DUKE NUKEM II LEVEL EDITOR (and other stuff)

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K1n9_Duk3
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Paramultart wrote:Is it possible to edit sprites and end scenes?
You can convert fullscreen EGA images and solid images with these tools. Actor sprites will require a "real" editor and I don't feel like writing one right now.
Paramultart wrote:The "actors" plane could use improvement. Having a cluster of letters representing the final character of their hex value and having to hover over each character to find out what object it represents is unpractical to say the least. I can't tell you how long it took for me just to find the exit object. How was I to know it was the red letter B? :/
Yes, that's not very user friendly. You can edit the icons.png file if you want to change the 8x8 pixel icons. And you can have a look at the actors.txt file (the list of actor types) if you're looking for something.
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

Paramultart wrote:I haven't been working on it lately, anyway, and a DN2 levelpack should only take a couple days
Good luck, because figuring out which tile goes with which one, which one is a solid one or a background one, and figuring out the actors would take you more time than to actually make a level itself! A better idea would be if there are enough enthusiasts to contribute with a level or two to make a level pack.

Also I was thinking "geez! how Paramultar would have missed the editor if he really was gone from the forum" muhahahaha :)
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Post by Paramultart »

@K1n9_Duk3:
Thank you so much. This project can now be a complete mod. :)
wiivn wrote: Good luck, because figuring out which tile goes with which one, which one is a solid one or a background one, and figuring out the actors would take you more time than to actually make a level itself! A better idea would be if there are enough enthusiasts to contribute with a level or two to make a level pack.
If you want to contribute, let me know. VBB has expressed partial interest in the project, and I'm willing to make it a team effort.
It may take a bit of trial and error, but I've pretty much got all the tile properties down pat.
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K1n9_Duk3
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Good news: I think I figured out the format of the tile attributes! You can use this tool (wrote it in about five to ten minutes) to view the data for each tile. For the masked tiles, only the first hex value seems to actually mean something.

This what I know:
the lowest four bits are block-flags, so the last hex digit tells you if the tile is blocking in some way (not 0) or if you can pass through it in any direction (0). If bit 6 (0x20) is set, the tile is drawn in front of actors.

There's more, but you can find that here.
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Post by Levellass »

You're a regular dynamo and an example to us all!
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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Post by Paramultart »

Thanks, K1n9_Duk3. That was very helpful indeed! :)

Also, I happened to notice that actors.txt gives the decimal values for all of the objects, but the DN2 editor has hexadecimal values.
So while the text file helps, there's still a bit of work converting those numbers. (Does anyone know a fast way to read decimal value as hex without using a converter?)

I'm thinking that in the next release of your editor, you should either A) Have a graphical object selection menu, or B) At least a special hot-key menu that gives you the same information as actors.txt, but prompts you for a selection. This seems like it would be easy to implement, but may or may not conflict with your condensed and efficient GUI.

This is fantastic. K1n9_Duk3, you are my hero.

PS. The drag-n-drop method works for extracting graphics from .MNI files, but not for importing back into the game. The documentation provided with the editor contains no information on the correct command-line parameters, so I'm a little bit lost here.
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

The parameters for the convert tools are "INFILE [OUTFILE]" (outfile is infile with the extension replaced, by default). To convert a Duke2 file to PNG, drag the Duke file onto the exe. To convert the PNG image back to the Duke2 format, drag the PNG onto the exe.

The converters check the format of infile. If it can be read as PNG, the file will be converted to MNI. Otherwise it will try to convert infile to PNG.

I will think about the other stuff you've mentioned.
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Post by Paramultart »

Hmm... I still can't seem to get it to import. :(
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K1n9_Duk3
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Hmm... works fine for me. Did you try running it from the console and giving it a full file path for outfile? Something like "X:\OUT.MNI".

If nothing seems to work, just send me the PNGs and I'll convert them for you.
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Post by Paramultart »

Alright, I tried it from the command prompt, and I received the following...

"ERROR: Image width and height must be multiples of 8!"

I don't understand. I didn't even modify the size of the image. :confused
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K1n9_Duk3
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

@Paramultart: To help you any further, I really need the files you tried to convert. I can assure you that I was able to create both new fullscreen images and backdrops with the tools I uploaded.

Off-topic: I came up with a nice little level viewer for ScubaVenture: ScubaView 1.0
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Post by tulip »

Oh man, hail to the K1n9.
Image You crack me up little buddy!
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Paramultart
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Post by Paramultart »

K1n9_Duk3 wrote:@Paramultart: To help you any further, I really need the files you tried to convert. I can assure you that I was able to create both new fullscreen images and backdrops with the tools I uploaded.

Off-topic: I came up with a nice little level viewer for ScubaVenture: ScubaView 1.0
That level viewer looks nice. It works for Monster Bash, but there's no way to navigate through levels.

Also, here is the .PNG I'm trying to convert.
As you can see, I didn't replace too many graphics, I just filled in some of the blank spaces with test tiles.
http://www.paramultart.comyr.com/trasha ... CZONE2.PNG
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Post by Roobar »

Hyh? I've never played ScubaVenture! :D
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K1n9_Duk3
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

*sigh* Life could be so much easier if people learned to listen... or at least read README files... :crazy

1. You cannot use the image converter tools on CZONE files as-is. This is because CZones basically consist of three files (tile attribute file, solid image file, and masked image file). You could use d2sic to modify the solid tiles, but you'd have to split the CZone into it's three parts, then edit/replace the masked tiles file and merge the files into a new CZone.

In the readme, I wrote that you can use d2sic to modify backdrops. But it looks like I should have pointed out on which files it won't work.

2. You can use PageUp/PageDown in ScubaView to cycle through the levels.
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