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TTTTT H H EEEEE T H H E T HHHHH EEEE T H H E T H H EEEEE DDD EEEEE SSSSS IIIII GGGG N N EEEEE RRRR D D E S I GG NN N E R R D D EEEE SSSSS I G GG N N N EEEE RRRR D D E S I GG G N NN E R R DDD EEEEE SSSSS IIIII GGGG N N EEEEE R R Version 2.12 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Written and Edited by Lucie Turner and Paul Turner. Program design and code by Paul Turner Graphics by Paul Turner Example material Paul Turner and Lucie Turner. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER ONE Introduction What is The Designer? ............................................ 1.1 About this documentation ......................................... 1.1 Disk contents .................................................... 1.1 CHAPTER TWO Getting Started Creating some tiles .............................................. 2.1 System requirements .............................................. 2.3 Loading the program .............................................. 2.3 The screen layout ................................................ 2.4 Starting your map design ......................................... 2.5 CHAPTER THREE The File Requester .................................................. 3.1 CHAPTER FOUR The Project Menu Clear All ........................................................ 4.1 Load Map ......................................................... 4.1 Save Map ......................................................... 4.1 Save Map As ...................................................... 4.1 About ............................................................ 4.1 Quit ............................................................. 4.1 CHAPTER FIVE The Tiles Menu Load IFF Tiles ................................................... 5.1 Save Tiles ....................................................... 5.1 IFF Format .................................................... 5.1 Raw Format .................................................... 5.1 Set Tile Size .................................................... 5.1 32 x 32 ....................................................... 5.1 32 x 16 ....................................................... 5.1 16 x 32 ....................................................... 5.1 16 x 16 ....................................................... 5.2 Pick Tile ........................................................ 5.2 CHAPTER SIX The Map Menu Clear Map ........................................................ 6.1 Set Map Size ..................................................... 6.1 Extending Your Map ................................................6.1 Reducing Your Map .................................................6.1 Set Map Res ...................................................... 6.2 Lo Res Screen ................................................. 6.2 Hi Res Screen ................................................. 6.2 Save Raw Map ..................................................... 6.2 Discard Map ...................................................... 6.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER SEVEN The Blocks Menu Get Map Block .................................................... 7. Get Tiles Block .................................................. 7. Use Last Block ................................................... 7. Discard Block .................................................... 7. Filled Box ....................................................... 7. CHAPTER EIGHT The Prefs Menu Paint Mode ....................................................... 8.1 Include Tiles .................................................... 8.1 Create Icon ...................................................... 8.1 Workbench ........................................................ 8.1 Change Palette ................................................... 8.1 APPENDIX A System Messages ..................................................... A.1 APPENDIX B Technical Reference What is a map & how do they work? ................................ B.1 The V2 map file format ........................................... B.1 APPENDIX C Command Summary ..................................................... C.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I N T R O D U C T I O N ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Is The Designer? The Designer is a unique program for creating background graphics and level maps for games. It is designed to be used on the Commodore Amiga range of computers. By using The Designer, and any paint program, you will be able to design backgrounds and level maps quickly, easily and effectively, making the task in hand a lot more enjoyable. The Designer has been created to help you in every possible way, making your programming more hassle free. About This Documentation This manual will explain how to use The Designer to the best of its ability, giving examples and tutorials when necessary, and explaining how the program works in a simple, step-by-step manner. It is aimed at all users, whatever stage they are at. It does not matter whether you are a computer whiz, or a complete novice, this manual is user friendly and here to help you get the most from The Designer. Each function is covered in detailed sections, so information is easy to find, and on hand when you need it. From creating your first tile, to designing a whole range of intricate levels for your latest creation. Disk Contents The Designer disk should contain the following files and directories: TheDesigner - The executable History.doc - The Designer from the beginning Examples (dir) Example1.map - An example map Example2.map - Another example map The disk will also contain the various system files and directories required to boot your computer. If any of the above mentioned files are missing, then the chances are that you have an illegal copy, so you should contact a distributor or the author for details of how to get an official copy. 1.