Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 30, 2013 10:34:10 GMT -8
I even wondered if you mentioned this version previously on the forum, only to find your post about it buried in one of the older threads with practically no response... Why, thank you. You really do know how to uplift a man.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 29, 2013 8:43:44 GMT -8
I've just checked it out of curiosity only to find out your readme file makes use of my old Gruntz Patcher using batch commands. That's a surprise. You'd been testing the newest version with the fully functional GUI yourself and didn't update the readme file after all? When people want to mod Gruntz, which isn't as often as I'd like it to be, I highly recommend everyone to use the newest version which is way, way more user friendly than its predecessor.
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Post by Tomalla on Dec 12, 2012 5:26:46 GMT -8
Another update! A fully functional Gruntz REZ Patcher with a user-friendly GUI! The download link, screenshots and other useful information is on my blog here: Data Shenanigans - Gruntz REZ Patcher 1.0.0The most importantly - you can test it right away! Follow the link above and download the latest version of Zu's Virtual Reality tileset. It's been slightly modified so that you can easily test it in-game with a use of my Gruntz REZ Patcher! As always, any feedback is much appreciated. Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Nov 9, 2012 10:41:07 GMT -8
Any problems with playing Gruntz on Windows 8? Anyone?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 13, 2012 10:59:29 GMT -8
There you go. The first version of Gruntz REZ Patcher. Well, its only features are packing and exporting a REZ file. It's usable via command-line. If there will be any problems with the usage, let me know. More info on my blog. Here's a link: datashenanigans.blogspot.com/2012/10/gruntz-rez-patcher-010.htmlPlease give me some feedback on this one if you're using it. It's really important for me. Any ideas, bugs you'll notice, you name it. Meanwhile I'll update the OP. Cheers!
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 10, 2012 10:08:21 GMT -8
How do you get three Gruntz on the plateau with the GruntCreationPad? I can get enough goo for two of them only.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 8, 2012 5:10:19 GMT -8
Hugh, I had no idea using original REZ file was an option. In this case I can give you documentation and any additional help on decoding these on the fly. I've successfully decoded all of these formats so it wouldn't be much of a problem. If that's OK with you, kijanek6. Seems like you want to acquire a monopoly on the Gruntzy Tech
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 7, 2012 7:05:36 GMT -8
Dude ... this is awesome. I've just exported the entire tile set and image sets + additional sounds you made ( why do they sound familiar to me? Where did you get them? ). Here's an example of what is yet to be corrected: The plateaus and the water edges must occupy the wrong tile numbers. Everything else looks magnificent.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 12:45:08 GMT -8
Now I understand why! I was trying to create a new, 9th world. Obviously, I've failed tremendously But now at least I know why. The key parameter which determines what tile set is used ( Rocky Road tiles, Gruntziclez tiles and so on ) is World > Name field. Notice it's not a name of a level ( the file name serves this purpose ), only a "label". It tells the game which image sets to load. All of the other options, like "Image Set 1", "Image Set 2" ... or even "Rez File", "Image Dir" or "Pal Rez", they're all for use in the editor! That's why the game doesn't load it but the editor does. That's why if you change the number in the "label", another tile set is loaded in-game. And, most importantly, that's why it crashes when someone gives a level number exceeding the Gruntz in Space tile set ( AREA8 ). Also: after running some tests I've come to conclusion that changing pixels' color on a minimap is ... impossible. It must be a feature built into the game. Every tile the game doesn't recognize is black on a minimap. Well, could be worse. Good it doesn't crash then Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 11:55:30 GMT -8
Yup, it does. But if you expect it to be something like WinREZ with a viewer and stuff, you'll be disappointed. My application has no GUI, even more - it has no input system. You wouldn't be even able to tell it what to pack and where it should save the output REZ file. I'm not hiding anything from anyone, and it really sounds like you suspect me to do it deliberately and I don't like it.
But fine, if there's a demand, I'll make the most simple application ever designed just to create a new REZ package. No GUI, you'll have to use batch commands to get it working.
In future I have plans on making a patcher which would apply patches filled with new tiles, skins, sounds and whatsoever to the original REZ file and run the game afterwards. This way when distributing new content, uploading the whole GRUNTZ.REZ file will be unnecessary - just the changes you want to make. But it is going to take a while.
PS. Just a thought. Since we're discussing modding-related things here, I'll make a list of modding applications in original post in this thread. When there'll be this REZ packer I've just mentioned, I'll let you guys know and update the OP. How about that?
Cheers!
