NovaMan a lot of your posts are rather pointless and add nothing.. whats the point in saying you won't learn IDA PRO? Whats that got to do with this thread? Whats its even got to do with encoding CAM images for that matter :|

They make no difference?

I failed at gamemaker scripting many years ago.


Nothing.


Nothing.

I have read the rules many many times before.
Please don't destroy my future.

He keeps posting uselessly. I think we should call an admin.

Reading the rules is less important than following them. I hope you like your infraction.

You do know that all mods can give infractions, right?

Hm... is the format described anywhere?

Yeah, sorry, by the word 'admin', I meant: generally anyone in power, not Administrators specifically.

Hm, wondering if you got what I meant...
I'll use the Commander Keen format as an example here.

The way it's compression works is that a byte of A7 marks a "near" reference, and a byte of A8 marks a "far" reference. Should either of those bytes actually be part of a word, the word is replaced with 00 Ax xx. However, someone had a genius idea of writing the most inefficient (but thus quick and simple) algorithm ever - no compression *at all*, it just puts the 00 in so A7 and A8 aren't interpreted as flags.

So... why couldn't something similar be done? (ie: the only modification from the uncompressed file is "escaping" (to use MySQL terminology.. xD) the flags) Of course I'm guessing there *is* some reason, but I'm wondering what it might be?

Because it uses CUSTOM compression, e.g there is a function that would look something like:


void LoadCam(void* camPtr)
{
LoadVlcResource(camPtr); // Grab the "Bits " block
DecodeVlcBlocks(camPtr);
WriteVlcBlocksToVram(camPtr);
DestroyVlcRes(camPtr);
}

Apart from that's a very high level example, since its actually assembly.. and each sub function is doing tons more stuff. It can't be changed. The only thing I can do is this:

Write a injection hook dll that OVERWRITES the call address of "LoadCam" and do something like this:

void MyLoadCam(void* camPtr)
{
if ( IsMyMagicSpecailNoneCompressedCam(camPtr)
{
DoVeryNastyHorribleEvenMoreDangerousHack();
DoExtremelyDodgyHackOfWritingToVram();
}
else
{
LoadCam(camPtr);
}
}

Which I've managed to do, apart from what would be in DoExtremelyDodgyHackOfWritingToVram() dosen't really work too well at the moment since it trashes the games heap.

Edit: All right chumps I reversed the load image function which makes the DoExtremelyDodgyHackOfWritingToVram() less dodgy and easier to implement. Screen shot of my redirection dll clearing the screen to white ;D

Edit again: And as expected it causes the steam version to explode due to that binary have different function addresses since its packed. Which means there will only likely be ONE version of AE that this will work with.

Will you guys please get back on track, and start posting some more level variants?
I wonder if someone could modify the entire game, first screen to last? :D

Just add water.....

Yeah, I agree, can people just please make lots of variations to post on this thread?

And yeah, I'll probably edit the whole of RuptureFarmsII soon. :)

Did you just ask people to post in your thread?

I don't exactly know what you mean by that, but I asked people to actually make some variations to post onto here (which is the whole point of this thread in the first place), instead of posting things about making levels, which should be posted onto other threads, e.g: Chubfish's help thread. :)

I might ask an admin to get rid of all of the posts that are totally irrelevant to the thread actually, as it just clogs it up. Most of the things people have said are about making levels, but not posting actual levels themselves, which is why I asked people to make some levels to post onto here. Thank you.

So you asked people to go out of their way to edit levels so that your thread can survive?

It seems that the thread is surviving without people posting edited levels. Jango's concern was that many of the recent posts belonged in a different thread.

It's fair that he wants people to stop posting things that could be in another thread, but asking people to make levels so that his topic survives is just odd.

And so now the thread is spammed up by people discussing whether it's legitimate to restrict this thread to its actual topic. How meta.

I'm not asking people to go out of their way to make levels. I thought people liked making levels. If level editing wasn't interesting, then no one would care about Paul's and LIJI's editors...

I'll make a level soon, then post it here to get this thread going again. :)

Can't wait... I've played all the others, and I'm too busy making levels elsewhere. :p

What do you mean by 'elsewhere'? Out of interest. :)

Also, what do you think of my previous variations?

I think they're alright. :)



...Guys can we PLEASE get back on track?? :fuzblink:

Yeah, I'm gonna make some RuptureFarms II variations soon, but not for another couple of months (maximum) as I am busy with GCSE exams and coursework at the moment, and I need to figure out how to get the 'Add Object' feature to work without crashing the game...

I would love it if others would post more levels here (no pressure). :)

Those are awesome, check out mine :)

Thanks. I've seen your videos. But you haven't made any variations with Paul's or LIJI's Editor yet have you? Your videos are of copy/pasting in paintbox.

