DKC Atlas Forum

[Simion32]

By the way, why do mini-Diddy and mini-Donkey still have the wrong palettes in the Sprite Viewer?

The DKC.INI wasn't updated at all. The sprite pallet entries are still the same... all the glitched-color sprites will still have glitched colors.

Also, I think you also have to take on consideration with keyboards using an alphabet other than Latin

Yes, But I don't have unlimited Function Keys. A LOT of the shortcuts in DKCRE and DELTA will likely be Ctrl+(some letter) like the usual Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+X is cut, Ctrl+V for paste, etc... I'm not going to make the program use weird shortcuts just so other languages work... there are only so many "universal" keys.

Oh, and as far as I'm aware Allegro doesn't work with Arabic or non-Latin languages, so I can't do too much about it anyway.

[asmodeus]

A question, does your keyboard have the "Menu" key (the one with this symbol on it)? If it doesn't, that may be a problem in DELTA, as I have assigned that key to toggling view of the application's Menu-Bar. I know of one keyboard at my school that doesn't have that key OR Windows Logo keys... how odd.

My keyboard has got the "Menu" key, and also the Windows key. In addition there are also "ctrl", "alt" and "alt gr" (of course).

[Doctor Phileas Fragg]

DKC2 tile set extraction: 11-0 and 12-0 are full of nothing but blank images. I assume these are supposed to be the ones for the roller coaster stages, since they contain the fewest tiles and I couldn't find them in the other folders.

Incidentally, In said roller coaster level terrains there are weird pallette errors with signs and target lights...or are they supposed to be that way because of how the game handles them?

[Simion32]

DKC2 tile set extraction: 11-0 and 12-0 are full of nothing but blank images.

Those are for K.Rool Duel and Krocodile Kore.

Incidentally, In said roller coaster level terrains there are weird pallette errors with signs and target lights...or are they supposed to be that way because of how the game handles them?

They shouldn't be that way. As I have said already, it's caused by not replacing 16 of the colors with the one that should be there. DKC2 saves the color differences between levels as only a set of 16 colors instead of the full 256. I didn't implement anything to take into account these pallet adjustments.

[Krow111]

How long do you think it will take until we can view/extract DKC2 sprites in the DKCRE?

[Simion32]

Sadly, I have no idea. I'm working on DELTA at the moment.

[Doctor Phileas Fragg]

D'OH

The coaster tiles are in 5-0, I overlooked it. Ignore me, carry on. I apologise for the inconvenience.

[Krow111]

I was looking at the tilesets and I couldn't find Lava Lagoon's tiles where they should be. Also, how come Kleever's Kiln looks a little different when you extract the levels?

[Simion32]

I've already posted about Kleever's Kiln in the Unseen Scenes thread.

As for the Lava Lagoon 'tiles', I'm not exactly sure what you mean...?

[Krow111]

The Lava Lagoon tiles aren't there.

[Simion32]

Do you mean from the tileset extractions? I didn't think Lava Lagoon used a separate set of tiles... at least, that's not the way that DKCRE extracts Lava Lagoon - it uses the normal ship hold tiles ("Resources\DKC2\Tilesets\01-0\").

Also, Glimmer's Galleon doesn't use the correct pallet for its tiles in DKCRE. It actually should be using the inverted-color tiles ("Resources\DKC2\Tilesets\01-1\" in the extraction). It uses some weird XOR mode or something to draw the tiles.

[Doctor Phileas Fragg]

Looking back carefully at DKC, it appears Diddy recycles frames from his idle animation for turning. Only in Diddy's Kong Quest does he actually get distinctive, sexy turning graphics.

[Simion32]

DKCRE v0.0.6.0 Work-In-Progress: Nitro GUI + Editing
This is still a work in progress, only the basic window frame with the status bar is working as of this post.

