[TOOL] X4 Sector Creator

[Venomaus]

Hello all,

I've created a simple user-friendly tool to help modders and normal users create/expand their galaxy as they wish.
The tool current consist of the following features:

- Cluster creation (placement & visualization on map)
- Sector creation (up to 3 per cluster for now)
- Gate creation between custom & basegame sectors (dragging + rotating)
- Region creation (dragging + resizing + ability to fully choose what is inside the region)
- Station creation
- Jobs / Factories creation
- Custom Factions creation
- Possibility to create a complete custom universe if you wish
- Auto-detect new versions and will show a popup if new version available
- Easily edit each component by double clicking on them (clusters, sectors, gates, regions)
- Detect when you have connections with DLC sectors and will add dependency to content.xml automatically
- Export/Import configuration (to continue working on your changes later)
- Export to XML (creates a mod folder with all the required files, it can be directly put in extensions folder and run)

The tool can be downloaded on the github, its completely open-source. Licensed under GNU 2.0.
https://github.com/Ven0maus/X4SectorCreator/releases

If there are any issues, bugs or you have feedback please feel welcome to open a new issue on the github.

[ChemODun]

Impressive!

Light and simple!

P.S. Only one thing - may be it will be good to have in parallel "one file" build, with

Code: Select all

--self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true

[Venomaus]

Impressive!

Light and simple!

P.S. Only one thing - may be it will be good to have in parallel "one file" build, with

Code: Select all

--self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true

Thanks! Thats a good one, i'll keep that in mind for the next release!

[Venomaus]

Release 1.0.8

Added

Code: Select all

- Support for moving, removing, and editing vanilla clusters and sectors
    (Support for modifying vanilla gate connections will come in a later update)
- Validation for removing shared region definitions
- Option to disable all storyline content, including DLC storyline content
- Warning message upon opening the tool if the screen's DPI setting isn't set to 100%
- Various extra validation steps to prevent issues and improve clarity
- More support for custom galaxy mode, including:
    - A custom gamestart that removes all other gamestarts
    - Automatic disabling of all storyline content (including DLC) to prevent log errors
    - Removal of all spawned stations/objects in god.xml to prevent log errors
    - Removal of all AI jobs in jobs.xml to prevent log errors

Improved

Code: Select all

- Sector map now remembers the last position and zoom level
- Items are now sorted properly for easier configuration
- Layout adjustments for improved readability and usability

Fixed

Code: Select all

- No longer generates unnecessary "empty" XML files if no changes are required
- Releases are now self-contained, including .NET dependencies in the executable

[Venomaus]

Release 1.0.9

Added

Code: Select all

- Support for creating gate connections between vanilla sectors
- Support for deleting gate connections between vanilla sectors
- Gates and their connections are now visualized on the sector map
- Highway gates are shown in a slightly darker color than the other gate connections
- Added an extra option to toggle on/off gate connections on the sector map
- Hyperion pack storylines are now also disabled as part of the disable option

Improved

Code: Select all

Added all custom sectors as "known" in the custom galaxy gamestart
Sectors in the Kingdom End cluster are now re-aligned to fit the base game alignment

Fixed

Code: Select all

Removing a connection or region, now properly selects the previous item in the list

[Venomaus]

Release 1.1.0

Added

Code: Select all

- Added option on Cluster creation to be able to manually determine where each sector is positioned within the cluster (auto positioning by default)
- Added check on xml generation that all sectors within a cluster are in a valid position

Improved

Code: Select all

- Sector offset is no longer exported into json but a "placement" type instead. Offset is calculated automatically.
- Improved sector orientation for multi-clusters such as avarice, saturn, kingdom end and others to match X4 map.

Fixed

Code: Select all

- Fixed Export Config bug breaking the tool when a vanilla gate was removed
- Fixed wrong gate deletion when you had 2 or more gates in the sector pointing to the same sector causing the tool to break

[NitramAkloh]

Holy sh*t... This is exatly that kind of tool that I have been looking for a long while. I'll trying it soon. Already many thanks!

