Inside Mac Games Volume 4 #8/IMG 39 Aug 1996.iso/More Goodies/More For Your Game/Escape Velocity/Utilities/delta_v Unoffical delta_v FAQ

Text File | 1996-07-07 | 18KB | 371 lines

Subj:  delta_v: Unoffical delta_v FAQ
Date:  Jul 7, 1996 7:59 PM EDT
From:  [e-mail]
X-From:    [e-mail] (Theodore F. Vaida ][)
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This message sent by "Theodore F. Vaida ][" <[e-mail]> to the list delta_v
-

Here is the latest version of my unofficial delta_v FAQ.  There are surely
spelling grammer and possibly factual errors (I have created by hand at
least one plugin resource of every kind that works, however my memory is
not perfect).  Please send comments and suggestions.

tfv - <http://www.frii.com/~tfv> - <mailto:[e-mail]>

--------------

DELTA_V UNOFFICIAL FAQ (v0.3 July 7, 1996, 5:02pm)

  I.0     About the List
  I.1    What is delta_v
  I.2   How can I distribute my customized I_Hate_Barney plug-in version of
EV?
  I.3    I cant unsubscribe from delta_v - help!
  I.4     I have a really great idea for Matt to implemement in EV 5.6.33
  I.4a    Lets make EV networkable!
  I.5    I think I found a bug in EV!
  I.6   I want to copy StarTrek/Babylon5/Deep Space Nine/Star Wars/some
other movie..
  I.7    EV-Edit/EEV/Schmelta-V has a bug in it...
 II.0     About Getting information
 II.1    What is the EV-Bible I keep hearing about?
 II.2    What programs can I use to create my own plugins?
 II.3    Where can I talk to people live about EV?
III.0    Nity gritty details & Editing stuff
III.1    What happened to flet and dsig resources?
III.2    How can I make sure my plugin works with other plugins?
III.3    How do I make my special PICS work?
III.4    How do I get my descriptions for weapons and other outfits to appear?
III.5    How do I get my outfits to be named?
III.6    What are those other governments in the EV Data file for?
III.7    How do I get my sounds to work?
 IV.0    Miscelaneous
 IV.1    What 3D programs can I use to render my ships and spins?

I.        About the List

I.1        What is delta_v
Delta-v is a mailing list for discussing plugins and additions to Escape
Velocity, a great game for the Macintosh by Ambrosia Software.

From the official majordomo snipet you receive when you subscribe to
delta_v:
"Here's the general information for the list you've
subscribed to, in case you don't already have it:

Welcome to the Escape Velocity world builder mailing list!  This is an open
mailing list: anyone can subscribe and post messages to the list.  Please
DO NOT abuse this list by spamming it; you will be banned from the list.

The purpose of this list is facilitate the creation of new worlds,
missions,
ships, weapons, etc. for Escape Velocity.  It is NOT a list to talk about
the
game itself; we suggest you use Usenet's comp.sys.mac.games.action for
that.

Things to keep in mind:

-- Your messages are going out to hundreds of people.  Please only post
substantive items to the list.

-- If you have a question to ask a specific person who is on the list,
please send them private eMail instead of sending the question to the
list (unless you feel it will benefit everyone on the list).

-- Please do not use a signature that is longer than 6 or 7 lines.  What
was once cool quickly becomes annoying when people have to scroll through
it hundreds of times.

-- Please do not quote the article you are replying to excessively.  A
good rule of thumb is that your reply should almost always be longer than
what you are quoting."

I.2   How can I distribute my customized I_Hate_Barney plug-in version of
EV?
First thing to remember DONT send the plugin to the delta_v list as a file
attachment!  Many people reading this list have accounts that cost by the
hour of connect time.  Second if its a blatant copy of some movie, book, or
other computer program dont ask Andrew Welch to distribute it for you.
Also you cannot edit the EV Data file and distribute that as part of a copy
of the EV program, sorry thems the rules, if you wish to do such a change
you must obtain permission first from Ambrosia software.  You can
contribute plug-ins to Ambrosia and to the Unofficial web page at
<http://www.sasknet.com/~jayt/ev/>.  Also you can upload your file via
anonymous ftp onto <ftp://ftp.grayphics.com/pub/ev> place cheats into the
directory labeled "hacks", and place your plugins in directory "plugins".
Also check out Michael Shayer's page at http://www.globalnet.com/ev/.
Another good page is <http://www.afn.org/~afn02635/ev/> which is Jeremy
Condit's.

I.3        I cant unsubscribe from delta_v - help!
PLEASE dont send a message to the list asking us to unsubscribe you, only
you can unsubscribe you.

From the official majordomo snippet you recieve when you subscribe:
"If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list,
you can send mail to "[e-mail]" with the following command
in the body of your email message:

    unsubscribe delta_v <your login name>"

I.4.     I have a really great idea for Matt to implemement in EV 5.6.33
First DONT post your program ideas on delta_v - thats not what its for,
delta_v is ONLY for discussions for plugins.  A better place to talk about
dream elements of EV you want to see is comp.sys.mac.games.action, or try
emailing Matt/Ambrosia directly.  You can find Matt's home page at:
<http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~mburch/>.

