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Message: 6313

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 15/12/2007

Subject: Re: JSWED 2.3.2 released

 

john_elliott_uk wrote:

>
> http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/jswed.html
>
> This is a rather hasty build of JSWED with the following changes
> since 2.3.1:

It's great to see a new version of JSWED!

> * Fonts can now be exported and imported.

I'll have to test that some other time. Editing rooms is my only
priority right now.

> * Various glitches fixed in the guardian editor.

So far, JSWED hasn't crashed once since I upgraded to v2.3.2.

> * The animation in the room editor can be slowed down (to a halt, if
> required) or speeded up using the keypad + and - keys.

It would be nice if the animation could be faster than normal, too.
Sometimes I have to wait a long time to see if one guardian is going
to collide with another.

"The World Is Not Enough" has seven horizontal guardians and an
arrow. Slowing down the animation affects the HGs but not the arrow.

I've probably mentioned this before, but you have to edit the middle
pixel-row of an arrow twice before the change stands.

> * Trap cells can be set up in JSW64 games.

And the bug whereby JSW128 room-titles wouldn't be displayed in
v2.3.* has been fixed too, has not it?

Now all v2.3.* needs is the ability to resize the window (adding
scrollbars if necessary), and I'll never have to use v2.2.9 again.

> * All the room navigation pages work in step; if you go from the
> guardian editor to the portal editor, for example, you stay in the
> same room.

Yes - it was annoying when I had to move to a new room several times
as I worked in the various editors.

> * Z-variant games are patched so that global cells work properly.

Great! Does this still count as Hacklevel 12?

"You've done well, Number Two - unlike Count Lippe, whose choice of a
patch-vector could have jeopardised the entire project. Send a
message to the execution-branch!"

Deciding which cell-classes should be global (JSW64: Variants W,Y,Z)
is a fine art-form, which depends on the following factors:

1. The frequency with which each unique (cell-type, colour-attribute,
pixel-pattern) triple occurs across all rooms: global cell-classes
should be frequent.

2. The number of cell-classes of each cell-type in a room. For
example, all rooms in JSW64MM:JB have two Air cell-classes, two Water
cell-classes and two Fire cell-classes. But they only have one cell-
class of every other type (and no Trampoline), which is why I've
decided to make both Cell-classes #D and #E Earth (I'm keeping Cell-
class #F free probably until another similar need arises).

3. Crumbly cells and opening walls turn into Cell-class 0 Air, so
Cell-class 0 should not count towards frequency in rooms that use
either of these features.

4. Custom cells behave as Water and have the Cell-class 1 pixel-
pattern, so Water cell-classes that have the same INK and PAPER
should not count towards frequency (unless using Cell-class 1's pixel-
pattern would cause a guardian-collision).

I've added to SPECSAISIE's to-do list to write a function to
recommend which cell-classes to make global in a partially-
constructed JSW64:W/Y/Z game, based on the above factors.

> * The Windows version now uses the Nullsoft installer rather than
> Installshield, which reduces the size of the setup file by a
> megabyte or so.

Also, the JSWED tab sometimes goes missing from Windows XP's Taskbar.
Sometimes I have to minimise everything (press Windows+M, or right-
click the Taskbar and select "Show the Desktop") to find the open
JSWED window, and then clicking its title-bar makes it reappear in
the Taskbar.

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/

 

 

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