[Map Maker] EVE

[Aino]

This topic is going to be the main topic for EVE ("Eufloria Visual Editor"). EVE in it's current phase is actually quite usable and I have decided to allow everyone to get a peak of how it's going to be. For each version you'll be able to leave me with some criticizing feedback.

I will update this every day if I've worked on it, and when the full version is out I'll make it open source(Currently the code looks like trash).

A Warning:
- There may exist bugs or other annoyances, report these in a PM to me.

Controls:
Shift when selecting an asteroid might be useful and holding shift while moving/placing asteroids might be useful.
Control(CTRL) clicking will allow you to select without any interference from used tool.
"G" will turn off and on grid.
"F" will turn off and on the stars, for low-end computers
"ESC" or clicking your middle mouse button will bring up the loading/saving/options menu. When loading a new map the old one(saved or not) is always saved(not overwriting though).
"F1" will bring up more information about memory use and your quality level(which only affects the visual trees for now).

1. Download the file (a . jar file).
2. Find the location of your Eufloria HD download.
3. Put the file in the "res" folder.
4. Run the file.

Versions:

(click to show/hide)

Kilobyte Count: 70,5kB

0.6:
- F1 Information window
- You can move the menu buttons around by shift clicking them
- Added visual trees, it also comes with the option of turning it off(for performance's sake).
- Added a backdrop color change(Not included in any save formats, sorry).
- Tweaked a lot of stuff...

0.6_1:
- Fixed the .lua save, it now saves all the current variables you would want.

0.6_2:
- Fixed the .lua save yet again, forgot two pieces of code :/

Kilobyte Count: 60,7kB

Recolored some things, added some minor details and fixed the menu looks and some minor menu bugs.
You can also move the asteroid statistics window now, you must have an asteroid selected and be in the menu, then you hold shift and press your left mouse button on the menu.

Kilobyte Count: 59.5kB

Added more content to the menu, you can now change the resolution of the window.

Kilobyte Count: 49.4kB

Using the menu(middle click or ESC) will allow you to both LOAD and SAVE maps. Maps are saved in two files now, one LUA and one EVE(the one that is loaded again).

Kilobyte Count: 29.9kB

Second release, not first finished release.

This version CAN save the .lua data. With some few modifications you can play it on your Eufloria HD and Classic(Yes, their Lua codes have much in common).

Kilobyte Count: 18.9kB

First release, not first finished release.

This version can't save any data.

This is ordered by priority.

• Save function DONE(still missing some minor features in the .lua save!)
• Globals implemented
• Changing more of the asteroids DONE. If there is anything I missed, report it to me!
• Custom coding
• Adding pre written engines(when Eufloria supports it)
• Adding an equation to get an asteroid field(easy way to make fields formed like galaxies, etc...)

[sillytuna]

May I suggest a function to back up existing map files (stored in the Win32 folder) and something to let the user swap between custom maps and real maps? When I get a chance I'll upload a copy of this folder in case someone loses them as well.

I would suggest that the arena levels are replaced for custom maps.

Also, on PC it's easy to do this. For Mac and Linux I don't know what people can do?

Unfortunately we can't quickly hack in a quick custom map loader at the moment. We really would if we could.

Aino - Eufloria has some code to ensure asteroids are reachable FYI.

[Aino]

Aino - Eufloria has some code to ensure asteroids are reachable FYI.

I know about that code, it's been annoying each and every time I've made a new map.

The function you mentioned is actually something I hope to implement.

Also, could you sticky this thread if possible?

[sillytuna]

Aino - Eufloria has some code to ensure asteroids are reachable FYI.

I know about that code, it's been annoying each and every time I've made a new map.

Sorry, I wrote utter rubbish. I checked the code - it doesn't move the asteroid, it increases the asteroid send distance.

For each asteroid, it looks to see if another asteroid can reach it. If no other asteroid can reach it, it extends the send distance on the original asteroid so that it's the distance to the closest asteroid.

