Map and Mission Editor: finally a small update after all (version 1.3 released)

[Klofkac]

Download (Final 1.3 version from 2019-02-27):

https://forum.dune2k.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=3985

Changelog:

Fixed: Size preset buttons in Tileset window were off by one position
Added: Find object feature
Changed: Some options (i.e. Show grid) are now toggle buttons below minimap instead of Settings menu items
Removed: Draw concrete option (now is always on)
Added: Play Sound event: now provides dropdown list of sound names (loaded from "samples.uib")
Added: Play Music event: now provides dropdown list of music names (list of existing .AUD files in "Data\Music" folder)
Fixed: Set Attack Building Rate event: value is named "Arrack rate" instead of "Unknown" 
Fixed: Casualties condition: "Flags?" value renamed to "Proportion" and changed to floating-point number type
Added: When temporary "TESTMAP.MAP" file is saved, the map name in ini file is renamed to "TESTMAP" 
       in order to avoid duplicate entry in mission launcher
Added: Open recent files feature
Fixed: Editing marker (i.e. building marker, current block) not showing when Mission settings or Events/Conditions 
       window is open and is on background or minimized
Added: "MissionsPath" setting in .ini file. It can be changed in case game loads maps/mission files from different location
Fixed: The UI components now should not be messed up on systems where scaling is set to different value than 100%
Added: Highlighting events having selected condition feature
Fixed: Program now checks, if window would appear off-screen (i.e. previously opened on second monitor which is now
       unplugged) and resets its position
Changed: Program now automatically loads all all .ini files placed into "tilesets" folder, instead of loading tileset list
         from "config\tilesets.ini". All tileset .ini files must now contain name of attributes file.
Added: Loading tileset images directly from game's internal .R8 and .r16 files
Removed: Editor is no longer distributed with tileset .bmp files
Fixed: Improved auto-detection of game folder, detection of missions stored under "Data\Missions" folder
Changed: Mission settings window should fit 1024 pixels wide resolution
Added: Tileset name and Attributes fields on Mission settings window
Added: Custom Text.uib field on Mission settings window (mission .ini file)
Added: Conditions can be organized by moving up and down (like events)
Added: Grid color setting and several more settings
Added: AI manual (written by Cm_blast)
Added: AI templates (created by Cm_blast)
Added: Information message upon start when starting program for the first time
Fixed: Some errors on BLOXBAT tileset configuration, added missing tiles to new "Sand stains" preset group
Added: README.txt file

Hello all!

It's been almost 3 years since I released the last version of the Map and Mission editor without any update. Once I made a topic (https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27429-reviewing-map-and-mission-editor/) where I asked you for some ideas what to add to the editor. I was planning to do some updates based on your suggestions, but then unfortunately got disinderedted in development and never implemented the ideas... until now.

Finally I kicked myself to finish off some missing and useful features to the editor, which I think should really be there, and the editor will feel more complete with them. It's just a small update (not having so many additions like previous releases) and it's not an official release, but just a preview. I wanted to make sure all the new features work correctly and there's not any serious bug. So I'd like to ask you to test it and give me some feedback and ideas. But I want to say that I'm not going to implement anything big, just probably some minor additions like I made in this version and bug fixes.

Here are come comments to the ideas you gave me previously:

Quote

Sometimes (I don't know exactly how to trigger this) when you use the open tileset (space bar) and click on any tile (or group of), when you are about to select it the blue square (showing where will be placed) doesn't appear. usually reopening/closing the tileset menu fix it.

Cannot reproduce, need more information

Quote

A Zoom in/out could help. For example, I want to have global vision (or more vision in general) over the map, so I can control the distance from X Side/player to Y side/player and Z side/player.

Not feasible to easily implement. Would require very significant changes in code, or some hacks. Also writing text to map (i.e. event markers) would not work.

Quote

However, how about a "visual transparency" before placing a building/unit? For example, now you click on the ref and go over the field a white 3x3 square appears. Instead that maybe is possible to show the refinery with a transparency so you can see what building are you about to place and see where you are placing it.
By the way, back in time you couldn't include a transparency to show the building/unit that about to be placed and the terrain of the same time, but I though that the opaque vision of the building/unit can be added. So instead showing 9 white squares, the editor will actually show that you are placing a light factory; not transparency needed. But maybe and option in the editor to alternate between the options if someone don't want to see the building and prefer to see the terrain instead.

Theoretically possible, but I think drawing a shape od placed building is enough and not feeling for spending time implementing this.

Quote

Something you may change. The visual of the modified outpost, or at least a bit. Right now except for Atr/Frem, the normal outpost and the modified outpost looks almost the same when they are placed in the editor. Since both buildings are different (even for the events in the editor) some kind of distinction will help to identify which is the one placed. (adding a "M" in the picture or something similar, just enough to know "this is a modified outpost").
Another thing. There is something you can do to differentiate visually the walls? They all looks the same, don't have colour at any part at all; is easy to select "Fremen-walls" and then use them to border the Atreides base, Resulting in abnormal behavior. In the minimap blue and grey looks almost the same.

I'm rendering the structures how exactly they are rendered in game, and in game they are not differentiated. The structures graphics file (shipped with the editor) was made by taking screenshots from game. So if anyone from you would want to help, you could somehow modify the graphics file, like adding colored tint to walls or marking somehow modified outpost. I'm not a graphician.

