Isaac

Use terrain #1, "Blackness", at the end of your stairs. That's what the stairs you copied do, although it's hard to tell (I figured it out by drawing cave floor all over the Solid Stone, and some of the black area didn't seem to disappear. That's Blackness terrain, probably designed for this purpose).

I have converted the graphics in a way I think will work. The code would have to be changed for it to work on Windows.

I have finished version 0.9b1, which includes the tiny rectangles in 3D, and Tab to switch between 2D and 3D, as well as some more bugfixes. Get it at the same place. Unless I get the tinting code or more bug reports soon, I will release this as version 1.0. Jeff (or anybody else who would know), what should I do with it when it becomes version 1.0, to make it available to everyone?

Quote: Originally written by Just Call Me Kel: It appears that first_group_member(0) will always return 0, even if character 0 is dead or deleted. Have other people tried this, and if so, received the same result? Quote: Originally written by Just Call Me Kel: Agh, I am a fool. To refer to group 0, one uses the number 1000 even if the parameter calls itself "which_group" and not "which_char_or_group." Does this apply there too?

Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: Looks very cool. Tinting is not done using system calls, but by bit by bit editing of the graphic data. It's a pain. - Jeff Vogel Hmmm... If you could post your tinting code, then, well, I'll probably implement it. If not, I doubt I will. After all, I don't even know how much each thing tints it, and I don't know how to do "bit by bit editing of the graphic data" (although I bet I could figure that part out).

Quote: Originally written by Just Call Me Kel: It would be lovely if you could get the various things that are not displayed (terrain scripts, etc) to display. I imagine a little box with 3-d versions of those graphics in the corner of the terrain that they're on, much like the 2-d version, but I have no idea how hard that would be to implement. If not, I'll just switch to 2-d. No big deal. I am going to implement that tomorrow. Quote: Originally written by Just Call Me Kel: I may have just missed this, but is there a keyboard shortcut for switching between 2-d and 3-d? That'd be really nice, if it's not already there. Maybe TAB, if that's not already used for something. That reminds me, I was actually intending to implement that, with the exact same key, but I forgot about it. I'll do that too.

Quote: Originally written by Vercalos: Wow. This looks like quite an amazing piece of work, and certainly useful for checking how something would look in the game, and checking to make sure that everything that needs to be seen is seen. BTW, if you want a good place to store images, check www.ripway.com Not sure what they get out of it, but there's one thing I found that would make using that impossible for me: Quote: Note: Accounts that are inactive for over 30 days will be removed. Please log in at least once a month to keep your account active. There's no way I could reliably remember to do that forever.

Quote: Originally written by Eldiran: The awesomeness of this application cannot be expressed using words. Yeah. It's that awesome. BUT like the little whiner I am I want to suggest a few more features. - If you could figure out the whole tints thing, it would be incredibly useful. - A mode of the 3D editor where the central point is the point of view and all things out of line of sight are blacked out would be awesome. Cave of No Return, for example, has two sets of tree terrains for the forest: trees that block sight and ones that don't. I can't distinguish between the two, which made it very difficult to get it right (which I didn't do) so seeing what the line of sight would be like would be very useful. I don't have any more recommendations for features, and you're welcome to not add any at all. I'd still use your editor. One more thing: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Both of those things should be possible, but I'm not going to think about them any time soon. I'm tired of working on this. The only significant feature I'm likely to add soon is the "tiny rectangles", although if someone could tell me what functions to use for the tints in Carbon, I could implement that. Hmmm... Maybe I'll email Jeff to ask about that. He would know exactly what the parameters were, if any.

Quote: Originally written by Morgan: Excellent. The aesthetics were my first major gripe about the BoA editor (I've since moved on to other things), and now I can bear to look at the map editor. One small gripe, however. Just from looking at Babysitting in the new editor, the dungeon entrance is obscured by the size of the trees. I appreciate that not much can be done about this (apart from rotating camera view - a major work), but it is annoying. It would be nice to switch between 2D and 3D, however nasty the 2D version is. There is a way to switch between 2D and 3D. Also, I'd say this is half good. Pay attention to this. If you can't see it, neither can the player. When playing Babysitting, the dungeon entrance is a little hard to find because of the tall trees. If they're in the way (and you're actually creating a scenario, not just looking at one), take the problem tree out! Quote: Originally written by GIFTSare2happy: So... you want to have to scroll a lot? As opposed to tiny icons, yes I have not noticed any vertical squish in the icons. The 3D pictures are 46 pixels wide and 55 pixels tall. The way the small 3D pictures were displayed, they were 16 by 16. The picture has to be shrunk a little more vertically than horizontally to fit that. It is not very noticable, especially since they're so tiny. I've changed the small 3D pictures' heights to be 19 pixels, a little bigger than before. I hope this helps... I don't have much of a problem with the tiny icons (which are tiny in 2D as well; do you have a problem with that too?). You can download the new version from the same place, which is now in my signature. (it also has a couple bugfixes)

