JSWED / Seasonal Gaming Creation [Split from Download Discussion]

[jetsetdanny]

10 hours ago, MtM said:

Well, your words must have had some effect, and the link provided made it very easy, so I _did_ download and install it last night and had a very quick look. I must say it looks splendid on my 4k desktop 😉 I have gone for the most stable version, 2.2.9 - is the version you mention considerably different?

Great! 👍

My personal take on the two versions is as follows:

Both versions of JSWED - 2.2.9 and 2.3.7 - are excellent tools.

I don't find version 2.3.7 to be unstable. I mentioned it to John Elliott, the creator of JSWED, once and his reply indirectly confirmed to me that there is no real reason to regard version 2.3.7 as unstable. However, for some reason he prefers to call it that. He does frequent these pages so perhaps he'll express his current opinion if he reads this.

[The only problem I've had on Windows 10 once was that JSWED seemed to freeze after being launched. The simple solution for it would be to grab the upper edge of its window as if you wanted to move it around on the screen, and then it would work just fine. I haven't had that problem recently though].

So for me both version 2.2.9 and 2.3.7 are equally stable for all practical purposes. There are, however, the following factors to take into account when you decide to start using one or the other:

1. Version 2.3.7 can do some things that 2.2.9 cannot. I can't remember off the top of my head whether it concerns the editing of JSW64 games (which perhaps 2.2.9 cannot edit at all) or whether it's something less important, but 2.2.9 does have some limitations in comparison.

2. There are some differences between how you use them. So, for example, when editing a JSW48 game (which uses the same game engine as the original JSW), in order to achieve the same result, you do some things differently in 2.2.9 than in 2.3.7. It is something like: in 2.2.9 you enter the guardian editing options from the list of guardians in the room, but in 2.3.7 you have to leave the editing of the room, go to the "Guardians" section and then edit the guardians in the room of your choosing - this example may not be 100% accurate, I am writing it from memory just to illustrate what I mean.

I remember that when I first started using a 2.3.x version after using 2.2.9 and its predecessors for a long time, I couldn't get used to the "other" way of doing things, and, in fact, I kept using 2.2.9 as long as was practical. But then, when I needed to use the functions in 2.3.7 that are unavailable in 2.2.9, I switched to the most current version and finally got used to the way things are done there. And I have been using it as default version ever since, I don't even have 2.2.9 installed on my current computer any more (as I did on the previous machines I was using).

So, taking all of the above into account, my personal recommendation would be to start using JSWED 2.3.7 straight away.

Good luck, and let us know how it went 🙂.

[IRF]

My personal experience was that v2.2.9 was more buggy - it crashed more often - and is therefore less 'stable' to my mind than v2.3.7 is.  So I would also recommend just using the latter as it has more features and ironed out some annoying aspects of the former.  Plus it's probably easier just to get used to using one version.

P.S. I seem to recall that I once compiled a list of suggestions, in case John Elliott ever got round to doing another update of the editor.

[jetsetdanny]

 

11 hours ago, Spider said:

🙂 Popular with good reason. Although this version has only (at the time of writing this) been present for a week and a half, its already had 350+ downloads.

I couldn't understand what you meant, Andy, as the various versions of JSWED were discussed in several preceding posts, and version 2.3.7 has been around since 7th April 2015 (no idea how many downloads it has had, perhaps John Elliott would know).

Then it dawned on me you were talking about "Manic Panic" 😁.

[Spider]

MOD EDIT: The posts within this topic were split out of the original 'Download Discussion Topic' for Manic Panic, with hopefully a suitable title.

[Spider]

12 hours ago, jetsetdanny said:

Then it dawned on me you were talking about "Manic Panic" 😁.

I did think about that point -after- posting but thought I'd just leave it. 😄

[MtM]

If I weren't so very busy this week I would have given it a bit more of a go. In truth, some time off next week, so maybe then ... I will install the latest

version too. As I jokingly said though, on my 4k display the editor screen is tiny, there doesn't seem to be any way of expanding it. It is usable,

but not easy to read. Am I being thick or is it locked like this?

[Spider]

21 hours ago, MtM said:

on my 4k display the editor screen is tiny, there doesn't seem to be any way of expanding it. It is usable,

but not easy to read. Am I being thick or is it locked like this?

Its a fixed size window (iirc) but I've not looked into debugging for details. The question is not your "4K-ness" , well not directly but what is your screen resolution ?

On my 1920x1280 monitor (its quite old now) it takes up about 3rd roughly if its centrally placed. Same size almost as ZXSpin on 200%

If your display is double that or more ( ! ) its going to look quite small.

It -might- be possible to force it to run full windowed or such but I think John Elliott is best placed to answer that.

[jetsetdanny]

JSWED's screen size is 800x600. This size was first introduced in version 2.3.0, released on 5th March 2006. Previously, up to version 2.2.9, the screen size was 640x480.

If I understand this issue correctly, it is a fixed size and cannot be modified. 

Which - if 800x600 looks tiny on your 4K display - is an additional reason to use JSWED version 2.3.7 rather than 2.2.9. 640x480 would look even tinier on your screen...

[IRF]

9 hours ago, jetsetdanny said:

Which - if 800x600 looks tiny on your 4K display - is an additional reason to use JSWED version 2.3.7 rather than 2.2.9. 640x480 would look even tinier on your screen...

Conversely, looking at MtM's last post, he seems to have written it after only trying out v2.2.9.  So once he installs v2.3.7, he'll probably find that the 'small display' problem isn't quite as bad as it currently seems. 😀

[MtM]

Yes, I have yet to install the latest version, but even that sounds like it will look quite tiny at 4k. You can't really 

run monitors in less that native without them looking poor visually. No matter, I will manage. I am swapping

between my pc and an m1 MacBook pro at the moment, so not able to get any time on the editor whilst on

the mac as I am now. However, Fuse works well on the mac under big sur for what it is worth. Thanks for

the info from everyone about the different versions etc. I have assumed there is no such editor available

for the mac.

 

Hope everyone is prepared for Christmas and has a safe time of it. MM for me Christmas Day once I get

a bit of time, the original, will try and play through all 20 caverns, will probably give the Bug Byte version

a go this time. I hope everyone gets what they have asked Father Christmas for too. Maybe this should

be on a different thread, sorry ....

Edited December 23, 2020 by MtM