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating some tiles Before you can use The Designer, you have to create some tiles, you will need your paint package for this. Tiles are the 'building blocks' that you will use to build up a picture, or rather a background. This background is what is known as a 'map'. All of the tiles that you make must fit together, this is done by making sure the tiles are the same size, at all times. It is also possible to create a block of tiles for creating the background, but again, you must stick to tile boundaries. You should, by now, have your paint program loaded into your Amiga. It is best to draw each of your tiles seperately to start with. First of all you must turn on your co-ordinates (if you have them, if you haven't got any, you could be in big trouble). Now decide now how big you want your tiles, you have four choices: 16x16, 16x32, 32x16, 32x32. The Designer works on a whole tile basis, you cannot overlap your tiles. This means once you have chosen your tile size you must stick to it. Click on the rectangle tool on your paint program. Move the cursor on to the screen and draw a square. You will be drawing your tiles inside this square, so make it two dots bigger than the size you have chosen your tiles to be. ie. 32x32 would be drawn as 34x34. Click on the magnify tool and enlarge your square (this will make the drawing easier). You need to draw your tile in this square so that it touches the sides. When you have completed your tile, you must cut it out and put it on the spare screen. Tip It is a good idea to use the spare screen on your paint program if it has one. Draw each tile, then transfer it to the other screen, placing each tile next to the previous one. Click on the brush tool to activate it, then return to your tile. The mouse pointer is now ready to cut out your tile. Go to the top left hand corner of your tile, and, inside the line, cut out your first tile. This is usually done by holding down the left mouse button, and moving to the bottom right hand corner of your tile, a square should be drawn. You must then release the mouse button, your tile should be fixed onto your mouse pointer. 2.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now go to the spare screen, put down the tile in the very top left hand corner of the screen. It is a good idea to leave the first tile blank, as the map is cleared to this tile in the beginning. REMEMBER Some of the screen is hidden by the title bar and tools, use cursor keys to move underneath these 'obstacles'. Sometimes you cannot see the top of your tile, because of the colour, the actual tile is masked. Change the colour of the screen to one that is different to the transparant background colour. This is usually done by clicking on the colour with the right hand mouse button, then clicking on the clear screen option on your paint program. REMEMBER Do not clear the screen with a new colour every time you want to put a new tile down - you will lose all of your previous tiles! Change your tile into solid/non-transparant mode. Your paint program will explain how to do this, you should now be able to see the complete tile, with no see through bits. Place the top left hand corner of your tile in the top left hand corner of your blank screen, then press the mouse button to put it down. Each new tile must be placed directly next to the one before, with no spaces inbetween. When you get to the end of the screen you must put the next tile directly underneath the first one, then carry on across the screen as before. If you are drawing tiles that are to be joined on to each other, you would be wise to check that they will look alright. To do this you must cut out your tile (as explained before) and just hold it next to your original tile, this is a simple way to make sure the tiles 'work', when you are positive about the appearance of your tile, flip over to the spare screen and place it next to the previous one. Tip Read your paint package to learn how to flip your drawings, this will save you drawing the drawings again, which will save you time. When you have created your tiles on the paint package, you will need to save them. Refer to your paint package manual for information on how to do this. When you are using your Paint Package you might be able to create a picture that is bigger than the actual screen. (I do not mean overscan). If you wish to, you can use this feature because The Designer supports large tile pages. 2.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements The Designer should run on any Amiga with at least 512KBytes of ram, and Kickstart 1.2 or greater. For serious use, at least 1MByte of memory is recommended, as is a second floppy disk drive or a hard drive. Loading The Program Put the disk with The Designer on it into the computers disk drive. Workbench will load as normal. The DesignerV2 icon will appear on the screen, double click this icon with the left mouse button. A window will appear showing various icons. There are three ways to load The Designer, it is entirely up to you which of the options you use, which ever one you find easier, is obviously the one for you. 1) Double click The Designer icon in The DesignerV2 window on the Workbench screen. 2) Type "TheDesigner" into a CLI or shell window, along with an optional Map Filespec. ie. >TheDesigner <filespec> 3) Click on Map icon on the Workbench, this will load The Designer and the map ready to be edited. This will only work if The Designer is on a disk called "DesignerV2:". 2.