Post
by Muzozavr » Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:36 am
Importing gameplay elements from one game to another... unless someone discovers how to easily copy code from the RTW exe into the WSW exe... is practically impossible. You'd have to know ASM, you'd have to reprogram a huge undocumented ASM code, you'd have to code your own stuff from scratch... overall, this would be a complete nightmare that would take years upon years for even one gameplay elements. And even then it would be glitchy as hell, possibly unstable (producing weird crashes and MAVs) and even if it wouldn't, it's quirks (and quirks are half the fun) would not be exactly the same. Even if you code a trampoline and it's basic behaviour, you can never be sure that the ice/teleporter/conveyor-involving jumps will work them... and without them, there's not much else to do with trampolines, that little quirk is what made it so great.
Theoretically it MIGHT be possible that code can be easily copied from RTW to WSW. After all, they're running on the same engine. However, the problem of editing the level data still remains.
You started the topic with a dream of importing WA objects into RTW. Copying code is impossible, the engine is too different. You'd have to code it and ALL the possible interactions with OTHER objects. You'd have to code a lot of stuff that you haven't even thought of when proposing the idea.
Not saying this is absolutely impossible... after all, programming freaks have done stuff in the past that makes you marvel at the accomplishment and roll your eyes thinking "how long have they SPENT on this?!" at the same time. But it IS practically impossible and I doubt this forum has programming freaks who are devoted enough. Wonderland isn't that popular of a game. Even very popular games very rarely have programming freaks like that in their fanbase.
cooldudepoke, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but... sorry, no way.
**************
An explanation of what HEX-editing is and why those two things are so wildly different:
The custom levels for the game are stored in .LV6 files. It's written in two "layers": one for tiles (stinkers, boulders, coins, boxes, steel boxes, exits, reflectors, etc) and one for objects (link spheres, push cannons, transporters, trampolines, etc) similarly as to how they're divided in the editor.
One fateful day, Mark (back then under the Amadeus! nickname) really wanted to find out what happens when you have TWO Loofs in a level. Normally, the editor only allows you to place one. However, with a HEX editor that allows you to open the leveldata in a hexadecimal format... you aren't limited by the editor anymore. Therefore, he found out the exact effect that two Loofs in a level can cause and used it in his very tricky level "Levitation", now famous for probably being the first hex-edited level ever.
OBJECTS are defined by a single number, so there's not much else to do with them. However, TILES are defined by a combination of TWO hexadecimal numbers. Most of the first efforts to do anything were either simple continuations that defied the editor limits (ever wanted to have a bridgetile that can be walked on four, five, six, seven... up to 99 I think? You CAN do that and MORE...) or crashed the game with a "Memory Access Violation" error... but eventually, people stumbled upon combinations that managed to take DIFFERENT properties from EXISTING objects by tricking the game into poking the exact right places in the memory. Thus we now have strange, weird, mutated objects that can be used if you're careful enough.
It doesn't require new code. All we do is taking an existing level format and poke just beyond the artificial limits of the editor. Those objects can indeed look like magic to people who don't know how it works and then in SOME cases the trickier level designers would introduce "hidden mechanisms" that in some cases don't even require hex-editing but nonetheless, produce weird results. (Ever wanted an enemy RANDOMLY EXPLODING when it walks near a certain wall? Put a barrel right INSIDE the wall, the editor allows you to do that!) Combined with hex-editing, the results can be startling and bewildering.
But none of us CODE NEW ELEMENTS. We only do what the game allows us to do. We just try out a new combination of two hexadecimal numbers, test it and hope the result is interesting. There are many combinations and many HEX-mutated objects... but none of them do what you want... especially since the WA objects weren't even created when RTW came out.
Rest in peace, Kym. I hardly knew ya.
Rest in peace, Marinus. A bright star, you were ahead of me on my own tracks of thought. I miss you.
