KeenGrout - A Keen Day Release

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 13:16

In my time zone it's not Keen Day yet, but it is in some places, and I'm not 100% positive that I'll have access to the internet tomorrow, so ...

Introducing ...
K e e n G r o u t

Every time I set down to make a couple of tiles, especially for Keens 4-6, I was always set back by having to count, multiply by 16, divide by 16, and fiddle around to make sure I was creating tiles actually on 16-tile boundaries ... and most of the time I messed up the first time anyway. Making Keen 4-6 foreground tiles is even worse, with the 'masking' half of the tile image to worry about.

So a few days ago, when I realized that Keen Day was coming up and I didn't have anything for it, so I wrote a program that I had wanted for quite a while.

KeenGrout

Put this program in the same folder as your tile image(s). Run it, and press the 'En-grout' button to create a version of your tileset with the tiles delimited by grid lines every 17 pixels (so that there are 16 pixels in between in each one). In Keens 4-6, it also handles the masking plane, and makes all parts of the tile image that are 'see through' a different color. After editing the grouted version, press 'De-grout' and import with ModKeen. See the docs for more information.

Enjoy, guys! And have a great Keen Day!

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 13:37

*celebrates*

It's been Keen Day here for about half an hour.

This is a marvelous contribution to the modding community. I've been using it for Monky Business since receiving the first beta. I'm still floored at the fact that the rest of us failed to think of such an elegantly simple idea.

Post by **KeenRush** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 13:40

Pretty much agree with everything Spleen said. (Except the part about Keen Day having been here for half an hour already.) It's a cool idea and an useful tool.

Now I'd only need to do some modding to have use for it...

But I'll get to that again at some point.

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 15:19

Heh, thanks guys.

Now we need to get some people who weren't betatesters into this thread.

A new version without IDE-info (like where should the cursor be placed) in the soure file has been secretly uploaded.

Shadow Master · Post by **Shadow Master** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 17:19

And I had been using The GIMP's grid option all this time (with a size of 16x16, with bright grid lines so that I couldn't miss them).

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 17:39

Shadow Master wrote:And I had been using The GIMP's grid option all this time (with a size of 16x16, with bright grid lines so that I couldn't miss them).

Not all of us are that cool, apparently.

I'm willing to bet that GIMP doesn't handle the masking image thing on Keen 4-6 foreground tiles, though.

---

I've been thinking about ways to improve this program. One was to also manipulate the sprite image files, doing the same sort of thing with the masking panel. Also, I think I would make one magic, universal "SYNC" button that looks at each tile and sprite image individually and either en-grouts or de-grouts according to the timestamps on the regular and grouted versions.

Post by **KeenRush** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 17:49

CK Guy wrote:Now we need to get some people who weren't betatesters into this thread.

Alright, chief.

Anyways, GIMP sucks, I'd never use it. This is much better. And to do a simple trick people aren't interested in downloading, installing, and using heavy software like GIMP...

entropicdecay · Post by **entropicdecay** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 19:31

It sounds very useful. Good idea, I have had some problems before with finding the divisions between tiles when editing them.

jimmyjames · Post by **jimmyjames** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 19:53

Not keen Day yet for me but......................

This tool rocks!
Loved it while beta testing love it now.

C'mon everyone give this the attention it deserves!

Mink · Post by **Mink** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 13:25

This is a wonderful tool! I especially like how the masking half is handled automatically. This will greatly speed up the tile editing that I am doing for my Keen 4 level pack, considering I always had trouble figuring out where one tile ends and another begins. Thanks for such a great program, CK Guy.

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 21:19

Hi guys, long time no see!

I made a new tentative version of the program several days ago but have had no internet. Here it is: http://theckguy.googlepages.com/keengrout5.exe

The most important new feature is it does the same 'masking' thing to sprites as it does to the foreground tiles in Keens 4-6. Also, there is only one 'sync' button now, instead of en-grout and de-grout. This looks at the dates on the files and sees which one is newer in order to decide whether to en- or de-grout. (And it makes the output file have the same date as the input file.) It also now grouts/masks the 8x8 tiles and the masked bitmaps in Keens 4-6.

Let me know what you think, and what should be changed, etc., before I re-write the docs!

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 23:05

Why is this place dying?

I'll admit, I was expecting a lot more new posts after my week-and-a-half absence, and no one has responded about the new version of this program.

Post by **KeenRush** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 23:52

Hold your gargs! This new version is too simple for me! And I can't get it working either -- it made the unmasked pictures nicely, but when I edited an unmasked sprite, it didn't get it back to game when I pressed that button. (And what if someone is using coloured masks, how will it get those back to game from unmasked pics? Or are you using other RGB values for their colours?) And yeah, it's been quiet.

Malvineous · Post by **Malvineous** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 0:17

You only gave it a day though :-P This place isn't dying, it's just slow paced, has been for years. You need to give it maybe a week before everyone has had a chance to see your post.

Also some screenshots would be nice for those of us who can't run it, and thus aren't entirely sure what it does...

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:53

This forum has always had intermittent busy and slow periods. It has never meant that the forum is dying, and probably won't continue to.

Anyway, about the program...I haven't had a chance to test it out since I don't have any fleshed-out plans for a Keen 4-6 mod, but I must say now that it's a brilliant idea. When I come around to it one day, I WILL be using it; it will make the process much more efficient.

And the sprite change is very convenient too. Usually, when editing sprites with the built-in masks and stuff, I've had to find little tricks to keep track of where the edge is.