They look really good, but may I ask when will you have made them into proper levels? Don't forget to post them here! :)

They're not possible. For one thing you'd have to *A* Design and build a Meech and *B* Get ahold of the A.L.I.V.E sdk to program the behavior into the game and that's currently impossible and *C* Somehow take the flying slig data from Abe's Exoddus and incorporate them into Rupture farms, taking into account all the paths and collision lines you'd have to be aware of as well.

http://implied.facepalm.de/facepalm_implied.jpg

Yeah, I agree, a lot of the stuff you have in there is impossible. Apart from that, it's good. :)

Also, that picture's really funny! I couldn't help but 'lol'. :)

I've been giving it some thought and I'm considering making a small series maps for oddysee again but I want to make it follow a good story line or something. Problem is, I'm not that creative when it comes to stories and also, oddysee is quite limited to the sort of challenges you can throw at the player compared to the amount of content exoddus has. (which is why I was waiting for Paul to finish up the editor for exoddus whenever he can) I also liked the music and feel exoddus had compared to oddysee. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved oddysee but exoddus really shines brighter in my opinion.

So, I might consider making some more maps but only if someone could make up a good enough story to do so. something that suits the oddworld environment and doesn't conflict with the current oddworld stories (because that would just cause all sorts of havoc).

If you check my post a while back editing AE screens will ONLY work in the English none steam version of the game using my hook dll. Even English versions may not work as it has to be exactly the same release of the games binary that I have.

With the levels, isn't there a way of just starting the game with a level mod that starts straight onto the modded level?
GZDoom does it great but it'd be cool on Oddworld because I've had to reinstall it loads because I keep replacing the original level by mistake and to make the levels unique so they're not all called r1.lvl or f2.lvl because it gets confusing which one I want to play.

In other words, a shortcut target thingy perhaps.

BTW Jango I ment mods for Doom because that game is so easy to mod :D.

I can't seem to find this post, I've been looking for the past 30 minutes and no luck. Could ya help me out mate? Also, I have both the English steam and non-steam versions of oddysee and exoddus. I bought the oddboxx during the Christmas sale which is why I have both versions... xD

Are you sure it's not possible to start off from the middle of the game?
That kinda brings to mind starting off in the monsaic lines totally clueless and through the story stones, figuring out what you gotta do and eventually ending up in Rupture Farms.
Maybe this (all the ideas they originally had) will be Abe HD?

Yes, it is indeed possible to start the game from any level. It is very simple:

At the main screen (where you first see Abe's smiling mug saying "Hello") - hold down SHIFT and quickly enter this code using the arrow keys:

DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, UP

Abe will say "OK" and you will be given a listing of all levels. Select which one you want to play and press ENTER to begin.

This works for both Oddysee and Exoddus, and the variation of the level will take effect when doing this. On the Oddysee one, you can also pick which Zulag of RuptureFarms you want to go to. :)

Another thing, I have started to make my RuptureFarms II variation. I have nearly finished editing Zulag 2 already (EDIT: I've finished Zulag 2 now!). I'll post a couple of sneak peek game images soon. :)

I'm not going to bother with Zulag 1 though; just Zulags 2, 3 and 4 will be edited. I've already edited Zulag 1 in my first variation.

EDIT: I have taken some images from my variation and put them on word documents for you to download and see. See post #195 below for the download link! There are more interesting parts than this, but I don't want to give too much away!

The one with the white background image, its a cam being drawn by my dll.

If you mean starting a new game you can just change the FIRST screen to have path trans or something to send you to the start of the "real" level. So the first one could be your about screen or something like the EULA says you're supposed to have ;)

Meh don't have M$ word, why not just zip's of images :(

Yeah I tried that level select screen before but it never works.
I guess saving will get me to each level :/.

I'm pretty sure saving does not work I'm afraid. I think, if you save a game, then edit it, then the saved game will still revert to the game how it was before it was edited. Try it anyway, I may be wrong. :)

OK Paul, I put them in a .zip file! Here they are!:

Uh dude...

Those are just screens from the original game ._.

Yeah, but they're different...

I'm not good enough to make a whole new level. What I am doing is simply making the levels different: different objects, extra signs and messages and the .CAMs are slightly different. They're completely different levels, but on the same layout as the originals, if you know what I mean. Like my first variation.

Anyway, I've almost finished editing Zulag 3, and soon I'll post a few more screens from there. :)

Did you use mspaint by any chance?

You should really post those in jpgs. The quality is horrid o.O

My very first post and I have 2 levels for you all to enjoy :)

1ST LEVEL:
Abe's Oddysee
Paramonian Nests

This did take me quite a few days to make since I accadently made some parts impossible and I had to keep going back to correct them. However I have made it so they level can be completed without the -ddcheat

I'd say this is hard. This takes quite a bit of figureing out and you havent got alot of time to think about it. The screen where you need to climb up onto the ledge and jump into the well will really test your skills ;)


MADE USING PAUL'S LEVEL EDITOR 0.6

DOWNLOAD LINK

http://filesmelt.com/dl/F4.LVL

2ND Level:
Abe's Oddysee
Scrabanian Nests
This one didnt take as long as the other one but I found it quite hard to come up with ideas for this
MEDIUM DIFFICULTY. CAN BE COMPLETED WITHOUT -ddcheat

DOWNLOAD LINK:
http://filesmelt.com/dl/D7.LVL