Possible bugs/Needed features

[Paul Stevens]

Here is a summary of the 3x5 cards in my pocket. In
many cases I don't remember the context in which they
originated and in some cases I don't even know what they
mean or whether they apply to CSBwin or to CSBuild.
I am putting this here to see if anyone still is
anxiously awaiting something I promised long ago.
And I may have already fixed some and forgot to
remove the card from my pocket.

--3D2D1D restart causes system error 0. [Who cares!!!]
--Rescan dungeon to get reid of !!!! after copying clones. [Huh?]
--&ADD group of 4 monsters - All at same position! [Huh?]
--Provide "Illegal Text" for scrolls with bad text index when loading instead of deleting.
--Text-nnnn Valid indirect pointer is nowhere referenced. Option to show text/delete.
--Reprogram Spell Runes [Spell Filter can handle this and more?]
--CE Icon
--'!' in message area text [Does this work in any original DM/CSB?]
--Portrait text must be at least n legal characters when doing checks.
--Drink directly from fountain if 'DM Rules'. [I don't like this]
--"Are you sure you want to quit?"
--Freeze while minimized.
--Missiles fireballs etc show as ??? in text area. [Huh?]
--Find Object Toolbar button.
--Text on stairs cannot receive set/clear messages.
--Allow 'False Pits' anywhere because floor below is irrelevant.
--Dying with overlay active in Fullscreen causes crash on restart.
--Copy/Paste list of items. [Ouch. Not too easy.]
--Document what 'C0', 'T0', etc mean and how to create messages.
--Check for missing Portraits files.
--Revive designer-planted champion bones. Disallow if appropriate champion
is non-existent or alive.
--Display Scan codes on Pocket PC.
--Disable Export/Import graphics in Dungeon format. [Huh?]
--Can Misc items have 'Cursed', Broken', and 'Poisoned'?
--&Party! to change Sleep state?
--Mon(stamina) in Editor --> unused Mon in Game.
Mon in Editor --> Ma in Game [Huh????]
--Pocket PC redefine screen sizes/placement.
--GAPI Graphics for WinCE. [Huh?]
--WinCE Cursor appears when display Chest and tap on Mouth.
--WinCE lose focus gain focus need to tap Champion to unpause.
The Champions are stretched and controls are put in wrong place.
--Mirrored skin view. [Huh?]
--Increase Skills/Experience. (like &AddMaster ( char skill gain . . . )
--Delete 60 and 61 Timer entries. [Why? When?]
--Giggler rob from other than weapon hand.
--Falsewall on Pressurepad dialog Click OK mouse leaves trail of Falsewalls.
--Healing immortal monsters makes them mortal.
--Party attack filter. disable time, stamina loss, attack option, etc. [Done?]
--Size 4 monsters with position 3/3/3/3 gives warning.
--Don't complain about False Pits. [Duplicate of item above?]
--Post-move Monster Filter (for sounds, eg.) Per forum C0 MSG 1 of 4 cases. [Done??]
--Virtual Masks needed [Done??]
--Overlay Language Compiler. [For strange and wonderful overlay functions?]
--Program to create .bin files for Alternate Monster Graphics.
--Waterloo Bridge. [Oooops. Ran into a different kind of card.]

[Adamo]

--Giggler rob from other than weapon hand.

that`s just what I need! Thanx!!!

[Zyx]

My 2p:
--&ADD group of 4 monsters - All at same position! [Huh?]
Yes, I'm awaiting for this. Visually, the new group of 4 monsters appears like once, centered monster.

--Drink directly from fountain if 'DM Rules'. [I don't like this]
DM rules are about resurection and should not be related to this feature.

--Missiles fireballs etc show as ??? in text area. [Huh?]
CSBuild shows clouds and missiles as unknown.

--Increase Skills/Experience. (like &AddMaster ( char skill gain . . . )
I don't remember if it'sd implemented or if I found a roundabout with the adjustskill filter, but personnaly i don't need it anymore.

--Program to create .bin files for Alternate Monster Graphics.
can't say i'm not interested

[Adamo]

oh, and could I turn off the "Too many monsters. The atari code did bad thing at this point (...)" in-game warning somehow?

[Paul Stevens]

4 monsters in location 3.

This is a bit like DrawAsSize4, is it not? How is it
different? If all monsters in a group are at position
3, how does attacking (both directions) work?

Program to create .bin file.

How much is this worth? Obviously, creating a
stand-alone program capable of doing all the nice
things is not a small undertaking. Probably occupy me
for several weeks. I'm willing to attempt it if it will save
several weeks' work for you.

