suggestions for playing older levels with level editor

[Alfonzo]

Good day to you at the TRLE community. I haven't been registered for very long (hours) but I have used forums on the internet before and my question is straightforward.

I've been playing levels for a while and they have always came with their own .exe file (many thanks to the person that came up with this idea). I'm interested in playing some of the older levels that need the level editor to play. I have used The Level Manager but; it only worked once and, since I mistakenly installed a level that didn't require the level editor, it refuses to play any level that I try to install. I must use a level editor to play.

What would be the best choice to use to play the older levels ? original TRLE or NGLE ?? Or is there a better one than either of these two ?
I've seen some videos on Youtube about how to use the level editor and I have searched other TR websites (other than this one) for tips.
I'm using Windows7, so I think that compatibility isn't much of an issue.
I've heard that NG level editor is a little buggy and you need some patience (sometimes) to use it. Is this really true ? Have they released a patch (or newer version) for NG level editor ??
Are there options that I don't know about ??

Thank you for your help and/or suggestions in advance. Alfonzo

[vimmers]

hi and welcome to our forum
right now people are working on all the levels you can download at trle.net
so all levels will be playable from the unzipped zip file
you can follow them here and see which 1 there are playable from zip
here viewtopic.php?f=33&t=26898

[Alfonzo]

Mmmmm..... Thank you vimmers this is some very useful information also. I will use it as a reference guide.

However, I believe that you misunderstand my question about using level editors to play older levels.

[Gerty]

I never used the Level manager.
Only thing I know about it that some older levels won't be playable due to bugs or due to a glitch when you use the Level Manager.
Vimmers just pointed out that all the levels will have their own EXE in a while, so you don't need the LE or the Level Manager anymore.

As for how to get the Level Manager for you to work, that I can't answer. Only thing I can come up with, uninstall and install the LE, then use the Level Manager again.
As said before: for playing older levels, in a while you don't need to install them the old fashioned way anymore.

[Bogey]

In the past, I always used Paolone's LevelManager (under Windows XP), mainly because of the built-in savegame manager. In almost all cases, it worked fine.
However, some very old levels only worked with the original WADs (not the revised ones), and some levels required manually copying a WAD and renaming it. The LevelManager could not handle these cases. The LevelManager should handle self-contained TR4 levels, which include an executable, so hopefully your problems are due to some exceptional circumstance. However, there are some self-contained non-TR4 levels and I don't know if the LevelManager can handle those. I would guess that it only works for TR4 levels.

There is a caveat with the Gold version of the LevelManager. The audio files in the bundled copy of Trle are in mono. That is, technically they are in stereo, but the left channel is just a copy of the right channel. However, installing the Gold version is the easiest way to go.

Currently, I do not use the LevelManager, though. I stopped because I needed to put the levels I played on a removable drive, and then, if I forgot to plug in the drive with the levels before starting the LevelManager, the configuration got screwed up, and it was rather awkward to fix it. I also do not have much time to play these days.

If you do not want to use the Levelmanager. I suggest using the TRLE distribution with the revised WADs. Possibly you can substitute the original tomb4.exe with one that supports widescreen resolutions. I think that the NGLE version does. On Windows XP, one needs a patched tomb4.exe anyway, to shorten the loading times. Instructions for installing levels can be found at http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=79178

[Dutchy]

If you do not want to use the Levelmanager. I suggest using the TRLE distribution with the revised WADs. Possibly you can substitute the original tomb4.exe with one that supports widescreen resolutions. I think that the NGLE version does. On Windows XP, one needs a patched tomb4.exe anyway, to shorten the loading times. Instructions for installing levels can be found at http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=79178

And that is exactly what they are doing over here as posted earlier by vimmers. Complete folders with all you need inside, patched exe's, etc etc

right now people are working on all the levels you can download at trle.net
so all levels will be playable from the unzipped zip file
you can follow them here and see which 1 there are playable from zip
here viewtopic.php?f=33&t=26898