Opening Old BannedStory Projects (.bsproj)

First: keep your original file

Copy your old .bsproj somewhere safe before you start. BannedStory 4 never writes over it, but when you save, the editor downloads a new file in its own modern format, also ending in .bsproj. The original Flash BannedStory cannot open that new file, and as compatibility improves you may want to import the untouched original again later.

Open Project or Import Project?

File > Open Project (Ctrl + O)

Replaces the current scene with the file. If the canvas already has layers, you are asked to confirm first: "Loading a project will erase all layers and images. Do you want to proceed?"

File > Import Project

Adds the file's layers and groups to the current scene and keeps what is already there. It does not ask for confirmation.

Both commands accept only .bsproj files, and both work with old Flash projects and new BannedStory 4 projects alike; the editor tells them apart by looking inside the file. A few details are worth knowing before you click:

• Open Project clears the scene as soon as loading starts. If the file then turns out to be damaged, the old scene is already gone, so save your current work first.
• Import Project also takes the background color and zoom from the imported file. Old Flash projects carry no zoom, so the view returns to 100%.
• Opening or importing starts a fresh Undo history. You cannot undo an import, so save before importing into a scene you care about.

What you see while it loads

A "Loading project..." window walks through four stages: reading the file, "Checking project data...", "Loading asset catalog...", and "Matching layers to assets...". You can press Cancel during these stages. The last stage, "Loading project assets...", downloads the actual art with a progress bar and cannot be cancelled.

Old projects refer to items by their game paths, and the editor matches those paths against the asset versions you ticked on the Versions tab at startup. When an item exists in more than one version, the newest ticked version's art is used.

What carries over from the Flash version

For each layer, the importer restores its name and visibility, its position, scale, rotation, and skew, the body and face state and frame, the Animate and Animate Face settings, Auto Flat Hair and pointed ears, and hidden Inventory items. Chat balloons keep their text, tiles, arrow position, and flips. Blend modes, smooth scaling, the five filter types (bevel, blur, color matrix, glow, and drop shadow), color adjustments, and the canvas background color come across too. Imported pictures and custom faces are rebuilt from the pixels stored inside the file.

Characters, pictures, chat balloons, and name tags have been checked against the most real project files so far. Pets, effects, map pieces, and filters load whenever their assets can be matched, but they have seen fewer real-world files, which is exactly where shared projects help. One setting is not restored: a per-item choice of game client from the Flash version.

BS4 and BS5 files

Flash projects begin with either a "BS4" or a "BS5" signature. Both store the same kind of layer data. BS5 files can also carry Face Mixer custom faces inside them, while BS4 files cannot. You don't need to know which one you have: the editor checks automatically.

Reading the warnings

If something could not be matched, a message starting with "WARNING!!" appears once the layers have been matched, before the art finishes downloading. Press OK and the rest of the project carries on loading. Only the first problem is shown, even if several layers were affected, so look over the whole scene afterwards.

Legacy layer "..." skipped 2 unavailable asset(s): ...

Those items were not found in the asset versions you selected. The rest of the layer still loads; a character might, for example, appear without one pair of shoes. If every item in the layer was skipped, the layer stays in the list but draws nothing. The message lists the missing paths, which is very useful in a bug report.

Legacy layer "..." contains no supported asset URLs.

The layer's saved data had no item references the importer could read, so there was nothing to look up. The layer stays in the list but draws nothing.

Legacy layer 3 has unsupported asset type ...

The layer is of a kind the importer does not handle yet, so it was left out.

Layer 3 asset "..." was not found in the loaded catalog.

The general matching step could not find an item. Check that all versions were ticked at startup.

This BannedStory project file seems to be corrupted!

The file could not be read at all. It may be damaged, not a .bsproj, or over the size limits (128 MB, or more than 10,000 layers). This message closes by itself after a few seconds.

Some items are genuinely missing for now: a few pieces from China- and Thailand-region clients and one Japanese name tag style are not in any published asset set yet. If every item in a project suddenly shows as unavailable, the asset server may simply have been unreachable; reload the page and try again before reporting it.

After loading: check, fix, and save

1. Click through the Layer Panel. A layer that draws nothing, or a character missing an item, matches the warning you saw.
2. Replace missing items by hand: select the character and pick a similar item from the gallery.
3. Press Save Project (Ctrl + S) and keep the downloaded file next to your original.

A project in which nothing could be matched cannot be saved: the editor answers "The canvas can't be empty!". In that case keep the original and report it as described below.

Sending us a project that doesn't load right

Real files are the fastest way to improve compatibility, and we would love to see yours. There are two ways to share one:

• Post it on the BannedStory 4 community tracker on GitHub. Posting needs a GitHub account.
• In the editor, use Help > Report a Bug.... Describe what looks wrong and paste a shareable download link to the original .bsproj into the description.

The bug reporter automatically attaches a screenshot of your view and a copy of the scene as it is now in the editor. That copy is the modern version, not your original Flash file, and very large scenes are sent without it, which is why the link to the original matters.