Jump to content
IGNORED

Magellan


The Codex

Recommended Posts

As a celebration of the 7th page of this thread (awesome) I'd like to renew an old request... I know you were holding off on this until the program was a little further along in development-- so I thought this was a good time to pop it back up. Custom sized maps? If this is not something others are interested in, I will create a utility to consolidate my maps into one large map with continuous DATA... The way you have set up this output/export feature--- it is quite flexible!!! Anyway, the newest updates are fantastic, Codex. You should be very proud of your efforts man... This thing is solid!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I'm still planning on implementing custom map sizes. The main thing holding me back it implementing a scrolling canvas. This is easy in Java for some component types, but is going to take some serious finagling to get it to work with the map canvas. Still, it should happen eventually.

 

Thanks for the comments in the meantime, glad folks are finding the improvements worthwhile!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hah, just had a breakthrough! Sussed out a different approach to managing the scrolling and it worked. Now I should be able to add custom map dimensions. Thankfully I started the application as being agnostic about map sizes and just make 32x24 the only choice, so it shouldn't take too much retrofitting to get other sizes supported properly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oh, just want to note that when using assembler in graphics mode 1 you have access to the full 256 characters :)

So that would mean 32 "character sets" instead of 16.

 

Excerpt from the VDP programming guide (page 37):

8.1.1 The Pattern Table contains a library of user defined patterns that can be displayed in any of the
788 screen positions. It is 2048 bytes long and is arranged as 256 eight byte patterns. 

 

edit: just noticed sometimes99er mentioned it a while ago, so it's probably on the to-do list already ;)

Edited by retroclouds
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I expect I'll be adding support for the second character set eventually (already been thinking about ways to implement it). Do I also need to allow for setting the indidual foreground/background color for each character, or is that not possible in any mode?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I expect I'll be adding support for the second character set eventually (already been thinking about ways to implement it). Do I also need to allow for setting the indidual foreground/background color for each character, or is that not possible in any mode?

That’s 4 set above the current 16, and the rest, 12, below. As with the Import and Export Character Image (mono). Eh, individual foreground and background color for each set of eight characters (not each character).

 

The VDP handles 256 characters, 32 sets, but TI Basic limits it to 16 sets, and XB to only 14 sets.

 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another release out the door. Wanted to get this out there for Owen, Filip, and Bones in particular as it has features each requested. Now you can make maps of different sizes, scroll the editing area, type directly onto the grid, and a few other goodies. I think this is nearing a proper release state, just a few more needed features and we may be ready.

 

Thanks again for all the continued support and feedback! Grab version 0.7 from the head post as usual.

Edited by The Codex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey man!! Great sh**. Love the way this keeps developing. The ability to resize the map is great! Especially now that I'm doing this in assembly... your assembly export for map data is great. I used it in the screen draw routine I outlined in the Berylrogue thread. It is damn near flawless man. In a first go-through of this new version, the ONLY thing I see that I would like added is the character set expansion for assembly. =) Other than that--- yea man. SICK program. =) I'll be using this quite a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey buddy. Having a bit of a problem with importing character image. Here's what's up.

 

When I'm about to import, here's the screen of the window showing the actual image:

 

imagecolor.jpg

 

 

This picture is of the character set right after I import

 

imageprob.jpg

 

 

 

I restarted the program and tried again. Did the same thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Codex, very impressive work! The custom map dimensions and text typing feature are great :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

Would be cool if you could see how many maps are available. Perhaps like in the mockup below:

post-16219-127322796917_thumb.png

 

It would be nice to see the current column and row in the map as you move. That way you can position your elements

in a more precise way (according to game logic or whatever)

 

I had some difficulties finding out where the text would be typed in the map, it seems to be the previously selected position ? Perhaps the "text" cursor could be made visible somehow.

 

EDIT: I know there are a lot of enhancement requests coming in and that they can't all be realized. Perhaps it would be nice if the list of pending suggestions/requests could be included in this thread.

That way you could get an overview of what is to be included in a future release, what is rejected, etc.

Edited by retroclouds
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedback gents. Owen, the reason your import doesn't work is that Magellan only supports black&white image loads at the moment. I'm planning on adding color import, but I'm trying to come up with the best strategy for Magellan to guess which pixels are foreground and which are background.

 

In the meantime, here is the complete list of features under consideration, including those just asked for. They are color coded from easy and planned to possible to unlikely and/or hard as corn.

 

Support for lower mem (0-31) and upper mem (144-256) character sets

Binary export

DSK format export

ColecoVision export

Map Counter

Text Cursor

Tie app with Charcot for sprite editing

Import color character image (and derive colorsets from)

Copy region

Column/Row number overlay

Drag-and-Drop character image between buttons

Proportional Rotate

Metadata/Code assigned to map segments

Undo/Redo

 

Cast your vote on most wanted, or add anything else you desire to the list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and in case you're wondering what the reference to Charcot is in the post above, it's the sprite/character editor I'm working on.

