Reuben (again): SMB3 editor with new level format!

You guys may remember about a year and a half ago I was working on an editor called Reuben. I twas to be the best SMB3 editor evah, but I lost interest in it and it failed. Why did it fail? I wanted the user to be able to completely customize everything about the level. Have all the objects drawn perfectly and modifiable.

I then realized that it would be so cool if SMB3 used a direct tilemap instead of an object based level data format. With this, I started to brainstorm and opened up Visual Studio 2008 and began to code...

This was 2 weeks ago. Today I am here to show this:



What you see is Reuben using a simple compression format for a tile map. Objects are no longer used so you can design a level exactly the way you want. However, there's a lot more to it than that. Reuben current features the following:

-Project based management. All data is saved outside of the rom. You later apply the project to a rom to test out. This means no more managing level pointers yourself.

-Very simple graphics editor. The graphics can be edited in the editor and you can see the results without having to reload the project.

-Completely custom TSA/Map16 editor.

-New palette management. Before you were restricted to 8 palettes per level type for tiles and 4 for sprites. Now you can use any palette for any level of any level type. You can create up to 256 palettes. The editor allows you to name these palettes for much easier referencing.

-Brand new level format applied to the rom. Allows you to create levels with less limitations.

-Brand new level header that includes:
*Choose any song for a level
*Start anywhere on a level. Notice in the screen shot the small Mario icon in the editor. That's where Mario starts and it works in the rom as well.
*Choose any graphics set to use for a level.
*3 unused bytes included in the editor for possible future updates or for the hacker to use

-Brand new pointer format inside levels
*No longer setting "range" for pointers. You can set the point where a pointer will work. You can also point to more than one level and exit at any point on that stage. Right now you will be able to have up to 4 pointers per stage, which should be more than enough.

Editor also includes:
-Customize your block layout with the layout manger. Allows you to arrange tiles for much quicker access when creating levels.
-Hide/show the lower and right portions of the editor to allow more space for level viewing
-Sprite categorizing. Sprites are placed in categories that show their compatibility, no longer guessing on whether sprites will work together without glitches.

Other planned features for the editor:
-Revamped world editing. Create all worlds from scratch, allowing you to vary the size of a map.
-Start anywhere on a map
-Add/remove sprites and pointers
-Miscellaneous data editors

Seems you've done a lot of work with this. Looks very good!

Questions:

1. Do you need testers?
2. Any release date?
3. Any chance of support for the SNES version in SMB All Stars?

Keep up the good work!

I will definitely need testers but I've been releasing the editor on a periodic basis with the source, but there's still a lot of things left to do before bug reports become meaningful to me.

No release date. I just plan to release it as fast as I can

No support for the SMAS SMB3. Someone else is actually doing that with another editor.

I will be releasing the source periodically, but there's still quite a few things left to code before I would tell people to start creating their own branches of the project.

I say just dump it if you start to lose interest again.  There's a lot of cool stuff I've seen you play with that just disappeared (Kid Icarus man, Kid Icarus!) D:

Pointers are coded into the editor now. You can add up to 4 and have them point to any level. Also made some comsetic changes to the layout and improved the drawing code even more.

Edit:

Latest release as of 10/28/09. Does not save to rom.


As of 10/28/09:
-Added pointer support and unused bytes editing
-Sped up drawing code. Added a lot of aesthetic features including the ability to delete levels and import levels from other projects
-Vertical levels supported
-Start anywhere on the map supported
-Modified UI layout
-Can remove levels and change what world they're categorized in
-Select active windows in the MDI area

Latest Release:

Release 11/06/09

As of 11/06/09:
-Fixed some sprite drawing bugs
-Added a lot more sprite support
-Added some keyboard short cuts for the draw mode:
A = pencil
S = line
D = Rectangle
F = Outline
G = Fill

These are basically the home row keys for your left hand.
-Added keyboard short cuts for edit mode:
Z = Tiles
X = Sprites
C = Pointers

-Added an enlarged icon view above the tile selector for easier distinguishing
-fixed the layout manager menu, it will show up now
-modified the grid to be viewable in dark and light colors
-heavily modified the gui positions
-fixed the graphics importer menu, it will show up now
-fixed level to png exporter
-When editing a level, project view and level info panels will minimize by default
-Added new guide lines.
 To make a guide show/hide, double click it (left and bottom bars, red/blue lines)
If you right click a guide bar, you can set different guide snaps for references
<b>-Nothing saves automatically anymore. Save buttons have been added to all editors and to the level editor. If you close without saving, you lose your data</b>
-Compressed level function has been fixed. Was broken on data over 1KB

As of 10/31/09 in the morning:
-Fixed an issue where moving a project from the original folders wouldn't allow anything to be loaded. Changed it to use relative directories rather than absolute paths. My bad! (this should fix your issue KP9000)

As of 10/31/09:
-Added coin information.
-Added the ability to either let the editor decide where to save a level or let you decide.
-Fixed sprite deletion
-Added 2x zoom support
-Added a diagonal line tool (great for slopes)
-Added an image export for levels
-Changed the set start position a bit to make it clear what to do next
-Added a help status bar below the level status bar
-Shift + Click on a tile in-level will bring that tile into selection
-Shift + DoubleClick will bring up the Map16 editor for the tile