Quote

Hey Klofack, can be include a way to see what area will be revealed? I mean, If I place the "area revealed" to show a part of the map, I can't see exactly the area that would be shown until I don't combine "timer=1" and test the map. It's worse If when I already have the scenario done and at the end I change my mind and move them. At this point I want to recheck the new areas, but if they appears with some special condition I need to edit the thing to make it appear as timer=1 and then reverse to my original condition. So similar to "mark impassable tiles" and "Mark buildable tiles" maybe a "mark area revealed tiles" showing exactly which squares will be visible on the map and thus don't needing to enter the game again just to see what tiles are the ones visible.

Theoretically possible, but probably I would need to fiddle with CIRCLES.BIN file to load what the revealed areas should be. I don't even know if format of this file was ever reverse-engineered. So not feeling for adding this feature.

Quote

Meanwhile Klofkac, I was wondering. There is a way to include the "_" character in a .ini file? For example, to include a mail "something_mymaily@coldmail.meh", but since "_" is a line break I can't do it.

Uh, yes, that's a problem. For some reason (don't remember if it was originally me or Mission launcher creator) we chose "_" as line break in ini files. So this character cannot be used itself in ini file. It could be worked-around by replacing "_" to some other character before saving into ini, but we would need to choose a character to sacrifice. Also changes in Mission launcher would need to be done.

So enjoy the new preview release and once again, thank you all for your support!

PS: Looking forward to see what you will come up with the Play Sound feature

 

D2kEditorv13pre2.zip

Edited July 27, 2019 by Klofkac
Updated version

[Fey]

53 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

snip

My dude! Great to see you!

Hey man, there are some other programs like the v0.2 Resource Editor with their links broken. I have the v0.1 and stuff. You wouldn't happen to have any of that on your machine too, would you? Or how about the Tiledata.bin editor?

I'm gonna give this new editor a try right away.

Edit: By the way, did you see that new tileset I came out with in my latest WIP thread? It's a working grassy tileset. Here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27783-wip-smugglers-campaign-2/?do=findComment&comment=395934

Perhaps it would be a nice addition to the tilesets you get by default when you download the editor. I don't mind its public use and redistribution in the slightest.

I might make heighliner / Giedi Prime / Draconis IV tilesets some time down the line, but for now, at least we've got one custom thingy to screw around with.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Fey

[Cm_blast]

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Hello all!

Hey; welcome back.

I didn't notice 3 years passed already; I am still doing stuff with your editor!

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Added: Find object feature

Good; this will help a lot to find that missing sandworm hard to find, and who say sandworm sais anything, works with everything!

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Added: Play Sound event: now provides dropdown list of sound names (loaded from samples.uib)

Yay! all it's there!; just with the name it's easy to know most of the stuff, thanks for this (even although I didn't used it since I suggested back in time, but the easy access would be interesting to have).

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Added: Play Music event: now provides dropdown list of music names (list of existing .AUD files in Data\Music folder)

This can be done for the mission settings (F10) Menu? There you have "map name - Author - music"; unlike the event, setting a music it's mandatory (or the game may load silent); If you can add that I could suggest to add the "*=random" somewhere; maybe as an entrance or written somewhere.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Fixed: Casualties condition: "Flags?" value renamed to "Proportion" and changed to floating-point number type

Wow, I didn't think of this:
I only used everything to "0" as a control mark "when X amount of enemies died, this happen".

Now it's interesting to know exactly how many mercs need to die before they trigger the warning and how many when they turn neutrals withouth requiring an external site.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Added: When temporary TESTMAP.MAP file is saved, the map name in ini file is renamed to "TESTMAP" in order to avoid duplicate entry in mission launcher

Thanks about this one; it really works, now on the mission launcher appears as "testmap".

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Cannot reproduce, need more information

I found that it's related with the mission settings and/or events and conditions windowns.
To reproduce it's as easy as opening one of those two windows, minimize it and that's it; nothing appears on you screen; the program may think that your focus it's still on the other windown.

Sometimes the windown, even maximize "hide" (when I am editing, I open 1 of those windows, then I open chroome and check whatever, comeback to the editor, the windown it's hidden); reopening and closing the mission/events windown fix the thing.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

Not feasible to easily implement. Would require very significant changes in code, or some hacks. Also writing text to map (i.e. event markers) would not work.

It's fine; I can live without those things

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

I'm rendering the structures how exactly they are rendered in game, and in game they are not differentiated. The structures graphics file (shipped with the editor) was made by taking screenshots from game. So if anyone from you would want to help, you could somehow modify the graphics file, like adding colored tint to walls or marking somehow modified outpost. I'm not a graphician.

Fey has been messing very deep with the graphics of the game and doing kind of stuff like drawning new graphics for units and terrain, so maybe he can help us here;

On 11/11/2018 at 12:41 AM, Fey said:

I'm gonna give this new editor a try right away.

Hey Fey, check the part of the modified outpost; I suggested to add a different graphic for the modified outpost so we can differentiate both building while we are on the editor.

I guess you can take the building from the .bmp and add something on it or something.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:08 AM, Klofkac said:

So enjoy the new preview release and once again, thank you all for your support!

Thanks a lot.

There is a last thing; this it's a problem that appeared with the previous version of gruntmod (gruntlord updated the installed recently, but I don't mean this update).

I had problems with the computer 1 year ago so when I downloaded gruntmod I took the newest version (at that moment); the main problem it's the folder that contain the maps changed;
I will call 2017 version the one I have right now and 2016 the one I have before I lost all my data from my computer, just for clarify.

On the 2016 version the game had the campaing maps into the folder "gruntmods\dune2000\missions", which the editor loaded fine with no trouble.
on the 2017 version, the campaign maps is localed on another path: "gruntmods\dune2000\data\missions"; Because of this the "test" buttom used from the editor show a "cannot find X file"; Since this was 1 year ago I can't remember exactly everything, but I think was trying to search the testmap.map.

