Tool: MapEd Pro

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thefox
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Post by thefox »

never-obsolete wrote:@thefox
What did you have in mind?
Resizeable main window would be nice, although it's not a big deal. Overall I just felt it was a bit unintuitive and since there's no documentation... :)

For the record, I am using Windows 7 (64-bit) and it worked out of the box. I don't remember ever installing any VB6 runtimes or common controls either.
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Memblers
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Post by Memblers »

This is really good. This could replace the editor I had built into one of my old game projects, so maybe I can work on the actual game itself sometime.
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

neilbaldwin wrote:Image
I just downloaded the specific files it was complaining about and put them in the same folder as the program, that did the trick.

As for the program itself, it's an interesting approach to a map editor, but as expected it can't please everyone. Definitely a step in the right direction, but I can't help thinking that it should be more flexible. Specially the metatile arrangements, it shouldn't be that hard to allow multiple depths of metatiles of arbitrary sizes.

Another problem I had was the map size... What are the limitations in this program exactly? I tried to make a fairly large map and it wouldn't let me.

It also crashed randomly without telling me why, which was a bit frustrating, but that's expected from a WIP tool I guess. Another thing that bugs me is that you used Visual Basic 6 (a tool from 1998!) to make it, and that instantly makes your tool look and feel outdated.
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Post by cpow »

Bregalad wrote:
never-obsolete wrote: Thanks for the comments on RLE and compressing screen based maps. I'll have to add those to my todo list.
Thank you, hopefully a newer version with those will be released !!

I have the program running fine in Windows 7. I haven't installed any runtime libraries or wathever (at least to my knowledge).
It runs fine for me but since it doesn't appear to be resizeable I can't see the whole app on my tiny laptop screen. I can see just down to the "Loaded Files" area.

Nice app!
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Re: Tool: MapEd Pro

Post by cpow »

never-obsolete wrote:I recreated SMB's 1-1, CV2's Jova and Jova Woods1, and Ninja Gaiden's 1-1.
Did you recreate them manually or did you write an extractor for the 16x16 metatiles from SMB1 [or does this tool extract the info]? When I was working on the map editor for NESICIDE I thought it'd be nice to offer an extractor feature but such a feature I soon found would require specialized routines for each game.
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Re: Tool: MapEd Pro

Post by UncleSporky »

tokumaru wrote:I just downloaded the specific files it was complaining about and put them in the same folder as the program, that did the trick.
I figured that would fix it, it's what I usually do when I have that kind of problem. What files were they, specifically? Maybe you could send them to never-obsolete and he could include them in the zip to appease people like koitsu? :)

By the way, I'm running XP SP3 with a majority of the Windows updates, and I didn't have any trouble opening it. (Actually, on two different computers.)
NESICIDE wrote:
never-obsolete wrote:I recreated SMB's 1-1, CV2's Jova and Jova Woods1, and Ninja Gaiden's 1-1.
Did you recreate them manually or did you write an extractor for the 16x16 metatiles from SMB1 [or does this tool extract the info]? When I was working on the map editor for NESICIDE I thought it'd be nice to offer an extractor feature but such a feature I soon found would require specialized routines for each game.
I would assume he did it by hand, since I highly doubt those three games use the same specifications as his editor. I know that Mario 1 doesn't.
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thefox
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Re: Tool: MapEd Pro

Post by thefox »

UncleSporky wrote:
NESICIDE wrote:
never-obsolete wrote:I recreated SMB's 1-1, CV2's Jova and Jova Woods1, and Ninja Gaiden's 1-1.
Did you recreate them manually or did you write an extractor for the 16x16 metatiles from SMB1 [or does this tool extract the info]? When I was working on the map editor for NESICIDE I thought it'd be nice to offer an extractor feature but such a feature I soon found would require specialized routines for each game.
I would assume he did it by hand, since I highly doubt those three games use the same specifications as his editor. I know that Mario 1 doesn't.
One way to do it semi-automatically would be to offer a "generate map from picture" function. So it would look for metatiles in the picture, discarding duplicates. It could even support metatiles in metatiles. The palette would have to be organized properly to 16 colors like in NES (so it can detect metatile attributes) or it could be specified in the app. Mappy has a function like this, which I've used to convert maps from http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/index.htm.
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Post by neilbaldwin »

koitsu wrote:
never-obsolete wrote:@neilbaldwin and koitsu
Are you by chance running Vista or Windows7?
No. I run Windows XP SP3. You're not going to get me to "mess around" with random Visual Basic runtimes and other crap either. Sorry, I'm a total hard-ass about it; I Just Don't Do That. That's my own fault/problem/issue and not yours.
Same here. I'm running XP via Parallels Desktop (I only use it to run YYCHR and test my code on FCEUX).
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Post by chykn »

neilbaldwin wrote:Same here. I'm running XP via Parallels Desktop (I only use it to run YYCHR and test my code on FCEUX).
I agree. For those on Windows 7 or even XP who are concerned with screwing up their desktop, you could build a virtual machine dedicated to running older software and packages that require VB6 modules. Some of our developers do this to emulate older environments for testing purposes.

I use VMWare Workstation since we're a VMWare shop, but you could use a free alternative such as VirtualBox...

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Not a bad way to go unless you just enjoy having an old Pentium on your desk. :P
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Post by UncleSporky »

That's incredibly cumbersome when all it takes is literally including a couple files along with the zip.

I know what you're getting at, I like VMs too, but this is probably not the place to recommend it. :P
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Post by tepples »

UncleSporky wrote:That's incredibly cumbersome when all it takes is literally including a couple files along with the zip.
Provided that one has permission from Microsoft to redistribute said Windows components.
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koitsu
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Post by koitsu »

We don't even know what runtimes are needed for this program to begin with. Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 runtimes aren't sufficient, for example. MSCOMCTL.OCX isn't included here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887

As for the distribution licensing (tepples makes an excellent point) -- I'm not sure, but it needs to be verified. There has to be an answer to this out on the web somewhere though. Even if he can't legally include the files with his software, the bare minimum would be to tell people "You need to download <this> and <this> on Windows XP before this software will work", giving links directly to Microsoft.

EDIT: Apparently XP folks will need to download *two* packages from Microsoft to get this software to run:

* Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Common Controls
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... laylang=en

* Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 Run-time Redistribution Pack
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... laylang=en

Regarding the Common Controls, I had a nice LOL when I read this.
Last edited by koitsu on Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Bregalad
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Post by Bregalad »

Again, I didn't have to download anything. You use a 9 year old version of Windows so blame yourself.
Useless, lumbering half-wits don't scare us.
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koitsu
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Post by koitsu »

Bregalad wrote:Again, I didn't have to download anything. You use a 9 year old version of Windows so blame yourself.
This is a perfect example of why blargg started a thread asking which people had problems with him. This kind of response is highly inflammatory and completely unhelpful in every way shape and form.

Maybe instead you should be blaming the author of the software for using a version of Visual Basic that came out in 1997-1998?

There's also great irony in complaining about "using an old operating system" on a web board that's about consoles made over 20 years ago.
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Post by 3gengames »

I agree with Breglad, your using a old OS so just get over it. Times advance and so does technology. You need something a newer OS/VB basic needs or whatever, so be it. IE9 won't run on XP (Probably a good thing) but still, nobody's complaining about that.
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