CaveEditor again (beta, maybe alpha)

Re: Mrm....new....

Paint does the same size. I want one smaller. Or a copy/paste sprites feature.

 

Re: Mrm....new....

What's smaller? a zoom or something?

 

Re: Mrm....new....

Pixel size.

 

Re: Mrm....new....

Pixel size.

You want it so that's it able to show a 16x16 sprite like quote's as a 32x32 sprite?

 

Newbs....

Pixel size.

You want it so that's it able to show a 16x16 sprite like quote's as a 32x32 sprite?

If you're wanting that, it's not as simple as expanding the file or getting more detail.
Well, you could use something like Paintshop Pro to zoom in even more, but you're not going to be able to add smaller pixels than the ones already there, because that's as small as they get. No amount of zooming will allow you to add 1/2 of a pixel.
If you want the sprites to have more detail, you'd have to change the games code so it'll pull out twice the amount of pixels than it currently does {So 32x32 for Quote, instead of 16x16} and then you can remake the sprites.
{Which, you'll have to, because now they're half as small as they should be}
Of course, you can't stop there, either.
Because the sprites are now twice as large as the game was made for, everything's gonna have to be changed.
Hit boxes, map layouts, scripts to match the change maps, weapons and attacks, etc.
You're basically remaking the game, here.
There's a reason we haven't done it ourselves

Hmm, makes you value all the work they're putting into the WiiWare version all the more, doesn't it?

 

Re: Mrm....new....

Paint does the same size. I want one smaller. Or a copy/paste sprites feature.

Paint can copy and paste. And it can zoom in up o 8x

And speaking of copy and paste, it'd be pretty awesome if a copy paste feature were included in CE so you could copy/paste either tilemaps, npc-maps, or both. It would be especially amazing if you could copy from one map to another.

 

Re: Newbs....

If you're wanting that, it's not as simple as expanding the file or getting more detail.
Well, you could use something like Paintshop Pro to zoom in even more, but you're not going to be able to add smaller pixels than the ones already there, because that's as small as they get. No amount of zooming will allow you to add 1/2 of a pixel.
If you want the sprites to have more detail, you'd have to change the games code so it'll pull out twice the amount of pixels than it currently does {So 32x32 for Quote, instead of 16x16} and then you can remake the sprites.
{Which, you'll have to, because now they're half as small as they should be}
Of course, you can't stop there, either.
Because the sprites are now twice as large as the game was made for, everything's gonna have to be changed.
Hit boxes, map layouts, scripts to match the change maps, weapons and attacks, etc.
You're basically remaking the game, here.
There's a reason we haven't done it ourselves

Hmm, makes you value all the work they're putting into the WiiWare version all the more, doesn't it?

Yeah, not that I can't waste my time doing that. If you did increase the size of pixels then you would have to make it zoom out on the screen right?

 

Re: Newbs....

No. You'd have to change alot of stuff before you could even think of replacing art

 

{Which, you'll have to, because now they're half as small as they should be}

Nope, one-quarter as small.

Hmm, makes you value all the work they're putting into the WiiWare version all the more, doesn't it?

Indeed...

 

I'm looking into starting a mod...
But, which editor should I stick with? [originally I was going to wait for one of the new editors to be completed... but it's almost 2010.]

Right now I'm just going to start with basic mapping and related stuff; so I should be able to switch/recreate the maps over again if needed for some reason...
Any opinion on which editor I should choose to start constructing my mod with?
i.e. Let's say I want to get into advanced hacking later on for the mod; would that make a difference in which editor I should choose?

Random fun info : (I plan to include thanks to the editor and the editor's programmer in the final credits.)

 

I'm looking into starting a mod...
But, which editor should I stick with? [originally I was going to wait for one of the new editors to be completed... but it's almost 2010.]

Right now I'm just going to start with basic mapping and related stuff; so I should be able to switch/recreate the maps over again if needed for some reason...
Any opinion on which editor I should choose to start constructing my mod with?
i.e. Let's say I want to get into advanced hacking later on for the mod; would that make a difference in which editor I should choose?

Random fun info : (I plan to include thanks to the editor and the editor's programmer in the final credits.)