I had to code the window itself because Windows does not play nice with Allegro when you try to draw to anything except the main window (when drawing, Allegro will cover up all other controls on the window, except for the app menu) ...so, due to technicalities DKCRE has to have its own GUI in order to function properly.

This theme, Nitro, is a Graphical User Interface I had originally designed to be an XP theme, but it would not co-operate with Windows's theme structure (the buttons have to be certain sizes, etc). So now I can put this awesome theme to use with the Resource Editor.

As of this post, have a functioning window frame. It can be moved, re-sized, closed (by the X button or hitting ESC), and minimized. It cannot do much else (yet).

[Outdated Screenshot Removed]
Take a look at this slick new GUI I have designed for the Resource Editor...
DKCRE will be using the "Carbon" color scheme of Nitro for the time being. Later, I may make it skin-able.
Toolbar Buttons:
1. Open
2. Save ROM
3. Save As IPS Patch
4. Launch this hack in ZSNES (requires path configuration)
5. Level Autolaunch - DKCRE makes and saves a custom save state and launches ZSNES with your hack and the state - taking you directly to the currently displayed level. (also requires path configuration) I have already done this manually with a Hex Editor, it just needs to be automated.
6. Choose Level
7. Edit > Tiles
8. Edit > Enemies
9. Edit > Objects
10. Edit > Collecitbles
11. Edit > Bananas
12. Edit > Camera Focus Points
13. Modify Donkey/Diddy Kong Starting Position
14. Sound/Music Settings for This Level
15. Level Settings (environment, etc.)
16. NUKE - Deletes everything in the currently displayed level.

[Stone]

The concept image looks very impressive and very promising at the same time

Keep up the good work!

[Simion32]

Progress Update: Menu System and Toolbar
I just thought I would post to let everyone know; the menu and toolbar are mostly complete.

With the exception of making menu items check-able, and displaying icons next to some items (yes it's that fancy), the menus are complete. The toolbar is complete with the exception that I still need a way to configure what action is taken when a button is pressed.

The menus were a real pain to code because they use a recursive class (i.e. the class contains itself as a member, allowing for an infinite number of sub-menus). Not only that, but I also devised a menu scripting system to go along with the visual half of the menu. This will make any changes to the menu's layout very easy to implement - I need only change a text string.

As for the toolbar, it was almost a copy & paste situation. The region flag is now displaying.
--------------------------------
I also added some custom cursors to DKCRE, and "resize" cursors are displayed when your mouse is over the border of the program (this is normal windows behavior - yet another thing I had to do manually).

Once the Menu and Toolbar are fully working, it will be time to move on to the final phase of the GUI - the Client Area. This is where levels will be displayed whilst you are editing. It will also be where data extraction statistics are displayed, as well as the Sprite Viewer. Its contents can be different depending upon what mode DKCRE is running in.

And of course, once the GUI is completed, I can begin the oh-so-juicy ROM editing code.

FUN FACT: Just for the GUI alone, so far I have written 1253 lines of code (approx. 450 of which are for the menus).

[Cyclone]

And of course, once the GUI is completed, I can begin the oh-so-juicy ROM editing code.

YES PLEASE! ← !

The UI looks pretty sweet so far. Are you going to change the Icon to something more dkish instead of the flag? Or does that just represent the rom version?

[Simion32]

Yes; after that initial design I decided on an icon (which will somewhat keep with the "Windows" feel). The icon is a normal barrel, except it's from rendered game art. This icon will only be used for the user interface; the previous icon that DKCRE has been using (the program icon) will remain.

Current GUI Image (condensed):
[Outdated Screenshot Removed]
This is how the GUI looks so far.
Please note that in the final version, the window will not be allowed to be re-sized this small.

[Cosmicman]

Those preview images look pretty good, seems very organized and user friendly from what I can see, and that Windows feel your aiming for is spot on.

