Trizbort Update

Technical Development Interpreters
21

Starting to plan out the next few updates (both some quick updates to the current version and maybe a larger 2.0 version). You can look at the current list of issues at (github.com/JasonLautzenheiser/trizbort/issues)

One question I have in particular…I know a few of you use the export to I7 feature, but does anyone use the export to Tads3 or I6? Also is there any other languages you would see implemented in the export?

22

New update, 1.5.8.11 (bitbucket.org/jmcgrew/zilf/overview) Still some work to be done, but it paves the way for other language support if any others are desired.

Anyway, enjoy the update (there are a few other changes as well) and let me know if you find any issues or have any further suggestions.

23

Hugo would be nice.

24

I’ve been meaning to request this since you made the offer, too.

25

ZIL?
For ZILF - bitbucket.org/jmcgrew/zilf/

26

The last build (1.5.8.11) contains support for exporting to ZIL based on Jesse McGrew’s work. It could still use some improvement, but it seems to export a decently complete game based on your maps. Next build should have some improvements with ZIL and I hope to get Hugo support in soon.

27

New version released today. Now supports different shaped rooms. More details on my blog (https://lautzofif.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/trizbort-1-5-9-1-august-update-now-different-shaped-rooms/) or you can download the latest release at http://www.trizbort.com

28

Thank you for continuing to develop this great bit of software. Per-room colors is particularly useful!

I have a few suggestions that I think would enhance the program (from the point of view of an IF consumer, not an IF producer):

  • Grouping. Similar to the Regions function, but Grouping rooms would lock them together so they move as a unit, and would put a bounding box around them in the map (with an optional text label for the bounding box). Useful for marking off areas like the White House in the beginning of Zork 1, or the Maze you encounter later on in the game. Also useful for re-arranging a map as you add more areas and things start to get cluttered.
  • Undo/redo. I keep hitting CTRL-Z but nothing happens!
  • Text search. I know I saw a book of matches somewhere, but I have over 200 rooms mapped, how will I find them again? A text search could pull the right room up straight away.
  • If you can search text, then it would make sense to be able to hide object lists. They could be shown on mouseover if you want to see what’s in a room, but with a search functino there would be no reason to clutter a map with them.
  • Pages. This is a big one, and I’m not sure if it’s within the scope of the project since it would probably break a lot of the export functionality. But being able to split maps into pages could be really useful. If a game takes place in 3-story building, for example, you could have one page for each floor, with special connections that link rooms between pages. Or if the game you’re playing has a dream sequence that takes place in another physical location, you could put that on its own page. It would help a lot with organizing maps and visualizing spaces, particularly if there are a lot of up/down connections.

Thanks for listening!

29

Thanks for the input. Those are some great ideas, I’ll be sure to add them to our list of things as we move forward.

If you ever want to see the latest state of the project, or add issues / bugs / feature requests you can check it out on GitHub. github.com/JasonLautzenheiser/trizbort

30

Just released a new version of Trizbort. https://github.com/JasonLautzenheiser/trizbort/releases/tag/1.5.9.4

This has a lot of stuff in it…most of which was completed back in December, but I’ve been sitting on it for quite some time mostly due to lack of time to do any hobby type work. Trying to spend at least a little bit of time this spring doing some “fun” stuff.

Thanks to Andrew Schultz for a lot of these changes as he really went to town on this back in December and added quite a few nice new features.

Can’t say I’ve exhaustively tested everything, but it all seems to work pretty well.

As usual, any bugs, feature requests or just general comments, feel free to send my way through this thread or on github.

Enjoy.

31

I suppose export to JSON or RDF might be of use to someone? I am writing a text adventure compiler in JavaScript (I also wrote a RDF parser in JavaScript) so an extension to the compiler may be able to use such files. Programs that are not written in JavaScript could also use such exported format, since there are JSON and RDF parsers in other programming languages too (I have written a RDF parser in C as well).

32

Thanks for the feedback…I’ve thought of converting the actual trizbort save file from XML to JSON as it would simplify some of the code. Just haven’t pulled the trigger yet on that as it’s not necessarily a trivial change…but one I will undertake at some point.