The Marker Editor

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

Ever wanted to tweak manually a marker game? Transfer one between shards? Translate a particularly tricky one? Or even customize someone else's game to your liking? Rejoice, for the Marker Editor is here!

What is the Marker Editor?

The Marker Editor is a set of Python scripts for the H'uru client which allow you to retreive your created marker games for your avatar, download it as a YAML-formatted file (YAML is a human-readable data transfer standard), edit it to your heart's content, then re-upload it, either as a new game entirely or as a modified version of the previous one. Games are stored in a "Games" folder in your Uru installation.

How do I use it?

There are three in-game commands:

/list: generates a "List.txt" of games you currently own and their associated ID. You need this ID to download them.
/download [id]: download your game in your "Games" folder; specify your game's ID (as found in "List.txt").
/upload [filename]: uploads a modified game or a new game from the specified file in your "Games" folder.

All your games must be stored in your "Games" folder, and must respect the appropriate syntax.

How do marker files work?

Each marker game is stored as a simple TXT file using YAML syntax. Here is an example file:

Code:

creator: Avatar
guid: 519af903-7982-4382-95c4-7b68ad48a942
markers:
-   age: Personal
    coords: [22.330049514770508, -31.966373443603516, 6.036036014556885]
    text: First marker
-   age: Personal
    coords: [24.330049514770508, -30.966373443603516, 6.036036014556885]
    text: Second marker
name: A Marker Game

Let's look at each parameter:

guid: a unique identifier for your game. If you are editing an existing game, you need to have it included. Omit it if you are creating a new game. Never modify it.
name: the marker game's name; not required if editing an existing game.
markers: an array of dictionaries. Each dictionary contains information about a marker: "text" is the name of the marker, "age" the filename of the Age in which it is located, and coords, which is a list of XYZ coordinates for the marker (relative to the center of the Age).
creator: the name of the marker game's creator. Not used by the Marker Editor; for management purposes.

For now, you have to edit these manually. Eventually, I might write a graphical tool to edit them for you.

Where do I obtain the Marker Editor?
The Marker Editor files can be downloaded as a ZIP file here: http://lyros.net/files/MarkerEditor_Python.zip

If you want to run it, download an H'uru client and install it (you can find a pre-built one here; be sure to follow all the installation and running options) and follow these instructions:
1. Extract the Marker Editor files to a location on your computer.
2. Delete or rename the "Python" file in your H'uru client installation.
3. Copy the Marker Editor's "Python" folder to your H'uru client installation. You should have four folders in this folder now: "dat", "Python", "SDL" and "sfx".
4. Run the H'uru client with the "/SkipPreload" argument. You can now use the Marker Editor's commands in-game!

I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: the Marker Editor is at its first edition. There might still be bugs, potentially dangerous ones. Downloading will never cause problems with your avatar; beware of uploading, however. I recommend you use testing avatars to upload new Marker Games or modified ones... for now.

dtierce · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:40 pm

I haven't tried it yet, but I think this is an awesome contribution to the Uru community. With this application, someone could create a library of shareable marker quests and games accessible outside the cave. The previous method of acquiring or sharing a marker game has required in-game communication based on out-of-game information about what was available and whom to contact. There was never a way to advertise or learn about these games that was totally in-game. Now, at least, there is a way to create a consistently out-of-game procedure to advertise and distribute these marker games.

So... who will volunteer to create a depository of marker games based on this new utility??

David Tierce

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

Sorry for laughing... but I've already started that - just a few days ago, in fact.

Visit http://bot.lyros.net/markers/, which is a part of Lyrobot.

The option to download the marker game as a text file for the Marker Exchange is coming soon. :wink:

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:54 pm

Thanks Lyrositor

Alien · **Posted:** Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:19 am

I made a huge 1,000 markers game (just for a bit of fun)
and trying to rename 1,000 markers in-game is not fun, trust me
So I gave Lyrositor's Marker Editor a try ...
and I can confirm a task as simple as renaming 1,000 markers is so much easier in a text file
than it is in-game having to keep clicking to scroll down through the list of markers each time to rename the next one.

Thank you Lyrositor.

EDIT : I have a question :

Lyrositor wrote:

Ever wanted to tweak manually a marker game? Transfer one between shards? Translate a particularly tricky one? Or even customize someone else's game to your liking? Rejoice, for the Marker Editor is here!

How can we transfer games between shards when we need your marker editor client to upload them again, and it only boots MOULa?

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

You can take the sources, change the build ID, and re-compile for Gehn or Minkata. I can do this for you if you want me to.

Alien · **Posted:** Sat Aug 18, 2012 2:50 pm

Lyrositor wrote:

You can take the sources, change the build ID, and re-compile for Gehn or Minkata. I can do this for you if you want me to.

OK ... I was actually thinking of TOC, but the proper thing to do is point the TOC team to this thread and ask them to build the client or talk to you about it.

EDIT : I've asked them http://forums.the-open-cave.net/viewtop ... f=19&t=350

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

I think TOC has some checks against internal clients (although if it's what I think it is, it's very easily bypassed), so it'd be best if this was directly integrated into the standard client. That's why I replied to the thread over there with this same suggestion. :wink:

Annabelle · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 2:27 am

It took me a total of 5 hours yesterday... I completed the whole transfer of the integrality of my quests to my PC

I have 8 Mb... yeah you read it right :wink:

of .txt files. They are all stored following my own storage system, I can access any of them quite fast.

I lost an Excel Worksheet (maybe I just deleted it... :roll:

) where I took the info of my quests. I was standing, 3 months ago, at 28,000 markers in over 300 quests.

I will be able to reload them if something goes wrong for now on (I've lost a grand total of 25 quests during the previous 2 years, 8 released and 17 unreleased quests, they were borked.)

I really feel now that I own my works. It's mine

Thanks Lyrositor for this client.

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Mon Aug 20, 2012 2:24 pm

WOW! You have a lot of quests, Annabelle!

Norfren · **Posted:** Sun Aug 26, 2012 4:20 pm

A technical question: does this new client modfify the files in the sfx folder (very probably not) or the dat folder (probably not). If not, then instead of making two huge copies of these two folders symbolic links (directory junctions) to the already existing folders should be enough.

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

Indeed, it doesn't make any changes; I use symbolic links myself. If you want to do so, go ahead. You even theoretically just drop in the Marker Editor Python, SDL, and executable in your MO:ULa folder, but I haven't tried this.

The only reason I didn't mention this was because (AFAIK) there is no way to do this graphically, and a lot of people I know are scared of the terminal and the command prompt.

>>JP<< · **Joined:** Wed May 10, 2006 10:47 pm **Posts:** 133

Lyrositor wrote:

(...) a list of XYZ coordinates for the marker (relative to the center of the Age).

A small curiosity... is the center of the ages located at the Mantainer's Mark of each age?

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

I have absolutely no idea, but I very much doubt it.

dj_ · **Joined:** Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:28 pm **Posts:** 146

A question;

In your 'A Marker Game', what appear as co-ordinates have decimals to 15 places. My KI never shows that sort of detail.

Can we tweak those numbers to slightly move the actual markers?

The Marker Editor

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