No, that's not what I meant. I just meant to make some kind of program that displays the command-line parameters it's passed. Piece of cake. I did it this morning in about ten minutes. Okay, here's how you'd make Level Maker's play level functionality:
It couldn't be easier! Just call WorldOfGoo.exe with a command-line parameter of the level you want it to open. That's it. Let WOG take care of the rest.
I don't know how you'd do this in VB, but in C++ it's really simple:
WinExec("[folder name]/WorldOfGoo.exe [name of level]" SW_SHOW);
Easy, right?
If you want to toy around with my little command-line displaying program, I can email it to you.
My level editor is coming along nicely! I have all the forms that have to do with resources and gooballs done! Now I just have to:
Make the forms for all the other level object additions
Create the Preview
Fix the bugs on the "Encrypt" and "Decrypt" functions
Add the long-awaited "translations" form for people who are switching programs from WoG Editor to World of Goo Level Master (it seems like people will be needing this...)
Post BETA versions (once it's stable)
Publish the final version on goofans.com!
Now let me tell you that numbers 2 and 3 are the ones that I am still researching. I'll post a beta version once I can finish AT LEAST numbers 1, 2, and 4.
YAYZ! I JUST FIXED NUMBER 3!!! I just had to treat the shell command as if it were opening a batch file! (this may make no sense to you, and it means that there was something simple that I could of done the whole time and I only just found out about it). After I sort the code out, (make it replace, rather then copy the xml to a bin; make it move the xml to a temporary directory for easy access; etc.) I will be able to use my program to encrypt/decrypt files whenever! I'll toy around with this a little...
Hmm, I guess that would make sense. Treating those DOS encrypt/decrypt files like DOS batch files...
Enchanter49 wrote:
I'm not sure if this is correct for the level, though:
Shell([containing path folder]/WorldofGoo.exe, [name of level])
Visual Basic REALLY IS basic!
Yep. This should work fine. Just toyed with my WOG stub program and found that if you drag a text file into it (i.e. tell Windows to open the text file with the program), my program pops up the path of the file as the command-line parameter. Pretty cool, huh? So your "Shell" function call should work great!
Let me know if you want my little stub program to toy with. It might be good if you have a problem and want to debug the problem...
The two commands above are that simple in VB. As you can see, I have the programs on there without a path, but shell-command's default directory is C:/ (or whatever your main hard drive is called) and also recognizes programs in the Windows directory without paths (ex. notepad.exe).
Hey, I just found something else! If you create a shortcut to your WoG ".exe" file, and tweak the properties a bit, you can actually make World of Goo BOOT a level! Isn't that awesome!?
In your shortcut to WoG, right-click and select Properties. In the properties, it should say "Target: " with the path for the EXE inside it. If you go to the very right (outside the quotes), and press space, you can write what level you want it to boot. It will have to be the correct level-ID, of course (ex. GoingUp for the level "Going Up", and AB3 for the level "Alice, Bob, & the third-party").
For example, here's my target form for MY shortcut to the game:
"C:\Program Files\Brighter Minds Media\World of Goo\WorldOfGoo.exe" BlusteryDay
So,:
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
Sure. Btw, Enchanter49, it's not the "encrypted" level name, it's the level's ID.
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
Argh, why? You don't fake any stats you wouldn't have achieved without launching a level, would you?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
It will act like real WoG. Just the same as when you open a level from wogedit.
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
See #3.
So,:
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
1. Yes
2. No, it would be just like GooTool
3. Well, since it's just the level-tester engine, it acts like WoGedit (well WoGedit acts like the engine!)
4. When the level is finished, the program crashes. The crashes aren't fatal, though. They are basically saying, "Whoa man! This program doesn't know what to do next! Like, even thooough Kyle Gabler made it awesome, it still can't preform miracles dude! It's, LIKE, run OUT OF CODE, you SEE!"
5. Yes, you do
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
Sure. Btw, Enchanter49, it's not the "encrypted" level name, it's the level's ID.
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
Argh, why? You don't fake any stats you wouldn't have achieved without launching a level, would you?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
It will act like real WoG. Just the same as when you open a level from wogedit.
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
See #3.
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
Yeah.
Aw crap...you and I were posting at the same time!
After much deliberation I have come to the firm conclusion that you (Enchanter49) are a god (provided that is that you finish this editor). Keep it up man I cant wait to give this a spin, also one feature I would have loved to have seen in the original Goo Edit was to make scales have negative dimensions so that object could be horizontally and vertically flipped, so please include that in you editor thank you for giving up your time for the community I have nothing but the utmost respect for people such as your self, keep up the great work.
Fraser: I dunno how much Enchanter is working on this new editor, but Daft as Brush is reviving the old one: http://goofans.com/download/utility/wog-editor-06
A lot better than the old one!
