MulEditor

[floppydisc]

Hi again,

I continue releasing my tools, so here we go:
The "Ultima Online Editor" or MulEditor (currently version 0.6.3) has been developed to help me add new elements to my shard. It is therefore current possible to modify and add new Arts, Gumps, Textures, TileData, Localization, MultiMap and Map/Statics.

For infos on the more recent versions and news, please scrolls down further in this thread.
The new versions include a map editor, a multimap editor and the ability to edit files directly.

Here is what it currently looks like:


Simple How-To
The way of modifying things with this editor will remain the same for all the different filetypes - you open the verdata editor and drag'n'drop items on it that you want to modify. After modifying them, you can save the verdata and use it for whatever you like. I currently use it along with my auto-updater which patches the verdata back into the gamefiles on client-side.
Let's use the example of adding a new table:
- open up the Verdata Editor
- go to the right bar (the file browser) and open Art --> Statics
- search for an entry that is "(unused)" and drag it over the Verdata Editor where you drop it
- double click the item in the Verdata Editor and use File --> Load to open and load a bitmap
- close the window (leaving the Verdata Editor open!)
- in the file browser, scroll down to TileData --> Static Tiles and search for the ItemID you just dragged into the Verdata Editor
- drag & drop this item onto the Verdata Editor and double click it
- set all necessary properties and hit "OK"
- you can now save the verdata using File --> Save

P.S.: When I refer to Drag'n'Drop it is only in the context of the editor. All interaction is between the components. (Most drag'n'drop will be done from the right panel I think )
P.P.S.: Everything preceded by '$' is a hexadecimal number!

Download
You can download the current version here (1MB)

Let me know if you have any problems and tell me what features you need. I'll then take them into consideration for the next update.
(Remark: "Sounds" are already planned)

[SiENcE]

Hey nice and very fast tool.

The Maprendering is the fastest i have ever seen on UO-MapEditors. So please develop the MapEditor Part to edit Maptiles, place Statics (multis,decorations) and define Regions and maybe Spawns (for XMLSpawner).

:-)

This is much i know...but it would be great.

[Jambone]

how did you get map editing to work?? says its disabled.

[SiENcE]

Ups ;-) I got a personal Version from floppy... :-)

But Editing does not work until now. Only displaying Map and Statics and I think it is a far more better than Worldforge (faster than that), TDV-Muleditor aso.

[Jambone]

ok thanks! lookin forward to it!

[Jambone]

one suggestion is to be able see the art while you scroll through it. like the gump art in Gump Studio because you can scroll through all the art fast without having to pick anything to see it first. very handy especially if you are looking for something.

[floppydisc]

Originally Posted by Jambone

one suggestion is to be able see the art while you scroll through it. like the gump art in Gump Studio because you can scroll through all the art fast without having to pick anything to see it first. very handy especially if you are looking for something.

Take a look on the Tools menu. (Especially the "Art Browser" )

[nex666]

Wow I really love it, I don't like the thumbnails it creates for the items, I guess this is for speeds sake though.
But it's absolutely great, I hope you keep on working on it strong, i know i'll be looking forward to more

[punt59]

Originally Posted by SiENcE

Ups ;-) I got a personal Version from floppy... :-)

But Editing does not work until now. Only displaying Map and Statics and I think it is a far more better than Worldforge (faster than that), TDV-Muleditor aso.

I have talked to Floppy disk and told him I thought it was great another editor was entering the arena. It makes it all of us better (I have always liked choice). I do ask however that if one is going to compare, please compare against WorldMaker, not WorldForge. WorldMaker replaces Worldforge, is designed to work with WM Multi so collection of art tiles can be built off line and placed later, as well as drag and drop with visual representation of what the change will look like before dropping it. So, based on its currency of release, it is the logical one for comparasion.
I am sure this tool is still faster, but just want to get the reference points established. In talking to Floppy Disc, I know we made different tradeoffs (for instance, at the moment, all modfiied blocks in his editor are stored in memory, where Worldmaker spools them to disk as needed). So the overall performance of the two could vary depending on the length/amount of the editing session (in terms of blocks modified), and memory of your system.

Regardless, from the screenshots and discussions, this tool is looking fantastic. I unfortunately cant run it (have discussed with Floppy Disc as well), it crashes on startup (I am sure just an interim problem as it gets developed).

[Jambone]

Originally Posted by floppydisc

Take a look on the Tools menu. (Especially the "Art Browser" )

yeah I found those and they are great. Nice fast scrolling. I was just saying something like that for gump art would be real nice. Like Gump Studio and the old GGG do.

[RadstaR]

Any new version avaible ? Edit sound.mul sounds good, because Mulpatcher don't make sound.mul good.

[floppydisc]

Hmm no - but reminds me that I wanted to do that
I'm still struggling with the map editor part.
But in the next few days I will at least release a version that can open/save multimap.rle (the bitmap used for the treasure maps) and import/export them from/to windows bitmap files.

