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WGT Sprite Creator Online Help file 1 6 Pencil Tool #1 The pencil tool lets you draw individual pixels where you click the mouse. It is the simplest of the tools. 2 8 Line Tool #2 The line tool will draw a line between two points. Click on the first point, and hold the button. Move the mouse to the second point and release the button to draw the line. 3 9 Box Tool #3 The box tool will draw a rectangle between two corners. Click on one corner of the rectangle. Hold the button down while you move to the second corner. Release the button to draw the rectangle. 4 9 Bar Tool #4 The bar tool will draw a filled rectangle between two corners. Click on one corner of the rectangle. Hold the button down while you move to the second corner. Release the button to draw the bar. 5 10 Circle Tool #5 The circle tool will draw a hollow circle where you click the mouse. Click on the center of the circle. Hold the button while you move the mouse away from the center point. This will change the radius of the circle. Release the button to draw the circle. 6 11 Filled Circle Tool #6 The filled circle tool lets you draw a filled circle where you click the mouse. Click on the center of the circle. Hold the button while you move the mouse away from the center point. This will change the radius of the circle. Release the button to draw the filled circle. 7 13 Ellipse Tool #7 The ellipse tool lets you draw a hollow ellipse where you click the mouse. Click on the center of the ellipse. Hold the button while you move the mouse away from the center point. This will change the horizontal and vertical radius of the ellipse depending on the distance away from center in each direction. Release the mouse button to draw the ellipse. 8 14 Filled Ellipse Tool #8 The ellipse tool lets you draw a filled ellipse where you click the mouse. Click on the center of the ellipse. Hold the button while you move the mouse away from the center point. This will change the horizontal and vertical radius of the ellipse depending on the distance away from center in each direction. Release the mouse button to draw the filled ellipse. 9 13 Polygon Tool #9 The polygon tool lets you draw a hollow polygon from a set of points you select. Click on the first point with either the left or right mouse button. This will start the polygon using the appropriate button colour. You may continue to add new points using the left button. The right button will finish the polygon and connect the first point with the last. 10 14 Filled Polygon Tool #10 The filled polygon tool lets you draw a filled polygon from a set of points you select. Click on the first point with either the left or right mouse button. This will start the polygon using the appropriate button colour. You may continue to add new points using the left button. The right button will finish the polygon and connect the first point with the last, and fill the polygon. 11 17 Spray Can Tool #11 The spray can lets you draw random pixels around the place you click with the mouse. Left and right buttons have different drawing colours when clicking in the edit window. If you click on the spray can tool in the toolbox with the right hand button, a small menu appears which allows you to change the spray settings. Click on the plus and minus buttons to change the values. From this menu, you can modify the delay time, and size of spray. 12 9 Fill Region Tool #12 The fill region tool lets you fill an area of the sprite with a colour. The area is bounded by any colour other than the one at the pixel you clicked on. Left and right buttons have different drawing colours. 13 12 Colour Change Tool #13 The colour change tool lets you change pixels of one colour to a new colour, given a rectangular area. Click on the first corner of the rectangle. Hold the button and move to the second corner. Release the mouse button and all pixels with the right mouse button colour will be changed to the left mouse button colour. 14 9 Which Colour Tool #14 The which colour tool lets you change the left or right mouse button colour by choosing a colour from the sprite. Click on the pixel within the sprite and the drawing colour for the button you pressed will be changed. 15 13 Get Region Tool #15 The get region lets you cut and paste portions of a sprite. Click on the first corner of the area to grab. Hold the button and move to the second corner. Release the mouse button and the area selected will be stored in a paste buffer. You then use the paste region tool to paste the area onto the sprite in a new location. The area selected is not cleared to colour 0. 16 15 Put Region Tool #16 The put region lets you cut and paste portions of a sprite. Click and hold the mouse button while in the edit window. You can move the region that was grabbed by the get region tool to the new location. Releasing the button will paste the region onto the sprite. If you change your mind, and do not want to paste the region onto the sprite, move the region off the bottom right side so the sprite will not be changed. 