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I remember when I offered my track 4AM.TRK to be raced on ZakStunts, there was a problem downloading it. It turned out it was because the file had an overlay I had created back in 2006 when I designed it. It had to be truncated so pipsqueaks could download it. So I assume ZakStunts still does not support track files with overlays.

Now I'm planning to add to my editor Cas-Stunts an option to add meta-data to tracks. My idea is to place this meta-data as an overlay just after the track data in track files, but I'm concerned this will interfere with ZakStunts. Of course, you will still be able to edit tracks without the meta-data, but if ZakStunts could detect this and truncate the file automatically when processing it, or better, actually read the meta-data, it would be much better.

I know for a fact that Stunts does not complain about TRK files having overlays. My idea is to include information such as a long track title, author's name, creation date, editing time, suggested car and other championship oriented information. If we could agree on a format, ZakStunts could even display this info. For example, you would not need to manually enter the track title. The file could be named ZCTxxx.TRK and still contain a title that would be automatically displayed on the site.

What do you guys think?.... Zak?  Dreadnaut? 

[Cas-Stunts 2.3.2 beta]

New update!

Cas-Stunts 2.3.2 beta
Download this version

New features:

• Undo/Redo - still no panel buttons, but respond to CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y respectively
• Flipping/rotating selections in-situ and full-track if no selection
• DEL to delete current selection without pushing it to the clipboard
• Status indicators in the panel. A little small, I think. They still cannot be used as buttons
• Keyboard cursor has been enhanced for clarity
• K switches track-affected-by-pasting just like T switches terrain-affected-by-pasting

By far, the most complex changes are in the Undo/Redo and Flipping/Rotating options. They seem to work well, but maybe there's a bug I haven't seen. Notice that rotating the selection in situ is not possible unless it's a square. Also, being able to disable track affected by pasting operation now allows, for example, for copying the terrain from a track. Current Undo/Redo system can hold 29 levels. This is because they're supposed to be 30, but there's a known bug that seems to be innocuous. Undo level can be easily modified. Any thoughts?

[T]

Thank you, Duplode!  And yes... some things are already in my work queue.

The flip, rotate and mirror commands probably should also act on selected tiles without having to cut and paste them beforehand.

I've thought of this. It's easy to implement. I'll do it.

[...]given the four new buttons on the left panel (which currently do nothing).

They do have a function!  When you're pasting, you can flip and rotate using those buttons, not just the shortcut keys. Yet, it'd be good for them to have a function when you're not pasting.

Similarly, pressing DEL with selected tiles probably should delete their elements.

Could be... Anyway, you have CTRL+X (cut). DEL would delete the region without copying it to the clipboard, which would be unrecoverable as of now. I think this is a good thing to implement once I have added undo/redo capabilities.

If you have a multi-tile picked the keyboard editing cursor will occupy more than one tile; however, pressing DEL will only delete the upper left tile.

I had not thought of that. Yes, I think it'd be better to expand the keyboard cursor so that it marks not only the current track element, but also the element on the current tile. This may take a little more work, but I can do it.

[...]it took me several seconds to realise the "LMB" in the mouse selection shortcut stood for left mouse button.

As I was writing that, I realised it wasn't completely obvious, but "left-mouse-button" didn't fit there. I figure I should make some nice touches to the documentation. Do you think a PDF with images would be better?  Or is it good to use a standard TXT format?  Now I'm thinking it's not so standard after all. Since I wrote it in Linux, it must be using 0Ah for line end, which would be ignored in DOS/Windows.

A copy-cut-paste mode for terrain.

This already can be done. Use T to switch terrain-pasting on. You can do it while pasting too. What cannot be done now is to past only the terrain. Internally, it is already implemented, but there is no key or button for that. I'm going to add some clickable indicators on the panel soon for these things, though.

A keyboard brush mode, either as an editing mode (analogous to what TAB does in TrackBlaster) or activated by holding a key.

I have something better than that in mind, but it's kind of challenging. I'll see what I can do.

Also... what do you think about licensing?  The project is currently freeware. I was considering making it free software.

[Cas-Stunts 2.3.1 beta]

Update!

Cas-Stunts 2.3.1 beta
https://mega.nz/#!4JIHmLDJ!jukTQzipiDc09SKaEb45i7TjAVB29Nw4nFhAY3Y2nUA

Fixed:
- Console window opening beside the main program window in Windows (ugh... so many "windows"!)
- Select, Copy, Cut and Paste are no longer uncomfortable (especially Paste)

New features:
- Keys to select, copy, cut and paste. Hold CTRL to select and use standard CTRL+C, CTRL+X, CTRL+V to copy, cut and paste
- Flip and rotate on the fly. Also use F, SHIFT+F, R and SHIFT+R
- Enable/disable terrain pasting with T, also on the fly

Changed:
- T no longer switches terrain editing mode
- Debug mode is now enabled/disabled with CTRL+Q, since CTRL+X is now used for Cut

I expect this will be a much more user-friendly version of the editor. There have been many changes so I expect a bug or two might be hiding underneath some key or mouse button. Let me know if that is the case. Also... were you able to verify the anti-hogging system works well?

