Well, since 1152 x 864 isn’t a very snazzy resolution any more, and since I still have the vector source for my Ultima 7 logo wallpaper, I decided to re-generate a high res 2560 x 1600 version of the wallpaper.

• Save & Load features
• Variable dungeon size
• Scrolling
• Zoom in/out
• More floor and glyph types

Let me know how you like it so far.

So I’ve been playing a bit of Arcana lately on the SNES, and due to the inadequacies of the built-in automap, I’ve been trying to keep my own map. Unfortunately, the “best” solution I’ve found so far is still grid paper; Dungeon Crawl Map Maker without the Bullshit is pretty close, but it’s far too slow and fidgety with the current mouse interface.

So I’ve decided to start writing something myself. The goal of this program is to be fast, precise and keyboard-driven. The idea is to simply move a cursor around the map and quickly draw walls & floors without constantly switching and clicking all over the place. This is a preview version to get people’s opinions on the idea and control scheme, etc.

Here is how I’ve mocked it up so far:

• Arrows : Move cursor
• Page up/Page Down : Next/Previous Dungeon level
• Space : Draw floor
• W, S, A, D : Draw walls (in specified direction)
• X : Draw glyph (stairs up/down icons only so far)
• Q, E : Select wall type
• Z, C : Select glyph type
• F, V : Select floor type
• Plus, Minus : Zoom in and out

Also, due to the use of S as a functional key, the save/load keys have been remapped to the F-keys. The dungeon size is now variable (choose the size when you select “New”), and files can be saved or loaded as .dungeon files. Since it is keyboard based, the dungeon will scroll when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen since I had problems with the OS-based scrolling. Note when drawing, you can hold down the “draw” buttons and move the cursor with the arrows to quickly block in an area/create a corridor, etc.

Here’s more or less what I plan to implement:

• Lots more Floor/Wall/Glyph types
• Customizable controls (maybe?)
• Note-taking
• Printing

Here’s the download: DungeonMapper-0.2a.zip (165 KB)

It’s Java-based, so you’ll need to install that first. Once that’s done, you should be able to un-zip it somewhere and double-click on “DungenMapper.jar”. If that doesn’t work try opening a command-prompt and running “java -jar DungeonMapper.jar”.

In any case, what I’m interested in is:

1. Is this actually useful? Have you already found something better?
2. Do you have any issues or suggestions with the control scheme?
3. What Floors/Glyphs/Walls are you looking for? I’m planning to provide similar capabilities to Etrian Odyssey and some of the stuff from the Dungeon Crawl Map maker linked above.

I’ve also included a partial map of the Ice Mines from Arcana, which just happens to be where I am in the game and which prompted this entire development exercise. It can be useful if you want to play around in an existing map without drawing a whole new one… or if you’re playing Arcana too :D

This is version 1.01, which has been updated to support Nitrogen’s quirky way of interacting with plugins. Please comment below if you have any issues.

Requirements

• GSPlayer for PocketPC (Desktop version not supported), Mort Player or Nitrogen.
• Any Windows Mobile 2003 or newer device (contact me if you need a build for an older device)

Installation Instructions for GS Player

1. Unzip the attached zip file to a directory of your choice
2. Using the Active Sync “Explore Device” function, or the “Mobile Device” entry on My Computer, locate your GSPlayer directory on the PocketPC
3. Copy bassmod.dll and ModPlugin.dll to your GSPlayer directory
4. Start (or re-start) GSPlayer

Installation Instructions for Mort Player/Nitrogen

1. Unzip the attached zip file to a directory of your choice
2. Using the Active Sync “Explore Device” function, or the “Mobile Device” entry on My Computer, locate your Mort Player/Nitrogen directory on the PocketPC
3. Copy bassmod.dll to your Mort Player/Nitrogen directory and ModPlugin.dll to the Mort player/Nitrogen “plugins” sub-directory.
4. Start (or re-start) Mort Player/Nitrogen

Other Comments

Once the plugin is installed, you can change settings from Tools → Options, scrolling over to the Plug-ins tab, then selecting BASS Mod plug-in and pressing Configure…. Mort player options are in Menu → Settings under System → Playback → Plug-Ins. The top options will only take effect after restarting GSPlayer (using File → Exit), while the bottom options will take effect after switching tracks (as indicated by the text for each).

NOTE: Nitrogen at present does not contain an option for changing your plugin settings. If the defaults aren’t what you wanted, please run the plugin from either GSPlayer or MortPlayer to customize it. The settings are stored in the registry, so they should be global to whichever player you use.

See the original posting for comments on the source code, etc.

Plugin Download (44 KB)
Source Code (220 KB)

Usage

In order to use this script, simply drag the desired M3U file to the script’s icon and a matching playlist should be generated in iTunes.