There is a Move operation that is performed on initialisation which ensures asteroids are spread out by MinAsteroidSeparation. It's a while since I looked at that code so I can't confirm if it always runs etc or precisely how it works but I can look into it in future if you need me to.

[Aino]

Sorry, I wrote utter rubbish. I checked the code - it doesn't move the asteroid, it increases the asteroid send distance.

For each asteroid, it looks to see if another asteroid can reach it. If no other asteroid can reach it, it extends the send distance on the original asteroid so that it's the distance to the closest asteroid.

There is a Move operation that is performed on initialisation which ensures asteroids are spread out by MinAsteroidSeparation. It's a while since I looked at that code so I can't confirm if it always runs etc or precisely how it works but I can look into it in future if you need me to.

I think I can leave the Eufloria Engine to do that, it's not necessary to do it if the engine do it for you

[Pilchard123]

Is this going to be for Eufloria HD or Classic?

[Aino]

Is this going to be for Eufloria HD or Classic?

It's going to be for Eufloria HD.

[Aino]

New version out, version 0.2 got some cool particle effects and can save

And please, if you download the file: Give me feedback; because I want this to be the community's map editor, not mine!

Edit:
After creating and testing my first map, I quickly established the fact that sizes aren't very large anymore. The 100 radius asteroid could easily be over 300 visually if it is 1/8 of the sending distance which is 2000. I must compensate for this it seems, new item on the list

tl;dr: The asteroid radius is not going to look the same in the Eufloria HD game(classic got the same).

[Breakord]

FANTASTIC！
Aino you are totally a genius!!
BTW,does it mean that my coding in online map editors (JS/Html) is of no value?
I should have coded in lua scripts at the first beginning!! = =

 

[Pilchard123]

Nah, Lua is quite similar to JS.

Aino: why not try putting it up on github or something?

[Bonobo]

Great stuff, Aino, though currently I haven’t got the time to play around with it.

Seems you’re doing the Eufloria community a great favour again

[Aino]

Great stuff, Aino, though currently I haven’t got the time to play around with it.

Seems you’re doing the Eufloria community a great favour again

It's always a pleasure to help this fantastic community

On the other hand, would you mind testing it on the mac? I'm sure it's compatible, but if you could assure me, it would be great

[sillytuna]

On Mac the application is packaged up so I'd be interested if it can work too...

[Bonobo]

Dear Aino,

I’m terribly sorry, no time for fiddling. I’m currently being eaten up by my new job. Not even sure I can keep it, it may well be that I’m confronted with the dilemma of either keeping my health or doing this job so… sorry, not now. Perhaps between Christmas and New Year. And IF I unexpectedly should find the time to test it before then be assured that I’ll let you know here.

[Aino]

Aino: why not try putting it up on github or something?

I'll look into it, would be great if people can help adding things they want to see in this project.

And Bonobo: No hurries!

[Pilchard123]

I'd definitely lend a hand if I have the time. I wanted to do a level editor for HD when it came out, but then you went and got the drop on me 

[Rudolf]

It would be really nice to have one editor that people help get better, rather than 5 competing ones :-)
Good stuff this!

[Pilchard123]

Any news on this?

[Aino]

Any news on this?

Well: Visual starfield(later going to be implemented as Annikk made it), changing pre-existing trees, changing pre-existing seedlings per faction, and attributes of the asteroid and some very small details

I haven't been working very efficient on the project lately; the tools are pretty much way ahead of the game and there is practically no reason hurrying.

[Aino]

There, version 0.3 is out

[sillytuna]

Once eufloria adventures is out, I will clean up and document everything in eufloria hd for modders on Eufloripedia (which is currently empty, but the install worked).

So yeah, no rush, but the better you can make the interface itself...

We'll support any editor or map makers as best we can.

