Help for Level Editor

[baracuda]

I guess a tutorial on this issue would be great, it would have saved me the question on the forum. But i dont need it at this point anymore, because you guys already told me how to do it and i must say that this was exactly what i needed, so thanks a lot guys!
@Bigredron: You should definately use the Active Picture Object for this kind of work, because it is perfectly suited for the job.
Thanks a lot everyone, especially David and Random, i am now one step further into taking my RPG level/game-builder from my twisted brain to reality! :P
Cheers, Hugo

[uprize]

baracuda: so does that mean you used a sprite sheet and cropped each sprite into the APO?

I cant do that for my game because I have animation and everything for a lot of my players and even buildings...

[Random]

Then you are ultimately doomed and have to use the "load frame" action of the active object. Could be rather tricky though.. good luck.

[baracuda]

@bigredron: yes, but i am using a TILE sheet, rather than a SPRITE sheet, because I am not using the APO for the players or other active objects in the game either. The use of the APO in the way it has been proposed, namely creates Backdrops, which are totally uneditable in any way. This makes this technique very suited for building a BACKGROUND map, consisting of dirt, water, etc. Just as the Player cannot interact with the tile and the tile does not contain any animation, this technique in my opinion is the best.

As for more "active" part in my game, i also will be forced to use another technique, probably using "normal" Active Objects as well. But for now, i am able to build a map of 10.000 tiles (100x100) within a sec with the APO.

So Bigredron, if your game uses background images, which i guess it will, you could also consider using the APO, but just for your background tiles. After the background map has been built, you could load the actives on top of that.

The total passivity of the APO's backdrop actually posed me for another problem, which i will post later today in another post, as in this one the primary answer has already been given.

Cheers, Hugo

[uprize]

well its a good idea which i might try to put into practice. As for actives, i guess I will just have to make do with I got. Id rather anyway as I don't want them to be external files for proptection reasons.

Im still confused as to how to load a section of tile or sprite sheet and have it displayed in the APO. Did you find a tutorial on the issue or just a matter of testing and re-testing?

[DavidN]

You don't load a section of a sprite/tilesheet into the APO itself - rather, you load the whole thing into the APO and then copy a rectangle from the APO into the background.

[baracuda]

@Bigredron: As DavidN said, you have to load the whole set of tiles in the APO (so one picture of all the tiles next to eachother in a matrix or so). Then, in response to a certain event you set the Create Backdrop Object from the APO. It will then ask you some info, namely:

'X coordinate of destination rectangle', which means the x-
coordinate of where you want to stamp the backdrop on screen.

'Y coordinate of destination rectangle', which means the y-coordinate of where you want to stamp the backdrop on screen.

'X coordinate of picture rectangle to paste', which means the x-coordinate in the picture you loaded into the APO, where the tile you want to load starts.

'Y coordinate of picture rectangle to paste', which means the y-coordinate in the picture you loaded into the APO, where the tile you want to load starts.

'Width of rectangle to paste' and 'Height of rectangle to paste' are the dimensions of the tile itself, you want to copy from the APO and paste on screen.

[uprize]

wow, seems a bit complicated. I will try to get my head around it and see if I can make it work. It still might be easier for me if I stick to having a few hundred extra events for each item though

cheers for the replies!

[Random]

Wow. I'd find hundred extra events a bit complicated But then you'll probably need them anyway for your AOs.
Besides, you can include external files as "binary files" into your .exe and they won't be editable anymore once it's compiled/built.
For active objects you'd probably need some sort of level editor that can write into some data-file that stores where everything goes. You could then have each different object in a direction or animation of one active object that you later use to create instances. So far it was the only solution I could find, and it's an ugly solution (see "wow, seems a bit complicated").
Maybe something nice could be done with LUA.