07 January 2022, 22:33 | #1 |
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Hired Guns Map Editor for Windows
Hello everyone, after three months of work I can finally release the Hired Guns Map Editor for Windows (HGMEW)!
The creation of the editor was made possible after the source code was released in 2021. It's layout will be familiar to those that have used Scott Johnston's original Hired Guns Map Editor in the past, but this new Windows editor adds a host of features and user interface improvements (for example, a Locations.dat writer and a conversations editor). A short manual of sorts has been provided in the "Help -> Manual" toolstrip menu, which also lists all keyboard shortcuts. Tutorial Video: [ Show youtube player ] Download link: HGMEW.zip Even if you don't plan to create any custom maps, it can still be fun to use this program as a map viewer and browse through the maps. Maybe you will find something interesting, I know I did! Interesting things I found in the original game maps:
Credits: Hired Guns data structure help, testing and feedback:UnnamedCourier, Doomer, Dunny, Devlin, nivrig Windows Forms extensions:Nathan Baulch & DMTintner Help with bitflag enumeration:styx RNC ProPack release by Vladimir Kononovich (lab313ru) via https://github.com/lab313ru/rnc_propack_source Original RNC Packer by Rob Northen WordWrap: honey the codewitch from https://www.codeproject.com Various "Behind the scenes stories and anecdotes": Steve Hammond Twitter: @snap2grid Homepage: Steve's Home on the Web Special thanks to Scott Johnston and the DMA Design team for creating one of the great Amiga classics. Related links: Forum thread: Hired Guns for CD32?? Forum thread: Hired Guns: Your memories (plus some fun fan-created stuff!) Hired Guns Online 3D Map Viewer by FromWithin (Mike Clarke) Last edited by Cherno; 02 February 2023 at 21:48. |
08 January 2022, 05:16 | #2 |
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Cool! Thank you!
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08 January 2022, 15:56 | #3 |
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Uploaded a bugfix that screwed up worldmap descriptions, detailed descriptions and intro messages.
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12 January 2022, 13:41 | #4 |
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Cool. Too bad FromWithin's viewer cannot currently be used to fly through your own creations in 3D
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23 January 2022, 19:07 | #5 |
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23 January 2022, 19:55 | #6 |
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How about adding a file request dialogue to the viewer which accepts map files from the user's hard drive?
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23 January 2022, 20:54 | #7 |
Music lord
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I'm looking into it.
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23 January 2022, 21:49 | #8 |
Music lord
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It is done.
Hired Guns Map Viewer You can now click the button on the menu and upload a .map file from your hard drive. |
23 January 2022, 23:08 | #9 |
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Very good! I added a link to your map viewer in the OP.
Last edited by Cherno; 23 January 2022 at 23:37. |
24 January 2022, 17:49 | #10 |
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25 January 2022, 00:11 | #11 |
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Awesome that you got this all finished, great job Cherno! One thing I would point out as well is that with this new editor you can finally create a new locations.dat file. The significance of this is that the game gets information for things like the map description in-game, what enemies are on a map, and what tile sets the map should use from THAT file, and not the map file itself (even though the map files include them). Therefore when you make a new map file, playing it will always use the attributes of the old map you are replacing to play it and not what you chose for your new map (so enemies, map tileset etc will likely be wrong). With this ability to make a new locations.dat you can now have this correct for the first time ever! It was possible to do this with the released source code of the game (and if you somehow reverse engineered the format yourself and hex edited it, which it seems no one ever did), but this editor lets you do it in an easy way.
The findings you list above are really interesting too, I will definitely have a look. |
25 January 2022, 00:19 | #12 |
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Thank you! The Locations.dat file writer was one of the last major things that got added and needed a couple of tries to get it right. As of now, it always rewrites the complete file by looking for map files and if one for the currrent slot is not found, it will just fill in default info. This could be improved by opening an existing dat file and only changing the info for the current map... But hey, it works either way. I hope Graeme Anderson will also see the release of this editor and of course your map viewer.
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25 January 2022, 05:21 | #13 |
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Amazing
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02 February 2023, 12:37 | #14 | |
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This excites me, but I get this error on a lot of the maps (Map 2 in particular), either immediately when trying to open them, or changing the floor;
https://gyazo.com/0a3929daba20652b8dad04b1a89da244 Due to the interruption the map is then only partially displayed. https://gyazo.com/f7236d3c04d027535a28082cd3945311 I tested it in both Windows 10 and 11, and even in a VM Ware Windows 7. I tried compatibility options, I tried placing the HGMEW folder in the root folder, I tried to redownload the app, I tried a different copy of the .map files, I tried to set game and dev folder manually in the .ini etc. No matter what I do I get the same errror. Quote:
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02 February 2023, 21:49 | #15 |
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Thanks JemyM, I was able to fix the error. I forgot to include one single tile graphic (hydraulic pillar without shadow) in the graphics folder. I uploaded the fixed version that works
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24 May 2023, 18:08 | #16 |
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Hello!
I think I encountered a bug in your map editor, or perhaps I'm doing something wrong? I placed a teleport and for testing purposes I want it to teleport just few blocks away, as seen on the picture below: https://imgur.com/e30y76b After entering the teleport, it transports player to the black void, as seen on the video below. Shooting while in the void breaks all controls, even for other characters. Any ideas what to do with it? I tried selecting teleport's target both manually (by entering coordinates of desired location) or by using the target button, I tried targeting different locations on different levels but results are still the same. I'm using the "new" CD32 version of Hired Guns. [ Show youtube player ] 12.06.2023 edit: This bug has nothing to do with your editor, it's a game bug. Exactly same thing happens when using "official" editor. I also found out how to avoid it - if teleport block has sky on it - it teleports into the void. Removing sky drawing on it fixes the issue. Last edited by Meeko; 12 June 2023 at 13:11. |
13 October 2023, 20:40 | #17 |
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Hey Cherno,
thanks for the editor. Pretty useful for some insights and on the first sight better usable than the original one from the Amiga in Hires Interlace . But unfortunately I can't use it for editing maps yet because for some reason you didn't implement undo/redo or do I have a deprecated version? Also it's not a great idea to start the editor in edit mode, especially when you don't have undo. You just accidentally click on a tile to get some info about it and wooops... you overpainted it, all information lost . The only way back is to reload the map. So it would be really great to have undo/redo. |
14 October 2023, 05:02 | #18 |
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I never bothered to implement the undo/redo system, it was too complicated at the time.
I agree on the editing mode at program start. |
14 October 2023, 09:14 | #19 |
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Is the source code available anywhere, like on Github?
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14 October 2023, 15:57 | #20 |
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No.
Maybe I'll implement undo/redo in the future. |
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