DKC Atlas Forum

[DigesSpliff]

Insane work. Everything's working smoothly, really really nice job! There's this one little thingy though: For moving objects/ennemies such as zingers , it would be great if you could make it so we can see those objects' "ranges" and where they will go, kind of like you did with the moving barrel cannons. More precise arrows to point where barrel cannons shoot you to would be awesome too ( there are a lot of barrel cannons with the same "look/name" if you know what I mean, but they shoot with different force ).
And again thanks for this, this should really pump up the DKC hacking!

[Kingizor]

About the panel bug, this is what I see when the panel is selected. Notice the big bar at the bottom? Its the lookup object button. It seems that the panel itself takes up all of the display. It's not entirely consistent; after restarting the program this time everything is normal.

[Humanzee]

Hello. I tried to start the program. Unfortunately, this message appeared.
"Failure Setting Windowed Graphics Mode
Unable to find a suitable graphics driver"

I am running the program on an INSPIRON Windows 7 computer. Any solutions?

[WAZ__Up]

Hello. I tried to start the program. Unfortunately, this message appeared.
"Failure Setting Windowed Graphics Mode
Unable to find a suitable graphics driver"

I am running the program on an INSPIRON Windows 7 computer. Any solutions?

I seem to be having the same problem as well
I'm running on a Windows XP Professional SP3 and I've never had any programs do this before. I already know this is a very graphic intense program but I think it should still work. Simion, is there some sort of driver update we need to get for this to work? I have been looking forward to this moment for 2 years.

[Simion32]

BUG WARNING: AutoLaunch, in doing a call to BFA, is flushing all changes to the ROM accidentally. This is a BFA bug somewhere in the file save routines.

You may get blank IPS files if you make edits and then AutoLaunch, and save to IPS after that. This will be fixed in v0.0.6.1.

--------------------------------------------------------

With regards to WAZ__Up and Humanzee:

EDIT2: From the allegro manual: "For Windows graphics modes, you should probably check if DirectX is installed properly on your system and if new drivers have been released for your card." ...so it's probably a DirectX issue. Get the latest version of that, and see if it works.

EDIT3: Yes it's a DirectX issue:

// A snippet from the NitroGUI initialization routines.
if(set_gfx_mode(GFX_DIRECTX_WIN,
GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN),
GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN), 0, 0))
{
string errstr = "Failure Setting Windowed Graphics Mode\r\n\t";
errstr += allegro_error;
ErrorBox(errstr.c_str(), "Error During Initialization");
nitrogui_fail();
return false;
}

---------------------------------------

BUG WARNING #2: Something is causing file names to be cut off with only the extension in the path. I'm getting messages like:

Hack was succesfully saved to: ".ups"

[Cody]

This program is absolutely amazing. I could cry, really. You are a freakin' genius, Simion. No no, I think genius is an understatement.

Words really cannot, and will not, ever express how amazing this program is and what you've done to the DKC community in a positive way. Truly, absolutely remarkable.

Were you ever going to work on something similar for the other 2 DKC games? I think I remember you saying something about it, but I can't seem to find any info in this thread.

[Simion32]

Yes, rest assured that DKCRE will someday continue on with DKC2. However, that one and its successor will require MUCH more work due to the data compression.

[WAZ__Up]

I've tried everything simion. My DirectX was at 9.0c (the highest version it goes in XP officially) then I downloaded the "Unofficial" directx 10 for XP and it still doesnt run. My graphics drivers are also updated to the highest version. Has anybody had this run successfully on an XP?

[Simion32]

Now that's strange. I am and have been running Windows XP Media Center Editon SP3.

I am completely lost now. Have you tried video card and/or monitor drivers?

EDIT: Also, make sure your antivirus isn't messing with DKCRE.

