A new project for WL4 ROM hacking and Level Editing

shinespeciall

shinespeciall

shinespeciall@gmail.com
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A Wario Land 4 Editor is been making now. All the code is available on the github for better version control. (Goldensunboy/WL4Editor)
The software is been made with Qt and we hope we can make a cross-platform editor as good as Lunar Magic.

we have finished a lot of work in coding for base classes, but there are still a lot of work to do. The first release version is estimated to be available in August 2018, so be patient and just wait for the first release version coming out.
1530005401784.png

if you are interested in the progress of the project, or you would like to be a level maker for WL4 and share your level around, you can join our discord server with this invite link: here. (PS: we already have an demo level for fun, you can get it from our discord community. :))
We also welcome people who would like to hacking WL4 ROM or those who were able to help us making progress in our project to join our discord community.
 
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I will update the screenshot in #1 when there are some inspiring changes in UI, new post will create once we release version beta 1.0
 
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Hmm, looks interesting. Always wanted to see more of a ROM hacking scene for Wario Land 4, and this looks like the first steps towards a full Lunar Magic style level editor that'll make this possible.

Keep up the good work @shinespeciall! Really interested in seeing where this goes next!
 
I'm definitely interested in this too!

Thanks so much for taking the time develop this. I really hope the project continues to go well, and that you keep us in the loop as it updates. While I don't know much about the technical side of rom-hacking or the tools to do it, I would totally love to make my own levels in Wario Land 4 and play other peoples' hacks of the game as well. Looks very promising!
 
my discord server seems always kick out the new comer (only if i set roles for the new one person by person) and i don't know why, can anyone help me to solve this?
 
shinespeciall said:
my discord server seems always kick out the new comer (only if i set roles for the new one person by person) and i don't know why, can anyone help me to solve this?
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the problem is solved, you can use the invite link in the first post to get into my Discord server.
I usually program in the night (sometime before and at the American morning), I will update in this thread and on warioforum Discord server simultaneously when the fist release version is out.
my own Discord server have provided some advices in WL4 game hacking and emulator playing, you can also get in for further information.
@Dr. Mechano
 
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I am personally very looking forward to see where this goes.
Wario Lands 1-3 all got level editors over the past years, but not much came out of them. Perhaps because they were very hard to use.
 
wariolandgoldpiramid said:
I am personally very looking forward to see where this goes.
Wario Lands 1-3 all got level editors over the past years, but not much came out of them. Perhaps because they were very hard to use.
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Making editor is a big project, including the ROM hacking and programming, perhaps most of the developers will spend more time in ROM hacking than programming, and in any condition there are always a lot of things remain to be found in ROM. It cannot be very easy to insist on one reverse engineering, and the whole project is a harder task.
"Editor is hard to use" isn't against common sence, take "super mario maker" as an example, that game make the player concentrate more on object (in GBA we call it Sprites), and we will pay less attention on the other things, but in the game editor case, we should not only pay attention to Sprites, but also something like matching of Tiles in not only 1 but up to 4 layers (you should joint Tile one by one, it take a lot of time), Camera control setting, BGM changing, level testing, etc. They all cost time and increase the difficulty of Editor using. Sometimes we have to design a complicated GUI to give user as much chance as we can to edit everything we found.
 
Well, just gonna mention that this project will be mentioned on Gaming Reinvented at some point as well. Hopefully that'll bring some more attention to it.
 
This is an incredible project and I wish you the best of luck in finishing it! Personally, I think Wario Land 4 had some of the best aesthetics in any 2D Platformer I've played, so being able to use its parts to create a new adventure would be a dream.
 
In this period, we are going to make the editor to just make changes directly on ROM, so the sotfware will just patch the changes, so you will need to use another software called Lunar IPS to share your level.
 
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Due to some reason and lack of time, we cannot release the version 1.0 in August this year. our developers including me spent a lot of time at work and part-time job that delayed the development of the software, but we still have confidence and will try to release the version 1.0 or at least a beta version before the end of this year.
But, I still have something to show you who care about our project and want to see how far the project has reached.
First, we have implement most of the GUI for the software including the main form editor and some dock widgets and dialogs:
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except the entities (including enemies, frog switch, vortex etc.) all the other things can be correctly rendered in the editor panel and the game map editting functionalities is implemented with undo and redo feature. The game use 4 layers to make up the game map in rooms and you can edit them seperately by using the dock widget (Tile16 Selector) on the right, picking up what Tile16 you want, then finally putting them into the Layer you select. we also add the highlight rectangles for Doors (blue rectangles) and Camera Limitation (red rectangles) which is important in game design. we will support Camera limitation and Door editting in the version 1.0 finally. Btw, perhaps you will find the background layer of the room is wierd here, it is because all the background layers are much smaller than the other layer and the move in a different way when you play the game, so we just render them in the way we think is best.
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We also have supported the editting of the ROM data relates to the level, like the level name and timers.
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To make the editor to be the best, there are also a lot of attributes should be able to get configured, this Room config dialog showed how many things we need to care about when we edit the rooms.

It is hard to explain everything in the editor we have implement until now, but we do have a TODOs list for what we need to do before the version 1.0. lol.
1535026368672.png

There are still a lot of work need to do and a lot of bugs need to fix, so be patient before the version 1.0 coming out. and if you were able to writing program using Qt or want to help or catch up with our project, take part in our discord server.
Thank you all for your waiting.
 
Looks awesome @shinespeciall! Indeed, when it's done, I can definitely see a full ROM hacking scene developing around this game, perhaps even with a forum collab project to kick it off.
 
CM30 said:
Looks awesome @shinespeciall! Indeed, when it's done, I can definitely see a full ROM hacking scene developing around this game, perhaps even with a forum collab project to kick it off.
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I think we CAN going to make a database for saving various of levels mod after the version 1.0 coming out, if there are a lot of people have interest to make levels.
 
Just a Wario Fan said:
Wario Land 4 is already the Super Mario World of the Wario series. :wah:
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Yep. Wario Forums can become the SMW Central of Wario Land 4!

shinespeciall said:
I think we CAN going to make a database for saving various of levels mod after the version 1.0 coming out, if there are a lot of people have interest to make levels.
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Even if there aren't, I'll make a level database for this site. It needs one, and I want to make this game the Super Mario World of the future where hacks are concerned.
 
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CM30 said:
Even if there aren't, I'll make a level database for this site. It needs one, and I want to make this game the Super Mario World of the future where hacks are concerned.
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If you want to render rooms for thumbnails but feel hard to do it, ask me for help. (better in discord)
 
shinespeciall said:
If you want to render rooms for thumbnails but feel hard to do it, ask me for help. (better in discord)
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Okay, I'll see. One question though:

Have we decided what the level/hack release format is here? Are they going to be BPS patches like with Super Mario World, single levels, something else?
 
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