Staredit Network

Something that may be nice (but not necessary) would be warnings for invalid entries. (Ex, if you put a sight range above 11, it would warn that values greater than 11 crash.)

I think he was planning on adding the hint box for that

Correct, the Hint box will contain info about the most common errors happening with the currently edited property. You know it's kinda funny, because after 0.93d I said that the only thing left to implement was the Hint system, however there were so many requests for different stuff that I actually did everything EXCEPT the Hint system....

As for sound previewing....dunno, really. This would require me to work out how to export files from MPQs, something I'm trying to do for a few weeks already, but to no avail. If I can do it, however, such a thing may probably appear. It's no big deal, actually.

Ok, DatEdit 0.94 is 99.5% ready.
I'll polish things up tonight (or tomorrow) so expect the release within a few days. Lotsa stuff incoming with it =)

PS:When I think of it, the Hints and the Sound Preview may see the light of the day in 0.95, probably.

Wouldn't that be the same as the icon preview, except for having to code in a sound player?

Don't say you did everything except...yet
[sarcastic]Wait till the program ends up editing .grp, iscript, other .bin files, exe editing, tileset, triggers, game types, lo* files, and every other starcraft file without having the hint box [/sarcastic]

^ is what I wanted ''Dat''Edit to do

#####DATEDIT v0.94 Update#####

Hokay, once more DatEdit would like to show its new and improved face, with yet more power, yet more abilities, and -hopefully- yet less bugs.
Again, some fixups are included, but most of these concern the program internal functioning, so details about only the most important of them are revealed. These include also various code, speed and memory optimizations, which -even though not really visible- adds to a better global workout of the application.

Of course, version 0.94 has enhanced capabilites over the previous release, so make sure to try it out =)

Fixed:
-Updated listings (especially for the Icons: the old ones sucked A LOT)
-the 'UsedBy' box is wider, to compensate for the fact that it no longer displays the horizontal scroll bar (and it never will, even if the text doesn't fit. Don't like it? Your bad )
-'Time' properties in Units, Upgrades and Tech editors are now displayed (and calculated) in seconds instead of the raw hex value. I hope it is more useful this way.
(Just FYI, Weapon's 'Cooldown' remains itself, I just added a sidenote that "23 = 1sec")
-In Weapons Editor, The X1-Y1 and X2-Y2 properties are now labeled properly (thanks to Xenon from SA):
X1-Weapon's Attack Angle (angle within which the weapon can be fired without waiting for the unit's graphics to turn)
Y1-Weapons Launch Angle (angle by which the weapon's sprite will spin after it is spawned)

IMPORTANT: For the above two 128 = 180 degrees!
X2-Weapon's Forward Offset (distance [in pixels] from the front of the attacking unit, at which the weapon's sprite will be spawned)
Y2-Weapons Upward Offset (distance [in pixels] from the top of the attacking unit, at which the weapon's sprite will be spawned)
-Also in weapons Editor, the "Spell" property is now properly labeled "Use Tech", because it turned out to be just a techdata.dat pointer.
-Doodads Info, Load Directory and Multiple DAT Export dialogs now close after you press the "Escape" key.
-Change Hotkeys for Copy/Paste Tab - now it's CTRL+SHIFT+C and CTRL+SHIFT+V (like Arsenal 3 once had), to allow the standard Copy/Paste to function (So that you can copy the values from the Editors using CTRL+C/CTRL+V, and not only with the Right-Click menu as it was before)
-Linkified the fields in the "Credits" and "About" boxes
-Fixed the unfriendly Tab-order
-Dropdown boxes now hotkeyed properly (yay!). Thanks to DiscipleofAdun for advice .
-Added a text field to the "Load Directory" dialog. The directory where the program will look for the DATs to load is read from it, so you can as well type-in the path directly. It will also detect whether a directory exists or not.


