TEXT EDIT v2.0 IS LAUNCHED
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ March 15th 2001 ]

Programmer Jones Jones exploded onto the Tomb Raider scene last year with the release of his Texture Editor labelled the first unofficial add-on for the Chronicles Level Editor. TextEdit enables the porting of bitmaps which are then converted to tiled images and prepped for TGA output for use within the Level Editor. The latest revision to the Text Edit is version 2.0, and John stopped by to explain what's new.

TRC. John, welcome back and congratulations on v2.0 of Text Edit, what have you been doing since the last time we spoke ?

A lot... I've completely redesigned my tomb raider web site from the ground up which will be relaunched in the summer, created a new Soul Reaver web site for GameSpy which will launch soon, created a couple of my own levels using the Level Editor, and worked on Texture Edit V2.00.

TRC. You've just released v2.0 of TextEdit. What's new ?

The readme file contains a large list of improvements since the original version. Most notably is the support for the Truevision Targa Format and the removal of just about every bug that affected the previous version. Because features such as the TGA support had been added to the original version after it had been released the program became quite buggy. Nothing serious but daft errors such as the program telling you a file always existed when saving when clearly it didn't, plus the scrollbars wouldn't function correctly under certain circumstances.

Because of these bugs I decided to write the program from the ground up removing just about every bug in the process so that hard work has worked at least. However not everything has been under the hood. I had an enormous amount of suggestions emailed to me for improvements that could be added to the program. I had silly ones as well such as re-programming Photoshop but ideas such as the Animation Viewer, a better interface, and multiple opened images did make it through into the program. I hope these and all of the others make an improved Texture Edit and its users agree.

TRC. tombraiderchronicles.com & Prima E-Guides joined forces early this year to bring interactive tutorials to custom level design authors. They also promoted the TextEdit as an must-have application for use with Core's Level Editor. How did this input affect your work ?

At first I didn't realise who they were until I was reading one of their books in my local games store. But I'd be lying if I said that Primas attention didn't affect my work. They haven't put any pressure on me but I felt the need to simply write a better Texture Edit when they said Core would be shown the program as part of their E Guides programme of online guides. This is why this newest version has appeared now instead of a few months down the line as I hadn't planned to program a new version so soon.

TRC. How were you able to benefit from Prima's help with the editor ?

Prima helped a lot by actively encouraging me to further develop the program. I had had a few issues with implementing the TGA support but they helped me with that side of things and because of this it now works. Now I benefit from them planning to use the program as part of their eguides with them doing the task of finding me new users.

TRC. We've noticed some shiny new levels coming from the Croft Gate's camp, can you tell us what those are about, and future maps in the making ?

I have created a couple of levels using Textures created using Texture Edit. Both of them have so far been me playing around with the Room Editor and learning what can and cant be done. The first level is set in the Lost Valley from the original game. You remember the water temple at the end of the valley. Well Lara returns to have a better look around and I just built up around that idea. My second level GameSpy Headquarters was me experimenting with the more advanced features of the editor such as lighting and enemy AI.

I had wanted to create a hi-tech building for some time and thought of a few ideas. One day I got the idea to set the scene at the HQ of GameSpy Industries and this has worked well in promoting both them and myself. As for future maps there are currently none in the making. Some people will be disappointed but I want to concentrate on site launches for the next couple of months. However I would love to completely recreate the original game using the editor but for obvious reasons don't think this will happen.

TRC. What's next for you? Is there another planned update for the ed ?

At the moment I'm organising a Texture Tile Set creation competition to help promote Texture Edit some more. After that its down to the hard work of a couple of site launches, promoting them etc... Once those are out of the way a new version of Texture Edit is on the tables. I hadn't originally planned another version but I had so many viable suggestions for improvements that I couldn't include them all in v2.00. Work is planned for June-July so expect a major update around August-September.

Version 2.0 of the John Jones TextEdit, as recommended by Prima E-Guides is now available for download. Get your copy NOW. Croft's Gate is also ready to receive you.