[PSX/PC] Dialogs Editor - Cactuar (0.5a)

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CACTUAR VERSION 0.5a​
Cactuar is a simple editor of ff8 .msd files.
Backup your files first!!

This project is discontinued!! I'm no longer programming with VB.NET.
I'm currently programming with C#, yeah I know I can just convert to C# and continue it, but I don't feel like it.
I have some other issues at hand, if I get some requests for updates, MAYBE I'll convert it and improve it.

Screenie:



Link:

Cactuar - Release Date: November 07 2009

Required: .NET Framework 3.5
 
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Very Awesome! :-D 

Can't Wait Until It Can Decompress/Compress On Its Own!

but really, very very nice, I'm excited to see more FF8 programs surfacing.
 
Seems nice :)

Will you implement colors, names and delays to the editor? What about special characters like 01h or implementing own language diacritic characters by user?

PS. After converting my Polish translation to PSX, I will edit my Moomba to support PSX platform. ;)
 
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Hi Colly and Cazador, thank you for your comment.

Actually, colors/names/terms are currently working, that includes 'new window' and 'end dialog' characters. I just didn't create a 'friendly' input method on the UI, but It's planned for next update.

About diacritic characters, hmmm, I've just included compatibility with the characters that are used in the ff8 characters table.
That said, if an user type any character that don't exist in the ff8 char table, cactuar will return the equivalent of "?" on ff8 char table. I don't think I'll be implementing ways of modifications on this issue. The best solution for this user will be, I think, while himself remake the chars he'll use in the ff8 char table, in the editor he must remember everytime he needs that char, he'll need to type the old char value for that one.
I had to do this myself, in my language we use lots of "ã" and in ff8 char table don't have it. I had to modify texture of the "à" as I don't think I'll use in the entire game, for the "ã" that I'll often need. And when editing the dialogs I have to type "à" whenever I need the "ã". Hope you understood what I mean.

I'm focusing in implement comp/decomp of field files directly in the editor. Also I'm thinking in making a preview window, just like Loveless for ff7. But currently I can't seem to find a vb.net control that behaves like I need (multi-colored with background).
 
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I working on the next version of Moomba and I think that diacritic characters can be changed, for example, inside ini file, where user can change simply table (of course he should change the font texture).
I think it's good solution, because some keyboard preferences don't support some characters. For example, I don't have key shortcut to write "à" and I have to choose it inside charmap.exe. Instead of it, I can write Polish diacritics.

Actually, colors/names/terms are currently working, that includes 'new window' and 'end dialog' characters. I just didn't create a 'friendly' input method on the UI, but It's planned for next update.
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Cool :)

I'm focusing in implement comp/decomp of field files directly in the editor. Also I'm thinking in making a preview window, just like Loveless for ff7. But currently I can't seem to find a vb.net control that behaves like I need (multi-colored with background).
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I think that preview window is useless in FF8 editor, until we don't know, where is stored data about the beginning of the dialogues' windows on actual scene... or maybe only I don't know it ;)
 
I think that preview window is useless in FF8 editor, until we don't know, where is stored data about the beginning of the dialogues' windows on actual scene...
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I failed to understand what you mean.
Dialogs positions for me is unknow, is probably inside another file of same field, but not '.msd'. But windows dialogs size is auto-size, afaik. So anymore info on the window dialog won't be really necessary, I think.
 
I failed to understand what you mean.
Dialogs positions for me is unknow, is probably inside another file of same field, but not '.msd'. But windows dialogs size is auto-size, afaik. So anymore info on the window dialog won't be really necessary, I think.
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Yeah, windows dialogs size is auto-size, but only in the right and down directions. I say about the beginning of the dialog window - it not starts at 0,0 point always; often window is starting on the right side of the screen, in the middle, etc. So, if you on preview set all dialogs at 0,0 of the background, it'll be useless, because sometimes in-game text will go outside of the display screen. I never searched this data inside files... but maybe I should ;)

PS.:
I had to modify texture of the "à" as I don't think I'll use in the entire game,(...)
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Some diacritic characters of the Portuguese language could be not used in the entire game? O_O You have 15 couples (upper + lower) of diacritics and some of it is really very rarely used? :-o
 
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Ohhh I see your point! But when I said preview window, I was thinking in previewing the text in the dialog box, not the dialog box(with the text, off course) on the screen. That would need a little bit more work. My primary idea for previewing for the text would be good, as I use Flags for colors, names, terms, like "[YELLOW]yellow text example", this is show in the editor just like I typed, but in the preview would just show the text with correctly edited color.

