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Game Map CAD User's Guide Copyright 1992 By Curtis Keisler T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2. GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3. RUNNING THE PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.4. PROGRAM BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. DISCLAIMER AND STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1. LICENSING AGREEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2. THANKS AND TRADEMARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. HEXMAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1. EDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1.1. INDICATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1.2. NAVIGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1.3. FUNCTION KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2. LOAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.3. SAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.3.1. MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.3.2. PCX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.4. NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.5. PRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4. ICONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.1. EDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.2. CREATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.2.1. CREATION/EDIT UTILITY . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.2.2. DRAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.2.3. MOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.2.4. LINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.2.5. COMMAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.2.6. GRID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.2.7. NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.3. REMOVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.4. LOAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.5. SAVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.6. NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.7. DUPLICATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 5. MEMORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 6. ABOUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7. QUIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 8. FUTURE EPISODES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9. REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 i Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 1 _________________________________________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this manual before you judge my program. I have often downloaded what seemed to be really "cool" programs, but upon running them I become frustrated at the awkwardness I feel because I don't know how to "make it go" because I have not read the manual. This usually results in a hasty "erase *.*" command, wiping out the program forever and never giving it a chance. Fortunately you have not done that yet. I hope you will not be disappointed by what you find here. Two years ago, I and a friend of mine, Steve Holley, embarked on a mission to create a battle simulation game in which two players would design a world on their computer. Through the use of modems, they would engage each other in battle with their medieval fantasy armies of griffins, pegasi, and every other kind of creature you could think of. So, we definitely needed a program (it started out as a routine) to let us design hex maps for the worlds we would create. Needless to say, being in college, getting married and having kids dampened the plan a little. This "routine" soon got a life and program idea of its own and this is where we are today. Game Map CAD is a program that lets you create icons to be placed on hexagon map you create. The icons are created using the simple vector commands, move, draw and line. Once these icons are created they may be placed on a hex map with dimensions you choose. You may view the map in various scales. You may also pan across the map in any direction. When the map is completed, it can be printed out on an HP LaserJet or written to disk as a PCX file for viewing, printing, and editing in your favorite graphics viewing program or editor. Maps and sets of icons may be saved and loaded from disk at any time. 1.1. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS This program was written using Borland's Turbo Pascal 6.0. I incorporated Borland's BGI (Borland Graphics Interface) into the program because of the robustness of the BGI graphics. Consequently, because of this decision, my program may be run on a variety of machine configurations (YES, I am "plugging" Turbo Pascal here. I write everything in it!!!) This program requires a computer (no duh) with at least one of the following graphics adapters: (Turbo Pascal programmers will recognize this list immediately) CGA, MCGA, EGA, Hercules, AT&T, VGA, and PC3270. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 2 _________________________________________________________________ You do not need a hard drive but I recommend it. And it is a good idea to have at least 256K of memory available. No mouse support is offered at this time (That's because two years ago, when I started this, I did not have a mouse.) 