[Release] Krabby Quest Level Editor

[HumanGamer]

Hello,

I hex-edited the wdledit.exe so that it supports the Krabby Quest file structure.

You will need Lunar IPS to patch wdledit.exe to the Krabby Quest version.
Lunar IPS can be found here.

You will also need my Custom Content Enabler which can be found here.

1. Run the custom content enabler for both KrabbyQuest and Return to Wonderland.
2. Copy wdledit.exe from RTW into the KQ folder.
3. Copy the editorgraphics folder from RTW into the KQ folder.
4. Copy and replace the 2 files from the editorgraphics folder in the download into your editorgraphics folder within KQ.
5. Apply the IPS patch to the wdledit.exe in your KQ folder.
6. Copy the options.cfg from RTW into your KQ folder, to keep your resolution settings for the editor the same as in RTW.

Note: If an object or tile is a blackbox with an X through it, that means it was tested and is not compatible with Krabby Quest. Not all tiles have been tested, but all objects have been.

Also try messing with the broken z-bot, it gives a hilarious effect to the bully!

Enjoy!

~ Matt

[Mark]

Matt, you are Awesome!

Just tried it out on the Big Fish Demo of Krabby Quest and it works great!
Only snag I encountered was if you change an Option settings within KQ like (e.g. Music Volume),
the Editor will launch into a black screen later.
And the only remedy I could find was to delete the Options.cfg file.

[tyteen4a03]

Matt, you are Awesome!

Just tried it out on the Big Fish Demo of Krabby Quest and it works great!
Only snag I encountered was if you change an Option settings within KQ like (e.g. Music Volume),
the Editor will launch into a black screen later.
And the only remedy I could find was to delete the Options.cfg file.

KQ and RTW have different settings (e.g KQ's lack of Teleporter style options), so RTW will crash when loading KQ configuration, and vice versa (?).

[HumanGamer]

Matt, you are Awesome!

Just tried it out on the Big Fish Demo of Krabby Quest and it works great!
Only snag I encountered was if you change an Option settings within KQ like (e.g. Music Volume),
the Editor will launch into a black screen later.
And the only remedy I could find was to delete the Options.cfg file.

KQ and RTW have different settings (e.g KQ's lack of Teleporter style options), so RTW will crash when loading KQ configuration, and vice versa (?).

I could try making the wdledit.exe use a different file for configuration.
Either way i'll wait for permission from Patrick before I continue as I never did.

[jdl]

If I remember correctly from another thread, KQ uses the same configuration as WSW does.

[Mark]

If I remember correctly from another thread, KQ uses the same configuration as WSW does.

I tried using the WSW Options.exe in KQ, but changing any settings causes the editor to crash (black screen).

[HumanGamer]

If I remember correctly from another thread, KQ uses the same configuration as WSW does.

I tried using the WSW Options.exe in KQ, but changing any settings causes the editor to crash (black screen).

That's because your trying to use WSW options in KQ which works but your still using WSW/KQ options for RTW which doesn't work

~ Matt

[HumanGamer]

Try this patch instead ok. After patching, copy your options.cfg from RTW into KQ as optedit.cfg and keep a copy of options.cfg. One for the editor, and one for the game.

(Make sure to patch using an unmodified wdledit.exe)

~ Matt

[Mark]

Try this patch instead ok.

Looks like you solved it, Matt!

I copied the options.cfg from WSW and then with your new patch
file was able to change all the settings without any further problems.
It was good to be able to run KQ in a Window instead of full screen.

Thanks again!

[HumanGamer]

Try this patch instead ok.

Looks like you solved it, Matt!

I copied the options.cfg from WSW and then with your new patch
file was able to change all the settings without any further problems.
It was good to be able to run KQ in a Window instead of full screen.

Thanks again!

Happy to help

[jdl]

Okay so here's what I've found:

- Wood is the Bikini Bottom level texture.
- Purple is the Beach level texture.
- Castle is the Jellyfish Fields level texture.
- Jade is the Kelp Forest level texture.
- Spooky is the Phosphor Caves level texture.