[Aino]

A new update again, I think many will like the new feature to change the resolution of the window. It also save your settings, so you won't need to change it all the time.

Feedback would be appreciated, the menu can be organized better than it is now...

[Aino]

Take a look at this!

Using the file:

1. Save it in the "CustomMaps" folder that the program generates, create it yourself if it's not generated.
2. Use the load function(middle mouse click or escape then load) and write in its name(WITHOUT the .eve, in this case it would only be "SPIRE")
3. Look at the map, and play around with it if you want to.



I just realized this tool will make it incredibly easy to work together on projects! I love making this editor!

[Aino]

Just added visual trees, kinda cool

[Aino]

0.6 is out, test it and watch the trees grow. They're not as good looking as the in-game ones though

I would actually recommend testing the SPIRE map for the new version

[Aino]

Now, go make your maps! With 0.6_1 maps will save properly

Just promise me to add Globals.G.Asteroids = 0 or Globals():Get("Game"):Set("Asteroids", 0) at the beginning of the code.


And on this note, I'll also take a break from this coding project.

[Bonobo]

Although I looks like I won’t have the time to play around with this for a looooong time I’d still like to thank you!

[..]

Just promise me to add Globals.G.Asteroids = 0 or Globals():Get("Game"):Set("Asteroids", 0) at the beginning of the code.

[..]

I think you might want to add this to your opening post.

Greetings, Tom

[Breakord]

I think it might be better to put some codes , maybe as less as possible, in the LevelLogic to make sure the level can run , even if we do nothing in coding before playing the level.

[Aino]

I've updated it agian. The update is just a fix of the .lua file, it adds MoveAble = false and a coroutine in the commented while loop.

[Rudolf]

Is there a manual? Always good to have a manual :-)

[Aino]

You have the controls in the OP... and nothing more except for experimentation... I will get around making one when I'm done though.

[Aino]

Finally I'm back, and it has been some time now since I last really added anything new in this project. Well, I have been resting up, and lately I've been working hard to get the globals working... And I've done it! I've added in the globals, well not all of them (there are loads of them), but some. I just have to continue adding them in one by one, which in the end gets very tedious. All that adding in the end makes me work on other parts of the editor, which allows me to get more things done. I still love making this editor and I hope to one day see this finished with tons of features

I also included a picture of how the globals will look like in the editor.

[sillytuna]

If it makes you feel better, I've been doing the same stuff on Eufloria Adventures!

Got your message about globals. I'll try and get answers to you tomorrow (I'll have to look it up in the code!).

[Aino]

Is it possible to allow guests to download attached files too? It would be nice if everyone could be allowed to use this tool if they want to

[Bonobo]

Perhaps upload to Dropbox and post the link here?

Have no account there? Join Dropbox and get not only 2 GB for free but 500 MB extra via my referral link—and I’ll also get 500 MB more

[Aino]

Perhaps upload to Dropbox and post the link here?

Have no account there? Join Dropbox and get not only 2 GB for free but 500 MB extra via my referral link—and I’ll also get 500 MB more

Would be great if the forum supported full access to files attached, so that you won't need to use other sites to give everyone full access though...

[Aino]

I've got some progress reports:

- No new editor functions
&
- No new globals

BUT:
- Dear god have the stars been optimized
- Finally you can see the number of seedlings on an asteroid per empire

Included a picture for those who don't believe it!
Now I got to tweak the trees' look, and add a quality slider...

Edit:
Breaking news:
Added camera position bookmarks, tweaked the trees and added a quality slider

[Bonobo]

Wow, that looks AMAZING! I only wish I had time for this.

[sillytuna]

Cool!

Just a reminder that we'll be updating HD in spring/summer with better support for custom mods and I'll try and document things up more (the globals).

While writing eufloria adventures, which is back in c#, I've been working some of them out and have also added lots and lots more.

