Level Editor
History
Introduction | 
News/Updates | History | Discussion | Room Editor
Unofficial Level Editors | Levels | Utilities | Lara Croft 3D Models | Other
Introduction | News/Updates | History | Discussion | Room Editor
Unofficial Level Editors | Levels | Utilities | Lara Croft 3D Models | Other
I originally played Tomb Raider on the Sony Playstation in 1996 when it first came out. I was very impressed with the immersion factor, detail, and overall fun of playing in a 3D virtual reality-type environment. But I didn't really know any better, not having had much exposure to 3D games. Later, I messed around with America Online's Virtual Places, and Microsoft V-Chat, and before Tomb Raider I even tried Superscape's 3D VRML (virtual reality modelling language) program (Visualiser) but none of these really measured up to the immersion, speed, and versatility of Tomb Raider.
Then, in 1997, I found Active Worlds (AW), which allowed me to create 3D environments, but they're very limited in what can be done with them. In essence, AW has some of the "level" (world) editing ability, but Tomb Raider and other 3D action, action-adventure, and even action-RPG games have the immersion, playability, and interactivity AW lacks.
In 2004 I tried Second Life and it "blew away" AW but did not have much impact on 3D games due to its bad vehicle physics and small server ("simulation") size.
I've played Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Half-Life, and many other first-person shooters (FPS) but they are all mainly based around combat, shooting, and killing. Although Tomb Raider has killing, I enjoy it more for the adventure/exploration aspect. Any game can be a mindless shooter but it takes good level design and a non-destructive, creative, intelligent design to make a game adventurous, fun to explore, and really feel immerssed in. I feel Tomb Raider is the best potential environment for level editing (Unreal, while being yet another shooter, has its UnrealEd level editor which has been used to create many other games) and really would like a level editor to create my own adventurous, explorative, non-killing-based levels.
The Quest For A Tomb Raider Level Editor
(or, hacking Tomb Raider)
I believe I first heard about Anthony Sims in the newsgroup who commented on working on a model/texture extractor, but after questioning him about it, I found out the extractors only existed as source code. Not being a programmer, the source code was basically useless to me. But I did find his Tomb Raider PHD Format - Details (named at the time) page, which mentioned Splat's Tomb Raider 1 level (PHD) specs, and where I found TrlEd, the first Tomb Raider level editor I heard about, so there was hope yet. Unfortunately, TrlEd was discontinued a couple weeks after I discovered it. I also found "TrlEd - Juan & Speed's Web Page", which had a screenshot, interview with Splat, and more info about TrlEd.
Frustrated at TrlEd's discontinuation and Anthony's non-working, uncompiled extractor source code, I wanted to at least extract the sounds, so after searching for a Tomb Raider sound effect extractor all over the Net (and not finding one), I finally tried to figure out how to get the sounds myself. I figured it out after reading about how other sound extractors worked and finding out where Tomb Raider 2 got its sounds from, and eventually persuaded a programmer to write a simple program to extract them more easily. Xtract Tomb Raider 2 WAVs was the result. It even gets Tomb Raider 1 sounds with a little work. But I wanted the textures too, so I tried hard to persuade Anthony to just create the programs to do what his source code couldn't, but he wouldn't. I even tried compiling it myself using Borland Turbo C++, but it wouldn't compile and I can't stand programming. Splat wouldn't provide extractors either so I was basically stuck.
Throughout this time and during the months that passed, I searched for more info about Room Editor. I posted messages to the newsgroup with all I knew about it and unnofficial TR level editors and info about their development, asking if anyone would consider working on a level editor. I got flamed a lot because of my hard-edged approach, but I didn't care. I really felt (and feel) that a level editor would increase Tomb Raider's popularity that much more.
Then, a month or so later, Theresa emailed me about creating a Tomb Raider level editor page. I had been thinking about doing one a few days prior to her email but decided not to since she wanted to, so I replied with everything I knew about Tomb Raider level editors and she created the page. Also, Anthony had mentioned progress with his extractor, which could extract Lara's model and textures from Tomb Raider 2 levels. He was also trying to extract the textures and working on an OpenGL model viewer. It seemed my efforts were paying off!
After that, within a few weeks or so, Stefan Schneider (Jack!'s programmer) emailed me. Finally! I could get the textures, and not just from Tomb Raider 2 but Tomb Raider 1, Unfinished Business, and even the demos! In the continuing weeks, FastByte's Tomb Raider Editor Project came into being and his Map Viewer program was available. And after the Mac release of Tomb Raider 2 a couple weeks later, G3 Power's MacMyLaraUp was mentioned in the newsgroup.
Then, just a week or so ago, My continuing Tomb Raider "history" can be followed in the news/updates.
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