I recommend Cave Editor because it's functionality (although the same results can be achieved with hex-editing) saves a bunch of time. I believe it has the most to offer of the 2 editors as of right now.

And also since Cave Editor moves the map data and leaves/never touches the old data, the old data can be used as free space. It's where I put in the assembly for my portal gun hack .

 

Alright... Thanks GIRakaCHEEZER!

It's decided then... I'll use CaveEditor! Now I can get started on my long WAY overdue mod~ I pray for my victory.

 

From CaveEditor Readme credits :

Special Thanks
There are many many people to thank for making this editor a reality.
Pixel - for making this amazing game
SkyeWelse for setting up the Cave Story Tiribute site where everything happens
X-Calibar for inspiring me to delve into this whole heartedly even though I stopped for a long time, I'm back again! ...sort of...
S. P. Gardebiter - for his dedication to solving many of the mysteries in the exe file
Kapow ・for his immense work in figuring out many of the external file structures and npc details
RuneLancer ・for his extreme knowledge of assembly
GIRakaCHEEZER ・for his bug IDing of CaveEditor
Andwhyisit ・for his insight, ideas, and forum civility

Also XristosX, Nator, Roonil, Wuzlib, Metalogz, Chaddykins, Xaser, ZTiamat, Echidna-san, wedge_of_cheese, VoidMage_Lowell, and the many others on the forums at www.miraigamer.net

!?
What's my name doing there

I will finish my mod, and mucho credit will go to you!

EDIT: Just booted up the editor for the first time... I'm loving it... why didn't I start modding sooner Nice editor!
EDITEDIT: shoot I made it crash/time out lol I set the map size to 9999 x 9999 ... What's the real limit?
I'm also wondering about the tileset. Can I change the size and still set numbers to the tileset? So I can have a huge amount of stuff to pick from on a single map? Hmm... I guess I need to scour the modding section sometime...
... Looks like I can change the tilesize to almost anything?! Is there a limit?? I mean I could do a whole map using unique tiles if I wanted to at this rate...
Also, interesting the limited amount of colors allowed... 4x4 color map? Has any mod increased this? Actually it'll probably keep things simple...
Same with background? I can adjust the size as large as I want? so I could have a completely unique image cover the whole map????

TSC script editor looks like it makes it easy ... yumm...
ah... PBM editor definietly needs the undo command... guess I'll stick with photoshop for that
NPC Table editor? wowza... Only problem is it doesn't show what the entity I'm editing looks like awesome still...

EDITEDITEDIT:
Hmm... having major trouble making HUGE maps. If it gets too big like 300x300 or 32x1702; I can't see the map I'm editing anymore!
Also sorta unrelated, when dealing with large maps, is there a way to adjust the in-game default water height? I am sure it has come up before... Hmm...
Had a 21x700 map which shows up correctly in editor; but in the game I end up hitting water at a certain height. Guess I need to search some...

 

Wow, that's quite a number of questions.

I don't think I can answer them all, but I know you can get more colours by making your .pbm into .bmp and changing them to 256 colour (or 24-bit) then changing them back if you so desire. The only downside is it makes your mod much larger (same with having huge tilesets)

I just came here to report a bug(?)
I was working with NPCs and I realised that I needed to change their flags, but I was too lazy to navigate the little menu so I just highlighted the number and typed in the flag I wanted (in this case I was just making it 0000). Then when I pressed enter, the menu for NPCs dissapeared! It came back when I toggled edit map - edit Entities though. Also, I don't like how if you are trying to set the event or whathaveyou, and you click the editable text field and move your mouse into the map view area, it de-selects the textbox. Cuz my cursor is a tad ungainly, I often have to shuffle it away before I start typing, out of habit I do this and it gets annoying :0

 

Is there a tutorial for it, because i'm an idiot when it comes to these types of programs.

 

Is there a tutorial for it, because i'm an idiot when it comes to these types of programs.

This looks like a job for...
Eh, who am I kidding, he'd never do it.
I'd suggest you learn a little TSC, as well as do a little reading of the pages linked in this thread.

Beyond that, I'm more than happy to help with specific functions. :3

 

Thanks, except i have no clue how to use CE.