- Using houses with a "2" next to it makes the house red.
- Using houses with a "3" next to it makes the house yellow.
- 1 is the default house texture (no need to place a 1 to even get it) and 4 makes the houses glitchy.

- Bird fountains are the Krusty Krab.
- Big pyramids are the Krusty Krab sign.
- Little pyramids are tall seaweed things.
- The orange circle next to the pillar is the flame object, but it looks a little different in KQ.
- Pillars are Spongebob's house.
- Green trees are Patrick's rock-house.
- The small traffic cone-looking thing are rocks.
- The wider traffic cones are sign objects. (these are just models, you still need to place an actual floor sign)
- White trees are the bamboo stick things.
- Small mushrooms is the umbrella.
- The object to the right of custom house 4 (I think it's a lamp in RTW, can't remember) are the little flowers.
- And the two objects to the right of the small pyramid are the horizontal and vertical road barricades.

Garden, Aztec, Cave, and Sand level textures will not work unless you copy them into the extracted "Graphics" folder from RTW's extracted "graphics" folder, however when I tried this a few more files were required to be copied to load the level such as the "gentele" files. Anyway, when copying these textures over you should not get a "This file already exists!" notification from Windows. If you do get it, then you're copying something extra that isn't needed.. I could be wrong though.

Also, I tried using the platinum editor just for trying out custom level textures by renaming "LV6" to "lv5", and it does not work (probably because of the LV6 file structure. Hex editing custom textures and backgrounds might work, but I have no idea how to do that). Custom Models and Houses do not seem work. I could be wrong though since it's been awhile since I've used the RTW editor. I'll let you guys check it out.

The music tracks you can choose in the editor have no effect in-game, probably because KQ uses a different kind of music format than what the other games do. (KQ uses Ogg instead of tracker music) Hex editing might work for changing the music, but I don't know what byte to change or anything.

As for the built-in backgrounds in the editor, you can use them if you copy them from RTW's graphics folder into KQ's Graphics folder.
Keep in mind that KQ's only background, Sky, uses the "cloud" image in the Graphics folder as well so be sure to change it if you're overwriting the game's original background.

If you need help finding out what to copy, KQ gives a "couldn't load" error with the filename of the graphic texture it couldn't load.

Incompatible objects not on the list:
- The switching conveyors.
- Lava Tiles.
- Lava Break Tiles.
- Electric Tiles.
- Ice Curve Tiles.
- Timer Buttons.
- Factories.
- The lightning effect.

Objects that look weird:
- Teleporters.
- Conveyor type 2.

[HumanGamer]

Okay so here's what I've found:

- Wood is the Bikini Bottom level texture.
- Purple is the Beach level texture.
- Castle is the Jellyfish Fields level texture.
- Jade is the Kelp Forest level texture.
- Spooky is the Phosphor Caves level texture.

- Using houses with a "2" next to it makes the house red.
- Using houses with a "3" next to it makes the house yellow.
- 1 is the default house texture (no need to place a 1 to even get it) and 4 makes the houses glitchy.

- Bird fountains are the Krusty Krab.
- Big pyramids are the Krusty Krab sign.
- Little pyramids are tall seaweed things.
- The orange circle next to the pillar is the flame object, but it looks a little different in KQ.
- Pillars are Spongebob's house.
- Green trees are Patrick's rock-house.
- The small traffic cone-looking thing are rocks.
- The wider traffic cones are sign objects. (these are just models, you still need to place an actual floor sign)
- White trees are the bamboo stick things.
- Small mushrooms is the umbrella.
- The object to the right of custom house 4 (I think it's a lamp in RTW, can't remember) are the little flowers.
- And the two objects to the right of the small pyramid are the horizontal and vertical road barricades.