Perhaps it would be more intuitive if, on clicking the paste button, a highlighted rectangle corresponding to the area to be pasted (and possibly with its track elements drawn on it) began to follow the cursor, allowing you to preview the results before a second click confirms the pasting.

Yes. That was exactly what I was thinking of. I thought it'd be complicated to accomplish, but after a few changes, I was able to implement it. There are a few other things I would like to change before posting the new version, though.

And I haven't figured out why the console window appears in Windows. I suspect it's triggered by the program icon, I mean, I think it wasn't there when the program did not have a custom icon. I'll make some tests with that.

Another thing I'm thinking of, for the future, is to make the editor able to add meta-data to the track as an overlay, including a track title, author name, creation time and date, editing time and some championship-oriented information, such as a recommended car, which race and which championship it was designed for, etc. I remember that I once posted a track with an overlay and ZakStunts system was not taking it, so if I do this, I want to make sure the website will be compatible with it. The information I would add would also be useful to the site so, instead of just skipping it, it'd be good to agree on a format that's easy to handle for the site so the info can be shown. Any ideas about this?

I'll post a new version soon

Great!  Here's an update:
https://mega.nz/#!5YRXyIxL!pQciGDMII_UkfnlkMuYNk_jrcoBYpZrN9PCWBtlwjTk

Added:
- By default, the grid will be visible. You can turn it off and back on with CTRL+G at run-time or modify cast.cfg so that it always starts with the grid on or off.
- Select, copy, cut and paste have been implemented and work well, although there's something I'm not getting used to. Try it and tell me what you think.
- Anti-hogging system implemented. You have to be at the editor. After a second of not having the pointer on the window and not hitting any key, it'll quit hogging. It will take half a second for it to respond again when you return to it. If you're anywhere else, such as at the presentation screen or opening a track, the anti-hogging system will not activate.

Something to check:
- I've noticed that the Windows build opens up a Wine console window alongside the main program window in my system, which I don't remember having seen before. I have no idea why this happens and I wonder if the same thing occurs when running the program on a real Windows machine.

Thanks, Duplode!

I can quickly and easily add the grid lines. I was already thinking about that. I'm also wanting to add select/copy/cut/paste + rotate/flip. That will take a little more work, but I can do it. I also could add something to take care of the CPU usage. My idea is to issue idle sleeps while the mouse cursor is not being moved in the program window. This means the editor would still eat up CPU while you're editing, but would become extremely light when not in focus or when you're just viewing the track. Would that be good?

[Cas-Stunts 2.23b]

Sorry about my disappearance, guys. And yes, the site went down. I've been fixing some bugs in the last version of Cas-Stunts. Here it is:

Cas-Stunts 2.23b
https://mega.nz/#!JZRFCIbK!FQP1pAHV50CLZnjrALxMQytaVqSgxwk1BvJZJm5EpZg

Fixed a problem with file filters, added the ability to edit with the keyboard (which Zak told me he liked from TB) and made a couple of touches that can't be seen, but will help add more features later. I also split the Linux version in two (you have a 32bit and a 64bit executables) and the Windows executable is 32bit, which appears to run fin in Win64 as well.

As Duplode said, this one doesn't work in DOSBox. I realised later that resolutions higher than 800x600 don't work well there. Even in FreeDOS, it works, but it's kind of slow. Next time I want to make something that can run on all three platforms, I'll make sure it can also work in two different resolutions. But if you do prefer to run a version that works well in DOSBox, even if it has fewer features and I'm not maintaining it anymore, this is the last stable version that ran well in DOSBox:

Cas-Stunts 2.10
https://mega.nz/#!RMwlXQQI!_9VXPP-SgEFix8pw98Aa2tFVX83VUnopYoBxoe13Yz0

Question. Is there a chance I could get Cas-Stunts hosted here?  My free hosting sites keep going down because of the lack of visits, ha, ha. Also, it'd be nice to have a cast.stunts.hu    or just to have my editor in the tool list at zak.stunts.hu 

I definitely agree that it's a lot better than just making replays always public or always not-public. But there exist other possibilities that would be worth testing, such as, for example, instead of a public time and a non-public time, make all replays non-public for a number of days, say, 10 days. So, if you post a replay at the beginning of the race, nobody will be able to see it until 10 days later. If you want to make sure nobody will see your replay until the race is over, just post it when the race is less than 10 days to end.
This is just one thing that could be done. There are so many other possibilities. I don't say change it, but it'd be good to sit to consider all the possible combinations before starting the next year. Maybe there's a new amazing idea, just to keep on adding new spices

Wow, that'd be amazing! :O  The track would naturally become "official" for the game.

Really glad you had enjoyed it!     I think I should dedicate more to designing tracks than to racing, ha, ha!

Yeah, definitely!  Looks like it's got a lot of action!  I've downloaded it

Where can I get Eroica?

Thank you, thank you!!   I'm glad you like it!

It's the same track, only that, because it was included with the editor, some of us may have started racing with it and then the RPL wouldn't be accepted by the site, because of a different track name, but the track is the same. Just make sure it's called ZCT166 before you record your replay.