkac! This editor is best now.

 

Do you think that D2kEditor is now good enough so it can fully replace Shai-Hulud editor?

If you ask about "fully replace" , then, IMHO, Shai-Hulud editor still have one thing better then your editor. This is menu Block that sorted vertically, horizontally (an so on) and we can see them all and we can choose blocks easy. But I repeat, your Editor is very good!

 

Another little thing (and this is not very important). Name of file, name of map. We can see it in the bottom of the window now, after full way to the file. And if the way is too long, then sometimes name of file is not visible. For example, we can see name of opened file on the top of window in Shai-Hulud.

 

So may be to make output of the name of map somewhere in new Editor? Sometimes we cannot see name of edited file now.

[Klofkac]

One more thing that i'd like to have: in shai-hulud, when you are adding spice and you click on an impassable region/a region that isn't sand, such as cliffs, it will not add the spice there. I noticed in earlier versions of D2keditor that this happens. Was this fixed and if not, can it be added?

Hmm, interesting idea, I actually never thought about adding any editing constraints like this and rather let it be in control of users.

 

Nice changes btw, might start using this instead of Shai-Hulud :D

Thanks for compliment. Actually, my current goal is to make the editor even better and easier to use than Shai-Hulud so it can fully replace it (as opposed to my goal years ago, when I wanted it to be used only for placing structures and Shai-Hulud be used for creating terrain).

There is still (and maybe still will be) one feature, which Shai-Hulud has and D2kEditor does not have: selecting predefined blocks from a list. Actually, "block-key-presets" feature is (hopefully) superior and allows faster terrain creating, but you still must select tileset-specific blocks (infantry-only tiles, decorations, bridges etc.) manually from tileset. But I believe that this is really not a big problem and selecting from tileset is rather more flexible and you have better overview of what tiles the tileset offers.

I was actually thinking about implementing the block selection from a list, but I realized it would take quite much work so I rejected that.

[Adriano]

Added: *Made block selection from tileset much easier. You no more need to select predefined block size and then click to tileset,

but you can select any block simply with mouse. (You can still use presets if you want.)

Special thanks for this.

[Cm_blast]

Hmm, interesting idea, I actually never thought about adding any editing constraints like this and rather let it be in control of users.

 

Thanks for compliment. Actually, my current goal is to make the editor even better and easier to use than Shai-Hulud so it can fully replace it (as opposed to my goal years ago, when I wanted it to be used only for placing structures and Shai-Hulud be used for creating terrain).

There is still (and maybe still will be) one feature, which Shai-Hulud has and D2kEditor does not have: selecting predefined blocks from a list. Actually, "block-key-presets" feature is (hopefully) superior and allows faster terrain creating, but you still must select tileset-specific blocks (infantry-only tiles, decorations, bridges etc.) manually from tileset. But I believe that this is really not a big problem and selecting from tileset is rather more flexible and you have better overview of what tiles the tileset offers.

I was actually thinking about implementing the block selection from a list, but I realized it would take quite much work so I rejected that.

I want to keep the option to place a "worm spawner" in the rocks. Is the easiest way to delete all worms of the map without resorting to surround it with clifs or impassable terrain.

 

The block-key-presets is something really great. Is really much more quickly than open the tileset and choosing it. Just knowing 1-5 to up clift and z-b to down-clift you have half the terrain already created in matter of seconds (plus the undo and copy-paste features).

 

There is 1 tile you can add to "rock border number 5". There is another top-right corner in the tileset.

In the image, the one marked.

 

Here, three examples using your border-5 and the other tile, both looks good.

 

I was wondering. There is a way to make the dunes tileset be a bit more clear? At least to me is a bit hard to see if I placing a corner or a half-dune-half-sand or a almost-all-dune.

or maybe adding a zoom in.

