Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:34 am Post subject:
BS SHP Builder: Progress Reporting
After nearly one week of hard work on the new interface of bs shp builder, I finally made it work using a MDIChild form. But I have to finish my third redesign of the engine of the program and still fix the inumerous bugs it has generated... Then, I'll finish the Colour Replacement, Cameo Generator, Canvas and Importing and this program goes beta... I dont have a reliable ETA on this, but I believe that in 2 weeks, the beta testing may start... QUICK_EDIT
It feels like we have been waiting for this next version forever
one reason why the mci stuff should have waited till a rebuild in v4. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net Last edited by stucuk on Tue Apr 13, 2004 12:57 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 01 Jan 2003 Location: You dont want to know.... Trust me.
Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2004 7:39 pm Post subject:
Personaly I dont mind waiting a little longer if I know the result will be a little sweeter. _________________ No power is ever inherently good or evil. It is how that power is used that determines if it is good or evil.
QUICK_EDIT
There is a MUCH higher chance of bugs with a mci system that has been "patched" into the program. Hence why its best to not do big stuff until the start of a version but insted work on the existing tools, removing bugs form them, improving them, and maybe adding some extra features that can b implemented easily. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2004 2:11 pm Post subject:
Stu: one thing: it's MDI (Multiples Documents Interface), not MCI according to Delphi standards.
And it's a bit more than just patched... SHP_DataMatrix.pas which is the file that controls the MDI interface with the new Form where you edit the SHP image has their codes made entirelly from scratch. The other files were patched to be independent of Form Main and Form Main is trully the only file that looks patched as you say... _________________
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Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:32 am Post subject:
Progress Report:
I've got almost all features working again (now in this new multi documents engine). I'm just being bugged by the preview in the moment, although I had some progress on making it work again (but not working as it should yet )...
When I get the preview working, I will post a screenie of 2 different files with 2 preview windows .
Anyway, after sorting the bugs (which are no longer related to the new engine), I will finish the import (canvas part), cameo generator (allow to generate a cameo in a new window from an specific frame from the unit) and colour replacement (second and third option).
I've also fixed few minor bugs that were happening in old 2.x versions like Import From Frame 0 to -1 and that Import generated an entirely new bitmap just to find out the background colour (all that because I forgot to put 'const' before the Bitmap:TBitmap in the declaration of the procedure .
And, I'm also thinking about changing the way the program refresh and clean tempview... but that can be done after the beta start, otherwise ppl will kill me !!! _________________
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Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:55 am Post subject:
meh... I want that . The current cameo generator only generates a cameo from a cameo... if you have a building and wanna make a fast cameo of it, then you select the frame 1 of this building and create a cameo from it. You dont need to close the building to grab the cameo and vice versa... _________________
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Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:19 pm Post subject:
depends... if you do a proper conversion to cameo.pal (from TS or RA2, depending on what you choose), replace colour 0 of the palette with a background colour of a selected picture or a default background colour (colour 4 for TS cameos and I dont know the colour for RA2 cameos yet). This might look hard, but most of things can be done with one line, because we already have a robust engine.
Creating an entirely new form with the SHP that was generated takes 3 lines... The CCM engine (which converts bitmaps to SHP) was also recently reformed and we can convert a picture with any palette to cameo.pal with about 8 lines (3 dedicated for those who have autoselect as default option in BS SHP Builder, 2 to initialize the colour bank and generate the palette colour list, about 2 to resize the picture if the picture is too big and 1 to convert the bitmap to SHP). Few other details would require few more lines and would give much more flexibility to the Cameo generator... and it takes less than a day to have everything working. _________________
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Even tho i havn't seen the program in years, Kravvitz is right about making cameo's by hand, (the image part anyway) humans are much better than a program for making the cameo background (tho the program can make decent cameo effects on the cameo background).
I.E, humans can perfectly align the image of the unit on the cameo background, humans can flip it if needed, humans can resize it if its too large or small. Etc.
"because we already have a robust engine."
Not any more, we did, until the program was compleatly changed, now its status is unknown due to the fact there has been no testing. B4 the Banshee compleate overhall the program had been tested alot by "real" ppl in the real world, this new thing will/should bring alot of bugs, making it not robust.
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Even tho i havn't seen the program in years, Kravvitz is right about making cameo's by hand, (the image part anyway) humans are much better than a program for making the cameo background (tho the program can make decent cameo effects on the cameo background).
If the problem is background, then,
note: (some of the names below might be replaced to the ones used by the program).
Code:
if NewData^.SHP[frame].Data.FrameImage[x,y] = 0 then
NewData^.SHP[frame].Data.FrameImage[x,y] := BackgroundBitmap.Canvas.Pixels[x,y];
(Note: the beggining of the procedure will have a declaration for NewData of the type TSHPImageData and it will be the Data from the cameo generator if the user is just modifying the cameo or be an entirely new file if it's a new cameo...)
Quote:
"because we already have a robust engine."
Robust doesnt mean stable. It means an advanced engine, already full of stuff and we already have that.
Quote:
Not any more, we did, until the program was compleatly changed, now its status is unknown due to the fact there has been no testing. B4 the Banshee compleate overhall the program had been tested alot by "real" ppl in the real world, this new thing will/should bring alot of bugs, making it not robust.
P.S u should change the name off the app to Banshee's SHP Builder.
