DescentBB

the v1.3.5 zip file i downloaded only contains the dle-xp.exe

i put that exe in the descent2 directory and it won't start up due to a message that reads "Descent level editor XP [5 may 2005] has encountered a problem and needs to close. we are sorry for the inconvenience"

same thing happends when i have it in it's own directory also.

Dang.

Fixed.

Sry, what i ment with "it just pops back" was that the trigger type was reseted. if i knew how to i could have posted some screenshots showing exactly whats the porblem is

np. fixed.

It seems like DLE-XP doesn't like to save pog files for me, especially when the hog file name changes, but also often otherwise.

When I open and resave Glass House, everything works fine, but if I save it as a different file name, I get the "This level contains custom textures..." dialog, which hadn't appeared before, and the pog isn't saved into the hog.

With Crownpoint, I merely just have to open and hit save to get that dialog just to have the pog disappear from the hog!

Oh, I think importing .bmp's via that texture editing window might be broken too, or maybe DLE-XP just doesn't like me anymore.

Also, as a feature suggestion, could you implement a way to import textures with transparencies? Or is this already possible with .bmp's somehow? I'd try it out but... DTX2 implemented this with supporting the importation of .gif's.

I had noticed this pog issue already and will look into it. BMP files don't support transparancy; use TGA files instead. I might have DLE-XP support GIFs as well if I find the format spec (should be np with Google).

I found a bug in the editor:
If you insert a cube foward and insert it on the right or to the left... Okay I'll show you the results:

Don't worry too much, just hit reset texture.

Fixed.

Make colored lighting work in-editor. Hehe.

Seriously.

Yeah, seems somewhat weird on that front... I -have- been able to get lights to actually use colours, although with a few rendering flaws it seems... but I have to set them manually. I think there is a check box in the lighting toolbar that is supposed to do it for you ... except it really just makes everything white again.

Colored lighting can only be applied in D2X-W32 levels. If you check the "use texture colors" check box in the preferences dialog, you will only need to assign a color to each texture that has a brightness once, and DLE-XP will set that color for all lights bearing that texture.

I ... see... then how do you assign these colours? They don't seem to be saved to my experience...

I set colored lights as follows:

1. Check "use texture colors" in the preferences tab.
2. Add a light texture somewhere and make that side the current side.
3. Go to the texture tool and click on a color in the color selection control to the very right.
4. Apply more of the chosen light texture at appropriate places in the mine.
5. Repeat beginning with step 1 for another light texture of your choice (remember that you can have every texture act as a light by assigning a brightness > 0 to it with the texture tool's brightness slider).
6. Light the mine.
7. Save the mine.

If this doesn't work any more (I will check this myself), I must have broken it somehow recently, because I do have levels with colored lights (e.g. Glass House or Speed!).

A trick to easily assign a color to transparent walls is to give the identical texture to all transparent walls that are supposed to have the same color and then assign a color to that texture. DLE-XP allows to assign colors to transparent wall textures too. That way it is very easy to set or change the color of a set of transparent walls; like e.g. in Speed!, where I have some yellow and some green transparent walls. So I gave the yellow windows a yellow and the green ones a green texture as a little reminder and then assigned the desired color to one wall of each color once.

That works, and turns out pretty cool.

I found something which looks like a problem in the way D2X handles them though... time for me to jump to that thread...

Right, DLE-XP can export colored lights, but can it show them from the main editor window?

It doesn't light stuff in colour itself... you have to run D2 to see that.

Diedel, is there any way I can convince you to increase the max wall limit to 1000+?

That's not so easy because wall numbers are stored in a byte currently (i.e. max. = 255). I would need to break compatibility or create some complicated work around.

Or I suppose I could create the complicated workaround.

Hmmm... if I'm not mistaken, the only time you really care about the size of the number-of-walls number is in reading from/writing to the level file? Other than that, increasing the width of the integer storing it wouldn't really change anything to my best guess.

The main problem you'd have, of course, is converting a 16 or 32 bit integer into an 8-bit byte, but only when saving a standard D1 or D2 level. Although, actually... I would think this could be done easily enough... something like (sans variable names that are 99% likely wrong)
Reading code in D2x would be fairly similar.

But more than likely there are glaring differences in the implementation that make it clear I'm just pretending to have any idea what I'm talking about.

If it only was so simple ... sides have a byte-sized wall index, and triggers do, too. So I'd need to change the side and trigger data structures, or add some extra side and trigger data.

Ahhh. Yes, that would tend to complicate things.

It's starting to look more and more appealing to either break compatibility or add separate read/write processes for each version... except that I'm (probably) not the one who would have to do it. Oh well.

It wouldn't be overly hard to allow for more walls and triggers. So if it turns out to be actually desirable, I will probably do it.

Btw, I was thinking of adding a new segment type "colored" allowing you to have colored segments. These should also have a flag whether they're impassable (like the blocked segments).

I am also planning on changing the "transparent" wall properties insofar, as you can assign each transparent wall a degree of transparency and make it either fly-through or impassable.

Diedel,
How about a segment type that makes you slow down in that block? Say 50% slower?
Could be fun in some ways.

Hm ... that would be speed "boost" with a deceleration ... should be feasible.

Rotation rate in preferences seems to have no effect on rotatation rate.

Maybe a trigger or room type "Burn", causing the player's ship to burn?

...we're going for realistic water now? Amusing.

D3Hack,

-> Lava?

Well, although burning isn't in the game at the moment, you could simulate lava by a negative repair centre...

In D2X-W32 Entropy games, you already get damaged in enemy-owned rooms.

Am I correct in assuming that the TGA alpha channel is supposed to be interpreted as transparency? I'm having trouble getting them to appear correctly in D2x-- it appears as if the transparancy is instead interpreted as an opaque cyan color. Example TGA...
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descen ... aterf4.tga
It's saved as an uncompressed 24-bit TGA with alpha channel.

Also, TGA's that I import into DLE without an alpha channel appear as pure garbage. Is an alpha channel required?

Jeff,

need to check the alpha thing.

DLE-XP currently requires an alpha channel in TGAs, but I can change that. Please give me a TGA w/o alpha channel so that I can check the header's format info and fix this.

Sure.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff250/descen ... terf4n.tga
It's the same image except without an alpha channel.

I have been able to fix TGA alpha channel handling in DLE-XP and add non-alpha TGA handling, and I have finally gotten D2X-W32 to render these textures properly.

Edit: Jeff, problem - your tga texture waterf4.tga has the data in the sequence a,b,g,r. The stuff output from some D3 texture conversion tool has it b,g,r,a. Do you know enough about TGA textures to tell me how to distinguish these? PSP 9 must know how to, as it displays both properly.

Note to self: Always keep a separate backup of .lgt files, you know, just in case... older ones are okay, but if I ever need to re-light the level I'll need to set light colours again. Oh well. Only a 5-minute job.

Is custom brightness handling still broken, Sirius?

Reply to self: damnit, yes, it still is.

Somehow I am not always updating all files when moving stuff between my computers ... fixed.