Automatic Stage Creation Tool 0.8

1) WHAT IS THIS?​

This program will allow you to create the basic layer of your stage, following some very simple steps.

Note that this is not a complete stage creation program, allowing you to add several sprites, deltas, animations, etc. This is just to put a single image into the SFF, to use it as main background for your stage. All the code in the DEF file will be written automatically for you, with good bounds, values, etc. The SFF file will also be compiled automatically, using one of the 3 available methods.

Hence, this program will be mostly useful if you create a custom stage from a single large image found on DeviantArt or wherever on the Internet. It won't be very useful if you plan on creating a stage with many small elements using various deltas, and it will be completely useless if you want to create 3D stages using the delta technique.

2) INSTALLATION​

Just double-click on the Stage_Tool.exe file, and it should launch automatically.

Note: you will need the Java environment to run the SFF compiling tools, but this shouldn't be much of an issue on any Windows/Unix system nowadays. Go to www.java.com if you encounter any problem.

3) HOW TO USE​

Balloons often appear by hovering the mouse over active zones. They'll give you instructions about what you have to do.

1. Start by placing the image you'll be using to generate the stage directly in this very same folder, or at a place where you'll find it easily.
   
   
2. Double-click on the Stage_Tool.tcl file and press "START".
   
   
3. You just have to set some parameters at the beginning (name of the stage and image to use, your name, etc.) The resolution is that of the stage, which means 320*240 if it's a low-res stage, 640*480 if it's a high-res stage, and 1280*720/960 if it's a high-def stage. You also have to choose which version of Mugen this stage is meant for (Winmugen Plus, or Mugen 1.0).
   
   
   
   
   
4. Then, you just have to drag the Ryu sprite with your mouse (click on it, maintain the left button down, and drag the mouse) to the correct position, Y-wise, in order to place him on the ground properly.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Then, do the same thing with the red line, in order to define the bottom of the stage on the screen.
   
   
   
   Trick : press the right button of your mouse to auto-detect the bottom of the image and set the red line to this position.
   
   
6. If you're happy with the Mugen screen mock-up, click on 'Next Step', otherwise, go back to modify some settings.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Choose the method you want to use to generate the SFF file. You have the choice between ImageSplitter, RGB and JigSaw. Note that JigSaw may take several minutes to compute everything if you're creating a very wide stage, so be patient.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. If all went well, you should get a DEF and a SFF file with the name you entered as parameter. Move them to your stages folder, and test your fresh stage right away.
   
   

4 - WHAT'S PLANNED NEXT ?​

– Fix the bugs
– Option to compile the SFF file in SFF or SFFv2 format. SFFv2 doesn't present much of an interest for now, so I'll wait a bit.
– Add the scale parameter for the stage's sprites (Mugen 1.0 only). I actually coded it already, but disabled it because the program became far too slow if the scale was changed to a value different from 1 (Tcl/Tk is not an image manipulation language). No promises for this one then ...
– Add the possibility to change the size of the tiles when using the JigSaw method. For now, the palettes are screwed up when using tiles bigger than 16x16 pixels.

5 - KNOWN BUGS
– If the image is too small compared to the resolution, it bugs when displaying the Mugen mockup.
To avoid this, I made it go directly to the next instruction.