Using the level editor ( 1

[Jamul]

I'm responding to JVAT's post in the other topic... figured this deserves its own, and I am happy to help anyone with any editing questions!



The instructions for how to use the editor, though long involved and confusing, are in the windows start menu, under Dr. Lunatic/Editor Instructions. The gist is: when you want to save, click on File Menu, type in a new filename, and click Save. Easy! What you probably did initially was click on the forest.dlw and click save, which saved it with that filename... erasing the original forest.dlw!



I don't condone this if you aren't finished with it, but if you want to help yourself understand how a world is constructed, load one into the editor like forest.dlw - but don't spoil it for yourself by loading one you haven't finished!



I think it may take a rocket scientist to really get to understand the editor... it's not the most intuitive thing I've ever written.

[Jamul]

Hmm... I just tried it and it worked great. It's a little different from a normal windows menu:



1. click on File Menu

2. if there is any text in the bottom text box, push backspace until it is gone.

3. type "myworldname.dlw"

4. click the Save button.

5. The file menu should vanish, and if you bring it up again, the name you saved as should be in the list of files in the big box.

6. Now any time you want to come back to it, just click on the name in the box, and click "Load".

7. To play it, choose "New Game" from the main menu, rotate the world selector to "?" and push up or down a few times until the name of your world is displayed at the bottom of the screen*. Then hit enter!



* the name isn't the filename you saved it as, it's the name you assigned to level 0 of it, by using the World Menu. By default, it's "New World".



Hope that helps!!

[Anonymous]

What's the editor documentation? Is it something of this website?

[Jamul]

In the windows start menu... under Dr. Lunatic!

[Anonymous]

I tried saving that way but it didn't work!

[Anonymous]

How do you make multiple floors? That is all.

[Jamul]

There actually aren't ever multiple floors... just teleporters and sections of a level that are far apart from each other so hopefully you don't hear sounds or see parts of 'other floors'.



A teleporter is just a type of Special. Put one down, mark it player step and enemy step (if you want enemies to be able to use it too), select the "teleport" effect, and then just set the X and Y coordinates (lower right of the Special Menu) to the desired destination. You can see the coordinates of the cursor in the lower right of the screen at all times.



Also, if you didn't know, clicking on an existing special with the special tool lets you change its values. And also, backspace is used to delete unwanted ones (as well as unwanted items or monsters).

[Anonymous]

I can't find stairs though. I can find ladders in the desert tileset, but no stairs. Where are the stairs?

[Jamul]

oh, stairs are in 2 pieces in the forest tiles... there is a floor piece (wooden floor with a bit of stairs on the top half), and a wall piece, wooden wall with the rest of the stairs on it. Gotta put them together to create the illusion of stairs attached to the wall! You can create your own tilesets, mixing and matching if you want - they are BMP files, you can mess with them with any paint program. The simple thing to do would be cut and paste whole tiles from different tilesets and put them together. Good luck! I want to see what you come up with.

[Anonymous]

When I put a Mine Cart in it's pointing in the wrong direction. Is there a way to toggle that? Question 2: Do all the levels in a world have to be of the same tileset? I'm making a world called "The Caves" and I want to make a level with a minecart track, but minecart tracks are only in the Pygmy Island tileset. Is there a way to make the tileset of one level different from that of another level in the same world? Question 3: I have a custom world that I want to erase, but there's no delete option. How do I erase it? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have trouble with the minecart tracks.





A

B

C

D

H G F E

I J K L

M

N





Think of this as the track. On letter E,H,I,and L I put tracks that turn. But still the minecart goes from E to L. The cart doesn't turn when it gets to a turn tile. HELP!!!!!!

[Jamul]

Sorry about that! That can certainly be a major case of depression... and anger... sorry! There's no way to fix it, I'm afraid. It actually works that way because I didn't want to be annoyed by a dialog box every time I went to save my work (asking yes/no). Guess that wasn't the best choice! I hope that doesn't burn you out on the whole level making process. Sounds like you have made some really good progress from what you've been asking about.

Sorry I had to edit your post too - all I did was erase a whole lot of exclamation marks, because they trashed the formatting of the page and made all the posts hard to read.

You know what I would recommend? Every so often, save your world under a new name, so you at least have a backup from the fairly recent past instead of having to start over. I never did that, but it's probably a good idea.



About the minecarts - the corners, crossovers, etc, are just for looks - all mine tracks work the same way... for instance you could put a bunch of vertical ones in a row horizontally, and they'd function as a horizontal track. You can actually make your own mine track out of any tile - just choose "Edit Terrain" and check the "Mine Track" (something like that!) check box for the terrain you want. Then mine carts will roll on that. The mine cart will always go forward if there is more track in front of it. So you probably made a pair of tracks that were next to each other and that caused the problem. Just always separate them by one space or more.

[Jamul]

No, it doesn't matter which way the carts are facing... I suppose it'd look better if they faced the right way, but I think (can't verify now, I'm not at home) that they actually turn to the right facing when the level starts. Anyway, they will always move in the right way. Which is to say: they will always go forward if they can. If they can't go forward, but can go to either side, they will. If they have multiple directions available, and one of them is forward, they'll go forward. If forward isn't available, they'll go whichever way is more like where the player is facing (so you can give the player some control over it). Sounds complicated, but basically, they go forward. When they run out of places to go, they spit Bouapha off and turn around.