[Nuclear_harvester]

how about auto-shore    land edges?   no more   terrain  gaps  :D  the auto-shote   is in red alert2/yuri revenge map editor.  but not sure if is even possible in  dune2k map editor

[FunkyFr3sh]

I will add a new feature to dune2000 today, my plan is to abuse the unused overlay id 3 (1= thin spice, 2 thick spice etc..)

Normally this id will throw a "super dense spice found" error (i will fix that error)

Once a single id 3 was found in the map the game will go into infinite spice mode (spice will stay forever), would you add a option to your map editor to enable this feature?

[Cm_blast]

I will add a new feature to dune2000 today, my plan is to abuse the unused overlay id 3 (1= thin spice, 2 thick spice etc..)

Normally this id will throw a "super dense spice found" error (i will fix that error)

Once a single id 3 was found in the map the game will go into infinite spice mode (spice will stay forever), would you add a option to your map editor to enable this feature?

 

Wow, I have already 2 ideas for that.

1: Dune Emperor planet-fight. (were there isn't spice, but 1 tile of infinite spice can imitate the Emperor idea).

2: KKND game. --> your enemy have ilimited spice, you have limited (no spice blooms). You run out of money, the enemy doesn't.

[Klofkac]

Hi all! I have good news today!

I implemented another pretty cool feature, which is worth its own release.

The feature is called "Auto-smooth edges of rock or dunes area".

That means that now creating an area of dunes or rock is much faster and more fun because you don't need to draw all the edge manually but you simply can do everything with a single click.

By rock edge, I mean the "direct rock-sand" edge which units can pass. Auto-creating cliffs around rock area is not implemented and most likely will never be implemented because it is really hard.

 

How to use:

- Select "Paint Rock" or "Paint Dunes", and then Shift-Click (left-click while holding Shift) somewhere onto the edge of rock or dunes area. By "edge" I mean tile which is rock or dunes and directly neighbours with a sand tile.

- All the edge of the area become smoothed: the rock/dunes tiles neighbouring with sand are turned into edge tiles.

 

However, of course, this feature has several limitations you need to be aware of:

- The smoothing process starts in the point you click on and continues in the counterclockwise direction. If it is possible, all the edge around area is smoothed. However, if the smoothing process encounters any obstacle (i.e. end of map is reached), it stops. So you need to click on the proper starting tile in order to smooth everything you want.

- Smoothing dunes edge is simple and straightforward, but rock edge not. The result of auto-smoothing is not as pretty as if you do it manually.

- You can also smooth part of rock edge (where the rest are cliffs which must be already drawn). In order to make it possible, smoothing process ends when it reaches cliff (but basically, it considers any tile which is not clean sand as "cliff" and stops when hitting it). Sometimes it could end the edge improperly.

 

I hope it will work well for you and creating maps will become yet easier. It also still needs some testing

Finally the download:

D2kEditor06post.zip

[D2k Sardaukar]

That works very nice for rock-sand-edge. Especially if you make sure the plateau is not too square and is more organic in shape so there is not much chance to get repeated tiles. :)

 

The sand-dune-edge is not so clear to me if it is working properly. Using it twice (or more) will cause it to do strange stuff. Like circle in circle.

 

Idea-box:

*Drag-and-drop function.

*Perhaps you can also add auto-map-generation? Or at least the biggest part of it, like this: http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/21583-r8-and-r16-graphics/?p=390146

*Copy (large) map parts between different maps to reuse parts of other maps. Just ctrl+c working between two editors running

*Database with example walls/designs/layouts? Hmmm, perhaps other famous maps from other games the layout?

Edited June 3, 2015 by D2k Sardaukar

[Klofkac]

That works very nice for rock-sand-edge. Especially if you make sure the plateau is not too square and is more organic in shape so there is not much chance to get repeated tiles. :)

 

The sand-dune-edge is not so clear to me if it is working properly. Using it twice (or more) will cause it to do strange stuff. Like circle in circle.