17 6 Horizontal Flip Tool #17 The horizontal flip tool flips the entire 64x64 sprite buffer horizontally. 18 6 Vertical Flip Tool #18 The vertical flip tool flips the entire 64x64 sprite buffer vertically. 19 10 Clear Sprite Tool #19 The clear sprite tool erases the edit window for working on a new sprite. The current zoom window area is not reset to the full window. Use the UNDO tool to recover the sprite if you click on this by mistake, since it doesn't confirm the action. 20 10 Delete Sprite Tool #20 The delete sprite tool removes a sprite from the storage, and moves any sprites after it back one storage slot. Make sure you insert a blank sprite if your program uses the file or your sprites will have the wrong slot numbers. 21 13 Insert Sprite Tool #21 The insert sprite tool moves all sprites between the current slot location and the end of the file up one slot number. It then puts a blank sprite (which takes no memory) into the current slot. In other words, it makes a space for a new sprite between the current slot and the slot before. If a sprite exists at the last slot the operation is aborted. 22 34 Text Tool #22 The text tool allows you to print text onto the clipboard. You can use and test custom fonts that have been created with the sprite editor. A text menu will appear when you select this tool. It has the following options: Load Font Default Font Type Text Exit Load font will bring up the file selector. Font files have the extension .wfn and can be created with the create font tool. Default font returns to the default 8x8 font, if you have chosen a custom font previously. Type text switches views to the clipboard. Click on the place you want the text to appear. Type in your text with the keyboard. Hitting enter will move the cursor to the next row. Also, you can use the backspace key to correct any mistakes. Exit will take you back to the main menu. 23 53 Load/Save Pictures #23 This tool brings up a menu for loading and saving pictures which are stored in another format. You can load or save BLK, PCX, PAK, CEL, BMP, or LBM images. After clicking on the button, you will be asked if you want to load or save a picture. The first two selections load a picture into the clipboard. The second two selections (load/save single) load a picture directly into the current storage location as a sprite. After selecting one, another menu appears which lets you choose which kind of picture to load or save. If you choose a type, a file selector appears and you may select your picture. If you are loading a picture, it will not be shown immediately if you are loading it into the clipboard. You will have to use the Get Sprite or Get Big Sprite tool to use the picture. When you load an image onto the clipboard, your mouse cursor will change into a hand. If the image is larger than 320x200 you can click and drag the mouse to move the picture. Clicking the right mouse button or hitting enter will save the current image into the clipboard. If you are loading a picture which contains a palette, (PCX,CEL,etc) you will be asked if you want to use the palette of the picture, or remap the picture to the current colours. Remapping will attempt to recolour the picture with the current palette. If you are loading a single picture into a storage location, the palette information is ignored, and no colour remapping is performed. 24 6 Trash Sprites Tool #24 The trash sprites tool deletes all of the sprites from the storage. You will be asked to confirm this action. 25 6 Clear Clipboard Tool #25 The clear clipboard tool will clear the clipboard with a colour, depending on which mouse button you click. 26 17 Undo Tool #26 The undo tool restores the sprite with what is in the current undo buffer. The sprite is copied into an undo buffer every time you click on a tool button. For example, if you click on the circle tool and draw a circles, then click on the undo tool, the circles will disappear, and the sprite returned to how it looked before. Undo only works for tools in the edit window. Actions such as clearing the clipboard, or getting/putting with the storage cannot be undone. 27 7 Load Sprite File Tool #27 The load sprite file tool prompts for a filename with the file selector. The current storage area is erased and the new sprite file is loaded. 28 12 Save Sprite File Tool #28 The save sprite file tool prompts for a filename with the file selector. If the sprite file you choose already exists, a backup will be made with the extension "spb". (You may turn this option off in the setup screen) The current storage is saved into a sprite file for loading into your own programs. 29 7 Quit Tool #29 The quit tool will exit the sprite editor and your storage will be lost. You will be confirmed on this action. 