Red from the Skinners has sent me a short tutorial on checking your skins for colormap problems. You know, that pink stuff (not pepto bismol hee hee) that shows up sometimes. It's in the tutorials section.

BrianL has just sent me a tutorial he wrote. It teaches you how to make curving pipes in your level. This tutorial was made mainly for JED users. Like always, the tutorial is in the tutorial section.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I am here, I've just been a little busy the past coupla-three days. I do have some pretty big editing news, which most of you probably know by now. Hey this deserves its own headline.

The ForceBuilder project may be reinstated, according to Mattias Welander. There's a whole big paragraph about why he decided to return on the homepage, so go there if ya wanna read it. Also, the FB message board is back in action, so you can go check dat out.

This tutorial teaches you how to use Keyframes to make a ship fly. The file is in the tutorials section.

I finished a tutorial on making basic enemy models. It is pretty difficult to understand unfortunatly:( It can be found in the tutorial section.

The JKedit homepage has just released JKedit 1.08 There are a lot of new features and bug fixes so head over there and start downloading. There is also a demo file to help you learn how to make doors and elevators which might be usefull to you. Here is the news from JKedits creator: "There is a new version of JkEdit 1.08. This version contains some important features for creating doors and elevators, as well as quite some important bug fixes. Also some new tutorials."

I am not quite sure what to write some tutorials about. If you have some ideas send them over to me at ev@wave.co.nz and I'll see what I can do.

Alexei Novikov of Code Alliance has put out an article on how to do OLE Scripting for JED. For all you programmers out there who know VBScript or JScript, this is a must read. With any luck I should have a script out soon.

Code Alliance has just updated their JED Tips document so be sure to read up on the new changes. It can be read here.

The folks over at Code Alliance have put together a pack of generic COGs to be used in JED. Go download Jed Cog Pack ver 0.9 now!

Antony Espindola has written a tutorial on creating goals (mission objectives) in Jedi Knight and MotS. It is aimed towards beginning coggers, and can be viewed here.

Look for that information put into action as soon as I finish up the review for Antony's Single Player MotS mission. You can view a preview of that upcoming level at The Vault.

Terrafusion is a site that normally does level reviews, etc, for Quake and Quake 2 maps. They are also the people who contributed to our articles section with the Questions/Answers article (you can read that one here). They have just posted an interview with Dennis "headshot" Kaltwasser, who is a talented DM level editor. Take a look here.

I have made a decision on who will be taking over my position as webmaster here. The head-honcho will be Hedge who is known for his popular MotS CTF mod, as well as his work at The Sith Temple.

He will be joined by two new co-webmasters, Overkill and EvanC. Thank you to everyone who applied.

The FTP passwords and information will be out to these guys by the end of the week, so expect them to take over by this weekend. Thank you to all the loyal visitors of this site, I've had a great time. I'll still be around on the message boards and such, and I'll still be writing articles and tutorials, so don't worry.

The ever-busy Heinz Hogel has updated his Rotating Doors tutorial to include MotS support. There is a totally new version, so be sure to check out the tutorials page. View the Old Version or the New Version.

Well, we've posted a lot of tutorials and such in the news lately, but unfortunatly not many of them have made it to the tutorials section. I think we are all caught up now, but if anyone finds a tutorial that we've announced and not posted there, please let me know.

Due to lack of time and interest, I won't be able to keep The Massassi Temple open any longer. I would like to see someone capable take the position of head webmaster over. I would like someone knowledgable in html and JK editing (the latter is not as important as the former). We have a great staff of tutorial writers, as well as a great co-webmaster. Unfortunatly, 8t88 has The Vault to worry about, so won't be able to take over full time.

In case anyone is wondering what my future plans are, I will tell you (stop reading right now if you don't care :-) I will continue to write tutorials and articles for this site, as well as keep up with some editing news for JediKnight.net. I am also very involved with an awesome soon-to-be announced editing group. I just don't have enough time or energy to devote to webmastering a site any longer.

If you feel that you would like to take over, please send me an email. Thanks.

You heard (well, read) right! The Vault is officially open! Things are running anything but smoothly, but they're picking up. Of course, I could never have done this without Brian's help. He was the one who came up with the idea and got the thing rolling. Big thanks go to my staff at The Vault who I am constantly adding to, but I would like to individually thank Brian, GMS_Slug, and my new pal inpheaux for getting out our fist articles. I couldn't have done it without you. So, if you have a level you want reviewed and brutalized (just kidding) send it our way.

For all you aspiring level authors out there, Jereth Kok of Code Alliance has released version 1.1 of TrajJedi, a program for creating .KEY files for objects moving along a pre-programmed trajectory. The latest version of TrajJedi can be downloaded here.

Just thought I'd share some more info about cleaving and deleting, so I wrote an article on it. It can also be found by clicking on Features on the sidebar.

As you can probably tell, I had the itch to write today, so I've worked up two more articles. These two discuss the basics of Jedi Knight level editing, so if you already are an accomplished editor, there is no need to read them.

If you are wondering what Jedi Knight levels are made up of, and want some general knowledge, please take a look. I think that if this kind of info was out there when I first started, my life would have been a lot easier.

Lesson 1 deals with the building blocks of Jedi Knight levels. Sectors, surfaces, vertices, textures, 3do's, sprites, cogs, etc. It gives very basic definitions, plus background information.

Lesson 2 deals with sector and surface flags, lighting, adjoining, and the rules regarding sectors.

Both articles relate to BOTH editors, Jed and JkEdit, so if you are a beginner, or are looking into creating your own level for the first time, check these out.

A couple of months ago, I reported on an article that was published in the [cough] paper version of Computer Gaming World. It was an article written by a guy called Levelord, who has worked on games like Duke 3D and one of the more popular Quake Mission Packs. Anyway, they have published that article online. It deals with a lot of interesting 3d level design concepts, so take a look.

