Tool: [Alpha] (MEH) Map Editor of Happiness

[Alpha] Map Editor of Happiness (MEH)


Why?
We're going to put it nice and simple: Because AdvanceMap sucks. It always has, and it always will. AdvanceMap is the classic example of a tool that is the equivalent of Windows: People only use it because it's the only option that is supported widely. Once AdvanceMap overcame EliteMap nobody bothered to make a better map editor. That is, until two months ago. Like many glorious hacks, it started as an idea bounced around in RomHack.me's IRC. Then Linkandzelda made his titlescreen tool using Java and that got the ball rolling. I decided to make an LZ77 decompression tool and from there I decompressed graphics. Then one thing led to another and we had a map editor.

But that aside, why should you use MEH? Well, we have two words to answer that. Open Source. This means that is someone has a cool ASM hack such as karatekid552/Jambo51's 649 patch and they want to add support to MEH for all those extra Pokemon, they can take the code for MEH and implement it. Want to add Day/Night support? You can do that. Day/Night Pokemon? Sure. 3 Layer Tile Hack? Easy.

With MEH we are striving to create the ultimate map editor for all Generation III games. And to do this we are also adding support for plugins. Currently plugins are in a beta state but as the tool develops instead of redownloading an entirely new version of MEH you can just update individual plugins, even automatically, thus making it more expandable than ever.

Features

• Cross-Platform Support - Works on any OS that can install Java. Period. (Linux users rejoice!)
• Faster load times - Loads maps in seconds!
• Threaded loading - No more freezing, no more pain.
• Intuitive yet friendly interface - Fixes what was broken while keeping what worked
• Revolutionary connections editor - Connection editing has never been easier! Now all it takes is a click and a drag to adjust connections, and edits are even mirrored onto opposite connections!
• Lack of Leaf Green and Sapphire support - Because we never liked them anyways. Actually we're just lazy...
• Safe freespace finding - No more corruption in Emerald, no mess in Fire Red, just safety and peace of mind.
• And more to come!

What's Missing So Far...

• A place to edit settings
• Removing Connections
• NPC editor is slightly bugged
• A few small things I keep forgetting to fix
• Anything else I forgot to remember

Glorious Screenshots




Disclaimer and Downloads
Slow down there feller, this thing isn't stable yet. It could explode in your face and kill your grandmother. It could murder your family. It could do all sorts of things. Which is why you must agree to the following disclaimer for the duration of this tool's open testing period:

WARNING: THIS TOOL IS IN AN OPEN ALPHA AND WHILE IT IS SUITABLE FOR USE, IT MAY OR MAY NOT BLOW UP IN YOUR FACE AND/OR RUIN YOUR ROM. WHILE USING THIS TOOL, MAKE BACKUPS OFTEN OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES...

That aside, feel free to download and try out MEH. Bug reports are welcome and will aid in the development and maturing of MEH

ZIP Download
Source Code

Other than that, have a happy new year!

Yay! It's about time for an open source map editor for Generation III! LU-HO's AdvanceMap will be history, because it was never open-source and LU-HO has disappeared, his website has gone down and everything, assuming that he probably might've died in real life or that he might have just moved on and forgotten about ROM Hacking entirely.

Anyways, yay! I'm sooo looking forward to MEH improving, it will one day get to the stage of supporting LeafGreen and Sapphire as well as any type of game code, even custom game codes! ^^

We really should host the source code on some website like SourceForge, so then we can help improve MEH and make it become the best Generation III map editor ever to be made!

Maybe one day once I've learned programming, I might contribute to MEH. ^^

Finally, finally! Hope you add some A-map 1.95 features. For faster mapping! Because am lazy.

YES SHINY YES! YEEESSSSS!!! MEH FTW

Hiroshi Kaede said:

So, this is still in alpha stage? So that alone, makes AMap better than MEH this time around.
I'll download this as soon as the stable version will be released.
As of now, AMap is more suitable for Hacking :D

Oh, and one question, what makes MEH better than Lu-Ho's AMap? =)

Click to expand...

I'm Quoting stright from the main post:
"we have two words to answer that. Open Source. This means that is someone has a cool ASM hack such as karatekid552/Jambo51's 649 patch and they want to add support to MEH for all those extra Pokemon, they can take the code for MEH and implement it. Want to add Day/Night support? You can do that. Day/Night Pokemon? Sure. 3 Layer Tile Hack? Easy"
Also less bugginess, a mime ( I can't explain it, ask shiny or interdpth ), and OPENING MAPS/BANKS IN SECONDS ( love this one )

Wow wow! Not bad! As a Linux user I'm happy to see such a big tool coming...

I'll try this...

Congrats, this is a really nice tool. (But what is "mime"?)
For someone who jokes on AM, your tool looks very similar XD ("Suspicious")
But I love the fact that it is open source, there was always a bunch of "little things" that I wished I could of fixed with AM.

That's a pretty damn sexy map editor, those movement permissions and map connection pictures really are the cherries on top.

You go Shiny Quagsire (and interdpth)! Really looking forward to MEH and I really like how it looks!

I've been waiting for this for a while now ;)
I'll keep track of this. Once it's out of Alpha, I'll make sure to replace A-map with this!

Glorious! This is awesome!
I'm getting this for sure~
Keep up the great work. :)

Hiroshi Kaede said:

So, this is still in alpha stage? So that alone, makes AMap better than MEH this time around.
I'll download this as soon as the stable version will be released.
As of now, AMap is more suitable for Hacking :D

Oh, and one question, what makes MEH better than Lu-Ho's AMap? =)

Click to expand...

I'm not going to lie, there's way to many things missing at this point to make it a good map editor to use full-time. I just wanted to get some input from the community and get an idea of what features the people here might want. So yes, A-Map is more suitable for hacking right now. But MEH is getting close.

NarutoActor said:

Congrats, this is a really nice tool. (But what is "mime"?)
For someone who jokes on AM, your tool looks very similar XD ("Suspicious")
But I love the fact that it is open source, there was always a bunch of "little things" that I wished I could of fixed with AM.

Click to expand...

Just a header viewer.

One large problem that I had with a-map was the warps. It was too damn complicated. It would be cool if there was a tile that you could place while under the events tab (or connections), and then if you right clicked on it there would be an "assign" option where you would choose what map and which tile inside the map that it warps you to.

P.S. you should take out the "like" in "can like see" under the mime tab

This is great! No more buggy Advance Map lol
I'm probably gonna wait until you release an actual beta before commenting on it,
but one feature that would be nice would be having MEH automatically detect the palettes used when inserting new tilesets.
honestly going back and forth between advance map and irfanview is such a hassle...

Wahooo! It'll be used for years to come!

This is the best post on PC I've seen in a long time if not ever. THANK YOU. Open source ftw

I got some ideas

-Have a tooltip that displays the block number of the block you have the cursor on. Maybe even display the X, Y co-oords too. Makes it easier than looking down at the bottom of screen like you had to do in A-map. I also noticed the current tile thing. That is a better spot than the bottom for sure. =P

-Maybe have annotations that you can edit on the map list like this...

Looks like AM but still looks great!
Can't wait to try this out... and I'm going to replace AM... :D

Just remembered something I would like to see in MEH. It would be helpful if, in the "Wild Pokemon" section, you put the percentage that the Pokemon spawn so I know exactly how rare a Pokemon is going to be. I know this feature was in an earlier version of A-Map, but it's not in the newer versions which is really a bummer.