And forget all the work you did? I would be stealing your work if I did that... the program was overhauled, yes... some new concepts were introduced, but the rest of the program works in the same way it used to. As I told you before, I will post some dev info about it soon... just let me make sure things work fully well, (I havent finished to test the engine part and latest tests made me found out that BS SHP Builder wasnt not closing files properly yet). But I already know how to fix it, dont worry. I'm finishing to fix the basic bugs and then, we start the beta testing to hunt the stealth ones... _________________
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Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:43 pm Post subject:
Just to confirm that I was the one who posted as "Banshee (logged out)", because of DNS problems with the site (it suddenly returns for the old server for few minutes and then it self-fix... weird). _________________
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1. Annoying bug, when u copy/paste into a frame, you can (obviously) move the pasted selection around. HOWEVER if you move the selection over part of the piece of art (the shp image not the bg colour) then move it away again (without ever de-selecting the pasted pixels) it will erase what was below it. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating, it means not only can u not move it around but if u want to paste pixels onto an image, u have to cut it out 100% accuratly so as for it not to erase any of the underlying picture. This is a bug that needs to be addressed (doesnt function like any art program ive seen)
2. I for one would REALLY love short cut keys the same as in XCC mixer, one perfect example of this is when changing palettes in Mixer using "Cntrl + [" and "Cntrl + ]" to flick between palettes, i constantly found myself doing this in BS SHP builder, but obviously with no effect.
Other than that, the program is superb and (other than Undo and Redo feature which im sure will be in the next version) i have found no bugs at all. The fix shadows feature came in VERY handy today as XCC would not convert some simple .tem files with correct shadow and assumed the overlayobjects to be 2 framed animations :S
Very good stcuk and Banshee, I hope you address these two issues (+ undo and redo obviously) but brillaint program well done _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:50 am Post subject:
1. This issue happens because BS SHP Builder does not deals with layers yet. I want to implement layers in a future version (4.0 or 5.0).
2. Short cuts? We can add it... we are just lazy .
Undo already works fine in the current beta of BS SHP Builder 3.0. For some reason, it doesnt feature redo yet, although it's not something hard to implement either... _________________
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This issue happens because BS SHP Builder does not deals with layers yet. I want to implement layers in a future version (4.0 or 5.0).
So does MSPaint have some sort of basic layering option ? (also has the option of making the colour you are using as primary (left hand click to paint) the translucent colour of watever u are copying in (this would be quite a nice feature, although not as good as more advanced art programs (but that sort of level is not needed)
P.S. Why is my rank soldier, surely thats lower than Chameleon Spy ?? _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Don't worry, we are not divided... Sometimes we disagree on some points, but we always know it's a stupid discussion... .
We are devided, im out of the loop, i have no clue whats happening, my input is worth f all nowadays. Iv turned into a user(altho user's input is always welcomed... so not a good destinction). Its turned into a one man show.
Quote:
So does MSPaint have some sort of basic layering option ? (also has the option of making the colour you are using as primary (left hand click to paint) the translucent colour of watever u are copying in (this would be quite a nice feature, although not as good as more advanced art programs (but that sort of level is not needed)
MS Paint is a Pixel editor, Pixel editors don't have layers. Banshe wants to make a layer system liek PSP in BS SHP Buidler, the problem is that to make a SHP u rearly need to b able to edit pixel by pixel which isn't posible using layers. (+ layers would severly slow the rendering).
The reason the program deletes when moving is due to it being basic, the only thing thats stored is the area that u want to copy (the X,Y points) the actual data isn't stored so it overwrites.
This system needs a compleate rebuild.
Note: 2 days until the eta of the beta testing, proberly b christmas b4 beta testing starts. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:09 am Post subject:
2 days will be hard to me, but if I work hard, I think there is a chance of beta testing starting in 4 days... but at the moment, there was no official words on that and I prefer to keep no official words... and also beta testing doesnt mean an entirely stable program... beta testing is to test to find bugs... I'm doing my best to kill the great ones, so you may point out the smaller ones .
As for layer system, it won't be the same as Photoshop or PSP, because not being able to edit the layer pixel by pixel sucks and I'll make a way to allow it, probably in a separate window.... this MDI engine will help me a lot on that, since it's already compatible with multiples windows for a single SHP file... does PSP allows multiples windows for gif files? _________________
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Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject:
Banshee wrote:
depends... if you do a proper conversion to cameo.pal (from TS or RA2, depending on what you choose), replace colour 0 of the palette with a background colour of a selected picture or a default background colour (colour 4 for TS cameos and I dont know the colour for RA2 cameos yet). This might look hard, but most of things can be done with one line, because we already have a robust engine.
Creating an entirely new form with the SHP that was generated takes 3 lines... The CCM engine (which converts bitmaps to SHP) was also recently reformed and we can convert a picture with any palette to cameo.pal with about 8 lines (3 dedicated for those who have autoselect as default option in BS SHP Builder, 2 to initialize the colour bank and generate the palette colour list, about 2 to resize the picture if the picture is too big and 1 to convert the bitmap to SHP). Few other details would require few more lines and would give much more flexibility to the Cameo generator... and it takes less than a day to have everything working.
- That's being about 30 lines so far :p... + a function at SHP_Engine_Resize.pas and a new form to select the palette colour that will replace the palette[0] if the user doesnt want a custom background. And also, a I have to fix the procedure of the menu option in form main to no longer reject cameo generator from shps that are not cameos... But I'm nearly over... QUICK_EDIT
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BS SHP Builder: Progress Reporting
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. The current cameo generator only generates a cameo from a cameo... if you have a building and wanna make a fast cameo of it, then you select the frame 1 of this building and create a cameo from it. You dont need to close the building to grab the cameo and vice versa...
