Well, Alexei Novikov of Code Alliance has written two new articles on editing. The first is entitled "Level Editing-What's the Deal?" that discusses why people devote so much time to editing a game, and the second deals with Vectors but is pretty technical. Both are a good read.

He never stops, does he? Alexei Novikov seems to be right on track for the next release of JED. For more information, check out his finger updates at JK.NET. I can't wait for this latest version to hit the 'net.

More news on it's way...

Okay, this tutorial program will only work for IE4 users, so I apologize to you Netscape Junkies. When the Netscape version is complete it will be posted, until then, you will just have to read the online versions. Basically this program let's you browse through the tutorials offline in an easy to use format. It includes all the Basic Editing Techniques, plus all the tutorials. If you have any problems, or don't like the program, there is an uninstall option.

There are some required DLL files for this version, but if you already have them, no need to download them again. Just run the program first, and it will tell you which DLLs you need (many times, they are already on your computer from commercial software packages). For a list of which DLL files are in which of the following zip files, click here. Here are the files:

• mttseup.zip (The Tutorial Program) (2.47m)
• msinet.zip (50k)
• misc_dll.zip (354k)
• msvbm50.zip (682k)

Just extract the DLL files to your Windows/System directory, OR the directory you install the actual program into. Then, extract the mttsetup.zip files to their own directory, and run "setup.exe."

Thanks goes to Dark Knight for creating that program.

EvanC has donated a sample gob file, with an inluded text file, on how to create the illusion of a reflection in the floor. If you are interested, take a look here.

This tutorial was submitted by Jon Hill. Here's his explanation:

The attached zip is a Wordpad document tutorial, the subject of which is a very detailed explanation of the two methods of displaying text to the player's screen. What's the big deal you ask? Well, simply put, the latest version of JKSpecs (ver 0.3) doesn't include any explanation whatsoever for the concatanation commands regarding string output. These are very powerful commands in that they provide a great amount of flexibility and control over the output to the player(s) during a game. Pre-formatted text and data variables can be mixed seamlessly on a single line creating a readable and comprehensive way of displaying game data.

It's available in zipped format here, but will be added to the tutorials section soon.

I have compiled 3 JED files that might be of interest to people. Why make them available to download? Well I think a lot of people are missing the power of the cleaving and deleting technique (there will be a tutorial in a few weeks). There are some awesome effects that can be done with cleaving and deleting, as shown in the JED files. Remember, these aren't gobs, so you have to open them in JED. There were some custom cogs used in one of them, but they of course aren't included in the JED file, so if you gob and try to play the levels, they won't be of much use.

1. stairs.jed - a pretty good looking staircase. It has supports, etc, to make it look realistic.
2. tutor.jed - a 3 room level with some interesting features inside, including ramps up each side and some cool platforms.
3. untitled.jed - a diagonal cleaved level (try it, it's hard) that has a hole in the center, sector thrust and particles going up through the hole, and through a neat piece of architecture in the ceiling.

Please don't think I'm saying these are marvels of architecture. They are just there to demonstrate cleaving and deleting. Download the files here.

Well, time has come for me to spend 2 of my 4 weeks vacation time :-) I'm going to beautiful Washington State, where I will be visiting my family and friends. Most likely I won't be doing daily updates, but I will be able to get a few in, so no worries, just no Msg Board posts for a while.

Darkjedi.com has posted 3 pieces of info that will probably interest you. Since I tipped off JK.net, I took the liberty to take the code from them, so Aristotle, if you have a prob with me stealing your code, we can always duke it out in a DM game.

Added JK SendTrigger Tutor (12k): on the menu /Documents and download on Files/JediKnight

Added JED_TUT_51B.ZIP, (269k): Upgraded tutor for Jed ,on Files/JediKnight Page in Jed section

Added COGWRITER_02.ZIP, (349k): Upgraded cogwriter, assists with writing cogfiles, supports multiple cogs,has a linebuilder tool,syntax checker, helpfile ,on Files/JediKnight Page

Good Question. In case you haven't been reading the constant .plan updates from myself and Dark Knight from over at Weegee's, a program is in the works to organize and categorize all the tutorials we have at The Massassi Temple. Unfortunately, we ran into some snags in the process of packaging and converting them. When can you expect it? Well, Dark Knight has threatened my life with demands that I give him a list of our tutorials by difficulty by 2pm Pacific (today). So if that's any indicator, it's close. Look for more on that later today or tomorrow morning.

If you subscribe to the Darkness Falls email list, you would have received this:

Heya all Darkness Falls subscribers!

I apologise for the lack of update emails, but life has been pretty hectic lately. Anyway, as most of you by now probably know, Darkness Falls converted from a online magazine to a more conventional articles site. The site alos changed address slightly and is now located at http://www.jediknight.net/darkfall

The content remained the same though - just a different format. Here's a summary of the articles added since the change -

*Cutscene Tutorials*
Jonathon Clark and Pele each wrote seperate articles on the two styles of cutscenes used in Jedi Knight. Clark took a detailed look at SMK video cutscenes, whilst Pele investigated how to create in-game cutscenes as seen in MotS.

