PLEASE DEARCHIVE all the files before use (well its best to anyway).
You will find the application !AUA_Attack: This new version of our engine is becoming more like the finished one, featuring:
1) Transparent walls
2) Doors
3) Variables Screen Sizes
4) Fixed Point Maths
5) Parameters passed to engine
6) Objects
7) Demo Modes
The source has been compiled with Easy C/C++, but it has not been compiled with Acorn C or GNU C. I believe that it may compile, but with warnings. A few warnings come up with Easy C. These relate to storage of char * pointers in an int[] array. This will be remedies in future versions of the engine.
The look up tables will take a while to generate also on slower machines, but soon I'll load them in from file instead.
PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS INSIDE THE RUN FILE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALTERING THE PARAMTERS PASSED TO THE ENGINE.
The engine uses a brand new world file and set of graphics, each which comply with the shading (of sorts) system we established in article three. There is also one door and one windows.
Letters A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I can be used to represent more tiles and also they might be used for objects next month.
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2. "Note to STRONGARM users"
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StrongARM RISC PC owners may (like myself) find the program to crash with either a floating point error or some sort of instruction abort. This (thank god!) is nothing to do with the program, but some sort of irregularity in the StrongARM architecture which isn't spotted by the compiler.
A patch is available from A.R.T, it can be found on one of the Clan Acorn membership discs and most likely from their web site:
http://www.art.acorn.co.uk/www.acorn.com
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3. "Screen mode problems"
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The !AUA_Attack application uses mode 13 to generate its view. On RISC PC machines (and some of those with RISC OS 3 or later) this screen mode is "letter-boxed". This can be corrected by changing the mode definition file on your computer. The changes made are specific to your own monitor, so it is best to either
1) Contact your dealer
2) Contact someone who knows their Acorns!
3) Contact me for advice.
Note that the engine will still WORK, albeit a little "squished"!
In this version screen banking is used, so make sure that enough screen memory is available.
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4. "New graphics and things"
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The new graphics inside the !AUA_Attack application feature a various number of tiles differing in their style and pupose, such as a urinal, trees, bookshelf. The object graphics are too varied to list, have a look when you run it!
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5. "BUT I ONLY FIND OBJECTS IN THE LOOS"
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This is because I haven't put any more objects in the objworld file. You have to be careful to watch the walls when you are doing this, it is useful to have both the world and objworld file up when doing this, or else you will get objects in walls. The objects in the code are guaranteed (!) not to be in walls, but like I said it takes a long time to make sure all objects are suitably placed, so I have left the reader to do so.
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6. "Contacting me and other issues"
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THIS MONTH read the source code (and comments) for the many (albeit small) changes to the code, and also read the comments inside the applications !run file for details of passing parameters to the engine, and of course the objects!!!
