                            WGT Map Maker v4.0

                               User's Manual
                                     
                                     
                Copyright 1994 WordUp Software Productions
                    	 Written by Barry Egerter
                                     


This program is shareware. Please feel free to distribute it to friends, BBS
systems, or shareware distributors. This program may be distributed on shareware
diskettes as long as the cost of the diskette does not exceed $5 US. CDROM
manufacturers should contact us before adding this program to their collection.

WGT Map Maker 4.0 - User's Manual				        Page 2

                             Table of Contents

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.......................................................4
INTRODUCTION..............................................................4
THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT.....................................................4
WARRANTY..................................................................5
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR.....................................................6
INSTALLING THE WGT MAP MAKER..............................................6
SYSTEM STATISTICS.........................................................6
PROGRAM CONFIGURATION.....................................................7
USER INTERFACE............................................................8
FILE MENU.................................................................9
PROJECT FILES.............................................................9
 LOAD PROJECT.............................................................9
 SAVE PROJECT.............................................................9
 DOS SHELL................................................................9
 LOAD TILES..............................................................10
 LOAD OBJECTS............................................................10
 LOAD MAP................................................................11
 SAVE MAP................................................................11
 QUIT....................................................................11
TEMPLATE MENU (*EMS REQUIRED)............................................12
 LOAD....................................................................12
 CREATE..................................................................12
 RESET...................................................................12
 USE.....................................................................12
 EXIT PASTE..............................................................13
 SAVE....................................................................13
 COPY MAP................................................................13
 GRAB REGION.............................................................13
WINDOW MENU..............................................................14
 TILE WINDOW.............................................................14
 MAP WINDOW..............................................................14
 OBJECT WINDOW...........................................................15
 TEMPLATE WINDOW (*EMS REQUIRED).........................................15
VIEW MENU................................................................16
 SUPPORTED VIEW MODES....................................................16
OPTIONS MENU.............................................................17


 REDUCED MAP.............................................................17
 TILE TYPES..............................................................17
 OBJECT MENU.............................................................18
 MAP SIZE................................................................19
 EXPORT PCX..............................................................19
MISCELLANEOUS MENU.......................................................20
 MEMORY STATUS...........................................................20
 DISK SPACE..............................................................20
 CLEAR ALL...............................................................21
 CREATE SOURCE...........................................................21
QUICK PICKS..............................................................22
PROGRAMMER'S INFO........................................................23
 MAP FILE FORMAT.........................................................23
 PROJECT FILE FORMAT.....................................................24


System Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     IBM PC-compatible (386SX or better recommended)
     (S)VGA video card and monitor
     Microsoft compatible mouse and drivers
     Over 300k of conventional memory free (EMS supported)



Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The WGT Map Maker is a utility which will provide the tools for creating a
tile-based background for a game or animation. In recent years, a number of
these games have set the standard which players and developers now expect
from any new release. The idea is centered around the fact that the
resolution of video displays can no longer meet the expected dimensions of
a video game world. Players want to be placed into a world which is much
larger than the visual screen, and therefore must be scrolled in various
directions to get to a new location. WGT was the first publicly available
toolkit to provide a full library of routines and a utility program for the
creation of such games.

Creating an image which is larger than the visual screen would require a
great deal of memory, so the technique used to reduce this requirement is
called tiling. Basically the user will create a world using a set of basic
images which are repeated throughout the scene. A large area of sky could
be created by pasting a series of solid blue squares on the screen, with
only one of the blue squares stored in memory. The WGT system will simply
store a single number indicating which square is used to draw the
background at each point. Therefore, a 20*20 pixel image would require 400
bytes to store, and a 15*10 section of these squares requires another 150
bytes (one "tile" number each, indicating the sky piece). This totals 550
bytes for a resulting image which is 20*15+20*10 or 300 by 200 pixels. This
would require 60,000 bytes of memory to store without a tiling system. The
tile system has reduced our example to 0.9% of our original storage
requirements.



The Shareware Concept
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The WGT Map Maker has been released for distribution as shareware. If you like 
the program and want to be able to use your maps in a program, (commercial,
shareware, or public domain) the WGT Map Maker costs $20 for registration. 
Registering provides you with a number of benefits:

  -A disk containing the most recent version of the program.
  -A lifetime license to use the product.
  -Support via mail, Internet, and various other message networks.
  -The registration nag screen is removed.
  -Notification by mail when upgrades are available.