JediKnight.net is reporting on a new cog writing program that has been released. Geniuses and Company are the ones releasing it, and you can download it here.

The JK Developer Channel has posted a new tutorial on creating custom .mat files.

They also have a short tutorial on MotS cameras.

Michael Friderichsen has updated the help file in his ColorMap Creator. Download it here.

8t88, my co-webmaster here at Massassi, is about to unveil a new level review site. Called The Vault, this site will not only have level reviews, but also previews of upcoming levels from well known level authors, and interviews with the various editing teams scattered around the internet. We need for all you level authors to submit levels to either 8t88 or myself. There are a few questions that MUST be answered in the email before we post a review:

• If this is a JK level, is there anything from MotS (textures, 3do's, cogs, etc) in this level?
  Note: Answering YES to this question will result in your level being rejected
• Have you included ALL information required in a Readme file?
  Note: Answering NO to this question will result in your level being rejected

With this site, we are striving to become THE place you go for level reviews. The only way to start is by getting levels submitted BY you level authors. Expect a release sometime this week with 2 reviews, an interview with the folks over at Vortex To Darkness, and a preview of an upcoming MotS Single Player level.

Well, you've probably noticed that this site hasn't been updated in a few days. I've been very busy, I just got my JK cd's back (had left them in Washington), plus as you can see I've done some work on the site. I was trying to cut down on load time, and also help out the folks with a lower resolution setting. If you have any input, or would like to submit a logo (replacement for the temp one up there), please email me.

On the same note, there may be a few broken links and missing pages still lurking around. Be sure to email me with those too. Also, we have some tutorials we had announced in news, but never posted in the tutorials section. Expect those to be posted by the end of this weekend.

A few days ago, the JkEdit Homepage released a new version of JkEdit. I've checked it out, and the author has really been putting some work into this program. Now, you can "split" (basically like a cleave in Jed) surfaces. This allows for some more complex architecture -- plus it's VERY easy to use.

I had written a few articles on JkEdit, and never really gave them a permanent home. I still don't know where I'll put them in the future, but if you want to read all the stuff I have on JkEdit, click here.

Note that there is one more added there too, an article on Negative Space. Go take a look.

JediKnight.net realeased the second version of Master Zev's Saber Tutorial. It shows you how to go about creating your own saber.

Ole Thomasen has been hard at work adding new features and bug fixes to JkEdit. You can find the new version at the JkEdit Homepage, but here's the info:

Version 1.04 of JkEdit has some new features:

• Several selected linked vertices can now be moved simultaneously
• A linked surface can now be moved

Version 1.04 of JkEdit has a few bug fixes:

• A crash could occur after extruding a surface
• Moving a vertex could result in wrong texture coordinate calculation
• The initial values in the Texture Coordinate dialog were wrong
• The file sphere.x was missing

Well, 8t88 has been keeping this one from me for a while, but here is a small text file that explains how to edit BM's (those are the background screens that show when you access menu's in JK). Thanks to Shakahn for writing up that document.

The channel has been pretty full lately, but it seems that we don't get many new faces. I think it's becuase if you don't happen to catch the news on the day I announce it, you miss out. So, I've compiled a set of instructions, and put a link at the top of the page. If you need any editing questions answered, or of you just want to hang out and type at some fellow editors, give us a visit.

I was looking around the site, and found some things that needed to be worked on. The Links section has been updated, there is a new screen for contacting the webmasters, the Site Map has been updated, and as I mentioned above, I added those Chat Instructions. Oh, and now there is an Archived News link. All the old news isn't up yet, but we have it saved, and are working on getting it there. There are still a few tutorials lying around that haven't been posted, but we are working as hard as we can to get them there.

I was making my rounds when I noticed that there was an update on the JK Gangstas page. This update includes information on completion status, new force powers, level screenshots, and skin screenshots. If you weren't excited about this project before, you will be.

I read over on WJG That Red, of the Skinners, has found out that JKMAG has been using his skins without his permission. Looks as if it states in his readme's that his skins are NOT to be used without permission. I have to say that this is disappointing. I'd think that people are ethical enough to not use people's work without permission, but I guess not.

PLEASE, if you are going to use other people's work in your mods, give them credit, but most importantly, ask for permission.

Once again Alexei Novikov of the Code Alliance has updated his .plan with some great info on Jed.

JED testing coming along. Not many bugs so far. Contrary to what it might seem, it's a bad thing... That just means the bugs are good at hiding.

Anyway, I'll do it the same way as with JED 0.5. After JED 0.8 (that's what it'll be) is released, in a week or two I'll release another version fixing whatever bugs found by everyone using it during that time. That's be 0.81 or something.

That brings me to the old topic - reporting bugs. When you report bugs, remember this - I can never fix bugs that I can't reproduce. To be able to reproduce a bug, I must be able to repeat what you were doing. So, when you encounter a bug, please try to find a case where you can reliably reproduce the problem. Describe what you've done as precisely as you can. Check if it happens on every level or just one specific level. Etc, etc. Most important - after you've posted the bug report, answer the questions I might ask. This way there's a much better chance taht I'll find and fix the bug.

If you have news to send the Star Wars Editing Zone, please use the following email address: sweznews@hotmail.com.

Author Michael Friderichsen of Code Alliance has released his latest version of CMPCreator: Version 1.2. New in this release are:

Transparency tables calculation

Added "Calculate Transparency" option

Download it here.

StealthJedi over at Code Alliance has made a small update to the Editing Jed's Custom Resource Lists tutorial. It can still be viewed here.

Darkjedi.com, home of Code Alliance, has over gone a huge graphics overhall to the site. This is only experimental so if you don't like it chances are you won't be suffering for long.