Giggler rob from other than weapon hand.

A MonsterAttackFilter should be able to do this. Anyone
already have such a thing to provide free-of-charge?
It seems all it needs to do is check for the attack type,
the champion number, and then randomly select a
location or object (depending on your needs). This
could be coded as a parameter so it could be adapted
for different needs.

[Paul Stevens]

turn off the "Too many monsters........

That is already gone in version 9.8v123.
It may not have been released for general use.
I have been working privately with Zyx and with
Erik Svanberg to get ConfluxIII working on both
Windows and Linux.

[Zyx]

4 monsters in location 3.

This is a bit like DrawAsSize4, is it not? How is it
different? If all monsters in a group are at position
3, how does attacking (both directions) work?

There's a misunderstanding.
The original group is 4 monsters, all visible.
The new group is 4 monsters, all-in-one.
This should not be. I'm asking for a fix for &ADD.

Program to create .bin file.

How much is this worth? Obviously, creating a
stand-alone program capable of doing all the nice
things is not a small undertaking. Probably occupy me
for several weeks. I'm willing to attempt it if it will save
several weeks' work for you.

Not only for me, but for many users. I could create a tool for me when I find the time, but uncomplete, not shareable.

Giggler rob from other than weapon hand.

A MonsterAttackFilter should be able to do this. Anyone
already have such a thing to provide free-of-charge?
It seems all it needs to do is check for the attack type,
the champion number, and then randomly select a
location or object (depending on your needs). This
could be coded as a parameter so it could be adapted
for different needs.

Yes, I have such a DSA, but embedded within a much more complexe code. I'll make a release when I find the time.

[Paul Stevens]

Zyx: Thanks for clearing up that
four-monster problem. I'll get to it right away.
Sounds simple.

Writing a tool for the graphics is not a terrible
thing to have to do. It could be fun so long as
I am not pressured to devise other 'features' for
CSBwin at the same time. So I'll get started and
share any intermediate results so you can comment
on the usefulness of any approach I take. For starters
I assume you will want to import up to 10 (don't know
why there is provision for 10) .bmp 'views' and then associate
the various views with 'forward', backward', etc. You
will also need to specify where they are to be displayed
in each of the relative cells and within each cell. The program
should probably allow you to see the result using various
arrangements of walls. Anything else?

[beowuuf]

--Increase Skills/Experience. (like &AddMaster ( char skill gain . . . )
I don't remember if it'sd implemented or if I found a roundabout with the adjustskill filter, but personnaly i don't need it anymore.

That might have been me, but I am currently not working on my dungeon. It was both a way to add/subtract skills and add/subtract experience

[rain`]

*Peeks out of the cave* I know I'm on/off here in the DM Community, but I do read the forums from time to time with interest. I couldn't help but notice this post, especially:

--Program to create .bin files for Alternate Monster Graphics.

ADGE development version (unreleased) had features designed for the new custom graphics format. It could edit masks, export bin's, create 'mask/bin' combos for monsters and graphics (i.e. walls, alcoves, decorations, creatures). It was very powerful, and produces some great results. The idea was to take a graphics.dat file, open it in ADGE, adjust whatever you wanted (i.e. replace all the wall graphics with new custom graphics, then 'export' a mask file and all appropriate bin files automatically. It even did some complex things such as account for the 16 pixel-X offset/width requirement and basic scaling which attempts to emulate CSBWin's scaling. The actual development version of ADGE was put on ice (a long time ago) due to lack of interest and lack of available time. How is the custom graphics engine-development coming along? Are there sufficient tools for creating masks/graphics (bin format) for those in need? I know I had intentions on finishing this months ago, but never did. I may be able to scramble up some spare time to finish it up, depending on needs. Currently, I would say it is between 70-80% completed with flexible capabilities but limited user-friendlyness. The problem lies in bugs/untested features.

Heres a few screenshots of what was being worked on, and the last modified date of any source file is 7/1/2005 (so this is development as of almost 5 months ago, which hasn't been touched since)

http://www.uwm.edu/~pjgross/bpied1.jpg
http://www.uwm.edu/~pjgross/bpied2.jpg
http://www.uwm.edu/~pjgross/bpied3.jpg

The other alternative is to 'hand down' the current code to someone who may want to complete it. If not, Christmas break is coming up in a few weeks, and I have a week of vacation from work before New Years. Then no classes for 4 weeks.

Let me know what you think.