  
Warranty
~~~~~~~~
Barry Egerter does not make warranty of any kind, express or
implied, including without limitation, any warranties of merchantability
and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

Barry Egerter shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct,
indirect, special or consequential arising from a failure of this
program to operate in the manner desired by the user.  Barry Egerter
shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be
caused directly or indirectly by use of the program.

IN NO EVENT WILL BARRY EGERTER BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
PROGRAM, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.



Contacting the Author
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I can be contacted 
through:

  BBS: 	Barry Egerter (EMAIL)
       	SoftNet BBS
       	(519) 457-0065

  Internet:
        barry.egerter@softnet.com

  OR WRITE
  Barry Egerter
  94 Andover Drive
  London, Ontario
  Canada, N6J 3X2

Please do not feel like you are wasting my time by asking questions. I will
try to answer everyone's questions as quickly as possible (registered users
are given top priority).



Installing the WGT Map Maker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you received this in a zipped or other archived file, first make a new
directory for the program.  Uncompress the files into the directory using the
appropriate archive utility program (such as pkunzip, lha, or arj).

Now go to the correct directory and type MAP4.



System Statistics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the program is run, a number of statistics about your computer are
shown.  They are:

CPU Type:   This can be one of 286, 386, 486 or Pentium.

Video: 	    This always displays "VGA compatible card detected" if a VGA
            or better video card is found.

EMS:        This displays the state of the EMS driver, either detected or
            not detected.



Mouse:      This will display "Microsoft compatible" and the number of
            buttons the mouse has, if a mouse was found.
            It then reports what kind of mouse it is, out of the following:
                 Bus mouse
                 Serial mouse
                 InPort mouse
                 PS/2 mouse
                 Hewlett-Packard mouse
            The IRQ of the mouse driver is also shown.

Memory Status:   This shows how much conventional and EMS memory is free,
                 and a breakdown of the memory usage.



Program Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first time you run the program, you will be required to configure some
options. A setup screen will appear which displays user-configurable values 
in red.

Clicking on the values which are YES or NO will toggle the setting. Auto-
raise windows and EMS support are set using this manner. Map data and 
templates are considered to be "Main Buffers".

The WGT Map Maker can use EMS memory for various purposes. You can store
tiles, objects, map data and template data in this memory, allowing for the
creation of extremely large projects. You may also set how much EMS the program
will use. Minimum requirements for EMS are 256k. If you don't plan on using 
another program either from a multitasking shell such as Windows, or through 
the DOS shell, you can use all of the available memory. The setup screen will 
display how much EMS memory was found and allow you to adjust how much of this
is used by the Map Maker. Click on the plus or minus buttons to change the 
amount used.

You may reconfigure the program by using the parameter /C at the command line.

Example:              map4 /C



USER INTERFACE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Map Maker provides you with a set of drop-down menus and windows to
ease the development process. All program features are accessible through
the menus, and most of them may be controlled entirely by the mouse (little
keyboard control required). Some menus are disabled if your hardware is not
sufficient to support the features (example: SVGA support for VIEW mode).
By hiding the options unavailable to you, the program customizes itself to
meet your situation.

Up to four windows are available, depending on memory status and loaded
files. These windows contain simple close and resize buttons, along with
horizontal and vertical sliders. Windows may be moved by clicking the mouse
on the titlebar and holding the button down while moving the window to a
new location. Two window activation modes are available. If the setup
program has defined the windows as auto-raise, the windows will become
active as the mouse passes over them. With auto-raise disabled, the user
must click on the window itself in order to activate it. Be careful when
using auto-raise mode because the larger windows will tend to override the
smaller ones and make selection difficult.

Certain restrictions are placed on the files and images loaded in this
release of the WGT Map Maker:

1)   Tiles are to be created with the WGT Sprite Editor. The dimensions of
     each tile in a given file should be the same. Up to 256 tiles (in slots 
     0-255 of a sprite file) are permitted. Tile #0 must not be NULL (it must 
     contain an image).

2)   Objects are to be created with the WGT Sprite Editor. Objects may be
     any dimension, and are expected to use the same palette as the tiles. Up 
     to 2000 objects may be placed with the Map Maker, and any objects 
     exceeding this amount must be placed by the program itself.

3)   One map file may be loaded at a time. Parallax editing is not supported. 
     Create parallax maps one at a time and use your program to test the end
     result. All maps which are to be used as parallax levels should share 
     the same palette.



FILE MENU
~~~~~~~~~
PROJECT FILES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C programmers know the benefits of a project file. Organization of a large
group of source files and related data is much simpler when they may all be
kept in a project file. The Map Maker provides just such a feature for its
environment. When you save a project file, the system will save all current
window positions, the names and paths of tile/object/map files loaded,
window priorities, quick-pick banks, and the currently active bank number.



