DMute V1.4!

[George Gilbert]

Well, it took me nearly 4 years to get around to it, but I'm pleased to say that DMute v1.4 is now available. Please feel free to download it from:

http://www.ragingmole.com/DMute

I've made minor updates to pretty much everything including pads, wallitems, generators, teleporters, doors, texts and mirror characters. However the major change (and the main reason why I dug the source code out in the first place!) is that you can now use DMute to export DM /. CSB dungeons into the Return To Chaos (RTC) format.

One small caveat. The implementation of various items (especially mirror characters and triggers) is very different between DM / CSB and RTC (for example, DM / CSB targets every item on a given tile co-ordinate, where as RTC allows you to select individually which items to target, possibly on multiple different tiles) and so the conversion process isn't perfect. I've tried to get DMute to handle most of the frequent differences but it still requires a manual step to go through and make sure everything works as expected. Having said that, it gets over 99% of the original DM and CSB dungeons right first time, so it's not too bad ;-)

If you have any comments, spot a bug (surely not!) or have some suggestions for further improvements, please let me know. In the mean time, have fun!

George

[Daniel (Sweden)]

Hello George!

This was absolutely great news! I will download i ammediately!

Cheers!

/Daniel (Sweden)

[Randolf Boots Jr]

Great great great great great!!!

[Young player]

Well, I see what George meant by saying that some things would have to be fixed in any file that is exported as an RTC text file... Kind of a pain in the ass.
In any case, I'd like to start building a new dungeon from nothing, but from what I know about DMute, you have to open a dungeon.dat file and start "mutating" everything. Also, does anyone know how to switch from level to level when you're looking at the editing screen? I see a list called "Dungeon master levels" and "CSB leves". Does that mean I can only build my dungeon with reference to these titiled levels of the original games?
I guess the Ideal for me would be to have a dungeon.dat file that has been completely wiped - no items, no corridors, nothing. Then I could construct everything and export as a text file for RTC and make minor adjustments there.
I'm new to this creating a dungeon thing. Does my plan seem okay?

Thanks to anyone who answers

[PaulH]

The levels do not have an official title as such, this is just a reference. Call them 1,2,3 etc if you like. Each level has a set area and offset which is the biggest limitation of this program, however other editors allow you to expand. But then you will not be able to read it with DMute.

There is a dungeon.dat available that is a blank, in the 'dungeon download' section of this forum. I think that your plan seems OK, as for basic structuring Dmute is the best editor available. When you are satisfied you can use another editor to fine tune, though I get along with Dmute myself just fine for all aspects of dungeon creation.

Personally, I would study an existing dungeon to see how it all works and to give you inspiration. Starting from scratch is harder than it looks.

[PicturesInTheDark]

Thank you very much George, it must have been a great effort to adjust all that - it's encouraging to see that even though this is more or less private madness from anyone here working on the various projects many still invest their time in that!

Again: thank you.

Regards

PitD

[sucinum]

ok, i will have a closer look at it and i hope, its less hex-editing than before ;-)

[Christopher]

There is a problem with loading portraits from saved games. Version 1.3 still works fine, but version 1.4 gets a graphical type error in the portrait area.

[Gambit37]

I got that error quite a lot in DMute1.3 when editing CSB Amiga save games, so I don't think this is a new problem...

[PicturesInTheDark]

Is there a short and simple explanation how exactly to do that manual step? I have not so far programmed anything for DM and only got some error messages when trying to compile a dungeon for RTC.

Can that be done the same way for any dungeon, e.g. is a general explanation possible, or are individual ajustments necessary for each dungeon?

Thanks for helping,

Regards

PitD

[Daniel (Sweden)]

Hello FOLKS!

I tried to start editing a dungeon in CSB4Win, but could not edit the Dungeon Master map (only the CSB map). Is the Dungeon.dat file in CSB4win for DM different than the CSB dungeon.dat file (which is called mini.dat by the way).

Please give me some hints, I would like to make a dungeon to CSB4win and start with the original Dungeon Master map, not CSB map since I Only can use the CSB characters then, and I prefere to start with the less experient figures. One way is ofcourse to start the original DM, chose characters and transfere them to CSB...

I have not yet figured out how to use the textfile that Dmute creates for RTC, but I will figure it out. I assume that the map made in CSB4win is possible to transfere to RTC??

Please give me some hints! Thanks in advance!

/Daniel (Sweden)

[beowuuf]

The characters don't come from the map in the case of dungeon/mini.dat files, so you can't do it that way (saved games are different, the characters are saved in the dm/csbsave.dat file)

What you can do is use the big-little endian converter after you create a saved game, so you have the DM characters for CSB


For RTC, you can imput DM characters directly into the file (see TheZoo.txt in RTC),
If you view the text files for the simpler examples of duneons in RTC you can start to get a feel for what should be in it, then you can work on the errors generated in the output file

[chiefy]

George
is your version of DM programmed in Java ? or another programming language ??

top work, it's identical to the Atari ST version which my son and I played in 1988
what's your next project ?? ;-)

[Daniel (Sweden)]

Hello FOLKS!

Does anyone know how a altered CSB map in CSB4win (mini.dat) works? I remembered that the original DM (for PC), did not like these changes and was very unstabile. Does anyone know if CSB4Win is stabile after some alternations??

Thanks in advance!

/Daniel (Sweden)

[Paul Stevens]

It is certainly supposed to be. Let me know
if you discover otherwise.

[beowuuf]

Umm, PC DM was stable enoguh after changes (the freeze up bug was somehting I never enmcounter in maps without bad hex editing), and Paul has made changes to his code for any instabilities that occur out of DMuting, enough that I don't think there is any problems that was too

The only problems ever reported by DMute v1.3 was some portrait corruption for CSB games, and some work portrait bug in V1.4

[PaulH]

I have encountered a few problems in this otherwise excellent editor.

The first problem regards the teleporters. When loading a dungeon created with 1.3 with the 1.4 version, it effectively turns off all the teleporters. So if you were to do this and didn't realise, and then saved your edit you would find you couldn't teleport your party anywhere!
Also when specifying rotations, either absolute (NESW) or relative (clockwise etc) they have a mind of their own and point you in other directions. Checking the 'buzz' box also has an influence on direction. I managed to get round this by patience and direct hex editing, but I can't really complain.

Also, would it be possible when you move your party it would emerge on the level you want, rather than just the coords on the level you were on? This just makes playtesting a little quicker!

All in all, this is in my opinion the best editor for my needs as I find it quicker to use even with the hex editing. You can see instantly what you have done and can navigate around with ease. Fantastic.

I will try exporting some dungeons to RTC and give feedback.

[Zalewa]

Hey! This thing make teleporters not working. In menu "what it will scope" there is:
Player only
Monsters only
Players and items only
Everything

I check Everything on i click ok and when i edit the teleporter again it shows that i selected nothing. Teleporters in game dont work. However i can use Dmute 1.3 to make teleporters and Dmute 1.4 to make other things, but Dmute eats horrible ammounts of memory so its recommended to often restart computer :(

[beowuuf]

Do you mean it resets to nothing if you edit it again, or it doesn't set the teleporter?
If the first is the case, and you want to view a property of the teleporter with the editor without editing, then 'cancel' always stops default changes
(same with clicking 'hex edit' on complex items)

[Zalewa]

Nah, it just don't set the teleporter. It's bug. I hope it will be repaired soon, becose Dmute V1.4 is very cool..... except this bug