Mindbelt - Bitmap error

Utilities for editing Keen:Vorticons levels.
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levellass
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Mindbelt - Bitmap error

Post by levellass »

I have been trying to edit a few of my mod's levels. However I keep getting errors. The fault is not due to a corrupt Mindbelt executable, the .dat file or the graphics, all of which can be replaced. It occurs in only a few of my levels, and last time I checked, those levels had been *made* by Mindbelt. Keenedit also opens and edits them fine.

Any ideas?

The error is Error 439 CreatePixMap: CreateCompatibleBitmap failed x2, Error 436:getRect: GetObject for bitmap failed * 2

It seems to be happening only with larger levels (>17KB in size)
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

Mindbelt never generates >17K levels. Ever. If you can play them in the game and the size is >17K, it's not made with Mindbelt. The biggest size I've ever gotten with Mindbelt is 12K. For a HUGE level.
thehackercat
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Post by thehackercat »

Indeed, I ran into that problem when working on Mars Kingdoms. Evidently, Mindbelt just won't make levels that big. CKguy or somebody could tell you all the memory reasons, etc. But I can tell you this: "It ain't gonna do it."
levellass
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Post by levellass »

But it DID make them; and they are huge but playable. (They don't compress well, uncompressed size is ~60KB)

And oddly enough, the problem is solved! It seems too long without rebooting this old laptop of mine causes memory leaks which means that Mindbelt cannot load those large levels of mine. However a quick restart is allowing me to edit this 22KB 159x101 level.

Thanks anyway everyone!
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

It's not really a good idea to make levels that big... not all computers can run them.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

I fail to see why not; isn't the Dosbox environment the same no matter what computer it is on? This may explain the lingering bugs I had with my Keen 4 demo.
thehackercat
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Post by thehackercat »

Well, I'll be darned! Obviously there was some version of TED used to create the canon levels, but I noticed that even *they* don't exceed 17KB in their compressed form. Evidently, this was because of ID designers' preference, and not engine limitations.

Anyway, glad to see you fixed your problem independently from my help!

... and yes, I will get started on that level soon.
thehackercat
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Post by thehackercat »

Fleexy wrote:It's not really a good idea to make levels that big... not all computers can run them.
Fleexster, are you *still* using your command prompt? That's a really bad idea, especially if you run into a bad patch. Computers die that way maaannn....
Draik
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Post by Draik »

Fleexy is a crazy purist who doesn't use DOSBox, as far as I can tell (There's NO DIFFERENCE MAN, JUST USE THE THING). While a bad patch can't permanently screw over a computer, it's gonna crash pretty hard if you mess up.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

I have an ancient win95 computer I occasionally use for the true old school feeling.
lemm
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Post by lemm »

The biggest size I've ever gotten with Mindbelt is 12K. For a HUGE level.
Yes, because levellass has very ornate levels. The level size is determined by the map content, not by the editor. Go make a 100x100 checkerboard and see what happens.

Also, the game allocates 64kb of memory for loading the map at the game startup meaning that if one computer can load a certain map, then any computer than can run keen can also load that map.
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