I tried by manually changing the path or even deleting the "D2kEditor.ini" and letting the program to generate it automatically, but nothing worked.

I fixed by moving all the campaign maps on the 2016 path (outside data) path, but also editing "resources.cfg" from gruntmods itself or else the game can't find (obvious) the files.

So what I am trying to say here it's to set your editor to be able to pick the good path (unless I have been doind something wrong the whole time; but I really really tried everysingle thing I could do with the "d2keditor.ini".

Not only me, but a few months ago a newcomer posted this:

Quote

I have made a few maps on the Dune2000 map and mission editor,but it doesnt let me test the map, at first when i pressed "quick launch" it said it cant find dune2000.exe, i corrected it, but now after a quick launch it shuts down and tells me it cant find _TESTMAP.mis.

I suggest you to check the post, because I manage to help him by the same workaround (moving files, editing gruntmods resources.cfg file) which it's far from ideal.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27775-d2k-editor-problem-solved/

I admit I have the editor outside gruntmod, but on that post that guy tried several solutions before attempting my workaround, so the editor seems to have some problems to find that path.

Edit:
1 unit slot remains hidden with the new editor:
https://prnt.sc/lh3ucd
Witht he adition of the "grid - unknown - etc" new buttons everything on the right move down, because of that the last unit slot got hidden.

At the very bottom the ornithopter it's there, but you canno access it at first sight (you still can select it by clicking on the St.Raider and then press down, but not even then the unit it's shown.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

6 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

Wow, I didn't think of this:

I only used everything to "0" as a control mark "when X amount of enemies died, this happen".

Now it's interesting to know exactly how many mercs need to die before they trigger the warning and how many when they turn neutrals withouth requiring an external site.

Didn't you do casualties research in the past? I've been using casualties conditions for a while. The prototype for S18 has like six casualties conditions.

7 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

Hey Fey, check the part of the modified outpost; I suggested to add a different graphic for the modified outpost so we can differentiate both building while we are on the editor.

I guess you can take the building from the .bmp and add something on it or something.

Actually, there is a difference already in the editor between Modified Outposts and normal Outposts. The radar dish will be facing in a different direction than the normal Outpost's graphic. Do you want, like, a little star or something put on top of the Modified Outpost graphic? 'Cause that's really easy.

[Cm_blast]

16 minutes ago, Fey said:

Didn't you do casualties research in the past? I've been using casualties conditions for a while. The prototype for S18 has like six casualties conditions.

I did the starting point, just "casualties do this on the game", but I wasn't the one that find all the meaning and, except for a few "15 treshold - 0 flag?" I never used specific proportions on any of my maps; most of them are just "when X side loose 10 units - trigger this" or "when Y side loose 20 units - trigger that", so having float numbers will help, not only me but anyone withouth requiring knowledge about hexadecimals.

16 minutes ago, Fey said:

Actually, there is a difference already in the editor between Modified Outposts and normal Outposts. The radar dish will be facing in a different direction than the normal Outpost's graphic. Do you want, like, a little star or something put on top of the Modified Outpost graphic? 'Cause that's really easy. 

Both Harkonnen and Ordos versions's are pointing almost to the same position, if you have those buildings in opposite areas of the maps you won't know what version you are looking. And yes; you can place another the outpost or delete-place the outpost/modified to be sure, but having a visual that allow us too see in a quick look what version it's would be better.

I didn't have anything any specific on mind when I did the suggestion, I only remember saying something like adding a "M" to indicate "modified" but I have no idea; just anthing that showcase that the building show on the editor it's going to be the modified version instead the vanilla should be fine.

I guess the two versions need to be done the same way (Harkonnen and Ordos).

Edited November 11, 2018 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

13 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

I did the starting point, just "casualties do this on the game", but I wasn't the one that find all the meaning and, except for a few "15 treshold - 0 flag?" I never used specific proportions on any of my maps; most of them are just "when X side loose 10 units - trigger this" or "when Y side loose 20 units - trigger that", so having float numbers will help, not only me but anyone withouth requiring knowledge about hexadecimals.

Oh, okay.

13 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

Both Harkonnen and Ordos versions's are pointing almost to the same position, if you have those buildings in opposite areas of the maps you won't know what version you are looking. And yes; you can place another the outpost or delete-place the outpost/modified to be sure, but having a visual that allow us too see in a quick look what version it's would be better.

I didn't have anything any specific on mind when I did the suggestion, I only remember saying something like adding a "M" to indicate "modified" but I have no idea; just anthing that showcase that the building show on the editor it's going to be the modified version instead the vanilla should be fine.

I guess the two versions need to be done the same way (Harkonnen and Ordos).

Ah, yeah. It should only require a little screwing with the graphics file, and then you're done. Theoretically.

[Cm_blast]

Just now, Fey said:

Ah, yeah. It should only require a little screwing with the graphics file, and then you're done. Theoretically

If I am not mistaken the editor load the visual from a .bmp (graphic folder); I never tried before but maybe you can edit that even with paint, but not just placing a plain "M" that looks bad or something.

I was thinking on you because you are more into drawning pixels and stuff, but I don'tt hink it's required to even load the game at all (correct me if I am wrong on something).

[Fey]

32 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

If I am not mistaken the editor load the visual from a .bmp (graphic folder); I never tried before but maybe you can edit that even with paint, but not just placing a plain "M" that looks bad or something.

