[Updated] Map and Mission Editor new major version 2.0 pre-release 2

[Klofkac]

On 8/26/2020 at 7:42 PM, Cm_blast said:

Which, by the way, if you want to test if this new graphical stuff works, you can use my "EBFD - <HOUSE >ASSAULT"; turrets controled by sandworm don't have the top-turret, the thumper and the engineer have been altered to be other units, a raider with a combat tank canon and a the other it's a quad wearing a siege tank canon (bot preplaced on the mission). I don't have custom colors (just high index), but for the units itself it can give you an insight if you want something quick to load and see if it is loading well.

This is how it gets displayed in editor. I hope it's how it is supposed to be, didn't try in-game.

[Cm_blast]

16 hours ago, Klofkac said:

This is how it gets displayed in editor. I hope it's how it is supposed to be, didn't try in-game.

It is!!!

Totally, those are the Tleilaxu turrets, the leechers and the sietch pretending to be the weird barracks from the game, plus the quad-siege tank combo.

Indeed it works as intented. In fact, I like how it even show the tleilaxu turrets not using the concrete, as they don't use (while still having 100% HP).

This is going to be a great help when using modding units, even if it is just small things like this mission like here to know quickly what units are what.

Can you try to place a devastator per house and a Sardaukar per house?
In game the Sardaukar it's a "devastator" (treat it as one, but it doesn't look like a deva or a sardaukar), so there are 2 and, like the original sardaukar and MP Sardaukar, this custom devastator has priority (means everybody should build this), but because it requires the imperial palace only the AI get it.

Tecnically, if the player could capture the palace (no engies on the game, so no way to do it) you could build it, although as Harkonnen you will loose your own devastator for this new one. This is a "Sardaukar - MP sardaukar" thing, but unlike those 2 this two "devas" are not the same unit at all.

So I am curious on what you editor would do if you place both the devastator and the sardaukar (all sides) into the map; more considering there is a sardaukar in the game, it is just the multiplayer version with other tech and stuff; so yeah, if you can try placing those units and see what the editor do, I guess it will show the custom version maybe due having priority over the other, but to be sure.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

On 8/28/2020 at 1:48 PM, Cm_blast said:

Can you try to place a devastator per house and a Sardaukar per house?

Here you go. All units showcase, then row of devastators for all sides, then row of sardaukars for all sides.

[Cm_blast]

19 minutes ago, Klofkac said:

Here you go. All units showcase, then row of devastators for all sides, then row of sardaukars for all sides.

Alright, perfect. so the deva will show the vanilla deva for Hark, and the custom one from the others, as it should be, so yeah, working as intended.

I can also see you did a bit or recolor on the St.units as well.

The editor saying "CONSTRUCTION_YARD" is something that happens from now on or it has to do with using custom stuff?

[Fey]

6 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

The editor saying "CONSTRUCTION_YARD" is something that happens from now on or it has to do with using custom stuff?

This probably has to do with the unit behavior type. Since the editor is reading directly from game files, perhaps this will be the case from now on.

Also I love everything going on right here. This is the good stuff. Hell yeah, brother.

[firefly101]

Its a great addition to the editor for sure, especially for those that have modded units.

Cm_blast how did you recolor the stealth look, I would like to know if possible?

Thanks

[Klofkac]

8 hours ago, Fey said:

14 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

The editor saying "CONSTRUCTION_YARD" is something that happens from now on or it has to do with using custom stuff?

This probably has to do with the unit behavior type. Since the editor is reading directly from game files, perhaps this will be the case from now on.

Yes, this is the change done into editor: Previously the building and unit names and configuration was stored in external configuration .ini file shipped with editor ("config/structures.ini"), but now, editor loads all building and unit configuration and names only from game's internal files, like "templates.bin". The same applies to building and unit names in events and conditions, those will no longer be loaded from "buildings.txt" and "units.txt" files. This has a main drawback that the names are not so well-looking like before, but the advantage is you can rename the unit directly in Templates.bin (not sure if TibEd can do it) and then you will see the same name in editor.

