[v2.11.3] Abiathar: The superior Keen Galaxy editor

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Keening_Product
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Post by Keening_Product »

MoffD wrote: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)
Wow, neat! I had difficulties getting the official .NET to install - is Mono a pretty reliable replacement?
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Post by MoffD »

Keening_Product wrote:
MoffD wrote: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)
Wow, neat! I had difficulties getting the official .NET to install - is Mono a pretty reliable replacement?
I rarely have trouble with it, but it's still hit and miss like wine.

I was testing it a little while ago and some minor function calls were not implemented (such as drawing the lines for link mode) but overall it was very usable.
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Post by Fleexy »

Woah, really cool to see it working on Linux! Just to be clear, though, it's designed for Windows and is not in any way guaranteed or even expected to run on other platforms. More interestingly,

UPDATE
v2.1: the colors update

First, partial templates for Bio Menace have been added, filling in the EGA layout and file names for you. The Resource Accountant and extended Level Inspector are not configured; default resources have not been included (it would take a lot more space).

Speaking of the Level Inspector, it now counts animated tiles faster and more correctly. Other parameters have also been tuned to improve detection accuracy.

The Infoplane Override tab in the New Project Wizard has been removed. Its functionality has been relocated to the similarly named menu option under Edit.

Also under Edit is something new: Color Mappings! Levellass said we have (or will have soon, I can't remember) a way to change the palette in Keen Galaxy. So, I have added this feature to make Abiathar display those alternate colors. In the Color Mappings dialog, simply enter your colors (in hexadecimal format) by the appropriate EGA color ID and it will begin using them immediately. The mappings also apply to bitmap graphics.

The Write Patches utility now writes instructions to patch in the EGA resources.

Finally, the colors in general have been changed ever so slightly to be exactly what the game renders. Thanks, Wikipedia article on EGA, for lying to me about the palette and forcing me to figure it out myself with MS Paint.

Get it with the magical auto-updater. Happy modding!

Fleexy
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Post by Roobar »

Could you add Help>About option in the menu that will display current version and maybe other things (change log, credits?).
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Post by Tormentor667 »

Awesome work, Fleexy!
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Post by Fleexy »

wiivn wrote:Could you add Help>About option in the menu that will display current version and maybe other things (change log, credits?).
That's a really good idea! I will do something like that, hopefully included in the next update.

Until then, you can find the version in the lower-left corner and changelog/acknowledgements at the end of the help file (for easy scrolling).
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Post by Levellass »

Fleexy wrote:Also under Edit is something new: Color Mappings! Levellass said we have (or will have soon, I can't remember) a way to change the palette in Keen Galaxy. So, I have added this feature to make Abiathar display those alternate colors. In the Color Mappings dialog, simply enter your colors (in hexadecimal format) by the appropriate EGA color ID and it will begin using them immediately. The mappings also apply to bitmap graphics.
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Post by Fleexy »

Hey there everyone,

The v2.2 update (sound & music) is in the works. All the format-handling and byte-juggling code is done; I just need to figure out a UI and workflow. Unfortunately, school has started again and I am busier than ever thanks to being involved in *ahem* certain projects. Additionally, I will be away from all electronics for one week starting Tuesday.

v2.2 will hopefully come out sometime in September, after which I will probably not give Abiathar a lot of developer effort until the spring. (Any horrible bugs will still be fixed with a priority.)

If you have any questions about Abiathar, like why some feature exists, what led up to a strange set of circumstances, all the systems that come together to make something, or the technical workings of an awesome function, now is the time to ask! Today and tomorrow I'll be writing issues of a standalone column-like publication called Abiathar Confidential to auto-publish on my blog during my absence.

The first issue, Not Fully a Placebo tells the story of the High Speed Mode setting and what it actually does now. Further issues will appear on my blog, Fleex's Lab.
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Post by Keening_Product »

Do you want to workshop workflow ideas here? Might help speed things up.
Fleexy wrote:I am busier than ever thanks to being involved in *ahem* certain projects.
Who is s/he? ;)
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Post by MoffD »

Hey Fleex, I was thinking about improvements that could be made for Abiathar.

Have you considered having an offline help/documentation file instead of just having a link to an online pdf?

I was thinking you could bundle a CHM file with the download in addition to the dll's and updater.
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Post by Fleexy »

My goodness, it's been a busy few months. Well, we just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the United States, and what better things are there to be thankful for than Abiathar updates?

UPDATE
v2.2: the audio update

As always, you can get it from the magical auto-updater or in ZIP form.

Let's see what changed!

