A "perfect" editor.

[Mink]

Glad to hear that, LJH, it's always good to have competition.

I noticed in CK Guy's editor that things could severely slow down, while I never had this problem in TED5.

Do you mean slow as in the program itself becomes sluggish at times (are you on Linux/running it through WINE?) or that the process of editing is slowed down by the interface? I've never had a problem with the former (on Win XP/7 32-bit/7 64-bit) and have found the interface to be the best one out there in terms of efficiency and streamlinededness.

[Levellass]

I like TED5, it's perfect for me.

[TerminILL]

A perfect Galaxy editor for me would be a Linux-compatible TOM. With the minor bugs ironed out.

[Nospike]

The reason I quit using TOM and switched to Keen:Next is that TOM can't create a blank level.
Pretty much everything you can do there is place blocks and sprites.

[LJH]

Not if it has the same performance issues as Mindbelt, which is usable but not always fun.

We already have a Qt-based tileinfo editor. Qt level editors would go along with that nicely.

I guess I could try to learn it... it'd be useful. I'm not really familiar with anything outside of BASIC, PHP and MMF2 at the moment... let's see what I can do. *downloads*

[Gridlock]

Do you mean slow as in the program itself becomes sluggish at times (are you on Linux/running it through WINE?) or that the process of editing is slowed down by the interface? I've never had a problem with the former (on Win XP/7 32-bit/7 64-bit) and have found the interface to be the best one out there in terms of efficiency and streamlinededness.

I was running this through Windows. The program would become quite laggy the more I used it. I think I remember having to reload maps 2 or 3 times to get them to run quickly. Of course I think it may have been an older computer.

The only real reason I see for creating a new editor is to get rid of the need for Dosbox for Ted5 and to get a more centralized editor. Some would argue that KeenNext fits this, but many I think prefer the design of the Ted5-styled interface. Also, I think beginners have a difficult time learning how to set things up, although the tutorials help. I'd rather see a more practical editor like a music or hitbox editor.

[LJH]

There's some features I myself would like to see in an editor, such as automatic generation of platforms rather than having to put each tile of them seperately, which was what originally got me wanting to make one.

[Gridlock]

The one thing I don't get when everyone talks about slope and platform tools is, how it's possible. You have to realize that these things are simple spots on the tile array. If the tilesets were changed significantly, set up for this could be tricky. It seems there are a lot of variables here.

[LJH]

It's more the whole thing of all the seperate tiles... but all it'd need with custom ones is to set up once what tiles are what.

[LJH]

Goddamnit, carmackization is pissing me off.

I can get a fake carmack (like Instant Carma) working, but whenever I try and do a proper carmack, it refuses to work. >_>

EDIT: And even weirder, if I try to extract my carmackized levels, then repack them again with the working fake-carmack, THEY WORK FINE!!! So it seems my carmack algorithm can be read by my own decompression (which also decompresses the real levels just fine), yet not by the actual game. Any tips here, guys?

[DaVince]

Does this mean we'll be seeing a fully-fledged editor from you?

I am indeed attempting to make one, however do keep in mind I have a terrible history of abandoning projects due to losing interest, so I wouldn't count on it.

Release what you have IF you abandon it. That way maybe someone can pick it up and continue work on it.

[LJH]

Hm, does anyone know if maybe the game doesn't support recursive carmacking?

For example, if I have:

12 34 56 78 12 34 56 78 12 34 56 78 12 34 56 78

As the uncompressed data.

Is the game unable to utilize it compressed as:

12 34 56 78 02 A7 02 04 A7 04

And would require it compressed as one of:

12 34 56 78 02 A7 02 12 34 56 78 02 A7 02
12 34 56 78 12 34 56 78 04 A7 04
(or maybe)
12 34 56 78 02 A7 02 02 A7 04 02 A7 06

[LJH]

AND the number 1 fucl reason why TED5 needs to be replaced...
Yet again, my levels got corrupted. >_>

[Gridlock]

Can I ask how your levels got corrupted? Usually I just quit the editor without saving any changes on the 2 or 3 times this has ever happened to me. The only way I know for sure to corrupt the maps is by expanding the map edges too much. I'm am kind of curious what messes TED5 up.

[Levellass]

1.) BACK UP YOUR WORK. I do this every time I make a change I wouldn't want to have to repeat. Usually at least once c day. select -> send to zip works.

2.)

So it seems my carmack algorithm can be read by my own decompression (which also decompresses the real levels just fine), yet not by the actual game. Any tips here, guys?

You can write anything that you can decompress, doesn't mean you're right. I had the same problem doing carmack. Bleah.

The game supports 'recursive' carmackizing since it reads from the data decompressed so far. (It's not really recursive.)

My suggestion would be to take the decompressed elvels made by TedSetup and run them through your compressor. Then take a look at how YOUR compressed data differs from the games. This is useful because you *know* how the data *should* be compressed. I had some terrible problems with the 'sliding window' (How far back you could get data from.) when in doubt, simplicity beats file size. keenGraph doesn't bother with huffman compression since nobody will really notice it anyway. This is why fake carma works, who really cares if thier levels are 500kb instead of 250?