[floppydisc]

Multimap Support is now included.
(Open/Save Multimap.rle, Import/Export from/to bitmap)

Note on import: all non-white pixels will be treated as "draw", all white pixels as "don't draw" (don't forget, that it SHOULD be a monochrome image ... so only two colors will be used)

[floppydisc]

I've just released a new version. Besides many internal restructuring I added the so-called "New-Wearable Wizard" which shall assist when adding new wearable items (as they are a combination of Art, Gump, Tiledata and Animation).
Here are some screenshots:



If you think it's not user-friendly enough, please give me hints what you think should be changed

[ssalter]

Very awesome, floppydisc.

The only thing I can think of right offhand that it needs is the ability to do imports. Static art could import from a directory full of already prepared BMPs and automatically fill empty slots, producing a report at the end. The user could then go back and do tiledata ops on each one.

An alternate would be importing via a text file that contains source file names and, again, automatically filling in empty slots and producing a printable report. As an added attraction, each line in the import file could contain tiledata flags so the entire operation could happen at once.

Of course, export capability would be nice too...dumping a verdata and so on.

I haven't really explored this tool too much yet but it show enormous potential. We really need a GOOD tool. Mulbuilder and MulPatcher were all we really had and they were very useful but incomplete and often buggy. I apologize to Punt because I haven't used his tools yet but will!

I really like the concept of the new wearables wizard as well. It will be interesting to see how wizardly it works and how much I have to know ahead of time.

Thank you very much.

[Dian]

This seems to be a prety nice tool from what I looked at so far, my only question is, It seems that the art area is only good to add into a verdata.mul? With current UO clients, verdata.mul is unusable, rendering a shard owner's only possability to patch into the art.mul itself..

[_Epila_]

floppydisc, do you have any idea when you will finish the map editor?/

i realy need that

[floppydisc]

This seems to be a prety nice tool from what I looked at so far, my only question is, It seems that the art area is only good to add into a verdata.mul? With current UO clients, verdata.mul is unusable, rendering a shard owner's only possability to patch into the art.mul itself..

I know, but there are several utilities which can be used to patch a verdata compliant file back into the other mul files. You can contact me if you need that asap otherwise just wait for one of the following versions, I'll include something in that regard

floppydisc, do you have any idea when you will finish the map editor?/

i realy need that

I've not worked on that part for some time and I'm still stuck with the rendering. You should take a look at punt's WorldMaker (you'll find that on orbsydia and/or google). That's a really great program and was my main inspiration to start writing my own editor.

There will surely be some more updates in the following time, but I also have other things to do (for my shard, university, and so on).

Thanks for all your interest and suggestions.

[floppydisc]

I've just uploaded version 0.4.5
It includes a Verdata-Merger which will combine several verdata compliant files and sorts the entries according to the targetfile and targetblock.
Also included is the ability to create Verdata Patches which will combine a verdata with an executable stub to allow easy distribution.
You can find both in the "Tools --> Verdata" menu or directly in the verdata editor.

[ssalter]

You did ask for suggestions. These are more of "wish list" items.

1) When moving through the right hand tiledata static tiles (or any of the other ones) by pressing the down/up arrows it would be very efficient if, when the cursor moves to the next line, a "tiledata" dialog that is already showing to the left would refresh. Instead of doubleclicking the entry, a cursor focus on a line would refresh the tiledata dialog. This tiledata would also show the bitmap entry for a solid visual cue to the user.

Additionally, the tiledata dialog could incorporate the functionality we get with dragging an empty slot to the verdata editor and double clicking it. ie: import/export bitmap.

If all that was integrated into one dialog that was refreshed by cursor focus as the user goes from item to item, it would save a lot of time and maximize productivity.

2) Additionally, if the user expands a range (ie: 0240-025f), all other ranges on that child level would close. That just helps keep it clean. Actually, that probably would be better as a user option since some people might want the same child levels of the tree to remain open.

Thanks again for your work, this is a great tool so far. I am very much enjoying it.

[Dian]

You should take a look at punt's WorldMaker

Punts World Maker Site

The downloads on the site are currently, well down. but should be back in order very soon.

[floppydisc]

I just finished the new version 0.5 of MulEditor. I rewrote the complete internal file handling and it now allows for direct editing of the mul files. There is also the possibility to defragment existing mul files (right click on "Art", "Gump" or "Textures" in the tree view).
Also I added a highlight to the currently selected tile in the art and texture browser and when resizing, the selected tile stays selected.

Please test it and tell me if everything works ok. Due to these big changes in the file handling there could be some bugs I currently don't know about - but it worked for me quite well so far

--> Download here <--

[HellRazor]

Awesome! This is starting to look pretty good!

Does the equipment wizard work?

[floppydisc]

I hope so But I think I will change that a bit. For example it does not seem to be useful to switch between "weapon" and "armor" - OSI/EA uses only the "weapon" attribute (yes, even for armor, cloths, etc. etc.)
If you have any suggestions regarding that wizard, just tell me

[floppydisc]

I finally finished the Map Editor. If you want to help me testing it, feel free to download the installer: http://www.aksdb.org/downloads/MulEditor_0-6.exe

Just to give you a look at what is waiting for you, here is a screenshot:


I hope you have fun testing it and building your maps