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Screen Layout The screen is split into two areas: The status area and the editing window, we will now discuss these individually. The Status Area The status area appears on the screen when The Designer has finished loading. The status area is seperated into four different sections. +---------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+ | +---+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-------------------+ | | | | | 2 | | | 4 | | 5 | | | 8 | | 9 | | | | | | | 1 | +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | | 12 | | | | | +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | | | | | | | | 3 | | | 6 | | 7 | | | 10 | | 11 | | | | | | +---+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-----+ +-----+ | +-------------------+ | +---------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+ The first block contains a square (1) which shows a representation of your tile, it does not use the exact colours that you have used, so don't panic if it looks a bit strange. There is a small heading called TILE (2), this shows the number of the tile you are using. This changes to BLOCK, when you are in that mode. The heading SIZE (3) simply tells you the size of the tile or block that you are using. When you are in paint mode, the box changes to the word Paint. Tile sizes are in Pixels (dots). Block sizes are in tiles. The second block (4 and 5) in the status area tells you, in x and y terms, how big the map is. Depth (6) is the number of Bitplanes used for the tiles, and it relates to the number of colours used. MAP RES (7) is the resolution of the editing screen. This can either be in Hi or Low res. When you are in Hi Res Mode you might want to slow the mouse down (using the preference on your Workbench), so the computer can keep up with you, this probably only applies to Kickstart 1.3. 2.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The third block (8 and 9) tells you the position you are in the map, giving you the co-ordinates of the editing window, relative to the top left hand corner of the map. Cursor Position (10 and 11) tells you the co-ordinates of the cursor relative to the top left hand corner of the map (when you are in the editing window). The co-ordinates are in tiles, from the top left hand corner of the map. The fourth and final section of the status area is the Fast Mover Gadget (12), this allows you to instantly move the editing window to anywhere in the map. When the gadget is active, the white area represents your map, and the red block is the area where the editing window is. If you go to this gadget and click with the left mouse button, you can move around your map a lot quicker, the red block will move and the editing window will be transferred there automatically. The Editing Window The editing window only appears when there is a map defined, it is situated under the status area, all of your editing is done in here. Starting Your Map Design First load The Designer as described above, then load your tiles and set the tile size as described in the 'Tiles Menu' chapter. Now you must define your initial map, the method for doing this is detailed in the 'Set Map Size' section of the 'Map Menu' chapter. To begin creating your map you must first pick the tile you wish to use. There are three ways to do this. You can either select the 'Pick Tile' option from the 'Tiles' menu, you can press the space bar, or you can press the right hand mouse button when you are in the editing window. Your selection of Tiles will appear on a seperate screen, which is called 'The Tile Selection Page'. If you have a Tile Selection Page bigger than the screen you will be able to scroll your page about using the cursor keys. 2.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the left mouse button you can choose the tile you wish to use, when you have clicked on the tile of your choice you are automatically returned to the main screen, and you can put your tile down wherever you want to. The cursor moves around by the size of the tile, not by each pixel, as you move around the screen you should notice the co-ordinates changing. 2.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E F I L E R E Q U E S T E R ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The file requester is split into two parts. There is the file window on the left and on the right is the control window. The File Window This is where all the files and sub directories of the current disk are listed. Directories have '(dir)' added to the end of them so you know that they are directories. When you click on the name of a file the name is transferred into the file box in the control window. When you click on the name of a directory the name is added to the end of the drawer box, again, this is in the control window. The new directory is read into the file window. The Control Window There is a red block in the centre and two arrows, this allows you to scroll up and down the list of files. The drawer box is the name of the directory containing the current file list. The file box is the name of the currently selected file. OKAY: You press this when you have finished and you want to continue, the okay option really just agrees with whatever is on the screen at the time, irrelevant to whether it is correct or not, the okay option accepts the current choice, the current file name, and the current file, all as being correct. DRIVES: When you click on this the file list is replaced by a list of all disks that are currently in the disk drives, when you select one it is put in the drawer box, and then read. The right hand mouse button has the same effect. PARENT: This moves you back a directory, so you can use the previous file list. CANCEL: This option will abort the operation, immediately. 3.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E P R O J E C T M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clear All Clears all Map/Block/Tile data and resets everything to its original state. If you have not saved your map, a requester appears on the screen to make sure you want to continue. Load Map Allows you to load a previously saved map. The file requester appears on the screen, you select the file you wish to load. If the file was not saved with the tiles included as part of the map, it is essential that these are loaded and initialised (tile size set up) prior to loading the map. If you have been editing a map and have not saved it, a requester will appear asking you if you are sure you wish to continue. Save Map Saves map under the old name. If it has not been previously saved the File Requester will come up on the screen, you type in a name for it here. (When you save a map, you can either save it with or without the tiles. The Preferences menu allows you to do this). Save Map As The File Requester comes up so you can enter a name to save the map under. About This explains about the author of the program and copyright conditions. Quit This option will exit the program. If the current map is un-saved a requester appears on the screen to see whether you want to continue. 