I.4a Lets make EV networkable!
EHHH WRONG ANSWER, sorry would you like to play again, Matt has no plans to
do this and everyone on the list of sick of hearing about it, so dont even
hint at that, if you want a networkable EV start writing and call us back
when you've reached the 10klocks or so of code needed.

I.5    I think I found a bug in EV!
First DONT post your bug report on delta_v - thats not what its for,
delta_v is ONLY for discussions for plugins.  Second DONT start posting to
comp.sys.mac.games.action about the bug you found, document it and then
check out the bug registry page at
<http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~mburch/bugpage.html> - you'll find a list of
all known bugs and even the list of things you can expect to see in the
next version of EV, you can also report a bug if you dont see it listed.

I.6   I want to copy StarTrek/Babylon5/Deep Space Nine/Star Wars/some other
movie..
This thread is getting posted to death here, some people think its ok, some
dont think its worth the risk and others dont care, please dont start
arguing legal points on delta_v - thats not what this list is for.  The
standing position on copyright violations is dont do it, you are stealing
somone elses ideas. If that doesnt deter you and potential legal action is
unthinkable try not to go over board, a few references, similarities etc.
will likely not be pursued by the big guys, but the last thing EV needs is
to get dragged into copyright infringement - please indentify any plugin or
data file as being your own work and in no way imply that Ambrosia is
responsible for it. And note that originality is far better than YANripoff
- let the big software houses churn out copy after copy, originality is
what makes EV great.

And the final word from Patrick Delahanty <[e-mail]>:
This page should answer anyone's questions about copyright.
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html

Basically, nobody can use Star Trek, Star Wars, MST3K, Babylon 5,
Independence Day, or any other stuff without the permission of the
owners.  Even if you give it away for free...  Even if they don't
prosecute you for years...  (maybe long after you've forgotten about EV
and your tiny plug in)  Even if it's just one thing.

If you intend on making a MST3K, Star Trek, or other plug-in that could
violate copyrights or trademarks, you should REALLY REALLY read this url!
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html
---
Patrick Delahanty
[e-mail]
http://sebago.internet.com/~patrickd/about.html



I.7    EV-Edit/EEV/Schmelta-V has a bug in it...
Dont tell us.. write to the authors of those programs, see below for URLs
to the home pages of those programs.

II.0     About Editing Stuff

II.1    What is the EV-Bible I keep hearing about?
The EV-Bible is a description of how to work with resources for editing and
creating new EV game elements such as ships, stellar systems and objects,
weapons and characters.  Andrew has made the current Bible (with ResEdit
templates [very necessary] available at <ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW.com/beta/>.

II.2    What programs can I use to create my own plugins?
First the original program for working with resources is Apple's ResEdit,
however you'll need templates if you want to go that route.  Ambrosia
recommends that you not try to use ResEdit as there are several very fine
programs that let you edit and create Plugins quickly and painlessly.  If
you dont want to go through the trouble of learning how to edit resources
with ResEdit you can check out EV-Edit or Shmelta-V which are stand-alone
editors complete with documentation for your weekend development enjoyment.
Look at <http://www.sasknet.com/~jayt/ev/> for general info and plugins and
at <http://www.grfn.org/~climax/evedit.html> or
<http://users.aol.com/Burgr/evedit.html> for the latest copy of EV-Edit.
Also check <http://www.afn.org/~afn02635/ev/> for the latest copy of
Schmelta-V.

II.3    Where can I talk to people live about EV?
You can find people almost 24 hours a day (remember there are other time
zones than EST) on the effnet irc (InternetRelayChat) channel #ev.  You'll
also find some of the key developers and even Andrew Welch himself
sometimes.  Here are important points to remember:
1. DONT bug Andrew Welch - he's a busy guy and he is awake when he's
online, send him a message or ask him a question, he'll answer your
question, even if you dont like the answer DONT ask him again, he will
logoff if the manure gets too deep.
2. LISTEN to what people are saying on the group, dont just log on and
start asking questions, you would be suprised how often the same things are
discussed.

III.0    Nity gritty details

III.1    What happened to flet and dsig resources?
This was Matt's answer:

The flet resources were accidentally left out of the 1.0.1 data file, but
will be back in 1.0.2. Oops. :)
The dsig resource isn't used anymore and was removed.
- Matt

III.2    How can I make sure my plugin works with other plugins?
While we wait for EV1.0.2 which will provide a method to resolve conflicts
(most likely by ignoring any conflicting plugin files) Evan Vetere has been
working on a Resource registy as a web site using a CGI to handle
allocation see <http://indy.mvbms.com/~pulse/ev/plugin/>.  There are also
various suggestions for add on programs to check for conflicts and notify
the user and/or allow some kind of conflict handling.  Perhaps your best
bet for now is to place the resource IDs you use in your readme file with
the plugin so that the user can do their own checking and ResEdit mods to
get things working (thanks to [e-mail]) for this idea.  Here's the
official word from Matt about the current conflict handling:
"While we wait for EV1.0.2 which will provide a method to resolve
>conflicts (most likely by ignoring any conflicting plugin files)
It already does this: all resources with the same ID are ignored except the
one in the last plugin loaded. EV does not, and never will, resolve
inter-resource reference conflicts.
- Matt"

