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1995-10-02
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DCGAMES 4.00
Upgrade Instructions
If you have a game written using version 3.00 through 3.03
of DCGAMES, you will need to follow these steps to convert
it to the format used in version 4.00.
This document assumes that you have installed full
registered version of DCGAMES. The shareware product does
not include the utilites and compatibility files needed.
It assumes that you have installed the product in the
directory DCGAMES, and the following directories:
\DCGAMES\EXAMPLE The new example game (version 4.0)
\DCGAMES\BIN The common files (EXEs, etc)
1. First, make a backup copy of your game.
C:\> mkdir OLDGAME
C:\> copy MYGAME\*.* OLDGAME
C:\> cd MYGAME
C:\MYGAME>
2. The next step is to Remove Obsolete Files that were
part of the old version.
C:\MYGAME> del *.exe
C:\MYGAME> del sav*.*
C:\MYGAME> del party.dta
C:\MYGAME> del *.sco
Note: you should not include the files PARTY.DTA or
SAV*.* with your game, so that it will start execution
from the beginning instead of from a saved position.
3. Now you have to upgrade your graphics images. There
are 3 different ways of doing this depending on your
situation:
a) If you have NOT created any new graphics images
using the DCBLOCK tile editor utility, you should just
delete the old tiles and use the backwards compatible
ones provided
C:\MYGAME> del dcblocks.*
C:\MYGAME> del dcobject.*
C:\MYGAME> del dcpeople.*
C:\MYGAME> del dcsystem.*
C:\MYGAME> pkunzip \DCGAMES\BIN\OLDVHI.ZIP
b) If you DID create your own graphics images using the
"VLO" graphics mode, you need to convert the images to
the new format and copy some new tiles over. Note that
while VLO was the recommended and default graphics
mode, the VHI mode is now prefered.
C:\MYGAME> rename dcblocks.VLO dcblock0.VLO
C:\MYGAME> dccnvt4g
C:\MYGAME> vgaremap VHI
C:\MYGAME> rename xx*.VHI dc*.VHI
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\EXAMPLE\DCSYSTEM.VHI
c) If you created your own graphics images using the
"VHI"graphics mode:
C:\MYGAME> rename dcblocks.vhi dcblock0.vhi
C:\MYGAME> dccnvt4g
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\EXAMPLE\dcsystem.vhi
Note: You can use the XTRACT.EXE utility to copy
selected tiles if you want to upgrade your own
graphics. For example:
If you added landscaping tiles after the ones provided
by DCGAMES, you can overlay the original 84 tiles while
leaving yours intact as follows:
C:\MYGAME> xtract -VHI \DCGAMES\EXAMPLE\dcblock0.vhi dcblock0.vhi 0 0 84
4. Now you convert the game files:
Note: If you have accidentally created worlds that you
don't want (for example, if you created world # 600
when you intended to create world 60, this is your
chance to get rid of it. Delete any WORLD.nnn and
WORLDO.nnn files that you don't want to keep before
running DCCNVT4 and the index file will be corrected to
reflect the actual number of worlds found.
C:\MYGAME> del world.047
C:\MYGAME> del world.600
C:\MYGAME> dccnvt4 SAFE
6. The DCCTOKEN.DAT file changed quite a bit. To know if
you can use the new one without any changes, you must
compare the DCCTOKEN.DAT file in your game with the
original file provided in version 3.03.
C:\MYGAME> diff -v DCCTOKEN.DAT \DCGAMES\BIN\DCCTOKEN.303
You will need to edit the NEW DCCTOKEN.DAT file and
make any changes that you made to the old file. If you
added object classes and there is a conflict with the
ones I've added, you need to modify the list to match
YOUR settings. Remember to re-compile the scripts and
also remember that the file \DCGAMES\BIN\DCOBJECT.VHI
contains tiles that are taged with the original object
class. Thus, if you want to use those graphics you
will need to either use my original DCCTOKEN.DAT file
or use DCBLOCK.EXE to modify the object class in the
tiles.
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\BIN\dcctoken.dat
C:\MYGAME> edit dcctoken.dat ! add my stuff
6. Now each script needs to be compared with the original
from version 3.03 to see if you changed it and the
changes must be made to the new scripts.