30 8 Other Toolbank Tool #30 The other toolbank allows you to switch between two sets of tools. The first tools you see when running the sprite editor are only half of them. Click on this to use the other half. 31 7 Rotate 90 Degrees Tool #31 The rotate 90 degrees tool quickly rotates the image by 90 degrees counterclockwise. For other angles, see the freehand rotate tool. 32 49 Freehand Rotate Tool #32 The freehand rotate tool brings up a rotation menu which looks like this: One frame Start - 1 + End - 10 + Multiple Frames Exit One frame will allow you to choose the angle of rotation and visually see the sprite when it is rotated by that angle. After choosing your angle, click on the done button. The sprite will be grabbed into a 64x64 buffer. If the rotated sprite is larger than 64x64, it will be cut off around the edges to fit into the zoom window. The start and end buttons select a range of sprites which will be used when the multiple frames button is selected. The sprite will be rotated 360 degrees within the start and end range. This makes it extremely easy to rotate an image. To rotate an image 360 degrees by 10 degree increments, choose a range with 36 sprites and click on multiple frames. The sprite editor will first find the smallest sprite size needed to fit all of the rotated images. It will then rotate each image and place it in the storage area. Sprites may need to be adjusted manually for centering, and pixel touch-ups. 33 10 Resize Sprite Tool #33 The resize sprite tool takes the current sprite in storage and resizes it over the clipboard. While on the clipboard screen, pressing the left button will resize the sprite between the top left corner and the mouse, and the right button will exit. 34 7 Resize Clipboard Tool #34 The resize clipboard tool is the same as the resize sprite tool only it resizes the entire clipboard instead of the current sprite. 35 13 Get Sprite Tool #35 The get sprite tool grabs a portion of the clipboard into the edit window. This lets you grab sprites from PCX, BMP, and other pictures. Click on the top left corner of the sprite. Move to the bottom right corner and click again. The maximum size for this tool is a 64x64 sprite. To grab large sprites, see the get big sprite tool. 36 13 Put Sprite Tool #36 The put sprite tool takes the sprite in the sprite buffer and allows you to paste it onto the clipboard. You can create a full screen picture by pasting various sprites onto the clipboard, and save it as a PCX, CEL or WGT's custom image formats. Clicking the left button while viewing the clipboard will paste and the right button will exit. 37 15 Copy Sprites Tool #37 The copy sprites tool lets you copy a range of sprites to a new location. A menu will be displayed where you can select the range you wish to copy. After setting the source and destination slot numbers, click on the copy button. If the source and destination ranges overlap, the sprites will not be copied, and a tone will sound. Clicking on the abort button will return to the main drawing screen. 38 27 Mouse Cursor Tool #38 This tool allows you to design a new shape for the mouse cursor. Two 16x16 pixel sprites are needed to use this tool. Draw all pixels that will appear white in the first sprite. Any colour other than 0 will be considered white. To create the second sprite, choose a different colour and make an outline around the first sprite. Any pixels set in this sprite will appear black. To test the mouse cursor, position the current storage area on the first sprite, and choose the Mouse Cursor tool. If the sprites are not 16x16 or the storage is in the incorrect place a tone will sound and you will return to the main menu. Otherwise, the mouse will change into your cursor so you can see what it will look like. Pressing S will save a portion of C language code which you can later use with the mouseshape command in WGT. 39 37 Grid Grab Tool #39 The grid grab tool lets you quickly grab a number of images which have been arranged in a grid on a picture. The most common use for this tool is for grabbing tiles, since they are all equal in size, and fit into a grid perfectly. A menu will appear which looks like this: Grid Width 16 Grid Height 16 Number of Columns 20 Number of Rows 12 Horizontal Spacing 1 Vertical Spacing 1 Offset from left 0 Offset from top 0 V I E W G R A B E X I T If you click on the number beside each option, you may edit the value. Horizontal and vertical spacing is the number of pixels between each tile in the grid. The offset values let you move the grid around the screen. Click on view to see what the grid looks like with the current values. Clicking on grab will go through each tile in the grid and grab the next sprite. Sprites will grabbed starting at the current storage location. 40 10 Remap Sprites Tool #40 The delete sprite tool removes a sprite from the storage, and moves any sprites after it back one storage slot. Make sure you insert a blank sprite if your program uses the file or your sprites will have the wrong numbers. 