 

post-25494-127323870207_thumb.png

 

As you can see, it already has support for the extended character set. I'm going to move that into Magellan once I figure out how to fit it in there with the character editor widget. It's possible I might merge these two programs together at some point, so that there are three tabs, one for editing characters, one for assembling them into sprites, and one for drawing them onto maps.

 

The name of the program is a reference to Jean-Martin Charcot. Like Magellan, it's named after a visionary that I respect. Both names are also chosen as they link in some why to the program's function (Magellan for maps, Charcot for "char" [character]).

 

Anyway, I'll start a thread for this once it's more functional. There will definitely be some kind of integration between it and Magellan, and both will read the same kind of data file.

Edited by The Codex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have a way to show this--- but when I import in B&W, it works nicely. However, when I click on one of the characters, it immediately reverts to it's original character. Meaning I cannot select and use the imported characters. I need to play more with it---maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps I should import--save--restart-- try it. We shall see. :) Also, Codex--- one final request...

 

A map layout screen. A place to take each of the 24x32 maps and "arrange them" into their physical layout. This way, assuming you have multiple maps of the same game world, you can have a place to line them up and create uniformity. The re-sizing of the map makes this request less necessary for scrolling games, but for my current "Beryl" purposes, having a way to arrange 6 maps per world would certainly be a useful tool! Not

completely necessary, obviously... But still helpful. Of course this could be done as a "sectioner" on a larger map sizes too. Have a 48x64 map, then put a separator in there--- like high res graph paper--- a darker line that signifies a new area. Just a thought. :). You rock

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll test out the character image importer here too, Owen. Perhaps I screwed something up when I rewrote the button handling. And the "view all maps" idea is a good one. I'm planning on having a "gallery" page in Charcot that lets you view all your created sprites, no reason I couldn't do the same in Magellan for the maps. It may not be exactly what you're after for Beryl, but will get you closer to that goal. (And we can always create a custom version of it later as a Beryl-specific version to include as a game editor.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great man. You know, when a developer is open and accomodating, the project can really turn into something awesome. I've done BETA testing for a PC-based rpg a guy on a forum was working on. He was a real ass when it came to suggestions. He would get frustrated when he couldn't do a request, and say "it's not a good idea" or "you program it." Yea.... I jumped out of that real quick. He never finished the game. So it's so cool using your software-- you actually listen and explain what's going on! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Playing with this latest version it has occurred to me that I can use the map layout to design my game data location files (keep in mind my game has no graphics). By changing the grid size to my adventure game spec's, I can create my world and then write a program to interpret the Magellan output, which then writes the required game location data files. Doing this would be so much cleaner and more accurate than the way I am doing it at the moment and make it very easy to change things along the way if required.

 

There are a few limitations to my idea (mainly because not enough unique ascii character exist to cover my game world), but I can use this principal to take care of a large chunk of my game data/locations - especially for the repetitive and "no go" locations.

 

Again Codex, thanks for this awesome program. The ability to also take care of sprite creation within the same program (possibly in a future version) will really go some distance in making this a great all round program. I would also like to echo what Opry said, excellent that you have been so enthusiastic to request and include our suggestions - I think it goes a long way to build something of great value that will have a very long life span.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cheers gents, makes me happy when my tools are useful. Means more great games on the way! :thumbsup:

 

I've debugged the image import and you're right Owen, it was not "sticking". That was due to a recent change. I've fixed it now and also implemented the map counter and text cursor that Filip asked for. Oh, and I have color image import working pretty well too, though it's very finicky about your image having the TI colors exactly correct. Anyway, I'll probably rush another version out tomorrow so that you all will have the latest changes.

 

Thinking about combining all three tools together (map editor, character editor, sprite editor), what do you think about the map editor being the "main" interface, with the extended character selector taking up the left side? The character editor and sprite editor would be "pop-outs" that you could show or hide from the character selector panel. Maybe I'll create a version like that and you can see what I mean.

Edited by The Codex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

Thinking about combining all three tools together (map editor, character editor, sprite editor), what do you think about the map editor being the "main" interface, with the extended character selector taking up the left side? The character editor and sprite editor would be "pop-outs" that you could show or hide from the character selector panel. Maybe I'll create a version like that and you can see what I mean.

 

I think it's a great idea to combine the 3 tools. At first I was thinking about a tabbed interface.

Then it occured to me that my PC has 2 LCD monitors. So I could have the map editor on the main monitor and the sprite editor on the second monitor.

On a sidenote, if you are a developer then hook-up a second monitor to your PC; it's so much better :D

(notepad++ on the main monitor, winasm & classic99 with debugger on the second monitor. That is how I did Pitfall)

 

It's also very cool that you are releasing new releases in short cycles. That way you get more feedback and

can tune/tweak as you see fit. At this development stage I guess it's a lot better as doing big major versions.

 

Magellan rocks! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...