1.2. GETTING STARTED If you received this program in any other way than a ZIP file you may not have received all of the "pieces". Use the "About" menu selection to view information on registration and receiving all of the "pieces". If you did receive this file in its originally distributed ZIP format, then you apparently have done most of the work already in setting up the program. There is a program named CONFIG.EXE which lets you define the type of graphics driver you have (The default is autodetect), the default set of icons to load and the default map to load. To run the configuration program, type CONFIG at the DOS prompt. If you cannot read the screen after executing the program, it is because the program thinks that you have a color monitor. To let the program know that you do not have a color monitor, type CONFIG B at the DOS prompt instead of CONFIG. The program will be forced to use the monochrome/black and white mode. The default icons and map are set to BASIC.ICN and BASIC.MAP. The extension you use does not matter. However, you might want to stick to the ones I have chosen in order to avoid any confusion; .MAP for map files and .ICN for icons. The following is a description of the different selections on the configuration menu and for what they are used. To select one of these options, press 1,2,3,S or Q respectively as follows: 1. Graphics screen type : This option lets you specify which kind of graphics card you have. If you are not sure about what you have, select "Autodetect". For AT&T and some laptop users, you might want to select AT&T. For some reason, the autodetect will select CGA which is a lower resolution than what you might be able to get. Use the up and down arrow keys to change the highlighted graphics driver and resolution. Press [Enter] when you have selected the graphics driver that you want. 2. Default icon list : When the program is first executed, it will check to see if Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 3 _________________________________________________________________ you have a list of icons that you want loaded automatically. This is a nice feature to have if you are working on a big map or have some favorite icons that you like to use. This option is merely a convenience and it is not necessary that you provide a default icon list. See the section below about editing in the line input. 3. Default map name : This is just like the Default icon list except that it is a map. Again, it is just a convenience. S. Save the current configuration : The configuration is not written to disk until you actually use this option. So, be sure to select "S" once you are finished defining the configuration that you want. Q. Quit the configuration program : Quit the configuration program (Maybe too obvious). 1.3. RUNNING THE PROGRAM Once you have defined the defaults that you like, you can run the Game Map CAD be typing in MAPCAD.EXE at the DOS prompt. The program will first try to find the file named MAPCAD.CFG in the default directory. If it does not find it, you will see a message in the middle of the screen which simply states the name of the program and "ERROR: Disk Error!". This is mainly to let you know that the program had problems finding the configuration. Simply press [Enter] to continue. The program will try to autodetect your graphics card and no default icons or maps will be loaded. Once the program reads in the configuration, you will be presented with a title screen. Just press [Enter] and you will get the Main menu. 1.4. PROGRAM BASICS Menus: This section describes how the interface works (remember how frustrating bad interfaces can be). I have tried to make a simple bar menu system. Borland's Paradox users will recognize the format immediately. When a menu is active, there will be several words spaced apart at the top of the screen. One of the words will be highlighted. Directly beneath the top row of words will be a description of Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 4 _________________________________________________________________ what the selection does. To change the selection, use the left and right arrow keys. You will notice that the highlighted bar moves left and right correspondingly. Also, the description below the menu will change accordingly. To make a selection, you can either press [Enter] when you have highlighted the option you wish to make or you can simply press the first letter of the word. To back out of a menu to the previous menu, simply press [Esc]. This will not cause you to exit the program when you are at the Main menu. This is intentional so that you do not exit accidently. Text input editor: The following is a description of how to edit text when you have invoked the simple line text editor. This editor is always in the insert mode. If upon entering into the editor, the first key you press is alphanumeric, the entire line will be deleted. This is for your convenience. [Home],[End] - Moves the cursor to the beginning or the end of the line. [Left],[Right] - Moves the cursor one character to the left or right. [Ctrl][Backspace] - Deletes the entire line and homes the cursor. [Delete] - Deletes the character beneath the cursor. [Backspace] - Deletes the character to the left of the cursor. [Enter] - Exit the editor and accept the changes to the text. You can determine if you are at the "Main Menu", "Hex Map Editor", or "Icon Editor" by looking at the inverse bar at the bottom center of the screen. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 5 _________________________________________________________________ 2. DISCLAIMER AND STUFF This product is distributed AS IS. The author specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and program license granted herein, in particular, without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any use or purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for any loss of profit or damage including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. 2.1. LICENSING AGREEMENT You may use this program and freely EVALUATE ITS USEFULNESS for a 10-DAY TRIAL PERIOD. Should you find it useful, you MUST REGISTER by sending registration form and check payable to Curtis Keisler. See last section of this manual for details and benefits. You may freely distribute UNMODIFIED copies (which includes all files listed in the README file) provided you do not include it with commercial software, and charge no more than $3.50, in lieu of recognized User Group guidelines (e.g., Association of Shareware Professionals, New York Amateur Computer Club), for copying/distribution costs. 2.2. THANKS AND TRADEMARKS First of all, I would like to thank my best friend, Steve Holley, for pushing me to finish this project for a change. Steve also wrote the snippet of code that turns the text command into a compressed byte for optimized memory storage. He also wrote the decoder which decompresses the byte back into the text command. I would also like to thank Richard Wilton for writing a fantastic book called "Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 Video Systems" published by Microsoft Press. I used one of his line draw routines for MCGA and modified it so that I could draw to any memory location (that's how I print the maps and export them in PCX format). I would also like to thank Borland, the best software company in the world. Without your pascal compiler I would never have written this program. Borland, Microsoft, PC PaintBrush, CompuShow, and CompuServe are all trademarks. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 6 _________________________________________________________________ 3. HEXMAPS Hex maps are the maps that are used for detailing the different worlds in many role-playing games such as D&D, AD&D, Star Frontiers, Gurps, etc.. When game masters create worlds for their gammers, it can often become extremely cumbersome for them to draw maps. Creativity is hindered by the overwhelming task of erasing and redrawing maps. Game Map CAD was written to end all of those problems. You can "paint" icons to areas of the map with ease. And with just as much ease you can "erase" icons from the map. To edit hex maps, choose "Hexmaps" from the main menu. The following is a description of each of the selections on the Hex Map Editor menu. 3.1. EDIT Aside from the Icon Editor Menu, you will spend most of your time in this part of the program. Please take the time to read this section carefully so that you can take advantage of all of the options Edit has to offer. 3.1.1. INDICATORS Once you have chosen edit, the top two lines of the screen where the menu was will be replaced by several different indicators. The first indicator is the "Grid Coordinates". This tells you where the hex cursor is positioned on the map. When you first edit a new map your position will be (1,1). The coordinate system is the same as for the upper right quadrant of the Cartesian coordinate system (see, my B.S in math was good for something!). The lower left hand corner of the map is (1,1), the upper left corner (1, Length), the lower right is (2 x Width, 1), and the upper right is (2 x Width, Length) (Whew!). The second indicator is the viewing scale of the map. This is a real number and can be changed at any time. The next indicator is width. This is the width mentioned above and is two times the width of the map. The reason for this is way the cursor movement was implemented. Checking to see if the cursor was beyond an odd number of columns proved to be difficult (at the time). So, I am forcing you to choose an even number of columns. This also can be changed (See [F5] below). The final indicator is length. This too is the length mentioned above. There is nothing "funny" about this number though. And, as before, it too can be changed (See [F6] below). 3.1.2. NAVIGATION Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 7 _________________________________________________________________ You can choose "Edit" from the Hex Map Editor menu to edit the current hex map. Navigation around the map is simple. I have used the standard directional system implemented on the numeric keypad (be sure your num lock is off). The following is a description (probably unnecessary) of how the navigation keys work. [Home] - Up and to the left. [Up] - Up. [PgUp] - Up and to the right. [Left] - Left to the next adjacent hex. [Right] - Right to the next adjacent hex. [End] - Down and to the left. [Down] - Down. [PgDn] - Down and to the right. [Ctrl][Home] - Top left corner of the map. [Ctrl][PgUp] - Top right corner of the map. [Ctrl][End] - Bottom left corner of the map. [Ctrl][PgDn] - Bottom right corner of the map. [C] - Near the center of the map [Esc] - Return to the Hex Map Editor menu. If you move the cursor off of the screen, the computer will redraw the map with the current cursor location in the middle of the screen. 