III.3    How do I make my special PICS work (outfit and shipyard)?
From Chris Jacobson <[e-mail]> [this has been edited from the
original message]:

All you need to do is paste the PICT into ResEdit and give it the
approriate ID.
For the outfitter:

(outf ID) - 127 + 6100  =  Small selection grid graphics
(outf ID) - 128 + 6000  =  Large selection graphics (unless it overlaps
above)

Remember to do 100x100 for the large, and 32x32 for the 'tag'... its the
same formula for ships, just use 5100 and 5000, respectively.

Remember to either check all the plugins you have installed to make sure
none use the 5100 and/or 6100 PICT IDs... some plugins still try to patch
these, making it totally incompatible.

III.4    How do I get my descriptions for weapons and other outfits to appear?
From Chris Jacobson <[e-mail]> [this has been edited from the
original message]:
It's all related to the ID of your outf resource:

Correction, outf ID -128 +3000
Also, remember to do the HIRE ESCORT ones, ID-128+2100, and the ship
ones, ID-128+2000.

III.5    How do I get my outfits to be named?
From Chris Jacobson <[e-mail]> [this has been edited from the
original message]:
You need to patch the STR#.  BUT you do NOT add STR#s to the PlugIn.  To
use an STR# to REPLACE another is VERY bad (unless its meant to replace
something like 'Commercials' or something in which nobody would care and
might enjoy if you make them more varied and interesting, since you can't
patch them yet.)  Instead, use an 'STR '.  Look in the back of the Bible,
page 41, for it.  KEEP A PRINTED COPY of the bible.

Anyways, to do ships, do the weapon names, remember to do the SHORT
OUTFIT NAME, loewrcase outfit name, etc.

SHORT OUTFIT NAME:       outf ID - 128 + 3000
lowercase outfit name:   outf ID - 128 + 3200
lowercase plural outfit: outf ID - 128 + 3400

III.6    What are those other governments in the EV Data file for?
This from Peter Cartwright <[e-mail]> [edited]:

They are used by certain dude resources, which are in turn used by
certain missions. The idea is to circumvent the problem of only being
able to have one group of mission ships whose behaviour can be
controlled, by giving the aux. ships a special government.

If you look at these government resources more closely, you'll see
that there are not very many differences between, for example,
Confed and Psycho Confed. The only change in the Psycho Confed is
that it is allied with the normal Confed and has the 'always attacks
player' flag set. In the dude resource you'll find things like 'Psycho
Confed Frigates' which pop up in various Rebel missions.

In general Psycho governments always attack the player, Escort
governments never attack the player. These should only really ever
be used in missions; Pirates don't have the 'always attacks player'
flag set, if they did they'd always attack _the player_ and not other
shipping in the area.

Be careful how you use these as always and never attack player are
both very strict. There are bad uses of them (and also similar mission
ship behaviour settings) in EV itself; in the planetary defence missions
the attackers always go for the player, so even an average passing or
escort warship can do all the work for them as long as the player can
dodge the missiles. Similarly don't give the player aux. ship escorts
(as I think aux. ships can be boarded) lots of money, as the player, if
he cottons on, will be able to disable them without being fired at.

Governments are probably the most subtle tool in EV. A player rarely
sees more of them than just a name, but they are the basis of everything
a player takes for granted as being the case in EV.

III.7 How do I get my sounds to work?
First think you need to set the sample rate at 11.1kHz, second you need to
edit the sound header to be 36 bytes, I dont know what program produces
that kind of header (Sys7 records to 42 bytes or 32 bytes).  Then you need
to direct the weapon resource to the correct value.  Also make sure the
sounds were sampled at 8 bits per sample.

------------
IV.0    Miscelaneous

IV.1    What 3D programs can I use to render my ships and spins?
You can use any program to render your ships, as long as the final product
is a PICT resource or file which you can import into your resource plugin
file.  Some argument has gone on about which 3D program is better but noone
has given any conrete evidence, I suggest you look at the demos available
on Info-Mac and at the companies home pages.

-----------
DISCLAIMER:  This document is a compilation of information I have read,
have in my mailbox, retrieved from the usenet and generally squished into a
file.  I make no warranties or guarantees as to the fitness of this
document for any purpose and cannot be held liable for any dammages caused
as a result of the use of this document for any purpose. In addition some
parts of this document are my opinion, and cannot be considered the
positions of any persons or companies named here, other .  USE AT YOUR OWN
RISK...

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Date: 7 Jul 96 17:02:56 +0000
Subject: delta_v: Unoffical delta_v FAQ
From: "Theodore F. Vaida ][" <[e-mail]>
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