.lvl files

[Paul]

Yeah Paul you may need to also eventually add the ability to load items into certain cams because the montion detectors arn't showing up either..

Ugh what a STUPID design... what's the point of separate .ban files if they've also shoved em into the CAMs

[SligStorm]

Ugh what a STUPID design... what's the point of separate .ban files if they've also shoved em into the CAMs

Ikr, Probly only Abe's Oddysees like this because they probly changed how the engine works and made it more efficiant in Abe's Exoddus. Like how you don't need preloaders or Zone Controllers etc in AE.

[Paul]

Ikr, Probly only Abe's Oddysees like this because they probly changed how the engine works and made it more efficiant in Abe's Exoddus. Like how you don't need preloaders or Zone Controllers etc in AE.

Add some eletric walls in AE and see if they work anywhere :P

[Scraby]

worked for me but i didnt edited mutch exoddus,i was in for making green glukkons be executives like aslik dripik or phleg...

[SligStorm]

There just has to be a way to edit those AE CAMs...

If the file is compressed then obviously the exe decompresses the file to read it, So how come you coulden't just find it's compression algorithm with IDA? I mean it's not like an RSA Encryption key, Surely for a game made in 1998 it coulden't be that unreversable as you have allready proven with Abe's Oddysee? (Yes I know Abe's Oddysee's CAMs wern't compressed but alot of games that use compression algorithms have been cracked too)

[Paul]

There just has to be a way to edit those AE CAMs...

If the file is compressed then obviously the exe decompresses the file to read it, So how come you coulden't just find it's compression algorithm with IDA? I mean it's not like an RSA Encryption key, Surely for a game made in 1998 it coulden't be that unreversable as you have allready proven with Abe's Oddysee? (Yes I know Abe's Oddysee's CAMs wern't compressed but alot of games that use compression algorithms have been cracked too)

You'll find that they have only been cracked one way Read about Huffman compression, compressing is FAR more complex than decompression. It would be far more simple and faster for me to write a hacked DDRAW.DLL that handles rendering of the Bits chunks on its own.

Edit: Btw that is also an extremely complex thing to do, I'm not trying to say a hook DLL is "easy"

[Mou5e]

I just read about it. I've seen it mentioned before, especially in older DOS games.

If anyone else is interested, you can check it out here:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/Huff...mpression.html

Paul, could you perhaps give me an idea of where to start if I want to learn to reverse engineer file formats, my programming skills are next to none and the little bit of Spectrum Basic I did is useless when it comes to real applications such as your Level Editor.

On the topic of compression of the AE CAMs, I would recommend asking at the Xentax forums, in the Graphic Formats section.

[Paul]

I just read about it. I've seen it mentioned before, especially in older DOS games.

If anyone else is interested, you can check it out here:
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/Huff...mpression.html

Paul, could you perhaps give me an idea of where to start if I want to learn to reverse engineer file formats, my programming skills are next to none and the little bit of Spectrum Basic I did is useless when it comes to real applications such as your Level Editor.

On the topic of compression of the AE CAMs, I would recommend asking at the Xentax forums, in the Graphic Formats section.

I already asked there long ago and they where no help, I managed to figure it out myself in the end, Huffman is just an example.

The real compression type is a modified MDEC compress type, see here:

http://code.google.com/p/jpsxdec/dow...8.txt&can=2&q=

Now tell me if you think that seems simple I'm experimenting with a DLL since I already had some hook code, not looking too likely that its going to work though.

[SligStorm]

Coulden't you just Memory Patch it? like poke an address in the RAM when the exe loads using the editor or something.

Is there more needed to do than poke some addresses with specified bytes to ignore the compression?

[Paul]

Coulden't you just Memory Patch it? like poke an address in the RAM when the exe loads using the editor or something.

Is there more needed to do than poke some addresses with specified bytes to ignore the compression?

You can't ignore it, the only thing you can try is what I've attempted to do now which has failed. A proxy hook dll that overwrites function calls to intercept them and attempts to load its own stuff into vram, but some other part of the engine stomps the vram its used and crashes it

[SligStorm]

You can't ignore it, the only thing you can try is what I've attempted to do now which has failed. A proxy hook dll that overwrites function calls to intercept them and attempts to load its own stuff into vram, but some other part of the engine stomps the vram its used and crashes it

well thats quite a pitty actually.. Because just about everything in AO can be changed but 1 thing that prevents us from using the massive array of items from AE...

But I guess thats that. If it's not possible then I guess we will just have to work with the annoyance of AO level making

EDIT: Argh, You really need to make it so that the objects automaticly select the correct screen when you place it there. Because having to set/reset the screens can become quite fraustrating when dealing with alot of objects..

[Mou5e]

What other "features" are still planned for the Editor apart from bug fixes?

[BlackVenom]

I can't find the download links for the editor at all, I've probably spent about 30 minutes searching this forum and only find bits and pieces that don't even match up.

There should be an area where all the download links are located for easy access instead of flipping through page by page.

[Phylum]

I agree. Paul, you should edit the first post to include some stuff.

[NovaMan]

Or a thread for different oddworld tools in one place.

[SligStorm]

Yeah he just needs to make a new thread. I mean this thread has gone from Research to Development...

You just need to make a dedicated Level Editor thread Paul.

It's funny how this thread has potentialy got more views than the entire 2 pages of threads in the Oddworld Discussion; Also has the most replys lol.

[Wil]

The mods are currently contemplating a more elegant solution to the growing modding/backgineering community. Might as well just keep using this thread until that time (shortly) comes.

[BlackVenom]

Still, something has to be done about all the scattered files. I can't even use the editor because I can't even find the damn thing here... The first post should definitely edited and updated with all downloads that are both optional and required.

[Mou5e]

BlackVenom, You can get the Editor on page 49

[BlackVenom]

Thanks for that, but I still think it needs to be put somewhere for easy access.

=[EDIT]=

Also, I keep getting this error upon startup which causes the editor to crash.

[Mou5e]

Ok, I've uploaded my QtCore4.dll file, replace it with your current one and see if it works.

[BlackVenom]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[EDIT]

It got rid of the old error but a new, similar error pops up each time now.

[Cris_paok_serres]

Paul why the editor is at .tff format and not at .zip or .rar or .7z..????
I can open it but i just want to know...

[Mou5e]

Thanks for that, but I still think it needs to be put somewhere for easy access.

=[EDIT]=

Also, I keep getting this error upon startup which causes the editor to crash.

I've found the solution, you need to have the dll files from version 0.4, You can get it on page 47.

[Phylum]

Paul why the editor is at .tff format and not at .zip or .rar or .7z..????
I can open it but i just want to know...

The forum upload space won't accept any of those formats. The .tff extension is a fake.

[NovaMan]

The .tff extension is a fake.

Its ttf instead.

[Chubfish]

Alright, I'm sick of having to relink people to files. So I made this.


Here is a link that contains ALL the level editing/opening/whatever tools made by Paul that you would need to make any kind of level. Included are:

-Paul's Level Editor 0.5

-CamTool

-LVL Extractor

-LVL Builder

...AND readme files!

Didn't include the Decoder because it felt unnecessary.

The file contains another 4 seperate zip and rar files so make sure you have WinRAR or something.

THE LINK BE HERE: http://filesmelt.com/dl/Pauls_LVL_Tools_ALL_EDITION.zip

[BlackVenom]

The compressed Zip for Paul's level editor is empty. :s

[Chubfish]

The compressed Zip for Paul's level editor is empty. :s

OKAY I edited the link and updated it with a newer version. Should be in there now, and a working version too.

[BlackVenom]

Thanks mate, it works fine now!