If you didn't mess around with the scripts, just copy
them from the example directory:
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\EXAMPLE\*.SCR
If you modified the original scripts, you can use you
should at least copy the following ones and use the
DIFF utility to compare the rest of them with your
modified ones and use a text editor to make any changes
manually:
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\CONTROL.SCR
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\OBJECT.SCR
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\CURRITEM.SCR
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\DESCOBJ.SCR
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\INITGAME.SCR
C:\MYGAME> copy \DCGAMES\OLDXMPL\FIGHTING.SCR
Now compile all the scripts.
C:\MYGAME> for %i in (*.scr) do dcc %i
The rest of the scripts didn't change too much. I made
minor adjustments. If you didn't modify them you
should copy mine. Use the DIFF.EXE utility if you are
not sure. All of your original scripts should work
without modification.
8. Finally, if you are going to use the VLO graphics mode,
you need to be aware that there is now a configurable
palette file that has a much better range of colors and
shades to be used in 256 color modes (.VLO,.VH1
and.VH2). The file DCPALET.PAL contains the palette in
NEOPAINT format and is loaded into the file DCPALET.DAT
using the LOADPAL.EXE utility. If you have created
tiles in VLO or any of the superVGA resolutions, you
probably used the default VGA palette, so you need to
create your own DCPALET.DAT file as follows:
C:\MYGAME> LOADPAL \DCGAMES\BIN\OLDPALET.PAL
The file OLDPALET.PAL in \DCGAMES\BIN contains the VGA
default palette values
9. If you had VOICE FILES (*.VFL) associated with your
game, you would need to convert them to the new format
as follows:
C:\MYGAME> mkdir temp
C:\MYGAME> cd temp
C:\MYGAME\temp> unmkvfl ..\voice003.vfl
C:\MYGAME\temp> pack -P ..\voice003.rsc *.voc
C:\MYGAME\temp> del *.*
Note: You would repeat the above for all VOICEnnn.VFL
files as well as the DCSOUNDS.VFL file. You can now
delete the VFL file. Make sure you have a backup just
in case.. :)
NOTE: The only known bug is that you cannot use the
VOXKIT utility that Sound Blaster provides to compress
(or pack) the voices. Packed voice files are not
supported. Since the voices in the original example
ARE packed (to save a few bytes), I need to re-record
them!!
10- PCX graphics images
While your PCX files will work just fine as they are,
there are a few things you can do to make them better:
a) DCGAMES will display PCX images inside the VIEW
window if they are small enough to fit. Otherwise it
will clear the screen and display them on the full
screen. In general, character and object pictures
should be kept small enough to fit in the VIEW
window, while world maps and other large images
should take up all of the screen (640x480 ideally).
b) Note that DCGAMES has a standard palette of colors
that it works with. Your PCX file also has a palette
and DCGAMES will try to use that palette to display
your graph. There are several things you can do:
- Use a paint program like NEOPAINT to change your
PCX images to use the DCGAMES palette. This is the
best option.
- Use 16 color images for your characters and
objects. This allows the image to be displayed
very nicely in the VIEW window without changing the
color of the rest of the screen.
- You may use 256 VLO mode (320x200) for full screen
images since the screen is cleared anyway, but even
with 16 colors the VHI resolution (640x480) can
display some very nice graphics due to the smaller
pixels. A good paint program like NEOPAINT can use
dithering to create additional colors.
In general, the best practice is to create separate PCX
files for the VLO and VHI resolutions if you want to
support both of them. That way, your images will look
best in either format. Your instllation of the game
should ask if they want to use VLO or VHI and install
the appropriate images.
You are now ready to edit and play your game using version
4.00 of the game system. Please call me after 9pm Central
any day (weekends or weekdays) if you have any questions.
If you start using the system a lot, you may want to make
notes and call when you have a list of questions.
If you are writing your own scripts, you should print the
CONTROL script and look it over!
I don't have any documentation yet except the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) of which I've included a hard copy.
Thanks.
Enjoy,
Dave Hernandez
7908 Kettlewood Ct.
Plano TX 75025
214-491-1579