Mii Editor Blog

One of the most common issues received from the contact/bug report form is that the Mii Editor screen is Flashing. This happens when your version of the Flash player is not new enough to support the editor (this is Flash's default reaction to such an occurence - as expected) - this including trying to use the editor from the Wii since it's browser does not have a new enough version. I try to indicate in many places, including the contact form, which version of the Flash player is required. Granted, I don't expect everyone to know what version they are using (though the main page has a link to find out) so I mentioned this behavior in th FAQ. I guess I should have known better since a lot of people don't check it and seem to just send off the form anyway. It's human nature.

Anyway, that led me to pull up my pants and take action. What I've done is implemented a catch screen which should now prevent the Flashing should an older version of the Flash player be detected along with a link to the page where the newest version can be downloaded. Ideally, this is something I should have done earlier, but as with the rest of us, I didn't want to bother ;)

Labels: contact, error, fix, gui, links, update, website, wii

I've implemented a super high-tech spam prevention device in the contact/bug report form on the Mii Editor site in hopes to minimize the massive amounts of spam I'm getting from it now. How does it work? Just deselect the "I am a Spambot" checkbox and you're good. The thinking here is that a spambot will want to normally check these kinds of things and by unchecking it, you're saying you're not a bot!

If this doesn't work, I'll think of something else. I'm not going to do anything too complicated like a captcha or anything. I'm just hoping to minimize the spam with a simple deterrent.

Update: It seems the checkbox helped a little... but not all that much.

Labels: contact, update, website

Just updated a slightly redesigned version of the main site. Content is now centered and the tabs have a new look and feel. There was some other formatting and added as well but nothing too terribly drastic.

One thing in particular that is new is the new dynamic embedding of the Flash content via JavaScript. Hopefully this doesn't screen anything up and, really, it should do more good than harm.

Also added is a link to download the Mii Editor (as the AIR app) and a link to a yet-to-be-written guide.

Labels: air, guide, update, website

I forgot to re-compile the View Mii Flash SWF for the latest batch of updates so it was looking all crazy. That should be fixed now.

Labels: beta, fix, update, website

Earlier I received an email informing me that a Wii console will recognize a Mii as being a specific Mii (and thereby replacing other instances of itself) not just by the Mii ID number, but also the Wii ID number. Only when both of those match will a Mii replace another Mii on the console. Before I had assumed it was only the Mii ID number.

Thank you Shannon for pointing that out. I will update the FAQ.

Labels: faq, update, website, wii

I took a break from doing visual improvements on character rendering and have turned focus instead to the XML. The idea behind the XML was to create a human-readable version of the Mii format which could be edited in simple text editors and uploaded back in the Mii Editor interface. I also wanted the XML to function as a file format that could support multiple Mii definitions.

The current format for the XML now supports that - more than one Mii can be placed in a single XML file. This, however, has not yet been implemented into the Mii Editor beta. So far all I have is an example (with a DTD and XSL for styling):

• example.xml

Right-click and download to see the XML, or simply click it to open it in your browser with the XSL applied (you can also view source from that to see the XML).

The XSL transformation includes a run-down of Mii character properties, a preview using the "view" Flash movie, and a link back the editor to edit it directly. Unfortunately, due to IE's active content issues, all previews will appear black until you click on them... why black, I don't know. The imagery should technically still show. Clicking should only be required for interactivity... but this is IE we're talking about so who knows (not me at least, not yet, but I will look into it).

I guess it should be noted that the preview is generated by a hex string coded into the XML by the editor (the same one used in URLs). If other properties in the XML are changed, the preview will not reflect those changes unless that hex string is updated as well.

... oh yeah, the format is not 100% complete either. I still want to transform type values to match their location in the interface. For instance the first type on the first page of the hair tab in the Wii has a value other than 0 - its like 16 or something. I want to make the XML values match what is more naturally assumed - the first being 0, the second 1, etc.

Update: I narrowed the black preview in IE to be a result of using 100% to size the SWF object. I just hardcoded in the size now and it seems to work fine.

Labels: links, upcoming, update, website, xml

If you've tried using the editor at MiiEditor.com and have onyl gotten a series of Flashing screens, you probably don't have an updated version of the Flash player installed. Flash Player 9.0.28.0 is required.

I have updated the F.A.Q. and included a detection script (using JavaScript) to warn anyone that might not have a compatible player. Either way, the editor will still try to load. In fact, you should actually be able to use most of the features with older versions of 9 (prior to r28). I think the current restriction only applies to features unique to 9.0.28.0 that the Load Mii feature makes use of.

Labels: beta, faq, update, website

I added a new page which will show just a Mii character without any of the Mii Editor interface. This uses the same URL format as the URL provided by the editor (hexadecimal URL explained earlier) but does so through an alternate page, view.php. Example:

http://www.miieditor.com/view.php?mii=45e20052...

This can be used to provide a larger preview of your Mii (as this page scales with the browser). Additionally, I would like to eventually be able to provide a SWF that anyone can download and use with their own pages to show off their Mii. This, however, I won't provide until character rendering is more complete.

Labels: gui, hex, links, update, website

I created a new Known Issues page for the Mii Editor site. This lists the current problems currently associated with the editor. This includes both interface and character rendering issues, though I think the most important are definitely character rendering at this point in time and those are the issues I will focus my attention on.

Labels: beta, upcoming, website

So my trip to Seattle was canceled. This means I might get more done this week than I thought.

Speaking of which, I managed to add a text field at the bottom of the editor that shows the current character's Mii URL. Using this URL will load that character directly into the editor when it's used.

Labels: alpha, delay, gui, hex, links, update, website

As mentioned before, links with hexadecimal information could be used to dynamically load Mii characters into the editor. This is now working. Though there is no way to directly generate the url from the editor (yet) I am working with http://www.miiplaza.net to have miis within their database link directly to the Mii editor in this fashion. Example:

http://www.miieditor.com/?mii=33aa00730074006500760065005f006f0000000000006458807bd2b3c261e08040002fa0014066744089a4a01440b8af26670c8a250400730074006500760065005f006f000000000000

Labels: alpha, hex, links, update, website

The Mii Editor has support for reading hexadecimal strings as Mii data. Though not a format you'd normally work with, it has it's applications. For example, using the hex data for a Mii (148 characters), you could potentially send your entire Mii character - thanks to its tiny format - to miieditor.com in the form of a url. Example (currently non-functional):

http://www.miieditor.com/?mii=276a0054007200650076006f00720000000000000000763b80706050c2010203000067e09980ee94188b86601450788c008a008a250400730065006e006f00630075006c006100720000

Ideally, this will make it easy to share Miis with a friend simply by sending them a URL.

Implementing this into the current editor shouldn't be too hard, but I want to finish the UI first and work on some more improvements to the character rendering.

Labels: hex, upcoming, website

Recently I added a Frequently Asked Questions section to MiiEditor.com. It's far from complete, but I just added a new Q&A regarding using the Mii Editor on the Wii. Can you? The answer is no. The Wii's opera browser uses Flash Player 7 while the Mii Editor uses 9. I had no intentions maintaining Wii browser compatibility going into this and there's only a small chance I might make a Wii version. Why would you need to if the Wii has it's own editor? (OK, well I can think of a few reasons but 90% of the features my Mii Editor uses won't work on Flash 7 so it seemed mostly pointless).

Labels: faq, update, website