SMILE JX [new poll]

[JAM]

It would be nice if somewhere in SMILE it told you how much enemy GFX data you have used/available. For instance, trying to put a bunch of enemies into a single room, or combining them with bosses can cause their GFX to bork up completely because it has too much in the table. (Or wherever it is stored.) So a counter that lets people know if they are under the limit would be something else that could be added.

I got it. Ncie idea. Yeah, I can add this counter to the enemy window. When adding/removing enemies to allowed list, the used/avilable data size will be shown. Or prorably, a lable somewhere in the enemy window that will show GFX data size constantly.

If you're in the map editor and press E to open a room when there are multiple rooms in the same spot, the room selection dialog still appears under the map editor and it practically freezes SMILE. JAM, I am disappoint. :nowai:

Well, yes... I haven't messed with this stuff yet. But this bug is left from Parlor times. I will try to fix it in my next version.

[M1CR0H4CK3R]

If you're in the map editor and press E to open a room when there are multiple rooms in the same spot, the room selection dialog still appears under the map editor and it practically freezes SMILE. JAM, I am disappoint. :nowai:

I think I found out exactly what the issue is:

The above window appears when this happens, but it needs to have a higher 'always on top' priority than the Map Editor window, because you cannot click on it to bring it into view, and SMILE won't let you click on ANYTHING other than the window, which is BEHIND all other windows. People who have high-res Graphics Cards won't have this issue (if they move the window away from the center of the screen before editing), but people running less than 1600x1200 will need to end the process through Task Manager, thus losing all of their work since the last time they saved the room (and in the case of a room larger then 9 square screens, this is enough to make you want to pull your hair out  :<_<:).

[Smiley]

That is very annoying, but you don't need the task manager: just use tab and enter. Pressing tab once or twice and then pressing enter closes the window and lets you continue working. :^_^:

[P.JBoy]

I imagine one can right-click the SMILE taskbar window and 'Move' it with the arrow keys

[Terrence7522]

The Beauty Salon is having problems.  Samus' midsection colors seems to be linked to the colors that make up and the medium and dark colors of her suit.  Every time I try to adjust her shoulders, her stomach ends up changing at the same time.  Ditto if I do the inverse.

This should not happen as Samus has 17 colors, but for some reason the Beauty salon is behaving as she only has 15.

I can change the color by clicking on the block, but it is not represented on her model, making it impossible to get an idea of what it will look like.

[Scyzer]

Samus doesn't have 17 colours. Nothing in the game uses 17 colours, because a palette line is only 16 colours, and one of those is transparent. Samus only has 15 colours. Though you are right about SMILE not displaying them correctly in SABS. It's probably caused by the bitmap having a couple colour indexes in the wrong place. There's nothing you can do to fix it on your end. JAM willj have to redraw the bitmap using the right indexes and reload it into SABs.

[Terrence7522]

Oops.  You're right.  I must have miscounted or remembered incorrectly.

I do hope it gets fixed at some point.  It's a pain to keep opening an emulator to see what her side profile looks like with color edits in various areas with different lighting.  Unless of course there is an easier way I don't know about.

[JAM]

One more thing to fix. Got it.
I'm planning to release 2.84 with month.

[JAM]

Time to close the poll. And make a new one.

Results:

Return to classic SMILE interface (like in v2.5)?
Yes:  18 (94.7%)
No:  1 (5.3%)

Over 90% of people said "yes", so Crimea has joined to Russia design will be changed in v2.86. That's for sure. Too many things to fix/change for now.

Since, there'll be ExLoROM support, we have a problem. Currently, in pointers window SMILE JX understand both data addressing formats: Hex and Lunar. For LoROM it's NOProblem. For Level Data 000000..3FFFFF -- Hex format, for 808000..FFFFFF -- Lunar format (bank:address).

For ExLoROM address 008000 can point to $8000 (hex) or to $00:8000 (Lunar), which is 408000. So, we (and I mean, YOU) will have to choose one of them, which SMILE will support. Only for ExLoROM format (regular ROMs up to 4Mb still will understand both).

So, the question is:
How to display the address in Level Data field in Pointers window?
• In hex format (300000 means hex address 300000)
• In lunar format aka bank:address (300000 will be displayed as E08000)

People's choice will be implemented in v2.84.

[Su]

How to display the address in Level Data field in Pointers window?
• In hex format (300000 means hex address 300000)
• In lunar format aka bank:address (300000 will be displayed as E08000)

People's choice will be implemented in v2.84.

Is it not possible to have both?

[Quietus]

I'd also say both.  Have one as default, with an option to change it under the View menu.  As far as which one would be the default, I'd say whichever one is going to be more easily understood and used by new users.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I'd definitely agree that the option to have both would probably be best, if slightly unneeded.
As for me, I voted for the "Lunar Format"/bank:address format given that's the one every version of SMILE I've ever used uses, and it's the one I've gotten most familiar with. An advantage of putting both in would be that you could then develop a converter inside SMILE eliminating the need for me to ever touch Lunar Address.  :heheh:

[M1CR0H4CK3R]

How to display the address in Level Data field in Pointers window?
• In hex format (300000 means hex address 300000)
• In lunar format aka bank:address (300000 will be displayed as E08000)

People's choice will be implemented in v2.84.

Although this is almost certainly what everyone is thinking:

[Smiley]

From what I understood from JAM's post, regular roms (up to 4mb) will have both, but bigger roms can't do that, because, for example, 008000 could point to either 8000 (PC address) or 100:8000 (SNES address). One more digit in the pointer window could solve this though...

