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Graphics Pack (.zgp) support: needed or not?


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#1 DarkDragon

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Posted 26 June 2017 - 02:37 PM

Hi everyone,

 

I'm in the middle of a massive cleanup of the quest loading code (which among other things will hopefully make it easier to import/export more parts of the .qst like sounds and items/sprites, and also lift many numerical limits in the quest).

 

While working on this part of the code I've stumbled upon the problems with .zgp files, which bundle together many different graphics settings in the quest. This made sense back when most of the quest elements like enemies, items, etc. were hard-coded and could only be customized by changing the graphics. As they currently stand, .zgp files are unsafe to import and export from different versions of ZQ, and will do strange things to your custom items if you import/export between different quests with different sets of custom items.

 

My understanding from talking to some people on chat is that .zgps are very rarely used, with most tiles being distributed as .qsts or as loose tiles/combos. Is this accurate? Would anybody miss .zgps if support for them were dropped?


Edited by DarkDragon, 26 June 2017 - 02:37 PM.

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#2 Russ

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Posted 26 June 2017 - 02:50 PM

Honestly, I can't think of a single case of somebody actually using .zgp files in years. As you said, tilesets are distributed as .qst files, and the last time .zgp files came up was when Moosh started an effort to convert many older .zgps to .qsts to allow older tilesets to be usable. Nobody will miss them if you get rid of them.
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#3 Lüt

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Posted 26 June 2017 - 03:06 PM

What Russ said.

 

The few remaining .zgp packs in the database were converted to .qst files months ago.

 

I've never used one myself, and now that the conversions have been done, nobody ever needs to use one again.

 

It might as well come time to end support and say that any remaining strays can be opened in an older version of ZC.


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#4 Neppy

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Posted 26 June 2017 - 04:20 PM

I personally wouldn't miss them. Way back when I did try to use them, I ended up having more problems getting it to work correctly than what it was worth. 



#5 Aevin

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Posted 26 June 2017 - 05:00 PM

I recently used a .zgp because my current file had rearranged and changed so many ZC defaults that I wanted to be able to recover some of that structure. Default enemies, sprite structure, item structure, sfx structure, etc. I wanted to use the new file as a base, then change the graphics for the default elements to match up with the new ones.

 

Though I don't really know of a reason I couldn't just perform this on an earlier ZQuest version, then move the rest of the development to the newest release.




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