I was thinking on you because you are more into drawning pixels and stuff, but I don'tt hink it's required to even load the game at all (correct me if I am wrong on something).

I believe that's correct. There's a BMP with all the structure images and stuff. There's only so much room to add new structure sprites in-game, so a new Modified Outpost sprite seems like a bad idea, but yeah, a little "M" or something on the in-editor graphic would be fine.

The editor graphics and in-game graphics are different, of course. In-game graphics are read from data.r16. Placing a Storm Lasher in the editor looks like an Atreides High Tech Factory. If you want a full-map preview, simply replace the Modified Outpost with a normal Outpost. That's what I do for a lot of my full map previews that hide Harvesters and Spice Blooms and stuff.

[Nuclear_harvester]

if we could have enchancement allowing us to make prebuilt bases  it could be nice,setting up strong base for 8 players  takes some time,with the tool it could take less....it would work in this schemat    bulding a - how many bulding a placed bulding b how many b buldings etc.  other utility would be tpe of buldings to place,how many times i refinery:5 refineries,heavy factory 3 heavy factory etc.

im sure we do have random map generator but was thinking on toher variant - random mission generator that could put basic/advanced objectives with prebuilt bases and all you have to do is add events yu want and add buldings/units you want this way creating missions or multiper maps would be fully customizable and  starting base from scratc would be not nessecary

[Cm_blast]

A new suggestion for an idea that will help testing, but I don't know if possible: disabling a line of the scripting(events) to not activate during the game, but still present on the editor.

Sometimes I have two twisted events that, if the player do X specific task, 1º Trigger, but if you do Y specific task, 2º trigger.

If I need to test them indivudally; I may delete 1, press the test buttom and, if it works, reload the game. But if it doesn't work I need to do several test like adding/removing/marking/unmarking conditions. Now that it works I have two options: Saving the map (and loosing the second event I created, as twisted as the first) or reloading the map, loosing whatever I made to make the first event to work (which I may forget exactly what I added/marked...).

With a option to "deactivate" the second event, this one won't trigger on the game so I can focus on the first, doing all the test needed to make it work and, when it's done, I "deactivate" the first and "reactivate" the second, so I don't loose any progression or deleting anything, having all at first sight.

Who sais "deactivate" could mean making the event treated as a comment instead an instruction on the game, ignored by the game.

Edited November 23, 2018 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

Hey! Another tiny update is here!

Download: D2kEditorv13pre2.zip

Changelog:

Fixed: Editing marker (i.e. building marker, current block) not showing when Mission settings or Events/Conditions 
       window is open and is on background or minimized
Added: "MissionsPath" setting in .ini file. It can be changed in case game loads maps/mission files from different location
Fixed: The UI components now should not be messed up on systems where scaling is set to different value than 100%

Music can be selected from a dropdown list in the Mission settings window as well (like in Play music event).
Fixed the last unit in unit selection list not shown.

Thank you all for your comments and helping me making this editor better.

On 11/23/2018 at 2:33 PM, Cm_blast said:

A new suggestion for an idea that will help testing, but I don't know if possible: disabling a line of the scripting(events) to not activate during the game, but still present on the editor.

Well, I have an idea how that can be worked around. You can create one additional Flag condition, which will be there just for temporarily disabling your events. If you want to disable an event, just add this condition into its condition list. As the condition is always evaluated false, the event will never happen.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:41 AM, Fey said:

Edit: By the way, did you see that new tileset I came out with in my latest WIP thread? It's a working grassy tileset. Here:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27783-wip-smugglers-campaign-2/?do=findComment&comment=395934

Perhaps it would be a nice addition to the tilesets you get by default when you download the editor. I don't mind its public use and redistribution in the slightest.

Hmm, I actually made a Red Alert tileset for Dune 2000 myself in the past: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27109-release-new-dune-2000-tilesets/?do=findComment&comment=391645

Not sure how popular/spread it got, and it looks like the attachment does not work anymore. I can reupload if you want.

On 11/11/2018 at 12:41 AM, Fey said:

Hey man, there are some other programs like the v0.2 Resource Editor with their links broken. I have the v0.1 and stuff. You wouldn't happen to have any of that on your machine too, would you? Or how about the Tiledata.bin editor?

I don't think I ever downloaded or used the resource editor. About TILEDATA.BIN editor, I posted it in this thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27065-release-tiledata-editor/?tab=comments#comment-390973 but looks like attachment is broken there as well. Here's reupload: TileDataEditor.zip

[Cm_blast]

On 12/2/2018 at 9:48 PM, Klofkac said:

Changelog:

Really good, I like the music part, all appears there.

On 12/2/2018 at 9:48 PM, Klofkac said:

Well, I have an idea how that can be worked around. You can create one additional Flag condition, which will be there just for temporarily disabling your events. If you want to disable an event, just add this condition into its condition list. As the condition is always evaluated false, the event will never happen.

Wow, I created really twisted events and never through on something that simple. Although sometimes (more often because I over-complicate things) I reach the event and/or condition room limit.

But yes, creating a Condition Flag that never turn true should be enough to disable all the stuff I don't want to trigger.

Now I am thinking maybe a way to find events more clearly, like a search tool; I have several maps with 48 conditions and the 64 events full; I literally am reaching the game's limit. If I need to check this mission after weeks or months it's going to be really hard to track everything.

I have a Condition type like this:
2 Tile revealed 20 15

I am trying to search where it is, but it's attached among others just like this:
"[x20] building exist(Mercenaries Starport (A)), [22] timer(%2000), [24] Flag, [x25] Flag, [2] Tile Revealed (20 15)

So an option or something: "I need to search event type number 2". I click "ok" or enter or whatever and the editor highlight the first "event type" that contain that Tile Revealed or show a "nope".