3.1.3. FUNCTION KEYS There are also some special keys as well as function keys whose functions are a little more complex than the navigation keys. The following is a description of how to use them. [Ins] - Place an icon on the map. This key is going to get worn out if you use this program a lot. This key lets you place an icon in the current hex. The current hex must be empty in order to place an icon in it. If the hex is not empty, you will here a short beep letting you know that you cannot perform the insert function in this hex until you erase the contents. If the hex is empty you will be presented with a "Choose Icon" window. A highlighted bar will be positioned on the currently selected icon. You can use the [Up], [Down], [Home], [End], [PgUp] and [PgDn] keys to position the highlighted bar on the icon that you wish to insert into the hex. Pressing [Enter] selects the current icon and places it on the map. Pressing [Esc] aborts the selection and nothing is placed Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 8 _________________________________________________________________ on the map. [Del] - Erase an icon from the map. This key removes the current icon from the map if an icon is there. If no icon is on the map, you will hear a beep letting you know that there was no icon to be deleted. [Enter] - Place current icon. This key places the currently (last selected) icon on the map if the current hex is empty. If the hex is not empty, you will hear a short beep letting you know that you cannot perform the insert function in this hex. [F1] - Present the help window. This key displays a window showing all of the complex keys and what they do. [F2] - Auto scale to screen size. This key will cause the computer to calculate the best scale for displaying the entire map on the screen. The computer will then re-display the map in the new scale. [F3] - Center screen on the current hex. This key will make the computer position the map so that the current hex is in the center of the screen. The scale is not changed but the map is redisplayed to reflect the new location. [F4] - Change the scale. This key will let you enter a scale factor in the range greater than 0 and less than or equal to 15. Pressing [Esc] will abort without changing the scale. If you do change the scale, the map will be redrawn in the new scale with the current hex positioned in the center of the screen. [F5] - Change the width (max X). This key will let you change the width of the map. The width can be in the range from 5 to 50. This allows for width in hex of 10 to 100. If you choose a width that is smaller than the current width and you have placed icons outside that width, they will be deleted from the map. BE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO LOOSE THEM FROM THE MAP!!! Once you have changed the width, the computer redraws the screen with the current hex positioned in the center of the screen. Pressing [Esc] aborts and the width is unchanged. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 9 _________________________________________________________________ [F6] - Change the length (max Y). This key will let you change the length of the map. The length can be in the range from 5 to 100. This key follows the same principles as the "[F5] - Change the width (max X)" key does. [F7] - Toggle paint mode. This key will let you "paint" the current icon where ever you move the hex cursor. If the hex where you move has an icon already in it nothing will happen. This is only true if ONLY the paint mode is on. If the remove mode is on (See below), the icon is deleted and the current icon is placed in the current hex. You will know that you are in paint mode when you see the indicator "Paint mode on" on the second line of the indicators. [F8] - Toggle erase mode. This key will let you "remove" the icons by just moving the hex cursor over it. The removal happens before any painting is done (See [F7] above) so that you don't have to erase every icon in an area you wish to "paint" with a different icon. You will know that you are in remove mode when you see the indicator "Remove mode on" on the first line of the indicators. [F9] - Change cursor type This key will let you change the appearance of the cursor. There are two types of cursors, Blinking and Dotted. Some machines are so fast that the blinking cursor either cannot be seen or it may just become distracting so you might wish to change it. When you press this key, you will get a menu from which you can choose the cursor type you like the best. [F10] - Show current icon name. This key will display the eight character name in a window of the name of the icon over which the hex cursor is currently placed. This does not show the currently selected icon that you use with the [Ins] and [Enter] keys. This is used so that if you get a map file and do not have the supporting icon file you can still determine what the map is. 3.2. LOAD You can choose "Load" from the Hex Map Editor menu to load a previously saved hex map from disk. Just enter the name of the map file, with drive, path, extension, etc.. If the file exists it will be loaded. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 10 _________________________________________________________________ You will get a descriptive "I/O Error Message" window if something went wrong while you were trying to load the file. You will get a "Not a hex map!" message if you try to load a file that is not a hex map. You must press a key to continue in both of these situations. If you cannot remember the name of the file, you can press [F1] to get a directory listing of any directory and mask. By default, the computer selects the current drive, directory and a mask of *.*, but you can change that. Pressing [Esc] aborts the directory listing. Pressing enter will give you a directory listing. You will be presented with a window containing all of the files you have selected. Pressing any key will take you back to the file name prompt. If you type in an invalid directory search criteria, you will be given an appropriate error message and be returned to the search path prompt. 3.3. SAVE You can choose "Save" from the Hex Map Editor menu to save the current hex map to disk. When you select the "Save" option, you will be presented with two menu choices: 3.3.1. MAP This option lets you save the hex map in a form that can be retrieved later. WARNING: Only the names and locations of the icons are saved, NOT the icons. To save the icons you MUST choose "Save" from the Icon Editor menu!. You will get a descriptive "I/O Error Message" window if something went wrong while you were trying to save the file. To continue, press any key. As in the "Load" option, you can press [F1] to get a directory listing. 3.3.2. PCX This option lets you save the hex map in the PC Paintbrush PCX graphics file format. WARNING: You cannot load this back into the hex map editor so be sure to also save to "MAP" format if you intend to edit it. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 11 _________________________________________________________________ This option is to give you greater flexibility with your hex maps. I have used it in conjunction with WordPerfect 5.1 to create nice modules. It works really great!. You can also view it using CompuShow and any other graphics viewer that supports two color PCX graphics images. Some of these programs even let you print. So, if you do not have a HP LaserJet printer, you can acquire one of these programs and still print out the maps you create with this program. And of course you can edit it also within another program. The "Enter the PCX filename" prompt functions just like the "Load" and "Save" prompts but with an [F2] key added. The [F2] key lets you define how the PCX image will be saved. The following is a description of the options: Hexagons (Yes/No) - Toggles whether or not you want the hex map grid saved in the image. Icons (Yes/No) - Toggles whether or not you want the icons to be saved in the image. Text (Yes/No) - Not yet implemented. Key (Yes/No) - Not yet implemented. Inverse (Yes/No) - Whether or not to inverse the saved image. Scale - Allows you to define the numeric scale at which to save the image. BE CAREFUL!!! You could easily use up several megabytes of disk space with a large scale. Also inverse tends to use quite a bit of disk space as well. That is why it defaults to "No". Aspect - Not yet implemented. Once you have selected the options you desire, press [Esc] to return to the "Enter the PCX filename" prompt. Entering a valid name and pressing [Enter] begins the save. You will be presented with the same window you were when you changed the options. You will notice a horizontal "thermometer" gauge showing the progress of the save as well as an indicator describing what the computer is doing. Pressing [Esc] at the "Enter the PCX filename" prompt aborts the save of the PCX image. 3.4. NEW Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 12 _________________________________________________________________ You can choose "New" from the Hex Map Editor menu to clear the current hex map from memory and set the dimensions to the default size. Choosing "New" does NOT erase the icons from memory. It only erases the map. 3.5. PRINT You can choose "Print" from the Hex Map Editor menu to print the current hex map to a HP LaserJet printer or compatible. When you choose "Print", you will be presented with a window containing four dot pitch resolutions; 75, 100, 150 and 300. Be sure that your printer has enough memory before printing using the higher resolutions (300 DPI Looks very, very, very nice!). You can abort the print by pressing [Esc]. Selecting a resolution will continue the print. Once you have chosen a resolution you will be presented with a menu asking whether or not you wish to print the hexagon grid on the map. Pressing [Esc] at this time aborts the printing. Once you have chosen whether or not to print the hexagon grid, you will be presented with a status window containing a message telling you what printer driver you are using (only one for now) and the familiar horizontal "temperature" gauge to let you know the status of the print job. You can press any key during the printing to stop printing. You will be presented with a window asking you if you want to stop printing. Press "Y" to stop printing or press "N" to continue. If something goes wrong during the print, like the printer being off line etc., you will be presented with a window asking you to "Retry" or "Cancel" the print. Pressing [R] tries to continue printing and pressing [C] causes the print to be aborted. 