[Qyzbud]

I agree, the GUI is looking really nice. It's interesting that you are having to 'emulate' so many of Windows' basic behaviours... this must be a pretty valuable learning/problem solving experience, eh? Seems you're becoming an expert in interface design as well as being the foremost guru of DKC trilogy's data structures and engines! This bodes very well for the DKCRE/LB...

I'm looking forward to testing out your next demo's for this and the Level Builder. I have a new high-performance PC with Windows Vista - which I'll be upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit in a few days, hopefully. Do you have Windows 7? If not, I could help with compatibility testing along the way. This new Windows OS is excellent, apparently - definitely worth supporting!

I can't wait to sample the results of your 'oh-so-juicy ROM editing code'... Godspeed, Simion!

[Stone]

Beta testing on different operating systems is a good point Qyzbud. You've also reminded me that I have not tested the old beta on my new computer yet.
(My old system stopped working, too. Thanks to MSDNAA, I could jump from XP to Windows 7 immediately as early as August)

Testing results (Windows 7 Professional 64-bit):
It looks like DKCRE_v0.0.5.0 is working without any problems, both extractor and sprite viewer do their job without crashing.

On the other hand, DELTA_v0.0.4.2d keeps crashing at

Archetype 14 of 14
Extracting physmap...

I may test them later in "XP Mode", just for fun

[Simion32]

Do you have Windows 7? If not, I could help with compatibility testing along the way.

I'm going to stick with XP for a while as long as possible, because I have everything setup and don't want to risk losing any functionality... that, and it's just easier to stay with what works for me. So yes, you may help with Windows 7 testing.

On the other hand, DELTA_v0.0.4.2d keeps crashing at

Archetype 14 of 14
Extracting physmap...

That particular error might have resulted from a missing/corrupt physmap file... if I recall correctly, those were distributed with the demo. No matter, as it was a Beta build to begin with, meaning it's not as likely to work the way it should.

I'm not sure about this (my current DELTA code causes a crash, must have stopped working on something in the middle of it and forgot about it), but I think DELTA was having quite a lot of problems in the beta and some of the further unreleased builds.

However, the upcoming DELTA v0.0.5.0 (which has been stalled for who knows how long) should hopefully have such problems resolved.
-----------------------------------------
Progress Notes:
-Menus now have a checkable property, and can also be placed into check groups. Checkmark icons are displayed on checked menu items.
-Check groups can modify the state of duplicate items on the toolbar.
-16x16 icons are now displayed next to menu items which have an icon set.
-Another Right-Aligned menu has been added: the Mode menu, which will switch between various DKCRE functionality.
-A new about dialog has been added to the program. It now contains a credits section.
Next Planned Features:
-Add a scripting system to the toolbar class so that its contents may be easily configured before compiling. *completed Oct 28th 6:07pm*
-Give toolbar items a sticky property, for use on buttons that stay pressed once clicked. *completed*
-Implement the Client Area >>> needs a mode switch which loads a different menu/toolbar for each mode.

EDIT/BUMP Oct 29th 9:52am:
I have now finished the menu and toolbar code. It now has the capability of loading a different menu/toolbar based on the current mode.
The very last thing I have to finish before going on with the Client Area is that the Status Bar needs its text-display system. This should not take as long to do, thankfully.

Also, if I haven't mentioned this yet, DKCRE now has its own crash dialog which replaces the "foo.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close" dialog. It should be able to save your data in the event of a program crash.

[Qyzbud]

...It should be able to save your data in the event of a program crash.

Nice! Some of the world's biggest software companies could learn a thing or two from you...

[Simion32]

I've skipped the status bar for now, as it's quite a trivial matter.

I am now delving directly into the editor's display code, I am going to attempt to get levels displaying.

Now I can see why it is that DKEdit needs those massive INI files... for instance, the level function determines the archetype ID (00 is jungle, 01 is cave, etc) via ASM code.

The only way to get the archetype ID in a programmatic way is to check against which function is being used for each level, and return the corresponding ID number. This is also the way that the level color is determined; there is one entry for each theme color/type.