I was also thinking if it's possible to load "user-friendly" building and unit names from TEXT.UIB (so you would even see translated names if you use i.e. spanish TEXT.UIB), but I can think of a drawback that some types of units have same name (i.e. Stealth Fremen vs. Fremen) so it wouldn't be distinguishable in the list.

2 hours ago, firefly101 said:

Cm_blast how did you recolor the stealth look, I would like to know if possible?

This is actually dynamically done in the editor itself. Stealth units are drawn in solid color to be easily distinguishable from non-stealth units. This is the best I could come up with.

And by the way one more thing: Unfortunately Outpost and Modified Outpost will not be visually distinguishable at all (even not by different antenna direction). The reason is that editor draws the structures in same way as game does, and in game both outposts use the exactly same graphics. The only way you can distinguish what outpost type it is, is middle-click on it and see which item in building list gets selected.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Klofkac

[Cm_blast]

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

Yes, this is the change done into editor: Previously the building and unit names and configuration was stored in external configuration .ini file shipped with editor ("config/structures.ini"), but now, editor loads all building and unit configuration and names only from game's internal files, like "templates.bin". The same applies to building and unit names in events and conditions, those will no longer be loaded from "buildings.txt" and "units.txt" files. This has a main drawback that the names are not so well-looking like before, but the advantage is you can rename the unit directly in Templates.bin (not sure if TibEd can do it) and then you will see the same name in editor.

I was also thinking if it's possible to load "user-friendly" building and unit names from TEXT.UIB (so you would even see translated names if you use i.e. spanish TEXT.UIB), but I can think of a drawback that some types of units have same name (i.e. Stealth Fremen vs. Fremen) so it wouldn't be distinguishable in the list.

"MEDIUM/LARGE_GUN_TURRET" Doesn't even sound like an actual turret that exist in the game. usually called rocket turret.

and on the events how it will appear? because right now sais "Construction yard (A)", but if it will show as Tibed do it: ATREIDES_CONSTRUCTION_YARD; HARKONNEN_CONSTRUTION_YARD and so on may be confusing searching for a certain structure if they show the house name before the actual building name.

2 hours ago, Klofkac said:

And by the way one more thing: Unfortunately Outpost and Modified Outpost will not be visually distinguishable at all (even not by different antenna direction). The reason is that editor draws the structures in same way as game does, and in game both outposts use the exactly same graphics. The only way you can distinguish what outpost type it is, is middle-click on it and see which item in building list gets selected.

aww. sad, so many years after I came with the solution and we returned so quick back, well. we cannot have everything, I don't mind loosing that in return for the others features.

[Klofkac]

22 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

and on the events how it will appear? because right now sais "Construction yard (A)", but if it will show as Tibed do it: ATREIDES_CONSTRUCTION_YARD; HARKONNEN_CONSTRUTION_YARD and so on may be confusing searching for a certain structure if they show the house name before the actual building name.

Exactly. I know this is not ideal. I was thinking about taking building/unit names from Templates.bin long time ago, but scrapped this idea because I wanted editor to have prettier names. But as now, Templates.bin can be easily modded and you would need to modify editor's buildings.txt and units.txt files alongside Templates.bin, which I consider being double work, which is IMO worse for the modding idea.

[Cm_blast]

it couldn't possible make a "if called "ATREIDES_CONSTRUCTION_YARD" then "Construction Yard (a)" so for unmoded stuff appears "pretty" but if you mod it will apear whatever thing you have there or something like that?

[Fey]

Considering the benefits, I don't mind this change.

[Cm_blast]

I found a minor bug, more funny that anything.

Having a reveal map of 7 (same for other values).

If you have clicked that event and click on the "event type" and change into a reinforcement, unit spawn or starport delivery and hit "enter"

I will change into that.

nothing breaking, but a minor bug I found now.

[Klofkac]

12 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

it couldn't possible make a "if called "ATREIDES_CONSTRUCTION_YARD" then "Construction Yard (a)" so for unmoded stuff appears "pretty" but if you mod it will apear whatever thing you have there or something like that?

Yes it would be possible, and I was also thinking about it. For example to make some translation table like "ATREIDES CONSTRUCTION YARD" -> "Construction Yard (A)" and others. However, on the other hand, I do not want to make things too complicated, and my goal I wanted to achieve was to get rid of additional explicit configuration files that come with the editor, and load as many things directly from game files as possible.