41 15 Get Big Sprite Tool #41 The Get Big Sprite tool allows you to grab a sprite off the clipboard that is larger than 64x64 pixels. Note that you cannot edit these sprites due to the limitations of the sprite editor. You can paste the large sprites back onto the clipboard by pressing the right hand button on the put sprite tool. Other WGT commands that use sprites will be able to use these large sprites without any modifications to your program. 42 18 Put Last Tool #42 The Put Last Tool is the same as the Put Sprite tool but you do not get to place where it will go on the clipboard. Instead, the sprite is pasted where you last grabbed a sprite with either the Get Sprite or Get Big Sprite tools. You can edit a full screen picture easier with this tool. First grab an area of the picture using the Get Sprite tool. Edit the area as you would a normal sprite. Now click on this tool and your changes will be copied to the clipboard. 43 8 Load Animation Sequence #43 This tool loads in an animation sequence that was previously saved with the Save Animation Sequence tool. Animation sequences are used in the animation menu. 44 12 Save Animation Sequence #44 This tool saves an animation sequence that you have designed in the animation menu. This is useful if your animation is fairly long and it is difficult to recreate. You should keep animation sequences of important images so you can easily see what the final animation will look like if you make some changes. 45 67 Animate Tool #45 The animate tool lets you preview your sprites in animation. This is useful for seeing if the sprites will animate correctly within your program. A menu will appear in the edit window. It has the following options: Clear all Slot number A Sprite number D Delay D Clear all will wipe out the whole animation sequence. You will be asked to confirm this choice. The last three options have push buttons for increasing or decreasing values. Clicking the left button will change it by one. Clicking the right button will keep changing the value while you hold down the button. This is useful for quickly setting the number. Slot number may range from 1 to 80. This means you can have up to 80 sprites in the animation sequence. Each slot has a unique sprite number and delay value. Sprite number contains the sprite from the storage for this slot. The sprite will be shown just below the delay option. A sprite number of 0 means the sequence is finished. Delay contains the delay value for the current slot. To the right of the slot number values is a button called Add. Clicking on it will increase the slot number, and increase the sprite number at the same time. This is very useful if you have arranged your sprites in sequence. You can quickly set up the animation sequence by holding the right mouse button. If you go too far, set the first unwanted sprite to 0, to stop the animation at that point. At the bottom of the menu is the animate button. Press and hold this button to animate the sprite. For each slot, the sprite is shown for a period of time, depending on how long the delay value is. The sequence is repeated when a sprite value of 0 is found. See the Save and Load animation tools for managing your animation sequences. 46 15 Shrink Sprite Tool #46 The shrink sprite tool removes all black pixels (colour 0) on the top left edges of the current sprite in the storage. This is meant to chop off any extra space that is not needed in the sprite. After the sprite is shrunk, it is moved into the edit window. If you have aligned your sprites for animation purposes to a certain x and y offset, this tool will cause you problems, and you should only use the trim sprite tool. 47 16 Trim Sprite Tool #47 The trim sprite tool removes all black pixels (colour 0) on the bottom right edges of the current sprite in the storage. This is meant to chop off any extra space that is not needed in the sprite. After the sprite is trimmed, it is moved into the edit window. If you have aligned your sprites for animation purposes to a certain x and y offset, do not worry. Trim will not move your sprite to the top left corner of the window. Trim only changes the bottom right corner if necessary. 48 14 Trim All Sprites Tool #48 The trim all sprites tool removes all black pixels (colour 0) on the bottom right edges of all of the sprites in the storage. This is meant to chop off any extra space that is not needed in the sprite. It operates the same as the trim sprite tool. This tool is useful before saving a sprite file. It will decrease the size of the sprite file, hence saving memory when you load the sprites from your program. 49 16 Macro On #49 This tool starts recording a macro which stores all of your mouse selections. You can later execute these actions again on other sprites. To make a set of actions perform on a range of sprites, you can click on one of the storage slider buttons as the last action. When you play the macro back a number of times, it will move to a new sprite and perform those actions. Only mouse movements/clicks are recorded. If a keypress is detected, the macro will stop playing. 