[Simion32]

Progress Update: Level Display
with Animated Bananas, Object Positions, and Scroll Bars
Even though I have been stretched for time, I'm still making steady progress. The program is now displaying level layouts.
It has animated bananas which are dynamically updated based on the game's data, and it also displays object positions.

The next step I'm going to undertake is to have actual sprites displayed for the objects instead of the (optional) digit displays.
This should really help with editing levels! It will take out the guesswork of "what's this object?" which is normally involved when using DKEdit.
IMAGE OUTDATED, REMOVED
Essentially, as of this post, DKCRE is just a glorified level viewer.
The only thing missing on the display is the camera positioning data.
EDIT: Here's a little trivia:
-Snow Barrel Blast's checkpoint barrel comes the closest to being right on the level's center line. In second place is Ice Age Alley, followed by Platform Perils.
-Platform Perils just so happens to be the ONLY level which features its checkpoint barrel past the center line, even if just barely (a few pixels past center).

[Cosmicman]

Steady progress is always good, it looks so much better every time you update, and I'm loving that DKC trivia.
Any big obstacles in the near future when it comes to the Resource Editor or the Builder?

[Simion32]

The only major obstacle I can see at the moment is getting all sprites to display dynamically. Some objects are missing a palette, others have no default animation. Most likely an INI file will be needed to define the missing palettes/sprites.

I'm a few steps away from having the majority of sprites displaying - it's now (if possible for each object) retrieving the object's starting frame ID.

Since I already have a function to render sprites, all I must do is retool that a bit so that it can be rendered as a palette-based image (drawing w/palette also required me to make a modified graphics function). All sprites will be preloaded as uncolored graphics, and will be drawn onto the display using the object's palettes.

So far, this has been working out quite well. It's exciting to see it all in action as the program code progresses!

EDIT: Most object are now displaying, although they are incorrectly colored. Something in the palette code went screwy.
Edit Addendum: ALL barrel cannons are displaying as a normal barrel cannon pointing upwards. Oh dear...
EDIT 2: The colors for common objects have been fixed. However; barrels, tires, life balloons and maybe some other things still don't have correct coloring.

[Cyclone]

Glad to see steady progress.

The UI is looking great so far. I'm liking the colour skeme. Everything is very easy on the eyes and has a bit of that old shcool UI look to it

[Simion32]

I'll just pop in here to post a quick note:
I have just saved massive amounts of RAM (on the order of 100MB) by compacting the pre-loaded sprite image data.
This required special loading/drawing routines but it was well worth the effort.

The images are clipped so that none of the outer blank/whitespace pixels are stored. It further compresses this by compacting two pixels into each byte (as the sprites only use 16 colors, only four bits per color is needed). Finally it stores the center of the sprite (which can be outside of the compacted sprite) so that they may be drawn in the correct positions.

Unfortunately, there is a memory leak somewhere in the compiled-sprite generator code. I haven't found it yet, but once I do, the improved sprite display system should be up and running.
EDIT: The crashes were actually due to not allocating enough pointers for the compiled sprites. It was trying to allocate data onto a data pointer that wasn't there, which causes a crash 99% of the time. The problem has been fixed.

Also, now only the sprites that need to be displayed are ever allocated - this way it does not have to load ALL of the sprites each time.
EDIT/BUMP:
Alright, I'm now going through and documenting all of the missing palette and sprite info.

All of the barrel cannons in DKC use the exact same animation, without a palette set. This means that the BC animations are controlled by ASM code and cannot be determined automatically. Thus, I have written down exceptions (in code for now) to handle the way the Barrel Cannons should look. There are also quite a few objects which are missing a sprite definition, or some that have an incorrect sprite (such as overturned minecarts which display as normal ones).