----------------------------------
Quick overview of BPI Editor screen: source x/y are where to grab from the graphic, dst x/y are where to place on the screen, width/height are given. Transparent pixel must be set to the 'color' of the pixel which is used to create the mask, "Left padding" is a number between 0-15 which moves the picture to the right by that many pixels (to abide by the %16==0 requirement of width/dst-x. Scale is an integer % value (50% = 3 rooms away, 66% = 2 rooms away, 100% = actual size, etc). Mirrored will mirror the image/mask.

[Paul Stevens]

Oh, my. This is the first time I have bothered to
look at what you have done. (Because the graphics
have never interested me. They still don't.) Your
work is most impressive.

Does anyone use your program in production?

I have started a program to handle the 'Alternate
Monster Graphics'. But I have not put any significant
time into it yet. Just trying a few things to see how
it might be accomplished.

It is somewhat different (and a lot easier) that what you
have done. Each set of monster graphics occupies a
single file with a simple format. See:

http://www.dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/doc ... phics.html

[EDIT INSERT] It should read 16-color .bmp files
and rearrange the bits into 4-plane format and
insert them into the .bin file[/EDIT INSERT]

It would certainly be wonderful if you could adapt your
program to handle these. Zyx could certainly use it
right away. One thing it needs to do is show the monster
in various positions relative to the party, with various DM
background graphics and allow the editor to shift the
images around. (The pixel positions within the viewport
are a part of the image file.)

BTW:
The scale factors are fractions with 32 in the denominator.
The numerators are 20 and 16, not exactly 66% and 50%.

[Paul Stevens]

It occurs to me that the ability to show the
graphics at arbitrary locations might induce someone
to create a creature that somehow 'projects its
being'. That is, it is not where it appears. When it
is on your left it appears to be on your right.

An 'Image-Projection Giggler'. That would be bad.

[Zyx]

That's great, rain!
I'm already using your ADGE, however since there was some small bugs and the fixes never came, I thought you were not on the DM scene anymore.
Your tool is almost ready "as it" to be useful for the alternate graphics.

[rain`]

I will look into what needs to be done tonight and see what I can gather about what needs to be done and what can be done. These alternate monster graphics sound most intriguing (sp?). The good part is everything about the structures just so happens to perfectly match up with the data in the graphics.dat file! (lucky =]).

I try to stay in the DM scene as this community is so dedicated, hard working, and amazing (The work done in the DM community far exceeds games even now, and this game is 20 years old!). But I'm involved in other communities (such as my website, konptracker.com, which is currently down for about a week).

I'll keep in touch for awhile, but I won't make any promises today. School + Finals are creeping up slowly, and nothing happens overnight.

[PaulH]

I use ADGE a lot in Dungeon making. If it wasn't for ADGE, I would be building in RTC.

[PaulH]

And I have to say, I think my next work will be RTC based. As much as I love CSBWin and its obvious faithfullness to to the original, and associated gameplay, George and his develepments suit the average dungeon maker more. This is taking nothing away from Paul: but I feel RTC will match the original feel very soon (well, according to my visage of feel!), and coupled with the new advances and ease of use, will overtake CSBWin soon. I think that ADGE still holds the key.

[rain`]

*discussion begins*

I need to understand the custom creature graphics a bit more, so I have simple questions:

1) If each CSBGraphics.dat file contains up to 3 different alternative graphics for monsters, does that mean (at most), 4 different graphics can appear for any one monster (since only 1 CSBGraphics.dat can be used?)?

2) *related to 1*:

For example, Alternate Graphics 1, 2, and 3 for a Screamer will be contained in CSBgraphics.dat ID numbers 18, 19, and 20.

This means CSBGraphics.dat ID number 18 contains ALL the information about some custom graphic set, such as 1-4 bin-format graphics and the required header structure (MONSTERDESC, etc).

3) Monsters with 'custom' colors per level, these values are 'ignored' in the CSBGraphics.dat structure, so is it safe to assume they will carry their parent graphic (parent = the base monster which you are providing alternate graphics for)?

4) (to users): The structures contain a lot of fields that MUST be 0, would you like to be able to customize this at will (thus, putting the pressure on you to get it right instead of being automatic)? I'd hate to see some new feature be implemented but ADGE won't even allow you to edit it (obviously, defaults, if left unchanged, would be what is required).