Hmmm... I figured out how to open a map for editing easy enough, but how do i place enemies, health stations, saves, and objects like that.

 

Foreword: I made this guide for the people who ask the questions. Hopefully this answers some. I will probably add more chapters later, but I've run out of steam for the moment.

Chapter 1: Before you begin

Spoiler

Before you begin, you have to answer one, very simple question. Is modding right for you? Now, don’t just jump to conclusions here; Sure, it looks fun, and it can be, but from start to finish, making a full length CS mod can be a massive undertaking, involving sacrifice and suffering. Well, maybe not so much suffering, but it can get rough sometimes. At the time of my writing this, there are dozens upon dozens of started mods out there, but to my knowledge only a handful have been carried through to completion, most of those being simple edits or boss rush challenge mods.

The part of answering this is to ask “Why do I want to make a mod?” If you just thought it would be a fun thing to do in your spare time, modding might not be for you, because you are probably the sort of person that cycles through a half-dozen projects every year. Modding requires dedication, planning and lots and lots of patience. If you want to make a mod because you’ve played lots of video games and wanted to try your hand at making one, that’s not bad. I certainly encourage you to try; Work on a little mod by yourself, don’t make a big deal of it and don’t take it too seriously. If by the end you still enjoy it, you’re probably cut out for the big stuff. Basically what I’m trying to say is you need to have a good reason and want to do this, because it ain’t no Sunday drive.

The next question we need to ask ourselves is “What am I going to mod about?” This is a mission critical question, but it’s surprising how many people overlook this. In order to develop a good mod that you can stay excited and enthusiastic about, you need to have a good foundation to build upon. It’s alright if you start your first mod with some silly and simple concept just to get your feet wet, but if you really want to make a nice mod, you need a good idea. Who knows, maybe that silly mod idea you started with could grow into something bigger? Play with lots of ideas, and don’t rush to pick one. Wait until you have something you can really stand behind, that makes you say “Yes, I think this idea is the bomb and needs a game made for it Right Now!” Otherwise, you may end up with a dead fish on your hands. In conclusion, take your time and think about your idea before you rush into things.

The final thing is not so much as a question, but a statement of fact. You are going to have to do everything. Maybe you’ve got some friends that want to help, sure, that’s fine. But the truth is, people can’t always be counted on. The less you rely on others, the better off you will be in the long run. That means writing script, story, graphics, music, everything. Modding requires the fusion of a large number of widely varying talents, not just technical but artistic as well. This was a large hurdle for me to overcome, as I did not see myself as an artistic person whatsoever.

So, now that we’re through that, and you’re still with me, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty details of modding. I’ll break it up into chapters for easierification, and no that’s not a real word

Chapter 2: Preplanning and Preparation

Spoiler

Oh, you thought we were going to start modding now? HA HA, you are funny. I like you. No, before we begin, we should probably plan some things out. Really, it’s for the best. Sure, you could rush in ass-backwards hoping to get something to come out in the end, but here’s a secret. That’s how I started my first modding. I regretted it (although not somuch as some other decisions, which we shall not speak of here) and I don’t want you to make the same mistakes.

The first thing to do now that we have an idea (You did get an idea, right? That was in the last chapter! If not, go do that and come back when you have a good un’) we need to start building upon it. Spend a few hours or even days just pondering (thinking about it). Write little scraps of ideas for plot, characters, events, weapons, gameplay, anything you can think of, just scribble it down somewhere to have for later. This is probably going to be the time at which your ideas are freshest and most readily available to you, so don’t waste it! Once you’ve got a good pile of ideas going, sort through them. Keep the good ones, and take the bad ones and put them someplace else (Who knows? It might turn out to be useful someday). Everything is subject to change when you’re modding, so no idea is ever set in stone, but the important thing is that you have ideas to use, regardless of their permanence. Now that we have a nice pile of good ideas, we can start to shape them into a cohesive structure. This is the a process that will never end, as you will (should) always be getting fresh ideas, working them, and intergrating them with your design. So, since it’s a never ending process, you’d best get cracking.