One very odd discovery is that in DKCRE, Mine Cart Carnage and Mine Cart Madness seem to have their object/banana/camera data swapped. Yet, they show up correctly in-game. Could this possibly mean that the levels once had their places swapped, and the fix was made in code? I'm not sure if this is a DKCRE glitch, or what all, but it sure is strange.
EDITs: No, this is NOT a glitch. DELTA actually forces the extraction code to use the corrected values.

[Simion32]

DKC Day Progress Update: 98% of Objects Displaying, Game Configuration File
Most all objects (a few such as arrow platforms do not have a sprite) are displaying.
Pretty much everything visible in-game is being displayed now other than environmental effects:

Here you see one of my favorite bonus levels. ;)
Notice the automatically-drawn Halfway guideline.

DKCRE has been modified to use INI Files within a sub folder called GameConfig. These files are somewhat similar to DKEdit's INI files.

The DKC v10U.INI file defines several base data offsets for DKC v1.0 (NTSC, United States) which are used to edit the game data. It also contains display parameters, as well as a list of all known non-beta objects within DKC.

Every object that uses object function 0x0001 except for barrel cannons has been added to the definition list, so only special/beta objects are left to document. Giangurgolo has done an excellent job documenting the function 0x0001 objects, but most of the others are currently unknown.

Here's a particularly odd Banana Cache at the end of Loopy Lights:

An experimental object-description-on-hover feature is being shown here.

DKCRE0060Beta0005.PNG (39.22 KiB) Viewed 206457 times

Also, it may be interesting to note that in several places, Rare has used what I will term Compound Objects - these objects are often used within Barrel Cannon courses, especially in Barrel Cannon Canyon and Tree Top Town. Their perceived purpose seems to be so that all the objects that are loaded by the Compound Object are initialized at the same time, and are also placed in certain positions relative to where it was placed within the level.

[Cyclone]

Wow this editor is starting to take shape. Have an ETA on the next release? Can't wait!

Is that "object-description-on-hover feature" thing going to have text wrap so that it is on more then one line and near where your mouse is pointing ,smaller and not spanning the width of the editor?

[Simion32]

The text is already displayed next to the mouse cursor, it's just that DKCRE uses windows to display the mouse, so it doesn't show up in screen shots. I will need to make a slightly smaller font; and yes, it needs to have word wrapping for the descriptions. As for the text background, it should really be a purple/blue gradient (just for aesthetics, really).

If completely unhindered, I might be able to have a demo ready before the end of this year. But there are no guarantees.

You'll also be glad to hear that DELTA v0.0.5.0 has been revived. I am simultaneously working on getting it ready for release. There are some issues with loading DKC2 levels, but the loading of DKC1 levels has been fixed. Unfortunately it may take a bit of work, as the original DKC-Replica Physics System was replaced in favor of a new, yet currently incomplete, physics system which is specific to DELTA.

[Qyzbud]

Qyzbud is in awe of Simion32... I'm excited!

[Tonberry2k]

Just checking in to say what a great job you're doing. Awesome work!

[Simion32]

DKC Resource Editor v0.0.5.9a
Level Viewer Demo
ONLY WORKS WITH DKC v1.0U or a v1.0U Hack. ANYTHING ELSE WILL CRASH.
All normal and bonus levels load regardless if their objects display correctly.
Remember, this version is still a work in progress and may contain very weird bugs.

DOWNLOAD: *please check the releases sub-forums*

Working controls for this demo:
-File > Open: Opens a ROM image. Can open consecutive ROMs without a crash.
-Arrow Keys: Moves around within a level.
-Page Up/Down: Switches levels.
-File > Exit: Self explanatory, hopefully.
-Help > About: Displays the new About box for DKCRE. Contains a credits section.

After a loooooong time of being busy with college and family matters, I'm going to make another attempt at getting back on the development train. With a Japanese DKC3 editor in the works from our friend Prgmdest at Youtube, the pressure is on to get DKC3 into the mix.

