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| Thread: Fred79's Tutorial Thread |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 04:52 PM |
 bonus applied by angelito on 23 Sep 2015. |
Edited by fred79 at 21:31, 30 Aug 2015.
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Fred79's Tutorial Thread
Lol, that title is so self-important . Anyway, this thread is where I'll put my tutorials.
First up, a tutorial for the ObjTxtEditor(made by Bourn) for people new to it:
For this tutorial, I will be moving Counter-clockwise around the ObjTxtEditor Pop-up screen, starting at the top left; as this method assures that objects are inputted correctly, consistently.
1. Open ObjTxtEditor. under File, select New.
*This will create the default.def that you need before you add your objects. Notice that you now have a "default.def" under the Object List.
Now, to add your objects.
2. Click into the Def File Name text box, and type the name of your first def.
*You only have 8 placeholders for your name, so choose something that describes what the object is. Or, you could come up with your own naming convention. If you do, make sure you save the naming convention "key", so that you know what each object is, should you forget the classification later.
3. Click the drop-down arrow beneath the Def File Name text box, titled Type & Subtype. You will see the objects types listed. Scroll down until you find the correct association for your object. If it will be a scripted object, select 40 < blank >. If it is an object with a subtype, select the subtype using the drop-down arrow just below the "type" arrow.
*For this example, I selected "53 Mine" under Type, so that I could display how to use the Subtype drop-down arrow. I selected "4 Crystal" for the Subtype.
**There is one Type that has subtype objects that aren't listed in the ObjTxtEditor: Type "63 Object". The subtype list for that Object is as follows:
0 Pyramid
2 Venus's Blessing
3 Mysterious Creature Dwelling (?)
8 Junk Merchant
9 Arcane Tower
10 - 13 Sphinx
14 Magic Air Mushroom
15 Death Chamber
18 Magic Water Mushroom
20 Altar of Transformation
21 Summoning Stones
22 Forgotten Shrine
23 Magic Earth Mushroom
24 Alms House
29 Magic Fire Mushroom
32 Battle Academy
33 Palace of Dreams
47 Bank
48 Valhalla's Fountain
50 Living Skull
51 Market of Time
52 Artificer
57 Adventure Cave
62 School of Wizardry
65 Emerald Tower
66 Mirror of the Home-way
4. "Position of Object" places your object so that either a hero can walk over it, or if the hero will walk beneath it. Select "Above Object" if the object will be an impassable object, or a sky object. Select "Below Object" if it is a ground terrain patch, platform, etc.
*For this example, because I'm adding a Mine, I selected "Above Object", as a mountain mine is an object that the hero will not walk on(the ground mines Ore Pits and Gem Ponds are an exception; the hero walks "on" them).
5. The column "Type of Terrain" specifies under which terrain your object will be allowed to be placed in the Map Editor. I always select all of them, for ease of use.
6. The column "Type of Landscape" specifies under which column in the Map Editor your object will be found. Self-explanatory; if your object is a volcanic object, it will fall under Lava Landscape. If an ocean object, Water Landscape; etc.
*You can have objects fall under up to 3 different Landscapes if you want. If you select a 4th Landscape, your object will immediately be moved to the "All-Terrain Objects" column in your Map Editor. Meaning, for instance, even if you selected your object to fall into the Dirt, Sand, Rough, and Underground Landscapes(columns in the Map Editor), they will ONLY show up under the "All-Terrain Objects" column in the Map Editor. So, in order to put objects in the "All-Terrain Objects" column, you have to select at least, and any 4, or the Landscapes in the "Type of Landscape" column in ObjTxtEditor.
Since I want this object to fall under "All-Terrain", I select any 4 of the Landscapes.
7. Above the Type of Landscape column is the "Object Place" column. Here is where you can further specify where your object goes, if your object doesn't really fall into any certain terrain. Other is selected for All Terrain objects. Towns for towns, Monsters for monsters, etc. Use this column the same way you would with the Type of Landscape column.
*NOTE: If you place your object in anything other than "Other", your object will be found under THAT column in the Map Editor; as the Object Place column takes precedence over the Type of Landscape column. So, for instance, if you only selected "Dirt Landscape" from the Type of Landscape column, but selected "Treasures" in the Object Place column, then your object will be found under "Treasures" in the Map Editor.