Ps: Just as a reminder, if I am going too far stop me xD. And yes; my events ends being as twisted as the one mentioned above; you editor make it all so easy that I keep going further away and filling the game's limit.

On 12/2/2018 at 9:48 PM, Klofkac said:

Hmm, I actually made a Red Alert tileset for Dune 2000 myself in the past: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27109-release-new-dune-2000-tilesets/?do=findComment&comment=391645

Not sure how popular/spread it got, and it looks like the attachment does not work anymore. I can reupload if you want

There is one post of Dato that contain the Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert and the snowdy tileset;
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27109-release-new-dune-2000-tilesets/
At the bottom; I am assuming those are the ones you are refering.

Which, by the way; I just remember something. If there is a way to add on your editor the use of a specific "TILEATRX.BIN". Right now every bloxsomething it's attached to his tileatrx.bin, but here is the example.

Luminar Fremen campaign I arrange to work on the mission launcher. Includes a bloxbat2.r8/r16 (bloxbat recolor) and nothing more. I cannot even add this into your editor because there is no image.

I could open another tool, extract the bmp, editing your editor .ini... just several steps for something that I would add, save and delete because I am not making use of that custom map.

A more simple way I did it was using the old MVI editor.

It's something more manually, but here my only steps are opening this editor, writing the name of the .r8/16 file and the tileatrX it's using, save the map and leave, nothing more.

If the .ini itself allow this would be something easy also, but meanwhile maybe you can have an alternative to change manually the tileatr I want to use. 

Ps: going a bit crazy here but; what about a mirroring feature?
Like if I make a very detailed rifts/rock/sand combination forming a "C", but later I realize that it's against my idea and would have to place this part the oposite way, forming a "D" (withouth the vertical line).
So, doing mirror of the selected area and/or the whole map. This may seems pointless, but when a carryall dropping units/harvs enter from the top part of the map, will travel to the bottom being shooted by missile tanks (revealing the position) while a carryall coming from the bottom drop the units and come back to bottom; thus no enemy units/base reveal their position.

I keep editing because I keep remember things (or just things that I eventually need from time to time but not always remember).

A feature to move buildings, but not terrain; this it's something minor since moving a whole base it's much more easy that moving big parts of terrain, but like now we can move terrain and structures (or only terrain); an option to move structures without altering the terrain itself.

*Plus: Custom "create events"?
Right now there are three; one to create a unit spawn, one for the harvester remplacement and one for the side annihilated message.

Although I use a lot the remplacement one; I rarely ask for players to destroy both buildings and base before the "X have been annihilated" and "mission accomplished" (so no harvester hunting needed); with that in mind I would like to add my custom automated events.

So I can make a X been annihilated withouth the unit destroyed requirement or simply other things that I use the most, like a reveal map with "0" value (all the map it's revealed" combined with a timer = 1 (just as the unit spawn); something I use for testing purposes.

Of course, I am talking a "about creating custom automated events" so I have quick access to it, but I don't want to fill everybody editor with things that were added just because of me.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

16 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Well, I have an idea how that can be worked around. You can create one additional Flag condition, which will be there just for temporarily disabling your events. If you want to disable an event, just add this condition into its condition list. As the condition is always evaluated false, the event will never happen.

Hmm, I actually made a Red Alert tileset for Dune 2000 myself in the past: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27109-release-new-dune-2000-tilesets/?do=findComment&comment=391645

Not sure how popular/spread it got, and it looks like the attachment does not work anymore. I can reupload if you want.

I don't think I ever downloaded or used the resource editor. About TILEDATA.BIN editor, I posted it in this thread: https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27065-release-tiledata-editor/?tab=comments#comment-390973 but looks like attachment is broken there as well. Here's reupload: TileDataEditor.zip

Hey man, thanks so much for the TileData editor reupload! I've been wanting to see what I can do with this thing. If you know anyone who might have the resource editor, would you kindly point me in his direction?

Regarding my grassy tileset, I built it off yours. It has "base platform," which simulates the elements of Arrakis - allowing for orange rock craters to appear without looking off. Sand craters still appear if normal Spice is used, but there's a work-around for that too: I drew up some large Silo-like structures and made the thick Spice tiles into little pads. With the use of Infinite Spice in the ini settings, they can allow for resource gathering to function without the use of normal Spice.

If a Caladan tileset were to be used before, it would require data.r16 editing to make the craters appear properly. That would also mean any Dune maps in the same campaign would have the same grassy craters that would be implemented to make the Caladan map(s) work. With the base platform idea, a Caladan map could be placed in the middle of a normal campaign full of Dune maps with zero editing that would overwrite existing game data! I'm not sure how to make it work where I can place the tiles in the map normally, like... if I try to paint "rock," it paints the stationary base platform light. So, everything has to be placed manually. I tried setting editor properties, but it ended up screwing up a lot of things in-game somehow. If you were to add my grassy tileset to your editor download, perhaps you could adjust the tile data so it has specials and paints things properly? I dunno.

I was thinking of adjusting the tileset to put base platform edges up to the end of tiles so it could, say, extend over water and beaches. As it stands, platform only works aesthetically on grass, so, no rush. It's only a prototype at this point. Still, you're welcome to check it out and screw with it if you want. If you want the image file with layers and junk, I could send that your way too. You know, if you do any drawing, yourself.

