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Re: ZZT Ultra

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:05 am
by Smilymzx
How about support to use all 16 colors for background, with no blink mode,

Also, Font+Palette editors like in MZX are a great option for games with fonts,

a Font mania .COM to MZX .CHR converter was made somewhere, but lost, so maybe include a chance to make one for ZZT ultra, so font support won't be out of a question,

Also a way to load CHR/PAL files in ZZT Ultra (OOP and board-wise) as well as some commands to scroll CHR other directions PLUS CHR editing, and PAL Editing and Fade commands (In-game only)

Also, size should also be adjusted for CHR for those not wanting just plain vanilla MZX (8x14 default) font size!

Response to Directions Subset Support: How about including new directions for ZZT Ultra, specifically EW (East-West), NS (North-South), and ANY direction (MZX-based, uses any/all directions), Teleporters or Pushables (Boulders) specifically can now do any, two, or one direction(s), and cannot limit pushables to use element-type.

Re: Brain overload

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 9:45 pm
by Appetite4
Whoa, Smilymzx! Yer making my brain overload! That's supposed to be what I do to others.

I'll consider these changes for future releases. The version that has the first complete ZZT Ultra Editor will be 1.0. Since nobody within the ZZT community ever had character-manipulation options within any variant of ZZT or Super ZZT, that change would be a major charter expansion.

BTW you might be interested in ZZT Imager, which you can download here: http://www.chriskallen.com/zzt/download.html#download

Should I eventually introduce character set editing, I would almost certainly advance ZZT Imager to let you use a custom character set as well. You could capture some very realistic images that way.

Long live INT 10H, Service 11H! (yeah I'm such a nerd)

Re: ZZT Ultra

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:11 am
by Smilymzx
I did not really say anything about having it implented in the current (prototype) versions, I did forget to add that future versions could have it...

Either way, Doing good so far, Keep it up!

More editor progress

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 4:13 pm
by Appetite4
Yeah; gotta take editor capabilities one step at a time. And there are a ton of steps to work on.

Here is where we are now: the ability to edit files in ZZT, SZT, or WAD. All original types supported, copy/paste supported, screen scrolling (SZT formats) supported. I have been working on an exhaustive analysis of the KevEdit, ZZT and Super ZZT editor key mappings, since I don't want to leave anything out.

World properties in ZZT Ultra will be a lot more versatile. You can see from the screenshot below that many new types of storage are available. Unlimited global variables, unlimited board and world properties, extra type definitions, extra masks (bomb, torch, etc.), and stored sound effects or background music.

And I will need to document all of this. It's a grind, but I promise it will be worth it.

Types: A better menu

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:04 am
by Appetite4
Below is the primary ZZT Ultra interface for selecting types. The types are broken down into three F1,F2,F3 sub-menus, all which show the same general design: floor types (nonblocking), non-stat blocking, and stat blocking. Shown in this screenshot is the "stat blocking" view.

The layout is designed to be extensible. From this menu, you can easily find relevant types (they are alphabetized, which helps locate them). There are also options for adding or editing your own types "on the fly," letting a world file contain type customizations that override the default behaviors and appearances for types.

Of course, I realize everyone has long gotten used to the older "Items/Creatures/Terrains" configuration. You still have those menus if you want them. Pressing 'E' will toggle the editor interface, giving you KevEdit menus, ZZT menus, or Super ZZT menus.

Supporting formats, new and legacy

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:26 am
by Appetite4
I have spent several weeks wrestling with dynamic type definitions in the editor. This is extra difficult because ZZT never had the ability before for its editor to override types and add new ones. Still, it seems to work: you can add new types in the unused number slots (generally any number 80 or above), with their own appearances, default code, etc.

Despite all these enhancements, I still haven't thought about letting go of legacy formats. None of the advanced editor features that require the WAD format would work for content saved as .ZZT or .SZT. I have decided that the "save as" options will show the user a series of error and warning messages based upon compatibility of features saved in the target format.

For example, the editor would allow you to place a board without a PLAYER in it, but you would get a warning if you try to save in .ZZT or .SZT. Conversely, the editor would give you an error (preventing save) if a board exceeds a hard limit for the data format, such as the size of a single board.

Re: ZZT Ultra

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:29 pm
by Commodore
I think it would be better (but probably harder to implement) if there was a safety of sorts. so if I was in ZZT mode, it would not even let me create a player-less board. Rather than warning me later when I try to save.

ZZT Ultra editor available!

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:29 am
by Appetite4
Version 0.10 released! The advanced editor is now fully functional:

http://www.chriskallen.com/zzt/ZZTUltra.php

There were a few other minor changes. I don't know how I missed TORCH types not having ALWAYSLIT attribute...