As of 10/28/09:
-Added pointer support and unused bytes editing
-Sped up drawing code. Added a lot of aesthetic features including the ability to delete levels and import levels from other projects
-Vertical levels supported
-Start anywhere on the map supported
-Modified UI layout
-Can remove levels and change what world they're categorized in
-Select active windows in the MDI area
November 10, 2009, 09:31:57 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)And yet another quick update

ok, so I've gotten all of the sprites coded into the editor. Some of their rendering is a bit off, so please, refrain from pointing those out, I will be fixing those tonight.



What's next? I'm going to get the rom up to speed and make sure I can get pointers working and everything. Then afterwords, I will be implementing map editing barring any delays from playing the New SMB Wii. I'm shooting for a 1.0 release on Thanksgiving. It will be far from the final release, but you should be able to start making a hack using 1.0. Once again, thanks for all the feedback guys! This editor would be as great as it is without you!

...barring any delays from playing the New SMB Wii.

Give yourself a break, you deserve it 
Good job!

New release out:

Latest Release:

Release 11/11/09

As of 11/11/09:

-There are 2 modes for the right mouse click.

Selector Mode
Tile Placement Mode


Selector Mode:
Right clicking and drawing draws a rectangle in a region on the level. The area selected can be cut, copied and pasted or deleted from the level itself. When you paste, if selection area is a single block, it will paste the exact shape you copied. If the selection paste area is not the same, the editor will do a sort of "pattern". For example, if your copy region is [1][2][3] and your paste region is 5 squares long, it would look like this: [1][2][3][1][2]. If any of your copied region contained an erase tile, when that's pasted, it's treated as a "transparent" tile and will not paste over the existing data.

Tile Placement Mode:
The right click can have it's own tile to draw using all the same tools as the left click. You will see 2 blocks below the block selector, a left and right one. Guess what they indicate?! lol

To change modes, double click the mode display or hit Ctrl + D

-At any rate, the middle mouse button is now the eraser click.

I also changed it so if you want to edit a specific block, double clicking it in the block selector will bring it up in the Map 16 editor, rather than having to do it in the level viewer.

-I've also touched a lot of things. Such as when you bring up various editors (palette editor, graphics editor, etc) it will automatically set the graphics, definitions and palettes to what your current level is using. Convenient eh? I've also finally added the ability to reload a level, removing previous changes and to reload the graphics, so if you're using another editor to change graphics, you can see what it looks like in your editor without having to reload the entire project. *pant pant*

-Fixed an issue where the scroll type was not saving
-Added a cut/copy/paste
-New Key Bindings
Control + G: Toggle Grid
Control + W: Toggle Special Tile View
Control + E: Toggle Special Sprite View
Control + R: Toggle Start  Position Display
Control + D: Toggle Right click mode
Control + S: Save current level
Control + F: Place Mario's starting position

-All sprites that are displayable are now able to be rendered. If you're using an old project, after loading the project, go to File->Reload->Default Sprites before opening any levels. This will update your sprites file.

-Guide panels! You now have 2 horizontal and vertical guides located on the left and right extremities of the level area. Double click on a guide (red or blue) to toggle its display. You can click and drag the mouse to move the guide. You can also set guide presets on either guide by right clicking the panel area and choosing a preset snap option.

-Modified Map 16 editor a bit. If you want to edit a block's TSA without having to find it, double click it in the Block Selector on the left. (shift + double click from the previous version no longer works)

-In the TSA/Map 16 editor I've added two features that makes setting your definitions easier. If you click on a definition and hit Control + C then you will copy it's definition. You can then paste the definition with Control + V to another block. You can also globally apply a tile definition by clicking the Apply Definition Globally button (useful for common blocks such as coins and ? blocks).

You know how many people love this game. You know how much people will love you when this is 100% Enough said. 

Indeed, people are having a blast already just creating levels, even though they can't really test them. I'm personally using it to build Mario Adventure 3 and am making modifications to the program as I see fit. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Just a quick update:
The editor is about ready to enter an RC stage. It's going under private beta testing. I still need to implement a few things in the rom and polish the editor a bit, but it's definitely going to be out before the end of the year. Remember to look forward to:

-More than 9 worlds
-Point to more than 1 bonus area
-Pipes that can exit to a different part of the game
-Vertical levels that WORK on ANY object type
-Level object types can be changed (with a bit of gfx part on the user's part, of course)
-No object set shares TSA data anymore
-Worlds can span as many screens as you like
-Start anywhere on a world
-Start anywhere on a level
-other features not mentioned!

I hope this changes the way people build editors and rom hacking in general

I'm definitely looking forward to a SMB editor that makes pointer management not as confusing. I never could understand how that worked.

this looks like a great editor to spend the next 5 years of my life on a SMB3 hack with 


(not a statement about the editor which looks great, but my slowness with making hacks)