.rez support, ten new resource types

I'd like to announce MissionComputer 3.2 , which adds a host of new features to my scenario editor for the three Escape Velocity games, including support for ten new resource types, native editing of the .rez plug-in format used by the Windows version of EV Nova , and the ability to list PICT, rlëD, and rlë8 resources graphically in the document window.

MissionComputer features editors for a wide range of resources for the Escape Velocity games, including bööm, chär, cölr, crön, dësc, dëqt, DITL, DLOG, düde, flët, gövt, ďntf, jünk, mďsn, nëbu, öops, oütf, përs, PICT, ränk, röid, snd, spöb, spďt, STR, STR#, s˙st, and yëäŽ. Resource Selector buttons make it easy to link resources without referring to ID tables, and editors offers excerpts from the official developer documentation within their interfaces. Also integrated into the MissionComputer application are an encoder for rlëD/rlë8 sprites, a graphical tool for generating target graphics in the style used by EV Nova , a Resource Copier utility for moving resources between files in bulk, and a convertor that can move EV Nova plug-ins between the Npďf and .rez plug-in formats.

Beyond those for which it offers graphical editors, MissionComputer can, thanks to its RDL template scripting system, provide ResEdit-style editors for every resource used in the Escape Velocity games along with added MissionComputer-style features such as popup menus, automatic flag calculation, and Resource Selector buttons.

I first released MissionComputer in December of 2001 after several months of development and testing. Originally a simple mission editor for EV Override , it has grown to become a wide-ranging editor covering most aspects of all three Escape Velocity games.

MissionComputer 3.2 is available in two separate editions: a Mac OS X version, and a Classic version for Mac OS 9 and earlier (on both PowerPC- and 68K-based computers). The new version is immediately available as a free download from my web site at davidarthur.evula.net.

Noiice. Does this version fix the random-deleting-of-resources bug?

Skyfox, on Sep 22 2005, 07:50 PM, said:

Noiice. Does this version fix the random-deleting-of-resources bug?
View Post

3.1 fixed that bug, I believe.

The bug with blank spots in the s˙st/nëbu graphical editor (galaxy) appears to be fixed, but 1-way jumps still tend to appear frequently and randomly...

Nice, I like.

Does anyone know where to download just nova data files, just one at a time?

No. 3.1 did not fix the random resources disappearances. 3.2 does the next best thing - it safeguards against such a thing happening. Specifically, it tries converting the .mcbundle back into a plug-in a total of ten times. It can still happen, but it's much, much less likely now.

By the way, don't ever bother asking if it's fixed. Unless he updates his version of RB, it won't ever be. Such a thing is beyond his control unless he finds a way around RB's uber-flaky resource framework.

Woohoo, DITL support. You might want to put something in the help about these though. Ie, don't touch them unless you know what you're doing. I guess that's okay though because it doesn't work anyway! Not only does the delete key do nothing but even if you push Delete Item it won't save your changes. Oh and one other nice thing ResEdit did was let you resize the DITL by dragging the corner. If the corresponding DLOG was present then it would automatically make the changes.

NebuchadnezzaR, on Sep 23 2005, 01:09 AM, said:

Does anyone know where to download just nova data files, just one at a time?
View Post

Er, in your Nova Files folder maybe?

Guy, on Sep 22 2005, 07:34 PM, said:

Er, in your Nova Files folder maybe?

I think he meant where to download them from , not to. If so, I have no idea.

nuku, on Sep 22 2005, 11:56 PM, said:

I think he meant where to download them from , not to. If so, I have no idea.
View Post

Yeah, Im sorry if I was unclear. I dont feel like downloading the whole game onto every computer i touch, but i wanna play with the original nova ditl dlogs. I swear it was somewhere.

Yeah, I understood what you wanted I just didn't understand why (I was suggesting you try looking in your Nova Files folder).
But if you're on a different computer away from Nova and want to mess with the DITLs then it's the Nova app you want, not the data files. I could post a file with just those resources if you like?

I thought all the Ditl were in the nova files 1? Maybe I'm mistaken. In any case, all i want are the ditl and dlogs and the corresponding picts, none of the ships and such graphics.

The ditl/dlogs are in the Nova application... You can override that also with a plugin- I wonder if you could override the CODE resources as well?

rmx256, on Sep 23 2005, 11:23 AM, said:

The ditl/dlogs are in the Nova application... You can override that also with a plugin- I wonder if you could override the CODE resources as well?
View Post

Er...why? :blink:

Wow, the resources seem to quite big. I'll have to put it here: (EDIT:Removed)

rmx256, on Sep 23 2005, 11:23 AM, said:

The ditl/dlogs are in the Nova application... You can override that also with a plugin- I wonder if you could override the CODE resources as well?
View Post

Yeah, I believe there was an EV plugin which used CODE from EVO to upgrade the AI.

