[v2.11.2] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Utilities for editing Keen:Galaxy and Keen:Dreams levels.
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Nisaba
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Post by Nisaba »

there is an update available: version 2.8.5

Fleexy uploaded it over here:
Abiathar via Dropbox

Alternative link:
Abiathar via Amazon S3 Cloud
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Post by levellass »

Interesting, what are the changes in this version?
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Post by Nisaba »

Abiathar 2.8.5 Improvements:
Fleexy wrote:The conveyor tile properties (both directions, plus a weird jiggling effect) now appear for all Galaxy episodes because they work in all episodes! Even existing dependency files will get the new properties magically upgraded in.

The number format settings are now respected by all tools. Before, the Tile Property Modifier and Level Inspector (among others) would always show coordinates in decimal even when you had chosen such numbers to show in hex, but that's fixed now.

A weird glitch in the Tile Instance Remapper involving (0, 0) as a selection corner was fixed.

The Tile Property Modifier now lets you right-click a tile to set the current tile's animation link to it and then select the new tile, for ease of making loops. If you hold Shift while right-clicking, it will only create the link without selecting anything else.

The current dependency file's name now shows in the title bar of the main window.

A couple new methods and a new event bus appeared in the extension API. Most notably, extensions can now test for the presence of other extensions and then communicate with those other extensions using the new "measurement" system.

The UNLZEXE program is now downloaded on demand instead of coming packed in the Abiathar executable. That shaves off a full megabyte.

[...]
Those are the new features, but I'd like to remind everyone of the mini-palettes that were introduced in v2.4. You can press Alt+Up and Alt+Down followed by a numeric keypad digit to store or get (respectively) a tile in your mini-palette for the most recently active plane. It's a pretty neat feature, in my opinion.
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Re: [v2.8.2] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Nisaba »

@Fleexy
can you please update the first post of this thread. the download link seems to be outdated (v2.8.2).
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Re: [v2.8.6] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Fleexy »

Initial post updated, thanks for the reminder. Enjoy the update!
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by levellass »

I have been building a tall level and have come across a limitation in Galaxy. Levels that are taller than 200 tiles trigger the 'map to tall' crash. This can be patched, and I have done so, but rows 200-204 of such a level behave oddly and shouldn't have the player pass through them.

This is in addition to the errors that can occur when a level is wider than 240 tiles.
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by levellass »

I have come across another issue. If levels are smaller than 14 tiles in width or height then only Keen will spawn, no other enemies. This probably deserves a warning of some sort. (Yes it's possible to stumble across a level that thin.)
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Fleexy »

Thanks for the notes! It looks like there are already warnings for these things in the Level Inspector, though the threshold numbers are less extreme, so you get a warning slightly before it becomes a problem. Let me know if the warnings aren't firing when they should.
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by levellass »

Nifty-fifty.

I have a real hodgepodge of different Abithar versions all over my computer so it looks like the one i was using didn't have those warnings yet.

Interestingly one of my levels is now 240 tiles high, I found a way to 'block' the troublesome area. (I've been looking into adjusting the game's errors so that impossible things can be allowed.)
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by levellass »

Okay again. So it seems the largest level plane size is $7FFF bytes (Or, for realistically proportioned, no-error levels, $7FFB bytes.) Anything above this causes problems when the game tries to read the level. (And yes, I have made a level this size, the largest possible level the game can handle.)
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Fleexy »

Thanks for the note! Is that Carmack'd, RLEW'd, or decompressed size? If it's decompressed, I can easily change the Level Inspector's error threshold, otherwise things will get tricky.
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by levellass »

Decompressed size of a single plane. The largest sensible level is 201x163 tiles in size for reference.
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Re: [v2.8.8] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Nisaba »

@Fleexy please update the first post of this thread!
Fleexy wrote: UPDATE
v2.9.1: more small improvements

Lone Editing mode has been finagled in a couple of ways. When it's active, unhiding hidden planes just turns them visible instead of active so that you don't wind up with multiple active planes. The paste preview no longer loses track of which planes are being pasted when a plane is unhidden when Lone Editing is on. The check state of the plane control menu items is now updated correctly when tilesets are switched in LE mode.

The Tile Property Modifier's inspection mode now displays tile IDs in compliance with user settings (as opposed to always in decimal). This should make it easier to hunt down which tile it's talking about when it mentions multiple in one error.

The foreground highlight (advanced mode F) of the tile properties overlay is now updated correctly when tiles are changed.

When drag translation is enabled ("use drag motions to define areas"), clicks are now simulated appropriately when the level moves out from under the cursor while a mouse button is pressed. For example, you can now use the Essential Manipulator to tessellate-paste a row/column just by holding your left mouse button down while scrolling the level with the arrow keys. This is especially useful for filling the level borders with the 2x2 "BLOCK" structures.

The background color of the level viewer and tileset can now be configured with Colors | Background in editor.aconf. For example, the KeenGraph light green used to mean transparency is -3342388.

There is now error logging for the Save command. The information therein probably isn't actionable for users, but it would be helpful for me if anyone ever encounters problems with saving.

This update is available through the auto-updater, or you can download a ZIP.
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Re: [v2.9.2] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Fleexy »

Thanks for the reminder, I've pasted the PCKF version over this one.
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Re: [v2.9.2] Abiathar: the superior Keen Galaxy editor

Post by Nisaba »

hey Fleexy,

once again I'd like to make use of your tool support, cause I'm desperately seeking advice! It seems like I cannot manage to open the following two mods via Abiathar: it would be so helpful if you could provide me the needed adeps file, so I can update the wiki with fresh info and images. yay!

Thank you in advance.
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