Now we’ve got ideas, we’ve got structure, why not add some light to those ideas? In a less vague and roundabout way, I mean to conceptualize some graphics. Doesn’t matter if you’re a good drawist or not, heck, I sure aren’t, but it’s good to have something. I mean, in the end, unless you’ve got a good artist friend, you’re going to end up doing all the sprite work. And even if you do have friends, you’re going to end up doing the artwork, because it’s your game. So, grab a pencil, and make some pretteh sketches. I actually keep a little blue coil binder with pencil sketches of things of and about my mod. I’m always adding new things every once in a while, drawing both when I have ideas and when I feel like I’m in a drought. It sometimes helps get things moving.

If you’ve followed through with this, you’ve come a long way towards having your very own mod. You’ve show the intiative, reason, and foresight needed to start a big project such as this. The only thing that remains is, do you have the dedication? Only time will tell.

Chapter 3: The basics of basics

Spoiler

Okay! I promise we’ll touch some modding stuff! Only took me three chapters, and they were only like a page each, so calm your jets. If you are indeed calm, then I apologize for assuming otherwise, but I need to be prepared since most of the time I won’t be watching you with binoculars from across the street. I’ve got stuff to do too!

Tomfoolery aside, this chapter is about learning what tools we will use to create our mod. The first and most rudimentary tool is your graphics editor. For most people, this is a program called MS Paint. It comes with absolutely every windows computer ever made, and you can’t really mod on a Mac anyway, so no weaselling your way out and saying you don’t have one. MS Paint is wonderful for it’s simplicity, but it can be a bit tricky to use. It’s really beyond me to be able to tell you how to draw sprites in MS paint, but I can tell you how to draw sprites in MS paint. Riddle me that one, Batman.

What we’ll do to start ourselves off is just do a simple graphical edit of our silent protagonist Quote. You can either make an original character it it’s place, or maybe just give him a pink feather in his hat, I don’t really care at this point. Open up the folder what’s got yer cave story in it, and open the folder in it called “data”. In there, you’ll find a number of files with the extension .pbm – These are just bitmap images with a different extension. While it’s nice and all, it’s not the most workable thing, and there’s the whole “(C) Pixel” issue, so right off the bat let’s clear it up with our next tool, the Editor.

The Editor is the main tool, the big gun in your arsenal. It basically does everything for you, and only breaks once in a while. My personal reccommendation is Cave Editor, which you can download from the tribute site. This editor comes equipped with a tool that lets you fix some things that keep us from doing our work efficiently. Download it, and put it in a folder somewhere handy.

Now, let’s get our files primed for editing. First things first, Cave story comes “read only”, meaning it won’t let you save changes. Nuts! But that’s an easy fix. Simply go up a folder, and right click the one with all of your cave story in it. Select “Properties”, and uncheck the box that says “Set read only”. Press save or confirm or whatever it is, and tell it yes you want to and yes you’re sure because it’s a PC and we have to do these things. To check if you did it right, close the dialogues out and then open properties again. If read only is still unset, you win! If not, Microsoft wins. Try again.

Now, for the first time, run Cave Editor. You will be greeted with a friendly window of grey and white boxes interspersed with buttons. In the menu list, select “File” and then select “Load”. Then go to wherever cave story is on your computer and double-click “Doukutsu.exe”. You have just loaded it up, and you have to do this every time you run the editor. Now, on the far right are three buttons. Right now, we’re concerned with the one that says “Game Settings”. Click it, and you’ll get another window popping up at you. In the bottom left are two things that we need to change right away. One, put a check in the box that says “Remove (C)Pixel requirement”. Next, where it says image file extension, change the pbm to a bmp and then press okay. Now, go to “File” again, and hit save, then you can close out your editor. There’s lots of other things on that main screen, but they’re pretty self explanatory, I should hope. Anyways, now we can get back to drawing our pink feather or whatever. Open up your data folder again, and open the file MyChar.bmp (Notice that CaveEditor changed it for us). Paint should boot, and you will see the spritesheet laid out before you. In every image, black is transparent. Your images are mostly 16 colour bitmaps; that’s to say, not a lot. Just click save as and select 24-bit bitmap as the filetype for as many colours as your heart desires. Now go ahead and draw away and save it when you’re done. You cannot make the sprites bigger than they are. Well, you can, but that involves assembly which is (much) more advanced.
Now your first graphic mod is complete, I hope you enjoyed it because you’re probably going to be doing a lot more!

