Staredit Network

Before you update - The Icons list is wrong. Some of the values are mislabled. I've uploaded a version I've made. If you feel like making any changes, go right ahead :p

Also, are we certain that the Unused Flingy value really is unused?

########DATEDIT 1.2b Fixup##############

Here we go again, boys'n'girls. It's a small fixup, but it does a good work with problems that were present with the previous releases.

Fixed/Changed:
-Interface modifications:
1)Enlarged the area occupied by the Weapons editor, so that all the drop down boxes display their content properly.
2)Moved the "Restricts" property from the StarEdit tab to the "Advanced" Tab. Meaning still remains unknown.
3)Removed the unused flags for the Units editor StarEdit tab, for clarity purposes.(using them would force someone to alter the game engine anyways)
4)Sorted and grouped the Advanced flags listing. Hopefully it is more functional now.
5)Weapons.dat "Launch Angle" property is now labeled "Launch Spin", Forward Offset is now labeled "X Offset" and Upward Offset is now labeled "Y Offset". All this for clarity purposes.

-Changed the Backward-reporting list normal to square brackets, to reduce visual confusion.
-Sounds are now displayed properly.
-Copy/Paste Tab feature now works properly.
-Improved several hints.
-Fixed some tab-order related issues.
-Updated the icons listing according to a list by Ojan (Thanks )

Program:
http://www.staredit.net/index.php?download=4668
Source:
http://www.staredit.net/index.php?download=4978

I have also some good news for you - v1.3 is under works, and I do plan to add something new and useful to DatEd in it. Stay tuned then

-BK

PS:DatEdit does not use the latest version of the GRPAPI in this release, because regarding GRP-loading, its functionality remains the same as in the previous releases.

...I don't see how DatEdit could get any better, you'd be better off working on other projects...

Anyways, good job keeping it updated as it is, the only things that might need changing is the labels, which wouldn't be often.


Sorry if this seems insulting to you somehow, I just wanted to point out that it's already above the level of perfection.

Oh...this ain't gonna be anything revolutionary. I just thought that finally adding support to custom units names would be nice

And don't worry - the 'other' things will come when the time is due

A couple notes about flingy that I think should be mentioned in hints:

1) A turn radius is necessary for a unit to turn, even if movement control is set to iscript.bin. Strange but true.

2) Halt Distance needs to be calculated in a special way, or weird things happen. The formula is ((speed ^ 2) / (2 * acceleration)) (Thanks to BSTRhino for telling me this!)

o i like that alot!!!!!

o and BK did you fix the bug i reported with having two datedit open then close one and it deletes the temp files?

ADDITION:
BK you didnt fix it its still doing it!!

About the halt distance, it was my hypothesis for your consume thing the number should be less than that calculated value or else the flingy will stop before it reaches its target but I don't know for sure whether that's how it works. That's just my understanding of that value so far.

Hey, chill out man, I never said I did fix it in this release. Does anyone ever reads the update info at all, anyways? But I'll work on it, so don't worry.

Btw, I know it's a question that I asked for like 48573 zilions times, but does anyone has any new ideas for DatEdit's features? Let me just cut it right here: No, I will not do multiple-entry selection.

Maybe the ability to launch other programs through it?

Example: to make it easier than having to go through all your folders to find memgraft, simply click 'memgraft'


I know, it's pointless/near pointless, but DatEdit doesn't really need anything!

I did read what was updated i just hoped you forgot to put it in, key word HOPED

I like DOA's suggestion

I have a suggestion you know in images, the grp files and iscript files, if you could include something like a search you enter the iscript number or the grp file number and it shows you where those files are used, so basicly if you know the grp or if you know the iscript and you want to find what uses it you could find it would be useful for iscript editing.

One other suggestion being able to load a different .tbl so if you changed unit names it be a bit easier especially if your gonna incorperate changing unit names very useful

o and i found that in orders when you check use targeting with spells that are attacks it uses the attack instead of the spell i.e. irridate

you know if you felt like it for your next project you could do a new iscript editor i know icecc is good but it doesnt work on my computer and ice is glitchy

Actually yeah, an iscript backreference would be useful, I remember I was keeping records of where iscripts were used manually for Ultimate Doom.

I would really love it if it were somehow possible to enter ID numbers for weapons in units.dat or flingies in weapons.dat. What I was thinking was if you changed the labels to be instead of "Burst Lasers" make it "83 Burst Lasers" where 83 would be the flingy.dat ID. You could make it an option to add the IDs or not to the names if it looks ugly. Of course, the best option would be if the IDs were able to be set like in flingy.dat, sprites.dat or images.dat, but I know you chose not to do that because of space. But it's the only thing that I still miss from Arsenal Zero. It's not a huge thing though, I did manage to survive without it when making Ultimate Doom, so I guess I don't need it terribly. But still, it would be great.

And DatEdit can load your custom unit names, it's under options somewhere, just choose your new rez\stat_txt.tbl.

I've only used DatEdit on a friend's PC, but I'm already impressed! The only feature I have need of consists of the ability to edit the stat_txt.tbl file as I found it annoying to have to go to that file whenever I wanted to edit a name. In terms of major updates, I think it would be nice if some functions were doubled up (such as if when you changed "Max Hits", "Damage Factor" also changed), and an iscript editor were included. Actually, scratch what I just said. All I want is a mac version .