LOAD PROJECT
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Using the file selector, a project file may be loaded. All currently active
files will be unloaded from memory and replaced with the new selections. If
you have not saved any changes made to the current files, these changes
will be lost. The project file contains full path information for all data
files, so the program may crash if you have moved the files since the
project was created or if you have deleted any of the files. After a
successful load, the Map Maker will be in the same state as it was when the
project was last saved. It is recommended that you save a project file
before leaving the Map Maker (if you loaded one during your session). This
will make sure that all changes (quick-pick selections, etc) are recorded
properly.



SAVE PROJECT
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A file selector will prompt you for the filename to save. This filename
should have the extension MPF (Map Project File). See the comments for LOAD
PROJECT to find out more about the attributes which will be saved.



DOS SHELL
~~~~~~~~~
A feature lacking in the previous Map Maker releases was a DOS SHELL
option. It is now implemented to provide the user with the ability to
escape to DOS to perform a few tasks, then return to the Map Maker by
typing EXIT. If you have enabled EMS memory, this memory will not be
available to you when you shell to DOS. It will, however, provide you with
a fair amount of conventional memory with which to operate other functions.

The program will run the command-line processor described in the system
COMSPEC environment variable. Most users will simply have this set to the
standard COMMAND.COM, but you may change this variable to reflect any
program you wish. Simply type

                    set COMSPEC=c:\dos\command.com

or the full pathname to the processor you wish to run.



LOAD TILES
~~~~~~~~~~
Before any map may be created, a tile file must be loaded. Tiles are
defined as a series of images all having the same dimensions. In WGT, tiles
are allowed to be any size up to 64 pixels wide by 64 pixels tall. Tiles DO
NOT need to be square in version 4.0 of WGT. 1 by 1 pixel tiles are
permitted! Create a tile file in the WGT Sprite Editor and save it as a
normal SPR file. Make sure that ALL tiles have the same dimensions. The Map
Maker permits up to 256 tiles per file. If a larger number of tiles were
allowed, file sizes and memory requirements would double! This is the
justification for the limitation as it stands now.

If your tile file contains a few tiles which do not match the dimensions of
the general population, a file called "BADTILES.DAT" will be created. This
file lists the tile numbers which do not meet the expected size. Use it as
a reference and fix up the file in the Sprite Editor before attempting to
use it in the Map Maker.

The program will warn you if you have mistakenly loaded an object file.
This assumption is made if more than half of the "tiles" do not share a
common size. Do not proceed further if you get this warning. Leave the Map
Maker and correct the tile dimensions or re-load a different tile file.

Once loaded, tiles will be placed in the TILE WINDOW. A window will prompt
you for the dimensions of the map to be created. Please refer to MAP SIZE
for more details on this window. Tile #0 is used to fill the background on
any new map. The scrolling library in WGT does not like NULL pointers, so
you must make sure that tile #0 actually contains some sort of data. If you
want the tile to appear empty, simply use a solid color for the entire tile
(such as black).



LOAD OBJECTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Map Maker provides an easy system for initial object placement on your
maps. If your program had several hundred (or thousand) objects to place
within the "world" once a map was loaded, the code would be immense. To
avoid this, the Map Maker allows you to place up to 2000 objects on the map
in their starting positions. Objects may be ANY size up to 320*200 pixels.
Create an object file by drawing your objects in the Sprite Editor and
saving the file as a normal SPR file.

Once a file has been selected, the Map Maker will load the images and place
them in the OBJECT WINDOW. If EMS support has been enabled for objects, the
file is loaded entirely into EMS. To see how much memory is available at
any time, use the MEMORY STATUS menu item in the MISC dropdown.



LOAD MAP
~~~~~~~~
A previously saved map file can be reloaded using this option. Keep in mind
that each map file is designed for a specific set of tiles and objects. If
you load a map file which does not belong with the currently loaded images
you may get undesirable results.

Once loaded, the MAP window will display the contents of the map itself. If
the OBJECT bank is active, objects will be superimposed on the map tiles.
See OBJECT MODE for further information on this feature.

All existing tile types, map data, and object positions will be overwritten
with the information in the map file that has been loaded. Be sure to save
any existing data before loading a new map. For file specifications, see
the PROGRAMMER'S INFO section.



SAVE MAP
~~~~~~~~
When selected, this menu item will present the user with a file selector.
Files with the extension WMP will be listed. You may either select one of
the existing files to save over, or you may enter an entirely new filename
in the text field at the top of the selector. WMP stands for W(GT) MaP. You
do not have to use this extension, but the selector will always default to
WMP files.