About the editor. I can't do it justice talking about it here. So I talk about it there:

http://www.chriskallen.com/zzt/editors.html#editors

The editor is very powerful, letting you create games with much greater customizations than before. In time, it will even rival MegaZeux (although that's a title that can't be won easily).

There are no games to go with the new editor yet. All ZZT and SZT stuff should be loadable into the editor. But you are probably not going to care much unless something cool is released for the engine.

The project I had mentioned, Fall of ZZT: The Curse of production Quality, has gotten a bit too ambitious. So I'm going to work on a humbler, smaller project that still uses the advanced features of ZZT Ultra's editor: Smash ZZT. Chances are you've already guessed the inspiration.

Re: ZZT Ultra editor available!

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:18 pm
by Commodore
Appetite4 wrote:The project I had mentioned, Fall of ZZT: The Curse of production Quality, has gotten a bit too ambitious.
Irony?

Bigger bosses, bigger everything

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:42 am
by Appetite4
No irony, no fear, no shame. The only thing that consistently prevents you from doing something is not trying.

Smash ZZT will show off the new features of ZZT Ultra, but it won't be a very long game. There needs to be a proof of concept before you give a game engine your trust. For example, look at Town of ZZT. For all its simplicity, it worked: it made use of engine features in such a way that everyone wanted to use ZZT. And yet it can be finished in 10 minutes.

I just added a whole bunch of extra commands to my development copy of ZZT Ultra. The biggest one is going to be big, indeed: group-movement commands. It will be possible to make a large, multi-object entity now, which can move as a single block with one command. A Touhou-style boss, perhaps, although that's just the beginning.

Technically, nothing stopped ZZTers from doing this before, although you had to be content with each individual object operating independently. The "Phoenix Mothership" from The Long Voyage is a good example of this.

But dedicated group-movement commands will let you do it MUCH better.

Re: ZZT Ultra

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:01 am
by Ryalseth
First time posting here, been watching this project for a little while. Seriously amazing.

I started tinkering with the new editor, but I'm not sure how to make a playable world. Maybe the problem is I haven't or can't seem to make a 'real' player, but in any case Flash will simply freeze when I try to load the new world.

Re: ZZT Ultra

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:08 pm
by Appetite4
Ryalseth wrote:Maybe the problem is I haven't or can't seem to make a 'real' player, but in any case Flash will simply freeze when I try to load the new world.
Good point; the engine is not very fault-tolerant in its current form. This is a consequence of having that many more moving parts: more can break. The original ZZT engine is incredibly fault-tolerant when you think about it. ZZT-OOP code can crash it, but it's really hard.

I would recommend not trying to do anything too elaborate until I can get some demos released. Few people would have started using the ZZT editor if TOWN, TOUR, and DEMO hadn't been available at the start. Of course, ZZT and SZT save formats, at the very least, should still work fine.

ZZT Ultra Demo

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:10 pm
by Appetite4
Working on a WAD file covering a rich feature set of ZZT Ultra. This "DEMO.WAD" file will become part of the ZZT Ultra standard package.

The original DEMO.ZZT only had type explanations. I'm more ambitious than that: DEMO.WAD will have types, code samples, all types of property and GUI examples, and tips for how to construct elaborate designs. So it's taking a bit of time (I'm about 1/5th of the way through).

Make no mistake, I'm not going to spend $3 million on making a demo. Let those UE4 folks do their own thing, for now.

Demo progressing

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:56 pm
by Appetite4
Most of the way through the demo now. I had to divide the enhanced ZZT-OOP explanation into several different boards; no single-page summary can do it justice.

There will be custom type examples, overridden type examples, interactive GUI examples, and even a prototype boss battle.

Carpe diem.

Official Demo Released!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:58 am
by Appetite4
As promised, I deliver. Editor bugs are fixed. And here is the demo:

http://www.chriskallen.com/zzt/ZZTUltra ... d/DEMO.WAD

There are many new features with the updated version of ZZT Ultra (now at version 0.11). I'll let the demo do most of the talking, though. The demo is designed to be comprehensive--it shows in detail far more than what I have been able to recount in these posts.

If you are wondering about the boss battle prototype, I definitely took some inspiration from Heavy Barrel. Not sure why that game in particular was on my mind. Anyway, the boss will seem like a pushover...until you piss it off.

I also threw in an example of looping background music. Note that this isn't "faked" using idle cycles--ZZT Ultra supports the real deal, with genuine "R" repeat codes within the musical tracks.

Knock yourselves out.