SpriteGen can now create unit masks too!
17 March 2008 - Mercator - As the title says, I updated my SpriteGen utility. A thread on Apolyton reminded me that people want to be able to create units with tribe-specific colours. I had a look through my code, and it turned out that it was actually pretty easy to do. So behold: SpriteGen 1.1!
It took me a good two years to come up with an update, but I can tell you there are two more utility updates in the pipeline. I can't be sure when exactly they'll come out, though.
Utility Galore
3 March 2006 - Mercator - A few things have happened in the past, um, two years. So much in fact that I can offer you 8 new utilities. Well, sort of...
I added two old utilities that I didn't host before: Angelo Scotto's CivConverter and MGEConverter.
I made some minor updates to three of my utilities: CivSprite, CivStack and CivSwap.
Two utilities were updated as the result of my correspondence with their respective authors. "Dusty" Reichwein's MapCopy has added support for Test of Time files and Peter Blackman's CivMapGen has added support for gigamaps.
Finally, after reading through a discussion about CSPL on Apolyton I updated the CSPL download. The "companion" batch file has been updated to work with Windows XP, numerous bad links in the manual have been fixed and some of the used screenshots have been changed. The package is now remarkably smaller as well.
CivSwap Released
6 April 2004 - Mercator - It was about time I came up with something new. Especially because this utility has been lying in the closet for a while now, with only the documentation to write.
CivSwap is a small utility that allows scenario creators to automate the file swapping process. No more running batch files while you're playing, CivSwap will do it for you. And it's not even limited to just file swapping, there are many more possibilities.
Moreover, the rather lengthy readme includes an example file swapping batch file complete with description. While it's written for use with CivSwap, it may be of interest for anyone writing swapping batch files. Not to mention everyone should obviously be using CivSwap from now on.
I've also added the CivSwap Readme to the help section. Apart from CivSwap, I've also added newer versions of CivCity and CivTweak. Finally, I've expanded the utility descriptions a little (thanks to Catfish).
Design Update
4 October 2003 - Mercator - I've become a little obsessed with W3C standards compliance lately, so I decided to update the design of this utility site as well.
Well, actually, the main reason I wanted to change the design is because the downloads page was turning into a bit of a mess. I have now added an alphabetical index, so you can jump straight to the utility you want.
I also ditched the screenshots. I could bring them back if you really want to, but I think it was a bit of a waste of space.
I have tested these pages only on Opera 7.20, Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 4.76, but it should work on most modern browsers.
However, on Netscape 4.x, links in the left page index don't work at all and those in the right column are royally screwed-up. You have to click a good deal left of where the links actually are! A quick solution is to turn off style sheets (Edit > Preferences... > Advanced and uncheck Enable style sheets).
But please, Netscape 4.x is ancient history. Update to a decent browser already (like Opera or Mozilla). If you are not in control (e.g. you surf at school or at work), tell the system administrator to wake up.
Test of Time and Sprites
21 September 2003 - Mercator - Catfish made a nice guide about adding texture effects to existing Civilization II units, and joined the discussion on my health-bar-hiding sprite generator SpriteGen.
As a result, I've made two changes to my sprite utilities:
- I found out my coloring algorithm in CivSprite was inconsistent with Test of Time. That means the Export function exported the images with the wrong colors. This has been fixed.
- The SpriteGen readme now has a small section on color transparency, to make sure your units bitmap converts to a sprite file correctly.
CivMapGen Update
20 September 2003 - Mercator - After I contacted Peter Blackman with some comments about his excellent Civilization II map generator Civ.Map.Gen, he decided to make an update. The most interesting improvement is undoubtedly the support for gigamaps.
So, I hereby officially declare that CivMapGen is the best Civilization II map creation utility ever! Enjoy... and that's an order!
ToT Map Editor Fixed
12 September 2003 - Mercator - The adjusted map editor I made for Test of Time didn't work on Windows XP. Now it does. My apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced, as the error was entirely my fault.
Furthermore, it also works for people with MGE (it probably already did, but I only found out recently). Of course, you would already have a map editor, but with this one you can also create gigamaps.