This test object will fall under All-Terrain, so I will leave the "Other" selection marked.
8. To the left of the Object Place column, is the "Pass & Access Ability grid. This is where you will specify how your hero will be able to interact with the object you are adding.
Notes on the "Grid" boxes to the right of the Pass & Access Ability grid(highlighted in green, in the screen below): The red box is an unpassable square. Wherever you place this square in the grid, your hero cannot go(unless you have the WoG option "pass through objects" box checked, but that doesn't concern us here). The clear square is for removing unwanted squares that you may have placed. The yellow square sets the place your hero activates the object(through a visit, in-game). To use any colored square, click on it in the "Grid" box, and now that square is what will activate when you click on the squares in the Pass & Access Ability grid.
*In order to properly place your passability/interactability squares, you need to have your object open in H3DefTool. Click the "Reposition" tab in H3Deftool, and you will see an identical grid. Use this grid as a guide to properly place the passability/interactability squares in ObjTxtEditor.
For this test object, I will fill in a generic Mine passability. The yellow box, is where the hero will "enter" the mine. The red squares are where the hero cannot interact with the mine, and will have to go around it, like they naturally would a mountain or hill.
9. Now, to actually add the object to the Objects.txt list you are creating. Under Edit, select Add File to End of List. Once you click on that, you will see your object has joined the "Object List".
Finally, and the most important step, is to save your list. I always save every object I add, by clicking the "Save Current Data into List" AND by clicking the "Save" harddisc icon. This may not be needed, but I do this for assurance to make damn sure that my object has been added, so that I don't have to come back later to add it afterwards.
Which brings me to another step, should you want to keep your objects organized(if not using a .pac file, anyway. If you are altering the objects in a .lod file directly, you can organize them how you want. For .pac files, everything is organized for you, so this step will not apply to you):
*10. For adding an object anywhere BUT at the end of the Object List, you need to FIRST:
A. Create a disposable file at the end of the Object List. To do this, I simply click on the last object in the list, and under Def File Name, type XXX.def(this will be the object you will delete after adding an object anywhere else in the list BUT the end). Now, you have a disposable object. This is important, because whenever you add an object anywhere else in the list BUT the end, the LAST OBJECT GETS SCREWED UP.
So, add your object wherever you want it, with the last object being the disposable, and when you are done, save twice; just like in step 9. Input as many objects in-between whatever else as you want(saving twice for EACH object). When you are done adding your object(s) in the middle of, and not at the end of, your list, you can NOW delete the disposable object. Notice, that when you click on it, all of the Pass & Access Ability grid is red(as well as all the attributes being wiped clean, and the name becoming a blank space if you were to close the ObjTxtEditor before deleting the disposable object). Once you delete the disposable object, save twice again, using the two icons.
You can close the ObjTxtEditor at this point. If you want to open your list(or any list) back up, go to File/Open; find your file, and then open it. You will see the list you saved, and you can continue from there.
For adding multiple objects, you need to repeat steps 2-9 for each object. Step 1 is only done when you initially create the Objects.txt file.
And, that's it. Have fun adding whatever objects you want to the game, using ObjTxtEditor. 
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted August 30, 2015 05:03 PM |
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Edited by Galaad at 17:47, 30 Aug 2015.
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I want to suggest a +QP to Fred for this tutorial which will definitely help more than one.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted August 30, 2015 05:40 PM |
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Nice tutorial fred, long time needed. If images go nuts, I will upload them to imageshack later.
And actually is not Grayface who made the tool but Bourn. Grayface made the def tools.
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Era II mods and utilities
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 05:46 PM |
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thanks for the info, sal. i'll change the op.
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Haregar
Famous Hero
of destruction
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posted August 30, 2015 05:59 PM |
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It works perfectly now!  You should get +QP for this tutorial, fred79.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 06:04 PM |
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Edited by fred79 at 21:35, 30 Aug 2015.
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thanks, guys. i still have to cover the special objects(from WoG) that aren't seen in the ObjTxtEditor.
edit: done. it was less work than i thought it would be. type 63 was the only one type that had that issue.
