egomassive's Knytt Stories Plus mod

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Offline Pie_Sniper

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #105 on: March 16, 2012, 22:59:52 »
I noticed a fairly insignificant issue while testing your Customnibus, but it nonetheless conflicts with the behavior of vanilla KS: the inventory does not update if you collect something while it is open until it has been closed and opened again.

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Offline Raicuparta

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #106 on: March 16, 2012, 23:19:35 »
Knytt Stories Plus, KS+
Adding "plus" to names isn't old already, is it?

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #107 on: March 17, 2012, 02:47:48 »
@ Pie Sniper: I've noticed that myself, but I don't consider it a problem. I agree that an immediate update would be an improvement though. ETA: I remember now that I intentionally disabled constant item bar updates because the now enormous inventory was slowing down performance. I guess I should figure out a way to enable them since I want this to play vanilla levels just like vanilla KS.

@ Raicuparta: Funny, I've strongly considered KS++. Your suggestion of KS+ is eerily close. I'll have to look into the origins of the double-plus, and see if it's appropriate. At any rate I'd say they're both in the running.

A little update on the Editor mod, it's driving me crazy. I'm using a Multiple Document Interface with docked windows, and the Scintilla object is being a pain. Scintilla is a text editor engine that Looki built an MMF2 extension for. There doesn't seem to be a way to give it focus just by clicking on it. It's such a basic thing, but I can't make it work. Also, according to Looki's source if you double-click on a screen group, e.g. [x1000y1000], the whole editor should move to that screen, but it doesn't happen, not even when using Looki's original mod. Does this work for anyone else?

Edit: I'm reading through Looki's Editor Mod thread. It clearly states in the opening post that picking rooms from the ini editor doesn't work.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2012, 07:42:24 by egomassive »

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #108 on: March 17, 2012, 16:10:09 »
I'm including an advanced World.ini editor in my level editor which can be turned on and off. As you may know the original level editor can be used on a 800x600 resolution screen. I'm aiming for 1024x768. In order to accommodate this goal, I may rearrange the editor layout. I need as much horizontal screen space as possible for Ini editor. So, check out these mock ups, and tell me what you think.

The second screen is how it looks when choosing a test location. New features worth mentioning are preview strips of adjacent rooms, test and set start with flags, and a status bar (the black band at the bottom will give contextual feed back.) None of these have actually been implemented yet.

Edit: Deleted pictures. See newer version below.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 23:08:12 by egomassive »

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Offline sergiocornaga

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #109 on: March 17, 2012, 16:57:32 »
To be honest I'm not totally digging it... I think some of the position changes (objects/banks mainly) are just drastic enough that it could be hard to adapt. Will the INI editor work in such a way that the objects/banks can't be positioned above it? Will it act as a separate window? I think I'd be able to judge better if the INI editor were included in the mock ups.

The extra features are cool though. I love the look of the preview strips.

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Offline Raicuparta

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #110 on: March 17, 2012, 17:19:36 »
Adapting isn't a huge issue.
One thing I can think of that is taking up a lot more space than it needs (even though it doesn't take up a lot of space to begin with) is the color selection for the tileset area background. Instead of 8 buttons, it could be just 1 that behaves like the background/tileset/bank/object selectors, change it by clicking or with the mouse wheel.

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #111 on: March 17, 2012, 18:46:00 »
@ Sergoicornaga: Let me show you what I've got, so you can see why I need to make changes. (See attachment.) The green area is where the 3rd-Part-Tools style interface will be. That and the text editor are too small. Also, there are empty spots in the map pane caused by the addition of the preview strips.

@ Raicuparta: That's a great idea about the color switching. My greatest displeasure with the mock-up is it's so cluttered.

eta: Please ignore my "Classic Windows" theme.

Edit: Added another mock-up. This one keeps things closer to their original positions. Clicking "test" would replace the sound selectors with power and flag choices.


Edit: 18Mar2012: It's a little know fact that Knytt Stories allows gradients to be any width. However, the level editor shows an error message if the gradient isn't 24px, 120px, or 600px wide. My editor allows any factor of 600 now. For example, you could use a gradients that are 300px, 200px, or 60px wide.

In other news, the ini editor grabs focus when it's clicked on. I know it seems pretty basic, but the text editor object wasn't set up for it, so I had to be really creative.

I still haven't decided on a layout for the map editor yet. I'd go with the version attached here, EditorLayoutD.png, if it weren't for the mini-map being so small.