[Klofkac]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:36 AM, Cm_blast said:

Now I am thinking maybe a way to find events more clearly, like a search tool; I have several maps with 48 conditions and the 64 events full; I literally am reaching the game's limit. If I need to check this mission after weeks or months it's going to be really hard to track everything.

I have a Condition type like this:
2 Tile revealed 20 15

I am trying to search where it is, but it's attached among others just like this:
"[x20] building exist(Mercenaries Starport (A)), [22] timer(%2000), [24] Flag, [x25] Flag, [2] Tile Revealed (20 15)

So an option or something: "I need to search event type number 2". I click "ok" or enter or whatever and the editor highlight the first "event type" that contain that Tile Revealed or show a "nope".

I came up with this new feature "mark events having this condition". I hope that will do what you wanted.

On 12/3/2018 at 3:36 AM, Cm_blast said:

Ps: going a bit crazy here but; what about a mirroring feature?
Like if I make a very detailed rifts/rock/sand combination forming a "C", but later I realize that it's against my idea and would have to place this part the oposite way, forming a "D" (withouth the vertical line).
So, doing mirror of the selected area and/or the whole map. This may seems pointless, but when a carryall dropping units/harvs enter from the top part of the map, will travel to the bottom being shooted by missile tanks (revealing the position) while a carryall coming from the bottom drop the units and come back to bottom; thus no enemy units/base reveal their position.

Aah, that's too much overcomplicated feature. I feel definitely much more effort needed to put into implementation than the benefit. No.

On 12/3/2018 at 3:36 AM, Cm_blast said:

*Plus: Custom "create events"?
Right now there are three; one to create a unit spawn, one for the harvester remplacement and one for the side annihilated message.

Although I use a lot the remplacement one; I rarely ask for players to destroy both buildings and base before the "X have been annihilated" and "mission accomplished" (so no harvester hunting needed); with that in mind I would like to add my custom automated events.

So I can make a X been annihilated withouth the unit destroyed requirement or simply other things that I use the most, like a reveal map with "0" value (all the map it's revealed" combined with a timer = 1 (just as the unit spawn); something I use for testing purposes.

Of course, I am talking a "about creating custom automated events" so I have quick access to it, but I don't want to fill everybody editor with things that were added just because of me.

Well, when I was implementing the Events and Conditions editor, I certainly wanted to add some automation for the most commonly and repeatedly used chains of events/conditions. I was thinking about what events could be the most useful for map authors. Harvester Replacement was the most evident and useful case. Then Side Annihilated message seemed useful too - in almost all of the original missions it's really used, so I supposed map authors would use that too. If you do not want to check for Units Destroyed, you can simply delete the Units Destroyed condition after it gets created. Then the third choice was not that clear for me, and I was deciding between several possibilities. One thing I was thinking about was Mission fail when you loose all buildings and units. Or Mission win when you destroy all enemies. In the end I came up with Unit spawn. Paradoxically it's the simplest and probably least useful event/condition chain, and I'm not sure whether it's really used in custom maps. But in almost all original maps it was used, so I probably thought it would be used in custom maps a lot too.

Those three event creation features are hard-coded, and implementing customizable event/condition chain templates would be probably too much difficult to implement, so I would not go for it. But still, if you think Unit spawn is just too simple ot not very useful, you can give idea for a better replacement.

On 12/3/2018 at 3:36 AM, Cm_blast said:

A feature to move buildings, but not terrain; this it's something minor since moving a whole base it's much more easy that moving big parts of terrain, but like now we can move terrain and structures (or only terrain); an option to move structures without altering the terrain itself.

That would probably not be a big deal, I tried to implement this, but there are some small technical implementation issues to think about.

First, there is checkbox "Structures", which selects whether you want to select terrain only, or both terrain and structures. I could make it a special three-state checkbox, where the third state means "select only structures but not terrain". That could be a bit confusing to people, especially those who are new to editor would not know what the states mean.

Second, I must somehow store the selected block in memory in a way that tile value is "missing" or "unimportant", so that when I place this block on map, tiles remain unchanged and only structures are placed. I can set tile value to 0, that will mean the top-left-most tile in tileset (which is a sand tile). This tile is probably never used in original or custom maps, so that would probably not be a problem, but that tile could not be used anymore as you would not be able to place it. Also, once you select a block in structure-only mode, all the tiles will visually look like the 0th sand tile in the block you pain.

Third, thechnically in the map format, spice is treated as structure (has special value - 1 is thin spice, 2 is thick spice) so even in structure-only mode you will still select spice.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

I came up with this new feature "mark events having this condition". I hope that will do what you wanted.

YES! Amazing man. That's really what I wanted. now will be more easy to track my flag in between the other 15 flags =D.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Aah, that's too much overcomplicated feature. I feel definitely much more effort needed to put into implementation than the benefit. No.

Fair enough.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

If you do not want to check for Units Destroyed, you can simply delete the Units Destroyed condition after it gets created.

Yes, I know, was an example. I usually create it manually; I only go 100% full automated by your harvester remplacement, which it's the most complicated to do. In fact, the only reason I use it more often it's because you'r tool do it on auto.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Paradoxically it's the simplest and probably least useful event/condition chain, and I'm not sure whether it's really used in custom maps. But in almost all original maps it was used, so I probably thought it would be used in custom maps a lot too

Unit spawn it's almost a must have event needed for every map; Much more than the side annihilated message.

The message it's more visual, but having or not a unit spawn to fill the guarding value of the AI really changes the map.

People that don't use it are not 100% aware of the behaviour of the AI in the game; some authores used the enemy reinforcements to attack the player early (and meanwhile the AI build his own forces) or make starport deliveries on loop that will fill the "guarding" value of the AI quickly so they don't take as much time.

In cases when people don't make use of any of those two options, then you will play a map with an AI that don't attack the player until 15 minutes in.

But besides the most early works, the unit spawn event it's used more often by people. So it's better to maintain that just as a way to said "this event it's important" to newcomers.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

That would probably not be a big deal, I tried to implement this, but there are some small technical implementation issues to think about.

First, there is checkbox "Structures", which selects whether you want to select terrain only, or both terrain and structures. I could make it a special three-state checkbox, where the third state means "select only structures but not terrain". That could be a bit confusing to people, especially those who are new to editor would not know what the states mean.

Second, I must somehow store the selected block in memory in a way that tile value is "missing" or "unimportant", so that when I place this block on map, tiles remain unchanged and only structures are placed. I can set tile value to 0, that will mean the top-left-most tile in tileset (which is a sand tile). This tile is probably never used in original or custom maps, so that would probably not be a problem, but that tile could not be used anymore as you would not be able to place it. Also, once you select a block in structure-only mode, all the tiles will visually look like the 0th sand tile in the block you pain.

Third, thechnically in the map format, spice is treated as structure (has special value - 1 is thin spice, 2 is thick spice) so even in structure-only mode you will still select spice.

Nevermind then; moving structures it's the most easy part to change on a map; so forget about it.

Something more about the first screenshot; the "mark events with this condition"? you are making it to be able to mark only 1 or several at the same time?

Edited December 5, 2018 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

21 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

But besides the most early works, the unit spawn event it's used more often by people. So it's better to maintain that just as a way to said "this event it's important" to newcomers.

Thanks for info, that sounds reasonable. Having auto-creation of Unit spawn event will encourage people to use it.

21 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Nevermind then; moving structures it's the most easy part to change on a map; so forget about it.

Well, not necessary to give up this feature at all. It will be there, but it will just "look ugly". I'm thinking I can make it a "hidden" feature - a setting in .ini file must be changed to enable it.

21 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

Something more about the first screenshot; the "mark events with this condition"? you are making it to be able to mark only 1 or several at the same time?

You mean select multiple conditions at same time and mark all events which use any of them? There's no multiselect for events or conditions, so only select one condition at time.

By the way, I'm thinking about small rework of how the editor handles tilesets. Right now all supported tilesets need to be specified in config\tilesets.ini file. I want to get rid of that, so that the program will automatically load all existing files under tilesets folder. This way you just place a new tileset under tilesets folder and won't need to modify tilesets.ini. Each tileset will require 3 files - ini file, bmp file and bin file. In tileset's ini file will be specified the name of counterpart tileatr bin file and image file.

[Fey]

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

By the way, I'm thinking about small rework of how the editor handles tilesets. Right now all supported tilesets need to be specified in config\tilesets.ini file. I want to get rid of that, so that the program will automatically load all existing files under tilesets folder. This way you just place a new tileset under tilesets folder and won't need to modify tilesets.ini. Each tileset will require 3 files - ini file, bmp file and bin file. In tileset's ini file will be specified the name of counterpart tileatr bin file and image file.

yesh

Also, thanks so much for the event highlighting change. I always go up to 47 / 63 on, like, every map, so that will be very useful. x_x

Edited December 6, 2018 by Fey

[D2k Sardaukar]

Thank you very much Klofkac for this great program. I have been using it a lot the last few days to play with map data.

I also got a suggestion. On a 4k screen the pixels are so small that old programs/games need to be scaled up.
This scaling causes some tiles to show more pattern and 'color-patches'. 
People are good at seeing patterns and so I started to notice duplicate tiles (like 2 or 3 next to each other) which is not pretty.

With the random tile paint tool (in your program) there is still a change of double/triple tiles in close proximity. 
So my solution to this is very simple. I analyzed all maps (Campaign and multiplayer) to look at the tile distribution.
I used this distribution to random drop tiles but also reject doubles (horizontal, vertical and diagonal). 
This gives a very nice map that looks random to people (I know, it is not real random because that can have doubles etc.)
I have generated a 128x128 map with this "super random" ROCK tiles and one with SAND and attached those to this post.

Here: Super Random Tiles 128x128 Rock and Sand (D2k).zip

My suggestion is to use this as the "background map" in your program. 
So whenever someone paints rock (or sand) with your program it will actually just show (use) the tiles of this big 128x128 'super random' map.
Of course I can image that some artist want 100% control of tile placement so perhaps adding an option (double click?) to (temporary) overwrite
this 128x128 "super random background map" could be implemented.

Here I show an example of "super random" tiles being used on the Atreides mission 8 that had an ugly line of the same tiles (Left is old, right is new):

I also got some images of the data I used for the distribution (this is only showing for ROCK but I also did SAND):

The eventually used tile distribution. Slightly optimized to also get, for example, more 596 tiles.

 

What do you think about this? (besides me getting carried away with analyzing Dune 2000 maps, haha 🙂 )

Super Random Tiles 128x128 Rock and Sand (D2k).zip

Edited December 8, 2018 by D2k Sardaukar
text

[Fey]

I got another idea, myself.

I use a lot of dialogue in my maps. Would it be possible to have a check in the editor itself where a timer / the sidebar appears in standard 640x400 resolution? The positions of timers and the sidebar don't change, but the text may, so... maybe in the Text sub-section of Mission Settings, there could be a grayed-out 00:00 timer and a vertical line where the side-bar is expected to be on the right side of the white box? Even an estimation would be helpful.