I am pretty sure that sand-dune-edge is working properly. However it's true that you need to be quite careful when using this feature and know where (not to) click - then you get results you want. If you once smooth the dune edges and you click into it again, it considers already-created edges not to be "clear dunes" and creates edges around the inner part of dunes area. This is an implementation limitation of this feature.

Maybe some screensot could help here.

 

Idea-box:

1. Drag-and-drop function.

2. Perhaps you can also add auto-map-generation? Or at least the biggest part of it, like this: http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/21583-r8-and-r16-graphics/?p=390146

3. Copy (large) map parts between different maps to reuse parts of other maps. Just ctrl+c working between two editors running

4. Database with example walls/designs/layouts? Hmmm, perhaps other famous maps from other games the layout?

1. Can you explain what exactly you mean?

2. I'm not going to implement this (one reason is that someone is already doing this).

3. This is planned feature. I need to learn how to use Windows Clipboard.

4. Also not going to happen. But anyone is free to contribute and help with development.

 

Btw, I forgot to mention that I also added what Cm_blast described here in post #6: http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/26985-release-campaign-map-editor-alpha-06-cool-new-features/#entry390417

 

EDIT: Now I got an interesting idea how to solve several limitations and improve the results of auto-smooth-edges feature:

I could create my own tiliset attributes used only by the editor. These attributes would tell that "this tile is crear sand", "this tile is clear rock" (now it is hardcoded) but also "this tile is either clear dunes or edge of dunes" or "this tile links with rock edge" (now it uses inaccurate heuristic). I would distribute modified TILEATRx.BIN files with the editor.

[D2k Sardaukar]

I am pretty sure that sand-dune-edge is working properly. However it's true that you need to be quite careful when using this feature and know where (not to) click - then you get results you want. If you once smooth the dune edges and you click into it again, it considers already-created edges not to be "clear dunes" and creates edges around the inner part of dunes area. This is an implementation limitation of this feature.

Maybe some screensot could help here.

 

1. Can you explain what exactly you mean?

2. I'm not going to implement this (one reason is that someone is already doing this).

3. This is planned feature. I need to learn how to use Windows Clipboard.

4. Also not going to happen. But anyone is free to contribute and help with development.

 

Btw, I forgot to mention that I also added what Cm_blast described here in post #6: http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/26985-release-campaign-map-editor-alpha-06-cool-new-features/#entry390417

 

EDIT: Now I got an interesting idea how to solve several limitations and improve the results of auto-smooth-edges feature:

I could create my own tiliset attributes used only by the editor. These attributes would tell that "this tile is crear sand", "this tile is clear rock" (now it is hardcoded) but also "this tile is either clear dunes or edge of dunes" or "this tile links with rock edge" (now it uses inaccurate heuristic). I would distribute modified TILEATRx.BIN files with the editor.

1. Instead of using 'file>open map' I just drag and drop the .map file into the map editor. - Not on the icon -, that already works, but into program.

It's more of an convenience thing, almost all windows programs I have support this feature. 

2. Who and where? That example is just from me using 3D perlin/simplex noise to create 2D map with height for defining what is rock, sand and dune.

Perhaps also using perlin/simplex noise on rock-sand-edge will make it a lot better, more organic. Hmm.

 

Keep us updated on the improvements for auto-smooth-edges feature.

[Cm_blast]

Wow guy, now is not excuses to not make a proper map.

 

In a matter of seconds you can do a starting point. Yeah, manually is more accurate, but between open the tile, select a square/2x2, click on map, open the tile, repeat... and drawn a single edge, doble click, then shift click and... Done!

 

As fast as this.

 

The bottom line could be a bit more random, but anyway, just pressing "C" and you can have you want.

 

By the way, thanks for the dunes-edge. I barely can see if I placing a square, a edge or whatever. In my maps I usually don't include Dunes becaus of this, but with this feature I just can do it in 2 clicks.