I've managed to hit another brick wall that needs taken down: The Nitro GUI as is will work for basic functionality, but in order for advanced features to be possible, I am going to need to make the GUI into a fully-fledged DLL which can handle its own windows/dialogs. Even worse, is that I need to make a "Layout Designer" - for the NitroGUI interface - to be effective in speeding up development time at all. This is comparatively easy to think out, but will take quite a lot of code to complete.

And thus, the race is on to get something working here. I'll be hoarding all over DKC3 as well and reallocating all my small blocks of free time so that I may hopefully make some actual progress on this program.

EDIT: Feel free to help out with the GameConfig INI definitions, if you want to.

[Tonberry2k]

So DKC2 and 3 support is coming? That's exciting.

[edevore]

@DKC Resource Editor & Simion32-

There is some problem with that zip archive:
CRC failed in alleg42.dll. The file is corrupt

- Simion32: removed link — reason: downloading individual DLL files is an easy way to get viruses on your PC.

[Simion32]

Please hold, re-uploading the zip file... Edit: REUPLOADED
I'm busy at the moment, have to complete some online homework before midnight. I'll check in here after I'm done.

EDIT2: I checked the ZIP to ensure that the demo runs, and it's working on my end.

[edevore]

Just Curious Simion, Why does the first three levels work fine in DKRE and all of a sudden the next levels get corrupt and display "ERROR" when skimming through the levels in this order:

Spoiler!

Level 0x00 - ERROR
Level 0x01 - Reptile Rumble
Level 0x02 - ERROR
Level 0x03 - ERROR
Level 0x04 - ERROR
Level 0x05 - ERROR
Level 0x06 - ERROR
Level 0x07 - Bouncy Bonanza
Level 0x08 - ERROR
Level 0x09 - ERROR
Level 0x0A - Misty Mine
Level 0x0B - ERROR
Level 0x0C - Ropey Rampage
Level 0x0D - Orang-Utan Gang
Level 0x0E - ERROR
Level 0x0F - ERROR
Level 0x10 - ERROR
Level 0x11 - ERROR
Level 0x12 - ERROR
Level 0x13 - ERROR
Level 0x14 - Torchlight Trouble
Level 0x15 - ERROR
Level 0x16 - Jungle Hijinxs
Level 0x17 - Barrel Canyon
Level 0x18 - Elevator Antics
Level 0x19 - ERROR
Level 0x1A - ERROR
Level 0x1B - ERROR
Level 0x1C - ERROR
Level 0x1D - ERROR
Level 0x1E - ERROR
Level 0x1F - ERROR
Level 0x20 - ERROR
Level 0x21 - ERROR
Level 0x22 - Poison Pond
Level 0x23 - ERROR
Level 0x24 - Snow Barrel Blast
Level 0x25 - ERROR
Level 0x26 - ERROR
Level 0x27 - Mine Cart Madness
Level 0x28 - ERROR
Level 0x29 - ERROR
Level 0x2A - ERROR
Level 0x2B - Platform Perils
Level 0x2C - ERROR
Level 0x2D - ERROR
Level 0x2E - Mine Cart Carnage
Level 0x2F - Trick Track Trek
Level 0x30 - Tanked Up Trouble
Level 0x31 - Stop And Go Station
Level 0x32 - ERROR
Level 0x33 - ERROR
Level 0x34 - ERROR
Level 0x35 - ERROR
Level 0x36 - Loopy Lights
Level 0x37 - ERROR
Level 0x38 - ERROR
Level 0x39 - ERROR
Level 0x3A - ERROR
Level 0x3B - ERROR
Level 0x3C - ERROR
Level 0x3D - ERROR
Level 0x3E - Croctopus Chase
Level 0x3F - ERROR
Level 0x40 - Oil Drum Alley
Level 0x41 - Blackout Basement
Level 0x42 - Millstone Mayhem
Level 0x43 - Temple Tempest
Level 0x44 - ERROR
Level 0x45 - ERROR
Level 0x46 - ERROR
Level 0x47 - ERROR
Level 0x48 - ERROR
Level 0x49 - ERROR
Level 0x4A - ERROR
Level 0x4B - ERROR
Level 0x4C - ERROR
Level 0x4D - ERROR
Level 0x4E - ERROR
Level 0x4F - ERROR
Level 0x50 - ERROR
Level 0x51 - ERROR
Level 0x52 - ERROR
Level 0x53 - ERROR
Level 0x54 - ERROR
Level 0x55 - ERROR
Level 0x56 - ERROR
Level 0x57 - ERROR
Level 0x58 - ERROR
Level 0x59 - ERROR
Level 0x5A - ERROR
Level 0x5B - ERROR
Level 0x5D - ERROR
Level 0x5F - ERROR
Level 0x60 - ERROR
Level 0x62 - ERROR
Level 0x63 - ERROR
Level 0x64 - ERROR
Level 0x65 - ERROR
Level 0x66 - ERROR
Level 0x67 - ERROR
Level 0x68 - Gang Plank Galleon
Level 0x69 - ERROR
Level 0x6A - ERROR
Level 0x6B - ERROR
Level 0x6C - ERROR
Level 0x6D - Slipslide Rope
Level 0x6E - ERROR
Level 0x6F - ERROR
Level 0x70 - Cranky's Cabin
-----------------------------
The list continues... *I'm Too Lazy To List Them All!*

