The Mediapool

The Mediapool contains all graphics, sounds and musicfiles of your project. For a better handling of your mediafiles you can create folders with the Folder-Button below. So you can add files directly into these folders.
Important : When you add files to your project they actually remain where they are on the harddisc and will not be copied. First when you create your final game all mediafiles will be packed together and copied in one file.

To move a project from one PC to another you can use the "Export" function. With that function you create a single file (adz) that contains all gamedata and mediafiles. This file can be imported again on another PC.

Choose the format :
- For all Room-Backgroundimages you should take JPGs. For everything that has transparent areas take GIFs or PNGs. Remember that PNGs have better quality but are much bigger in filesize. PNGs can also contain nice alphablending effects.
- For all Soundeffects and Speechsamples i recommend OGG-Files with 32Kbit and Mono. With that format the files are very small and the quality is good enough.
- As Music you should use compressed module tracks (mo3). The Tool that compresses Modules can be downloaded at the BASS Homepage. This Tool compresses all Samples within a module to Ogg or MP3 Files.
If you have old Midifiles you wanna use, there's a tool you'll get on the same page, that transforms Midis into the XM Format.
- For Videos and Flashmovies you can use all Codecs installed on your system. That means you should use only codecs that exists on the players system. If you wanna use something like DivX then all players of your game need that codec too. My Tip : SWF with FLV Movies in it or WMV7.

In the editor you can drag&drop all images directly on your objects, characters. ect. Sounds can be dropped on frames too. Musicfiles and Videos will be played with scriptcommands like playmusic where you have to fill in the name of the musicfile.

Notice : For each, images, sounds, musicfiles and videos you can add a maximum of 15000 entries. Should be enough for everybody ;)



The Preview

The Preview shows a thumbnail of an image or plays sound and musicfiles.
If you doubleclick on a file in the mediapool the previewwindow will open automaticly.



The GameSetup

Generell:
1 : Name of your current project.
2 : Resolution of your game. Can only be changed when your project is empty and the roomwindow is closed!
3 : No Antialiasing turns off any filtering in the game. Usefull for oldschool 320x240 adventures.
4 : Mute Music, mutes the music in the game when a character speaks.
5 : Icon for the Gameexecutable.
6 : Determines if the player can turn off text in the game. Only usefull when you are creating a game with speech.
7 : Determines if Item-Images will be drawn next to the mouseicon when the player use these. Usefull when you make a mousecontrolled game like Sam&Max.
8 : This will group items of the same kind when they are added more than once to the inventory.
9 : Determines if the Action-Line is displayed in the game. This line contains something like : "Use Key with..." Optional you can adjust the position of the textline.
10 : Silent delete turns all Delete-Confirmations off. Fit Images means if the Objectwindow shall be fitted to the first image you add to it. Protect Gamefiles will zip your gamefiles (gfx and sfx) with a random password.
11 : Name of an image out of the mediapool that can be used as the Loading Image.

Script and Taskbar:
12 : The Script that will be used as the start-cutscene for your game.
13 : Enter here the name of a script that shall be used as the mainscript. The mainscript runs all the time in the game.
14 : The style of the screenchange when loading another room.
15 : Determines if the Taskbar is enabled or not. Can be changed in the game, too.
16 : Setup the Height for your Taskbar. Enter the name of the room that contains your taskbar and setup the style how your taskbar will popup.
17 : Select here if the taskbar appears from top or from the bottom.
18 : Enter here the name of a room which objects will be visible and useable all the time the game runs.

Menu and Colors:
19 : Colors of the InGame-Menu. Also you can setup a Custom Save/Load Menu here.
20 : Offtext Color. Thats the color for Offspeechtext. Infotext Color : Thats the color for the Actionline and all Infotexts next to your Mouseicon.
21 : Color that will be used as transparent color for TGA Bitmaps.

Textscene:
- These settings will affect the appearance of textscenes in the game.
You can also make Textscenes using symbols instead of text only, read the "Textscenes" Section for more.

Its also possible to define an image as background of the dialogbox instead of using the standard version.

Coinmenu:
- These settings activate a coinmenu for your game. Enter the roomname that contains your menu and adjust the center position of your menu.
See "Advanced Stuff" Section for further information.



The Commandwindow

The left list contains the commands for your game like "use" ect. The first entries are the commands as you use them in den scripts. The second entries are the commands as they are shown in the actionline.

