New Feature Preview Topic

[Atrius (He/Him)]

It's still a work in progress, but I figured I'd show off some of the features of the NPC editing interface.


Top panel: General information about the NPC, it's sprite, location, eventually the direction it's facing (That would be part of the ? value)  Yes NPC's are assigned a Z coordinate, I have yet to notice one set to anything other than 0 yet though (When the map is loaded in-game their Z coordinate is automatically raised to the height of the ground where they're standing)

Left panel: List of events associated with the NPC, these include talking to them, mind reading them, and I believe reactions to having other psynergies being casted on them as well.  It does not usually include anything to do with cut scenes.

Middle right panel: General information about the event, will contain triggers, type of event, and other such data.

Bottom right panel: The code/script/dialogue associated with the event.


Here we see an event that uses an ASM function.  The editor still does not include ASM editing capabilities yet, so you can only view these.


This is the Idle script, basically what the NPC is doing while the player isn't interacting with it (probably needs a more suitable title than "Idle script").  Although I'm still working on deciphering a lot of the commands you can already see that they're a lot simpler than ASM.  This is the script that made Kraden twitch on the ground in my recent video where I hacked all the NPC's in Dalia, unfortunately I didn't actually edit the script, it already existed for the NPC.  It'll still be a while before this data is actually available for editing, but it will be viewable in v0.3

[Salanewt]

Excellent work Atrius (what else could we expect though?)! By the way, can we choose where to put tiles yet?

Also, not much of a question, but... For map tiles, will we be able to edit them and their function separately (like whether it is solid, you can walk on it, it is raised, hopping, etc.), or are the graphics and functions together?

And for sprites/objects... I am really looking forward to being able to make my own NPCs on maps. Will we be able to select different palettes for NPC sprites as well, or are palettes permanently set to sprites with the exception of special events (after all, I am used to sprites and palettes mostly being separate, but...)?

Have a nice day.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

The way Golden Sun's sprites work there is only a single global palette used for everything, it's the only way it can use so many colors for each sprite.  It does have palette swapping programmed into it to rearrange the way sprites use that palette like you can see in the sprite viewer, and on enemies though.  I haven't found anything for NPC's that allows you to change that palette swap value outside of scripting, judging by how the colored statues in puzzles are handled I think that's the only place it's at.

Map editing isn't going to be in v0.3
I believe I mentioned this before somewhere, but movement in Golden Sun is calculated in 3D, and the collision data for maps reflects that.  It is not attached to the graphical tiles, maps have separate height-map, and event data for each tile. 

[MaxiPower]

Excellent so thats how the text editing works, by going to the map its in and selecting the NPC, thats nice, even a noob like me could work that...

What is the difference between Finished and Finished too in the screens?

btw Atrius, could you implement navigating lists by using the arrow buttons up and down... the list as were the 258 jt005 is highlighted

[Atrius (He/Him)]

The goal is user friendliness, pretty much anywhere that it made sense to make text editable you can do it at.  You can edit item name & descriptions from the item editor, same for abilities, and party member default names can be edited from the party member editor, e.t.c.  The text viewer was turned into an editor too though, so you also have access to view & edit every single string in the game from that menu.  Combined with the search functionality for lists it's very nice for those difficult to find strings.

Unfortunately some NPC's use ASM functions when you talk to them to access their dialogue, particularly if a yes/no menu is involved, or if they perform an animation or such as well.  This dialogue, as well as cut scene dialogue, is still out of reach from the Map editor, again though, that's what the all inclusive text editor is there for.


The difference between "Finished" and "Finished Too" is the word "Too" :p
Basically I just copied the code from one of my interfaces with "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons at the bottom to create the NPC editor interface from.  The "Cancel" button didn't prevent it from saving the changes because of the complexity of some of the data it deals with, but I was lazy at the time, and it was easier to change the text on the button than to remove it completely.  Like I said, it's still a work in progress.

btw Atrius, could you implement navigating lists by using the arrow buttons up and down... the list as were the 258 jt005 is highlighted

Actually, I've been wanting to do that for a while anyway.

[KyleRunner]

 
Amazing work! I want it so bad it hurts :)

[MaxiPower]

The goal is user friendliness, pretty much anywhere that it made sense to make text editable you can do it at.  You can edit item name & descriptions from the item editor, same for abilities, and party member default names can be edited from the party member editor, e.t.c.  The text viewer was turned into an editor too though, so you also have access to view & edit every single string in the game from that menu.  Combined with the search functionality for lists it's very nice for those difficult to find strings.

Its very rare that one package does everything, thats what i love most. You mention the main text editor, How robust is the editor for adding text, What i mean is, The {01} tag within the GStoolkit (used for adding new text-boxes) is great and all but when used 7 (Give or take a few) times within a single default string to extend the text further causes problems...