We can fully configure how entities look now so can have all kinds of funky new ones. This won't get fed back into eufloria, but if we do a sequel you'll have a lot of new visual stuff that can be customised. I think any sequel would be based on the new adventures code. I've also rewritten trees to be highly configurable.

A few images are on my twitter feed but we'll get some on here later this month. We've just been working flat out!

[Pilchard123]

writing eufloria adventures [...] in c#

...why?

[sillytuna]

Eufloria adventures has to be because it's for playstation mobile first.

In general, c# is brilliant to develop with - very fast to dev, very low bug count.

[Aino]

I'm wondering if I should convrt this to OpenGL(LWJGL). This will give it much better performance, but I don't know if it will be supported by all platforms...

And sillytuna, maybe you can allow for more editing of the OP, I can't edit it anymore :/

[Aino]

I'm redoing the map editor... Might seem stupid, but I realized that if other people want to create things, like new tools, with it; it should be cleaner and much easier to use. If you wanted to use the first versions and change something, it would be a pain (especially the content manager class, which is close to 2000 lines long with NO COMMENTS!)

I have also solved some things that made the first versions even more of a pain to use... I just hope that when I'm done, you can simply go in, create a new tool class or whatever you want and do everything inside that class and you won't need to touch any other class if you don't want to.

[sillytuna]

Aino: What OP problem do you have? Is it a problem editing old posts?

[Aino]

If I hit the modify button for the OP, this error message pops up: "You may not modify this post as the time limit for edits has passed."

[Aino]

Here's an image of how the Command Lister and Frame Counter looks. The Command Lister is used to find commands, as you can see there are currently TWO commands, for showing and hiding the components(Commands Lister and Frame Counter). The Frame Counter simply counts the frames(pink) and ticks(blue). The ticks is how often the PC checks for a new frame to render, and the frame is an update of the screen. There isn't much map making yet; I just wanted the GUI to be easily modifiable, so I needed to spend some time on it.

The nice thing about the new version is I fixed the static window, you can now interact with the window as if it's a completely normal window.

Also: the Command Lister's colors are not set. I think the current colors stands out too much, but I can't do anything about it right now!

[Lost Seedling]

I realize it's difficult for a programmer to create a user-interface that is dumbed-down enough so that even the most clueless user can figure out how to use it, but seeing as how I have no idea what you just wrote and what it means, I hope you give us a chance to test this thing out along the way so we can let you know what is working for us and what isn't. You're obviously putting a lot of effort into this, Aino, and I'd hate to see it fail to meet your expectations later because you've made some false assumptions early on about those of us who will eventually want to use it. I'm assuming you want it to be useable by as many people as possible.

When you think it's ready, please put it out for testing like you did the previous version of EVE. Let us help you make this the go-to map-creator for Eufloria!

[Aino]

I realize it's difficult for a programmer to create a user-interface that is dumbed-down enough so that even the most clueless user can figure out how to use it, but seeing as how I have no idea what you just wrote and what it means, I hope you give us a chance to test this thing out along the way so we can let you know what is working for us and what isn't. You're obviously putting a lot of effort into this, Aino, and I'd hate to see it fail to meet your expectations later because you've made some false assumptions early on about those of us who will eventually want to use it. I'm assuming you want it to be useable by as many people as possible.

When you think it's ready, please put it out for testing like you did the previous version of EVE. Let us help you make this the go-to map-creator for Eufloria!

I will release it as I create it, don't worry.
I'm also counting on input from you guys: I was hoping I could make this for the community, not for me

[Aino]

I've added the tool list again, this time much more flexible. Just create a new tool, add it in the list and there it is

Just out of this, there are a ton of new and more stuff that can be added. I'm not just talking about adding and removing asteroid and changing their stats, I'm talking about new stuff like custom rendering, setting up engines(Annikk's Gravity Engine for example), and creating event tools, and maybe more?

It would be epic to see people creating things for the editor once it's ready for it. Sadly you would need to learn java, but I can try help anyone who got questions