I think the best would be to leave it as it is and try to work with editor like that, maybe you will get used to this. Just give it a try. I will provide another preview version (not final one), so there will be still a place for improvements and changes, if needed.

5 hours ago, Cm_blast said:

I found a minor bug, more funny that anything.

I see. The reason is that the "Reveal map" uses the same byte for storing "Radius" as other events use for "Number of units". When you switch event types, the byte is not cleared. I can take a look at that.

[Klofkac]

So I made a compromise - I'm prettifying the building and unit names that come from Templates.bin. I did not like how they were in all capital letters, so this it nicer to look at.

[Klofkac]

New D2kEditor preview version is released! The great new features, as presented here recently, are finally available for you to happily use them!

Download: D2kEditorv2.0pre2.zip

Changelog:

Added: You can select multiple properties in AI editor on Mission dialog and set same value to all of them at once.
       Hold Shift + Up/Down arrow keys to select a continuous range.
Fixed: Units could not be added to unit list when existing event's type was changed from a different type without units
Fixed: When changing from Reveal Map event type, there were ghost Light Infantry units added (same amount as Radius)
Changed: The minimap colors in tileset .ini files are now specified in "$RRGGBB" format instead of "$BBGGRR" format.

Major change:
Editor loads building and unit graphics and configuration from game's files (Templates.bin, DATA.R16).
Buildings and units are displayed in exactly same way as shown in-game, supporting mods!
- The file "graphics\structures.bmp" is no longer distributed with editor. Instead, editor loads building and unit
  graphics from game's internal "DATA.R16" file.
- The files "config\structures.ini", "config\buildings.txt" and "config\units.txt" are no longer distributed with editor.
  Instead, editor loads building and unit names and configuration from game's internal "Templates.bin" file.
- Buildings and units should be displayed in exactly same way as shown in game. Editor tries to mimic the game's way
  of rendering graphics as most faithfully as possible. There's still possibility for minor differences and inaccuracy.
- The building and unit names in lists and event/condition descriptions are taken directly from "Templates.bin" file
  and prettified (converted from ugly uppercase to easier-to-look-at lowercase). So instead of for example
  "Construction Yard (A)" there will be "Atreides Construction Yard".
- On Structures tab there is a yellow stripe telling which building or unit version will be placed for selected side.
- The "Use allocation indexes" setting was changed to "Use alloc. index colors". If turned off, players with changed 
  allocation index will have building versions according to alloc. index, but color according to player index.
- Full support for modded game's graphics and building/unit configuration, no need to modify any editor's files.

Enjoy and let me please know about your experience, and issues, if any.

And as I mentioned in changelog, I modified the color specification format in tileset .ini files from "$BBGGRR" to "$RRGGBB". Existing tileset .ini files need to be updated to reflect this change, otherwise minimap colors will be displayed wrongly. Here are some modified tileset .ini files, please use these with this new version of editor: tilesets.zip

Edited September 6, 2020 by Klofkac

[Fey]

卄乇乚乚  丫乇卂卄  乃尺口丅卄乇尺

Imma try this out as soon as I can.

[Cm_blast]

On 9/6/2020 at 10:53 PM, Klofkac said:

The file "graphics\structures.bmp" is no longer distributed with editor. Instead, editor loads building and unit graphics from game's internal "DATA.R16" file.

I am assuming that your editor will also load this custom selection?

Somebody did a draconis kind of tileset, but the original "place concrete-building" was confusing to see, so I tried making those selection more darker.

So I guess your editor will show this as well?

Edited September 8, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Klofkac]

41 minutes ago, Cm_blast said:

I am assuming that your editor will also load this custom selection?

Somebody did a draconis kind of tileset, but the original "place concrete-building" was confusing to see, so I tried making those selection more darker.

Eh, actually no - editor does not load building selection marker graphics at all, instead, it just draws diagonal stripes on its own, with a fixed color.

[Klofkac]

It's quite long silence here, so I'll break it by showing a progress from me:

You would probably guess it right - it's a Templates.bin editor, a replacement of TibEd. This should be one level above TibEd, supporting all building properties including those that are Unknown fields in TibEd, crammed on a single screen, and most importantly, you can have a live preview of the building visual appearance, including animations.