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 08:29 PM |
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Thx, Fred. Great job. I support the QP, of course.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 09:32 PM |
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Edited by fred79 at 21:38, 30 Aug 2015.
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thanks. i updated the subtype list for type 63, since they don't show up in the ObjTxtEditor.
question: what is the Mysterious Creature Dwelling? i don't remember ever seeing that before.
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LizardWarrior
Honorable
Legendary Hero
the reckoning is at hand
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posted August 30, 2015 10:07 PM |
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Allows you to recruit a random number of creatures (usually 60-100) once for every hero, the creatures belong to the same town as the hero and their tier depends on hero's level.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 10:19 PM |
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Edited by fred79 at 23:02, 30 Aug 2015.
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thanks, lw. where is this object in the map editor? i don't think i've ever seen it.
edit: nevermind. the object doesn't exist.... yet. 
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Uhm
Hired Hero
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posted August 30, 2015 11:23 PM |
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Hey, where can I download this program? I've got "objects editor" in my era start menu, but when I try to open it, it informs me that "component
MSCOMCTL.OCX or one of its dependencies not correctly registered:a file is missing or invalid". Version of editor is 1.5.
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LizardWarrior
Honorable
Legendary Hero
the reckoning is at hand
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posted August 30, 2015 11:27 PM |
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fred79 said:
thanks, lw. where is this object in the map editor? i don't think i've ever seen it.
edit: nevermind. the object doesn't exist.... yet.
It exists, otherwise WoG wouldn't place it on random maps, it's under the town tab
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 31, 2015 09:10 PM |
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of course it would be one of the first objects that i deleted a lifetime ago.
that's ok. i already made another one of those; it's in the patch.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted September 04, 2015 12:07 AM |
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Uhm said:
Hey, where can I download this program? I've got "objects editor" in my era start menu, but when I try to open it, it informs me that "component
MSCOMCTL.OCX or one of its dependencies not correctly registered:a file is missing or invalid". Version of editor is 1.5.
sorry, i must've missed this before. your answer is here.
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted September 04, 2015 01:01 AM |
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fred79 said:
your answer is here.
BTW, do you still have that plug-in and can you upload it to Box or something? My searches only leaded to help files by Microsoft or executables from suspicious sources I chose not to trust.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted September 04, 2015 01:06 AM |
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i sure don't, man. it's in my registry now, and i wouldn't know how to extract it. sorry.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted October 02, 2015 01:37 AM |
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Edited by fred79 at 08:58, 02 Oct 2015.
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i wasn't sure where to put this(as i couldn't find the source of the self-screen modifying psd i downloaded, i think it's called "custom skins"), so i put this here.
aside from my Forge/Stronghold project, i've been playing around with screens. i've been working on new game screens and load screens. my first load screen:
you can download the load screen template here. i made it using the existing "custom skins" psd(all i had to do was move the logo, and add the shaded loading bar background layer). i altered the graphics a bit, so that they don't pop out of the picture, but blend a little better with it(i like a softer appearance, myself).
when i have the game screens ready(i only have to make the defs for the 7 of them now), i'll upload another rar for them. a preview of those 7:
i softened most of the pictures, to make them easier on the eyes. the red dragon was my first screen, so it's a little harder on the eyes than the others; but i'll be fixing that.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted October 02, 2015 08:55 AM |
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Nice screens and badass gozilla, make mod with? There is already another mod about, it will add.
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Era II mods and utilities
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted October 02, 2015 09:02 AM |
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yeah, i couldn't find that mod. i thought it was called "custom skins"; it looked more like a template than a mod. but i guess a mod could be made out of this(or added to the one i can't seem to find), no?
once i'm finished, anyway. i'm working on the Forge theme atm, then i'll probably come back to this; as i'm dreading the work i'll have to do to optimize the Mutant/Radiated Tree dwelling.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted October 02, 2015 09:26 AM |
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No, its Random skins. The mod is scripted to change background each time you restart Heroes. Feel free to use its codes to make your own mod, or I can do it if you got erm acne.
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Era II mods and utilities
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