Keen: Modding

[levellass]

Please redirect your attention to the Updated KeenGraph thread.



After a smidgen of nudging I have come up with a BASIC version of Modkeen (Kinda.) which can be found at: http://levellord.toxicsheep.com/KEENGRAPH.zip

Currently this is a beta. Features include:

* Grouted bitmaps; no more filling in annoying tile masks!
* Non 8-divisible bitmaps don't crash the program
* Edit Dangerous Dave II and Shadow Knights!
* Custom commands to make editing easier
* Extra hitbox flexibility
* Warnings if your graphics are too large or buggy
* Reads patch files and can import\export to patched files
* And more.

I'm hoping that this makes Keen 1-3 modding just that little bit easier, and welcome and suggestions for improvement. Things I'm considering currently are:

* Adding switch support (Ok CKGuy?)
* Replacing the list file completely with some sort of graphical representation
* Allowing extraction of the DOS screens
* Expanding to Keens 4-6 (Which will take a LOT of time.)

So do download it, try it out and tell me what you think; I want lots of feedback.


EDIT: New version up, which now has Dave II and DDiCI support, MUCH faster importing and a sleeker interface. I have found that Keen 4-6 support may be a lot easier than I though, as well as the addition of any other Id\Apogee games people might want.

[ckguy]

Cool! I am reading though the docs now - I decided that for once I would read through ALL the docs of a program before I started using it. I *almost* got beat over the head by sticks until I realized that what you were saying about batch files was true.

...

Okay, just a couple things to suggest so far (I'm still reading the docs and haven't touched the program yet). Do something about the Keen path having to end in no slash and the bitmap path having to end in a slash. This should be really easy to fix, just a couple of IFs. I'm sure it will save somebody somewhere a bit of hassle. Also, in the examples section, you seem to be implying that all of the commands go as command line parameters, rather than in the grext.txt file.

That's all for now - watch for edits!

...

~ Edit ~

My first observation is that the program is indeed slow. :-(

Also, I'm not 100% sure about using the word 'grout' to describe the masked sprite feature. My KeenGrout started off just grouting (ie, putting a grid into the tiles) and went from there, into things not considered grouting so much. Your program skips the grouting part, and calls the other stuff grouting. :-P

BUT NOW, as for the actual program.... It seems to do its job well. The inclusion of FINALE.CKx editing is nice. The automatic palette reading = cool feature as well.

All in all, I approve. Apart from the (rather petty) suggestions above, I can't really think of anything, besides Keen 4-6 support. If I do think of something, I'll post it here!

(postscript edit) Holy crap, I just killed phpbb.



I originally hade cute little down arrows around the word 'Edit' above instead of the tildes, and phpbb didn't like that one bit.

[levellass]

* Yes, I had almost forgotten about the Keen path, that shall soon be fixed.

* I'm not sure how I imply command line parameters, but I shall endeavour to correct this.

* What should I call the non-grouting? I do not know my terminology well enough. ;p

* The program can be speeded up in several ways, including deleting the list file or skipping the importing of finale and previews graphics. I am not sure if I mentioned that in the documentation.

[levellass]

New version uploaded: http://levellord.toxicsheep.com/KEENGRAPH.zip

Runs very much faster, especially on the import and has some additional support options.

I hope in future to do a little polishing up, such as adding command line support. I would appreciate others views on adding Keen 4-6 support of course, is there enough demand?

I should appreciate any bug reports also. :)

[CommanderSpleen]

Hmm, I must have missed this thread. I'll add the program to my collection and give it a shot when next it's needed.

[Tulip]

Strange, I missed it, too. But yeah, I downloaded it as well and I'll comment as soon as I used it.

EDIT: Didn't get it working yet, but it sounds interesting, especially the hitbox function, where it can get bigger than the sprite.
Also I was happy to see my boo as an example for see-through sprites. :-)

[Matze82]

Well, on first view your program seems to be promising! :)
Thanks for this improvement.

Greeting, Matze82


PS: Yea, after a break of 4.5 years I'm doing something with Keen ;)

[Matze82]

Hello levellass,

maybe there is an error in your (so far good) app. :(

The file 1TIL0000.BMP has a size of 157494 Bytes instead of 78326 Bytes when using modkeen 2.0.1.

The result is, that KeenWright shows a messed up pallette of tiles, when I update the file keenedit.dat with TileInfo.

Could you please check this?


Greetings, Matze

[levellass]

Aaah yes, my one weakness. KeenGraph uses 256 color bitmaps, not 16 color ones, so at present it's not quite compatible with Tileinfo (Which just dumps the bitmaps to the Keenedit.DAT file.)

I had been told Keenedit was out of fashion, so had left this on the side for a while, but I can easily enough fix this problem. There are two solutions I can think of:

1.) Export tiles as 16 color bitmap

2.) If KEENEDIT.DAT is detected in the directory, automatically alter its tiles and sprites


I would appreciate your input on this.

[Matze82]

[levellass]

Very well, it shall be done, though I'm thinking of adding .DAT support, since that allows me to import sprites.

The advantage I like of 256 color bitmaps is both that they're easier to convert to and from, and that I can combine a sprite and its mask, which saves me all that tiresome work. Of the editors, only Vortlev and Keenedit seem to take only 16-color bitmaps, so I figured I was safe.