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Old 24-09-16, 19:48   #1
moodydog
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Default NGLE Beginners Tutorial (Windows 10 2016)

Custom NGLE Manual by Moodydog

Whilst reinstalling the NGLE, I found it hard to find a comprehensive tutorial series on how to install the program. So as I was installing it, I wrote a fairly detailed analysis of every step I was doing in hopes that someone would find it useful.

Beginners note:
The TRLE was released with TRC in 2000, which allowed fans of the series to create their own TR inspired adventures and share them online. Fast forward somewhat 15 years later, and the community is still growing and shows no signs of slowing down. There have been some awe inspiring levels released in the past few years, which have pushed the boundaries of the level editor. Some of these levels have been created using an updated version called the NGLE (Next Generation Level Editor). The NGLE uses newer scripts and has a more much up-to-date and intuitive approach to level editing, and unlike the original, is still getting updated. A few tutorials have already been written about how to install and use the TRNG, so in that regard this one isn’t that useful. What I am trying to do however, is fill in all the gaps and make this one as complete as possible. I have also recently upgraded to Windows 10, so everything below has been done on a Windows 10 Laptop. So if you also own Windows 10 (or 8), you should be able to follow along with this and run into as little issues as possible.

The first section, walks you through the basic installation of the TRNG, and it is designed specifically for modern computers with Windows 7, 8 and 10 installed. Despite being updated with the TRNG, the architecture and the source code for the editor was actually designed for Windows 2000, thus technically shouldn’t be compatible with the latest versions of windows. Therefore, I have tried to be as specific and explicit as possible when going through the base installation, as missing certain steps could (and probably will) create an envelope of problems for you down the line. In fact, I was met with a multitude of problems when writing this tutorial that I needed to solve before proceeding. The takeaway message is this… The TRLE and by extension the NGLE does not work with modern systems and can require head scratching and problem solving to “make” the programs work. Also, whilst the instructions below have worked for me, that doesn’t technically mean that they would work for you. I have also included handy tips on how I choose to structure and organise my folders, and thus optimize my workflow.

Section 1: Installation

Before setting up the NGLE, you will need to install the base TRLE that came with TRC. It is best to use a fresh installation of the TRLE for the reasons stated above. If you do not have the TRC CD, the TRLE can be installed from http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/...itor/trle.html. There are 3 versions of the TRLE; the Full, Lite and XP/Vista versions. Also on this page are other useful files to install. This tutorial uses the full version of the TRLE, which requires you to make an ISO image. If you’d prefer a non ISO version, you can find a Zip file of the full version available at http://www.tombraiderforums.com/show...4&postcount=\6. This link also contains some more useful software.

1. Installing the TRLE:

Here is a checklist of software for the initial installation phase (all obtainable from the links above):

• TRLE
• Updated Wads: (trle_updated_wads.exe)
• Angkor Wad: (trle_angkor_wad.exe)
• New Wads: (trle_new_wad.exe)
• Mousepatch

1. Download the programs listed above. The TRLE and mousepatch files are zip files, so extract these folders and delete the zips. To organise your installation, it’s best to keep your downloads in a single folder, which you can then refer to for future installations.

2. If you have downloaded ISO version, you will need disk burning software. Information on this can be found online. Alternatively, following the link to the tombraiderforums website contains an identical version that doesn’t contain an ISO.

Open the TRLE installation folder, choose setup and wait for it to initiate (the process can take a while, so please be patient). To begin choose the language for the installation and click OK. The setup should then extract the necessary files.

3. You should see the welcome screen, read through its contents and click next.

4. Again, read through the software licence agreement, and if you agree, click yes.

5. The setup should then prompt you to choose your desired installation directory, do not choose the default directory, as doing so has been known to cause problems. Instead, choose you documents folder. For example, “c:\users\”name”\documents\trle”. Once you are happy with the directory, click next.

6. On the next screen, choose custom installation and click next.

7. Deselect DirectX 7 from the components window and click next.

8. The next page asks you to choose the Program folder. Everything on this page is OK, so just click next.

9. The setup should then install the TRLE, and once it’s finished, you should have a folder named trle in your documents.