And I think it's impossible to scale something in a negative direction. Probably the reason WOG Editor doesn't support it is because WOG doesn't either.
Enchanter: Correct me if I'm wrong and you're really still working on this project!
Oh ok well the new editor is pretty good, I've been using it all week but enchanters looked pretty awesome in terms of ease of use so I would definitely make the switch if it were completed. I wonder what tools 2D Boy used when making WoG originally...
but i dont think programmers who used to work at Electronic Arts would design their levels by editing the text by hand
they probably have their own editor that worked with the exe file where they could create their own chapters and animations
although c and c++ are very common languages, they are older and less favored in newer programs especially an editor for a game. i would probably guess c# or some other language but c and c++ are not impossible
but i dont think programmers who used to work at Electronic Arts would design their levels by editing the text by hand
they probably have their own editor that worked with the exe file where they could create their own chapters and animations
Don't you think if they had their on editor they would released it like they promised? Actually they wrote the xmls by hand.
If you think about it, writing xmls by hand isn't that difficult. Most of it is template, only thing that you need to know is how to match geoms with background images (like islands, walls and such)
If you look at the goo placements in some original levels, you will notice they have been placed at exact coordinates, like x100,y100 and they have been placed at the same distance from each other on one axis (ex: next goo would be at x100,y120)
If they had their own editor they wouldn't pay attention to these detail, they would just place it anywhere near(like we do when we are making levels) and get coordinates with 10 digests after x100,....
By hand, they wrote first round number that is close to the places they wanted for that goo.
And there are tiny mistakes in many levels that shouldn't be there if they used the editor
Wow that spurred a lot of conversation... if you are right however thats incredibly impressive that they created such great levels i wonder what they would be able to do with the new editors! any way, any news on enchanters level editor?
No, that's not what I meant. I just meant to make some kind of program that displays the command-line parameters it's passed. Piece of cake. I did it this morning in about ten minutes. Okay, here's how you'd make Level Maker's play level functionality:
It couldn't be easier! Just call WorldOfGoo.exe with a command-line parameter of the level you want it to open. That's it. Let WOG take care of the rest.
I don't know how you'd do this in VB, but in C++ it's really simple:
Easy, right?
If you want to toy around with my little command-line displaying program, I can email it to you.
IRC | Chapter Tutorial | Reference Guide
I already know how to do that. That's basically just like opening a text file!
Here's the VB for that:
I'm not sure if this is correct for the level, though:
Visual Basic REALLY IS basic!
My level editor is coming along nicely!
I have all the forms that have to do with resources and gooballs done! Now I just have to:
Now let me tell you that numbers 2 and 3 are the ones that I am still researching. I'll post a beta version once I can finish AT LEAST numbers 1, 2, and 4.
Cool stuff! Hope it's done soon.
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
YAYZ! I JUST FIXED NUMBER 3!!! I just had to treat the shell command as if it were opening a batch file! (this may make no sense to you, and it means that there was something simple that I could of done the whole time and I only just found out about it). After I sort the code out, (make it replace, rather then copy the xml to a bin; make it move the xml to a temporary directory for easy access; etc.) I will be able to use my program to encrypt/decrypt files whenever! I'll toy around with this a little...
Hmm, I guess that would make sense. Treating those DOS encrypt/decrypt files like DOS batch files...
I'm not sure if this is correct for the level, though:
Visual Basic REALLY IS basic!
Yep. This should work fine. Just toyed with my WOG stub program and found that if you drag a text file into it (i.e. tell Windows to open the text file with the program), my program pops up the path of the file as the command-line parameter. Pretty cool, huh? So your "Shell" function call should work great!
Let me know if you want my little stub program to toy with. It might be good if you have a problem and want to debug the problem...
IRC | Chapter Tutorial | Reference Guide
I just found out that I was coding it wrong before. Here's the real code:
Opening a file WITH a program:
Shell("notepad.exe exfile.txt")Opening a program and giving it a DOS-command:
Shell("wogfile.exe --Encrypt balls.xml.xml balls.xml.bin")The two commands above are that simple in VB. As you can see, I have the programs on there without a path, but shell-command's default directory is C:/ (or whatever your main hard drive is called) and also recognizes programs in the Windows directory without paths (ex. notepad.exe).
Sweet! Glad you got it up and running!
IRC | Chapter Tutorial | Reference Guide
Hey, I just found something else! If you create a shortcut to your WoG ".exe" file, and tweak the properties a bit, you can actually make World of Goo BOOT a level! Isn't that awesome!?
In your shortcut to WoG, right-click and select Properties. In the properties, it should say "Target: " with the path for the EXE inside it. If you go to the very right (outside the quotes), and press space, you can write what level you want it to boot. It will have to be the correct level-ID, of course (ex. GoingUp for the level "Going Up", and AB3 for the level "Alice, Bob, & the third-party").