As for tilesets, to mix and match, you have to make a custom tileset. Best way is to cut and paste individual tiles in a paint program. For instance, take the cave tileset (load "c drlunatic\graphics\cavernTiles.bmp" or similar into your program) and paste the mine cart tracks into it (from "pygmyTiles.bmp") in some of the 'blank' spots (spots that are purple checkerboard). Then save it as "mycustomtiles.bmp" or whatever, in the graphics directory, and you'll be able to use it. So the point is, yes, you can only have one tileset per world. Sorry!



When you have a completed world you want to distribute, you won't need to include the tilesets - it actually stores a copy of the tiles in the world file itself, so unless you added some special sounds or pictures (for the Play Sound special or Show Pic special), the world file is all you need to distribute.



The same goes for erasing worlds, I'm afraid - you have to go outside of Dr. L to do it. I didn't want to make it too easy to do, since it would be upsetting to accidently delete things (okay, so a "Yes/No" box would've solved that, but I was also lazy). In windows, go to the Dr. Lunatic folder, then the "worlds" subfolder, and just click on the one you want deleted, and push delete!

[Anonymous]

Hey, Mr. X...

I feel your pain, man!! That sounds horrible. Are you recovered yet? Don't give up...it sounded like you were whipping together an awesome level for us...

JVAT should do the same!!!! And anyone else out there who can figure it out...the more levels the better for all of us, right??

[Anonymous]

How do you make a wall have a transparent roof? The editor documentation was pretty vague about it. How?

[Jamul]

Well, writing documentation isn't very fun...

Transparent Roof refers to things like for example those round columns in the desert... they don't have squared off tops - they have some transparent pixels (not transparent as in like glass, but transparent as in totally gone).



So, if a tile has some black (color #0) in it, and that tile is used as a roof, and it has the "Transparent Roof" option turned on, then all the black pixels of that tile will not be drawn.



Other examples are the hedges (forest tiles), where they have a few different pixels in them that are clear, so you can see some bits of Bouapha or whoever that stands behind them.



So... to explain, the POINT of a transparent roof is to allow non-square-shaped roofs, and the way you do it is to just set "Transparent Roof" on for any tile that has black (color #0) pixels.



I have no idea if that makes sense to anyone but me.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way make a water tile change to a floor tile when you win a certain amount of levels so as a bridge appears?

[Jamul]

Yeah, there's a trick to doing it. I did it in Spooky Castle, probably in the expansions too.

Actually, in Pygmy Island I did something simpler - made a special, triggered by "Pass N Levels" (actually I think it was "Has all keychains" but same idea), that did a Summon Monster, and it summoned a raft. So that made a bridge. Makes a funny noise everytime you enter the level though (the summon/teleport noise).



The true way to do is kind of goofy. You use both Zap Wall and Make Wall. It is complex. First, you need to make the water tiles that will be your bridge different from their neighbors, since making a wall affects all contiguous tiles of the same type (simple trick: make two identical looking tiles in the tileset if you don't want it to be noticeable).

Then this is the really strange part - you are going to make a Make Wall that chains off ("Chain Off Neighbor Special" of a Zap Wall.



Here's what will happen in the game:

1. Player passes N levels, so the Zap Wall is triggered.

2. BUT, when a special is triggered, any that chain off of it go off FIRST. So the make wall happens first.

3. Then the zap wall happens, zapping the wall that just got made, but when you zap a wall, you get to specify what type of floor it becomes, so you just pick whatever floor you want.



How's that for awkward?

So anyway, the ingredients are:

1 patch of water that is a different tile from its neighbors

1 special with the following properties:

trigger: Pass N Levels

effect: Zap Wall (with value of whatever floor you want)

target: any tile within the patch of water

1 special like this (next to the previous special):

trigger: Chain Off Neighbor

effect: Make Wall (with value of 1, doesn't matter since they won't see it, but value of 0 doesn't work)

target: any tile within the patch of water



And that is how you change one set of floor tiles into another. Another way to do it is with the Swap Map special, but you can only do that if you have a spot to store what you want swapped so the player won't see them swap (can't do it on a hub level, since the whole level is visible at once). SwapMap is really weird to use, but I think it's explained in the manual. Can do lots of fun things with it, like that really ridiculous level in the Haunted Mansion.

[Jamul]

Sure - just click on the roof part of the wall as it appears in the lower right of the screen (you know how it shows you a sample of what wall you are using if you are in wall mode? Click the top half of it). Or using the keeby:



-,+ change floor tile

[,] change wall tile

o,p change roof tile

;,' change item?

<,> change monster?



those last two might be swapped or something. I think they're all in the manual under shortcuts or something.



And of course, if you push - or +, you won't see the difference unless you are in floor mode, etc.

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to change which tile makes the roof of a wall? Does the roof always have to be tile #1?