Edit: Deleted pictures. See newer version below.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 23:07:12 by egomassive »

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Offline Raicuparta

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #112 on: March 18, 2012, 20:35:05 »
That new mockup is exactly what I had in mind after what Sergio said, but I worry about the small map :/

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Offline sergiocornaga

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #113 on: March 19, 2012, 05:28:15 »
I think having it at the bottom like that provides a great sense of the order things are visually rendered in. Perhaps this could function as a kind of minimum width, with more spaced out versions of the same layout for those at larger resolutions? The window could even be resizable, provided you're feeling ambitious and that's a feature MMF is even capable of.

What happens when pressing the script button?

Replying to your earlier 300% zoom query, I've realised it would be useful for me, especially if I can have a black border obscuring the rest of the screen. The current editor disallows fullscreen because it messes things up, for me this could act as a good alternative.

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #114 on: March 19, 2012, 16:38:24 »
@ Segiocornaga: The script button expands the window and launches the ini editor pane. I plan on reverting back to the old background button and placing a new script button somewhere along the right edge.

If I do the 300% zoom it will be windowed. Having both enlarging methods working here as they do is a tremendous feat. Adding black borders may not be possible.

On having multiple layouts, not going to happen. Too much of the program depends on window locations. I'm trying to make as much of it reference variables as possible (so I can change one variable when I move something,) but some of it is unavoidable (e.g. checking to see if the mouse is in a zone.) I'm actually struggling with disallowing re-size and maximize. After hammering out all my focus issues, I discovered that MDI mode forces me to allow resizing and maximizing. This, of course, opens the door to many other problems. *Sigh*

Edit: I've managed to get a different window management mode to work. Now, the panes and the focus control behave as they should. :) In doing this I realized that I can successfully overlap the panes, and I think I've worked out a layout close enough to the end result that I can start implementing it. (See attachment.) Note: I'm going to delete some of the older mock-ups because I feel like I'm posting too many.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 23:04:46 by egomassive »

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Offline sergiocornaga

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #115 on: March 20, 2012, 02:53:21 »
It's looking excellent. I have only minor aesthetic suggestions remaining, such as that the gap between the main level and the tileset etc. could be narrower, and/or the buttons and mid-line thing more centred. Perhaps there's also room for an extra row on the map?

Don't worry if the 300% zoom or black border doesn't work out, I'm sure I'll be content with 200% and can hack together an alternative for the latter.

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #116 on: March 20, 2012, 10:49:56 »
Progress report: I stayed up all night implementing the preview bands, and my brain has turned to mush. Large CO's can cause problems, but otherwise the bands work wonderfully.

It turns out that there are problems with overlapping panes that I hadn't discovered yet. They wont stay in the correct order. I may have to rethink the layout a bit.

@ Sergiocornaga: After trashing the idea of black borders in zoom mode (on the game mod,) I had an idea that will probably work. Of course, MMF2 doesn't always agree with me about how it should work.

Edit: 21Mar2012: Progress report: Overlap issues have been sorted. I'm overhauling the menu command structure within the program and rearranging some other things. When you use multiple windows, the windows don't always acknowledge the program menu.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 16:13:04 by egomassive »

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Offline rainulous

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #117 on: March 21, 2012, 22:54:25 »
This is starting to look great. By starting, I mean it looked great from the beginning, actually.
Editor is definately useful, as I can't figure out how to add the new stuffs as of yet.
Thanks for the stars, everyone!

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #118 on: March 22, 2012, 16:03:59 »
@ Rainulous: Thanks. The KS mod was designed to be compatible with existing editors. I know the mod I'm making will be a useful tool for people who require the KS Manager/3rd Party Tools for World.ini instructions. In the meantime here are some level making tips:

Collectibles are in bank 19. Other new objects are in banks 0, 16, and 17. Also, scroll down in bank 0 to find the Keyboard objects.

Read the Animation Instructions.txt that came with the mod download. It explains all the new World.ini instructions you can use.

Examine the Features Demonstration and Customnibus levels included in the mod download. Between the two of them, every new feature has a working example.

If you have any specific questions, ask them here and I'll try to answer them in a timely fashion.

Progress Report: The new map editor layout has been implemented and is working. I'll post a screen shot once I get all the graphics updated. I'm slapping a layer of pretty all over it.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2012, 16:07:06 by egomassive »

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Offline egomassive

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Re: egomassive's Knytt Stories mod
« Reply #119 on: March 23, 2012, 22:40:40 »
Remember how I said I was going to post a screen shot after I updated the graphics? No? Well I did say that, and true to my word here it is. (See attachment.) This is not a mock-up. This is an actual screenshot from a running editor.

You might think graphics are just for looks, but I remember how lost I was when I first opened the original editor. If there wasn't such a lovely tutorial available I probably wouldn't be here today. Hopefully, the meaning of things are a bit more obvious now, but if they aren't the black bar at the bottom will give contextual feedback (eventually.) :)