Known Issues/Assumptions

Since this script was created for my personal use, I made a few assumptions when writing the script which may or may not be valid for your use. If you need to change any of these, you should be able to edit the applescript to your liking, or let me know and I can probably make a modified version for you. The issues are:

1. The script is somewhat slow.

   It’s better than it would be if I read the whole file at once, but even parsing line-by-line it’s still fairly slow. At least this way you can see when it’s still working, but you may want to let it work for larger imports.

2. The script is designed for Windows-formatted files.

   Since my M3U files were from a windows machine, I was stuck with the windows-standard CrLf structure. Due to my line-by-line processing, and applescript’s less robust handling of escape characters, I couldn’t figure out how to get applescript to detect the difference between CrLf and just Lf (or just Cr). As a result, the script currently only works properly with Windows playlists. You should be able to use most text editors to convert if necessary.

3. The script assumes the paths are based on the drive’s root

   This is just the way I coded it, as I needed to insert the volume path onto the playlist’s path to get the proper Mac path to the files. If the paths are incomplete (or incorrect) in your M3U, just do a bit of pre-processing via search-replace to get it right.

Download (46.9 KB)

Delete Empty Folders started with the difficulty of finding leftover folders after uploading work to configuration management. The original version of this was actually just a simple Windows Script using everyone’s favourite File System Object to parse around. That version was eventually given a simple GUI but doesn’t really do anything else.

Moving forward, I was messing around with the .NET SDK at home and decided re-creating this simple tool would be a good exercise. Only this time, I started with the GUI upfront and added in the capability to delete files as well (since standard Windows delete stops as soon as it can’t delete one thing). I also added drag+drop support, which is very handy for this sort of program. Later on, I also added the capability to clean up hidden files and such.

Modes:

• Deletes folders with no remaining files
• Deletes all files in a path; reports errors without stopping
• Deletes UNIX-style hidden files (any file starting with a period, like .DS_Store)
• Deletes Windows/DOS-style hidden files (hidden attribute set)

This program is written using the .NET Framework 2.0, so you will require the redistributable before you can run the program. There is no installer, simply copy the EXE file to the directory of your choice.

Download (244 KB)

Download Source Code (75 KB)

And maybe post some other stuff too. Wild, I know.

So, as a brief tour, all the old levels and files are filed away into their appropriate categories, with the most recent ones spilling into the news view below. Instructional pages and the Underworld 2 Gallery can be found in the pages section on the left. And now I have auto-RSS, thanks to Wordpress. Enjoy.

A Mod Plugin for GS Player or Mort Player. This has been developed with the help of the BASSMod sound library by un4seen developments. If you’ve never heard of Mod Files, just head over to The Mod Archive, where you can download plenty of awesome mod files.

Requirements

• GSPlayer for PocketPC (Desktop version not supported) or Mort Player.
• Any Windows Mobille 2003 or newer device (contact me if you need a build for an older device)

Installation Instructions for GS Player

1. Unzip the attached zip file to a directory of your choice
2. Using the Active Sync “Explore Device” function, or the “Mobile Device” entry on My Computer, locate your GSPlayer directory on the PocketPC
3. Copy bassmod.dll and ModPlugin.dll to your GSPlayer directory
4. Start (or re-start) GSPlayer

Installation Instructions for Mort Player

1. Unzip the attached zip file to a directory of your choice
2. Using the Active Sync “Explore Device” function, or the “Mobile Device” entry on My Computer, locate your Mort Player directory on the PocketPC
3. Copy bassmod.dll to your Mort Player directory and ModPlugin.dll to the Mort player “plugins” sub-directory.
4. Start (or re-start) Mort Player

Other Comments

Once the plugin is installed, you can change settings from Tools -> Options, scrolling over to the Plug-ins tab, then selecting BASS Mod plug-in and pressing “Configure…” (Mort player options are in Menu -> Settings under System -> Playback -> Plug-Ins). The top options will only take effect after restarting GSPlayer (using File Exit or Memory -> Running Programs -> Stop), while the bottom options will take effect after switching tracks (as indicated by the text for each).

Source Code Comments

The plugin is actually very simple, it just calls over to the BASSMod sound library to do all the REAL work. Even still, it’s probably a good reference for developing other GSPlayer plugins, among other things.

• The project file is in Visual Studio 2005 format, though the original Embedded C++ project is still in the directory (and probably works). If you need another version, it shouldn’t be hard to re-create the project. Just remember these things:
  • Remember to disable pre-compiled headers
  • Remember to link in the bassmod.lib file
  • Remember to pull the resources into the new project file
• Second, since BassMod does most of the work, it may limit the ability to port to another platform. Talk to the guys at un4seen and see if they can help you out with this, they were great about answering my questions during development.
• The version of BassMod included with the zip file, is slightly newer than the web site (version 2.0 at the time of writing this) , and features some timing fixes for some formats (basically freezes instead of playing), and a slightly restructured function list. You can download it from there if you want the documentation and examples, but I’d recommend against using that version of the DLL due to the timing issues (unless they’ve updated since posting this).

Plugin Download (41 KB)
Source Code (3.17 MB)