[Venomaus]

Release 1.1.1

Improved

Code: Select all

- Improved rendering performance of the sector map
- Reduced the size of export configuration files drastically
- Faction logic value is now by default set properly for some vanilla clusters like heretic's end and others

Fixed

Code: Select all

- Newly added sectors in vanilla clusters are now properly exported and imported
- Newly added sectors in vanilla clusters now have their XML properly generated
- Some dlc cluster visual backgrounds didn't work before, these should be fixed (tides of avarice, timelines, hyperion, kingdom end)
- Fixed placement of some sectors in multi-cluster not properly being set on xml export

[Venomaus]

Release 1.1.2

Fixed

Code: Select all

- Fixed occassional crash when trying to adjust placement of sector inside a cluster with auto-placement option disabled
- Fixed crash on missing key when opening map after moving some vanilla clusters around
- Fixed issue in Generate XML not generating the correct galaxy file for some DLC vanilla clusters.
- Fixed knownspace property value not being lowercase in Gamestarts.xml causing errors in logfiles to be generated (custom galaxy only)

[Venomaus]

Release 1.1.3

Added

Code: Select all

- You can now right-click a cluster on the sector map to move it to another location

Fixed

Code: Select all

- Cluster positions are no longer being overwritten when importing json configuration with many cluster movements

[Caldari Navy]

Absolutely stunning stuff .
Just is there any way how to chose background visuals of clusters from mods ? Im talking about skyboxes

Other than that the program is my dream fullfilment just need change skyboxes from one mod .

Btw you legend

[Venomaus]

Absolutely stunning stuff .
Just is there any way how to chose background visuals of clusters from mods ? Im talking about skyboxes

Other than that the program is my dream fullfilment just need change skyboxes from one mod .

Btw you legend

If you mean changing the cluster background of a galaxy/cluster that comes from another mod, then no its not possible via the tool.
You will have to create your own diff on the correct cluster, which can be complicated for a non-modder.
It's not something I can easily support in the tool either. There are quite some complexities that come with it.

[NitramAkloh]

And what about creating new ones? I'm not sure if there is a way to define own backgrounds somewhere in the tool's JSON files.

[Caldari Navy]

I mean uf u can include mods like dlc bothing more nothing special just like you change in ur tool sector so you would be abble to choose from mod sector

[Venomaus]

And what about creating new ones? I'm not sure if there is a way to define own backgrounds somewhere in the tool's JSON files.

This is even more complex, creating your own backgrounds requires to include a bunch of base game assets which would increase the executable size by a lot
which is something I don't want to do. + all the interfaces required for the dozens of options and ways to customize the backgrounds is crazy work. But there are tutorials on how to "customize" and add your own backgrounds.
Take a look here https://pastebin.com/5VdtWMLb at "Part 3" and check all the assets and extra diffs required, its really not that simple and straightforward to support this and quite complex too.
I leave this up to the user / modder to do this custom outside of the tool.

[NitramAkloh]

You're right. It's too complex to build a "background designer". But the pastebin link is very helpful. Many thanks!

Regarding my question: Is there still a way to define my own background visual preset in the sector creator dialog? After I created the regarding asset files of course.

[Venomaus]

You're right. It's too complex to build a "background designer". But the pastebin link is very helpful. Many thanks!

Regarding my question: Is there still a way to define my own background visual preset in the sector creator dialog? After I created the regarding asset files of course.

No, you'll have to select one of the vanilla background options and then once you have generated the mod files
You'll have to change it in the clusters xml files where needed it looks something like:

Code: Select all

<connection ref="content">
    <macro>
        <component connection="space" ref="cluster.BackgroundVisualMapping" />
    </macro>
</connection>

Normally each cluster has this connection where the "cluster.BackgroundVisualMapping" is the one you selected in the tool.
That will have to be replaced to point to your new background mapping, (based on those asset files that need to be included in the mod)
I haven't tried this yet, but it should be something like this.

[Caldari Navy]

You're right. It's too complex to build a "background designer". But the pastebin link is very helpful. Many thanks!

Regarding my question: Is there still a way to define my own background visual preset in the sector creator dialog? After I created the regarding asset files of course.

No, you'll have to select one of the vanilla background options and then once you have generated the mod files
You'll have to change it in the clusters xml files where needed it looks something like:

Code: Select all

<connection ref="content">
    <macro>
        <component connection="space" ref="cluster.BackgroundVisualMapping" />
    </macro>
</connection>

Normally each cluster has this connection where the "cluster.BackgroundVisualMapping" is the one you selected in the tool.
That will have to be replaced to point to your new background mapping, (based on those asset files that need to be included in the mod)
I haven't tried this yet, but it should be something like this.

Amen to this finally i got it thanks man !! Its exactly what i need

[Caldari Navy]

Using 1.2 version just noticed Xenon Defence station dont have defence station ICON and dont capture system only have factory icon is that normal ? Other races are ok just xenon defence station seems off

[Venomaus]

Using 1.2 version just noticed Xenon Defence station dont have defence station ICON and dont capture system only have factory icon is that normal ? Other races are ok just xenon defence station seems off

This issue has been fixed in 1.2.1 which I have just released, thanks for the feedback!