New in DatEd v0.94:
-Icon Preview for Upgrades, Techs and Weapons Editors (per public request)
You asked for it - here it comes. Thanks flies here to DiscipleOfAdun for 'fixing' my incorrect application of the GRP_API

-More Jump Buttons (lotsa....)
Units Editor: Graphics tab
Weapons Editor: Jump-to-Upgrade, Jump-to-Graphics
Orders Editor: Jump-to-Tech, Jump-to-Weapon

There is no Jump-to-Armor-Upgrade in Units Editor (what was asked for as well) because:
!)It sucked visually (read: farks up the entire tab layout)
@)It was pretty useless
#)It sucked visually A LOT

-Extended Backward Reporting
Upgrades and Techs are also in the game now: Upgrades for both Units and Weapons, and Techs for both Weapons and Orders. This will help you keep track of these details of your customs, but will also give you a broader view over the DAT inter-connection (useful for researches etc.)
The Orders editor is not a part of this ability because in its case the resulting listing would be less than readable. Same goes for Sounds, and Portraits are already well labeled. If I get enough requests for it, I will add these too, but for now I don't feel like doing it.

-Copy Tab/Paste Tab/Paste Mixed (per public request)
In Units Editor you can now not only copy/paste an entire entry, but also some of its properties stored in one subtab (Basic, Advanced...etc), using the Copy Tab/Paste Tab ability.
Note: You need to have the same Subtab opened in order to use the 'Paste Tab'.

It is important that you realize that the Copy Tab/Paste Tab ability works completely independently from the standard, entry-related Copy/Paste routine. Their data are stored separately from each other and does not interact (well, it actually does, but about this later ). This means, that if you coied an entire Units Editor entry, you can't e.g. 'Paste' only one tab of it. It goes the other way as well - copying a tab doesn't alter, in ANY way, the data copied using the 'Copy entry' ability.

Definitely an advantage of the above is the ability to store two different sets of properties, one being an entire DAT-entry, and the other being a set of subtabs of different other entries.
However, to give you even more power, DatEdit 0.94 introduces one more ability: "Paste Mixed".
As the name suggests, this option allows you to mix the entry-oriented copying with its tab-oriented brother. What does it do? Well, it allows you to paste an entire DAT entry being a combination of the last DAT entry that you 'Copy Entry'-ed, with whatever subtabs you 'Copy Tab'-ed afterwards. Pretty neat,huh?
This way you can easily construct units being hybrids of different properties from different other units in one (maybe not-so) easy step.

-Options
Starting from now, DatEdit grants you a (small but always) level of custom-set options. Just click on the appropriate item under the "Options" menu to toggle a particular property. These include:
-Confirm On Exit (toggles whether to display the 'Are you sure' dialog on program termination)
-Use Back-Reporting (toggles the use of the "Used By" box)
-Show Unit Size Preview (toggles the display of the size preview under the Mov/Sound tab of Units Editor)
-Start in Editor (You can select the editor you want to start with, instead of the default - Units Editor)
-Clear File History (Clears out the history list-see below)
-Reset Window (loads back the application window default size)
-Custom TBLs (see below)
-Custom Icons


-Config File
Starting from this release (0.94), DatEdit uses an INI config file named DatEdit.ini (what a surprise ) to store its options. These include everything from the "Options" box as well as the History List and the Editors' sorting styles.


-History List (per public request)
In the File Menu you'll find a "File History" menu, which can store up to 10 recently used DAT files. Clicking on them will take you right to the DAT file of your choice.
If the number of items exceeds 10, the new items are added normally at the beginning, but at the same time the List is truncated by the last, oldest item. The History List is kept inside the config file and restored when the program launches.


-TBL Target Hints
Sound, Portrait, Campaign and Images Editors now has a new box, which displays the particular string from the TBL file which is their main property (Images - "images.tbl", Campaign - "mapdata.tbl" etc.). It is display-only for now, but if I get enough requests I may consider making it editable, so that you can input custom paths into to () but can't really tell. The biggest use for this would be, to my mind, in the Images Editor, because you will directly see what GRP file should you be looking for, without needing to open up images.tbl and look up your particular entry inside.