4.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E T I L E S M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Load IFF Tiles This option brings up the file requester so you can select an IFF (Interchange File Format) File (picture file) for you to load and use as tiles. If the current map is not saved a requester will appear on the screen to see if you want to continue. Save Tiles IFF Format The File Requester appears on the screen allowing you to save out your tiles as an IFF File (picture file) to load back into your paint package. Raw Format The File Requester appears on the screen and allows you to save out the tiles in Raw format for use in your own programs, the format is as follows: 'Depth' Planes of Raw Bitplane data followed by a table of WORDs describing the colours. Set Tile Size This allows you to set the size of your tile. 32x32 This option changes the tile size to 32x32. It then checks the map for validity and adjusts any tiles that are now out of range. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear, to see if you wish to continue. 32x16 This option changes the tile size to 32x16. It then checks the map for validity and adjusts any tiles that are now out of range. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear, to see if you wish to continue. 16x32 This option changes the tile size to 16x32. It then checks the map for validity and adjusts any tiles that are now out of range. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear, to see if you wish to continue. 5.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E T I L E S M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16x16 This option changes the tile size to 16x16. It then checks the map for validity and adjusts any tiles that are now out of range. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear, to see if you wish to continue. Pick Tile This brings up the Tile Selection Page so you can pick which tile it is you wish to use. Using the mouse pointer, just choose the tile you want by clicking on it with your left hand mouse button. 5.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E M A P M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clear Map This allows you to clear the whole map to the current tile you are using. A requester will appear on the screen to make sure you want to continue. Set Map Size This allows you to determine the initial size of the map. The instructions that appear in the requester are self explanatory, basically you just put any number you like in the box, it is not a permanent fixture, and can be extended or shrunk at a later date. Click on the Okay box when you have defined your map size, the status area has now been activated, you are now ready to go. Extending Your Map This will only work if there is a map already defined. Go into the status area with your mouse pointer, and hold down the right hand mouse button. Go to the Map menu and then highlight the 'Set Map Size' option, now let go of the mouse button. A requester will appear on the screen, click in the continue box, if you wish to do so. Another requester will appear on the screen containing four boxes: Top Extension, Bottom Extension, Left Extension, Right Extension. The numbers that you put in these boxes are the number of tiles you wish to extend the map by in that direction. Before typing in the numbers, click in the box with the left mouse button, this activates the boxes, and opens them up. Press Okay when you have added the amount of tiles you require, and are happy with the settings. You will automatically return to the main screen, and you should notice in the Status area that your map size has been increased. Reducing Your Map Make sure you are in the status area, again go to the top of the screen with the right mouse button held down, go to the Map menu and highlight the Set Map Size option, then let go of the mouse button. The same boxes that were on the extending your map feature, are present again here. To reduce the size of your map you must put negative numbers in the boxes (ie. with a minus sign in front of it) Press on the Okay box when you are finished, and you will return to the main screen, if you check the Status area you will see that the size of your map has been reduced. It is possible to increase and decrease the size of your map at the same time. Eg. If you want to remove five tiles from the left hand side of your map and then add ten on to the right hand side of your map, you must put -5 in the L Ext: box and 10 in the R Ext: box. Then press on the Okay box. Remember you can always check what you have done in the Status area. 6.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E M A P M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Set Map Res This allows you to set the resolution (size of dots) on the editing window. Hi Res Means you can fit twice as much information on the screen, this does make it a bit slower though. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear asking if you wish to continue. Lo Res Normal mode, you get the normal amount of data on the screen and the mouse moves at normal speed. If the map has not been saved a requester will appear asking if you wish to continue. Save Raw Map This brings the file requester on to the screen, so you can save your map out in Raw Format, for use in your own programs. Raw format is just a table of WORDs that describe the tile numbers. There is no Tile or Size data, you must supply this yourself. Discard Map This function will delete all block and map data, the editing window will close. If the map has been changed and you haven't saved it, you will get a requester appear asking if you wish to continue. After this operation most of the status area will go blank. 