The Chaos Construct

Originally Posted by daxb

Maybe if you/someone would release (Aminet) a complete world then more feedback and/or more people would try out the editor. For me, as far as I know. The editor is for win and/or linux. I`m 68k only. However, I guess my interest/motivation won`t large enough.

Full ack. I got very excited when I read this thread the first time (wow, new levels for one of the greatest games plus an editor - yippieh). It's very cool having this editor, but I enjoy every minute I can spend sitting in front of my 68k-Amiga much more than spending my time in front of a windows screen.

Anyway, great project! Thanx a lot.

[TCD]

I'd love to work on a 'mini episode' (8 levels, two per world), but after two levels I realised that it's quite hard to come up with even 4 levels (time plus ideas), so hopefully someone will have a second look at this now. Indeed 3 or 4 people could get this done in a reasonable amount of time, but as it is I don't think it'll happen.

[frikilokooo]

Good idea!,I can join the team if you want but if we find more people of course,I don't have much free timeI could try to make one level or two,It would be a whole world according to your idea.

Would be possible to modify any colors in the palette?the game would have a new look.

[Exl]

I seemed to remember I released my 2 levels before... Just to be sure, here they are (W1L1 and W1L2, as usual take care with overwriting any custom modifications); http://www.dvdflick.net/storage/chaos_engine_exl.zip

[TCD]

Cheers Exl I will make a 'ready-to-go' version and put it on the file server if you don't mind?

[Exl]

Sure thing!

[daxb]

Does that mean you both made 2x2 levels?! How about to put them together for a complete world with some adaptations if necessary and made a public release? Maybe some reaction follows.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by daxb

Does that mean you both made 2x2 levels?! How about to put them together for a complete world with some adaptations if necessary and made a public release? Maybe some reaction follows.

I have not checked what world Exl's levels are set in (World 1 I suppose judging from the names), but the second level made by TCD is set in the Fortesque Mansion, so right now it should not be possible to mix everything.

Besides you need to think of the transitions between each level. In other words, if after playing Exl's levels you continue with TCD's levels and are already maxed out TCD's levels would be too easy to play. Although I guess this can be relatively easily "corrected".



Otherwise, you can always count on me for some testing and perhaps some editing work if some designs/ideas are already planned in details (UT2004-related stuff will always take precedence though, so I will probably never be able to invest as much time as TCD did).

[TCD]

Exl's Levels are available in a pre-installed WHDLoad format in 'Game/WHDLoad/Chaos Engine Levels' on the file server now

[nujack]

Thank you. Will try it out. I'm interested in new levels too but I have no time for support.

[frikilokooo]

Nice Exl's levels,very fun really and with good ideas but enemies a bit slow and easy I think.Great work,thank you!

Just stumbled upon this thread and CE editor and it looks like the best of the ones I've found previously!

I'm trying to code a remake of CE and have most, if not all, of the sprites I need (and certainly would have all the assets necessary from this editor) but just don't have a way of reading the level format...

Is there any information on how I can load in the specification of each level so I can render it? I know the format lists the tiles with their sprite index and a number of other bits of information but don't have any code to read it myself and I'm not sure I can figure it out from the raw data...

Is there any source code or advice that you could offer up to help me out?

[Exl]

Originally Posted by tehJP

Is there any source code or advice that you could offer up to help me out?

I've uploaded the source code here: http://www.dvdflick.net/storage/chao...ce_2.5.1.1.zip ~3Mb. Be warned, the majority of it is written in Visual Basic 6! Only the display rendering and de-RNC parts are in C (renderlib folder).

The info you're after can be found in source\clsLevel.cls, line 1194, function loadFrom. The gist of it is that a level starts with 7 pointers to data further in the level file, namely map (tiles), templates (3x3 tile pieces), script blocks, trigger, covers, pickups and finally the music map. If you want to know how each of these are laid out, you will have to check other files as well. The structure of a map (either level map or tilemap) is described in clsTileMap.cls. clsGame.cls contains all the code to load various game data, including the levels. Program entry point is the function Main in modMain.bas. External C function definitions are in modRenderLib.bas, in case you can't find a function call inside the VB project files. data\game.cfg describes some of the game's file details in a more abstract form.

There's also some notes in the "specs" folder, but they mostly cover things I did not figure out completely. tabs.txt describes some level details as well. Feel free to ask questions you might have.

Cheers man, hopefully that'll help! I've got the source to another editor that's in Java but it's not very readable just from the source files.. lots of inheritence and the like which makes it complicated to figure out what's going on, hopefully yours will be easier to work with!

I'll try and keep people up to date on any progress I make!

[lilalurl]

Cross-posting from one of TCD's level thread for reference:

Originally Posted by lilalurl

I have encountered the two shots issue for one of the pod thingies again but in a more restricted way. First, I did not see any of them spawn two times and most of the time I had not the two shots issue.

But after backtracking, when I came back forward (whatever that means ) I saw that this one fired two times.
However, this only happened for the first "shot" (the two of them actually). The second (or rather third) shot was a single shot and so were the next ones.
But when I went back again and came back the two shots issue happened again (and only lasted for the two first shots).

I have noticed a similar issue when playing the SNES version of CE (on PSP via the SNES9xTYLsomethingsomenumber emulator). Therefore, it can even happen with the normal game (ie not with modified levels). W1L4, near the "tree entrance to a tree cave ".




I could not find any factor that would make it more likely to happen, but it usually involves going a certain distance and then backtracking.
Perhaps it has to do with the players leaving the screen at a precise time when the pod thingie "starts" to shoot. Leaving the screen woud mean that the animation is considered as initated but not played. So when you come back it is actually played while at the same time a new shot is initiated.

Well, at least that what seems the more logical to me.


Anyway, just posting this here as a proof that this is probably an issue with the game engine (since it also happens on the SNES version).

[killergorilla]

So...

when can we expect Chaos Engine 1.5?

[TCD]

Since we only have 4 levels (IIRC that is...) right now and nobody makes any right now... 2034 maybe?

[killergorilla]

There must be some people out there!

Hello everybody

I'm working on an iOs adaptation of the game and I'm wondering if I could get help on the loading part... I need informations on how to load the levels and the different parts.

I already reproduced the first level with a few details missing. You can see some videos on my chanel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbg...kC8cQksZZ-x6Sw or on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheChaosEngineiOs

Thanks for your help

Olivier

[TCD]

Originally Posted by TCD

Since we only have 4 levels (IIRC that is...) right now and nobody makes any right now... 2034 maybe?

It's not exactly 10 years later, but you get the idea. It's a damn shame that this never took off. Oh yeah, spooky necro time everyone