-IscriptID Target Box
Additionally to the raw hex value, you can now select the Iscript ID used by an images.dat entry fom a drop-down box with the best listing of the Animations I could pull out. If you find anything wrong/new about it, make sure to report it to me so that the listing can be updated

-Custom TBLs (per public request)
DatEdit now gives you the chance to locate and load the TBLs of your own, to use inside the program. After you choose a new TBL file, all related Editors are updated, so that you can see the changes right away. There are 5 TBLs you can have fun with:
-stat_txt.tbl: obviously, the most interesting TBL file
-images.tbl: the one containing paths to GRP and LO files
-portdata.tbl: this one contains the directories where resides various portraits
-sfxdata.tbl: it stores the paths to sound files use in-game
-mapdata.tbl: this one contains directories the original campaigns (SC and BW) are located in

Although most probably it'll only be the first of these that this feature would ever be used for, support for all DAT-related TBLs are implemented, just in case (and for programming practice )

-List Sorting Styles
There are 4 different styles that can be used (some works only is certain Editors):
1)Sort by Data - the current DAT properties are parsed through and according to them, a new treeview is dynamically generated.
[Units, Upgrades and Techs Editors only]
2)Sort by Origin - the list is sorted according to a specific, predefined mask. (Note: this mask IS NOT hardcoded! Check out the "default/Origins.ini" file)
[Units, Weapons, Upgrades and Techs Editors only]
3)Sort By ID - the list is a simple listing of the entries (just like it was until now)
[All Editors]

-Extended MPQ Export
You can now export to the MPQs not only the DATs, but also the custom TBLs and the custom icons file (cmdicons.grp). Hope it's useful in some way


And that's all...not THAT much, but still enough to make a nice update about it

As always, comments and bug reports are most welcome - remember, by doing this you're helping not only yourself, but also the entire community (let alone me, a poor and waek programmer...)

http://www.staredit.net/index.php?download=4668

EDIT:Dunno what may be coming next apart from the Hints system and sound preview (maybe)...any ideas?

BroodKiller... you rock... so... much...

All these features are Über-helpful, thanks a bunch! Downloading now...

Bravo!

*nods* These new features are excellent. With this, and when DoA completes it, Firegraft? Yeah, I think Starcraft modding will be yet the next level. Excellent...

Seriously, I don't think it'll be long until the modding community just makes Starcraft 2. With what we have? Doesn't appear to be too far off. A thought I've been having, as I'm sure many of you have had pass through your heads as well.

GJ~! this is gonna be more capability~!
especially i like undo/redo and pasted Mixed it is really i want things

Hate to tell you this, BroodKiller, but it's not loading .tbl's correctly--for me at least. I go into the settings, find the file, click "OK"...and nothing happens. I've even tried restarting DatEdit, but still nothing.
Other than that, great job. I can hardly wait for 1.0!

How dare you

Can you at least add a second box to the right of it asking for ticks? (left one counts seconds, right one counts the un-rounded off ticks (like for 31 ticks, left box says 2 and right box says 1))

Totally awesome!

I'm working on getting time to look for bugs and things to complain about

As for now... In the weapons editor... Wasn't Venom an unused defiler weapon, not a mutalisk weapon?

Just so you know, in sprites.dat the editor should say "Images File" instead of "File"

Wut? There is no Undo/Redo in DatEdit (so far)....?

Hmm...weird. Can you tell if it happens for all TBLs or only for a specific one file?

I can do it, but are you sure it will be better this way?

Right...my bad - will fix.

Now, this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. DatEdit is already a stable program (I hope), with a good gear of capabilities, so why should it still be kept as 'beta'? If things follow this way, I think that the 'mysterious' 1.0 will never happen because there will always be something new to add, and we will end up having DatEd 0.99999zzzzzz or something like that.