6.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E B L O C K S M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get Map Block You might think that nothing has happened when you activate this option, but, all the menus at the top of the screen are now disabled, now, you must define your block. When you go to the editing window the cursor comes up as normal, you then click the left mouse button to set one corner of the block. The cursor can now expand, and it stretches out (as a rectangle) when you move the mouse around. You are also able to scroll around the screen by using the red block that is in the Fast Mover Gadget. Once you have selected your block, press the left hand mouse button again to complete the operation, at any time you can abort this procedure by pressing the escape key on your keyboard. The cursor changes to the size of the block you have just defined. The Tile Box in the status area says BLOCK, and the Tile Size Box changes to the size of the block (which is measured in tiles). When you press the left mouse button, instead of a single tile being pasted on the screen, your block will be. Get Tiles Block The Tile Selection Page appears on your screen, instead of the normal dividing lines, you get a cursor the size of your tiles. Go to one corner of the block you wish to define and press the left mouse button. Again the cursor is expandable, you must move to the point you wish your block to end, then press the left mouse button again. Remember that you can abort this procedure at any time, by pressing the escape key on your keyboard. You are now returned to ther main screen. The cursor has changed to the size of your block, and the status area has changed as well. The Tile Size Box now contains the size of your block, and the Tile Box now says BLOCK. When you press the left mouse button, you get a copy of your block pasted down. Use Last Block This function gives you the option to use the last block that you created, so you don't have to re-define your block, this will save you time. 7.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E B L O C K S M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discard Block This will delete the block from the memory, and returns you to tile mode, leaving you with the last tile that you were using before you defined your block. This means that you cannot use the 'Last Block' option, because you have just discarded the block. Filled Box You might think that this option does nothing at all. But the menus at the top of the screen are now disabled. Move to the editing window and get the normal cursor will appear. Press the left hand mouse button to set one corner of the area to be filled. The cursor is expandable, and stretches as you move across the screen. You may use the cursor keys to move about your map, or, alternatively you could use the red block in the Fast Mover Gadget. Set the other corner of the area to be filled by pressing the left mouse button again. When this has been done, the area that you have just defined will be filled in, using the current tile in use. You are then instantly returned to normal mode. You may abort this procedure at any time by pressing the escape key on your keyboard. 7.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E P R E F E R E N C E S M E N U ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paint Mode The Paint Mode allows you to paint with the tile, instead of putting each tile down individually. You should also notice that the Box that usually contains the tile size has now got PAINT written in it, this only happens when you are actually painting. When Paint Mode is selected a tick appears by the side of it on the menu. Include Tiles This option allows you to save the tiles as part of the map when you are saving. When this is in use, a tick appears by the side of the title in the menu. Create Icon When you save a map, this creates an icon for the map, which appears in the drawer when you are using it with workbench. When this is in use, a tick appears next to the title on the menu. Workbench This option gives you control of the workbench screen. Change Palette This option allows you to change the colours used for the tiles. A palette requester comes up on the screen. The operation of this is basically the same as for most paint programs. 8.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- System / Error Messages The following is a list of all the error messages produced by V2.12, along with a short definition. File is not V2 map file. The file you are trying to load is not a valid map file created with V2.xx of The Designer. File is not an IFF-85 file. The tiles file you are trying to load is not a valid IFF file. IFF file is not an ILBM picture file. The tiles file you are trying to load is an IFF, but of the wrong type. IFF file is missing required chunk(s). The tiles file you are trying to load is of the correct type, but one or more IFF chunks that are required by The Designer are missing. Unable to open file for reading. The Designer was unable to open the requested file. Possible causes are: Either, the file does not exist, the disk is corrupted, or you specified the wrong drawer / directory. Unable to open file for writing. The Designer was unable to create the new file. Possible causes are: Either, the disk is corrupted, the disk is full, you requested to put the file in a drawer that does not exist or the file already exists and is protected from modification. Unable to read data from file. The Designer has opened the required file, but is unable to read it. Possible causes are: Either, the disk is corrupted or the file is an invalid size (ie. too short). A.