Zoot

[fern]

Zoot - Beta Version 0.9b

Author :  MadScientist

Category : Utilities

Updated : N/A

Size :  94 KB

Compatibility :  All Game Versions

Description:  This is an updated beta version of the wonderful ZOOT-program, written by MadScientist.
From JBL:

He immediately fixed a bug that I've reported to him (it occurred while creating a ZT image)

All credits go to MadScientist.

Note: This is an older version. A newer version is in a post below.

[Jay]

Zoot Version 1.1

No Image Available

Author: MadScientist (Creator and most important contributor)

Keywords: Utility

Date released: N/A

Updated: Version 1.1 added January 10, 2010 by Jay

Size: 116 KB

Current jar date: January 10, 2010

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description (by Jay at DG): This is an update by Jay of the wonderful Zoot program created by MadScientist. The Zoot program is for designers to adjust rotation positions of ZT images or to load ".png" images into ZT images for any type of ZT structure. Even if you had problems using Zoot before, you might want to try this version. A number of problems in the previous version of Zoot have been fixed. Here is the list of changes/additions for this version:

• Fixed the problem that occurs if a project's start folder has a file without an extension that is not a ZT image.
• Automatically mirrors the grid lines for sw and ne image files.
• Allows loading an entire set of frames simultaneously into an animation. (Madscientist did most of this work.)
• Allows saving larger images and larger animations.
• Allows moving the image by clicking buttons or using d/u/l/r keys on the rotation position screen, in addition to allowing the dragging.
• Allows adjusting rotation positions for individual frames as well as for a ZT image as a whole. (Madscientist did some of this work.) The window that allows adjusting rotation positions for individual frames also makes it easier to see how one frame changes to the next.
• Allows ZT image files to reduce in size.
• Allows negative offsets, down to -127, in rotation position adjustments.
• Created help buttons for the various windows.
• Added center pixels to the grid squares.
• Now adjusts the frame count as frames are added or deleted.
• Has the main window update its list when a ZT image file is saved in the "Editing frames" or "Fixing rotations" windows.
• Unselects any previously selected image when the reset button is pressed.
• Provides a way (via zoottest.bat) of seeing any unexpected error messages that are not shown by Zoot. This just provides an extra window. Hopefully there will not be any unexpected error messages, but this is provided just in case.
• Previously, Zoot showed animations by centering each individual frame. This often made the animation look like it was hopping around in Zoot, even when it did not hop around in ZT. Zoot now shows animations in a way similar to ZT. So if an animation hops around in ZT, it will hop around in Zoot. Similarly, if an image that is not zoomed hops around in Zoot, it will hop around in ZT. (A zoomed animation might still hop around, due to rounding in the zoom calculations.) This makes it easy to tell if individual frame positions need to be adjusted, without having to check in ZT.
• In addition to the grid outline with center pixels, there are other files to start Zoot that will show multicolored diamond, crosspatch, or cross grid patterns.
• The "Editing frames" and "Fixing rotations" windows can now be maximized.
• It will now show the frame number of any selected frame.
• It will now show as much of a selected frame in the "Editing frames" window as is possible.
• The readme.txt file was updated based on these additional changes and based on feedback.

Note: The Zoot footprint works differently in this version of Zoot than in the previous version of Zoot. You no longer swap the footprint values when you change views. So you would normally have the Zoot footprint match the object's footprint, but only use even number footprints. Also, to understand how to use this version of Zoot, there is a lot of information in the readme.txt and in the various Help buttons within Zoot.

[Jay]

Zoot Version 1.1 Source

No Image Available

Author: MadScientist (Creator and most important contributor)

Keywords: Utility

Date released: N/A

Updated: Version 1.1 added January 10, 2010 by Jay

Size: 218 KB

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description (by Jay at DG): This is for Java programmers. It contains the source code to Zoot version 1.1, in case you want to make changes to the program. If you make changes, please submit them to a staff member at the ZTCDD site (http://www.ztcdd.org/DD/index.php) so that the changes can be made available here at DG.

I would like to thank Madscientist for creating Zoot and for making the source code available. Even before the changes I added, to me Zoot is the most important utility to be created for Zoo Tycoon, even more important than APE itself. From my perspective, Madscientist will always be recognized as the creator and most important contributor of Zoot.

[Jay]

When using Zoot for the first time, it can be difficult to choose the proper starting folders for your projects. Zoot is very picky about that, because of the way Zoot and ZT find ".pal" files. Here is an example to help understand how to choose the proper starting folder. It is assumed that you already extracted the files from Zoot's ".zip" file and that you are using MS Windows.

1. Download the following elephantStatueExample.zip file. I used APE to create it from ZT's elephant statue. So its graphics are just copies of ZT's elephant statue.

2. Extract elephantStatueExample.ZTD from elephantStatueExample.zip.

3. Create an "elephantStatueExample" folder directly in C: drive. In order to keep things simple for now, do not put it inside any other folder.

4. Extract the entire contents of elephantStatueExample.ZTD into the elephantStatueExample folder. When you do this, the elephantStatueExample folder should have only 2 things in it: an "objects" folder and a "scenery" folder.

5. Go to where you extracted the files from the Zoot ".zip" file and run zoot.bat.

6. When Zoot starts, if you used Zoot before, it will probably be showing the last thing you were working on. In that case, in Zoot's main window, click the first icon, which is the one that looks like a folder and has the tooltip "Open a project" when the mouse cursor is over it.

7. In the "Open a project directory" window, click the "My Computer" icon on the left and double-click "C:" in the list that appears. Then click "elephantStatueExample" in the list that appears and click "Open".

8. The Zoot main window should now be showing "elephantStatueExample" as the first line, with "objects" as the second line and "scenery" as the third line. Click the "+" next to "objects" and "1f5e912b" should appear below "objects". Click the "+" next to "1f5e912b" and 7 more lines will appear. Click "+" next to "idle" and 9 more lines will appear.

9. Next to "se", there will be a tiny icon that looks like a painting. If that is gray, Zoot is not finding the ".pal" file for the "se" image. But if you followed these steps, that painting will be in color instead of gray. Click "se" and its image should appear on the right.

10. Click the fifth icon in the toolbar, which is the one that has "Fix rotations of the currently selected image" as its tooltip when the mouse cursor is over it. That will bring up another window where you can fix the rotation positions for the "se" image.


In the above steps, I suggested putting it directly in C: drive just to keep it simple. But that is not the way I usually use Zoot. I have a C:\ZT\zoot folder. So here are steps 3, 4, and 7 of what I would usually do:

...

3. Create an "elephantStatueExample" folder directly in the C:\ZT\zoot folder.

4. Extract the entire contents of elephantStatueExample.ZTD into the C:\ZT\zoot\elephantStatueExample folder. When you do this, the C:\ZT\zoot\elephantStatueExample folder should have only 2 things in it: an "objects" folder and a "scenery" folder.

...

7. In the "Open a project directory" window, click the "My Computer" icon on the left and double-click "C:" in the list that appears. Then double-click "ZT" in the list that appears, double-click "zoot" in the list that appears, click "elephantStatueExample" in the list that appears, and click "Open".

...


It is also possible to use C:\ZT\elephantStatueExample or D:\ZTwork\elephantStatueExample or other possibilities instead of C:\elephantStatueExample or C:\ZT\zoot\elephantStatueExample. But it is important how the project directory is selected inside Zoot. The project directory is usually the one that contains an objects or animals folder.