Stand-Alone Levels

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Stand-Alone Levels

Post by Rebel »

Andres, was actually the first to successfully accomplish this, and the blanked Minilev is a rather nice way to begin the level building process if deleting or rearranging thousands of objects in an already exisiting level seems too daunting a task.

*As of now, there is no programming solution to this task, and it must be done manually. However, I wouldn't put it past Andres' abilities that 'saving' a level by different name will someday occur*

Well, short time today. I'm going to put down the most important points, and hopefully Andres, or Remdul will add too, or if necessary, correct procedure.


The #1 reason for a renamed level not to work (crash) is the animations. Let's assume that you've choosen the ascent level (as.files) and that you've renamed them 'tl'. Don't add characters to level names if you can help it, keep it simple.


Ok: we changed 'as' (ascent) to 'tl' (eg. Troodon's level) and we've done that to all level files. Omit, the spz file. 'Do not copy'
The engine won't recognize your level name, so it doesn't require an spz file. It also will help keep download size down.

*Since changing the datapath inside of the scn is necessary, do not rename unaltered level files. If you're constructing a level using current level files, this name change can be done at the completion of your level editing, or anytime between*


Remapping: Mainly, all animations must be either re-ported to reflect the above new mapping (Map\tl\animate.bmp) or you can do a editing trick inside of the grf file with a hex editor, change the mapping yourself, then use 'swp update' to add the textures. The new version of geomadd can also add the correct mapping before import, so just check option 'change texture names to form' and remapping is automatic. This is the easiest method, though replace Anne's mesh is a bit tricky, so just to originally get your newly named level up n' running, I suggest that you simply edit Anne's t-script.

Temporarily delete the following values in Anne's T-script:

string Anim10 = "Anne2_Health_deadt2.bmp"
string Anim09 = "Anne2_Health_10t2.bmp"
string Anim08 = "Anne2_Health_20t2.bmp"
string Anim07 = "Anne2_Health_30t2.bmp"
string Anim06 = "Anne2_Health_40t2.bmp"
string Anim05 = "Anne2_Health_50t2.bmp"
string Anim04 = "Anne2_Health_60t2.bmp"
string Anim03 = "Anne2_Health_70t2.bmp"
string Anim02 = "Anne2_Health_80t2.bmp"
string Anim01 = "Anne2_Health_90t2.bmp"
string Anim00 = "Anne2_Health_100t2.bmp"

These values, and the mappings can be fixed up later. The animation is just being temporarily disabled.


Next up, the sky. Sometimes, the sky simply doesn't cause a crash, other times it has. I have no explanation for this sporatic success or failure, but if you need to re-port the sky model, be certain that you use the latest version of GeomAdd Only. 'Important', since this version is the only one that can add the texture properly.


TerrainPlacement-00 :

Locate value, string level = "as"
Change value to string level = tl"

This change reflects our use of the level name 'tl', yours of course, may differ.


Fixing the scn:

Simple Mapping Change. Open tl.scn (our example scn) and change the following mapping line;

C:\TRES CD\data\as.grf to C:\TRES CD\data\tl.grf

This is an example, your data path my differ from example, depending upon what you have named your copy of the Tres cd.


Other Internal Mappings:

Beyond repairing the animations, this doesn't really appear to matter much. So long as your exterior files are renamed and that level's pid and swp file listings match internally, atttemping to rename, repair or re-port all textures doesn't appear necessary.

Oceans, and other Animations:

Oceans, Numpads, etc. also need to be either re-ported, or the texture mapping updated through the grf file trick that I mentioned above.
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