So, I'm asking you people - are you satisfied with the abilities that DatEdit now possess, and do you think that, after having stabilized this version strongly enough, it can become the official 1.0 release?

Of course, the program will still receive updates (more or less often), but it will be revealed to the community public. So far, it's only a project know to SEN and SA, but I've already settled it that DatEd will have a news post about it's official release over at SC.org and SCLegacy.....why should the rest of the community be kept from using DatEd just because they don't know about it?

PS:Can I ask you to report, once more, about the time it takes to launch DatEd on your computers (with specs, plz) ? I wouldn't also mind if you can provide info about the memory usage of the program. These info are just for my knowledge and better optimization of the program

Memory Usage: 7,456 KB. (Woah... )

Startup Time: 2 Seconds

PC Specs:
2 GB Ram
3.2 Ghz (multiple processors)

Start-up - less than a sec

Physical memory - 5,300 kb even, virtual memory, 2,368 kb
It's well within an acceptable range. Now, if it's starts using above 10,000, then there could be issues, but as it is now, it's perfect, speed-wise.

I used my inferior laptop as a basis, and it works excellently.

Single processor Intell Pentium III 856 mhz
Two 128 mb sticks of ram

I have one small issue; whenever I maximize it, and then close it, and then open it again, it doesn't remember that it was maximized, goes to 1032 x 746 unmaximized (my resolution has been set to 1024 x 768...this leads to some amusing questions) and doesn't center as relevant to the screen. It'd be nice if it remembered that it were maximized, and that if it was to going to be weird with the screen sizes, it would be centered.

Time for launch: 10 seconds

Stats:
(I dunno how to figure out how much ram it uses- any help?)
248 MB free at most with only windows 98 + DatEdit up. My max is 250...:-/

It may not, but it would make it more accurate

Size on desktop -> 1.76mb (duh)
Computer Usage Before it Loads Up -> average of 4%
Time Required for Load -> 2 seconds (I count fast so it's probably less)
Computer Usage During Loading time -> highest is 74%
Average Computer Usage While Running -> 5%
Computer Usage During Saving Process -> highest is 15%

that should be all you need to know

Addition: dont make it 1.0 untill you add the hint box, or remove it...cause it might confuse some people

Yeah the hint box will help those who arent sure what they are doing, which is me sometimes.

So getting that done before release would be helpful for some people.

But you dont have to include it of course

I finally get a reason to test the latest version!
<3 "Jump ->" buttons.

*O)FaRTy1billion deletes Arsenal III. w00t.

Congratulations BroodKiller, this program is finally stable and accurate enough to deleate my old Arsenal III...

Now that I deleated that program, I rate this program 10/10 on the modding program scale

Congratulations!

11/10. The +1 just because it is so 1337.

#####DatEdit v0.94b#####

Just a minor update over v0.94.

Fixes:
-standarized the layout (length of different boxes, titles positioning etc)

New in v0.94b:
-Flingy and Sprites editors now possess new dropdown boxes related to their pointer properties, for easier control over the Flingy->Sprites->Images pathway. Together with what Backward Reporting provides, you will now have full information about what-is-what in it.

Download:
http://www.staredit.net/index.php?download=4668


Hmm..the thing is that the program should only save the window's size it was closed on, nothing else, and it is created just a as new application window, so one may not go well with the other...
I can fix it in the center, but whenever you'll launch two or more copies (for whatever reason) they would stack one on another...

What processor are you using and how much RAM do you have?
You can check these via Start->Run->"dxdiag" (just type it without quotes).

I tried to put a box like that somewhere, but even if Tech and Upgrades Editors are fine with it, Units Editor is not, and I'm not gonna sacrifice the most important of them for this purpose...
Unless you can invent something (i.e. where to put this other box?)


Thanks guys, I'm just paying back the debt I owe to the SC Community for making up for the best years of my life

Processor: AMD K6™ 3D Processor, MMX, 3DNow, ~500MHz
RAM Max: 248 MB