*Movie Previews*
I just recently posted an article previewing this upcoming Summer of Movies. Including the likes of Godzilla, Armageddon and The Truman Show.

*Story Continuations*
Since the move two new chapters have been added to the Interactive Story taking it in all new directions. Look for a conclusion in upcoming chapters.

And what's coming up? Well, an in-depth skin editing tutorial by none other than Al MacDonald himself is in the works plus some previews of upcoming JK projects. I will also be punching out a ton of movie reviews for the hell of it as well ;)

*Jeff Walters*
thecat@zip.com.au

A webmaster of Jediknight.net
http://www.jediknight.net

Webmaster of 'BESPIN - The Cloud City'
http://www.jediknight.net/bespin/

Knights of Cloud City
http://www.jediknight.net/bespin/kocc

Publisher of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Online Mag. - 'Darkness Falls'
http://www.jediknight.net/darkfall

Alexei Novikov has once again updated his .plan (two days ago). It was pretty long, so I just cut out the editing stuff. If you're interested in reading the whole thing, click on over to the Jedi Finger service.

Well, and finally something I was planning to say when I started it. There are a couple of uncertaincies in JED. First, about multiselection. Should I make texturing tools work on surface multiselections? It might be useful at times, but it'll mess up the texturing from 3D Preview. That needs to be thought over. Another complication is cleaving non-convex surfaces. In some situations it may lead to formation of more than 2 surfaces. That screws me up BIG time. And it isn't a piece of cake to detect and handle this case either. So I'm afarid I'll have to leave it up to you not to make such cleaves. I also plan to add some geometry recovery tools for advanced users (constructing a sector from a set of surfaces and a surfaces from a set of vertices and deleting surfaces at will). I'm sure I'm gonna regret this and the newbies will start using it an make really messed up levels :-). But I think these tools might really come in handy.

There has been talk of messed up textures in Jed Beta .51. One of the solutions offered was to finish the level in Jed Beta .51, then open the jkl in Jed 3, fix the textures, then re-save it. So, in light of the fact that most sites don't have the older version posted anymore, it has been posted in our files section. Good luck.

The Jedi Knight Developers Channel, hosted by JPG and The Sith Temple (cough), has posted a cog tutorial in their documents section.

Also, they have details on a summit of editors and editing groups, but it looks like we're still waiting for dates on that.

Looks like he's had some computer problems, but promises that they are almost fixed. He will shortly be back in business, helping bring editing news and information together for your viewing pleasure.

VonHaggardstein, from Hyperview, has spent the past few weeks doing new graphics and a new layout for the site. I hope everyone likes it, and if so, please don't hesitate to send Von an email. All the tutorials are here, but will be getting a proofreading and a facelift soon.

If you find broken links or anything of that nature, please email me and I will fix them.

If you haven't yet had a chance to join us at the #massassi chat channel, then you're definitely missing out. All you need to do is download mIRC from http://www.mirc.com. Then, connect to any EFnet server, and type:

/join #massassi

If you have a problem connecting to an EFnet server, just add a new server:

irc.chat.org port:6667

Well, as you can tell, along with the new site, the counter got re-set. I knew it would happen, so both Von and I took screenshots of the current counter, and hopefully we can bump our hits back up. Expect a few more minor changes with the site, to make everything look up to snuff.

If you don't know who Alex is... anyway. The programmer of JED has updated his .plan on Jedi Finger. Very intersting stuff, take a look:

OK, now it's time for something that .plan was meant for. Some information, some ranting, some babbling, some bitching, that sort of things.

Several people have asked about "the state of JED" recently. I posted a message to JED Messageboard, but it won't hurt to write it here as well.

I've spent quite a bit of time doing some research - looking at Glide, MESA and software 3D rendering techniques. I figured a few things out. Hopefully (if I have time), one of the next versions of JED will have 3D Preview use a Voodoo/Voodoo2 card if you have one.

Ah, BTW, MESA (it's an implementation of OpenGL by freelance programmers). All I can say - I surely respect the guys who spend their own time writing those things, but hey, how about caring a little bit about mere mortals? I really can't rely on it the way it is now. Pity, MESA could've saved me some troubles.

But this isn't gonna make it to the very next version. I plan so much asked things like multiselection and undo for the next one. I have multiselection working for sectors now. Basically all editing operations work on multiselection (editing, moving, deleting, copying, cleaving), but there're some complications with merging. As a matter of fact, merging wasn't done as it should've been. It was inconvenient and it would choke when merging certain sectors. I intend to fix it now. I'll also try to expand cleaving to handle non-convex sectors and surfaces (at least some of them). That'll give you much more flexibility in altering the level geometry.

BTW, the next JED probably won't require OpenGL. If you have it, you could use it in JED (for wireframe and 3D preview), but if you don't, JED will work without it. It was a bit ridiculous, wasn't it - 400K of JED plus 650K of OpenGL to be able to run it.

And, as usual - don't ask "when" - I don't know. Even approximately. When I know, I'll say.

I'm looking forward to the multiselection and eventual Voodoo card support.

Antony Espindola has been kind enough to work up a great looking MotS Colored Lighting Tutorial. There's not really much I can say other than that if you don't know how to do colored lighting, this is the tutorial for you.