[Anonymous]

What's an Ultrazoid's natural habitat? I know that a Magmazoid's is lava and an Aquazoid's is water, but what's an Ultrazoids?

[Jamul]

Ultra, Geo and Cryo go on land. And of course, you can actually put any water/lava zoids in water or lava, they don't care one way or the other (they have a high tolerance for temperature). Any zoid put on the wrong surface, or any monster for that matter (except flyers), will just be unable to move. I suppose you could use that for making aquazoid or magmazoid turrets.

[Anonymous]

How do you make a custom tileset? I think you have to do some pasting stuff in a paint program, but I have no idea how to do that. Help.

[Jamul]

I can't explain how to use a paint program, I mean that depends on whatever program you have, but I'll tell you what you need to provide to make a tileset in Dr. Lunatic.

You have to make a 640x480 BMP file, in 256 colors, using the same palette as the game. The easiest way to do that is just to edit one of the existing tileset pictures, which are in the \graphics subdirectory. So if you want to make one that just combines some of the tiles from the existing sets, you can load one, select some of it with the selection tool, hit Copy, load the other one, hit paste, and stick it where you want it. Or just scribble new stuff in. It's pretty clear when you look at the tileset picture how big each tile is and where they are. All tiles above the halfway point are floor/roof tiles, and all the ones below are wall tiles. The roof tiles are all at the end of the floor/roof section, just for convenience (but you can use any floor tile as a roof).



I don't know how helpful that was, but it's time for bed anyway.

[Anonymous]

Thought I'd just pop in and say "hi". I'm the guy responsible for the new Dr L world Desert? Rats!! I only got into Dr L a couple of months ago and I've had as much fun playing with the editor (once I got to grips with it) as I have playing the original game. The point is, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to games creation, I don't understand any computer language, and until a few days ago I had never used a paint programme either, but now I'm creating my own tiles for a world that should be with you in a week or two. So (a) it's easier than it looks (b) if you have a basic editing question you want answered in plain English (I don't know any technical jargon) then I'll help if I can. PS I, too, know the pain of accidentally erasing a near-completed world. The positive thing about it is that when you start re-creating your masterpiece from scratch, you have the opportunity to make the new world more elegant by leaving out bits that didn't really work, and expanding those bits that did. PPS feedback about Desert? Rats!! would be most welcome (constructive criticism, please, I'm still only a beginner !) Be good, be dumb.

[Anonymous]

Your world is great! I just finished it. It has a totally different feel than the ones included with the game. I enjoy the puzzle parts of the game the most. Although I usually get really upset with the Roly Poly's, I liked the way you used them. It was challenging but not real frustrating. I do like the levels a little bit harder. I think yours was great, but you could make them even harder and I would really enjoy them more. Keep on working because this is the thing that makes a game great: Being able to get other people to put their own ideas into the game.



Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Your instructions for erasing a world weren't clear to me. I have Windows 98 if you are talking about something else.

[Jamul]

It's just regular windows stuff. If you know how to get around in windows, you're all set (the files are all in "C DrLunatic\worlds" or the equivalent on your hard drive). If you don't, well... I'll TRY to explain, but it's a big topic... you double click "My Computer" on the desktop, then double click "C:" in the list that shows up. Then look through that list for DrLunatic or whatever you named the directory when you installed Dr. L (that's the default name). Double click that, then double click "Worlds". There's the list of worlds you have. Click on one and press delete to delete it. Easy!

[Anonymous]

I made my own tileset but there is a problem. I pasted it to my paint program, made it, and saved it under the graphics directory as MrxTiles(I didn't actually name it that). Then I went to the editor, selected load tileset, found it ther, selected it, selected "load" and the tiles weren't my tiles. The tiles altogether made up the screen where I selected to load MrxTiles. What did I do wrong?

[Jamul]

I'm pretty sure that means it couldn't load it. Which means it wasn't saved in the right format - first of all, make sure it's a BMP file. Second, you have to be sure it's 256 colors (using the palette from the game). Third, you have to be sure it saves it uncompressed. In Paint Shop Pro, that means going into the special options in the save menu to set it to that. I hope that gets you rolling!

[Anonymous]

I think I know what you mean, except I have no idea what uncompressed is. I know I used the same colors as the original pallette. And how do I save it as a bmp file? Do I type ".bmp" after it?

[Anonymous]

If your 'puter has a similar set up to mine, try File, Save As, and then you should have a drop down box which allows you to choose the way the image is saved..Gif, Jpeg, Bmp etc. Give your file a name you're going to remember, select BMP from the drop down list and click save or Ok. That should do it.

[Jamul]

The drop down box should be there, and either see if there is a choice for "RLE BMP" or "compressed BMP" or something, and use the one that isn't that! You want uncompressed. If there is just "BMP" as a choice (in my program it's "Windows or OS/2 Bitmap (.BMP)" ), then see if the save dialog has a button for advanced options or something like that, so you can be sure it saves it uncompressed.

If it doesn't give you any option, then just save as a bmp with that drop down list, and try it. If it doesn't work, then it's compressed. There may be an option hidden in the program preferences or something to change that. Good luck!