Captain Obvious
You're welcome.
If this is already a thing, I apologize, but I can't find it. Is there a guide to making 2.1 mods compatible with 2.2? Surely forcing everyone to remake their mods from scratch is both silly and unnecessary.
Mod Upgrade/Conversion Guide? Easiest Way to Make 2.1 Mods 2.2 Compatible?
- Thread starter Captain Obvious
- Start date
There are certainly a lot of changes to modding, but the notion that you have to start over from scratch is not true!
Something that most mods will be affected by is the new palette. You will need to convert all custom sprites, textures, graphics etc. for them to display correct colors in 2.2. The latest version of SLADE comes with both the new and legacy SRB2 palettes included, so it is the easiest tool for conversions. (You can also just re-import and convert your images if you choose.)
For maps, the majority of level geometry, linedef specials, and thing types are the same. Some advanced setups are different; for instance the maces and swings used in Castle Eggman are wildly different. If you want to port your map to 2.2, grab the 2.2 configuration file for use with Zone Builder, and you'll be able to see which specials and types were changed.
Characters are probably the most different in terms of how they are built and are thus very tedious to port, but luckily it's not that hard. If you open player.dta, you'll see that each animation has its own 4-letter prefix, and now supports a variable number of frames. You'll have to learn which sprites to rename to which prefix, and renaming them all is a chore, but once it's done you're pretty much finished. S_SKIN lumps are mostly the same, but there are some new variables and flags you can take advantage of. You can use the SOC lump in player.dta to figure out how the character select information works.
Lua scripting is syntactically the same, but many of our constants (that is to say: states, sprites, object types, sound effects, etc.) and the occasional metadata field or function have been updated, so you may have to review your script and the wiki/source code for new changes.
Something that most mods will be affected by is the new palette. You will need to convert all custom sprites, textures, graphics etc. for them to display correct colors in 2.2. The latest version of SLADE comes with both the new and legacy SRB2 palettes included, so it is the easiest tool for conversions. (You can also just re-import and convert your images if you choose.)
For maps, the majority of level geometry, linedef specials, and thing types are the same. Some advanced setups are different; for instance the maces and swings used in Castle Eggman are wildly different. If you want to port your map to 2.2, grab the 2.2 configuration file for use with Zone Builder, and you'll be able to see which specials and types were changed.
Characters are probably the most different in terms of how they are built and are thus very tedious to port, but luckily it's not that hard. If you open player.dta, you'll see that each animation has its own 4-letter prefix, and now supports a variable number of frames. You'll have to learn which sprites to rename to which prefix, and renaming them all is a chore, but once it's done you're pretty much finished. S_SKIN lumps are mostly the same, but there are some new variables and flags you can take advantage of. You can use the SOC lump in player.dta to figure out how the character select information works.
Lua scripting is syntactically the same, but many of our constants (that is to say: states, sprites, object types, sound effects, etc.) and the occasional metadata field or function have been updated, so you may have to review your script and the wiki/source code for new changes.