There are a number of other tools that are useful to the modder, and indeed should be used to their full potential. The first is the ORG maker. You should have version 1.34, because version two has compatability problems with Cave Story. This is what you will be using to make new songs for your mod.
The next is Resource Hacker. Basically, most people use this to put the orgs into the game, but it is a pretty nifty tool with lots of other features.
If you’re interested in Assembly hacking the game, you can use something called OllyDbg, but you should by no means feel compelled to, this is sort of an “over the top” thing you can do if you need to. Assembly hacking can be used to change pretty much anything, with enough knowledge and expertise.

Chapter 4: Using CE

Spoiler

Adding things to your game in CE is simple as can be! With the map window up, at the top of your screen you will see a box with a number of buttons. Do not be afraid! These buttons are here to help. The top row has the buttons "Edit map" and "Edit entities". Entities are all the different things that make up the game - Enemies, characters, saves, doors, even some decorative things (red flowers for instance). When in "Edit entities" mode, simply right click anywhere on your map and press "Add entity". Alternative, you move your cursor box to the desired location and press the insert button.

You have just created a null entity - this entity is basically nothing, and does nothing. To choose what NPC you want to appear, click the entity (if it is not already selected) and the entity menu will appear, next to the buttons from before. Select the "Entity type" dropdown menu, and you will be confronted with a list of every NPC in the entire game. Simply select the desired thing, and you're well on your way. Let's say for example we wanted a sign on our new map; We would select number 37, the signpost.

That's all well and dandy, but this entity still does nothing! We need to set it's Flags. Flags are things that I can't explain other than to say they are important and will ruin everything most of the time. Below the entity list, you see three editable fields: Entity ID, Event #, and Flags. You could manually type in the number into Flags, but the easy way is to press the button "Flag details" underneath. This will bring up a menu with all of the possible flag combinations we can work with. Of particular interest to us are 0x0800, 0x2000, and 0x4000. Flag 2000 is what you will use most of the time to make your entity DO something. When it is set, the entity will run it's script whenever the player tries to interact with it. The other two are useful for sequencing events and making sure when something is gone it stays gone, or does not appear until we need it to, but that's for later.

So, let's set our sign with flag 2000. Great! It will now run it's script when the player uses it. But, uh... What is that script??? Well, this is where Event # comes in. Everything that happens in the game has an event in the script, and this event number tells the computer what part of the script to read. It's best to choose reasonably small numbers, but always larger than 100 because smaller than that are "Global events" in the file head.tsc

To look at the script for our map, press the menu button "Map" in the top right and from the dropdown select "Edit script". Whoah! Wild Script Editor appears! Don't panic. This is the TSC - It's what modding is all about. On the right you have the infinitely handy list of TSC functions - Look through them, you'll have to know how most of them work to do any serious modding. For now, let's focus on our sign. First, we need to create an event for it. To do that, we need to give it a number. The numbers in the script followed by the # symbol are the event numbers of all the other events on the map. These are great to read and learn from, since they at least are guaranteed to work. Anyway, pick somewhere to put your event. Why not... 187? Go into your script, and put in #0187 on a new line. However! There are rules. You absolutely MUST have the numbers in order, and you MUST use four digits in the number.

Alright, so now the script knows where to read from, let's give it some instructions! If we're reading a sign, we don't want the player able to keep jumping around all over the place, so let's start with <KEY on the line right after your event #. <KEY locks player input until <END, alright, sounds good. Now, we want our sign to say something, right? So, we use the command <MSG right after <KEY. Now, we can type some text in - just like that! - and it'll pop up in a nice little box at the bottom. Be careful, because if you make it too long, it'll scroll right out of your box. Use the enter key just as you would regularly typing. Let's say "Hello World!" for our sign.