Talking about gigamaps, there will be a new version of Civ.Map.Gen in a while that can generate random gigamaps as well. Something to look forward to!
Sprite Editing to the Max
28 June 2003 - Mercator - I thought it was about time for an update, so I bring you SpriteGen. This little utility allows to create a static sprite file from an existing units bitmap, as well as hide your units' health bars.
Come and have a look at it in the downloads section!
Note: You will need Civilization II: Test of Time if you want this news item to make any sense.
CivSprite Bugfix
15 December 2002 - Mercator - I'm afraid there's a bug already. I claimed that CivSprite automatically made a backup when you imported new images. It didn't. Now it does.
If you downloaded CivSprite earlier on, please download it again.
Test of Time Sprite Converter
14 December 2002 - Mercator - I don't think I have much to add to the title... I finished the first release of my sprite converter (editor, if you wish) for Civilization II: Test of Time. The utility allows you to export all images in a sprite file to bitmaps, and import them back into an existing sprite file. Because it only works on the individual images in the sprite files the possibilities with the sprite animations are still rather limited, unfortunately.
In case you were wondering, the program's called CivSprite. A bit of a dull name, admittedly, but I couldn't think of anything else. If you have a better, catchy, easy-to-remember, easy-to-find (i.e. not too many high-ranked sites on Google already using the term) name, by all means let me know. The program and its readme are available at the downloads and help sections, respectively.
Apart from CivSprite, I added two other, older, utilities:
- Civ.Map.Gen, a random map generator and analyser
- CSPL, an advanced scenario events language for Test of Time
MapEdit 2.1 Release and Site Expansion
27 November 2002 - Mercator - First of all, there's a new MapEdit release: version 2.1. Apart from a few internal adjustments you should hardly notice, there are only two significant additions: If you close a map, the focus will change to the tab before it, rather than the first tab. You are now able to export your maps to the map file format of the open-source Civilization-type game Civ Evolution.
Secondly, as you can see, this site is no longer called the MapEdit Mini Site, but rather Mercator's Civilization2 Utility Site. The reason is mainly that I'm being rather productive in creating other utilities. This site will be the home for all of my utilities and will have several other good ones available for download.
A new utility called CivStack has been added to the downloads. Furthermore, I'm working on a Civilization II: Test of Time sprite editor, which should see the light eventually, hopefully later this year.
Map Editor Download Fixed
17 July 2002 - Mercator - My site statistics have proven themselves worthy. I stumbled upon a discussion at the German Civilization Webring Forum about MapEdit, and found out my download link for the Test of Time Map Editor was broken. It has been fixed!
To clarify upon a question raised in that thread (I'm too lazy to register, and my German isn't too good either, sorry)... There is no difference between ToT or other Civ2 maps, the editor has been adjusted simply to make it run without having to copy the entire MGE directory along with it. The Map Editor requires quite a few extra files, some conflicting with their ToT counterparts.
As SCDARS pointed out, this adjusted Map Editor can't read ToT savegames, only MGE and before savegames. But loading maps from ToT savegames isn't quite necessary anyway, since both ToT itself and MapEdit can extract their maps.
And more generally, there are two other Civilization fan sites where you can go to "discuss" MapEdit, if you wish: the Apolyton Civilization Site and the Civilization Fanatics' Center.
MSSTDFMT.DLL Missing
9 July 2002 - Mercator - Well, the first bug is a fact. At the Apolyton forums, our_man pointed out to me that a file was missing. A file I thought and hoped wasn't required. The main MapEdit download has now been adjusted to include it. If you didn't get any errors you should be just fine, so you won't need to download this new version. If you did miss this file (MSSTDFMT.DLL), feel free to e-mail me about this and I'll send it over (to spare you another 1MB download and a MapEdit re-install).
MapEdit 2.0 Released
4 July 2002 - Mercator - After MapEdit's first release in 2000 it has been very quiet, but after a few people had pointed out some problems to me I started working on it again. And here it is, the result of something like a month of on and off programming, not to mention the changes I made over time from after the first release.
And I was even so active that I decided to create an entire website for it, the result of which you can see before you now. I hope the sections pretty much speak for themselves, so make yourself comfortable and have a look around.