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Omnimaga => Discontinued => Our Projects => Ash: Phoenix => Topic started by: squidgetx on December 24, 2012, 02:18:22 pm

Title: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on December 24, 2012, 02:18:22 pm

I've now made enough progress on this to start a thread on it. Basically, the goal of this side project is to be able to easily generate content for the game. Right now, warp tiles, NPC positions, items, moves and such have to be coded in by hand (ugh).

It's coded in Java, and so far I've got most of the drawing routines done, the GUI layout, and lots of asm/hex/int conversion routines written. Tilefile support is pretty much done, the tricky part is next going to be importing the map files.

Features list (planned, some implemented already)
-Tile Editor
--24x24 mode for creating large tiles as 4 12x12s
--Double click to edit tile
--Copy/Paste at least
-Map Editor
--Display of entire game map on the side for better map design
--Right click to add NPC, trigger, or warp
-Save and load as z80 source

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: shmibs on December 24, 2012, 03:02:34 pm

ooh, fantastic!
does this mean that, assuming you get everything finished up, it will be fairly easy to add a tentative "chapter 2/3/4/12/etc" release in the future with minimal coding?

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: TIfanx1999 on December 24, 2012, 03:48:40 pm

That looks fantastic! Great work so far! ^^

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: pimathbrainiac on December 24, 2012, 08:10:55 pm

OMG this looks amazing!!!

ME GUSTA!!!

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on December 24, 2012, 11:14:36 pm

Thanks guys :D

Shmibs, yup, that's exactly what it means :D. Depending on how well this goes, I may even externalize nearly every bit of data out of the caclulator app so that it could even serve as an RPG maker of sorts.

Anyway, time for (another) update. Added some antialiased text labels for the tile numbers, and threw in tile/map selection and editing. Tilemaps are fully editable, and while the 16x16 chunks aren't movable (yet), I've put in the ability to create new chunks by clicking on non-existent areas.

Now for a question on GUI and tile editing: Should I do it in a separate dialog, via right or double click in the tile selection pane? Or should I have it available in the main window, in a third frame (probably to the left of the map editor, and under the tile selection box)?

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: TIfanx1999 on December 24, 2012, 11:32:31 pm

Quote from: squidgetx on December 24, 2012, 11:14:36 pm

Thanks guys :D

Shmibs, yup, that's exactly what it means :D. Depending on how well this goes, I may even externalize nearly every bit of data out of the caclulator app so that it could even serve as an RPG maker of sorts.

Awesome (in both respects) :D

Quote

Anyway, time for (another) update. Added some antialiased text labels for the tile numbers, and threw in tile/map selection and editing. Tilemaps are fully editable, and while the 16x16 chunks aren't movable (yet), I've put in the ability to create new chunks by clicking on non-existent areas.

Now for a question on GUI and tile editing: Should I do it in a separate dialog, via right or double click in the tile selection pane? Or should I have it available in the main window, in a third frame (probably to the left of the map editor, and under the tile selection box)?

I'd say in a separate pop up box.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on December 26, 2012, 09:34:43 pm

Tile editor (design blatantly stolen from calcGS because it's a good design) mostly implemented, have yet to add in fancy tools like copy and pasting and such

To do;
Map and tile copy/paste
Map file parsing
Adding npcs, warp tiles, etc.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on December 29, 2012, 05:56:19 pm

Small update, but one that made me pretty irritated at Java-- copy/paste/delete/insert tiles are completed, along with several major infrastructure changes.

More to come later

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 01, 2013, 08:17:32 pm

Map files are now fully importable, I think writing the export routines is going to be trivial. Warp, NPC, and Triggers are pretty well supported now, although adding a new NPC and trigger is not yet implemented. I'm going to have to come up with a data structure that can work with the npc convo structure...maybe an array of bytes will be the best way to go? Custom input routines in Java? Or should I leave that at least as a textfile...Not sure about that.

Edit: I think I'm going to ask for input as a string, and then parse through it to insert the special characters via an escape character (maybe * or ~) and convert to an array of bytes.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 01, 2013, 08:19:51 pm

Ash Phoenix became a computer IDE instead of an RPG now? O.O

Just kidding, seems interesting. Hopefully it makes it easier for you to work on the game. :)

Also those are some BIG trees :O

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 04, 2013, 10:46:05 pm

Small update: NPC conversation editor and selector are about 80% done. Just have to add the aiblity to choose NPC convos from the "addNPC" dialog. I'll see if I can provide an executable jar in a bit, since screenshots don't really do it justice...

Next, item and move editing, and most importantly, exporting

Edit: Here's a jar, so you guys can play around with it a little bit. For some reason though, I can't get it to run on my system :( See if it works for you guys

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 04, 2013, 10:55:28 pm

Cool to hear. :)

Of course I hope Ash is finished anytime soon, but an RPG Maker for calcs would be nice, since that idea was asked a few times before. I myself wanted to attempt it using Celtic III before, but it would have been a lot of work and I am unsure how hard it would have been to use an RPG Maker on-calc.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Ranman on January 04, 2013, 11:01:14 pm

I'm very impressed squidge!!