EDIT2:
PANEL BUG FOUND AND EXPLAINED: There was an uninitialized variable "diff_w" which controls width of the panel based on scrollbars. Since the Items panel does not have any scrollbars, the variable would occasionally be filled with binary data other than zero. This leads to inconsistent behavior which can cause the panel to miscalculate its size and become bigger than the screen. The source of this bug was again NitroGUI, not DKCRE itself.

EDIT3:

The regular windowed DirectX driver, running in color conversion mode when the color depth doesn't match that of the Windows desktop. Color conversion is much slower than direct drawing and is not supported between 15-bit and 16-bit color depths. Note that, mainly for performance reasons, this driver requires the width of the screen to be a multiple of 4. This driver is capable of displaying a hardware cursor, but there are size restrictions. Typically, the cursor image cannot be more than 32x32 pixels.

Multiple of 4 huh? I'll throw in a:

width &= ~3; //truncates width to multiple of 4 using binary operation.

...but I don't recognize anything else out of the ordinary. Why would your screen NOT be a multiple of 4 anyways? CRT Monitor with variable resolution?

[Simion32]

Bug Fixes Update:
DKC Resource Editor v0.0.6.1

>>> DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION HERE <<<

BUGS KILLED SO FAR:

• 32x32 Grid now works trough all 3 ways: keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G, the menu, and the button on the tiles panel. Was a NitroGUI bug.
• Save reporting logic was reversed, causing DKCRE to spit out save failure messages on success and vice-versa.
• Some of the core logic in BFA was screwed up, causing calls to Flush(); to change the last opened file path.
• The ".bak" file saved upon open of a clean ROM was incorrectly using a function that is SUPPOSED to change the filepath. OOPS.
• The Collectibles Panel breaking is fixed.
• AutoLaunch accidentally flushing all in-memory ROM changes is fixed.
• NEW: Truncation of DirectX resolution to a multiple of 4 fixed a spurious initialization bug for some users!

BUGS THAT ARE PROBABLY FIXED, BUT MAY STILL BE HIDING:

• File names were cut off with only the extension in the path.
• F1 infinite browser tabs bug.

MINOR UPDATES:

• Updated the INI and "DKCv10Uspr2pal.dat" as per Mattrizzle's post; INI version is now v2.01, to be included in the v0.0.6.1 download.
• Updated GameData class and added INI entries "AnimationScriptBank" and "AnimationScriptTable" as suggested by Mattrizzle.
• Removed some redundant code lines in BFA double-changing the last opened file path when calling OpenAs(); or SaveAs();
• Warning dialog now pops up on any save failures.

[Qyzbud]

Had a quick moment to check - the F1 popup bug appears to be fixed on my end. Good job!

[WAZ__Up]

Thank you for releasing this update Simion. It was definitly that multiple of 4 thing you fixed. DKCRE is running smoothly now, no more pesky errors on startup.
Humanzee, You should try this new update, your problem should be fixed aswell.

Also, as a side note to Qyzbud, you wrote Zimion32 instead of Simion32 up in the top news updates.

[WAZ__Up]

One thing i noticed when messing with the Scripts and other odd objects (Dk isle)
Trying to set one doesnt work. It just deletes itself from the map.

[Simion32]

It's great to hear that my little truncation thing fixed the issue! I honestly didn't think it would!

Also, as a side note to Qyzbud, you wrote Zimion32 instead of Simion32 up in the top news updates.

I go by that moniker on Twitter and YouTube, since my name was already taken by the time i got there (for whatever reason).

One thing i noticed when messing with the Scripts and other odd objects (Dk isle)
Trying to set one doesnt work. It just deletes itself from the map.

Not a glitch. Check your view settings. If the object is set not to view, it will disappear as soon as you click off of the object.

[Humanzee]

Thanks a ton, Simion! This new update works perfectly.

[Simion32]

You're quite welcome, Humanzee.

As always, any other bug reports (even reporting bugs that were still hiding, or confirming that a "hiding" bug is fixed) is highly appreciated.

Topic has been moved to the new sub-forum.

