Saving new stuff seperately.

[Daecon]

I was just curious to know, would it be possible to save any new creations you develop seperately from the main game, such as creating a file that has weapons, spells and monsters you've invented, which you can then import into your game.

Perhaps that way other designers can make a series of monsters or such, that another user can import them to use in their own dungeon creation without having to spend time editing them from scratch.

Or if you wanted to make two seperate dungeons, but have new weapons/spells/monsters/champions common to both games, you can then have a seperate file with the new additions, which you can import that one file into each new Dungeon.

(Also, I can't figure out how to edit the bitmap images to change their colours and such. I wanted to make things like Red Screamers, Golden Throwing Stars and Rainbow Potions but I can't figure out how I'd do that.)

[Sophia]

(Also, I can't figure out how to edit the bitmap images to change their colours and such. I wanted to make things like Red Screamers, Golden Throwing Stars and Rainbow Potions but I can't figure out how I'd do that.)

There's no way to really edit the bitmaps within RTC editor, you'll have to extract them, change the stuff, and then import the new images.

The graphics are the same as DM, so you could always rip them out of there, or, the simplest method is to just press Print Screen on your keyboard with the image you want onscreen and then hit paste in a paint program.

[Daecon]

Is there a "how-to" on extracting and importing images anywhere?

[Lunever]

A "library" for RTC would make dungeon designing probably easier, so I support this suggestion.

[beowuuf]

This post just above was designed to do exactly this:

http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=25373

[beowuuf]

As for extracting and importing images, no, you can't extract them, but can take DM source images using ADGE (see DM tools thread) then playing with them

Ypu import them by using the add/replace graphics in the editor. You will need to ensure that your monster graphics a) have the same size as the original, and b) have 'power pink' (255 0 255 clour) as a background

[Daecon]

Ah, so instead of saving the data for the new items or weapons or monsters or characters, you can just save the text that would create them and paste it into your dungeon source text file?

I'm not familiar with ADGE, but it looks quite programming-knowledge heavy... perhaps I could suggest an bitmap colour modifying addition to the new version of Return to Chaos?

[beowuuf]

Yup, you can just maintain a text file and cut and paste the sections into others.

ADGE is not programming knowledge heavy at all - you simple open it, open an original graphics.dat file, scroll down the list of graphics until you fidn the monster ones you desire, double click and select 'export' - you have your graphic! There is also a graphics extraction too somewhere on the encyclopaedia to get all the graphics at once, but for single graphics ADGE is your best bet!

And I think asking for an art programme within RTC Editor is a bit much - especially since you could be importing low colour/small size originals you'd need to heavily modify rather than just quickly adding colours to. Best to do your own art editing with a paint programme increasing colour depth and size etc then import

[Lunever]

I'm not sure whether I completely unerstand the necessary steps:

Let's say Des Bro Dain decides to create a new monster, draws proper bitmaps, sets the monster's stats etc... and then says "Hey Lunever, I created a cool new monster, do you want it to use in your dungeon too?" (a bit like Magic the Gathering cards), what steps exactly would he and what steps would I have to take to do this? As far as I understand currently he can't just send me a small file containing the monster, can he? But it would be a nice feature if he could.

[Chaos Awakes]

No, because he'd have to send you the graphics.

There would need to be a "compile to file" option in the editor which created a special compiled file containing all information about the objects including their graphics - like a small .RTC file. Then that file could be imported with the editor to add it's graphics and items to the current file. Of course, this would give headaches with the naming of the items internally.

[George Gilbert]

I'm not sure whether I completely unerstand the necessary steps:

Let's say Des Bro Dain decides to create a new monster, draws proper bitmaps, sets the monster's stats etc... and then says "Hey Lunever, I created a cool new monster, do you want it to use in your dungeon too?" (a bit like Magic the Gathering cards), what steps exactly would he and what steps would I have to take to do this?

He would save his dungeon file as a text file as per normal.

Then he would then open up the dungeon text file and copy-and-paste the parts relevant to the monster into a new file (assuming he didn't want to send you the whole file that is!). The relevant parts are the new bitmaps, animations, sounds, playlists, attack methods and the monster object itself.

He'd then take these copy-and-pasted bits together with the new bitmaps themselves and send them to you.

You'd then do exactly the same in reverse (i.e. put the bitmaps into your collection, and copy-and-paste the bits of the dungeon text file into your dungeon text file).

If that sounds involved, don't worry as it's not in practice, it's just a bit wordy to type out! If you open up the dungeon.txt file (in, say, notepad) containing a new monster you'll see that it's all nicely laid out and pretty obvious what you have to do.

[Lunever]

Hmm, it might be a bit much to ask for now, but I think a more handy and compact import/export feature might be very useful for the creation of team effort dungeons.

[George Gilbert]

Have a look at the dungeon.txt file.

It's really not tricky!

[beowuuf]

Also, even if the editor can port simple monsters / items this way, any even slightly complex item / monster is a pain, because they reply on dependant relays/actuators.actiosn etc

Fantastically easy for a designer to pull out of the text file and paste into another one, almost impossible (if it's a sophia-like mechanics) for an engine to get all the necessary parts and maintain their cohesiveness without alot of work

[Daecon]

If I loaded up the RTC Editor and pressed "print screen" when displaying the bitmap of a monster, like the Screamer, then modified it's colours to replace the green with red, where would I need to save the new bitmap so I can choose it when desinging a new monster?

It would still be and act like a Screamer, just be a different colour and have different HP, and Red Screamer slices would restore Health instead of being food. (At least, that's what I would plan on doing, but that's not really relevant at the moment...)

Also, in the RTC file there are the "DM Plus" enhanced DM character portraits, but I can't figure out how to use those images when desiging new characters, I can only find the standard DM and CSB portraits in the bitmap list.

[George Gilbert]

If I loaded up the RTC Editor and pressed "print screen" when displaying the bitmap of a monster, like the Screamer, then modified it's colours to replace the green with red, where would I need to save the new bitmap so I can choose it when desinging a new monster?

Anywhere you like - it's just a file!

It would still be and act like a Screamer, just be a different colour and have different HP, and Red Screamer slices would restore Health instead of being food. (At least, that's what I would plan on doing, but that's not really relevant at the moment...)

OK, so all you need to do is add the bitmaps (use the add bitmaps option in the editor to select your file from whereever you saved it to) and give them sensible names.

Then clone the screamer, and change its bitmaps to use your new bitmaps.

Then add your new screamer to your dungeon.

Also, in the RTC file there are the "DM Plus" enhanced DM character portraits, but I can't figure out how to use those images when desiging new characters, I can only find the standard DM and CSB portraits in the bitmap list.

Those files are not for the editor, but instead for the import feature inside the game. Now that you come to mention it though, they should be available in the editor too; I'll do this for V0.39!

[Sophia]

If I loaded up the RTC Editor and pressed "print screen" when displaying the bitmap of a monster, like the Screamer, then modified it's colours to replace the green with red, where would I need to save the new bitmap so I can choose it when desinging a new monster?

I guess the missing piece of information here is how to get a bitmap into RTC so that you can use it. For that, you want to use the "Add/Replace Graphics" option in the "Resources" menu. Once you've edited your screamer, open that box, and find the screamer. Almost everything that's not an icon, wallitem, or flooritem has six scalings, so a screamer will be under "6 scalings (Medium)." You can either choose to replace the default screamer graphic with yours, or to add a new graphic (and in that case, you will probably still want to copy the old screamer's offsets so it looks the same in the dungeon)

[Daecon]

Something I've noticed, I see that the new additions like Spells, Attack Methods and Objects are listed at the top of the .txt file, so it makes them easy to select and cut/paste, but what about the details for the new characters?

Would it be possible to have a sub-section with the new/modified characters listed in that same part of the .txt file as well?

[Daecon]

I guess the missing piece of information here is how to get a bitmap into RTC so that you can use it. For that, you want to use the "Add/Replace Graphics" option in the "Resources" menu. Once you've edited your screamer, open that box, and find the screamer. Almost everything that's not an icon, wallitem, or flooritem has six scalings, so a screamer will be under "6 scalings (Medium)." You can either choose to replace the default screamer graphic with yours, or to add a new graphic (and in that case, you will probably still want to copy the old screamer's offsets so it looks the same in the dungeon)

Thanks for that.

It took a lot of effort keeping track of where each relevant bitmap was for the Screamer and remembering the offset attributes (fortunately the Screamer monster only has 5 different images I had to edit) I think the hardest part was MS Pain(t) being very tedious to work with, having to replace the Screamer's green shades for red ones pixel by pixel but I did it eventually.

I should have started easier and made a golden throwing star of DOOM.

[Sophia]

having to replace the Screamer's green shades for red ones pixel by pixel

www.gimp.org

It's not quite up to Photoshop standards, but it's a very nice free program and can easily handle the palette swapping and such that would've made that whole thing a LOT easier.

[Chaos Awakes]

Out of interest, what is the point of all the tabs for different size images? I can understand having a three tabs - "1 scalings", "3 scalings" and "6 scalings" but why are there subtabs for "small", "medium" and "Large" within each group. As far as I can see, there is nowhere where I need to use this information and it just makes it harder for me to find the bitmap I'm looking for because I don't know which group it's in.
Since there is always a "recommended bitmaps" tab when I'm selecting a bitmap to use for a graphic, I am at a loss as to why there are so many tabs here when I can only see a use for 3.

[Daecon]

What exactly does "scalings" mean and what do the 1, 3 and 6 refer to?

[Chaos Awakes]

The scalings refer to the number of different scalings that the engine requires in the game. For example, 6 scalings are usually dungeon items because the engine has to draw them far away and near at all sorts of distances - I assume for a total of 6 scalings. Icons on the other hand don't need to be scaled at all so they are 1 scaling. 3 Scalings I'm not sure about but probably wall items since you can see three squares ahead.

You need to put new graphics that you import into the right category so it can be selected into the right object later. However, as I say, I don't understand why it subcategorises each of the 3 scalings into "small", "medium" and "large" which the editor seems to to automatically based on the bitmap size.

[George Gilbert]

The small / medium / large category is meant to be there to help, rather than hinder you!

It's purely there to split up the lists into smaller sizes to make finding the bitmap you want easier. Small are things that are probably icons etc, medium is usually stuff that's found in the dungeon and large are usually full screen UI things...