Plastic
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:48 pm
Every time an external editor is made, there are things wanted in the editor that aren't developed. When I was making ZZT 4.x, these adn other concerns were repeated. Unable to retrofit existing ZZT code for all these changes, I have instead focused my efforts into aiding PapaBear in the development of a complete remake of ZZT from the ground up. We are calling this remake PLASTIC, and Release Candidate 1 is available for download <a href="http://plastic.daveanddave.net/">Here.</a>
A common issue with ZZT has been the limitations on various elements. 150, 101, 20000, ~350k, 10 (9 if it's locked), 32767, 6 (though one can't be 0 and the other always changes). Just by seeing the numbers, most of you will know immediately what I'm talking about. ZZT limits the number of stats per board, boards per world, the number of flags, the size of counters, and the number of counters. It has problems and runtime errors if things get too large. Games have been corrupted, and frustration has ensued.
The period of this frustration has ended. I am right now playing an 8 meg zzt file without problems. To be fair, the maximum size for a zzt file is 12 megs, with limits in the file format set at 64k per board and 255 boards per world. In the new plastic game file format, I have a playable world that tips the scales at just over 100 megs. It has 104 boards, with over a megabyte of information on each board. 107.5 megs in total. That should be enough to build some nice hefty games without the hassles of switching worlds.
For more information, download PLASTIC at http://plastic.daveanddave.net and give it a try for yourself. You'll see that there's a lot of good that has been done.
Rather than copy and paste what i've already said, if you have questions or concerns about PLASTIC give us a shout on the PLASTIC forums, or have a look at the concerns I have already addressed in the ZZT 4.0 thread. There's some information there on obsolete ZZT oddities and othersuch.
A common issue with ZZT has been the limitations on various elements. 150, 101, 20000, ~350k, 10 (9 if it's locked), 32767, 6 (though one can't be 0 and the other always changes). Just by seeing the numbers, most of you will know immediately what I'm talking about. ZZT limits the number of stats per board, boards per world, the number of flags, the size of counters, and the number of counters. It has problems and runtime errors if things get too large. Games have been corrupted, and frustration has ensued.
The period of this frustration has ended. I am right now playing an 8 meg zzt file without problems. To be fair, the maximum size for a zzt file is 12 megs, with limits in the file format set at 64k per board and 255 boards per world. In the new plastic game file format, I have a playable world that tips the scales at just over 100 megs. It has 104 boards, with over a megabyte of information on each board. 107.5 megs in total. That should be enough to build some nice hefty games without the hassles of switching worlds.
For more information, download PLASTIC at http://plastic.daveanddave.net and give it a try for yourself. You'll see that there's a lot of good that has been done.
Rather than copy and paste what i've already said, if you have questions or concerns about PLASTIC give us a shout on the PLASTIC forums, or have a look at the concerns I have already addressed in the ZZT 4.0 thread. There's some information there on obsolete ZZT oddities and othersuch.