[flamewing]

Edit: New version released:


Changes:

• Fully functional undo/redo: you can now undo your mistakes -- whether it is the deletion of a ring group, a segment or even an entire special stage. The undo/redo are also smart, grouping many related actions.
• WYSIWYG drag/drop of selections.
• Rings and bombs can now be drawn in lines, loops, triangles and more in a click-and-drag manner, adding several rings and bombs in a WYSIWYG manner.
• Added a counter showing total rings, bombs and ring/bomb shadows. This can be used to keep them within limits, which would prevent a segment from ever ending.
• Grid-lock (toggled through toolbar button, defaults to on) constrains the possible angles for ring and bomb placement.

You can grab the Windows binary or the source code.

The original content of the post has been wrapped in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

Edit: New version released. New screenshot:
The changes are rendering the special stage track to give a better visual guide of what is where and adding constrained object creation (ctrl+left click when inserting rings or bombs).

Windows version 0.1.1.

Source tarball 0.1.1.

The rest of the original post follows:

I have been working on th past couple of weeks in an editor for the Sonic 2 Special Stages. The result is this:

With it, you can edit the object placement (rings, bombs), how the special stage twists and turns (within S2 engine constraints), how long each special stage is and how many special stages are in the files. For other things (background, palette, ring requirements or actually making any new special stages work in-game, to name a few), you need to edit the disassembly.

There is a pre-compiled version for Windows (click here for v0.1), which can be extracted anywhere you like.

There is also a source tarball (click here for v0.1), which can be used to build it for Linux (or for Windows, if you are masochistic enough not to take the binary blob above). To compile, you need libgtkmm-2.4-dev version >= 2.12, and all associated dependencies (see e.g., this for a quick summary).

In either case, the included readme is essential for using it, but I think the program is user-friendly enough to dispense with it.

I welcome any suggestions/bug reports.

Edit: You can also grab these files in my Google code project.

This post has been edited by flamewing: 18 March 2012 - 09:31 AM

[theocas]

I suppose I can compile this for OS X too, right? It looks so promising...

[MarkeyJester]

Hah, cool stuff, it's about time we got a Special Stage editor for Sonic 2 (as mentioned many, many times before), I've gotta give this a go soon, see how interesting it'd be to create new special stages.

Nice work from what I can see so far though!

[flamewing]

I suppose I can compile this for OS X too, right?

I think so. You may have to use Fink to do it, and some twiddling of configure.ac may be required. If you get it working, I'd appreciate knowing the steps so that I can add them to SVN.

This post has been edited by flamewing: 09 February 2011 - 10:33 PM

[Scarred Sun]

I have been bitching about this for a DECADE.

You have made my dreams.

[RGamer2009]

The special stage no one thought would get an editor GETS AN EDITOR?!

Awesomesauce. I can only imagine what goodness will come from this!

[PsychoSk8r]

It's about time somebody did this! Well done! =P

[nineko]

Flamewing, I will upload this on the wiki soon if you agree.
Just a question: does it have a name, or is it just "Sonic 2 Special Stage Editor"?
Also, the "readme" file included alongside the Windows executable should probably be renamed to "readme.txt" to make it easier to read for people who use Windows and are complete noobs, and it should use CR+LF so that Notepad displays it right. It's just a minor thing, though.
Bonus points for not using .net

[Azu]

This awesome and all, but it would be a nice for a direct rom edit.
In any event, is it possible to add like a line tool or some type of array creation tool?

This post has been edited by Azu: 10 February 2011 - 09:58 AM

[Azu]

Edit: Didn't know it when through.

This post has been edited by Azu: 10 February 2011 - 09:58 AM

[flamewing]

Flamewing, I will upload this on the wiki soon if you agree.
Just a question: does it have a name, or is it just "Sonic 2 Special Stage Editor"?

Agre to Wiki. The name is just that: Sonic 2 Special Stage Editor.

Also, the "readme" file included alongside the Windows executable should probably be renamed to "readme.txt" to make it easier to read for people who use Windows and are complete noobs, and it should use CR+LF so that Notepad displays it right. It's just a minor thing, though.

Next revision will do both. Here is a screenshot for the Wiki (already for the next revision):

Bonus points for not using .net

I have little incentive for doing that seeing as I use Linux myself. Sure, some people are falling all over for Mono, but I just don't like it.

[nineko]

Sonic 2 Special Stage Editor

I almost labeled it as version 1.1.7 until I realised the .7 comes from the .7z extension

This post has been edited by nineko: 10 February 2011 - 01:13 PM

[minichapman]

What can I say that hasn't been said that hasn't been said before?

Absolutely fantastic work there.

[MarkoMan]

Oh boy... this looks like fun.

I wonder how many special stages one could possibly make...

[Arctides]

This is certainly a great tool, as we haven't had a utility to edit the S2 Special Stages before (though ones for S1 and S3K have existed for ages).
... Yet I get the feeling that we're going to see penis-shaped ring clusters in a hack because of this.