[Su]

From what I understood from JAM's post, regular roms (up to 4mb) will have both, but bigger roms can't do that, because, for example, 008000 could point to either 8000 (PC address) or 100:8000 (SNES address). One more digit in the pointer window could solve this though...

What if you had the bank part of the bank:address thingamajig in a separate box?

[bank][address] [~]
[  Pc address  ]  [  ]

That ~ symbol is supposed to represent a tick.

[JAM]

SMILE JX is already understanding both formats. So, if you enter 300000, it'll transform the address to Lunar Format, gives user a warning and then will save the data.

I'd also say both.  Have one as default, with an option to change it under the View menu.  As far as which one would be the default, I'd say whichever one is going to be more easily understood and used by new users.

Yes, it's hard to understand when you're starting why there should be E08000, not 300000 (but add 300000) to the level entries file. It's confusing for a newbie.

An advantage of putting both in would be that you could then develop a converter inside SMILE eliminating the need for me to ever touch Lunar Address.  :heheh:

It's already there. =) Try to edit any BG. Data in the ROM is in Lunar Format, but when you open it with SMILE, you see the hex address like 1B6070. So, some data is displaying in Lunar format, and some in PC address format.

Next step will be to get rid of decimal numbers (but not in this version). MOST of data in SMILE is in hex, except color number in Graphic Editor and music data.

Dragon-Tamer795
SMILEuser96
Thanks for ideas! Maybe, I'll implement one of them.

[Su]

[Ninja'd.]

[JAM]

Dragon-Tamer795
SMILEuser96
Thanks for ideas! Maybe, I'll implement one of them.

Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.

I have to. I still can't see it =)

[JAM]

Aha. Now I saw that picture using another browser.

Well, most of us are for the second option (or for the third one: do both). I will not make the second field just for bank:address or for PC address for now, but I'll leave that field in its current state.

I mean, I've already changed something to be released in v2.84. Displayed data in Level Data field will be in Lunar format. If you move the mouse over that field, the PC address will be displayed as a hint. You still can enter PC address in the Level Data field if you're not working with ExLoROM. If you are, you'll have to use only Lunar Address (but still with hint, converting your address to PC format).

Well, I'll just release it when it's done. If you find that idea good, let eat bee©. If not, I'll add a second field in v2.85.

[RealRed]

While very useful, I have a few gripes. Massively annoying bugs...

• When pressing E to enter a room on the map editor, the "there is more than one room at this point!" window ALWAYS teleports behind the now-locked map editor window, requiring you to open the task manager and close SmileJX.
• Smile JX won't save changed roomstates. You have to get out an older Jathys Smile or hex editor to do this...
• Smile JX doesn't seem to remember your tile data settings 90% of the time. (ie. you double click a tile at the bottom, change it to solid.) not totally tested when, but Smile JX always seems to forget. This one really gets me, as it makes room editing incredibly inconvenient and unnecessarily difficult, especially considering Jathys Smile's always remembered your settings.

I imagine it's not unlikely that someone will say "just use an old version of Smile?", but if these issues were resolved there would be no reason to use anything other than JX.

[Mettyk25jigsaw]

Bloodsonic, I have a solution for your 1st problem, instead of using task manager while window is hidden under locked map editor, press 'tab' and then 'enter' on your keyboard and you should find that the box underneath will disappear and you can continue on editing the map....Hope this helps...

[knuckles]

So this works with the original smile, meaning that you can switch between them for your hack if you wanted? I mean like it doesn't make it where you can only open it in smile jx atter first use?

[Jordan5]

You can use several versions of SMILE when hacking. I tend to use 2.5 most of the time, but when i need any of the features only present in JX, i'll use that version just for that. So just use whichever version you wish that will be best for the task at hand.

Note, there are a couple patches on the main site (like yellow scrolls I think?) which only work for JX or for older SMILE versions. I haven't tried any so i don't know if it means you cant use several versions after applying the patch or whether that version just won't support using the feature of the patch.

[knuckles]

Oh. Does smile jx have any really bad bugs I should know about?

[JAM]

When pressing E to enter a room on the map editor, the "there is more than one room at this point!" window ALWAYS teleports behind the now-locked map editor window, requiring you to open the task manager and close SmileJX.

What Mettyk25jigsaw said. By the way, it's already fixed. Will be in v2.84 when released.

Smile JX won't save changed roomstates. You have to get out an older Jathys Smile or hex editor to do this...

Really? Will look into.

Smile JX doesn't seem to remember your tile data settings 90% of the time. (ie. you double click a tile at the bottom, change it to solid.) not totally tested when, but Smile JX always seems to forget. This one really gets me, as it makes room editing incredibly inconvenient and unnecessarily difficult, especially considering Jathys Smile's always remembered your settings.

Again, will look into. By the way, are you working on CRE blocks? All block values are remembered in files in the "\files\menus\" folder. There is also no separation between CRE and SCENERY. Each file contains both CRE and SCENERY data. So, if you changed something in CRE you should make SMILE remember this change for every tileset.

But there is a good news. I've already splitted these 2 files. CRE will be saved to separate file "0.val". So, you'll have to make a change once, not for every tileset.

And I may did something wrong when adding support for new tilesets, so the data is prorably not saved to *.val files anymore. Will double check this.

I imagine it's not unlikely that someone will say "just use an old version of Smile?", but if these issues were resolved there would be no reason to use anything other than JX.

The first thing I want to do is remove all bugs. So, I'll do my best.

knuckles
As for stability, 2.5 > 2.83 > 2.82.2 > 2.80 > x.xx (that one with run-time error 76). And I hope, 2.84 will be > 2.5

Current version does not have the awful bugs, so it's safe to use.