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 9:44:23 GMT -8
WinRez was not working on my PC at all That's why I've written my own application which packs up the entire directory and replaces the GRUNTZ.REZ file with the new one. It's for convenience - one click of the mouse and the changes are applied and are ready for in-game tests.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 3:29:43 GMT -8
Two important questions I have are: - Is it possible to also replace the animations? I made some possibly plausible replacements for original ones and I'm curious if we can get them to work in-game. Notably, rolling balls and static hazards are completely different, together with altered sounds. - Is it possible to not only replace EyeCandies the tilesets originally have, but also add completely new to them? Yes and ... yes You can add your own "Candies" and tiles without replacing the old ones. I just don't know how can I change the color of a pixel on a mini map that represents one particular tile, but for now it's not a big deal. You can even make your new animations as "EyeCandyAni" objects, even with sounds being played! It's a bit experimental now, but I feel like it's doable.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 3:04:24 GMT -8
Haha I meant that I will use image filters to change the gruntz to a particular shade in the sequel I've seen the palettes in the original game... I seem to remember there were orange gruntz for a particular toy animation where the toy had green bits. When I get my computer back to uni with the rez file on it I'll tell you! Don't worry about paths then, those can be left out of the file and I'll put them in the config files later on. Do you need anything else from me at this point? Oups, sorry then, I completely misunderstood you there. Anyways, the method is resourceful in my opinion. You're not going to develop your own image format, are you? If not, you'll be forced to make two versions of every frame - the first being the actual contents with Gruntz ( I'd prefer the Grunt there to be gray, it's easier to be tinted then ), and the other defining which pixels should be tinted ( a "template" ). The other method of having green parts in an image recognizable by the game is not quite fully understood by me. I mean, how the game is supposed to tell all of the green areas apart - which should get recolored and which shouldn't? Now ... I can browse through all of the ANI files and extract the data there. There's a problem though - the image set paths. In order to separate the animations ( because they are being shared multiple times - I've mentioned it already before ) I'd have to supply them with different image sets containing different frames ... manually. One of the reasons why image sets are important is because they contain proper ... offset values. So practically the only difference between animations idleNorth, idleSouth, idleEast ... would be the offset values. Maybe I should just export the raw animation data and you will do the rest from there? Or maybe you have an idea of how to easily deal with this problem?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 2:43:06 GMT -8
Zu, you don't really have to correct it, since you don't have means to do it. I thought you were interested in finishing this pack off. Since it's not the case that's fine with me, the pack I already have is good for testing. SwordGrunt, I'm just repacking the REZ file. If you're asking me if I'm modifying the actual GRUNTZ.EXE file, then the answer is simply no. I highly doubt it's even ... legal, to be honest All of the strings are not localized - the contents of Help Books for instance are compiled within the EXE file and that's a pity. However, adding custom music doesn't necessarily require modifying EXE file. It's just a matter of replacing the proper XMI files in REZ package.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 11:48:15 GMT -8
Never mind, adding transparency was even easier than I though. Here's another screen shot of how it looks in game:
Note the pink edges. There is no alpha channel as is. There's only a key color - that means that pixel can be either fully opaque or completely transparent. There's no mid states. But that's not my concern, only yours Zu. Can you correct it and update your texture pack? The key color for the transparent areas must be RGB (255, 0, 132). Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 11:17:40 GMT -8
I feared that there might be some problems with transparency. What exactly causes it, I wonder? There is no problems with it actually. I'd just have to modify each PNG file manually and replace transparent areas with key color which the game interprets to be transparent. It's something around hot pink I suppose. Loving the tileset for the most part! The main thing I feel really needs changing is the plateau tilez, those should still give that height illusion imo. True. But still, what I'd really like to see though is something different. I always have dreamed of a moody tile set, like a ghost town! Plateaus making a distinction between streets and houses, stairs being the doorways. Everything in a deep purple hue. Think about it! I wish I was good at drawing.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 2:33:17 GMT -8
Here's a little surprise for ya. Zu, does it look any familiar to you? It's just a test, not all of the tiles match and all of them have transparency disabled, but I feel like it's a great leap forward. I hope soon enough we'll be able to refresh vanilla Gruntz without needing to create a sequel! Any thoughts? ====== MODDING TOOLS ======= Cheers
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 2:02:09 GMT -8
Sorry to confuse, there are frames in the original game's resourcez that depict gruntz in orange when they are carrying something that is green, so that those objects don't become multicoloured! Gruntz are coloured in-game using an image filter that rotates the hue and lightness of the gruntz to a particular shade. I could try extracting the exact colour values from the palette files, but they look fine to me. I'm sorry to ... disappoint you, but the game uses palettes for changing colors. And I've just double checked that. One thing I'm interested with though - could you please tell me where did you find these "frames in the original game's resources" which have orange Gruntz in them with green parts? Maybe we're talking about two different games ANI files don't have any relevant paths in them ( except of sounds of course ). Only frames IDs like 1, 7, 100 and so on. There is one field though, which presumably has something to do with image sets, sadly it doesn't affect the game mechanics or game sprites whatsoever which only proves that the game chooses the source folder for animations. Cheers
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 4, 2012 4:47:05 GMT -8
Can't you make all of the animations uniform? Why to make some of them feature orange Gruntz while the others will be with green ones? And, you still didn't answer my question - how are you going to color your Gruntz ( getting Gruntz' sprites in cyan, pink, red and so on ).
You're thinking right - in a source folder you might have frames ranging from ( for instance ) 100 to 900, and the animation would pick every second one and repeat them three times. There's no rule - it's the animation files which tell the game which frames and in what order should be they played.
Tell me if I'm getting it right: each folder represents one Grunt type, i.e. Shovel Grunt. Inside of it there's an animation file ( shovel.json ) and folders 'idleNorth', 'idleSouth', ... , 'hitNorth' and so on, which contain frames? Where will be the sounds located at then? Remember that it's the best idea to have them shared between animations, as they are in original Gruntz - a swing sounds for example can be used in Shovel Gruntz' animations, Goober Straw Gruntz' animations and many, many others. If so, it's better to have them categorized in separate folders. Then a path should be supplied in animation file along with a sound name.
It's partially covered by my previous point.
When you will figure out what paths will the game files be in, let me know.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 3, 2012 8:04:33 GMT -8
- Right ... I didn't think of the colors of the Gruntz. Will you make separate animation sprites for all of the possibilities? For instance Or maybe a vanilla Gruntz solution: using a different palette for each image ( which "paints" Gruntz in different colors ), however in the case of PNGs it's not possible - they don't work with indexed colors as PIDs or PCXs do ( maybe we could find a workaround, using a similar method? ). The point is: what is exactly "green" parameter for? In this state it's pretty ... useless.
- I like the idea of the events. In ANI files there are only sounds though. Every other event which interacts with the game ( like damaging, spewing a cannon ball ... ) must be added manually.
- How will be the frames stored? You didn't include any parameter telling us what frame IDs the frames will have and in which directory they will be placed in. How will the game know?
- The above, but for the sounds as well.
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