------------------------------------------------------------
By the way:

Spoiler!

F key flips the sprites in DKRE.

[Simion32]

all of a sudden the next levels get corrupt and display "ERROR" when skimming through the levels

The ERROR you see is actually text from within the game.
This text was added so that Rare could ensure that Bonus Levels, Bonus Exits, and/or Checkpoint Re-entry Points were not showing up on the world map.

So, in-game, these levels are all actually named "ERROR". The same text data pointer is used for every single one of these levels. Also, you may find a few that show "Cranky's Cabin" or "Funky's Flights" when in fact that's not what they are supposed to be. Rare must have messed up the pointers on those.

F key flips the sprites in DKCRE.

Hey! There's a hidden bonus feature in the alpha demo! Hahaha!

Seriously, though, that was an in-development keyboard shortcut I was using to test sprite flipping. I forgot the key command was still there; so I also forgot to take it out of the program. Obviously it doesn't have much use in the v0.0.6.0 final, and will probably be gone by then.

EDIT, Here's another one: Home & End keys scroll to the beginning/end of a level, too.
EDIT again: Press Left Alt + B, along with 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the NumPad — this switches Banana Graphics!! Forgot that was there!!

EDIT3 (3:23PM Valentine's Day): I'm now tackling DKC3's data compression scheme. First need to identify where the data gets loaded.

[edevore]

@Simon32,
I wanted to ask in DKC3 when you use the cheat "MERRY" (L,R,R,L,R,R,L,R,L,R *Or Something*) are you going to support the Xmas bonus music, bells and presents in DKRE?

[Simion32]

Those can probably be hacked in. The music should be easier to get in than the modded sprites.
It's probably just some internal flag that says whether to enable the Christmas graphics.

These could probably be permanently enabled with some hacking.

Update on DKC3: I've found the DMA Transfers involving the transfer of pallet and other data, and am currently trying to identify which operation is the GFX transfer.

[edevore]

That cheat code is within Donkey Kong Country 3, wheres the hacking?
--------------------------------------------------
If you press at the title screen:
====================
L=Left Shoulder
R=Right Shoulder
====================
Title Screen Cheat Activation:
L R R L R R L R L R

And type in the name area: MERRY
Press: OK (Dixie will cry if it is activated properly)
--------------------------------------------------
You will have Christmas music, bells and presents in-place of the bananas and stars that appear in the bonus levels.
This works on the SNES and any PC emulator.