All information regarding the map itself will be stored within the file.
This includes dimensions, tile data, object placement and tile types. See
the PROGRAMMER'S INFO section for file specifications.



QUIT
~~~~
Once selected, the Map Maker will end execution and return the user to DOS.
All information which has not been saved at this point will be lost. If the
program crashes or is interrupted before you choose this option, EMS memory
may be lost. This menu item must be used to end the program and return the
computer to its original state (the state in which the Map Maker was
started).



TEMPLATE MENU (*EMS required)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LOAD
~~~~
Templates which have been saved using the SAVE menu option can be reloaded
at any time by using this option. Template files do not store information
regarding the necessary tile file, so be sure to have the proper tiles
loaded before selecting LOAD.

The normal extension for template files is TPL. This is optional, and you
may choose to name your files with any extension you wish. Once loaded, the
template will be placed in the template window with the appropriate regions
selected. The user is automatically placed in PASTE mode. All previous
template data in memory will be lost.


CREATE
~~~~~~
Before a template can be used, you must create one by highlighting the
desired tiles in the template window. After placing the tiles in the
template window (just as you would in the map window), select CREATE to
start identifying the tiles to be used in template construction. Clicking
the left mouse button will highlight (select) a tile. Clicking the right
mouse button will deselect a tile. Once you have selected all the tiles for
a given template, you are ready to try the USE menu option.

If you want a large area highlighted, it may be easier to select the tiles
with the GRAB REGION menu option.

Selecting CREATE will clear out existing highlights. Be sure not to choose
this menu option if you are already building a template.

RESET
~~~~~
If you are finished with an existing template and wish to create a new one,
this menu option will clear out the previous template and prepare for a new
one. The tiles in the template window are not cleared, but the highlights
are cleared and any template being used is freed from memory.

USE
~~~
After highlighting the desired tiles with the CREATE option, this command
will build the template in memory and place the user in PASTE mode. The
lower toolbar will display a text notice indicating that you are in PASTE
mode, and the quick-pick banks will be hidden. To leave the USE mode at any
point, select the EXIT PASTE menu option. Paste the template on the map
just as you would a regular tile (by clicking the left mouse button).



EXIT PASTE
~~~~~~~~~~
When in template USE mode, the screen will contain a notice along the
bottom toolbar. Selecting this menu option will return the user to either
object mode or edit mode (depending on the mode in use before templates
were activated). Return to PASTE mode by selecting USE again.

SAVE
~~~~
Save both the template data and the highlighted template tiles by selecting
this menu option. Files normally use the TPL extension, but you may change
this to any extension you want. Information regarding the tile file is not
saved, so you must remember which template files go with which tile files.
It's a good idea to name the template files similar to the tile files to
keep things simple.

COPY MAP
~~~~~~~~
This option will copy the entire map into the template window. You may then
alter the tiles or highlight them to build a template. This makes it easy
to build templates from existing areas of the map.

GRAB REGION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Highlighting tiles one at a time can be very time-consuming. This menu
option will put the user into a reduced-template mode. The screen will look
exactly like a reduced map except that it is using the data from the
template window. Click the left mouse button to select a corner of a region
to highlight. Click the left button again to select the second corner. The
area selected will become white, indicating that those tiles have been
highlighted. Click the right mouse button to return to the main program.

This option allows quick selection of large template regions. Each time you
choose this menu item, the previous selections are kept, allowing you to
build on the existing template highlights.



WINDOW MENU
~~~~~~~~~~~

TILE WINDOW
~~~~~~~~~~~
Once you have loaded a tile file (in the FILE dropdown), the TILE window
will now contain all the tiles loaded. There are a maximum of 256 tiles
permitted in any given tile file. To allow more tiles, the file size (map
file) would have to be doubled (maybe future versions of this software, but
not yet).

When the mouse is positioned over a tile, you may click on it with either
the left or right mouse button. This will assign that tile to the button
you pressed, and the tile is now displayed in one of two boxes along the
control bar at the bottom of the screen. Selecting the tile from the
control bar will allow you to store it in the quick-pick bank (see Quick
Picks later in this document). Use the window scrollbars to access the
tiles which are out of view.