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unable to write to file. The Designer was unable to write the file, possible causes are: Either, the disk is corrupted or the disk is full. Unable to create icon for map file. The Designer has successfully created the map file, but was unable to create an icon for it. Possible causes are: Either, the disk is corrupted or the disk is full. No Tiles Data Present. The map file you are trying to load is valid, but does not contain tiles data. You must load tiles data first, then load the map. Not enough memory for requested operation. The Designer failed to get the memory needed to perform the requested function. Unable to close the workbench. The Designer failed to close the Workbench screen. Unable to open the workbench. The Designer failed to open the Workbench screen. Probably because there was not enough free memory. Unable to display file requester. The Designer failed to bring up the file requester. Probably because there was not enough free memory. Unable to display palette requester. The Designer failed to bring up the palette requester. Probably because there was not enough free memory. Unable to display map size requester. The Designer was unable to bring up the requester for setting / changing the size of the map. Probably because there was not enough free memory. A.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unable to display the tiles screen. The Designer was unable to bring up the tiles screen for tile / block selection. Probably because there was not enough free memory. Unable to open edit window. The Designer failed to re-open the editing window after of a change of resolution or depth. This currently results in all unsaved map / block data being lost. This is usually caused by running out of memory. Occasionally the system is in such a state that it can't open the normal message window. When this happens an alert will appear with a simple "Operation failed" message. A.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is a map and how do they work? A map is basically a table of WORDs. Each WORD in the table references a tile. The computer looks at the WORDs in the table and draws the correct tile at the correct position on the display. The Designer stores the tiles as a raster image, and uses the blitter to cut the tiles from the tiles raster and blit them onto the visible display. This is not the only way to do this, and when you come to use your maps in your own programs, you will use the method best suited to the job. The V2 Map File Format All version two designers will have the same file format, this means that any V2.xx designer can load any map created with any other V2.xx designer. The format of the file is as follows: LONG Map_ID V2 map identifier. "M2.0" WORD CTile Current tile number when map was saved. WORD MTile Maximum tile number. WORD TRasX Width of tiles raster. (In bits). WORD TRasY Height of tiles raster. WORD TX Width of 1 tile. (In bits). WORD TY Height of 1 tile. WORD Flags Various flags. (See below). WORD MX Width of map in tiles. WORD MY Height of map in tiles. WORD MXP X position of edit window when map saved. WORD MYP Y position of edit window when map saved. WORD Depth Depth of tiles raster. WORD Modes ViewModes for edit window. Currently only VP_HIRES applies. WORD MRasX Width of edit window. (320 or 640). Size = 32 bytes If there are tiles in this file, there now follows a copy of the tiles' viewport. This is followed by the raw bitplane data, followed a table of WORDs describing the colours. Size = ( vp_SIZEOF + ( ( TRasX / 8 ) * TRasY ) * Depth ) bytes. Now follows the WORDS of map data. Size = (( MX * MY ) * 2 ) bytes. B.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flags The only flag you need to know is as follows. MIFB_INCTILES bit 3 When this is set, it means that this map has tiles data included. When it is clear, the map requires tiles to be loaded prior to loading the map. B.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X C ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Command Summary The following is a list of all The Designer's functions, along with any keyboard shortcuts. There are two commands which are keyboard only. File Related Functions Load Map [l]/[L] - Load V2 map file. Load Tiles [t]/[T] - Load ILBM picture as tiles. Save Map [S] - Save V2 map file. Old name. Save Map As [s] - Save V2 map file. New name. Save IFF Tiles [F7] - Save tiles as IFF data. Save Raw Tiles [F8] - Save tiles as raw data. Save Raw Map [r]/[R] - Save map as raw data. Tile Related Functions Set Size 32 x 32 [F1] - Change tile size. Set Size 32 x 16 [F2] - Change tile size. Set Size 16 x 32 [F3] - Change tile size. Set Size 16 x 16 [F4] - Change tile size. Pick Tile [SPACE]/[RMB] - Select tile to use. Next Tile [+] / [=] - Move onto next tile. Previous Tile [-] / [-] - Move onto previous tile. Map Related Functions Clear Map [x]/[X] - Initialise map to current tile. Set Map Size [m]/[M] - Set / change map size. Edit Hi-Res Screen [F6] - Use hi-res screen for map output. Edit Lo-Res Screen [F5] - Use lo-res screen for map output. Discard Map [d]/[D] - Erase map and block data. Block Related Functions Get Map Block [b] - Grab part of map as a block Get Tiles Block [B] - Grab part of tiles page as a block. Use Last Block [F9] - Use previous block if in memory. Discard Block [F10] - Erase block data. Filled Box [f]/[F] - Fill a box with current tile. C.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A P P E N D I X C ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remaining Functions Clear All [DEL] - Erase all data. Initialise editor. About [HELP] - Author / (C) info. Paint Mode [p] - Toggle paint mode. Include Tiles [i] - Toggle tiles mode. Create Icon [I] - Toggle icon mode. Workbench - - Toggle Workbench. Change Palette [P] - Adjust colour palette. Quit [ESC] - Exit The Designer. Place Tile [LMB]/[RETURN] - Place tile / block at cursor. Scroll Map Cursor (arrow) keys. (C)1993-94 P.D.Turner. 21 Langton Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 2BW