Nifflas' Support Forum
Level Editing Support => Saira Level Editing Support => Topic started by: Exp HP on December 12, 2009, 19:09:50
-
Unless people object, I would be interested in writing a guide to the various .ini's like I did for World.ini in Knytt Stories, because that was a fun project and I would enjoy doing it again. (and this time I'll make the format less awkward; <a | b | c> was stupid)
I would like to know what .inis are most important that I start looking into. As in, which ones aren't controlled by the editor. Because it looks like some of them are (for instance, it would really surprise me if Sprites.ini wasn't).
-
Sorry, no ini file is edited through the editor. It's all notepad, the editor is for placing tiles, objects and sprites only.
-
Ohhhhh...
Sprites.ini doesn't define sprite locations, it defines what they are.
Wow, the degree of level editing in this game is much greater than KS!
Alright, so I'll be writing about all the following:
For the episode:
Galaxy.ini
Credits.ini
For a solar system:
Star.ini
For a planet:
Objects.ini
Planet.ini
Sprites.ini
For a cutscene:
Objects.ini
Planet.ini
Some of these might constitute the need for separate threads, though. It doesn't seem logical to have a guide that involves all the .ini's, because they all have different times when you would use each one. In fact, the cutscene .ini files might not deserve a guide at all; instead, when somebody writes a guide about Cutscenes, that guide should integrate details on how to appropriately edit the two .inis associated with it.
Nonetheless, I'll start taking notes now. When the time comes, I'll find a logical place for everything, or I'll share relevant notes with people writing other guides.
-
To make it more complicated, cutscenes and levels are the same thing and work the same way. It just depends on what parameters you set and what sprites you define in the actual level.
-
The only binary stuff in the game seem to be the tile maps and the .ccn modules; the rest is all ASCII, mostly in .ini files. Even the Map.bin file in each planet contains .ini stuff for Objects, Sprites etc.
-
Even the Map.bin file in each planet contains .ini stuff for Objects, Sprites etc.
Can't say I've noticed this.
Which planet are you looking at that has readable text in Map.bin?
I think that much will be handled by the editor, not through Notepad. Especially if it's in unicode, which is the form I predict it is in since it's in an otherwise binary file.
-
^ The Map.bin file, just like with Knytt Stories, is simply a GZipped file. Opening it with a hex editor reveals a structure like this:
- A 6 bytes initial header
- For each screen:
- Screen coordinates in ASCII (xayb, where a and b are integers)
- The 'Objects' string in ASCII, probably followed by the size expressed like in KS (32-bit little endian)
- A string representing an .ini-like file with Windows carriage return (example: [Object 1]...)
- The 'Tiles' string in ASCII, probably followed by the size expressed like in KS (32-bit little endian)
- The tile map, probably made like in KS, only maybe with just one tileset?
-
Ah, by the way, the Map.bin Settings workspace is edited with a built in .ini editor, but the Objects and Sprites workspaces are handled by the editor itself.