Garden, Aztec, Cave, and Sand level textures will not work unless you copy them into the extracted "Graphics" folder from RTW's extracted "graphics" folder, however when I tried this a few more files were required to be copied to load the level such as the "gentele" files. Anyway, when copying these textures over you should not get a "This file already exists!" notification from Windows. If you do get it, then you're copying something extra that isn't needed.. I could be wrong though.

Also, I tried using the platinum editor just for trying out custom level textures by renaming "LV6" to "lv5", and it does not work (probably because of the LV6 file structure. Hex editing custom textures and backgrounds might work, but I have no idea how to do that). Custom Models and Houses do not seem work. I could be wrong though since it's been awhile since I've used the RTW editor. I'll let you guys check it out.

The music tracks you can choose in the editor have no effect in-game, probably because KQ uses a different kind of music format than what the other games do. (KQ uses Ogg instead of tracker music) Hex editing might work for changing the music, but I don't know what byte to change or anything.

As for the built-in backgrounds in the editor, you can use them if you copy them from RTW's graphics folder into KQ's Graphics folder.
Keep in mind that KQ's only background, Sky, uses the "cloud" image in the Graphics folder as well so be sure to change it if you're overwriting the game's original background.

If you need help finding out what to copy, KQ gives a "couldn't load" error with the filename of the graphic texture it couldn't load.

Incompatible objects not on the list:
- The switching conveyors.
- Lava Tiles.
- Lava Break Tiles.
- Electric Tiles.
- Ice Curve Tiles.
- Timer Buttons.
- Factories.
- The lightning effect.

Objects that look weird:
- Teleporters.
- Conveyor type 2.

Thanks

I'll keep this in mind for the next patch

~ Matt

[HumanGamer]

Updated Editor to V2

~ Matt

[jdl]

By comparing the RTWD exe and KQ exe, I'm almost certain that the coding for Custom Models and Houses was removed in KQ.

I went ahead and edited the editor objects image to remove the custom models and houses 1 and 4 squares. I also changed the flower square to look more like the object instead of the RTW flowers.

I hope you don't mind.

[Kilicool64]

I've tested the editor and while it works most of the time, it always crashes as soon it's supposed to show a trench. My guess is that trenches don't have an RTW equivalent, so the editor is unfamiliar with them. Could someone look into this? The first level that has a trench is 7.lv5.

[Kilicool64]

I have an idea for fixing the problem with trenches. How about we figure out the byte used for them in KQ's level format? If we replaced every one of these with the byte used for lava in RTW, the editor should be able to handle the levels in question. We'd just have to restore the modified bytes afterwards to make the game recognize the tiles as trenches again. This process sounds like something a simple program should be capable of. Unfortunately, I have neither programming skills, nor experience with hex editing, so I can't do this myself. Is anyone else willing to give it a shot?

[Kilicool64]

I've used a hex editor to look into the level format used for RTW and KQ. It seems every tile is represented with two bytes. For trenches these are "2D 01" in hexadecimal, whereas the hex code for lava is "84 03".

By manually replacing every single instance of the former with the latter in 7.lv5, I made it possible for the editor to load the level without crashing as soon as a trench appears on-screen. However, this is a really tedious process.

Given the relative simplicity of replacing the two bytes for trenches with the ones for lava or vice versa, automating it should be feasible, though since I lack programming skills, I can't write a program to take care of this.

I suppose using a hex editor's "Search & Replace" function would work as well, but my hex editor can't do that with non-printable bytes such as "01" or "03". I'll see if I can find one that can.

[Kilicool64]

Alright, I figured out a solution. This is how you can create levels with trenches:


First, while this isn't strictly necessary, let's make trenches easier to recognize in the editor. You can skip this if it's too complicated.

Download my slightly edited version of the Lunar IPS patch attached below and apply it to the original version of "wdledit.exe". Instead of "Brk1", the editor will now call lava tiles "Trnc" (due to technical limitations, I had to keep the number of characters the same).