"Walk to" is a standardcommand always built in the game.

The right list contains boolean variables. Booleans can be set and checked with if_bool and setbool. Each entriy can be presetup. (TRUE or FALSE).

The 3 Textfields are the standard text for the game like "walkto". These can be changed so you can make different languages for your game.

Notice : You can use up to 20 commands and up to 1000 Booleans.



The Mousewindow

The size of all mouseicons is defined to 32x32. There are 10 mouseicons you can setup. The first one is the standard icon only for the command "Walk to". The last one is the Loading Icon. The eight other Icons can be linked with one command you choose from the dropdown list.

If you do not create these Mouseicons the right mousebutton will be used as the first command, like "look". If you have setup additional Icons the right mousebutton switches between these Icons in the game.

Every mouseicon has 25 Frames and its own animationspeed. The frames can be copied with Drag&Drop.

The crosshair determines the clickpoint of the current mouseicon.

The last option (Right Click...) is only relevant when there are more icons than the standard one. You will need a special additional setup to your project to use the Intelligent-Mode, so its highly recommended that you check out the Intelligent-Mouse Tutorial on the PaC-DK Homepage.
The third option "Do Nothing" means that the mouseicons can only be changed by using the instruction instmouse and not by clicking the right mouse button.

You can also decide if the mousewheel switches the icons too.



The Itemwindow

Items are the things you carry around in your inventory. Every Item has 25 Frames and its own speed for each of 10 different states. Frames can be copied with Drag&Drop.

Test your animation with the PlayButton.
Open the Scriptwindow with the ScriptEdit-button.

Every Frame can contain a single line of script, which can be useful for timing events like playing sounds ect. (Enter by doubleclicking on a frame)

Notice : You can create a maximum of 1000 Items.
With Game Resolutions of 640x480 and 800x600 an Item is 50x50 Pixels big, else 25x25.



The Objectwindow

Objects are almost everything in your game except characters and the backgroundimage. They can be just animation or any clickable stuff.

Any Object has a size in pixels. If "Fit Image" is checked the objectsize will be fitted to the first image you add to your object.

Every Object has 10 states with each 30 Frames and its own animationspeed. An example for states is a door with the states "open" and "closed".

Every Frame can have 2 different images which can be moved within the object. That means an Object is not equal to an image. That enables you to create animations of moving images without having to make new graphics. Check out the Steeldoor in the Testadventure. The Images can be removed with the right Mousebutton.

Test your animation with the Playbutton.

Every Frame can contain a single line of script, which can be useful for timing events like playing sounds ect. (Enter by doubleclicking on a frame)

An Object does not have to contain images. An empty Object can be used as a clickable target, for Example an Exit which is built in the backgroundimage.

Every object can be used as a lighten object that will still be bright when the room gets dark by using "Setlight". Usefull for creating lights and other glowing stuff.

Frames, just as states can be copied and moved via Drag&Drop.

Notice : The backgroundcolor of the image field can be changed by doubleclicking on it,for making dark images more visible.
Notice : You can create a maximum of 2000 Objects.



The Characterwindow

A character does not have states, he has actions. 16 action are predefined like walk, stand, speak ect. The Stand- and Walkaction must exist, all others are optional. If you do not add frames for the action "speak,walk" or "bored" they will not be played in the game.
All left-Animations of your character are the mirrored right-Animations.

You can add up to 20 extraactions which you can use to let your character grin or panic. These extraaction will be played in the game with the scriptcommand "setchar".

Every Action has 30 Frames and its own animationspeed. And just like objectframes, characterframes can have 2 images. So you can seperate the head from the body to save filesize.

One difference to objects is that characters have sizes for every action, so you don't have to oversize the whole character cause of one too big action.
Every action has its own footpoint. On this point the character will stand in the game.

If you create a character which actions shall have same sizes and same footpoints, you can use the "Customize" button. You can also equalize the complete actions. An example is the Robot in tha Testadventure which has only one animation.

Every Frame can contain a single line of script, which can be useful for timing events like playing sounds ect. (Enter by doubleclicking on a frame)

The "Customize" menu also allows you to copy and paste single actions and you rename the extra-animations.

Additional options are the textcolor and the walkspeed for your character. "1" is the fastest "9" the slowest walkspeed.

The blue cross that you can enabled and disable can help you to adjust a characters animation.