Now i dont know if using say 4 {01}'s within a string over many dozen of strings causes problems because i never had to use more than two standard strings.

Now im only assuming that Your editor and the GStoolkit has deals with text the same way

Hope that makes sense :)

[Atrius (He/Him)]

GStoolkit hacks the game's code to remove the compression algorithms, pulls out all the old strings, and sticks it all back in uncompressed.  My text editing system leaves everything alone as best it can, opting instead to compress the new text into the existing format.


Golden Sun's text engine itself has a limit to how long a single string can be due to memory limitations, you may be hitting that limit.  If I recall that limit is 512 characters.

[MaxiPower]

Ah okay i got you, thanks for clearing that up.

[i_am_isaac]

Uhmm I have a question too you said Atrius that we can now edit the text of the NPC in the next version.


I cannot interfere in the actions of mankind.


Can we edit text that is included in a certain event?

[Rolina]

That should be a given.  Text that occurs in an event still shows up in the text viewer, and the editor *should* give us the ability to edit those.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

Correct, anything visible in the text viewer can be edited.

[DarkShuyin]

The things I want to see most (if possible with the editor) are:

In the lost age, have Alex as a playable character from the beginning. (I'm collecting his battle char sets as we speak) And replace the regular Alex with a normal NPC.

And I would like placing a town in the middle of nowhere and add a Star wars or something concept like Atrius did. That was just kickass

[MaxiPower]

The things I want to see most (if possible with the editor) are:

In the lost age, have Alex as a playable character from the beginning. (I'm collecting his battle char sets as we speak) And replace the regular Alex with a normal NPC.

And I would like placing a town in the middle of nowhere and add a Star wars or something concept like Atrius did. That was just kickass

Not all possible at the moment with the editor, Its true Atrius could insert the Alex sprites like he did with Kraden but thats not using the editor, but some other  method. btw would your friend be interested in checking out this site, the one that created the Alex sprite ?

[leon_95]

I always wanted to edit text!! And replacing Sprites would be Also Great!! Would it be possible to change the boss sprites into "not-existing-sprites" (for example replace the Dullahan battle with a battle against... er... Link... or... Ichigo)? (It would be so great!!!)
Or I thought something about "Link Joins your Pary" would THIS be possible, for example replacing with Link...
And... (sorry abut such many questions) what is about the Summons?? Could I change the Cutscenes from them (somewhen)??? or at least change the Names of the Abilities...
I hope, you can Answer all my questions...
Oh yes... I've forgotten: thumbs up for your Editor... and the Video... (LOL because of Dullahan and Poseidon)

[Atrius (He/Him)]

Text editing is coming in the next release, the text viewer from v0.2 is being converted into an editor so anything you can currently view with it will be editable.  To make things easier stuff like item/ability/enemy names, descriptions & such will also be editable in their corresponding sections of the editor.

Sprite editing/replacing will be coming eventually, but it's still a little ways down the road.  I expect it may make it's way into v0.4 when it comes around.  It will enable you to replace party member, enemy, or any other sprites visible in the current sprite viewer with custom ones.  With text editing in the next release you will already be able to change default party member names.

Battle animation & cutscene editing are still a long ways off.  They're programmed in ASM code, so they're extremely difficult to change in any way.  Even when the editor become capable of editing them it will likely require a fair amount of scripting experience.

[Aile~♥]

Could you possibly make a patch so that "restore X% of HP/PP" effects work outside of battle? I've been having a problem, since I've made a system where pretty much all healing abilities use those, and it's getting annoying to only be able to heal in-battle.

[leon_95]

@Atrius: thanks, for the information... now I can wait hopefully for the next Editor!

[Atrius (He/Him)]

It's getting closer to the beginning of October, so I thought I'd let you guys know that the editor is still on track for a release before the end of it, and share some new screen shots.



Editing the name of a Class.  Notice the new "Auto" option used for setting your class type based on it's elemental requirements.





The map viewer with a couple new additions, there are buttons for setting the visibility of tile layers, NPCs, as well as a grid.  Also notice how the sun ray tile layer in Madra, which uses a special blend mode, is displayed properly.  Expect the same for light shining inside windows of buildings, and other such effects as well.




Viewing tile sets in the map viewer.




Djinni Editor.  Yes, their name & descriptions are linked to an ability, although it's possible to set a different ability for what they actually do.




An in game screen shot of some of the results of my shenanigans.


Interesting side note: It is possible to make it so that a summon doesn't require any Djinni, but you still need to have at least one on standby to access the summon menu in battle.

[Charon]

Hot stuff, Atrius. Can't wait for the final release.

Don't forget about the localization files, too, Atrius, so we can get a copy of the program in German :D