4. ICONS Icons are the symbols that are placed on the map. They can represent anything from water and mountains to roads and walls. Game Map CAD comes with some icons already to be used. You can add to these icons or create your own set of icons. 4.1. EDIT You can edit the current icons in memory by selecting "Edit" from the Icon Editor menu. This function will allow you to add to the set of vector commands for any icon currently in memory. If no icons are in memory, "Edit" will tell you with a "There are no icons in memory!" message. Press any key to continue. (Use Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 13 _________________________________________________________________ the "Create" command to create new icons or the "Load" command to load some previously created icons.) You will be presented with a "Choose Icon" window. You can use the [Up], [Down], [PgUp], [PgDn], [Home] and [End] keys to highlight the icon you wish to edit. Press [Esc] to cancel selecting an icon. Press [Enter] to make a choice. Once you have selected the icon you wish to edit, you will be placed in the creation utility. The workings of the creation utility are described in detail below. 4.2. CREATE You can create icons by selecting "Create" from the Icon Editor menu. This function will allow you to create new icons using a very simple set of vector commands. You do not have to enter the actual commands if you do not want to. You can use the menu instead. You will be prompted to enter up to eight characters for an icon name. If the name you have chosen already exists, you will get an "An Icon already has that name!" warning message. Press any key to continue. Once you have chosen a unique name, you will be placed into the icon creation utility. Press [Esc] at the name prompt to exit creating an icon. 4.2.1. CREATION/EDIT UTILITY You will see two windows on the screen when you choose the "Edit" or "Create" selection successfully from the Icon Editor menu. The left window is where you edit the icon. You will see an overlay of a hexagon. You may also choose to display a point grid which highlights all of the points you can move to within the icon. The right window will display the commands that actually describe the icon. You may edit these by choosing the "Command" selection from the creation utility menu. The icons are drawn using a set of three vector commands. Each command is described below. The commands take the following form: {command}{x offset},{y offset} {command} - The valid values for command are "M" for move, "D" for draw, and "L" for line. {x offset} - This is the movement offset in the x coordinate relative to the current cursor location. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 14 _________________________________________________________________ {y offset} - This is the movement offset in the y coordinate relative to the current cursor location. The following is an example of a list of vector commands that draws a square with an X in it in the middle of the hex. M-3,-3 L6,6 D0,6 L6,-6 D6,0 D0,-6 D-6,0 The cursor starts at the center of the icon. And then follows the commands, drawing out the icon. The following is a description of each of the commands. 4.2.2. DRAW The draw command starts at the current cursor location and draws a line to the new location using the relative offsets. The cursor is then moved to the new location. The "Draw" command may be selected from the menu in the creation utility. When you select draw you will see a blinking cross-hair cursor at the current location. From there you can use the arrow keys (as in the hex map editor) to move the cursor to the new location where the line is to be drawn. You can abort the "Draw" command by simply pressing [Esc]. To insert the "Draw" command in the list of commands press [Enter]. You will see the new line drawn and the command being inserted into the command list. Please see the note on how the icons are inserted into the list in the "Commands" section below. 4.2.3. MOVE The "Move" command starts at the current cursor location and moves the cursor to a new location using the relative offsets. Nothing is drawn. When you select "Move", you will see a blinking cross-hair cursor at the current location. From there you can use the arrow keys (as in the hex map editor) to move the cursor to the new location. You can abort the "Move" command by simply pressing [Esc]. To insert the "Move" command into the list of commands press [Enter]. You will see the command being inserted into the command list. 4.2.4. LINE Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 15 _________________________________________________________________ The "Line" command starts at the current cursor location and draws a line to the new location using the relative offsets. But, this is different than the "Draw" command in that the current cursor location does not change. When you select "Line", you will see a blinking cross-hair cursor at the current location. From there you can use the arrow keys (as in the hex map editor) to