No worries if it ain't possible, it takes a moment to test, but thanks for considering the notion.

[Cm_blast]

3 hours ago, Fey said:

I use a lot of dialogue in my maps. Would it be possible to have a check in the editor itself where a timer / the sidebar appears in standard 640x400 resolution? The positions of timers and the sidebar don't change, but the text may, so... maybe in the Text sub-section of Mission Settings, there could be a grayed-out 00:00 timer and a vertical line where the side-bar is expected to be on the right side of the white box? Even an estimation would be helpful.

I workaround that resizing the "contents" part on the editor. If my text exceeds the size of "contents", even if it is only by a ".", then in game the dialogue also exceeds by that amount.

This way I don't ever need to run the game to know if I am into the limit or not.

3 hours ago, D2k Sardaukar said:

Here: Super Random Tiles 128x128 Rock and Sand (D2k).zip

That's pretty good. I won't mind have it in the double clicking feature.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Cm_blast

[D2k Sardaukar]

Small bug: I ran the editor on a computer with two screens (on most right screen). Then moved the whole program to an USB stick to work on a different computer and the program was not visible. The D2KEditor.ini file had to be deleted to see the program again. Probably wrong "[GUI] MainWindow.xxx = xxxx" setting for the other PC.

Edited December 12, 2018 by D2k Sardaukar

[Gruntlord6]

great work, would you consider submitting the new version to D2K+?

[Helkor Duner]

Hi, I had a problem when I opened the editor. How to fix it?

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Helkor Duner said:

Hi, I had a problem when I opened the editor. How to fix it?

You downloaded only the .exe from this post, but this is not the full release; with this .exe alone it's not enough.

Download the editor from this other post; this is the full release:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27226-release-dune-2000-map-and-mission-editor-v12/

The editor can be placed where you want, it's not needed to be at the game's folder or anything. Later you can overwrite the .exe from the full release and overwrite it with the one you can download in this post to make use of the lastests features.

Also, there is a well know error because the game has the maps into a path but the editor try to search from another path. I don't know if will happen to you, so before starting doing too much with it, you should try if it works fine: open the editor and load any campaign type of map from the game, on the top menu appears "test", use any of the two tests options.
1: If the map loads fine; then you don't need to do anything, you can use the editor for whatever you want.
2: If the game triggers an error (cannot find a file called "testmap") then check this other post that will tell you how to fix it.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27775-d2k-editor-problem-solved/

If you are using the original dune 2000 (not gruntmod) the error shouldn't appear, but in advance I write these so you don't need to stop here again to ask for the next step.

By the way; when you download the full editor, into the "config" folder there is a file called tiledata.bin; If you are using a vanilla dune 2000 (not gruntmods), then you may copy that file into the path where the original game have it (dune2000/data/bin); this won't mod your game per se.

The thing it's, the editor allow you to place an Atreides Devastator, a Harkonnen Raider or an Ordos Palace controlled by the Harkonnen, but if you press the "test" buttom those units/buildings won't appear in your map, because the original game don't reconize those units/buildings for those specific factions.

Same for the Sietchs, only a Fremen or Imperial sides Sietchs will appear on your game if you place them on the editor, but an Atreides Sietchs won't appear (the original game only make use of 2 sietchs, so westwood didn't programe the Atreides to have 1, for example).

So once you overwrite this tiledata.bin into the one of the original game, you can place whatever unit/building for whatever side you want!

Edited January 11, 2019 by Cm_blast

[Helkor Duner]

On 1/11/2019 at 3:43 PM, Cm_blast said:

You downloaded only the .exe from this post, but this is not the full release; with this .exe alone it's not enough.

Download the editor from this other post; this is the full release:
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27226-release-dune-2000-map-and-mission-editor-v12/

The editor can be placed where you want, it's not needed to be at the game's folder or anything. Later you can overwrite the .exe from the full release and overwrite it with the one you can download in this post to make use of the lastests features.

Also, there is a well know error because the game has the maps into a path but the editor try to search from another path. I don't know if will happen to you, so before starting doing too much with it, you should try if it works fine: open the editor and load any campaign type of map from the game, on the top menu appears "test", use any of the two tests options.
1: If the map loads fine; then you don't need to do anything, you can use the editor for whatever you want.
2: If the game triggers an error (cannot find a file called "testmap") then check this other post that will tell you how to fix it.
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27775-d2k-editor-problem-solved/

If you are using the original dune 2000 (not gruntmod) the error shouldn't appear, but in advance I write these so you don't need to stop here again to ask for the next step.

By the way; when you download the full editor, into the "config" folder there is a file called tiledata.bin; If you are using a vanilla dune 2000 (not gruntmods), then you may copy that file into the path where the original game have it (dune2000/data/bin); this won't mod your game per se.

The thing it's, the editor allow you to place an Atreides Devastator, a Harkonnen Raider or an Ordos Palace controlled by the Harkonnen, but if you press the "test" buttom those units/buildings won't appear in your map, because the original game don't reconize those units/buildings for those specific factions.

Same for the Sietchs, only a Fremen or Imperial sides Sietchs will appear on your game if you place them on the editor, but an Atreides Sietchs won't appear (the original game only make use of 2 sietchs, so westwood didn't programe the Atreides to have 1, for example).

So once you overwrite this tiledata.bin into the one of the original game, you can place whatever unit/building for whatever side you want!

Thank you, I have moved a little further, but this topic does not mention the first error that occurred - the test card did not find the path to the game. The path that is specified shows the remote folder - I placed the editor of the dune in a completely different way. So how to fix it, I do not understand.