Using the Blades of Avernum Editor for BoE work

[Ishad Nha]

The Blades of Avernum editors can be used to port BoE scenarios to the Avernum world. Currently the BoE editor can't handle the zooming out of terrain with custom icons, all it shows is a black square for each such icon. However the BoA editors handle custom terrain graphics well. Really need a 16*16 view and a normal BoE size, 28*36, view added. (The 256 terrain icons displayed in the Edit Terrain Types screen are each 16*16.)

 

Now the 3D Editor can be compiled at will. It could be altered to print out anything needed, like a list of all the nodes used in the town, with their values and messages. It currently does as much when porting the BoE scenarios. Porting takes a few seconds, no more than a minute if there are monsters, items or doors outside the boundaries of any town.

 

This approach uses a custom scenario data script and special custom graphics, both were easy to arrange.

Here is the difference, as seen for Port Trolse, town 3 of The Final Spire:

(This link will be moved to the latest post in this topic.)

[Celtic Minstrel]

Um... why? If you want that feature, just add it to the BoE editor. And note that map icons in BoE are smaller – 8x8, I believe.

[Ishad Nha]

That involves re-writing the source code, which involves more knowledge of programming than I have. It also involves getting the thing to compile, that has not been a success story so far.

[Ishad Nha]

Compiling the Editor might be possible but it will take time to resolve resource issues, it currently comes without any cursors or sound files.

 

In response to massive apathy I have uploaded the Zoom Editor as it currently stands. Now I can compile the BoE Editor but it will take me some time to figure out the source code and I am not a programmer.

http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/BoEZoomEditor.zip

You may need to activate your address bar to make the above link work.

[Ishad Nha]

I am trying to get the hang of the BoE graphics, it is not easy! It will take some time and expert advice, until then it is the Zoom Editor or nothing.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Well, do you have any specific questions about BoE graphics?

[Ishad Nha]

Heaps.

How do you make it accept a custom sheet of small icons? I have tried this but no luck so far. (I know it is not accepting a custom sheet because I drew great red lines all over it as a tracking device.)

[Ishad Nha]

My goal of creating a whole lot of query functions for the BoE Scenario Editor has not been reached. It produces gibberish results for a list of town entrances.

(Edit: problem fixed.)

 

However when using the Zoom Editor to port a scenario the functions work correctly. It can print files showing all shops in the scenario, outdoor and indoor. I hope to generalize this into a search function that can list any node type at will.

 

Creating the three custom graphics is not hard, just open the relevant scenario in the BoE Scenario Editor and start terrain editing, then do a screen capture with Alt + Print Screen.

Open up Paint or whatever and paste in the screen capture. Open up bitmaps G581 thru G583.

I use this pasting scheme:

First Graphics sheet: G581

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43

51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60

68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77

85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94

102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111

119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128

136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145

153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162

 

Second Graphics Sheet: G582

170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179

187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196

204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213

221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230

238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247

255, x, x, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, x, x, x

27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, x, x, x

44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, x, x, x

61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, x, x, x

 

Third Graphics Sheet: G583

78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, x, x, x

95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, x, x, x

112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, x, x, x

129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, x, x, x

146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, x, x, x

163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, x, x, x

180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, x, x, x

197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, x, x, x

214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, x, x, x

231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, x, x, x

 

You can do the pasting at 800% view to make sure that it is exactly right, see View -> Zoom -> Custom.

To create nice black borders around the graphic squares I paste in a blank BoA Editor icon bitmap. I use the transparent pasting method, the bottom one not the opaque (top) one. G680 thru G690 in the Data/Terrain Graphics folder are examples of Editor icon bitmaps.

An "x" means that nothing is pasted into this square.

Change the name of Riveleafdata.txt to match the name of your new scenario.

Note: this scheme only works for scenarios ported with the Zoom Editor, I altered the porting function myself.

 

[Ishad Nha]

I have created a variant of the BoA 3D Editor that will display 16*16 icons.

http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/BoEZoomEditor.png

[Ishad Nha]

I am preparing an updated version of the Zoom Editor that has all the latest features of the 3D Editor.

It will also enable you to use a straight screen capture of your BoE Scenario Editor, no need to chop the screen capture up into three or more bits.

Edit:

It has been uploaded.

[Ishad Nha]

The BoE Zoom Editor has been updated with the new medium view. Two approaches are possible for the next step:

Rewrite the BoA 3D Editor to open exs files.

Rewrite the BoE Editor to accept the new format, it will take some time for me to understand the BoE code sufficiently well.