Notice : You can create a maximum of 300 character.
Notice 2 : The backgroundcolor of the image field can be changed by doubleclicking on it,for making dark images more visible.
Notice 3 : Character can be ex- and importet, so you can use a character in many projects without having to do the animation work again.
Character Extras

"Real left animations" will use the actions Extra 17 till Extra 20 for all left facing character actions instead of mirroring the "right actions".

"Do NOT Zoom" prevents a character from being zoomed back in a room.

"Memory resistant" will cause the characters images to remain in the systemmemory so the game won't have to load them again. Should only be used for main characters.

Every character can has its own font.

The option "Ghost" enables other chars to walk through this character.

You can enter the name of a sound that will be used as a walking sound. You'll have to adjust this soundfile so that it fits to the walktiming of your character.

You can adjust the initial size in % of a character. This value can be changed with the instruction charzoom within the game.



The roomwindow



Notice : You can create a maximum of 1000 rooms.
Notice 2 : Rooms can be ex- and imported. This enables you to use a taskbar or a savegame-menu in many games.

A : Every room has a backgroundimage AND a second paralax scrolled background. These you can add by draging an image of the mediapool on your room. With the right Mousebutton you can remove the backgroundimages.

B : A Room is at least one screen big and can be 3x2 Screens big, no matter what resolution your game has. You setup the size for your room with the 2 bars. With the white box you can move around your room. The position you set is the position the room will have when starting the game. If youn downsize a room all Objects will be repositioned if they are outside the room.
The zoom factor defines how strong your character will zoom away. Adjust this so its suitable for your room.

C : Drag Objects from your Objectfolder into your room. First then, you have created a roomobject. If you add more than 1 object of the same kind the names for the roomobjects will be numbered. These Instancenames you'll have to use within the scripts to controll your objects!

D : Setup your roomobject. First you see the instancename of your object. Choose also the state that your object shall have when the game starts. State "0" means that the object is disabled when starting the game. Use this state for things that appear later in the game. With "locked" you can fix your object in the room. The button Edit Script open the Scriptwindow.
Viewstyle means how the object is drawed in relation to the character. "Back" and "Front" means that your object is always drawn behind or infront of your character. If you setup "Middle" you will see a blue Point next to the object. This point you can drag up and down so you decide where in the room this object has its groundposition. Is your character behind this point he will be behind the object and otherwise.

Tip : If you have to move an object that is behind another one hold down the middle mousebutton and click on it. This will select always the second object.
Tip2 : You can also use the keys "PageUp" and "PageDown" to select the different objects/characters in the room.
Notice : All objects that have an empty script will not be recognized by the engine. For Example when your room is almost done you could add another object over all other objects with a transparent PNG Image, maybe a Lightcone. Then you can still click on objects behind this lightcone, as long as it has no scriptlines.
You can add a maximum of 200 objects for each room.

E : Just as Objects you can drag Characters on your room. You can add also more than one character of the same kind. You can add a maximum of 300 Characters to the game, that means every of the 300 Charactersources can be used.. for what ever.

F : Decide here the viewdirection your character shall have. Also you can set a character to "unmoveable" , usefull for any background characters that cannot walk. The button "Snap to Walkmap" will move the character so its position is exactly on a walkmap postion.

Tip : If you don't want a character to be in any room when your game starts you can create an empty room for storing him. This room can also be used to remove a character from the game.

G : This new option doubles the walkmap area from 32x24 to 64x48 squares. Usally a normal Walkmap will do it. Just use this if your room has many details to walk on.

The Walkmap-Mode :
Use the walkmapbutton in the toolbar to enable the walkmap. The walkmap is an area of points where you can decide where your characters can walk and where not. With the left mousebutton you draw into the map. The right button will popup a menu where you can select the mode and the size of the pen. Also you can add for each walkmappoint a script that will be activated when a character walks over it. For that just select "Edit Walkmapscript" in the right mousebutton popupmenu.
Note : You can copy walkmap scripts with "Copy Walkmapscript" and "Paste Walkmapscript" which you also find in the right mousebutton popupmenu.
Note 2 : The squares which indicate if a walkmappoint has a script will have different colors depending of the content of the script.
The Deepmap :
There are 2 lines you can drag up and down. These lines determine where the character starts to zoom back. He will start zooming back at line 2 and end at line 1. With these lines you can create the illusion of walking in the depth of a room.
The Inventoryfield :
Draw an Inventoryfield into your room. This field will contain all Items your selected character has.
Notice : Inventories will only be displayed by subrooms and the taskbar. Later more...




