Ralph Tools movie

I recorded a little movie of one of the EV Nova Ralph Tools ™ in action. They are a series of editors for ResEdit that make creating things for EV Nova much easier -- hat's off to ya, Ralph!

There are also some stand-alone tools to help you do sanity checking. All in all, it should make for a much more pleasant EV Nova plugin making experience. Have a look:

(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/news/upcoming/images/evn_arrow_ralphtools.mov")shan editor movie(/url) (520kb)

Note that you can selectively turn on/off various ship feature displays, and edit a whole host of settings right in one window.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...

can't wait to get my hands on that, looks really cool.
what are the numbers for in the left bottom of the spinning window, and can i have ships with bigger sprites than that area?

ComputerLizard

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"Please call us! We will provide you with any emergency." - (url="http://"http://www.engrish.com")www.engrish.com(/url)

Here's another little movie that shows off the various features you can turn on/off more clearly:

(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/news/upcoming/images/evn_arachnid_ralphatools.mov")arachnid ralph tools movie(/url) (560kb)

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...

(This message has been edited by andrew (edited 03-06-2002).)

dear lord! That arachnid movie kicks your, my, and the kid down the hall's ass!

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula.com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.net/")evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")ev-nova.net(/url)
(url="http://"http://pftn.evula.net")pftn.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://plugs3.evula.net")plugs3.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")saberstudios.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net")davidarthur.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://ucplugs.evula.net")ucplugs.evula.net(/url)

Wow. X Y and Z offsets for everything! How are the Z offsets redered, though? I thought that in the end this was still a 2D system. Or is the Z offset used as a layer value i.e. 0=below the ship, 1=same level as the ship, 2= same level as glow...

This little toolbox is going to be of great help. It's gonna take at least a week to make a decent ship for EVN, though, unlike when I could fire up Mechanisto and churn out a good ship for EVO in a couple hours. Lighting effects, here I come...

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Gage Stryker
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It's coming - Visible Menace for EVO! Current as of 02/26/02 | | v 0.2.1 | | 9.0 MB | | 32% to Beta
gage2stryker@yahoo.ca

I would drool but the last time I did that do to NOVA, the moisture knocked out my spacebar.

-improvdude-

Very cool. How are the engine glows and all rendered? Just the ship with the engine glow?

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Apparently, common sense isn't so common...
~Nick

oooo, can't wait.

pretty ships too.

Quote

Originally posted by Gage_Stryker:
**Wow. X Y and Z offsets for everything! How are the Z offsets redered, though? I thought that in the end this was still a 2D system. Or is the Z offset used as a layer value i.e. 0=below the ship, 1=same level as the ship, 2= same level as glow...

**

X and Y set up the rotation ellipse, Z moves the ellipse up and down. You'll see when you get a go at the tool and experiment, particularly with the beam.
You can also click on the sprite and the mouse coordinates are converted to weapon exit point coodinates in a little readout to give a starting point for numbers to use n the X-Y fields. Then you adjust the weapon exit point coordinates and the display is updated in real time.

Cheers
DrR

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(url="http://"http://www.sutherland-studios.com/~family/sgg.html") w00tWare (/url) : NovaTools are coming.

Quote

Originally posted by ComputerLizard:
**can't wait to get my hands on that, looks really cool.
what are the numbers for in the left bottom of the spinning window, and can i have ships with bigger sprites than that area?

ComputerLizard

**

The little numbers are the frame counter, and can also be the mouse coordinate
readout.

There is only one ship in nova that needed a larger preview area. And it you routinely make ships that big you will simply run out of memory. I strongly suggest you restrain your self for all but the rare ultimate dreadnaughts.

If you desperately need a larger preview area, the editor dialog resources can be edited with resedit and the code will adapt to a larger preview area, but you'll need a heap of RAM, and it is unsupported by me so you'll be on your own if it fails for any reason. We did use a customised version for the biggest ship, but stopped using it and used the standard one for all the others.

Cheers
DrR

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(url="http://"http://www.sutherland-studios.com/~family/sgg.html") w00tWare (/url) : NovaTools are coming.

Quote

Originally posted by DrRalph:
If you desperately need a larger preview area, the editor dialog resources can be edited with resedit and the code will adapt to a larger preview area, but you'll need a heap of RAM , and it is unsupported by me so you'll be on your own if it fails for any reason. We did use a customised version for the biggest ship, but stopped using it and used the standard one for all the others.

Heap of RAM as in 128 devoted just to the editor, or heap of RAM as in hundreds of megs?

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