This topic is now designated for general discussion of the DKCRE.

[MP201]

Looking great, Simion. So, what's your next goal now that you've got this version out?

[Simion32]

For DKCLB: Making Donkey Kong playable and 100% accurate in the DELTA Game Engine. Will require me to design out quite a few super-generic parent classes before I can get down to the CDonkeyKong class. More details on this stuff later, since I'll be swapping back to DKCLB/DELTA programming now - the NitroGUI framework is far enough that DELTA v0050 can proceed smoothly!

For DKCRE v0070, there are several features I'd like to implement:

• A massive space-saving data hack, that DKCRE will apply for you, along with dynamic allocation of level data/names/etc.
• Undo/redo and "new/delete/duplicate/cut/copy/paste", instead of editing only the available objects.
• The Sprite Viewer mode.
• More stuff I cannot remember right now....

[WAZ__Up]

glad to hear you are implementing a new/copy/paste feature instead of having to drag those pesky "NULL"s around

Question: I know you mentioned this once before, but what do the different color overlays in the camera editor mean? I.E Red, blue, and green.

Not a glitch, check your view settings.

yea, I realized that about 5 minutes after i asked sorry!

[Markster]

Null objects suck, i hope you get rid of them soon, and i do got one good idea for the editor, why not make it where you can drag and drop multiple objects at a time (like that feature in windows, where you can highlight multiple objects at a time.)

[Simion32]

Question: I know you mentioned this once before, but what do the different color overlays in the camera editor mean? I.E Red, blue, and green.

Blue/Teal/Green means the camera acts normally. Yellow/Orange/Red means that the camera will move to that area a bit faster. Right-click a focus area to change the speed.

Null objects suck, i hope you get rid of them soon

For this release, it was the only way. Copy and paste and object selection would have taken way too much time and the release would not be here right now.

why not make it where you can drag and drop multiple objects at a time (like that feature in windows, where you can highlight multiple objects at a time.)

That is already planned, as part of the copy and paste code. These kinds of controls do not work very well with the current "edit only what's there" way of doing things, which is why multi-selection is not in the program yet. It could have been in, but I wanted this to release as fast as possible, so the feature was ultimately dropped from v0060. But don't worry, it will be in v0070 once that version comes around.

[WAZ__Up]

It's great to hear that my little truncation thing fixed the issue! I honestly didn't think it would!

well my screen resulotion is 1366 x 768. 1366/4 = 341.5
not divisible by 4.

[Markster]

I used to use 1366x768, but it did not work with Nitro GUI, so i used 1360x768 and it works perfectly.

[Simion32]

I've the distinct feeling that if you switch to full screen mode (F11 key) and back, WAZ__up, that DKCRE will crash. Am I right?

Reason is, I forgot to add the truncation check on the screen mode swap routine. It might attempt to setup the windowed mode untruncated, and crash.

[WAZ__Up]

yep, that's what happened, going into fullscreen was fine, but when i switched back it crashed. Now it wants to always start the program in full-screen and crash it. Thanks simion...

Coming out of fullscreen, it says "An unhandled expression occured and nitroGUI must now terminate."
Restarting the program gets the same old error as it was at first. Hopefully this can be fixed without need for me to lower my resolution.

also, I dont know if this helps you or not (its very minor but i might as well say it) when I start DKCRE (when it actually runs in windowed mode) maximizing the screen leaves about 2 pixels all down the farthest right of my screen with my background. I guess it makes sense if you are truncating it, basically telling DKCRE that the screen ends here. Its not a problem, Its just kind of discomforting.

Bug Edit: Pressing the "Info" button up at the top (next to the minimize) freezes DKCRE and makes it unresponsive to everything. It opens the help file but thats pretty much ALL it does at that point...

