Shped

[DRG]

I set up the revised version to handle 800x600 screens for my own purposes for possible changes to the game down the road. Previous to this I have NEVER had to use UNSHP or MAKSHP to enter or save screens. Every screen in both games was added using SHPED alone and I have not use either of the other two programs for at least 10 years for any reason. WHY you feel you have to is a mystery to me. If I had to guess I'd guess you are trying to use "use old header" for screens

As for terrain. The game creates the terrain SHP files automatically for the other zoom levels when it does not find those other levels in the game files and it's been that way since G&B first started to build SP1 in the early 90's. The trick is having a computer that can run a pure DOS environment AND a copy of a DOS EXE with the new SP Camo zoom IN level and I'm not planning on passing that around.

Otherwise anyone trying to make terrain needs to do it the hard way and as you have found there are quirks in game with the header info when doing them manually that is neither Fred's SHPEd's fault nor the game. The game was designed to do this automatically. We just haven't bothered to take the considerable amount of time required to figure out why a windows environment screws up the automatic terrain creation routine when I have a W95 box behind me that will do all the other zoom levels in less than a minute. The tedious part is moving the files back and forth with floppys


So, yes, you have to do it manually and it can be tedious and you have to do it manually becasue the reduced zoom levels do not use the same sized background as the z4 set


Don

[mkr8683]

Originally Posted by DRG

Previous to this I have NEVER had to use UNSHP or MAKSHP to enter or save screens.

For whatever reason, when editing, say, Battle.shp in SHPED, I could not view the first tile which is a menu screen. None of the menu screens would ever display that way. However, in the case of Battle.shp, I could view all the other tiles, flags and such, behind that one menu tile. I've used the UNSHP and MAKSHP for menus since Day One for this reason. Maybe the problem is having the Use Old Headers box checked.. I'll experiment. It'll probably be an epiphany to me.

As for terrain.. the trick is having a computer that can run a pure DOS environment ..

What a miracle if I could make this work. So players trying this trick can create z3, z2, and z1, at least?

We just haven't bothered to take the considerable amount of time required to figure out why a windows environment screws up the automatic terrain creation routine..

That's quite understandable. Not many people editing terrain icons. I wonder if a separate program could be written specifically to handle this issue? I'll see if Fred Chlanda is still around. The poor man has had some major health issues, from what I understand.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by mkr8683

What a miracle if I could make this work. So players trying this trick can create z3, z2, and z1, at least?

IF you have a machine that runs a version of windows before XP and IF you have an old copy of the DOS game around and IF you add just the new z4 terrain to the SHP folder using an existing terrain file name and IF you delete the old z3, z2, and z1 so the game cannot find them the game will create them when you run the game and load a map with that terrain and then zoom in and out but you will not get z5

Originally Posted by mkr8683

I'll see if Fred Chlanda is still around. The poor man has had some major health issues, from what I understand.

Fred had a stroke not long after he completed the final version of SHPed in the late 1990's. If he's having further health issues now I would advise leaving him alone. Eventually we will be getting around to dealing with this issue


Don