You would be impressed if you knew we don't use more than half of these diacritics. To be more specific:

As far as I can think of now.

- we don't use any of ¨ types, lower and upper.
- we don't use ` types, upper cases
- we don't use ^ types, upper cases.

That leaves me approximately 20 letters textures to use.
 
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Ohhh I see your point! But when I said preview window, I was thinking in previewing the text in the dialog box, not the dialog box(with the text, off course) on the screen. That would need a little bit more work. My primary idea for previewing for the text would be good, as I use Flags for colors, names, terms, like "[YELLOW]yellow text example", this is show in the editor just like I typed, but in the preview would just show the text with correctly edited color.
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OK, now I understand. This feature will be useful, of course :)

You would be impressed if you knew we don't use more than half of these diacritics. To be more specific:
As far as I can think of now.
- we don't use any of ¨ types, lower and upper.
- we don't use ` types, upper cases
- we don't use ^ types, upper cases.
That leaves me approximately 20 letters textures to use.
Click to expand...
It's strange for me, because in Polish, we have 9 couples (lower + upper) of diacritics and we use all of it.
 
Found some problems I'll need to fix.
Colly how did u handle game variables? Like how many times squall got ko'd , etc?
Can you list these 'special characters'? I don't think I handled all special characters.
 
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Found some problems I'll need to fix.
Colly how did u handle game variables? Like how many times squall got ko'd , etc?
Can you list these 'special characters'? I don't think I handled all special characters.
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I filled all table values from 00h to FFh. When I doesn't know which value are which character, I just wrote value instead, for example: '<08h>', '<d3>', etc. :)
 
I've made an update, implemented export/import to txt functions. For people who don't like to edit each dialog at time, you can edit now the entire level file in the txt exported then import back to it.
Still have some values to identify, but that may not cause problems if you don't touch the unindentified bytes.
As I'm not in home now, not in my pc. I just wanted to share this info. But I'll be posting the update as soon as I get back to home, maybe Monday morning.
Also, started to implement multi-language support.

Update on the first post.
 
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This is awesome, great for translation projects. Unfortunately I can't see a lot of those happening, but it's cool that you're doing one. Sounds ambitious. It would be funny if someone could rewrite FFVIII's text into a comedy version. (Something witty though and not full of fail.)

Looking forward to your future releases. I'm new to FFVIII editing and this looks cool.
 
This project is currently discontinued as descripted in 1st post, but for multiple requests reasons, link fixed and version updated to the last one I have.
Sorry for the delay  ::)
 
I prepare a similar software, it will be released when I have decided.
 
Awesome!! Your program has everything to be the best ff8 dialogs editor out there, and also the only one which can edit scripts AFAIK
C++ right? Will it be open source? Not that I want to modify it, but cuz you're doing stuff I planned to do, but my programming skills still level 10 xD , that's why I were unable to do lots of things I wanted. Would be nice to take a look at your source to see what I was doing wrong.
 
Awesome!! Your program has everything to be the best ff8 dialogs editor out there, and also the only one which can edit scripts AFAIK
C++ right? Will it be open source? Not that I want to modify it, but cuz you're doing stuff I planned to do, but my programming skills still level 10 xD , that's why I were unable to do lots of things I wanted. Would be nice to take a look at your source to see what I was doing wrong.
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if i know myst6re its written in C++ and uses Qt for the gui. so it will be able to be crossplatform. as for the source thats up to him but i'm thinking it will be GPLv3... (purely just guessing)
 
if i know myst6re its written in C++ and uses Qt for the gui. so it will be able to be crossplatform. as for the source thats up to him but i'm thinking it will be GPLv3... (purely just guessing)
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 ::)

I released the source code of Makou Reactor so I'll maybe do the same with Deling, but it will wait until I finish.
 
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