Last edit, I swear Can you insert a Donkey kong object into the game? As in I can choose to put 3 DKs in one level like i would with a gnawty?
also, Can you edit the ASM scripts?
Is there an option to turn off the ESC key exit without warning? Because when you exit ZSNESW, the only way to do it is to press ESC, and usually it lags when closing, so I double tap the ESC key and accidently lose about 2 hours of work on a level.

[RattleBattle]

I friggin' Love this editor!

http://oi55.tinypic.com/98uby9.jpg ---- Blood Caverns.

Mincer Mountains. ---- http://oi51.tinypic.com/2nv9ptx.jpg (Note the Green Klap trap.)

And whoever had the Idea for slither I brought him too life.

Except he doesn't climb on the Ceiling.

[Simion32]

Now it wants to always start the program in full-screen and crash it. Thanks simion...

Exactly as I expected! Just open up the Configuration.INI and remove the Window positions section, and the FS=1 line. Then it should re-put whatever settings it needs upon the next start.

maximizing the screen leaves about 2 pixels all down the farthest right of my screen with my background

Yeah, I also realized that I truncated it the wrong way. I should actually have done:
width = ((width+3) & ~3);

Pressing the "Info" button up at the top (next to the minimize) freezes DKCRE and makes it unresponsive to everything. It opens the help file but thats pretty much ALL it does at that point...

It only opens the help file right now. It was supposed to be for the about dialog, but i didn't take the time to painstakingly layout the dialog (you have to get the design right the first time, otherwise it basically means starting the layout over again).

Can you insert a Donkey kong object into the game? As in I can choose to put 3 DKs in one level like i would with a gnawty?

No, there is only one Donkey Kong object allowed by the game engine of DKC. Doing so would be a very painstaking and monumental ASM hack.

also, Can you edit the ASM scripts?

Again, no. You'd have to do such things manually anyway, as there is no easy way to just have DKCRE interpret what the ASM code (we're talking hardware byte code instructions here) might "do".

Is there an option to turn off the ESC key exit without warning? Because when you exit ZSNESW, the only way to do it is to press ESC, and usually it lags when closing, so I double tap the ESC key and accidently lose about 2 hours of work on a level.

I guess I can change that in v0062, I didn't think it would be an issue as I was never hitting the key twice. I'll make it Ctrl+Shift+ESC or something more obscure.

I'll probably be able to get v0062 out fairly quickly, as these are not big bugs, so heads up for my incoming update post.

[Kingizor]

I'll make it Ctrl+Shift+ESC or something more obscure.

You do know that's a windows shortcut to bring up the task manager? Is there any reason why anything other than Alt + F4 is needed?

Also, a confirmation warning when exiting the program would be nice, something along the lines of "You will lose unsaved data blah blah blah"...

[VideoViking]

Also, a confirmation warning when exiting the program would be nice, something along the lines of "You will lose unsaved data blah blah blah"...

This message only appears when you choose Close from the File menu. It does not appear when you click the "X" box or close using the Alt+F4 or Esc keys.

[Simion32]

I'll make it Ctrl+Shift+ESC or something more obscure.

You do know that's a windows shortcut to bring up the task manager? Is there any reason why anything other than Alt + F4 is needed?

Well drat. I don't ever use windows shortcuts, so I thought it was free! And it looks like Ctrl+ESC is taken too, for the Windows Key or something. The reason I chose ESC is because it's so easy to just press ESC when you want to exit the program, and it will obey without complaint (it is faster). DELTA will definitely have this behavior as an option.

I'll have to add an INI option for the ESC or something, as it seems people are having trouble with the behavior.

I'll add the confirmation warning to the exit, being that's a standard thing that the program should be doing.

EDIT: VideoViking caught the no-path bug (which I've fixed), and I'm still in the process of getting all of the other "issues" fixed.