EDIT: Also The Nintendo Wii Channel Download-able Game: Donkey Kong Country 3.

[Simion32]

That cheat code is within Donkey Kong Country 3, wheres the hacking?

I meant that, if you wanted to permanently enable this feature even if the user didn't put in the cheat, it would require some hacking. That's what I was referring to.

DKC3 Progress EDIT: Decompressor Found!!!

I have found that the routines of DKC3 are similar to DKC2's decompression, but are not exactly the same. Using DKC3 data in the existing DKC2 C++ decompressor doesn't work, so this will require heavy analysis.

[Cyclone]

Would it be possible to create a DKC1 level which has both on land gameplay and in water(aka swimming) gameplay elements? Both DK2 and 3 have levels like this.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Hey, now that you mention it, DKC doesn't have any land-water levels... but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

[Simion32]

Probably possible, but I would regard that a difficult ASM hack, since DKC's land physics (even the surface mapping) are entirely separate from the water physics. Behavior related to both doesn't exist in DKC.

[Cyclone]

Just tried the latest version. Must say it's comming along nicely

Few glitches I found (which you of course already know about.)

- The captions get drawn underneath an object if one is in the way of the caption.
- Menus don't close when you click outside of them.
- Cannot maximize the window
- Banana animations seem fast (maybe that's intentional?)

Also it takes 13% cpu just idling and my comp fan speeds up.

[Simion32]

The captions get drawn underneath an object if one is in the way of the caption.

This is an issue that will be be fixed with the new interface which is currently being drawn/coded. The new rendition of NitroGUI, which is much more robust, will use actual windows for context menus and such so that the layering isn't wonky.

Menus don't close when you click outside of them.

Oops... Now that I think about it that could have easily been handled just by detecting a mouse click outside the opened menu.

Cannot maximize the window

This was actually done on purpose as there's nothing to take up the empty space in the Maximized window. It will probably be enabled later when the toolbars and other panels can be on the window as well.

Banana animations seem fast (maybe that's intentional?)

What's your refresh rate? The bananas rotate one image every 4 frames. At 60FPS this looks completely normal.

Also it takes 13% cpu just idling and my comp fan speeds up.

That's half to do with DKCRE not being updated to fix the graphics issues that DELTA had (thus it kills processing time). The other part of this may be costly GFX drawing routines (not sure) or maybe that semaphores are not enabled internally.

Also, hardware acceleration is in order just like DELTA has now, since DKCRE isn't ever scaling graphics in the final screen image. It just copies a bitmap the size of the window to the screen and it's done. That given, a fullscreen window is going to take comparatively a lot of CPU time, but with the HW acceleration it shouldn't be too bad (at most around 15%).

[Cyclone]

My monitor is at 85hz. The bananas seem ~twice as fast as they should be.

What is this NitroGUI you refer to. Is it a UI you built from scratch or pre-built one?

[Simion32]

Yeah, the bananas were designed with 60Hz in mind and will be very fast on an 85Hz monitor since their animation isn't based on the timers, but is based on logic cycles. In that version the logic cycles are locked to the refresh rate - a slight oversight.

[Outdated Screenshot Removed]
This is a concept-only demo of the NitroGUI interface.
Here "Carbon" of the original Nitro theme is shown.
...
NitroGUI is my own custom windowing engine which will display the interface of DKCRE (and probably DELTA as well later on). Just by looks you wouldn't be able to tell that it's there - this is underlying, behind-the-scenes code.
This may cause some confusion though, as the theme itself is also called Nitro. The actual theme color used in DKCRE is Carbon.

As for the Nitro theme, I have finished drawing up all of the mission-critical control and dialog graphics. If I need anything else I'll just add it as I go.

Right now, I'm working on fixing the MMX text drawing code (it's broken). Code for a very basic interface is already done. After fixing the text drawing I can begin working on all the control classes, graphics loaders, form loaders, etc. used in the interface system.