Next, repeat the whole process of patching RTW's ".dat" files "res1" and "res2", but with one difference. When extracting the contents of "KQ Editor v2.zip", do not overwrite the original version of "ed-lava.bmp". This way, lava tiles will be displayed with their regular icon rather than with a red X, making them easier to recognize.


Now let's get to the important stuff.

Create a level for KQ and place lava wherever you want to have a trench. The first screenshot below shows an example of such a level.

Download XVI32. It's a freeware hex editor that you'll need to turn these lava tiles into trenches.

Use it to open the level you just created and press Ctrl+R. Enter the content of the second screenshot and select "Replace all". If everything worked correctly, the number of occurrences the program will now find and replace should be equal to the number of lava tiles your level had.

Now use the Custom Content Enabler to extract KQ's data (after making a backup of "res1.dat" and "res2.dat"), make a copy of the modified level in the "levels" directory, delete one of the regular 60 levels in it (for example, "2.lv5"), and give your level its name. Finally, repack everything.

Now run KQ and select the level you replaced (for example, if you replaced "2.lv5", select the second level). If everything worked, it should not only be playable, but every instance of lava should have been replaced with a trench.

Note that you cannot open a level that has been modified for KQ with the editor. If you lost the unmodified version, but want to make some changes to your level, open it in XVI32 again, press Ctrl+R and enter the content of my third screenshot. Its trenches will now be reverted to lava, allowing the editor to open it again. Of course, you'll need to reconvert it afterwards before you can play it in KQ again.


I've also attached a short test level for trenches that I made in the process of figuring this out. As it turns out, trenches act exactly the same way as water. This means wood boxes and beach balls will float in them. If you want to play it, give it the name of one of KQ's regular levels and insert it into its data like I described above.

[rekcer]

I'm feeling stupid. I don't know how to test my levels.

How do you test your levels (if at all)?

[garirry]

I'm feeling stupid. I don't know how to test my levels.

How do you test your levels (if at all)?

I'm pretty sure that you can still run those levels in RTW (I don't know, haven't used it myself), or you can export the files to the Krabby Quest game so you can try it from there. There was never a test function in RTWE.

[rekcer]

I'm pretty sure that you can still run those levels in RTW (I don't know, haven't used it myself), or you can export the files to the Krabby Quest game so you can try it from there. There was never a test function in RTWE.

How do I PLAY the Level I created then.

I mean, when I create a level, how do I load it up so I can PLAY it.

[garirry]

That's exactly what I was talking about. You need to play the levels in RTW to test them. I'm not sure though, if may not work, so in that case you'll have to try them in Krabby's Quest.

[Kilicool64]

I'm pretty sure that you can still run those levels in RTW (I don't know, haven't used it myself), or you can export the files to the Krabby Quest game so you can try it from there. There was never a test function in RTWE.

How do I PLAY the Level I created then.

I mean, when I create a level, how do I load it up so I can PLAY it.

I already explained this, but you need to extract KQ's data, replace one of the 60 regular level files with it, then re-pack everything. Finally, just run the game and you'll find the level at the position you replaced. For example, if you replace 2.lv5 with your level, it will be the game's second level. (I would not recommend replacing 1.lv5. It's hardcoded to have an annoying pop-up that won't disappear if you put any other level in its position.)

I'd advise against testing your levels in RTW instead, even if it's a lot easier. While the game would most likely be able to load them unless you've used my trench trick, there are lots of subtle gameplay differences between the two games (and a few large ones, such as bullies having very little in common with z-bots, despite being created with the same objects in the editor), so if your level relies on gameplay elements that were changed in KQ, it wouldn't work the way it should in RTW. And it it doesn't, there's not really much of a point in making it for KQ rather than RTW.

BTW, I haven't mentioned this discovery yet, but the music track your level will use is determined by the world it's placed in. For example, if you think the track that plays in the Kelp Forest levels fits your level best, replace one of the Kelp Forest levels with it.