Advanced SHP Editor (ASE)

A high-performance, professional-grade web-based editor for Westwood Studios' SHP (Format 80) sprite format, as used in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2.

Experiment & Vision: This project is part of an exploration into "AI-Vibe Coding" methodologies using the Antigravity IDE. It was built to fulfill the need for a modern, open-source, and cross-platform alternative to aging legacy tools, ensuring the C&C modding scene remains accessible on any operating system. Developed by FS-21 (C&C Reloaded modder and lead developer).

🚀 Key Features

🎨 Professional Layer-Based Editing

• Per-Frame Multi-Layer System: The editor treats every individual frame as a complex composition. You can work with multiple layers per frame, allowing for non-destructive editing and advanced sprite assembly.
• Layer Groups & Blending: For each frame organize your workflow with layer groups, visibility toggling, and alpha-blending modes, bringing a professional image editor UX (similar to Photoshop or GIMP) to the SHP format.
• Advanced Toolkit: Includes Pencil, Brush (Circular/Square), Spray, Bucket Fill (with tolerance), and Magic Wand selection—all optimized for multi-layer interaction.
• Canvas Resizing: Real-time canvas expansion or shrinking with high-quality pixel-art resampling algorithms including Smart (Area Average), Nearest Neighbor, xBR 4x, HQ4x, OmniScale, xBRZ, and ScaleFX, perfect for scaling sprites or adapting them to different game resolutions.

🌓 Shadow Management (C&C Specialized)

• Shadow Automation: Automated tools to fix invalid shadow pixels.
• Cross-Game Conversion: Seamlessly convert shadow formats between Tiberian Sun (TS) and Red Alert 2 (RA2).

🎞️ Frame Management

• Split File View: Dual-pane interface to transfer frames between two different SHP files using drag-and-drop.
• Versatile Views: Toggle between Mosaic, Strip, and Pair-Strip (Normal/Shadow) views.

🤖 Specialized Modding Tools

• Infantry & Vehicle Sequence Managers: High-level tools to manage and preview complex unit animations. Automatically generates and exports correct sequence data for art.ini and artmd.ini (Yuri's Revenge), including frame ranges, timings, and action triggers.

📐 Palette Management

• Versatile Selection: Integrated support for all game palettes, including unit, building, and animation palettes.
• Persistence: Features a sophisticated Palette Management Menu where your imported palettes are kept between sessions using browser Local Storage.

⚙️ Configuration & Vanilla Mode

By default, the editor includes specialized presets and palettes for C&C Reloaded (a Yuri's Revenge mod by FS-21). If you prefer a standard/vanilla experience:

1. Open the generated advanced_shp_editor.html or the index.html of the PWA folder in a text editor.
2. Search for let CnCReloadedMode = true; near the top of the file.
3. Change it to let CnCReloadedMode = false;.
4. Save and reload the editor. This will hide all Reloaded-specific scaling presets and palette categories.

📦 Distribution & Offline Use

• Self-Contained Build: The build.py script generates a single, standalone file named advanced_shp_editor.html. This file is 100% portable and works entirely offline without any external dependencies.
• PWA Ready: The project includes a dedicated PWA/ directory with a manifest and service worker. You can host this on any web service (GitHub Pages, Vercel, etc.) to enable "Install as App" functionality on your desktop.

🛠️ Compatibility & Technology

• Performance First: 100% Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+). Optimized for speed and large file handling.
• Best Experience: Use Chrome or Edge for the full suite of features, including native file system integration.
• Browser Notes: While mostly functional in Firefox, certain features related to PWA installation and local storage persistence for a "native-like" experience may be limited or incompatible due to browser engine differences.

🌐 Internationalization (i18n)

The editor is fully localized and supports multiple languages, making it accessible to the global C&C community. Supported languages include:

• English (EN)
• Spanish (ES)
• Russian (RU)
• German (DE)
• French (FR)
• Chinese (Simplified & Traditional)

🔨 How to Build

Run the automated build script:

python build.py

This single command generates:

• Build/advanced_shp_editor.html: The complete, standalone single-file editor (100% portable and offline).
• Build/PWA/: Progressive Web App deployment files (index.html, manifest.json, sw.js).
• Build/Advanced-SHP-Editor.exe: Native portable Windows desktop executable (~2.9 MB) powered by Tauri v2.

🖥️ Desktop Executable Prerequisites (Optional)

To build the native desktop .exe locally, you need the Rust & Cargo toolchain installed on your machine:

• Official Rust installer site: https://rustup.rs/ (or rust-lang.org/tools/install)
• Direct download: rustup-init.exe (Windows 64-bit)

Note: If Rust/Cargo is not installed on your system, build.py automatically detects it, prints an informative message with download instructions, and proceeds seamlessly to generate the standalone HTML and PWA bundles without errors. You can also explicitly skip desktop compilation at any time with:

python build.py --no-desktop

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Created for the C&C Modding community.

📜 Legal Disclaimer

Command & Conquer (including Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, and Yuri's Revenge) is a trademark or registered trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. This project is an unofficial, community-driven toolset and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Electronic Arts. It is developed for educational and modding preservation purposes.