Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

All about creating levels and level sets, custom elements and custom artwork.

Moderators: Flumminator, Zomis

Post Reply
ncrecc
Posts: 285
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:59 am

Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by ncrecc »

Attached are drop-in replacements for helpanim.conf and helptext.conf for the Boulder Dash levelsets. This is a completed version of the Game Elements page for Boulder Dash that properly groups elements by their source (BD1, BD2, Construction Kit, New Boulder Dash, Crazy Dream, GDash, and misc.) and includes a description for every element, as well as a few new animations.
bd_elements_2.png
bd_elements_2.png (34.24 KiB) Viewed 556 times
bd_elements_1_new.png
bd_elements_1_new.png (33.5 KiB) Viewed 506 times
Holger, if you're reading this, feel free to add this to the official "GDash levels for R'n'D" and "Boulder Dash" packages.
Attachments
helptext.conf
(6.47 KiB) Downloaded 4 times
helpanim.conf
(4.08 KiB) Downloaded 4 times
Last edited by ncrecc on Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ncrecc
Posts: 285
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:59 am

Re: Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by ncrecc »

did not notice until this morning that empty_space_1 thru 16 display as numbers if shown in the help screen and not empty space (see the "07" in the second screenshot)... bummer. as suggested there are 7 headers total that need empty space next to them ("BOULDER DASH 1 ELEMENTS", "BOULDER DASH 2 ELEMENTS", "CONSTRUCTION KIT ELEMENTS", "NEW BOULDER DASH ELEMENTS", "CRAZY DREAM ELEMENTS", "GDASH ELEMENTS", and "MISCELLANEOUS") which is more than the amount of empty space elements the current BD help screen uses (empty_space, bdx_empty_space, sp_empty_space). dunno if there's a workaround to this.
User avatar
TheOnyxGuy
Posts: 629
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:32 am
Location: Russia
Contact:

Re: Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by TheOnyxGuy »

You could potentially use invisible elements, such as invisible wall, invisible steel wall, invisible sand, character ' ' (blank space) and dripper... although that's still not enough unfortunately, yeah...
Previously known as Eizzoux (boooo)
ncrecc
Posts: 285
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:59 am

Re: Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by ncrecc »

TheOnyxGuy wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:30 pm You could potentially use invisible elements, such as invisible wall, invisible steel wall, invisible sand, character ' ' (blank space) and dripper... although that's still not enough unfortunately, yeah...
thank you for the suggestion to use invisible walls. it turns out between true "empty space" elements and invisible stuff there's more than enough. (went with bdx_empty_space, empty_space, sp_empty_space, mm_empty_space, df_empty_space, invisible_wall, and invisible_steelwall.) attached is an updated version with properly invisible tiles for the headers. i've also replaced the attachments on the original post.
Attachments
helptext.conf
(6.47 KiB) Downloaded 4 times
helpanim.conf
(4.08 KiB) Downloaded 5 times
User avatar
TheOnyxGuy
Posts: 629
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:32 am
Location: Russia
Contact:

Re: Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by TheOnyxGuy »

Oh, different empty spaces... whether they're exclusive to their respective engines or not, some of them may also be considered unnecessary leftovers... Which reminds me... Back when I first played R'n'D 2.0.1 (that was basically my first ever R'n'D experience which I got from a shareware DVD), it didn't have "engines" nor it had proper... engine consistency... Basically, there were indeed different kinds of empty spaces, the most prominent of which was SP's empty space. If you put at least one empty space which is not of Supaplex's own, it's not Supaplex: Murphy gets replaced by Rockford, all explosions are default R'n'D explosions and etc. Basically back then it was almost impossible to make an SP level without screwing up the empty spaces which you couldn't distinguish (char spaces were also invisible in editor back then).
...
Sorry, just had a core memory unlocked...
Previously known as Eizzoux (boooo)
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4253
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Better Game Elements menu for Boulder Dash

Post by Holger »

Haven't tried it out, but looks very good! (Will still check it and most probably use it for the BD level collection.)

Regarding the use of various, engine specific empty space elements for the "game elements" screen: Maybe I should configure the "custom empty space element" graphics so they are really empty on the "info screen". Would make the helpanim/helptext files look less confusing, maybe. :)
Post Reply