 

[Klofkac]

1. Instead of using 'file>open map' I just drag and drop the .map file into the map editor. - Not on the icon -, that already works, but into program.

It's more of an convenience thing, almost all windows programs I have support this feature. 

2. Who and where? That example is just from me using 3D perlin/simplex noise to create 2D map with height for defining what is rock, sand and dune.

Perhaps also using perlin/simplex noise on rock-sand-edge will make it a lot better, more organic. Hmm.

 

Keep us updated on the improvements for auto-smooth-edges feature.

1. Aha, I see. I personally seldom drag&drop files into programs so I did not miss this feature. But should be possible to do.

2. Oh, I did not realize that was actually you who tried some random map generation. Random map generation is certainly interesting problem to solve, but it is rather not a priority for me and I do not have too much time or concern for it.

Also there is one more reason: if random map generation was implemented, people would (potentially) tend to create randomly-generated maps extensively and it would decrease the originality and uniqueness of the newly created maps. A human with talent can always create much more interesing maps and landscapes than a random generator.

[Klofkac]

Here is preview of a new planned feature:

 

Have anyone done or thought about something like this, a complete overview of events and conditions?

[FunkyFr3sh]

not bad :)

Maybe you should start to create a fully working .mis editor, the old one can only modify a few things and my hacked dune2000.exe (MisEditor.exe) is not that user friendly either :D

[Klofkac]

Here is the progress:

[Gruntlord6]

If you want to type up the news post, I can put it up on d2K+

[Klofkac]

not bad :)

Maybe you should start to create a fully working .mis editor, the old one can only modify a few things and my hacked dune2000.exe (MisEditor.exe) is not that user friendly either :D

Voilà, new Mission editor greets the D2k community!

 

So, practically I'm now working on something that was already done and works well (mvi's Mission Editor).

However, I decided to make it in order to gain several advantages over the current Mission editor, like these:

- This "Mission" editor is integrated in Campaign map editor, so you can open, edit and save both .map and .mis files in a single program

- It provides detailed event and condition overview, so it provides much better insight to mission's events like how they are linked together

- Better editing user interface, like you can add units to reinforcement quickly by selecting from list

- Setting reinforcement (and other events) position by simply clicking into map

- Taking advantage of editor's "Test map" feature (you can quickly test changes in mission file)

 

Of course, credits and many thanks go to mvi, who did mission file research and created Mission Editor.

[Gruntlord6]

UI design is a big commitment, good luck!

[FunkyFr3sh]

looks nice, is there anything still unknown? I could look it up if needed

[Feda]

Good job, looking good!

[Klofkac]

Okay guys, so here goes the prototype version of my new events/conditions editor.

I tested it very briefly, so I'd like you to do some testing and tell me if there is some bug/problem or something could be done better.

Here you go:

D2kEditor_eventeditortest.zip

 

Some short info:

- To make things simple, .mis file is loaded and saved along with the .map file (no extra option/dialog to open/save .mis file).

- Mis file is either assigned or not assigned to a map (you can see the new "MIS" indicator on status bar). If you load a map for which there exists a .mis file, the .mis file is assigned to the map and vice versa. If .mis file is assigned to the map, it is saved when you save the map.

- If you want to undo changes in events, you can reload the last saved state by selecting "Reload map" or simply pressing Ctrl+R (works also in Event editing window).

- You can also immediately test your changes in game (press F8 or F9).

[Cm_blast]

I gave it a quick look.

 

It's curious you can set a Condition for the timer in screen; with a 250% timer (every 10 seconds) the timer "freeze". I do not know what would happen to other options.

 

The Message thing showing the message will going to appers is something good, more quick than opening and searching the text.uib.

 

I'm curious about the "set tech" and if can have some use.

 

It's me or the "set flag" (I guees is the "dummy condition" in the mission editor) appears in red?

 

But the way, I just try the test option and is good. At least I can choose play as another house and look how the IA plays without recurring to change alliances or using reveal map to look at him.