I'm sorry for my low activity as of late, but I'm really busy this week. Let me address some more replies. Right now it's looking like this standardization will happen, but do not be afraid to raise any further issues you have, especially related to testing GIEPY. After all, it's still quite new.
Before everything, let me once again say that if you're interested in helping with this project or you want to talk to me about it, feel free to message me on Discord, where I'm Telinc1#2670.
At this point, we need to agree on standard formats. More specifically, GIEPY supports CFG and JSON (others are planned). Unlike PIXI, your choice of format doesn't restrict what you can do, so we'll just have to decide on which one is the easiest to use. Even though CFG files are smaller, they're harder to edit manually and would easily become an even bigger mess if more features are added.
As for overworld sprites, boldowa is very uncertain about them, but I still want a user-friendly solution. I have idea for that, but for now we (programmers) should decide how to ultimately handle them in terms of RAM organization and general code structure. I write my proposal for the specification later (hopefully on Friday, but maybe next weekend if I'm way too busy).
I suggest that you read the first post's list of other concepts we should standardize. I don't want to force anything on anyone, so I'd rather have opinions on my plan.
Originally posted by Shiny NinetalesSo basically, extra bits will still exist, but with a different name and usage? That's what I conclude.
I barely hack SMW nowdays, but if this is going to be a progress in hacking (because honestly, PIXI was not) I'm in favor of this.
There's no way extra bits won't exist, they're part of the level sprite data. They are, as you pointed out, just repurposed in GIEPY, which essentially treats them as an extension of the sprite number. That's what allows more sprites. The tool itself is built to work transparently with SpriteTool's standard and my plan does take that into consideration. I do not plan on forcing anyone to convert to GIEPY's methodology, you'll be able to treat the extra bits as you do now if you so choose.
As for whether this is for the greater good of hacking, it's for you to decide. In my opinion, it is, especially if we do it correctly.
Originally posted by ExE BossWell,
Tessera did this way back in 2013, but sadly, it didnt end up being used much at all.
You're right. Tessera's primary problem was its lack of backward compatibility and generally personal design decisions. There was nobody who was interested in pushing it forward and hacking back then was too simple to need a tool like it.
Originally posted by ExE BossJava is a pretty good language for this in my opinion.
My main reason for deciding to use Java (if I do end up being the one to make it) is its strong object oriented design and platform independence. A sprite property editor which handles both CFG/JSON files and ROMs has many shared features and fewer features which depend on the file being edited. Java would make it easy to write that in a clean and manageable way.
Originally posted by ChihayaA CFG Editor is not a major problem imo. Of course, it's useful, but it's not major enough to not consider GIPEY worth standardizing due to not having it. I'm also in favor of converting everything to use native subroutines from GIEPY. Yes it takes some work but still is a whole lot cleaner than just merging with PIXI's.
I agree with you there. A CFG editor is not necessary, especially if we pick JSON as the standard format (see my previous post; JSON files essentially describe themselves). Still, it is a nice thing to have, especially if it can also replace Tweaker.
Converting to native GIEPY subroutines won't make the standardization that much harder (automated scripts) and will pretty much make PIXI compatibility mode unnecessary. It's more future-proof.
Originally posted by HorrowindI can help with writing a CFG editor.
I'm definitely interested. Is there any chance we could talk further? Discord seems like a decent option if you're comfortable with it.
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