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Streetwalrus on January 05, 2013, 03:36:36 am

Quote from: squidgetx on January 04, 2013, 10:46:05 pm

For some reason though, I can't get it to run on my system :( See if it works for you guys

It doesn't work for me either. Here is a stack trace for you :

Spoiler For Spoiler:

Code: [Select]

Error: npcconvos.asm (No such file or directory)
Error: tileoutp.asm (No such file or directory)
Error: overworldmap.asm (No such file or directory)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
 at ide$TileSelector.<init>(ide.java:198)
 at ide.main(ide.java:859)

Apparently, you need to include or auto-create some files. ;)

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Keoni29 on January 05, 2013, 08:22:46 am

That map reminds me of the safari zone in the classic pokemon games.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 06, 2013, 10:20:55 pm

Thanks guys,

Streetwalker, you're right; I need to bundle up some of the data files..

For now, just screenies :P. Progress update for today mainly includes the fully-functional item editor :D

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 09, 2013, 08:52:21 pm

Update; saving maps as asm source works (with a hard coded filename)!

Next, move/enemy editors and saving items, conversations, etc.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: tr1p1ea on January 09, 2013, 09:07:21 pm

The trunk on that large tree sprite is awesome!

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: blue_bear_94 on January 09, 2013, 09:10:19 pm

Steak as a weapon? LOL. But I can see that Ash: Phoenix is very customizable.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 14, 2013, 05:49:28 pm

Haha, thanks guys. And yeah, the item editor lets you do a lot of weird things but it'll only let you save the fields that apply. So if you set an item to armor but give it weapon power and type, that data won't be used :P

In other news, saving works with maps, overworld, npc conversations, and items :D Also, added in npc sprite import and a tweak of the tile editor to allow masks.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 18, 2013, 08:31:53 pm

Woohoo! Pretty much done with this baby. Might throw in a flood fill routine for the map/tile editor, but other than that this thing is ready to go. The 30k lines of code are clean(ish) for a first large Java project, so I'm pretty happy with myself.

Notable features:
-NPC, Item, Move, Enemy, info editors
-No extra save file; loads and saves as compileable asm
-Reference based tile editor! Insert a new tile, delete a tile, move a tile around, your map won't change.
-Masked sprite editing with blue as transparent

Jar and screenie (warning, large) attached. Now for some epic content generation and some final coding on the calc-side :D

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Streetwalrus on January 18, 2013, 10:42:39 pm

*.*
That's awesome !

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Nick on January 19, 2013, 03:51:11 am

Wow, awesome. I can't seem to get it running though.
I use win8 with java7u9, I'm confused... It shows a running indicator for about a second, and then nothing happens, it's not in taskmanager, nothing...

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Streetwalrus on January 19, 2013, 07:33:24 am

Spoiler For Spoiler:

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: TIfanx1999 on January 19, 2013, 07:47:33 am

Same for me Nick, although I'm running Windows 7.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 19, 2013, 02:58:32 pm

So great O.O. I really wonder if we can make full games so far with it? It would definitively deserve news on front page if it can O.O

I can't run it either it seems, though. When I click the file, absolutely nothing happens...

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 20, 2013, 12:08:51 pm

I'm gonna see if I can rebuild the jar, I think something must've screwed up.

Missing files shouldn't be a problem; I catch the exception so it doesn't crash, and it'll just build an empty list, hmm

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: squidgetx on January 21, 2013, 10:14:51 pm

All right, finally got this working.

-Added tile count change spinner to the tile editor (ceiling 256)
-Added discard changes button
-Synced main frame with tile editor changes
-Fixed bug with masked and unmasked tiles in the same tileset
-Fixed the issue with the manifest
-Should create new if no data files detected
-Added ability to choose npc sprite when adding npc sprite
-Fixed multiple issues with the output files

AoC, Nick, if it still doesn't run, then there's gotta be some kind of cross platform issue, as it runs fine here on linux mint. Thought that avoiding these kinds of issues was the whole point of java lol

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 22, 2013, 02:11:05 am

It works now, except NPC editing no longer shows up after a few clicks. By the way it should look like this right?

I couldn't do much, though, because I have no clue how it works lol (eg: are enemy sprites part of the main tileset, same for NPCs? Are NPCs animated and can we make them move or not? How do we assign enemies to an area, enable random battles or disable them, etc?). It would maybe be nice to make it as user-friendly as possible, like RPG Maker 2003, for instance, or at least similar so people who often used such game making tools are more familiar with your software. Or maybe add some documentation.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Nick on January 22, 2013, 08:40:13 am

Good work, it works indeed.

Got some sigestions though:
- When you click 'New' in item, tile, move etc. editor, and then click 'cancel' no item should be made imo, but now it does make a new item, so maybe place that routine behind the 'Save' button, and not the 'New'.
- When I press 'Cancel' in the move editor nothing happens (it does not close)

But apart from that, good work, and I lost...

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: TIfanx1999 on January 22, 2013, 10:35:53 am

Alright, gonna try it again. ;) I'll give ya some feedback ina bit.

*Edit*
Haven't had time to really fool with this yet, but it does open now.

Title: Re: [A:P] Computer IDE
Post by: Streetwalrus on January 23, 2013, 12:25:43 am

It looks pretty cool. Just a suggestion though : spawn windows in the middle of the screen.
Also, it doesn't auto-quit when you close it.