move the cursor to where the line is to be drawn. You can abort the "Line" command by simply pressing [Esc]. To insert the "Line" command into the list of commands, press [Enter]. You will see the line being drawn and the command being inserted into the command list. 4.2.5. COMMAND The "Command" selection lets you edit the commands in the command format. This allows you move sections of the icon around, change its direction, delete commands, insert commands, add commands and basically gives you total freedom in editing an icon. You can choose the "Command" selection from the creation utility menu. You will be placed in the "Icon Commands" window inside of the simple line editor (all the line editing rules apply as described above). There are also some extra key's that allow you to manipulate the list. The following is a description of each of the keys and what they do. [Up],[Down] - Moves up or down a command. [PgUp],[PgDn] - Move up or down a page of commands. [Ctrl][Home] - Moves you to the beginning of the list. (Remember that the line editor uses the [Home] key). [Ctrl][End] - Moves you to the end of the list. [Esc] - To exit the current list of commands. [F2] - Removes the current command from the list of commands. [F3] - Inserts a command of M0,0 before the current command. You can edit this command and change it to what you want. Since M0,0 is a valid command but does not change the icon in any way, it was chosen as the default command. [F4] - Adds a command of M0,0 after the current command. This allows you to put icons at the end of the list of icons. If you are editing an invalid command, the computer will not let you move to another command or exit until you have entered a valid command (you can press [F2] to delete the command). After you have exited the command list, the current position in the command list as well as the current cursor position are reset to the command that you were editing when you exited. WARNING: If you want to continue editing the icon from the last Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 16 _________________________________________________________________ point, you must press [Ctrl][End] to move to the end of the list, then press [Esc]. Otherwise, the next command issued will be inserted into the middle of the list of commands. This is ok if that is what you want to do, but you only have to do this once or twice to realize how confusing it can be (not to mention what it does to the icon!). 4.2.6. GRID When you choose "Grid" from the command utility menu, you will be given a "Yes" / "No" menu. To display a grid of the possible points to which you can move, select "Yes" otherwise select "No". 4.2.7. NEW You can choose the "New" selection from the command utility menu. This selection will remove ALL of the commands from the icon on which you are currently working. As a precaution, you will be presented with a "No" / "Yes" menu to make sure that this is what you want to do. Select "Yes" to clear the commands from the current icon. Selecting "No" or pressing [Esc] will abort the "New". 4.3. REMOVE You can choose the "Remove" selection from the Icon Editor menu. This selection lets you delete an icon from the list of icons currently in memory. When you choose "Remove", you will be shown the standard "Choose Icon" window. As usual, select the icon you want to remove and press [Enter]. You can abort "Remove" by pressing [Esc]. 4.4. LOAD You can choose the "Load" selection from the Icon Editor menu. "Load" allows you to load a set of icons stored on disk into memory. You will get the usual "Enter the filename" prompt. This is the typical text line editor as described above. If you already have a set of icons in memory, they are just inserted into the current list. This way you can create different sets of icons by loading and removing the ones you do not want. If you already have an icon in memory and you are trying to load one with the same name, the icon in memory remains unchanged and the new icon is NOT loaded. If you want to load the new icon you must delete the old icon from memory. You might also want to use the "Duplicate" command instead, as mentioned below, to store the icon with the conflicting name under a different name. You will get the usual "I/O Error Message" window if something Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 17 _________________________________________________________________ goes wrong while you are loading a set of icons. Press any key to continue. As in the "Load" under the Hex Map Editor menu, you can press [F1] to get a directory listing. Pressing [Esc] while at the "Enter the filename" prompt will abort the load. 4.5. SAVE You can choose the "Save" selection from the Icon Editor menu. This option allows you to save the current set of icons to disk. You will be prompted for the filename on which to save the current list of icons. This is the usual text editor as mentioned above. Type in the filename and press [Enter] to save the icons. Press [Esc] to abort saving the icons. You can press [F1] to get the usual directory listing. You will also get the usual "I/O Error Message" window if something goes wrong while you are trying to save the current set of icons to disk. You will be prompted with a "File exists! Overwrite(Y)?" prompt if a file already exists with the same name as the one you have specified. You can overwrite the old file by pressing "Y", any other key aborts the save, including [Esc]. 