50 6 Macro Off #50 This tool stops recording a macro, if you have previously started recording using the macro on tool. 51 11 Macro Play #51 This tool will play the current macro the specified number of times. If you press the right button on this tool, you can set the number of times a macro will play. This counter will reset to 1 every time you execute the macro. A macro can be stopped in mid-execution by pressing a key. 52 6 Load Macro #52 This tool lets you recall a macro you have saved. This is useful for keeping macros that you use often. 53 8 Save Macro #53 This tool saves the current macro under a new name. A file selector will appear and allow you to choose a new name for the macro. Macros have the extension ".smc". 54 12 Create Font Tool #54 This tool will convert the sprite storage into a WGT font file. Each sprite in the storage represents the same character in the ASCII table. Since fonts are monochrome, all colors other than 0 will be considered to be part of the character. You can test your fonts by loading in the font menu. 55 6 Empty Sprite Tool #55 This button is under construction at the moment. Pressing it will do absolutely nothing! 56 6 Registration Information #56 This button will display the version number and copyright information. 57 7 Setup Options #57 This button will take you into a setup screen where you can toggle specific options of the WGT Sprite Editor on or off. 58 9 Dos Shell #58 This button will attempt to enter a DOS shell. If you do not have enough memory, it will return to the editor immediately. Typing exit will return to the editor as you left it. 59 5 Free Memory #59 This button will show how much free memory is left. 60 8 Other Toolbank Tool #60 The other toolbank allows you to switch between two sets of tools. The first tools you see when running the sprite editor are only half of them. Click on this to use the other half. 61 11 Edit Window This is where all editting is done. Clicking in the edit window will cause different actions depending on which tool is currently in use. It shows a magnified area of the sprite being editted. It may be magnified from 2 to 32 times the original size. Higher magnifications make it easier to draw since the pixels are larger. 62 10 Color Selector The Color Selector contains all of the colors available for drawing your sprites. Each sprite file contains a single palette, which is used by all sprites in the file. Each mouse button may have a different color assigned to it, by clicking with that button on one of the colors. 63 8 Drawing Colors These boxes show which colors have been assigned to each mouse button. When the a tool is used in the edit window, one of these colors will be used depending on which button you press. 64 6 Swap Colors This icon will swap the colors of the left and right mouse buttons. This is useful when using the color change tool. 65 10 Color Edit Menu This will open a color control panel which allows you to modify the current palette. You can set new RGB values for the palette registers, copy one color to another, blend between two colors, and load or save palettes. The default palette may be changed by modifying the default.pal file. 66 7 Zoom Window This window shows the sprite with the actual size it will appear. Also, a zoom box is shown over the sprite. This box is the region which is shown in the edit window. 67 14 Zoom Selectors These icons will allow you to change either corner of the zoom box. The zoom box control which area of the sprite is shown in the edit window, and it also defines what will be put into the storage when you click on the Put Storage icon. The first icon lets you change the upper left corner, and the second changes the bottom right. As you change the size of the zoom box, the size indicators change accordingly. 68 8 Sprite Scrollers These allow you to scroll the sprite around within the sprite buffer. They are used to view another area while maintaining the same zoom magnitude, and also to move the sprite to a new location. 69 5 Status Indicators The status indicators show where the sprite storage slot is selected, and how large the current zoom box is. 70 8 Retrieve Storage This button will delete whatever is currently in the sprite buffer, and replace it with the sprite in the current storage slot. If no sprite exists in the storage slot, nothing happens. 71 10 Put Storage This button will save what is inside the zoom box into the current storage slot. It does NOT save what is in the zoom window. It only saves what is displayed in the edit window. If a sprite already exists in the current storage slot, it is erased, and replaced with the new sprite. 72 9 Storage Area This is the storage area. The storage area contains slots for 2000 sprites. The middle box shows the current storage slot, while the ones on either sides show the previous and next slots. When a sprite file is saved, all the storage slots are saved into the file. 73 9 Storage Position The current storage slot may be changed by clicking on the icons on the left and right, and using the slider in the middle. Clicking the right mouse button on the side icons will quickly move through the storage.