Quote: Originally written by Sathoj: Awesome! My only complaint is that you don't factor in "tints" made to graphics, but that's minor. Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to do that. Quote: Originally written by Crunchy Frog: In a word: Schweeeeet! Now someone just needs to port it to Windows. *glances around* Hey, don't look at me, guys. I only have four days of holiday left! I mean, c'mon! Edit: By the way, if you want PC users to be able to download the source code, you may want to package it as a zip. Stuffit files can *theoretically* be unstuffed using free software on the PC, but in practice I ran into all sorts of problems the only time I ever tried. And I tried about ten different programs. OK, I'll make a zip version of the source available for PC. However, I wouldn't advise porting it yet, since it isn't quite finished. Quote: Originally written by GIFTSare2cute: As for beta testing, I am having trouble with secret walls locations in the 3D mode. But still, very great work! Begone are the sweets of me having to make editor graphics specificaly for the editor for my custom terrains and objs... Be warned, the editor graphics are also used, scaled down, on the Automap in the game. Quote: The icons are kinda small in the window where you choose terrain or floors. I suggest lessening the amount of terrain and floors on the scrolling thing so you can increase their size. EDIT 2: So... you want to have to scroll a lot? Then again it wouldn't be so bad, it gives me a bit of visual overload trying to find the terrain I want among all those (tiny) images. I'll try making it at least not distorted (currently they're squished vertically), and then see how it looks. Quote: EDIT 2: 3D Editing does not allow Setting Item atributes(charges and drawing shifts and the like) nor does it allow changing of creature atributes during 3D Mode. And as of the 2d wandering monster and script terrain icons, just use the icons from the 2d editor in the 3d mode. put them on the side of the terrain. So the scroll, B, Red Circle, Spawn locations, all those icons appear in a 3d way on terrain. Change the perspective of the icon(ex:Scroll for terrain script) so it looks like it is slanted. I'll look into these things. EDIT: Not being able to change item/creature attributes looks like a bug. However, I can't seem to reproduce any problems with secret walls. Can you give me more details? (or find out what you're doing wrong, so I don't have to fix it )

I am finally ready for the first release of my 3D Blades of Avernum Editor, version 0.8b1. Don't be scared off by the "beta" marking; I think I've removed most of the bugs. Get it here . There is also a screenshot on that page. I want feedback. Bug reports, of course. And especially, suggestions on one thing. In 2D, you can see terrain scripts, north/south/east/west town entrances, wandering monster creation points, damaging floor, etc. Currently, my 3D view does not display those. Should I keep it that way, or does anyone have suggestions on how to display those in a good way?

block_entry(1);

Quote: Originally written by Just Call Me Kel: Archimage Micael (which is not much of an improvement over "archmagi," by the way -- there's no I in archmage) My dictionary includes "Archimage" but not "Archmage". "Archimage" is quite correct; however, considering the way Spiderweb Software spells it, "Archmage" would be a better choice. Not that it matters.

Perhaps another undead learned Vahkohs's techniques, but was more ambitious and powerful that him. Then he named himself after Vahkohs.

On mac, GraphicConverter lets you do that. Although it is a little hard to find: Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale -> 16 Grays (although there are other options for number of grays, I believe this is the best for this situation) Then: Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale to Red Channel

Quote: Originally written by GIFTSare2nice: Good punishment for players using that end combat to pass special encounters.... Use blocked spaces, they're foolproof. Unless of course you are intentionally trying to catch people trying to use that cheat.

...but if the designer was evil the devices could not be activated in combat (like standard wheels used to open gates)...

Quote: HTML is not enabled.

Yes, I have found this problem too. Luckily, the string manipulation commands (along with print_str_color) are a workaround.

It's because guards count as "summoned" creatures. They are set to "summoned" (and never disappearing) in the INIT_STATE of their script (probably so people don't kill them for their equipment, which they won't drop, as "summoned" creatures). For some reason, attacking a summoned creature doesn't make it hostile. Control Foes gives the target Charmed status (at least at skill 3). Since it's charmed, it's on the opposite side from normal. Their normal attitude is friendly to you, so now they will act hostile.

Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: If you manage to make a 3D editor (or even just a Preview command), I think virtually all designers will be deeply in debt to you for all eternity. And since I'm sometimes a designer, I'll be deeply in debt to myself. Yet another motivating force.

Quote: Originally written by Grey-Eyed Stranger: I seriously doubt Khoth has the time to completely recode the BoA engine rendering system. Khoth? Who's that? It's certainly not me. In fact, I have made a good deal of progress making a 3D editor. I have plenty of time, because it's my summer vacation. And, I like coding.

In the town script, use set_name() to set the name of people (or other creatures). Use it in the INIT_STATE of the town script. void set_name(short which_char_or_group,char new_name) - Sets the name of the character/group to new_name. Maximum name length is 19 characters. To find the which_char_or_group, when the person is selected in the editor, look at the creature number in the top left of the text in the bottom left of the screen. For example, "Creature 22: Merchant"

I don't know if this would fix it, but you could put "end();" just before the "break;" at the end. It seems creature scripts will sometimes repeat until they are stopped, anyway. I had another thought. Are you using terrain messages? If a terrain script has a message, it will happen again at the end of the turn. If somehow it got another message, it might repeat itself again and again. This idea seems rather unlikely, though...

Quote: Originally written by Eldibs: The humans would win. Think about it. What resource the the humans use that none of the other races use... Horses. One human would be riding along on his horse, and a Nephil would shoot a bow at him, a slith would try to spear him, etc, etc, an they would miss and hit the horse. The horse, being indestructible, would not be injured, and the human would escape. He would then tell all the armorers to start making horse-hide armor and equip all the soldiers with it, and voila! Indestructible human soldiers. They could even make horse-hide robes for the mages! When you are riding along on your horse, the enemies can still hurt you. In fact, you can't even enter combat to fight back! Horse-hide armor would be impossible to make, because horses are invulnerable, invincible, indestructible, and impenetrable. How would they get the hide off the horse?