Now, you've got a sign, and it'll display some text. An important thing to remember is we want a player controlled pause in the text, so if they're not so quick they have time to read it at their leisure. To do this, we simply place the command <NOD at the end of our text. This makes it wait for the press of the button before moving on. We're done with our sign now, so the last thing we need to do is finish the event. All events need to end with the <END command, unless they jump somewhere else before they finish like with <TRA or <EVE. So, put the <END on and we're done! To summarize, it should look like this:

#0187
<KEY<MSGHello World!<NOD<END

You have just created your first entity. Congratulations! Now, press the save button on your Script editor, and close it. The last thing we need to do is give the appropriate event # to our Entity, so, select it again, and type 187 into it's Event # box. Now, save the map, close it up, and give it a test so you can see the result of all your hard work.

Chapter 5: Map Manipulation

Spoiler

In this chapter, I’ll explain a few of the less-known features of map editing. First of all, I’d like to address the issue of making new maps. Making a brand new map from scratch might seem like a fine idea, and a bit of a timesaver as you don’t have to erase all the junk that’s on an old map. However, at the time of writing there’s a small error in CE whereby if you make a new map by pressing the button, the backgrounds won’t work. I don’t know why, but it just won’t go. The best thing to do is just take an existing map, delete all the things on it, and work from there. If you REALLY need the extra map, then you can always select a map from the list, and hit “Copy”. This way, the new map will have functioning backgrounds.

Next, we’ll take a look at the map properties dialogue. To get to this, you can either right-click the name of your map from the list and hit “Edit Map Properties”, or once in your map press the “Map” dropdown and hit “Properties”. This new menu has some important options. In General, you can change the map name (which only you will see), and the caption, which is what displays as the map name ingame. Next to that is the map size, and while you DO have the option to make it very large, maps that are too big will end up laggy on certain computers and that’s not fun for anybody. Also, if you make the map size smaller than 16x21, then there won’t be enough tiles to fill the screen and you’ll run into some graphical issues that way. Next is the background options – the scroll type, and the actual image to use. For Scroll type, it basically does what they say they do. Just remember that if your BG is set to type 3,4, or 8, then you won’t see it, but rather just dark blue or black. As for the image, options 6 and 7 [those are like what you see on the balcony] will only work if the image size is 320x240, otherwise nothing will display. Remember if you want to use your own image, you place it with the others and put the letters “Bk” as the first two letters of the name, that way the game and the editor will recognize it.

The third segment is Tileset information, which we looked at before with making entities, and the fourth is the boss fight information. There are certain bosses in the game, like monster X, that aren’t entities that you set but rather are hard-coded to appear at a certain segment of the map. Short of assembly, there’s no way to change where they appear so it’s advised that to use them, just build your map around their location. They will always have their tileset in slot #2 above. As far as actually instigating the bosses, it is best just to refer to where they’re used in the original game and follow that script, modifying as need be. If I recall correctly, you’ll need the <BOA command for one…

A final note on map manipulation is that there are a couple options found by right-clicking the actual map in the editor. The first option is Shift Map, and as it says it’ll slide every tile up, down, however you need it to go. If you turn on Wrap then if part of your map goes out of bounds due to shifting then it’ll come back on the other side. It does accept negative numbers. The other option is Set Start Location, and that just does exactly what it says.

Chapter 6: Game Settings

Spoiler

Now, this is a fairly important menu, but you’ll probably only ever need to use it once or twice. We looked at it before way back in setup, when we removed the ©Pixel requirement and converted to bitmaps, so lets go back and check out the rest of the features.

At the very top you’ll see Program Title. If the game is run in windowed mode, this is what will appear at the top of the window – bar – thingy. The next is new game data, which you may want to change, or may not, it’s up to you. You’ve got starting health first, then “Player Facing” (direction, 0 for left and 2 for right). Both Starting map and Starting Coords can be automatically set in the map as shown earlier, but if you like you can also manually plug it in. Starting Event is the event on starting map that runs when you select new game, change it if you need to. As for starting flags, I have absolutely no clue what they do so it’s best just not to touch them, I think.

To the right of that, we have the title screen data. This is what happens when you load the game and don’t press anything, that little animation. The script controls what actually goes down, it runs the event specified on the map specified here. The title coordinates are where the name of the map will appear (This would be “Studio Pixel Presents” in the original, I believe), so if yours is unusually long or short you may want to tweak it, or even just to have it show up someplace interesting. As for the words that appear, it’s just the name of that map! Change the _u in the map (Kings) to whatever you want to say.

