JUICE

[Wrkncacnter]

Irons and I have been working on a utility to edit maps called JUICE. It is written in Java, so it should run on any system with an up-to-date Java installation. Currently, JUICE can load unmerged maps, merged maps and even maps that have been converted to unimap format. You can currently edit:
-Gametypes of maps (EMFH, KOTH, etc)
-Mission types
-Environment type (vacuum, magnetic, etc)
-Item parameters
-Monster parameters
-Level selection name
-Map name that shows up on the overhead map. (Can be different than level select name)

More features will be added later. Check out the JUICE website.

[Shadowbreaker]

Not smart making irons turn into strong whenever it is posted, considered it screwed up the link :/.

[Samus]

When this gets near completion, you should make a window comes up when you merge it and you can locate files you wish to merge, order them, and asign text files to each, and a res file. Hell, it might even be able to make resfiles? those are my ideas

[Zott]

Some interesting features that are worth considering.

[Wrkncacnter]

JUICE has hit v1.0. A bunch of new features have been added since I last posted here, so check it out. Irons has made an awesome manual explaining everything much better than I can here, so go read it! The website for JUICE is here.

[Samus]

Quite a nice little app, im playing around with it now. I don't like how you have to edit prefs to get to where you want to load a map from though. plus the aqua doesn't look to nice, I like the style that was used in the manual

[Samus]

Ok, this is pretty gross, I thought there would be a 2D editor but a list?. I also like your visual mode.

[LegacyTyphoon]

From the looks of it the manual images were made in Linux or some equivalent...
If you don't like the Aqua interface...download a new theme for OS X.

As for JUICE, I do have a question.
Is there anyway to get an older version of Java working with it? Or does it use features only seen in Java 5.0 SE? The reason I ask is that the OS X version of Java 5.0 SE is 10.4.x only...and I have 10.3.9 (Running Java 4.9.5). If it isn't possible to allow older versions of Java, you might want to add that into the Manual.

From the screenshots though, it looks good.

[Wrkncacnter]

Grayswandir: It turns out that yes, you need 10.4 to run Java 5. I did not know this until now, so we plan on fixing this by the next release so that it will be compatible with Java 1.4.

[LegacyTyphoon]

Grayswandir: It turns out that yes, you need 10.4 to run Java 5. I did not know this until now, so we plan on fixing this by the next release so that it will be compatible with Java 1.4.

Cool man, can't wait.

[Samus]

Cool, thanks irons, Can you put it in?

[Samus]

It doesn't run with other themes, it just doesn't open, i guess im doomed by aqua...

[screamingfool]

umm samus... nevermind

[Samus]

[Sarcasm]

[Shadowbreaker]

Ok Ok Ok... please do not harass me for this but...

How does it work? I downloaded it and it only appears to be a bunch of files that my computer demands I find an app to open them with... which there doesnt appear to be... and the read me doesn ot answer this.

[Wrkncacnter]

If double clicking the .jar file doesn't work, you can try running it with "java -jar JUICE.jar". Of course, you need to have Java installed.

[irons]

We've resumed work on JUICE. Here is what is in the works for version 1.1:

• Editing LINS (for extra-special effects in merged maps)
• Editing SIDS (including control panels, chargers, the works)
• Texture conversion:
  • per side/polygon
  • en masse
  • converting a maps made in Forge using a special Shapes file to create maps in all 5 texture sets
• Media editor
• Ambient sounds editor
• Light editor
• Small general improvements

The LINS effects in merged maps include things like the Chisel hack to stretch or compress textures along a wall and creating totally new things like railings:

SIDS and LINS are necessary to have the capability to manipulate all possible surfaces with textures. With the latest Aleph One release, it is possible to load all texture sets, landscapes, scenery objects, and media without special hacks. With the aforementioned special shapes file, a mapper can use Forge to texture everything in visual mode, then convert the special map into a full-fledged 5-texture-set map. You'll be able to apply even more tricks from JUICE; for example, while Forge doesn't let you specify which scenery objects you can add to a map (they're locked into the map's texture set), you can do something like converting all water puddles to Pfhor ships, etc. We're working pretty quickly, and I expect to have full LINS+SIDS support (along with the ability to convert Forged maps) by tonight or tomorrow.

[screamingfool]

thats sweet, the railing business would be really cool to use. one question, after doing things like putting all the texture collections in a map or using scenery from another collection will it be possible to edit or even open it in forge again?

[Bobwithkeycard]

loving the railing thing. Any chance you could include that as a sample map in the JUICE download?

[irons]

I know you'll be able to open it in Forge. We can definitely provide a JUICE/A1 -> Forge reverser in JUICE itself, so the textures won't be a problem. Media might be problematic, as well as landscapes. Scenery won't show up, but I have the feeling they won't get erased, either. However, what I generally do anyway (since I'm on an emulator) is keep an original Forge copy of the map in the emulator disk, then have a Linux version, which is the one I tamper with in JUICE. If I make a generic change, like adding an object or something, I can put the map back into the emulator's disk, but I usually don't.

Bob, I guess I could, but it has problems that I hope I can solve first. For example, there is a lot of smearing above the railing, but only at certain angles. I actually edited the map file by hand for that railing effect, and I hope that I can solve the smearing with further understanding (and safer editing) in JUICE.

[Bobwithkeycard]

aww, smearing, that is sad to hear. I once tried doing the railing by setting up a split poly in the middle of the room with its floor height as the railing's height. Then slapped a transparent bitmap on it as the primary texture and did turn on experimental rendering or whatnot in the mml. Ended up looking pretty smeary..
Good luck, though..I believe in you, heh


cough*BnB*cough

Scenery won't show up, but I have the feeling they won't get erased, either.

Only thing is it'll crash Forge's visual mode

[irons]

Bitches don't know bout our TEXTURE CONVERTER.

All that without touching Forge. (I did have help from ShapeFusion, so that I could know which textures were which... we plan on releasing a reference for these, for everyone's convenience)

Also notice the script option. We will be defining an XML format for scripting bitmap conversions. Can you believe we did this all in one day? I can't. Good job, Wrk. We obviously have a lot of JUICE between us.

[Zott]

Question: Does this change the liquid as well?

Or will there be water with lava textures?

[irons]

Media are now completely separate from their texture sets. JUICE will also have a media editor (and maybe a converter, although I don't think it'll be necessary) soon.

[irons]

This just in: added support for converter from and to landscapes as well.

What's more, I've made a refined algorithm for adding a third parameter to each replacement that lets you specify a transfer mode, e.g.: convert all landscaped textures in the water collection, bitmap 8 to the "space" landscape. Basically, with this setup, you can choose a few textures per set as the ones that will bring in replacements from the other sets. For example, you could specify things like this:

Water Collection:
Bitmap 0 will be replaced by Lava textures
Bitmap 1 -- Sewage textures
Bitmap 2 -- Jjaro textures
Bitmap 3 -- Pfhor textures.

Then, you could set things up so that the 11 transfer modes available in Forge represent a different texture in that set, so:

Water BMP 0:
Wander -- Lava BMP 2 normal
Wobble -- Lava BMP 6 normal

Etc.

So this means, in the example above, that (assuming you didn't care about any of the transfer modes for the first 4 water bitmaps) you could have an extra 44 textures swapped into the map.

This is a pretty easy way to mix and match without too much trouble, and remember that we're going to add an XML parser so you can set something like this up for long-term use throughout your mapping. I'm excited. Are you?