4.6. NEW You can choose the "New" selection from the Icon Editor Menu. This selection will remove ALL of the icons from memory. As a precaution, you will be give an "No" / "Yes" menu. If you really want to remove ALL of the icons from memory, choose "Yes". Otherwise, choose "No" or press [Esc]. 4.7. DUPLICATE You can choose the "Duplicate" selection from the Icon Editor Menu. This selection will let you create a new icon by copying the commands of a previously create icon. Once you have selected "Duplicate", you will be given the standard "Choose Icon" window. Pressing [Esc] will abort the duplication. Once you have chosen the icon that you wish to duplicate, you will be prompted for the name of the new icon. You must enter a name that is not being used. You can press [Esc] to abort duplicating the icon. After you enter the icon name, a new icon is created with that name and all of the commands from the old icon are copied into Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 18 _________________________________________________________________ the new one. If at this time you choose edit, you will find that the current selected icon is the new icon. 5. MEMORY You can choose the "Memory" selection from the Main menu. A window will appear in the middle of the screen with two indicators. "Memory Available" is the total memory that is not being used. "Largest Segment" is the largest segment size of memory available. If the difference between these two numbers is very large, the heap has become fragmented. To avoid unexpected problems, you might want to save your icons and map, exit the program and load everything up again. This should unfragment the memory. 6. ABOUT You can choose the "About" selection from the Main menu. A window will appear telling you about the program and registration information. 7. QUIT You can choose the "Quit" selection from the Main menu. This selection exits the program. NO warning is issued if you have not saved your work. 8. FUTURE EPISODES I did not at all intend to create this program. It just happened, and kept happening and happening. Finally my friend, Steve again, "forced" me sit to down, write these doc's and release this incomplete program (but then again is any program complete? Is that a rhetorical question? What if there were no rhetorical questions?) Anyway... After writing this program, I sat and wondered (scary, I know), and I kept coming up with things to add. But this new programming takes time and time is money. So, I'll make a deal with you (since you read this far), if I get forty formal registrations of this program, I will attempt to create a new version of the software with the following additions: 1. A square map editor for editing those neat little square maps in dungeons. 2. A help file system for displaying all of those particulars you just can't seem to remember. 3. The ability to print a key along with the map of all the Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 19 _________________________________________________________________ icons used on the map. 4. A little window to the side of the "Choose Icon" window showing the currently highlighted icon. 5. The ability to save a key in PCX format along with the map. 6. Text in any size and orientation on the map. 7. Other printer drivers, especially for dot matrix printers. 8. The ability to print out all of the icons currently in memory. 9. A long descriptive name to go along with the icon. 10. A long descriptive name to go along with the map. 11. A project handler that will let you group icons and maps together as a single unit. 12. Mouse support. 13. Adlib and Sound Blaster Pro support (Why?) 14. A pick file function instead of that cheesy window that just displays files without letting you pick one. (that bites!) 15. You add your idea here ________________________. The point is this. You guys make it worth it and I will enhance this program considerably. If you have any serious improvements or problems with the program, please send them in with the registration. I would love to hear any comments you may have about my program. My CompuServe address is 76424,1521 and my password is (... Yeh, right, like I'm going to give YOU my password (pfuuhht).) Don't hesitate to drop me a line. Game Map CAD, by Curtis Keisler 20 _________________________________________________________________ 9. REGISTRATION If you can use this program, please pay for it. Please send $20 dollars in USA currency, check or money order to Curtis Keisler, Rt. 2 Box 251-K, Williston, SC 29853. (Sorry, I DO NOT take Visa, Master Card, video game tokens, or food stamps!) Also, send this page in, fully filled out and you will receive notice if there are newer versions. The first forty people will get the next version free of charge. FULL NAME ___________________________________________________ STREET ______________________________________________________ CITY ____________________ STATE ______ ZIP _________-_______ Unit Action Price Quantity Total ------------ ------ -------- --------- Registration $20.00 x ________= _________ Latest Ver. $ 5.00 x ________= _________ + Grand total = _________ Enhancement comments: