UPDATE
v1.3: the platinum seal
The documentation update is still in the works, so I'll summarize the features here. You can, as always, get the update via the auto-updater, or at this v1.3 ZIP.
First up, I fixed all kinds of terrible things that I'm surprised nobody found before me. Since nobody actually ran into them, I'll never speak of these bugs again.
Then, I added some really awesome never-before-seen tools! The Tile Property Modifier became even more awesome with an inspection mode. Press I and it will scan the tileset for crash-causing problems, mostly with animation links. There are two new level tools: the Level Inspector and the Resource Accountant. The LI checks the level for pretty much every problem listed on the Errors page on KeenWiki and presents a list of problems that the level has. The RA counts up all the resources (like points, ammo, lives) in the level - both from foreground tile properties and infoplane configuration - and displays it in an executive-summary dialog box. Both are customizable to some extent, but their sub-formats in persist.aconf and the adeps files are somewhat difficult. Contact me for assistance if your mod's infoplane layout is modified from the originals.
Enjoy and happy modding!
Note: this update resets persist.aconf, which was necessary for the LI and RA. Sorry for any inconvenience.
[v2.11.3] Abiathar: The superior Keen Galaxy editor
I just recently finished a chain of e-mail correspondence with an Abiathar user who was having quite a bit of trouble getting his levels to run in-game. This is not the first time I have received messages that required me to explain patching. So...
UPDATE
v1.4: the patch generator update
Documentation
Download (ZIP)
First up, the most awesome feature: automatic patch file creation! Click "Write Patches" under File and Abiathar will generate a patch file (for maphead, mapdict, and tileinfo where appropriate), a batch file, and a CKPatch executable. Don't have an UNLZEXE'd game file? No problem, Abiathar's "Un-LZ EXE" utility, also under File, has you covered! In fact, you can just drag an EXE onto Abiathar and it will un-LZ it.
I also fixed a whole bunch of bugs, including the File Emitter not working at all and the annoying dependence on the absolute location of the file. That's right, you can now work with the same adeps on multiple computers! In that vein, I also made saving files a lot more convenient; Abiathar starts you off in the place containing the resources.
The horror of persist.aconf's Profiles section is finally over! You can now modify editor.aconf, containing view settings, without being overwhelmed by all that other trash, now locked in defaults.aconf. In fact, the entire profiles system is no longer around; those things are now more like templates. To manage them, I added the Template Manager. (Read more about that in the help file if you want.) Unfortunately, this means you will have to create new adeps files, as the format is not backwards-compatible. (Open them up in Notepad and you'll see.) On a positive note, infrastructure is in place so you never have to do that (or replace a deleted-after-update persist.aconf) again!
In the miscellaneous department, there's now a snazzy splash/loading screen that greets you with a random exclamation on every launch. Also, my beta testers get a nice treat; enter a beta key I give you to download the private beta version in question. Finally, you can drag an ADEPS file onto Abiathar to open it without going through File->Open.
Happy Keening!
Fleexy
UPDATE
v1.4: the patch generator update
Documentation
Download (ZIP)
First up, the most awesome feature: automatic patch file creation! Click "Write Patches" under File and Abiathar will generate a patch file (for maphead, mapdict, and tileinfo where appropriate), a batch file, and a CKPatch executable. Don't have an UNLZEXE'd game file? No problem, Abiathar's "Un-LZ EXE" utility, also under File, has you covered! In fact, you can just drag an EXE onto Abiathar and it will un-LZ it.
I also fixed a whole bunch of bugs, including the File Emitter not working at all and the annoying dependence on the absolute location of the file. That's right, you can now work with the same adeps on multiple computers! In that vein, I also made saving files a lot more convenient; Abiathar starts you off in the place containing the resources.
The horror of persist.aconf's Profiles section is finally over! You can now modify editor.aconf, containing view settings, without being overwhelmed by all that other trash, now locked in defaults.aconf. In fact, the entire profiles system is no longer around; those things are now more like templates. To manage them, I added the Template Manager. (Read more about that in the help file if you want.) Unfortunately, this means you will have to create new adeps files, as the format is not backwards-compatible. (Open them up in Notepad and you'll see.) On a positive note, infrastructure is in place so you never have to do that (or replace a deleted-after-update persist.aconf) again!
In the miscellaneous department, there's now a snazzy splash/loading screen that greets you with a random exclamation on every launch. Also, my beta testers get a nice treat; enter a beta key I give you to download the private beta version in question. Finally, you can drag an ADEPS file onto Abiathar to open it without going through File->Open.
Happy Keening!
Fleexy
Alright, Gridlock, I have news for you. Just today I implemented a really awesome memory manager that should remedy your lack of actual memory! (It also enables all 32-bit machines to work with ginormous quantities of level data.) Basically, it hooks into the system memory visor, grabs execution when Windows is about to murder it for monopolizing memory, and then gives other currently cached level view states the axe. You might notice a moderately large delay while switching to a large level, this is Abiathar pleading the bitmap garbage collector to not kill everyone you love.
In other news, I slimmed down the defaults.aconf config file (from 50KB to 32KB) and added more splash screen texts! You can now also disable the random text by creating a file called nosplash.aflag in the residing directory.
Basically:
UPDATE
v1.4.1: memory manager magic!
Get it with the auto-updater!
Fleexy
In other news, I slimmed down the defaults.aconf config file (from 50KB to 32KB) and added more splash screen texts! You can now also disable the random text by creating a file called nosplash.aflag in the residing directory.
Basically:
UPDATE
v1.4.1: memory manager magic!
Get it with the auto-updater!
Fleexy
-
chrissifniotis
- Vorticon Elite
- Posts: 431
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:33
- Location: Sydney, Australia
-
chrissifniotis
- Vorticon Elite
- Posts: 431
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:33
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Well, everybody, it's been quite a while since Abiathar updated and there have been some great additions. Those additions are so major that I decided to call this version 2.0! So, here we go...
UPDATE
v2.0: the customizability update, with lots of other things too!
Documentation
As always, you can get it with the magical auto-updater, or download the v2.0 files in ZIP format. Now, let's go over the changes!
First, there's an entirely new way of starting a project! It's called the New Project Wizard, and it is intended to replace the Dependency Collector. (You can bring the DC back in the config file, ShowAdvancedMenuOptions/LegacyDepsCollector.) As I said, it's a wizard, so it steps you through every part of creating a project and offers a lot more features than the old DC.
The features introduced by the New Project Wizard are amazing. Abiathar now supports Bio Menace: choose to input settings manually, select "TED5 MapTemp/MapHead" for the level format, open the GFXINFOE file that comes with Bio Menace, and run the wizard as usual. You should also be able to open other TED5-created games with that or the other TED5 option (MapTemp/MapTHead).
The NPW also permits you to use tile sheet bitmaps as your graphics source. It supports ModKeen and KeenGraph bitmaps (plus KG grouting), automatically detecting what type it was given. You can also take advantage of Infoplane Override to show a different set of tiles in the infoplane layer than in the foreground layer for the same IDs.
Then, even after you're done with the NPW, you can always come back to it to modify your project setup later, using "Project Settings" under Edit. Also, if you get inexplicable errors in the NPW, you can use its new error reporter to send me a report of the issue so I can help tell you what's wrong.
You know the level maps on KeenWiki? You no longer need a separate tool to make them - just use Abiathar's new "Export Image" option under View. The config file lets you do things like clip the outer 2-tile border, use a custom zoom level, or automatically choose a filename based on level properties instead of specifying one every time.
MoffD and wiivn were very kind and made some icons for Abiathar! There are three of them; they appear in various places.
The Row and Column Adjusters have been extended with the ability to update links only if the foreground tile property makes it appropriate. This is not the default, though, because it takes a little longer to complete and doesn't work if the foreground tile changes in-game (such as on the Keen 5 world map). If you don't want to update links for some reason, there's also an option for that. Press Space while using those tools to choose your link update policy.
The Level Inspector has been made more efficient, and given better detection routines (as has the inspection mode of the Tile Property Modifier). It also has a better report GUI, which allows you to scroll through the list, sort it, or save the list to disk.
Performance has been improved, especially while using the Tile Tweaker. Some miscellaneous improvements all over the place speed up other tasks as well.
The Tile Instance Locator (find tool) now allows placing tiles, and updates when you pick a tile from the tile palette.
Translucent colors are now rendered as the normal color with 50% opacity, as opposed to not showing up at all. This works best when loading from EGA resources.
The Reload Graphics command now uses Shift+Enter as a hotkey, and works a lot better. The crashing has been eliminated and the level no longer vanishes while the reload is in progress. (It does still show the "Abiathar" splash screen while reloading on Linux, though, due to a missing API method.) Speaking of keybind changes, the undo command is now simply Z, as opposed to Ctrl+Z. Tile Instance Locator and Tile Instance Remapper have been given shortcuts.
Code cleanliness has been improved, increasing stability and making it easier for me to maintain it and add more features!
A rare level corruption bug involving Dreams levels with embedded tileinfo has been fixed.
Using Assimilate Infoplane no longer disables the infoplane-only palette, and the strangeness with right-clicking in the combined tileset has been removed.
Finally, the plane controls have changed. As you will see quite clearly, the plane state labels give a more obvious visual indication of how active they are. The business with function keys to set plane state is no longer default; the TED5 style is in. You can still use the menu options or the labels to change the state, or switch to the old behavior in the config file. Tilesets can be called with the spacebar and switched between with 1 through 3 while in palette mode, and remember their Y offset. If you don't want to press Space to access them, use Simultaneous Tileset mode or use the appropriate key in the 7-9 range.
Oh, and Abiathar has a Twitter account now! Follow @AbiatharDev for updates, tips, and general awesomeness! You can also tweet short support requests or bug reports (oh no!) to it.
Happy modding!
Fleexy
UPDATE
v2.0: the customizability update, with lots of other things too!
Documentation
As always, you can get it with the magical auto-updater, or download the v2.0 files in ZIP format. Now, let's go over the changes!
First, there's an entirely new way of starting a project! It's called the New Project Wizard, and it is intended to replace the Dependency Collector. (You can bring the DC back in the config file, ShowAdvancedMenuOptions/LegacyDepsCollector.) As I said, it's a wizard, so it steps you through every part of creating a project and offers a lot more features than the old DC.
The features introduced by the New Project Wizard are amazing. Abiathar now supports Bio Menace: choose to input settings manually, select "TED5 MapTemp/MapHead" for the level format, open the GFXINFOE file that comes with Bio Menace, and run the wizard as usual. You should also be able to open other TED5-created games with that or the other TED5 option (MapTemp/MapTHead).
The NPW also permits you to use tile sheet bitmaps as your graphics source. It supports ModKeen and KeenGraph bitmaps (plus KG grouting), automatically detecting what type it was given. You can also take advantage of Infoplane Override to show a different set of tiles in the infoplane layer than in the foreground layer for the same IDs.
Then, even after you're done with the NPW, you can always come back to it to modify your project setup later, using "Project Settings" under Edit. Also, if you get inexplicable errors in the NPW, you can use its new error reporter to send me a report of the issue so I can help tell you what's wrong.
You know the level maps on KeenWiki? You no longer need a separate tool to make them - just use Abiathar's new "Export Image" option under View. The config file lets you do things like clip the outer 2-tile border, use a custom zoom level, or automatically choose a filename based on level properties instead of specifying one every time.
MoffD and wiivn were very kind and made some icons for Abiathar! There are three of them; they appear in various places.
The Row and Column Adjusters have been extended with the ability to update links only if the foreground tile property makes it appropriate. This is not the default, though, because it takes a little longer to complete and doesn't work if the foreground tile changes in-game (such as on the Keen 5 world map). If you don't want to update links for some reason, there's also an option for that. Press Space while using those tools to choose your link update policy.
The Level Inspector has been made more efficient, and given better detection routines (as has the inspection mode of the Tile Property Modifier). It also has a better report GUI, which allows you to scroll through the list, sort it, or save the list to disk.
Performance has been improved, especially while using the Tile Tweaker. Some miscellaneous improvements all over the place speed up other tasks as well.
The Tile Instance Locator (find tool) now allows placing tiles, and updates when you pick a tile from the tile palette.
Translucent colors are now rendered as the normal color with 50% opacity, as opposed to not showing up at all. This works best when loading from EGA resources.
The Reload Graphics command now uses Shift+Enter as a hotkey, and works a lot better. The crashing has been eliminated and the level no longer vanishes while the reload is in progress. (It does still show the "Abiathar" splash screen while reloading on Linux, though, due to a missing API method.) Speaking of keybind changes, the undo command is now simply Z, as opposed to Ctrl+Z. Tile Instance Locator and Tile Instance Remapper have been given shortcuts.
Code cleanliness has been improved, increasing stability and making it easier for me to maintain it and add more features!
A rare level corruption bug involving Dreams levels with embedded tileinfo has been fixed.
Using Assimilate Infoplane no longer disables the infoplane-only palette, and the strangeness with right-clicking in the combined tileset has been removed.
Finally, the plane controls have changed. As you will see quite clearly, the plane state labels give a more obvious visual indication of how active they are. The business with function keys to set plane state is no longer default; the TED5 style is in. You can still use the menu options or the labels to change the state, or switch to the old behavior in the config file. Tilesets can be called with the spacebar and switched between with 1 through 3 while in palette mode, and remember their Y offset. If you don't want to press Space to access them, use Simultaneous Tileset mode or use the appropriate key in the 7-9 range.
Oh, and Abiathar has a Twitter account now! Follow @AbiatharDev for updates, tips, and general awesomeness! You can also tweet short support requests or bug reports (oh no!) to it.
Happy modding!
Fleexy
Oh no! I wasn't able to reproduce that bug. Could you save an error report and send it to me or paste it in a post? (I'm assuming that you got an "error processing dependency file" message. If you got an actual full-on crash, try deleting editor.aconf and defaults.aconf.) By generating an error report you authorize Abiathar to collect the following information:
- Your computer's date and time
- The processing stage at which the error occurred
- A list of files of possibly relevant files on your computer, their sizes, and MD5 hash
- Stack trace of the .NET virtual machine at the time of the error
- Names, versions, and authors of any Abiathar extensions you have installed
- The dependency file that caused the error
Hey Fleexy, I thought you might want to check this out:
http://s14.postimg.org/hpz4mykkx/Screen ... _40_PM.png
Abiathar running in xubuntu 14.04 with wine/mono, it's doable!
I'll continue to test this but I thought some others might find this interesting (specifically KP)
http://s14.postimg.org/hpz4mykkx/Screen ... _40_PM.png
Abiathar running in xubuntu 14.04 with wine/mono, it's doable!
I'll continue to test this but I thought some others might find this interesting (specifically KP)
mortimermcmirestinks wrote: Now I wish MoffD wasn't allergic to me.
Levellass wrote:You're an evil man.
Sooo I'll copy/paste here, since lazy:
editor.aconf
Btw I like to read the loading messages while running every time the editor.
editor.aconf
Code: Select all
Last edited by Roobar on Mon Aug 04, 2014 20:44, edited 1 time in total.
Ah, perfect, I found the bug and fixed it. I don't know if you were just checking out the new features, but you don't have to inspect advanced settings if you're starting from a template. Also, wow, defaults.aconf is huge; maybe edit that out now that it's fixed? 
UPDATE
v2.0.1: minor fix, thanks wiivn
Get it with the magic auto-updater!
UPDATE
v2.0.1: minor fix, thanks wiivn
Get it with the magic auto-updater!