[Simion32]

Bug Fixes Update:
DKC Resource Editor v0.0.6.2

>>> DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION HERE <<<

BUGS KILLED:

• Fixed GFX driver crash: Truncation of Windowed DirectX resolution width to ((width + 3) & ~3), now on both mode swapping as well as init.
• Infinite AutoLaunch bug: Apparently DKCRE will not properly wait for a program to close, so its key state can get stuck while waiting.
• File names were cut off with only the extension in the path. This was due to BFA not setting the path upon opening of existing files. Bug was inconsistent.
• Alt+F4 on system menu (Start Bar Right-Click) is now trapped, since this caused DKCRE to close without warning irrespective of what NitroGUI or DKCRE was doing.
• Errr, just realized... OOPS! The Alt+F4 fix broke the right-click close function. I was under the impression that it was still working. Reuploaded.

MINOR UPDATES:

• Warning dialog now pops up on trying to exit without user having saved changes.
• ESC shortcut was turned off by default, and changed to just Alt+F4. ESC can be turned back on through a menu option.

By the way, I won't be using the Program Releases subforum until v0070, since I made the original release post in this thread.
EDIT: Never mind, I'll be trying to put the older versions into there, so I guess I will be adding the v006x series after all...

[Vincent]

Hello Simion,

Please when will background support be back ? Viewing and extracting...

Thank you !

[Simion32]

Background extraction should be back in v0070. This was one of the many temporarily-dropped features in v0060 (most of which were DKC2-related in some way).

[WAZ__Up]

Just a simple bug I found. On saving my game, It only saves as a file, without the .smc extension.
I donk know if that has been said before

[Simion32]

It only saves as a file, without the .smc extension.

You attempted to use SaveAs without specifying the extension. It probably saved out to ROM format, I would think. But yeah, very minor bug.

[Vincent]

But 0060 doesnt support dkc2 right ? It wont load any other rom than dkc1 ntsc.

[Simion32]

Of course it doesn't support DKC2 or DKC3 yet...

The games are not laid out in any standard way. I can't just plop DKC2/3 right in and call it a day. Doesn't work like that. Unlike with most computer file types, a ROM is a proprietary piece of software and makes absolutely no assumption about where to put data other than what it needs to do to run the game.

DKC2 is even compressed using LZ77 type algorithms, which makes editing it quite a hairball of code to decipher.

HOWEVER, if the space hack I want to apply to DKC works on DKC2 in some way (which it should) then we may, with great effort, be able to fully edit DKC2. The same probably goes for DKC3 but I'm not absolutely certain about DKC3, as the research on that game is almost nil.

[Vincent]

Of course, I understand, but you said "most of which were DKC2-related in some way" so I wanted to be sure...

I think DKC3 might be easier to decipher than DKC2. At least as far as hex editing is concerned, DKC2 seems to be encoded in a stranger way... But maybe this has nothing to do with it, I'm only good at transforming game data by finding AR codes : how to make the game "think" a level has been finished, a krem coin has been found, etc. It sounds easy, but in DKC2 it's not so obvious. I will be releasing the results of my research in a few weeks (codes, values, how everything works). But I'm sure level editing and resource extracting is much more complicated.

[Simion32]

Of course, I understand, but you said "most of which were DKC2-related in some way" so I wanted to be sure...

At one time DKCRE extracted DKC2 levels (it was v0.0.5.0), but the extraction was not dynamic. DKCRE v0.0.6.0 dropped the DKC2 extraction because it did not have a method of dynamically extracting things (and v0.0.6.0 was a bit rushed, I'll admit). Editing still would not have been possible, as that would require re-compression of data - and at that, it would still be problematic.

[WAZ__Up]

Interesting, It seems that If you put an " TRIGGER: Incoming Blizzard L*" into a jungle level, It can activiate individual effects of the storm from Ropey Rampage. For instance using "Incoming Blizzard L4" adds Lightning to any jungle level. It doesnt seem to affect any of the other archetypes I've tried though (Forest, Minecart, Temple). But using "full blizzard" always seems to produce snowflakes on any archetype.

[Simion32]

Apparently those are actually generic triggers that call archetype-specific stuff. I know two of them are used in the Animal Bonus levels.