FX Shapes :
You can activate up to three FX Shapes per room. Everyone of this polygons can be sized and positioned as you want. Everyone of it has its settings : Select the kind of effect, the strength and the position.
For detailed information about the different effects check out the section "Advanced Stuff" - "FX-Shapes".



The scriptwindow

The scriptwindow is a standard texteditor which will automaticly be filled with the current Object/Character/Item/Room script. All scriptcommands can be added with a popupmenu you enter by clicking on the add-button. You can add brackets also.
The Popupmenu contains some presets, next to all commands. Read more about these presets in the "Standard Stuff"-Part of this manual.
The little arrow button helps you to quickfind one of five previously edited scripts.

What things can have scripts :
- Created scripts (aka Cutscenes/Textscenes/Functions)
- Every Item.
- Every Room.
- Every Character used in the game.
- Every Object used in the game.
- Every Point of a Walkmap.
- Every single frame of an object, a character or an item. (one Line of script per frame)

One script can be specified as the MainScript (in the GameSetup). This MainScript will run all the time the game runs and is supposed to handle generell game elements that are room independent.

Syntax and Usage :
Every command has the form command (entry1 ; entry2...). Even if no entries are required for a command you HAVE to write brackets just like break().
Entries will be seperated with a ; . (Sorry to all coders, i get pissed of by this, too ;)

You can add comments to your script by using this (and only this) way : (*Comments*)

Cutscenes and Walkmapscripts contain only nummerious commands. Room-, Character-, Item- and Objectscripts contain events with the on ( ) command. On (mouse) for example is the event that happens when the mouse is over the current object. A complete list of all events you will see in the Script Reference.

Instant Update :
This button is enabled when your game is currently running. With it you can update the current (only the current) script within your game without having to recreate and restart it. Important : This only works for scripts arleady existing. You cannot create a new cutscene for example and intergrate it into the running game!

Notice 1 : Use standard commandnames for your game like "look", "use", "open" ect, so you can use the presets.
Notice 1a : You can also create your own presets. For more info read Other Stuff - Tips & Tricks.
Notice 2 : You can first add a script to characters or objects when you draged these on a room. The characters and objects you develope in the editor are just sources for the ones you'll use in the game.

The Help-System :
The scripthelp on the bottom of the scriptwindow shows what kind of value you have to enter next. Also it lists up all the possible values you could enter. By hitting the TAB Key it will autocomplete your entered text with the first item you can see in the list. If you want you can hide the help by clicking on the questionmark.



The Fontcreator

In the fontwindow you can setup up to 99 different fonts. The first font will be the default one for the game.
The fontsize cannot be changed in the game. If you need a font in different sizes you'll have to enter them more than once.

The option "Shadow A+B" is recommended.

Also you can use a shadow and a fillmethod for a font.

The "Fading" speed defines if and how fast the text will fade in and out.



The Language Tools

1. Exporting all dialogues :

This tool will export all your dialogues you have in your game and save them into TXT files. Every Character Name will have its own TXT file, so if you want all texts sorted by name you must not use "self" in your speech instructions for the character name!

If your game uses voiceoutput you can decide if you want the voicefile names be included. This would be very useful when you record your dialogues, so you can save the soundfiles with the right filename. Because then, all you have to do is add those soundfiles into your project.

You can decide if speech and offspeech instructions without a voicefile name will be saved into the TXT file : "no_voiucefile.txt", so you can see where you have forgotten to enter a filename. The second option ignores all lines that use the same voicefile name as another one already does. The third option will ignore all textlines which voicefiles already exists in the mediapool.

2. Translating :



This tool automaticly lists up all your texts within different categories.

When you add a language you can start to translate your text row by row. Speech and Offspeech also contain the voicefilenames, so if you plan a game with voiceoutput AND different languages you have to change these names, too.

Everytime you open the translate tool the textlines will be updated, so it doesn't matter if you add something to your scripts.
New textlines will be marked with a red X.

To change the language in the game use the scriptcommand : setlanguage ( ), while "origin" selects the origin language that is used in the scripts.

3. Export Sound and Musicnames :



This window works almost lke "Export Dialogues" but this will export all filenames used in playsound, loopdsound and playmusic. You can completly script a game with all the sounds that should be in it and later you can create these sounds by using the exported soundlist.