New Game in Studio problem

[Dalian]

Ok, how to explain this.

I was starting out using Exult 1.2 and an apparently incompatible verison of Studio. I couldn't drop any shapes from Studio into Exult, couldn't paint, etc. I could, however, make a New Game in Studio following the directions in the New Game document, with the stick figure avatar, etc., and have that load in Exult via the commandline "exult --game mygame."

I just downloaded Exult and ExultStudio, the most reason versions, to try and fix the problem of not being able to place Shapes. Now I am able to load a game of BG and place shapes on the map.

However, if I follow the exact same procedure to make a New Game, then try and load it in Exult, Exult simply quits. The new game even shows up on the Exult menu now underneath BG and SI. But the game will not load like it did before. No stick figure avatar so I can start building the map.

One step forward, one step back. Anyone have an idea what might be going wrong?

[Dominus]

In those cases the exult log might help you figure it out. Try to laod the game again and when it quits look at stderr.txt and stdout.txt. Maybe you can see what is missing there.
I almost never could get it to work right away
Also the reson why it still says unstable (I read the #exult log ). Exult gets heavily modified even now and things need to get tested before labeling it stable. Especially Exult Studio got a recent overhault in the way it connects to Exult. Jeff and Marzo are fixing stuff all the time to now, especially to accomodate new games. It might be that the requirements have been changed to start a new game.

[Dalian]

I did notice the logs earlier but didn't notice this before. For a normal game it says (in stdout.txt):

Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings: (etc)

When I try a new one it gets to that point and says

Unrecognized game type!
Game path settings: (etc)

This is a New Game as built by ExultStudio, with the stick figure avatar and stuff. So I'm lost for the time being as to why it's unrecognized.

[Dalian]

This may just be over my head. I mean, I've done some C+ programming in the past even, and learned how to use some SDKs.

But I can't even figure out how to make a new u7chunk file, either. The New Game doc implies that one is made for you, but lo - there isn't one in the folder/files list and one isn't created for you. It also says there is a "dup" button, but there is no such button. There is a "New->Empty" button, but it doesn't appear to DO anything.

Ah well...when's the U7 Construction Set coming out? If I could get all this stuff working, the actual building of the world and such would be the easy part for me.

[drcode]

There's an old document, the "newgame.txt" file in our "docs" directory, that may be of help: http://exult.cvs.sourceforge.net/exult/ ... iew=markup

I'll try creating a new game and running it tonight to see if anything's broken recently.

[Dalian]

That's what I've been referring to as the "new game document" in my posts. It also exists here: http://exult.info/newgame.txt where it is linked to from the current ES documentation. I'm anxious to know if you have any better luck than me.

[drcode]

Yes, I found a couple problems. The key was the "Unrecognized game type" message. I just checked in a couple fixes, so give it another try to see if they help.

Still, with the minimal content you get with a new game, you don't get to see much. The stick-figure Avatar only has one frame, so he's invisible most of the time!

[Dalian]

Yes, it doth work now! It is my understanding that generating the minimal content is how you get started to building your own world. Without that part working I couldn't get anywhere on that. Thanks for getting that fixed!

The next step is to see if I can get my own artwork into the game successfully. I messed around while I was waiting for you to check on the New Game problem, and was able to replace the stick figure with the Avatar from BG, so I think I understand that part.

I was a bit confused on Chunks, but now I see it's because you can't actually create or duplicate them unless you have a game running. I just was able to make a new one with sand in it, and walk around for a minute before Exult crashed. Still, it's a start.

Thanks again!

[SB-X]

If you don't mind using the original graphics from U7, you can start working on modifying BG without using an empty new game.

[Dalian]

I don't mind using those graphics at all. I'd want whatever I do to still "look" like U7. But by modifying BG, do you mean adding a new area/add-on? That could be kind of fun too.

I do plan at first on working on a blank map using the BG graphics, and making something similar to SourceForge Island so I can experiment with everything.

I'd like to create a whole new game. Maybe not quite as large as BG/SI, but pretty big. Something akin to how U6 had Savage Empires and Martian Dreams, would be cool maybe.

If I were to do something like that with the BG or SI graphics, I wouldn't be able to add my own shapes to it. I could replace the shapes I wasn't using with my own, but then I'd have to distribute the shapes.vga, and as far as I know, that's not permitted. It doesn't go into the patch dir like u7chunks and u7map do, unfortunately. Only using the original graphics would simply make it a patch, but then there's less room for creativity and making new stuff that way.

All I know is this is pretty darn exciting, and something I've wished I could do since U7 first came out. Exult team rocks

[SB-X]

You could add a new area, a new map, or delete the current map and start over without having to add the graphics back to the packed datafiles.

SE and MD are fairly large games & game areas. (well, ok... I havn't really played much of those games)

Of course, you can't legally distribute the U7 graphics, but you have two options. You could distribute them anyway on your own website, but then the Exult team won't be able to support your project or allow you to advertise it here; or create a patcher tool that uses expack to pack your graphics into the player's datafiles, and include that tool in your mod/game installer that players download.
I guess a third option is to beg the Exult team to allow patching shapes the same way as everything else. (if that's not already possible)

[marzo]

Shapes can be patched; it is just ES that saves all shapes in the new file (instead of only the difference).

[Dalian]

Ah, that's right! Believe it or not I did read the docs, but I guess I was too focused on ipack to remember about this. I shall try this when I get home.

[SB-X]

Wouldn't you want ES to just save the new shapes? (since your patching anyway) Is this feature going to be added?

[Dalian]

SB-X..if I might ask...what is the proper way to delete the current map in say, SI? I'm having more luck so far making an entirely new game than modifying the existing ones (though I can't get the pd to open, it just crashes).

What I did was make a new game in ES. Then I copied over the *.vga and u7chunks files from SI into that folder. Placed a few chunks on the map, saved it. Then I deleted the u7map file in SI's static dir, and put the new u7map and initgame.dat in the patch folder.

But if I try to start a new game of SI, I get the error "Assertion failed!" File: ./shapes/vgafile.h, line: 254. Expression: shapes!=0.

I just seems that doing it this way will make you end up with a lot of potential conflicts with the files that already exist in SI's folders.

[SB-X]

Deleting the current map... beats me, maybe you to replace every chunk manually. (there should be some kind of clear map option) It might be easier to start with a new connected map. (using an intermap teleport egg)

[marzo]

Re: ES and new shapes: I have been thinking about changing this. I have been also thinking about extending the format of the *.dat files to support similar patches too. But both are in the back burner for now...

[artaxerxes]

create a new empty map and put it in your patch dir. It will override the original u7map file.

To create an empty map, you can fire up a graphics program of your choice (even MS Paint will do) and make a 192x192 image filled with a single colour (say #000088).

Save it as BMP (8 bits) and using mockup (in Exult's mapedit/tools/), convert it to a map using a mapping file in the form:

mapping.txt:
# colour_in_hex chunk_number
000088 0


Artaxerxes

[Dalian]

Re: ES and new shapes.
Now that I'm more familiar with this stuff, I realize it's actually easier to import/export in ES rather than using ipack. That way it does go into patch.

As far as putting an map like that in patch..I had assumed that it would still have all the static objects on it that the original game had, since those are saved in the ifix files.