For example, here's my target form for MY shortcut to the game:
This shortcut will open the level "Blustery Day".
,
I just thought I would share this with you!
So,:
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
Sure. Btw, Enchanter49, it's not the "encrypted" level name, it's the level's ID.
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
Argh, why? You don't fake any stats you wouldn't have achieved without launching a level, would you?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
It will act like real WoG. Just the same as when you open a level from wogedit.
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
See #3.
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
Yeah.
my gooey profile | my video channel | author of Hazardous Environment
1. You can boot any level? (Even custom levels?)
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
1. Yes
2. No, it would be just like GooTool
3. Well, since it's just the level-tester engine, it acts like WoGedit (well WoGedit acts like the engine!)
4. When the level is finished, the program crashes. The crashes aren't fatal, though. They are basically saying, "Whoa man! This program doesn't know what to do next! Like, even thooough Kyle Gabler made it awesome, it still can't preform miracles dude! It's, LIKE, run OUT OF CODE, you SEE!"
5. Yes, you do
Sure. Btw, Enchanter49, it's not the "encrypted" level name, it's the level's ID.
2. If you can boot custom levels, would that be considered cheating?
Argh, why? You don't fake any stats you wouldn't have achieved without launching a level, would you?
3. Will it act like WoG EDIT or will it act like real WoG?
It will act like real WoG. Just the same as when you open a level from wogedit.
4. When you finish a level, what happens next?
See #3.
5. Do I ask a lot of questions? (lol)
Yeah.
Aw crap...you and I were posting at the same time!
About your eidtor, Maybe it will help if you have source code of the first editor:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dttjtbnfzoz
My Gooish profile | Videos on YouTube | My WOG Mods
http://www.mediafire.com/?dttjtbnfzoz
Thanks, but I've already downloaded it months ago. It doesn't really help since it was written in Python (and mine is in VB...).
After much deliberation I have come to the firm conclusion that you (Enchanter49) are a god (provided that is that you finish this editor). Keep it up man I cant wait to give this a spin, also one feature I would have loved to have seen in the original Goo Edit was to make scales have negative dimensions so that object could be horizontally and vertically flipped, so please include that in you editor
thank you for giving up your time for the community I have nothing but the utmost respect for people such as your self, keep up the great work.
Fraser: I dunno how much Enchanter is working on this new editor, but Daft as Brush is reviving the old one:
http://goofans.com/download/utility/wog-editor-06
A lot better than the old one!
And I think it's impossible to scale something in a negative direction. Probably the reason WOG Editor doesn't support it is because WOG doesn't either.
Enchanter: Correct me if I'm wrong and you're really still working on this project!
IRC | Chapter Tutorial | Reference Guide
Oh ok well the new editor is pretty good, I've been using it all week but enchanters looked pretty awesome in terms of ease of use so I would definitely make the switch if it were completed. I wonder what tools 2D Boy used when making WoG originally...
Hand-writen .XML, I think...
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
i doubt that
Well, they didn't have WoG editor back then, did they
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
but i dont think programmers who used to work at Electronic Arts would design their levels by editing the text by hand
they probably have their own editor that worked with the exe file where they could create their own chapters and animations
true...but what editor?
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
dunno but its probably loads better than anything we can come up with just by reverse engineering and debugging the whole deal
No, not loads....LOADZ AND LOADZ!
I haven't worked with anything like what they probably have, especially since they went to EA to work on it.
So....what kind would it be? C? C+?
InfernoFans | Chest full of porkchops
probably not
although c and c++ are very common languages, they are older and less favored in newer programs especially an editor for a game. i would probably guess c# or some other language but c and c++ are not impossible
i did this and made the level sucsesfully, but when i click save and play, i cant find the level in world of goo
where is the level found in other words
they probably have their own editor that worked with the exe file where they could create their own chapters and animations
Don't you think if they had their on editor they would released it like they promised? Actually they wrote the xmls by hand.
If you think about it, writing xmls by hand isn't that difficult. Most of it is template, only thing that you need to know is how to match geoms with background images (like islands, walls and such)
If you look at the goo placements in some original levels, you will notice they have been placed at exact coordinates, like x100,y100 and they have been placed at the same distance from each other on one axis (ex: next goo would be at x100,y120)
If they had their own editor they wouldn't pay attention to these detail, they would just place it anywhere near(like we do when we are making levels) and get coordinates with 10 digests after x100,....
By hand, they wrote first round number that is close to the places they wanted for that goo.
And there are tiny mistakes in many levels that shouldn't be there if they used the editor
by my opinion, they wrote xmls by hand
My Gooish profile | Videos on YouTube | My WOG Mods
Wow that spurred a lot of conversation... if you are right however thats incredibly impressive that they created such great levels i wonder what they would be able to do with the new editors! any way, any news on enchanters level editor?