A new version of Tile World is coming, to be released alongside CCLP4. There are a few new features planned, but one in particular I'm releasing a beta version of ahead of time to get feedback on. This is the No Messing With Dac Files feature. The idea to to automatically create .dac files for any levelset-ruleset combinations that don't already have one. Additionally, you don't (ordinarily) even see the .dac files in the program. Instead, you just see a list of the levelsets and an option to switch between MS and Lynx. It is aimed to be backward compatible with older versions of Tile World, but unfortunately, this isn't completely possible. In particular, older versions don't have a good way of making a .dac file for a levelset in the "sets" directory.
Moving forward, it is recommended to put sets into the "data" directory, not the "sets" directory. Levelsets already in the "sets" directory can stay there. Actually, if you moved them, TW could get confused and not be able to find the corresponding .tws files.
I am interested in people to test out the new version and report anything that doesn't go smoothly. Make backups of everything beforehand, especially .tws files. Probably nothing bad will happen, but this is a beta release.
There is one issue I'm particularly interested in. It is possible that you have the same set in both the "data" and "sets" directory. In this case the new TW will treat both of them as the same set for the purposes of generating new .dac files. But this can still be confusing, especially if the two sets are actually different versions. I would like to know how widespread levelsets in both directories are, and especially about cases where the sets are different. The new TW will put warnings on the console about this situation and also about the files being different. If there is enough interest, a tool might be created to help clean things up.
[Download links for temporary version removed: go here now: http://www.pillowpc2001.net/TW2/download.html ]
Lastly, I would like to thank Madhav Shanbhag for useful discussions about this feature.
Moving forward, it is recommended to put sets into the "data" directory, not the "sets" directory. Levelsets already in the "sets" directory can stay there. Actually, if you moved them, TW could get confused and not be able to find the corresponding .tws files.
I am interested in people to test out the new version and report anything that doesn't go smoothly. Make backups of everything beforehand, especially .tws files. Probably nothing bad will happen, but this is a beta release.
There is one issue I'm particularly interested in. It is possible that you have the same set in both the "data" and "sets" directory. In this case the new TW will treat both of them as the same set for the purposes of generating new .dac files. But this can still be confusing, especially if the two sets are actually different versions. I would like to know how widespread levelsets in both directories are, and especially about cases where the sets are different. The new TW will put warnings on the console about this situation and also about the files being different. If there is enough interest, a tool might be created to help clean things up.
[Download links for temporary version removed: go here now: http://www.pillowpc2001.net/TW2/download.html ]
Lastly, I would like to thank Madhav Shanbhag for useful discussions about this feature.