IMPORTANT NOTE:
I've been trying to open the DatEdit 1.1 source in XCode (the primary C/C++ coding tool for Mac OS X) but I can't seem to figure out what the project file is. Lemme rephrase that: XCode (like many other compilers I know of) works on the basis of a project file. The project file contains a list of all the source files (.h, .cpp, etc) and is required for compiling an application. Now before you tell me I'm an idiot, I realize that I'll have to rewrite half the code if I want it to successfully compile. What I'm trying to do is a debug build, to see just what kinds of errors I'll be dealing with. Oh and it'd be nice if you could tell me the following:
-What program you used to create DatEdit
-What non-standard C++ libraries did you use
-Where I can obtain said libraries

Oh and if you don't want me to attempt to port for whatever reason, just say so. Likewise if you want to help me port it, definitely say so!

He used Borland C++ Builder, and the project file is .bpr I believe. I know he used SFMPQAPI (ShadowFlare MoPaQ Application Programming Interface) and GRPAPI (GRP Application Programming Interface), both created by ShadowFlare and available here: http://shadowflare.samods.org/. He also used the VCL (Visual Component Library) for the GUI.

P.S. If you understand about project files, you'll also understand it won't take much work to create a new project and add all the source files. Is it really that much trouble? I made a Dev-C++ project in about a minute.

Yea, I tried a new project, but XCode just wouldn't accept that I had all the source files. Meh. Now that I know he used Visual C, I think I'll just drop it... (VC is extremely difficult to port to Mac)

Oh and I took a look at Shadowflare's site. She really seems to know her way around Starcraft!

EDIT:
The internet can be tiresome when getting to know new people. It also is to my dismay that I automatically thought an ownage Starcraft programer was a guy. Sorry 'Flare!

Uh... I'm afraid I've never heard of the CLX library and do not know what "bcb6" refers to. Therefore I order you to do all the work and give me all the source files so I can claim credit for it and be famous among Mac modders

Man... If anyone ever said Starcraft modders were lazy, they must've been talking about me ;-)

I did not say he used "Visual C" (I assume you mean Microsoft Visual C++), I said he used the "Visual Component Library" with Borland C++ Builder. BCB6 is Borland C++ Builder 6, a C++ IDE and compiler created by the Borland company.

Oh... That doesn't really change much does it...

Nice

Issues / suggestions:
1) When, in the Sounds Tab of Units.dat, you select a unit with ID > 105 (which only have What (Start) and What (end) sounds), and then select a unit with ID < 106, the selected unit have all sounds drop down boxes grayed out, except the What (Start) and What (end). You can still change the sounds using the number boxes, but not through the drop down boxes.

2) Is really Iscript ID 1 in Images.dat Unknown? Should it not be Scourge Shadow?

3) In Flingy.dat, could everything be moved two or three pixels to the right? "Halt Distance" is too close to the Group Box (see attached screenshot)

4) Why was the readme.txt removed in version 1.2 and 1.2b?

5) "Moved the "Restricts" property from the StarEdit tab to the "Advanced" Tab. Meaning still remains unknown." I assume that we do know that "Restricts" is not related to StarEdit? Or why else was it moved?

6) "Removed the unused flags for the Units editor StarEdit tab, for clarity purposes.(using them would force someone to alter the game engine anyways)" For me, this somewhat goes against the very purpose of the program. We want every aspect of the files to be modifiable, and IMHO, this also applies to unused values. Can't you at least add in an option such as "Show unused values"? It doesn't even take up space that is needed

7) You wanted new features? As I've already said, the ability to compare a .dat-file with another. I have some old stuff I've worked with ages ago, and I have no idea what I've changed and haven't.... Such a feature would be awesome

8) May I ask why you don't want to add in multi-entry selection? I respect your wish not to add it in, I'd just like to know the reason... I think it could be quite useful, especially to test out the unknowns that are left...

9) The 'Doodad Info' still isn't lined up perfectly (See screenshot). Thiese is veru importunt go fix olololol

10) If you want a new feature... Something like right clicking on the dropdown boxes with the strings from stat_txt.tbl where the text can't fit, and thereby getting the text displayed in a little pop-up box or something like that... I wouldn't use it, so I can't say I really care, but it could be of value to someone

11) As BST said, it would be nice to have <number> = <value> used with all dropdown boxes... The space becomes quite an issue then, I realize, but perhaps a smooth implementation for this could be worked out, possibly through a flag in the options dialog? Or using my previous idea with right-clicking on a drop down box?

12) Just coming up with ideas... I don't know if it is even a good idea to add it, but at least something to consider: Having individual hints for different values. For example, in Weapons.dat, if you select Explosion = Broodlings, you get a good description about what makes the value "Broodlings" unique in the Hint box. Of course, this could all be done as it is, but the hint-box would possibly be very difficult to read if throughout explanations of every value would be shown in the tiny box...

Really? If you could hook me up with some sort of crash course, I'd be grateful.

heres something i would appreciate i dont know if possible cause i think i suggested this way way earlier, in the drop down menues be able to type it out what your looking for instead of just the first letter, and i dont know if this is possible but in the drop down menues make a option to make everything alphabetised i find that these two things are so darn useful when hunting for the right string

Yes, I love those! They are a great feature. I love using StarGraft to select icons and just being able to type in the name rather than searching through an endless list. Of course, StarGraft screws up icons in the end, but that's beside the point.