10. Before going any further, test that the game works by clicking tomb4.exe. On new game, you should have 7 levels installed, including the tutorial level. Once you are happy, quit out of the game and proceed with the installation.

11. From the downloaded programs from step 1, run the trle_updated_wads.exe file and wait for the setup to initiate. In the destination folder, choose your trle directory, (e.g “c:\users\”name”\documents\trle”) and click install. Once it finishes, it should automatically quit the installation.

12. Repeat Step 11 for the Angkor Wad and New Wads (you won’t need to manually choose the directory this time, as the installation will use the last directory). After installation, Windows may tell you that the software may not have installed correctly – just ignore this (don’t choose to download with recommended settings) and continue with the installation.

13. Before testing the new Wads, they need to be built. To do this, in the trle directory, open tomb2pc, and under edit script, click add, and open the files angkor.TOM, guard.TOM and library.TOM. Then click build all. Once finished, you should get a message saying “build all complete”.

14. Since you have updated the wads, it may also be a good idea to rebuild all the .TOM files. Rebuild the wads using the same way we built the new wads (Edit Script, add, build all).

NOTE: catacomb.TOM and coastal.TOM throw crash the program when you try to rebuild them, so don’t bother updating these.

15. Run tomb4.exe again. This time, you should see 11 level installed, as the 4 new levels have been added. Tests these new levels to make sure they work. When you are ready, quit out of the game.

16. In the mousepatch (v2 currently) folder, you should see mousepatchv2.exe. Copy this file into your trle folder, and drag and drop winroomedit.exe onto it. A black cmd window will appear telling you if it installed correctly. Just press any key to close this window and continue. Feel free to delete the mousepatchv2.exe from your trle folder as it’s no longer needed.

17. Finally, copy the entire trle folder, and call it something along the lines of trle_backup.

2. TRNG Preparations

Before going onto the main installation, a couple of programs need to be installed, all available from http://www.trsearch.org/Tools/.

• Visual Basic 5 Runtime
• Visual Basic 6 Runtime
• WadMerger 1.98 Beta 3

1. Download the programs above, extract them and delete the Zips.

2. Starting with VB5, open the folder and click SETUP.EXE. Click OK at the welcome screen, and then choose the default directory that it chooses to install to. Depending on whether you are using a 32bit or 64bit OS, the paths should look very slightly different (the 32bit path should be
“C:\ProgramFiles\TRWAD Tools\” and the 64bit path should be “C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\TRWAD Tools\”). If you are happy with this, click the computer icon and the program should install. Once it finishes, a popup should appear telling you it installed successfully.

3. Inside the VB6 folder, choose setup.exe. The installation procedure should be identical to above, except the paths will be “C:\ProgramFiles\WADMerger\” or “C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\WADMerger\” for 32bit and 64bit respectively.

4. Once you start the installation, there may be a version conflict. Follow the setup’s advice and keep the existing file (do not replace), so press yes. This will happen again, so press yes again. Once this finishes, the program will hopefully tell you that it was successful.

5. Finally, copy the contents of the WadMerger file downloaded above into the path installed by VB6.

3. Installing the TRNG

This is where the fun begins! This version of the TRNG is probably not the final version, but it’s the most recent. This tutorial will be following along with the MK4 release, along with the updates. So let’s get started.
The files for the updates section can be downloaded at http://www.trlevelmanager.net/ng.htm. NOTE: DO NOT download the MK4 file from the trlevelmanager link above, for some reason it crashes right at the end. Use this instead: http://treditor.hu/7/gmac/tools.html (the link that say’s TRNG).
• MK4
• TRNG Update 1.2.2.7
• TRNG Update 1.2.2.7+

1. Download and extract the files above into your chosen downloads folder.

2. In the MK4 folder you just extracted, click mk4_trng_full.exe to start the installation.

3. The welcome page should appear, and it has some more useful advice about reading stuff carefully! If you are using Windows 8 or 10, it should also wrongly detect your operating system (don’t worry about this). Once you’ve glanced through this page, click next.

