Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 15, 2018 2:57:44 GMT -8
First of all remember that we have the Gruntz Mailing List, which has dozens of e-mail addresses. Even though they may not frequently visit the forums, they still might be playing the levels created by the active part of the community. However I truly do understand you, since I'm the creator myself. I'm not only designing custom levels, but also some utility applications for Gruntz, discover some unknown and interesting facts about the game and articles about reverse engineering it. The intensity of my work is hindered however by the real life - the university of mine, work ... I wish there were hundreds of people, ready to comment and criticize my work. However a small community is not making me abandon anything Gruntz related, no way! Partly the reason why this community still exists is people like me - enthusiasts, devoted Gruntzaholics and aficionados who will do this stuff no matter what! Making Gruntz related stuff is still a lot of fun for me, mainly because I have really fond memories of the game, even when there's not as many community members as there used to be. What I think? If you have fun being a part of the community, if you love the game and love creating content for it, keep on doing that! If the size of the community is a priority for you, you may switch to other gaming communities, like Minecraft, Skyrim and others. They will surely last for years to come. Bigger communities have however one disadvantage - it's hard not to stay anonymous. Unless you create something extraordinary and totally unique, you may surprisingly find yourself struggle to get more attention. Our Gruntz community is small enough for everybody to know everyone. We're like a small family. And I shall not abandon my family, not for too long anyways
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 14, 2018 7:14:51 GMT -8
And I am stuck at the five Toggling Bridge Tilez leading to the Green Hold Switch and Green Toggle Switchez required to allow the original Grunt and his buddy to move north from the first eight enemy Boxing Glovez Gruntz! So I have yet to reach the area Tomalla describes as 'frustrating'.
P.S. If I ever get there I may well change the timing, and re-release this one. I can see how this part may cause some trouble. You can pass this part however without even any excess dexterity involved. Simple three, lazy but relatively well-timed clicks should do the trick. Position your Grunt at 16x32 (the tile above the first toggling bridge). The first click should be at 16x30 (the second toggling bridge from the bottom), the second at 16x28 (two tiles above the last one) and the final click should wind up at 16x26 (the tile above the last toggling bridge). Each click should be timed so that it occurs just when the next toggling bridge pops out of the water. Each toggling bridge stays up for 500ms, while the Grunt's travel speed is 600ms per tile (Edit: my mistake. They stay up for 1000ms, but the sequence itself progresses one tile every 500ms). That's what makes this part mildly inconvenient for the most part.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 14, 2018 3:39:03 GMT -8
Hmm... shouldn't it be in section for Frustrating levelz? That's where it was for a few years, then others proved that it was only 'Hard' to 'Very Hard' ... so I moved it to Graphics Area 6 "Honey, I Shrunk The Gruntz" today.With this single toggling bridge being to fast at 2x21 (as I said in my last post) this level in fact might be considered frustrating. I believe that this single logic should be altered and everything will be just fine.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 11, 2018 14:27:12 GMT -8
At first I was really surprised how this level had gotten the Frustrating rating. When playing I completely omitted the bottom-left part of the puzzle (without ever using the two GruntCreationPoints there) and got PERFECT with 7 Gruntz only, just like Sheroan did.
And just then I decided to complete the puzzle in the way intended by the author and tried to complete that bottom-left subpuzzle as well. And holy moly was the timing at that first toggling bridge tight! Only using number shortcuts to quickly switch between the Gruntz and bashing the hell out of my mouse I managed to pull that off after a dozen of attempts. It was a complete surprise to me, especially how (moderately) easy the rest of the level was. I don't quite get why that toggling bridge (at 2x21) has such tight timing, it serves no real purpose and seems like a design mistake. If only that bridge stayed a second longer (instead of 900ms), the level would have been rated Medium/Hard at best.
One thing is when the entire level was designed with the Frustrating rating in mind. The other, when there's only one puzzle with tight timing which seems to be simply a design error. In such case ... the level could easily be corrected and rereleased with a more adequate difficulty rating instead of just silently ignoring the problem. But we would have to ask BattlezM for opinion on that subject.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 11, 2018 7:12:50 GMT -8
This custom level by any means should not be given "Frustrating" rating. As far as I can see, it was dubbed frustrating only because of this toyer puzzle, which seemed primarily luck-based at first but surprisingly turned out to have a ridiculously simple solution (hats off to you SwordGrunt!). In my opinion it should be in the "Hard" category at least, perhaps "Very Hard" if anybody raised any objections. When I beta-tested this level I remember getting stuck several times but none of the obstacles were luck-based or in any other way frustrating. Any plans on changing that rating?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Jun 10, 2018 9:53:35 GMT -8
Gaby's custom levels are truly pieces of art and all of those levels were being created with this "kaleidoscope" theme in mind. The concept itself is fine as long as it's considered an art project. Unfortunately the art content is added at the cost of playability. However nobody said it's a bad thing - the levels may not be for everyone, but there are still some people who just want to "go with the flow", sit back and relax when playing the level and perhaps admire the views along the way.
Now ... trying to split a level into four separate pieces might be, firstly: considered an interference with the original author's concept and idea for the level (I, for one, wouldn't like anyone to mess with my levels and make any unauthorized changes, although I am always open for suggestions), and secondly: I find it an art for art's sake. There's no real reason to create four exact (gameplay-wise) levels, only with different puzzle arrangements and other WARP letters.
I take all levels here as-is. If I like a level (and the idea behind it) - I play through it. If I don't - I leave it, along with all possible amendments that I would make to it.
PS. When I first saw the title of the thread ("Gaby has been inactive for a very long time") I thought there would be some explanation as for why has Gaby been inactive for so long. I'm worried something might have happened to her. And so I'm a little disappointed there was nothing here in that regard. Which makes me want to ask - does anyone know anything about Gaby's whereabouts?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on May 1, 2018 15:26:59 GMT -8
Tomalla mentioned that there can even be Secret Levels for Training Stages added. But what are their requirements/locations? If you look closely what I wrote in the original post, you will see that there is no instances of SecretLevelTrigger logic in the training levels. Therefore there is NO locations and requirements to be listed at all. However if someone added them in and triggered them, levels with names LEVEL137.WWD - LEVEL140.WWD would be loaded.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Dec 9, 2017 1:14:01 GMT -8
Google Translate does a pretty decent job at translating that polish mess: Google TranslateJust remember to switch the site to the Polish version first (at the top of the blog there are little flag icons that are responsible for that). If you hover over a sentence, the original text shows up - that way you can see, how some proper nouns or names looked originally, just for reference. Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Dec 8, 2017 16:33:01 GMT -8
Hello everyone! Over a year ago I've posted a thread where I revealed that I had successfully decrypted and decoded ATTRIBUTEZ.TXT and CHEATZ.TXT files. At the same time I assured that I would present a detailed explanation on how I did it exactly. Some time later. Well ... I kinda ... didn't do it. And here's why. The day I managed to decode these files I made all these articles within a blink of an eye. However, there's a catch - they all were in Polish. And I didn't really want to publish incomplete articles without the proper English translation. And since I've never really finished the translation, I didn't publish the articles. Yes, I know, I deserve some good spanking for that I'm terribly sorry for that ... But here I am, finally publishing all these articles (three of them, to be exact). They are on my blog: datashenanigans.blogspot.com/. The first one has the half of the article translated, the other two only have the Polish version. I figured publishing them in this shape would be better than leaving the material covered in a thick layer of dust for another year or so, without showing them to anyone whatsoever. So - if you're interested, feel free to take a look at them and try to get something useful out them. If you have some questions, feel free to ask them here in this thread, or as a comment on my blog. I'll try to answer them right away. Or a year later, knowing me ... Just kidding! I'm kidding ... Sorry again for the long delay! And sorry for the lack of any translation. Cheers, Tom
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Sept 21, 2016 4:47:58 GMT -8
As I recall correctly, that pink Club Grunt in the area with holes is intended to be left alone at the moment; he'll be killed later with a ranged weapon.
I can't remember what you had to do in the area to the south unfortunately, I'd have to re-play the level all over again in order to give you some hints. All I remember is that I got stuck in there for a moment as well. The solution however turned out to be rather simple. Can't give you any details though, sorry.
Once I get some free time I will play the level and see what's going on there, I don't make any promises though. Unless SwordGrunt pops up and helps you in the meantime of course.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Sept 2, 2016 9:22:43 GMT -8
Do you mean GRUNTZ.REZ\STATEZ\BOOTY\SOUNDZ\LOOP.WAV ?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Sept 1, 2016 5:49:53 GMT -8
Haha yeah I know, MP3 -> MIDI conversion is indeed a beauty. I love the sound of it In order to overlay (mix) two sound files, you have to get any audio editing software. Again - my tool of choice is Audacity. And whatever you choose, Google is your friend. In case of Audacity: linkBut before you do that, see if you can ADD the new ambient track instead of fiddling around with the existing ones. Go to the folder in your GRUNTZ.REZ file where ambient tracks for a particular world (area) are and add a new one. Then refer to it from your WWD file and see if it's working. I didn't test it myself, but it sure looks promising. If it doesn't work, get ready go get your hands dirty. Mixing two tracks may not be easy. You have to mix the tracks the way so that there's no gaps in either of them. Basically - they have to be equal length. Otherwise when playing the game, the ambient might have gaps of silence in it or some abrupt jumps. There are some techniques in order to fix this issue, here are some tips: - if you want to make ambient track shorter, delete the middle and leave the beginning and ending. Then make a smooth transition between the two so that there's no abrupt jumps (it's a so called crossfade)
- if your music track it way longer than the ambient one, extend the ambient track by making more of its copies and placing one after another until both tracks are more or less the same length
- perhaps your music track has some moments of silence anyways by design? If so, you could make them longer if required
There's plenty of different solutions to the problem. All you have to do is analyze the problem and go for the best one! Or the second best Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Sept 1, 2016 0:26:58 GMT -8
