ппллллп пллллпп Preview Release 1 ллл млллп __/ лллмлллп __/ __/ __/__/__/ __/__/__/ ллллп__/__/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ мллллл __/ __/__/__/ __/ __/__/ млллп ллл __/ __/ __/ ллллллллллллллл млллп ллл __/__/__/ __/ __/ __/ ммллпп__/ ммллллм мллллмм ммллпп лллллллм млллм T h e U l t i m a t e R O M E d i t i n g плллл лл лл U t i l i t y млллл лл лл -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=плллп=-ммллллп-=-=-лл=-лл=- Christmas Preview Release плллллллпп лл плллп .0 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- AS THIS IS A BETA RELEASE, YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! IF YOUR COMPUTER EXHIBITS STRANGE BEHAVIOR AS A RESULT OF USING THIS SOFTWARE, IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT! NEITHER ADAM RIPPON NOR PLANET-X SOFTWARE CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA LOSS OR OTHER BAD THINGS! B E T A R E L E A S E -- Not all the stuff is in here! Unfortunately, we're not quite done with X-Late 3.0. A major bug popped up in the ROM editor, and we were unable to fix it in time for the release. But, we released it anyway. You won't be able to use much of the ROM editor's power (i.e. no typing with keyboard, no search for, replace with, or goto), but most everything else is finished. Also, for some reason the copy/paste tool didn't want to convert between NES/SNES/GB like it was supposed to, so thats not in yet either. I spent 8 hours today (December 24th) trying to get it to work. Oh well, you'll have to wait till the New Year's release for that. Other features that were planned and are missing were delayed due to the bugs above. Essentially, this release replaces X-Char 3.0. It has several extra features - Speed, stability, multiple pen sizes, better zooming, a larger tile array, copying between ROMs, and palette editing. It will do some very limited text editing... I recommend using XLate by The_Brain until the New Year's release. P.S. This document ISN'T done. The next release of X-Late 3.0, with all bugs fixed will be on or after New Year's day. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- X-Late 3.0 includes many more tools than previous FEATURES versions -- too many to mention. Here are just a -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- few. - Means not in Christmas Preview release * Simple, intuitive graphical user-interface * Support for ROM images up to 48 megabits (6 megabytes)! * Easy to use translating ROM editor -- Now you don't have to worry about differences between the ROM's font and your PCs ASCII character set! * Easy to use table builder -- No more need for tedious table building by hand! - Built in ROM mapper keeps track of what you've modified and what you haven't! Never worry about switching fonts in mid-edit again (unless of course, you want to). - Stores english and japanese fonts in a seperate file (Romname.x3f) so you can modify them all you want without changing the ROM! * Built in graphics editor, compatible with all standard Nintendo, NEC, and Sega graphics formats up to 4 bitplanes! * Easy to use palette editor! Save up to 32 palettes for each bitplane mode in one file (Romname.x3p) * Multiple pen sizes * 8x zoom * 32x32 scrollable tile array * Copy/paste tool allows pasting between ROMs (unfortunately, the color information is lost thanks to the bugs mentioned above) - Export/import 256 color BMP files! - Support for 16*12 @ 1bpp tiles The next release of X-Late 3.0, with all bugs fixed will be on or after New Year's day. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- X-Late 3.0 GUI -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- X-Late 3.0 uses an intergrated graphical user interface (GUI) to help keep your editing job less confusing. On the left side of the screen is the system bar, where you can select which system you are currently editing for, as well as the tile size to be used. When using the graphics editor, a color picker also is avaiable, so you can edit your palette with ease. The right side of the screen is the editing window, where you will do most of your editing. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ROM Editor -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- While in the ROM editing mode, you will see two distinct panels in the editing window. The one on the top, the ROM data, is just that, a display of what currently exists in the file you are editing. The lower panel is the currently loaded font, either english or japanese. Just above the font panel are the language switches, where you can switch between Japanese, English, and an automatic font. The japanese and English switches will always display the ROM data in their respective fonts, and the font panel will likewise contain the same font. The automatic switch will use a ROM map to determine what has been modified thus far, and what has not. When using the automatic font, only the english font will be available to you in the font panel. There are two methods of editing the ROM here. One is to use the keyboard (which is what you will use 90% of the time, most likely). After having set up a keyboard layout and a font table (see Keyboard Layout and Graphics Editor, respectively), you will be able to edit text very similarly to a standard text editor. Note that this method is only available in English or Automatic modes. The other method is to use the mouse. By right-clicking on the font panel to select a character, and then subsequently left- clicking on the ROM data panel, you can place characters that wouldn't normally be in your keyboard layout. Most likely this would be used for placing special characters (like sword symbols), or japanese characters (if you're in japanese mode, of course). Please note that while you have both fonts available to you in the ROM editor, it is likely that the actual ROM will only display the text in japanese or english, depending on what the ROM's font is like. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Graphics Editor -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- * The tile size tabs left of the system buttons don't function yet. Don't worry about them. When using the graphics editor, you will see two main panels in the editing window. On the left is the ROM data, and on the right is the tile array. The tile array is where you will do your actual graphics editing. To place graphics into the tile array, left click on a tile (or tiles) and right click on where you want the tile(s) to go. You can scroll the tile array around to see all the tiles in it. Its a 32x32 array, but only 16x16 are displayed at a time. If you paste multiple tiles to the tile array at a time, some may be pasted to the non displayed area, and you must scroll over to see them. To edit graphics in the tile array, click on the icon on the toolbar located below the two panels to switch to editing mode. While in editing mode if you move the mouse over the tile array it will turn into a pencil icon. You can now draw on the tiles. The left mouse button is color one, the right mouse button is color two. To change the colors, click on the palette located directly below the tile array panel. Your selected colors appear to the right, color one appearing on top of color two. If you see nothing but garbage in the panels, its because of one of these reasons: * You haven't selected the appropriate system. If you are in NES mode and you are editing a SNES ROM you will see very garbled graphics. * You haven't found any graphics in the ROM yet. You must search around in the ROM before finding graphics to edit, as much of the ROM ISN'T graphics. * The ROM uses a nonstandard graphics format. In a case such as this... well... too bad, nothing you can do. Please do not ask us to implement support for certain games. The next release of X-Late 3.0, with all bugs fixed will be on or after New Year's day.