4. This next page tells you to install the TRLE if you haven’t already. If you’ve been following along, it should be installed, so you can just click next.

5. If you still happen to be using XP, the next page just tells you about fast setup. Since this tutorial is designed for modern systems, we’re just going to click next.

6. If you haven’t already, you can disable the user account control. In Windows 8 or 10, you can access the user account control panel. Go into Control Panel\User Accounts\User Accounts and click change user account control settings. In the window that has just appeared, slide the slider all the way down to the bottom. You can turn it off temporarily during this set up, or you can keep it disabled. Once you are happy, click next.

7. This next stage handles the installation of the actual editor, and concise instructions can be found on the page itself. Just be sure to run the setup as administrator like it asks.

8. The NG Centre setup should appear. The first screen just tells you to close down any applications that may interfere with the installation. Once you are confident that you have closed down any relevant applications, click Ok.

9. The next screen asks you to choose the directory. Just install to the default paths. It should be “C:\ProgramFiles\NG_CENTRE\” or “C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\NG_CENTRE\” for 32bit and 64bit respectively. However, it is important to note that if you are using two hard drives, you MUST install the NGLE to the default Windows drive (C:\) or the NG Centre will not work properly. Thus it’s best to keep it to the default path.

10. Once you click the computer symbol, you should get a screen asking you to choose the Program Group. Choose the default NG Centre, and click continue. The installation should start. Once it’s done, you should get a screen to say it was successful. Click OK.

11. Back onto the setup assistant, simply click next. The next page warns you of some known bugs that occur with Windows Vista. Once you are happy/ informed of this, click next.

12. The next page tells you about XP compatibility, so follow the instructions there and open the installation folder. Once you are done, click next.

13. Finally, comes the installation of the TRNG itself. Open the installation folder and run the TRNG_Installer.exe as administrator.

14. The prompt should tell you (in very bad English) to select your default TRLE folder. This is the one we made in the documents folder. So navigate and select you “c:\users\”name”\documents\trle” folder and click Ok.

15. It should then ask you to verify the folders are correct, just double check that the NG Centre and Wad Merger folders are correct. It should look something like this:

32bit:
C:\users\”name”\documents\trle
C:\ProgramFiles\NG_CENTRE\
C:\ProgramFiles\wadmerger\
C:\ProgramFiles\wadmerger\WadMerger.exe

64bit:
C:\users\”name”\documents\trle
C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\NG_CENTRE\
C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\wadmerger\
C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\wadmerger\WadMerger.exe

16. Once you have happy with this, click the INSTALL button. One this is done it should come up with 7 warning messages. This is normal. Just click and proceed.
The NG centre should automatically open, and it will ask you to verify your installation directory. Again, locate your “C:\users\”name”\documents\trle” for 33bit or “C:\users\”name”\documents\trle” for 64bit.

17. Almost done! The NG Centre needs to be configured to work correctly. Firstly, go over to the updates tab, and verify your version. DO NOT attempt to install the updates from the NG Centre, as this would cause the NG Centre to crash and exit. Install manually using the TRNG update 1.2.2.7 and TRNG update 1.2.2.7+ files. For TRNG update 1.2.2.7: Open the extracted folder, and right click on TRNG_Installer.exe, and run as administrator.
For TRNG update 1.2.2.7 plus: Open the extracted folder, and copy the Tomb_NextGeneration.dll file across to “C:\users\”name”\documents\trle”.

18. Within the NG Centre, go across to the Tools tab, and click on convert texts to new format. Click yes to the next screen. Next it will ask you about converting the strings to all languages, just click yes to these.

19. We need to make some small adjustments to the script on the Script tab of the NG Centre. In the main white script box, scroll down to the first level, Playable Tutorial Level and delete the first instance of
LoadCamera= 0,0,0,0,0,0,255
Repeat this for the next level, The Tomb of Seth. There should only be one LoadCamera setting per level.
Go down to The City of the Dead, which is the last level, and delete the second instance of

Puzzle= 1,Nitrous Oxide Feeder, $0004,$0300,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002.

Finally scroll down to the languages and delete all languages but the File=0, English.txt line.

20. Click save and build all.
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