MIDI ruins the music? That's harsh. MIDI's got its own beauty, you just have to look for it I doubt you can replace XMI files with WAV, though I see a little hack you could do instead. You could overlay your music with the global ambient or even get it replaced (or add a new ambient entry and modify WWD files accordingly). Cons: no entrance music available, no randomisation possible, overlaying files may be difficult when tracks have different lengths, ... Pros: well, you've got some WAV music going on, it might be good enough
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 31, 2016 2:42:18 GMT -8
Damn, your WAV file behaves like crazy in the game! This very particular file seems to sound just fine for me, but the most surprising part is, that it corrupts other voiceovers! When I checked that the sound file is played properly, I was about to exit the game when suddenly some other Grunt started "shouting" is such a loud and staticky manner, that I jumped on my chair It sounded like a roaring car engine. Astonishing. Fortunately I've found the issue. Your WAV file was a 1 channel, 16 bit signed PCM with the sampling rate of 22050Hz. However, the voiceovers in the game were 8 bit unsigned PCM. I reexported your WAV file in the correct (latter) format and all sounds seem to be no longer corrupted. I have no idea how to correctly export your sound in Speakonia however; I did it with Audacity 2.0.5 (a rather old version, I know). I went to File > Export, chose the "Other uncompressed files" and specified the 8 bit unsigned PCM encoding in the "Options" menu. You'll have to come up with your own way how to accomplish this with Speakonia. PS. May I ask what language is your WAV file in? The sound of it is quite peculiar
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 30, 2016 12:41:04 GMT -8
The WAV file turns into static noise when played in the game? Sounds like your WAV file was exported with different settings. Like different bit rate, sampling frequency or whatnot. Not really sure. But again - if you send us the WAV file, we'll try to work it out and tell what's actually the problem.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 30, 2016 3:18:50 GMT -8
The Gruntz REZ Patcher can also patch GRUNTZ.VRZ file. When choosing the output REZ file, an "open file" dialog will open. However, the filter will only show REZ files. I obviously forgot to add other common filters. But there's an easy way to circumvent it: in the "File name" text field type "*.*" (without quotes) and press Enter. This will overwrite the filter and show EVERY file instead. Then select the GRUNTZ.VRZ file and from now on everything will be just the same.
IMPORTANT: It's a good idea to back up your GRUNTZ.REZ and GRUNTZ.VRZ files manually instead of letting the program to do it. The reason for this is simple: the backup copy is created as a file with a fixed name (BACKUP.REZ) in the same folder. If you start modifying another REZ (or VRZ) archive, your backup copy may be easily overwritten.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 29, 2016 12:31:04 GMT -8
Every image has a set of many properties; one of them is the width and height of an image (dimensions). And from all of these properties on an image, there's one I was talking about. It's the so called COLOR DEPTH. Well, every image is made of pixels, right? And those pixels can have one of many colors. The property called "color depth" tells us, how many different colors a pixel can be. For instance: let's say we have a black-and-white image. Every pixel of such image can have one of two colors: black or white. And so this is a " 2 color image" (or, technically speaking, an image with 1-bit color depth). If you had an image, where your pixel can have one of 4 different colors, it's the " 4 color image (or image with 2-bit color depth). The PCX2PID.EXE program requires your image to be 256 color. That means, that every pixel of your image has to be one of at most 256 different colors. Or in other words: your image should have 8-bit color depth. If you open your image up in any image viewer or editor, you are likely to see the following text, for example: "100 x 200 x 24 BPP". 100 and 200 are the width and height of an image. The "24 BPP" part is the color depth of your image (BPP stands for "Bits Per Pixel"). In this case - each pixel can have one of over 16 millions of different colors. It's quite a lot. And that might be the reason why your PCX2PID.EXE program is complaining. Your image should have "8 BPP", which means "8-bit color depth", or "an image where pixels can have one of only 256 different colors". I made a 256 color 32x32 pcx file but PCX2PID says "1.pcx is not a 256 color image !" You said you made a 256 color PCX file. If you did, you should have no problems with the conversion. That's why I want to double check your actual "1.pcx" file to see whether it really is 8 BPP. It's the only explanation that comes to my mind.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 29, 2016 11:18:17 GMT -8
Well, the error message can't be more crystal clear. Your image must have more than just 8 bits reserved for a color (8 bits is 256 different colors available). If you still claim your image is 8 bit, send it to us and we'll take a look at it.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 29, 2016 4:46:18 GMT -8
The GRUNTZ.FEC file is located on the Gruntz CD in the MOVIEZ folder. Its size is 107 MB.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 28, 2016 7:35:57 GMT -8
I'm afraid it might not be possible at this moment without further research. Extracting the SMK videos out of the FEC package is rather easy, but in order to do that the other way around we'd have to know what the header of the FEC file actually is, so that the game loads it up properly. If there's no specification in the internet (as FEC file format doesn't seem to be the part of the Smacker technology, rather an invention of the Wap32 engine creators), it'd have to be reverse-engineered. Unless Friedslick6 has done some research on his own
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