And, of course, the last little bit was already covered in the setup, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Chapter 7: Tileset Editor

Spoiler

The tileset editor is a fairly basic tool, so hopefully it won’t take too long to explain. To find it, simply double-click the name of a tileset from the list on the main menu (second column), and it should pop up. You’re presented with the pallete immediately in your way, so just drag that to the side somewhere – you don’t really want to use this thing to draw graphics anyway, however the ability to edit the colors available to you can come in handy if you want to keep it 16-colour, which can save you a bit of space in the final product. So, why not look at that first? Simply click Tools>Edit Pallete, and you can change whatever you like. It works basically the same as Paint’s colour specification tool. Also under Tools is resize, which allows you to safely add more tiles to your image. Manually resizing it in paint, for the most part, is unadvised as if you do it wrong it just won’t work. I don’t really know what the “Height” option does, so I just don’t touch it. Whatever.

In view you can change the size of the grid that is superimposed, which can be helpful in some cases. Under file, of course, are the standard “Save” and “Exit”. Now, the sprite editor works almost exactly the same, only for resize instead of tilesizes it just gives you pixels. If you make it too wide then it won’t load properly, so if extension is ever needed, extend downward.

Chapter 8: The last of the menus

Spoiler

I’ve probably spent enough time talking about Cave Editor’s functions, but there are a couple tiny things that I should mention. First, is the Data dropdown. Here you can select “Bullet Data”, and it will give you a nice little menu where you can change certain behaviour of weapon shots, like damage done and energy required to level up. I don’t really know how to explain the size variables as I don’t really know how they work, but for most people they aren’t too important anyway. Just draw your new bullets the same size as the old ones basically. The flags do the certain things they say, and the unlabelled ones again I’m not sure as to their effect.
The Options menu holds little of significance to modding, but you can change a little bit of how CE itself appears through there.
The help option actually contains no help whatsoever, but you can find the About dialogue in it.
File>Save and Test just doesn’t work, and never has. Maybe it never will, who knows? I know that Sue’s Workshop has this feature working though, which is rather handy.

Chapter 9: Changing ORGs with Resource Hacker

Spoiler

So, now we’re getting into the more technical side of modding. Before I begin, I must note that if you are using Sue’s you MUST make music replacement the last step, because Sue’s won’t recognize an .exe with the music changed. The music for the game is an internal resource, meaning it’s contained within the .exe file itself. To access this, you’ll need a resource hacking tool. The one I use is simply called Resource Hacker, and it works quite well. You can find it here:

http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

Once you’ve gotten that, use it to open up the file and you’ll see a bunch of folders on the left. Open the one that says ORG and you’ll find the subfolders with every song. They don’t have the usual names, but for the most part it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what they are. If you get confused, you could always save all the songs and listen to them in order to find out what is what. Anyway, to replace a song, open its subfolder and right-click the green gear-like thing, then hit “Replace resource”. In the dialogue that comes up, first select your new song, then for resource type leave it as ORG. for name, make sure it is exactly the same name as the old song’s folder title was. If you change it, it will either not play or crash, I can’t recall. And, for language, either put 1041 or leave it blank for the machine to do itself. That’s it! Now just be sure to save under a different filename (songsAdded.exe for example) in case something funny happened, you won’t lose your original. Also, it’s a good idea to note which song you’ve replaced so you don’t lose track.

Note: Graphics (such as 2004.12 Studio Pixel) can be replaced with a very similar procedure.

 

I don't think I can answer them all, but I know you can get more colours by making your .pbm into .bmp and changing them to 256 colour (or 24-bit) then changing them back if you so desire. The only downside is it makes your mod much larger (same with having huge tilesets)

I forgot to say thanks for that info Noxoid! Thanks~

EDIT: and that info above was too

 

Basically, the same instructions, but you are now a slick badass for using Sue's.

Let's not forget that once you did that resource hacking would corrupt the exe.

Oh the joys of using Sue's workshop, making it harder to import orgs and such :S .

Plus the syntax checker in CE is a thing of beauty, and the list is pretty helpful.

Oh and also remember that Sue's workshop and CE don't play nicely. If you use CE on an executable, SW will corrupt the exe if you try to open it with SW.