MCD Edit by volutar

[volutar]

- rearranged main screen - moved loft to the right, in  vertical manner (it feels more natural).
- added palette helper with ambiguous colors highlighted.
- 3d loft/animation image is now "rotatable" with mouse button - rotate 3d loft by steps of 45 degrees (after releasing button - it returns back to 0), also can change angle with trackbar (it will be kept).
- added gamedata path config file.

[kkmic]

Linux/MacOS,etc? Not from me. It's written in Delphi7. So, wine, perhaps?
It's a tool, it doesn't need to be run on 100% of user's PCs. It just need to be run on 0.1% of users, called "modders".

What makes you think that modders use only Windows as their OS?

Listen, since you've written it using Borland (and that means Pascal), why not port it to Free Pascal/ Object Pascal and use Lazarus as IDE? It cross-compiles, so you can develop/build/test in Windows and just run a VirtualBox to test in on Linux/MacOS.

I, for one, will give you feedback on how it runs on Linux. Think about it, this is your chance to learn Linux

[volutar]

kkmic, I tried lazarus once, and found it awful. If you want - you can try to convert this project to freepascal, but as for me? Na-ah, I don't want to waste time on this, as on learning linux. I'd better try to make unit/handob/floorob editor.

What makes you think that modders use only Windows as their OS?

Modders are not just ordinary users, they know how to run different tools already. I don't think it will be problem for smart people to run mcdedit.exe with wine.

[TurkishSwede]

Hi, there.  I am just a user that wants to mod but is not a long-time X-COM veteran, nor am I familiar with well-known modding tools, "high tier" computer jargon, or coding techniques.  I try to decipher your cryptic messages (wizard riddles) using what (little/geeky) smarts I have, and I think I've been mostly able to understand you so far.  You speak with pure genius, and you obviously know what you're talking about.  I have huge respect for your efforts for OXC and I hope my typical American confusion doesn't bother you. 

I love your program, it (mostly) works great for me and it's the only one of its kind that has worked at all on my Windows 7, it's pretty straight-forward and easy to use.  Thanks very much for making it.  MTPaint, on the other hand, is not at all user friendly (but probably very modder friendly), and even though it is the EXACT program I've been looking for (and indeed, the ONLY program I've found) that lets me do what I want to do with regards to pixels and palettes, it has been a huge source of frustration for me trying to figure out how to do very simple things (that I still managed to get done anyway).

The problem I have, however, is this: I want to add 3 tiles to the UFOL83 tileset that should prevent any see through walls in my Dark UFOs mod, but I can't. Your program won't save when I need it to and I don't know why.  I saves fine if I only edit some tile properties or LOFTs (I could finally fix the tiles like I wanted to), and I can insert new MCDs fine, but I can't import .PNG files, because if I try to save after I import any to the .PCK it gives me an "Invalid Filename" error and then the program goes BLANK for all intents and purposes. Until it's reloaded, it won't load any tilesets (it thinks every tileset that is loaded is blank), and until another tileset load is attempted it will uselessly display the work I've done (but can't save), while allowing me to change variables for no reason anymore.

I can put .bmp files (added with PckView) into animation frames and it saves just fine, but it just looks dumb (because as you say, windows clipboard apparently can't copy .bmp right).  If the .PNG copy/paste doesn't work either, I can't see myself having much use for this program besides fixing errors.

0, modder guru, what is my problem?  Please help me.

I included the files I'm using.  You should be able to see what I'm dealing with.

[volutar]

First of all thank you for a feedback TurkishSwede.
Second of all - some nice tiles you have there, cheers!

I didn't have any problem with setting StopLOS to 1. It saved perfectly.
I just think you were changing that field without pressing Enter or switching focus to other control. It doesn't keep changes when you're switching editable tile. Perhaps I'd need to change that behaviour. ATM it "corrects" actual MCD data only when you pushed enter, or switched to another control (you can check that out by changing Elevation Shift value - it affects image after actual value changed).
BTW those 3 last tiles look weird, to say the most - half of diagonal. And it won't be possible to make a proper LOFT for them. You probably should reconsider doing it that way, whatever you want... About invalid Filename error.. Fixed.

[TurkishSwede]

The last three files in the .PCK look weird because they were imported as .bmp files (using PckView by Ben Ratzlaff). If I correct them by importing the .png files that correspond to what I'm trying for, it looks really good, but I get the filename error when I save changes..

The reason I'm adding these exact tiles (and why they don't really need any kind of LOFTs) is because all I need it to do is black out the 'interior side' of the NE facing diagonal walls from outside, until a soldier can actually see the pillars on the inside of the ship.  If a blaster bomb hits there, the extra tile would be destroyed like a normal West-Wall pillar, replaced by the "broken pillar" tile and showing the interior side of those diagonal walls like normal.  That's my plan anyway.

Thanks for looking into this.

Edit: And it works now! Awesome!!

[kkmic]

kkmic, I tried lazarus once, and found it awful. If you want - you can try to convert this project to freepascal, but as for me? Na-ah, I don't want to waste time on this, as on learning linux. I'd better try to make unit/handob/floorob editor.

Modders are not just ordinary users, they know how to run different tools already. I don't think it will be problem for smart people to run mcdedit.exe with wine.

Of course Lazarus it's awful. It's OSS It's designed by programmers ("smart people") who already know how to use it, so why bother making it user friendly or easy to use?

And that's exactly why I asked if you are interested to make a port. Why settle with "good enough" when you can do "the best there is"?



Considering that my Pascal days were ages ago, I doubt it that I can manage the port myself, but I won't mind taking a look at the code. I hope that the comments are in English

[volutar]

- Added custom MCD open (Menu->Open MCD or with checkbox "Custom").
- In Custom mode you can freely choose gametype, and palette for opened TileSet (because it doesn't know what game this tileset for).
- MCD values list externalized into MCDEdit.txt, and value discription is given for current field.
- Vanilla tilesets are marked with * in the list.
- Added "Add MCD" item (adds new mcd at the end).
- "Checkered" background also affects on mcd list view.

todo: Copy/paste MCD to ClipBoard instead of internal data (so you could copy/paste data between two or more opened MCDEdits), also copy-paste of PCK, for the same reason (they won't be "pastable" into graphics editors).

[Solarius Scorch]

I can't download the file now - says "Page not found".

[SupSuper]

Don't hold your breath.

[Solarius Scorch]

Don't hold your breath.

Well, this sounded bad.

[luke83]

That was quick, i only just noticed Volutar was back and then he wasn't, again

[kkmic]

Damn. This seemed to be like a nice piece of software.

Anyone got the source code by chance?

Or better yet, Volutar's email?

[redv]

Or better yet, Volutar's email?

You can comment a code in the branch https://github.com/Volutar/OpenXcom
Then he will get the message.

[Warboy1982]

... unless he has notification emails disabled. i wouldn't recommend that method.

i'd suggest sharing whatever versions you have for the time being, and give him kudos and thanks here.
don't bother with bug reports or feature requests.

Edit: i've added a mirror here with the version i have