This post has been edited by Guy : 26 September 2005 - 07:32 PM

Holy Crap o.0

Wow...

I don't want to imagine how impossible it would be to play with patched together legacy rescources... but... nova 4... right at my fingertips. Ill start with the DITL, thanks mate. (edit: looks like the CODE thing probably only holds for mac, and its still impossible, but i can pretend :))

Again, I applaud the arthur of this fine tool, and Ill make sure to credit him in every awesome I produce

(and the rescources are probably so large because they actually contain the pics themselves, right?)

This post has been edited by NebuchadnezzaR : 23 September 2005 - 10:51 AM

Version 3.1 fixed the original resource-loss problem, but had a much smaller one of its own; in version 3.2, heavy protections mean that there is very little chance that the problem will hit, and if it does, you will be notified, and given a chance to re-save. In addition, .rez files are not subject to the resource-loss issues.

"Guy" said:

Not only does the delete key do nothing but even if you push Delete Item it won't save your changes.

Thanks, I've fixed this and added support for the delete key.

"Guy" said:

Yeah, I believe there was an EV plugin which used CODE from EVO to upgrade the AI.

...or at least claimed to; since CODE resources are used only for 68K code (PowerPC code is stored in the data fork, since it's often too large to fit in the resource fork), I was always rather skeptical.

This post has been edited by David Arthur : 23 September 2005 - 04:10 PM

David Arthur, on Sep 23 2005, 11:15 AM, said:

...or at least claimed to; since CODE resources are used only for 68K code (PowerPC code is stored in the data fork, since it's often too large to fit in the resource fork), I was always rather skeptical.
View Post

Heh... I'd like to see if that's actually workable.

David Arthur, on Sep 23 2005, 04:15 PM, said:

<something about okay button being disabled>
View Post

Yeah, the okay button was disabled but even if I made some other change and then saved it, when I reopened it the items I had deleted were magically back again.

This is a great program but there are a number of things which bug me about it such that I always end up using Nova Tools instead:
• No scroll wheel support.
• Still can't open multiple editor windows at once.
• Govt flags are crammed into these tiny areas which I have to scroll through. And the jamming has to be edited in a separate window even though there seems to be plenty of room in the main window to put it.
• Special menu has one item: "Nova Files " - would be nice if it displayed the files as a submenu.
• Oops editor has radio buttons for the sign of the price change - why??
• Couple of glitches: The Special and Recent submenus don't have the little arrows which indicate that they're submenus; There's two Help menus (seems to be common in programs on Tiger).

The mission editor has a little note about trouble with FailTexts. To get FailTexts to work you must uncheck the CanAbort flag.

Guy, on Sep 24 2005, 06:20 AM, said:

The mission editor has a little note about trouble with FailTexts. To get FailTexts to work you must uncheck the CanAbort flag.
View Post

Really. That's useful.

Hmm... there definitely is something weird about deleting DITL items - I'll look into it.

Guy, on Sep 24 2005, 02:20 AM, said:

Still can't open multiple editor windows at once.
View Post

3.2 contains the first, minor efforts towards making this possible, but actually making it happen is still on the 'sometime' list; I won't go into details right now, but it will actually be rather complicated.

Quote

Govt flags are crammed into these tiny areas which I have to scroll through.

How else could I fit them in? There's so many that it would take several tabs to hold them all, and I don't want a NovaTools-like wasteland of uncategorised checkboxes.

Quote

And the jamming has to be edited in a separate window even though there seems to be plenty of room in the main window to put it.

I don't actually recall why it's like that, although there was a good reason at the time - I'll revisit it for 3.3.

Quote

Special menu has one item: "Nova Files " - would be nice if it displayed the files as a submenu.

It would also list the EV and Override data if you had specified them, but I'll take a look at this too.

Quote

Oops editor has radio buttons for the sign of the price change - why??

So as to draw attention to the fact that it can be either positive or negative - most fields can only be positive, and -1 means 'ignored'.

Quote

Couple of glitches: The Special and Recent submenus don't have the little arrows which indicate that they're submenus;

They do for me - maybe this is a 10.4 thing, in which case there isn't much I can do about it at the moment.

Quote

There's two Help menus (seems to be common in programs on Tiger).

Impossible to do anything about at the moment, and doesn't do any harm.

Quote

The mission editor has a little note about trouble with FailTexts. To get FailTexts to work you must uncheck the CanAbort flag.

I'll take a look at it.

Have you considered porting this across to XCode and Cocoa, David? I know that'll cut off Mac OS 9 support, but given that the only reason I open Classic these days is to run ResEdit...?

I've done a bit of app developing in Cocoa now, and it doth rock.

Dave @ ATMOS