At this stage I am asking all of you who read this, for a comment and feedback on this question - will you ever make a good use of this feature? What I am concerned about is, that developing such functionality takes me really very lot of time and effort, and I want to make sure, that this won't be wasted effort, but there will be enough people that will actively use it and make a really good new stuff with this. At this time, we have TibEd, and people have used it for long of time so far and made really good creations and mods with that, and with some effort, it is still moreless still well-usable. I'm creating something that's going to be better and replace TibEd, but lot of stuff was already created with TibEd and I wonder if there's still somebody keen on modding that much who would create something brand new and interesting with the new possibilities.

So @Fey @Cm_blast @Feda @firefly101 @Amander @X3M @azimovhaas8 @AZ-Stalker @lovalmidas @aarmaageedoon now you have opportunity to vote here and tell if you plan to use the better replacement of TibEd I'm currently working on. The more votes, the more I'll be into finishing this.

Thank you.

[Cm_blast]

I always had in mind a big campaign where I go to edit everything, using every single tileset done as multiple planets so you face nameless factions (or random factions as I may give them based on wikis) with weird tech; although for the most part I am aiming with the graphics that exist already, but as Fey had several graphics here and there (and units) I may use them too.

If I had that tool with those nice "cannot be sold" It's something I would prefer over reasking Fey or re-re-researching myself which bytes do what.

I simply cannot say for sure "I will do it" because who knows if by when I am finish with my current campaign I am totally done with modding, or maybe not; I don't know; my "Dune Emperor final" mission was on my mind but I created like 3-4 campaigns before actually doing it.

For my part, having some of these options more clearly (and not lying as Tibed does in some parts) It could be that future/possible campaign of mine it's more certain to happens.

And of course, it is more likely to happen now that Feda Launcher allow using modded stuff more easily and with less limits for the user/modder.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Cm_blast

[Fey]

Hell yes I would use the fuck out of that.

[Feda]

The issue with TibEd is that even what works currently is very poorly documented (actually not all all by the author). Right now Fey is the guy everyone goes to when it comes to how to use TibEd, since he spent the most time researching it and its bugs. There is no way to create a decent mod (which involves more than just changing the HP of buildings and basic stuff like that) without spending tons of time finding out what certain unknown bytes do, or understand what behavior really means, as it's a pretty bad word to describe that feature.

A new TibEd, especially based on the screenshot I saw above, would be absolutely amazing. Even more now, since people can actually get into modding and have their files installed and uninstalled automatically. The fact people had to copy paste and backup files themselves used to be the main reason not a lot of creators decided to go for mods in their missions. Ever since the new launcher, there has been a significant increase in modding desire on our discord server. However, TibEd is really not the greatest program ever, so I really believe your tool would be a life-saver. I know for sure that I'd use your tool over TibEd any minute just by watching that screenshot above. Not to mention the preview of the building with animation support, which is huge

Lemme give you an example: let's say I want to make the sietch selectable and repairable, then add a unit queue to it. I have a general idea of what I have to change, but I'd have to go over 1-2-3 pages of forum topics or search in a big-ass history of discord messages, or even PM Fey just to find out the byte numbers that I have to change, since I don't remember the actual numbers. Your editor can only be a serious improvement over TibEd, there is no reason anyone would use TibEd over yours if you get it to do all that TibEd can do + the better, more documented interface.

Another reason: I am planning a sequel to my War of the Landsraad campaign pack, but I said I'll wait even 2 years if that's how much it takes to have some documentation done over all the unknowns and other TibEd stuff. I would really prefer to not have to deal with numbers, but with actual text organized in a very good GroupBox-style interface like in your screenshot. Maybe there won't be 100 people using it, since the community is small, but I can guarantee me, Fey and Cm would use this without a thought, and I'm sure the other modders like @Amander will also transition to it, as there is simply no reason to stick to TibEd if something like this becomes available.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Feda

[Fey]

Yeah! What Feda said!

[KippD2K]

you got my vote, klofkac 😁

[Darlax]

I would also love the new "TibEd". 😬😁

Darlax~