All about Demos for DMapEdit ---------------------------- Hopefully you've already seen the old demo I made with beta 6. If not, well.. Demo files for DMapEdit have the extention '.rec', which stands for recording. By default, DMapEdit will use 'demo.rec' if you don't give it a filename. To play a demo file, you use the '-play' switch: dmapedit -play <-- playback the demo.rec file dmapedit -play doors <-- playback the doors.rec file With a demo running, the word 'demo' will flash in the upper left-hand corner of the screen just under the toolbar. This is just there to remind you a demo is playing. During playback, all control functions (mouse and keyboard) are read from the demo file, instead of you the user. You can stop playback at any time by pressing 'ESC'. During playback, windows will most likely appear from time to time containing information for you to read. This is to explain what the 'demo' is doing. With demo mode, I wanted to try and make it so that I could show each and every user of DMapEdit how to use my editor, without actually having to be there to show you myself. If I was there teaching you how to use it, I would talk to you and tell you exactly what I'm doing as I do it. Since I'm not really there, though, these windows serve that purpose. I call these windows 'info boxes'. When an info box appears, DMapEdit will wait until you read it all. When you are done reading it, all you need to do is press any key on the keyboard to continue, except 'ESC', since this will stop playback. Playback will automatically end when the end of the demo file being played is reached, or when DMapEdit terminates. In the first case, an info box will appear informing you that the demo is at an end. You will once again have full control of DMapEdit at this point. --------------- Recording Demos --------------- In addition to simply being able to play demos, you can also record your own demos. This can be useful for many reasons: * Someone you are trying to explain something to can't make heads or tails of what you are saying, and you can't get together with him/her to actually show them. An example is worth 10,000 words. (Just a simple picture is only worth 1,000!) You can create a demo for them to explain it all. * You've found a bug in DMapEdit that you can reproduce at will, but can't seem to explain the bug to me very well. You can create a demo that demonstrates the error happening. * You can create a tutorial on DMapEdit usage, or on how to create a PWAD from start to finish, or whatever. Beats reading a big long file. As you can see, the common theme here is 'DEMOnstrating' your ideas in real time. Ok, so how do you do it? Basically, you follow the same format for playing a demo, except you use the '-record' switch: dmapedit -record <-- record the demo.rec file dmapedit -record doors <-- record the doors.rec file Please note however that this will erase whatever file already exists with that name, overwritting it with your new demo. If you want to append to an existing demo, see below. Once DMapEdit is up and running, all mouse and most keyboard commands are automatically saved as you go along. The reason I say most keyboard commands is that currently only normal keys and Alt-keys are saved. Holding down the Shift or Ctrl key when using the mouse buttons will not save properly. Only the fact that the mouse button was pressed will be saved, so playback will react differently from your recording if you do this. I will correct this later when I come up with a good solution. The word 'recording' will flash in the upper left-hand corner of the screen just below the toolbar to remind you that it is recording a demo. "So what about the info boxes?" you are probably asking. When you are ready to have an info box display, simply press the ` key (not the ' key!), which should be located just below the 'ESC' on most keyboards. This will pop up a big empty window for you to put your message in. It's not the world's greatest editor or anything, but it does support cursor movement, insert, delete, page up/down, home, end, and word-wrap. If you find what you want to say is more than will fit in the window, put it into 2 windows instead, one right after the other. When you are done typing in your message to the user, pressing 'ESC' will save the window and let you continue where you left off. A word of warning, however. Info boxes are really only meant to be displayed from the 'main editing loop'. This would be were you actually dealing with the map directly. Basically, if any type of yellow window is displayed, you are not in the main editing loop, and you shouldn't bring up an info box there. While I thought I coded it to work at such points, it doesn't seem to, so until I can get it working at such points, avoid using it there. Back out of the windows first to the main editing loop first. 'ESC' will work just fine to get you out of the windows, by the way. Using 'ESC' in the main editing loop, however, will stop recording of the demo, instead of quitting DMapEdit, which 'ESC' normally does when not in Demo mode. Ok, so that about covers everything, right? Well, there's a few more things you might be interested to know about.. While you are playing a demo, you can at any point switch over to recording mode by pressing 'Alt-R'. This can be very handy to pick up where you left off on a demo you started but didn't finish for whatever reason (got sleepy, ran into a bug, power failure, etc.) This is in fact the reason I put it in. I got tired of having to start all over from scratch each time I ran into a bug, or didn't like the direction I took with what I was doing and wanted to rewrite it. Once you are in recording mode, however, there is no way to switch back to playback again or anything. Anything else that was in the demo beyond your 'take-over' point is history. If you happen to create any really good demos, feel free to send it to me. I'll add it to the library of demos I distribute with DMapEdit, as well as the official DMapEdit homepage.