5) How would you like the editor to handle? Here is the plan: Open your graphics.dat file, import the new graphics for monsters to the specified monster of your choice, move around the monsters coordinates/change the values associated with the monster (i.e. graphic width/height, transparent pixel, location in the room) via the ADGE editors, then 'export' a custom monster graphic which includes all 1-4 graphics, etc, into a file which then must be inserted into the CSBGraphics.dat file accordingly. Is this sufficient? Or have a seperate editor all together that opens a BIN file (the one you import into CSBGraphics.dat), edits it (i.e. import pictures, move things around, etc), and saves the bin. The second option requires more work, the first option is very simple (but supports no reloading, only exporting).

6) Are the structures stored in CSBGraphics.dat containing full sized images? Is the normal restriction of Width % 16 == 0, and Destination-X % 16 == 0 in effect?

[Paul Stevens]

Yes, I'm awaiting for this. Visually, the new group of 4 monsters appears like once, centered monster.

I cannot make this happen. Could you provide the parameters
you supply to &ADD?

[Paul Stevens]

1) Yes. There are only two bits available to
select the graphic.

2) There is no question in your statement. I think
your statement is correct.

3) The colors used are determined by the level
of the dungeon. The alternate graphics will be using
the colors of the level they appear on. You cannot
specify any color information in the alternate graphics.
Except for the pixel information these monsters are
no different from their 'standard-graphic' form.

4) Others to answer.

5) Others to answer. I had not considered your simpler
plan. It sounds a bit cumbersome but would work OK and
provide a way to save the results and edit them later.

6) The width (because of the 16-bit bit-plane format) must
be a multiple of 16. The destination x-coordinate can
be arbitrary.

[rain`]

Alternate Monster Graphics: (questions are numbered for easy reference)

You have provisions for 10 graphics inside the alternate monster graphic ([1]I'm considering calling them .AMG files soon, what u think?). Each graphic is in atari bitplane format. [2]How do you know the size of the graphics? [3]Would it be wrong to save the file and 'piggyback' information after the bitplane data so long as the original offsets in the header are pointing to the start bits of each? (information such as a string which names it, a width/height value, for gui sake only ofcourse)

In the current AlternateMonsterGraphics.zip file from your website (believe it is 12/14/05 version), you're sample AMG contains 4 graphics. At the moment, I am using the info from the header to construct the assumed size of the graphics. [4]This only works for at maximum, 4 graphics, what about the other 6?

Also, I'd like to note that even though you're sample vexirks are beautiful, the attack graphic was incorrectly sized to a height of 49, which should be 56! This led to decoding the BITPLANE correctly, but displaying it wrong (in my editor anyway). The reason I say this is because given a wrong height of 49, I should have read fewer bytes for the bitplane graphic, cutting off the last 6 lines, but instead I forced it to read from offset[n] to offset[n+1]-1 (or EOF), which grabbed all the real data.

Final comment: I tested a few custom graphics based on you're current one. The default alternate monster graphic zip file didnt actually draw a vexirk for me, just some garble. When I put it my own, a Coutal graphic, It displayed correctly most of the time, but when the screamer turns in place, it does not update the graphic. Eventually I will be looking at the alternate graphic of a coutal's back as though it wasn't facing me, but I would be getting attacked. The attack graphic would not even be displayed. I'll get more for you in the near future to check out.

[rain`]

MMm, the vexirk in your current AlternateMonsterGraphics.zip package actually did work, my bad. I was running an old one (why? dunno)

Anyway, very fancy! Heres a little 'update', figured you might want to use this for testing if you didn't have something like it already.

http://www.uwm.edu/~pjgross/AMGTest01.zip

This is just something I threw together, I took the dungeon you had but put in some new alternate monster graphics. One of the screamers in the cages is actually now customized to an exact replica of CSB Vexirks (now theres 4 as well), but they are still screamers. The second set of screamers (in the middle of the room), is merely a group of CSB Vexirks laid out differently. This took all of ~5 minutes with the current ADGE dev version. The screamer-turning is still evident here, dunno why. Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[Paul Stevens]

1) 'AMG graphics sounds like a nice name.

2) How do I know the size of the graphics? I
know the width and the height from the ITEM12
structure. I multiply them. What am I missing here?

3) Adding information to the end should not be a
problem. If it turns out to be a problem then
we can probably work something out to make it
possible. This is so new that I think we arrange to
add information in the header portion of the
file if it were quite useful. In fact, you can put
information after the header already because the offsets
to the graphics can simply skip over anything you add.
But we should document whatever you add. Let
me know what you do and I will add it to the infomation
in my documentation.

4) What about the other 6? I don't know. What are they
used for? Is there an example in DM or CSB whare
they are used? If so, I can see how the size is computed.

[Zyx]

Any progress Rain?

[rain`]

much progress, but yet not enough!