Well, you might notice immediately, in the download phase, that the Abiathar executable has gotten a lot smaller. Rather than storing the full EGA files in the executable for use as default graphics, it now gets them from GIF tilesheets. With that and the removal of some old resources, the main EXE went from over 6MB to just 3.7MB.

More interestingly, and the big purpose of this update, the Edit menu has gained four new items! First is Audio, which contains sub-items to link your mod's audio resources or dump the default ones for your Galaxy episode. It also lets you Import or Export the resources, smashing them into individual chunks bound together by the *.asnds file. You can export the full ripped chunks (Type-1) or just the sound data, leaving the authoritative metadata in the ASNDS file (Type-0). Either way, the metadata will appear in the ASNDS file for reference or override (replace the "?" at the beginning of the line with an "!" to overwrite the metadata in a Type-1 chunk with the ASNDS metadata when importing).

If you only need to manage the IMF songs, there is a convenient GUI for that! Look no further than Edit | Song Mappings. Once audio resources are linked to the dependency file, you can assign songs to levels - or to phantom level slots, if you need to do some fancy patching. Simply select the level on the left, the song on the right, and click Set Song. If you need more level slots than you have levels, click Set List Length. (You may also have to do this if you set up audio resources separately from the Song Mappings option.) If you want to include more distinct songs than the original game has slots for, no problem! Click Import IMF, choose your file, give the song a name, and assign it to levels like any other. Extra IMF tracks are highlighted by an italicized chunk ID. You can add or remove these extra tracks without worrying about their offsets - Abiathar handles all the patching for you: the level song mappings, the audio files, and the inclusion of extra tracks. Awesome!

Speaking of patching, since Abiathar's Patch Generator will become increasingly important when using its integrated audio management, it has been further empowered. Under Edit | Patches, you can enter your custom patches. Abiathar will add them to the auto-generated patch file so you don't have to manually sync Abiathar-generated stuff with your main file.

Finally, there is an unusual new option that will not be visible to everyone: VeriMaps Signature. VeriMaps is an asymmetric-key crypto-signing system to prove the authenticity of modded level files. If you have a VeriMaps certificate and enable VeriMaps Signature, Abiathar will add a cryptographic signature to the maps file. It looks for the VeriMaps signing certificate (ASIGN file) named VeriMaps.asign in the current directory, or in the location specified in the editor.aconf config option VeriMapsCertPath.

Once a file is signed, its signer's name and special distinction (this is the secret feature I was talking about with the icon artists!) will appear in the status bar when it is opened with Abiathar. For example, opening a file signed by me will produce the text "Signed by Fleexy, creator of Abiathar (VeriMaps confirmed)". If anybody else saves the file and redistributes it, the signature will be destroyed (or will be signed by them). This system can prove who saved a maps file last and help people check that a mirror host did not modify map files from the state intended by the mod author.

You can also check the VeriMaps signature of a GAMEMAPS file with the small command-line utility VeriMaps. Simply drag the maps file onto VeriMaps.exe or launch the utility and type the name of the file and it will check the public key store to verify the signature. If you want to experiment with VeriMaps, you can download the Anonymous signing certificate. I will issue personalized certificates upon request; the file will be sent to you by PM. Keep this file safe - it is your identity in the Abiathar community.

VeriMaps signing works on all level formats except TED5 MapTemp/MapTHead. The signature does not interfere with normal loading by the game.

Small bugs have been fixed and slight speed improvements have been made. Help | About has been added, a short list of acknowledgements. A documentation update is in the works. If there are any questions, refer to this post or talk to me! I'm also soliciting complaints, even minor ones, in the linked K:M thread.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Fleexy
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Post by Keening_Product »

Fleexy wrote:just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the United States
Sorry for going off-topic, but this is more important than anything ever: I THOUGHT YOU LIVED IN THE UK!?!
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Post by Benvolio »

"Blogham Tower" does sound like a neighbourhood you'd find in East London alright.
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Post by MoffD »

Keening_Product wrote:
Fleexy wrote:just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the United States
Sorry for going off-topic, but this is more important than anything ever: I THOUGHT YOU LIVED IN THE UK!?!
:confused huh, I knew he was in the US but I don't remember where I learned that...
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Post by Roobar »

MoffD wrote:
Keening_Product wrote:
Fleexy wrote:just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the United States
Sorry for going off-topic, but this is more important than anything ever: I THOUGHT YOU LIVED IN THE UK!?!
:confused huh, I knew he was in the US but I don't remember where I learned that...
You're both wrong. He's from Blogham Tower.
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