Keep an eye on this topic...

[WAZ__Up]

I have some questions:

1. Whats the difference between the light and dark blue tile surfaces?
2. Is the archetype for each level hard coded into it (you cant change Temple Tempest to a Jungle Theme?)
3. Is there a way to use golden animal coins rather than bananas in a normal level (because you can edit the animal coins using the banana editor in bonus rooms)
4. Can you edit rooms such as Funky Flights or Crankys Cabin?

[Simion32]

1. Light blue means you can jump through, dark blue means that it's completely solid.

2. No, the archetype is not hardcoded into the game so much it cannot be changed, but the real location of this data is unknown. Don't attempt to use DKEdit to do this, as that particular feature of DKEdit is quite buggy (they are using (J) offsets on the (U) ROM which doesn't always work the way you'd expect).

3. There is probably a way to do this, but DKCRE cannot yet edit this either. Another "we don't know where this data really is" situation. I could probably easily figure this one out, though, with some debugging and tracing the GFX accesses from the ROM side of the equation. The mini-tokens are right after the normal bananas in ROM and all that's required is to index that like a table, and bam you have a different banana type for each level.

4. No, not presently. Doing this may not be a feature for quite a while, if at all.

[Markster]

I got a good question, when will DKCRE have a game text editor, i want to edit text of the game without using stupid hex editors.

[Simion32]

Maybe in some later version.

[aperson98]

Nice release Simion32 this editor blows DKedit out of the water. Oh and I feel that I should warn you guys about editing Coral Capers edit anything and I mean anything in the level and
it WILL corrupt meaning most of the objects will dissapear and never come back even if reset them back to thier original settings. This error is not because of the DKCR editor it's a problem with
the ROM itself I believe as editing it with DKedit grants the same result I could be wrong though. So for now this is one level best left unchanged in your ROM hacks.

[Simion32]

Thanks...

Oh and I feel that I should warn you guys about editing Coral Capers edit anything and I mean anything in the level and it WILL corrupt meaning most of the objects will dissapear and never come back even if reset them back to thier original settings.

DKEdit DOES NOT EDIT VERTICAL LEVELS. Not even the latest v0.05 release of DKEdit can do this. It does display tiles, but no objects and no bananas.

Also, DO NOT edit a ROM in DKCRE and then swap to DKEdit. DKEdit is buggy and it WILL corrupt your level (bananas, camera, and possibly some objects) since those data are not handled properly.

I believe you may be referring to:
(1) Check your view settings and make sure EVERYTHING is set to show (the objects might be hidden). Menu > View > etc....
(2) The camera in water levels is extremely quirky, and cannot be changed. It is hard coded into the game. Moving objects around might, under some circumstances, cause all next objects to disappear.
(3) Having too many NULL Objects in a row can cause DKC to stop displaying objects.

[WAZ__Up]

I've seen the same problem aperson has described a couple times aswell. I was testing the effects of "incoming blizzard" and all the objects went away and never came back even after deleting the object.

[Simion32]

It might be that the NULL objects mess up the level. I couldn't do anything else when you hit delete, though - what else could I make the object be without it getting in the way?

I'll bet we wouldn't have this issue if Delete was actually "Really Deleted" instead of Delete key meaning "make it NULL"...

Special DKCRE update coming really soon. As for what it is... that's a surprise.

[WAZ__Up]

No worries, Its really only coral capers I've seen it happpen with. and once you get your Copy/Paste/Delete controls, those NULLs will be a thing of the past.
I did have a quick question on level entrances though. I'm not sure if they are hard-coded into the level or what, but is there a way to change the level entrances? Or at least display an indicator of where they are located on the map?

Now obviously it doesnt take a scientist to figure out you start from the big gaping hole at the start of the level, but after you nuke it, DK pretty much comes out of thin air and without any prior knowledge on where my floor needs to be, he usually falls to his death after entering the level UNDER my floor!