Public Commander Keen Forum

Paramultart · VBB's Partner in Crime Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 1795

@K1n9_Duk3:
Thank you so much. This project can now be a complete mod. Happy

K1n9_Duk3 · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:08 Post subject:

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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Hail to the K1n9, baby!

Levellass · S-Triazine Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 2675

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

Paramultart · VBB's Partner in Crime Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 1795

Thanks, K1n9_Duk3. That was very helpful indeed! Happy

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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"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

K1n9_Duk3 · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:25 Post subject:

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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Hail to the K1n9, baby!

Paramultart · VBB's Partner in Crime Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 1795

Hmm... I still can't seem to get it to import. Sad

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"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

K1n9_Duk3 · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 21:59 Post subject:

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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Hail to the K1n9, baby!

Paramultart · VBB's Partner in Crime Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 1795

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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"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

K1n9_Duk3 · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 22:05 Post subject:

@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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Hail to the K1n9, baby!

tulip · Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 13:04 Post subject:

Oh man, hail to the K1n9.
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You crack me up little buddy!

Paramultart · VBB's Partner in Crime Joined: 26 Jul 2010 Posts: 1795

wiivn · Vorticon Elite Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 1407

Hyh? I've never played ScubaVenture! Grin

K1n9_Duk3 · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 17:39 Post subject:

*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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Hail to the K1n9, baby!