MAP WINDOW
~~~~~~~~~~
The MAP window will contain all tiles and objects which have been placed by
the user. Initially, this window is filled with tile 0, but it may contain
info once a map file is loaded or the user "pastes" tiles or objects onto
it.

When the control bar is displaying the active tiles and the tile quick-pick
bank, the user is placed in map edit mode. When the mouse button is clicked
within the window, the appropriate tile (for that button) is copied into
the map. A highlighted box appears to show you exactly where the tile will
be placed. There is no ERASE feature built into the program because all 256
tiles may be used, so it is recommended that you have a tile which is a
solid color (usually black) which may be used to erase mistakes.

If the control bar is displaying the active object and the object quick-
pick bank, the user is placed in object mode. When the mouse button is
clicked within the window, the active object is "pasted" onto the map at
that location. If you wish to "lock" the positions into a grid which
matches the tile size, press 'G' to activate grid-lock (or again to de-
activate). Up to 2000 objects may be stored on a single map, and it can get
confusing trying to locate or modify existing objects when there are a lot.
To avoid confusion, you may want to see the object numbers superimposed on the
screen (do so by pressing 'N', or 'N' again to de-activate). If you want to
manually store/locate objects, use the OBJECT MENU.

Pressing 'O' will activate the OBJECT MENU, or you may also find the option
in the MISC dropdown. This menu displays the entire structure which is
stored for each object, and features several buttons which make life easier
for the developer. See OBJECT MENU later in this documentation for more
info.



OBJECT WINDOW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After loading an object file (in the FILE dropdown), the OBJECT window will
appear with all the objects displayed in the window's client area. To
select an object from the window, position the mouse over the object and
click with either button. Only one object may be selected at any given time
(unlike TILE mode which allows one tile per mouse button). Once again, you
may use the window scrollbars to access items which are out of view.
Selecting the object displayed on the control bar will allow you to place
the object in the quick-pick bank (see Quick Picks later in this document).



TEMPLATE WINDOW (*EMS required)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The template window and the map window behave in a similar fashion. Tiles
may be placed in the template window just like you do in the map window.
The window resolution is 320*200 tiles, allowing for large templates to be
designed. All template operations are performed in this window. See
TEMPLATE MENU for more information.



VIEW MENU
~~~~~~~~~

SUPPORTED VIEW MODES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you have a map created in memory, it might be hard to visualize what
that map looks like in a larger view area than the window. To provide a
better viewing mode, you may select one of several supported video modes
from the VIEW menu.

Since WGT uses 320*200*256 (all VGA cards support this mode), this option
is always available from the VIEW menu. When selected, you will see the map
as a full screen presentation with actual tile sizes. The map will look
exactly like this when used in your programs. If you want to see a larger
area of the map at once, you can view it in a higher resolution.

Higher resolutions are supported through VESA. If your monitor and video
card support Super-VGA (SVGA) modes, you may install a VESA driver in your
AUTOEXEC file. Most video cards come with software drivers for this
support. Supported video modes will depend on the card manufacturer, model,
and memory size. The Map Maker will detect which modes are available and
will present these along with the default 320*200 mode in the menu. Simply
select the mode you want and follow the same process from here.

Once in a viewing mode, the map will be displayed (along with all currently
placed objects) and the mouse cursor is hidden. Use the grey cursor keys to
maneuver your way around the map. If you reach the edge of the map (in any
direction), the key will no longer respond.

Supported keys in view mode:

          LEFT ARROW               -    Move viewpoint left one tile.
          RIGHT ARROW              -    Move viewpoint right one tile.
          UP ARROW            -    Move viewpoint up one tile.
          DOWN ARROW               -    Move viewpoint down one tile.
          PAGE UP             -    Move viewpoint up half a screen.
          PAGE DOWN           -    Move viewpoint down half a screen.
          CTRL LEFT ARROW          -    Move viewpoint left half a screen.
          CTRL RIGHT ARROW         -    Move viewpoint right half a screen.
          O                   -    Toggle object display.
          ENTER or mouse button    -    Exit map view mode.



OPTIONS MENU
~~~~~~~~~~~~

REDUCED MAP
~~~~~~~~~~~
A reduced map option has been implemented just as in the previous version
of the Map Maker (v1.5). This feature will allow you to display the map
using 1 pixel to represent each tile. The system will make its best guess
as to which color to use to represent the tiles. The mouse cursor will
become a rectangular shape with the same dimensions as the MAP window
(reduced).

Simply move the cursor over the area of the map you wish to edit and click
with either button. The cursor MAY be extremely small if only a few tiles
can be displayed within the MAP window. This happens when the window is
small or the tiles are large. Do not be alarmed if you can't see the cursor
at first, because it is there!



TILE TYPES
~~~~~~~~~~
Each tile may be assigned a number from 0-255 which will indicate a
property or "type". For example, all tiles which are assigned a value of 1
may indicate a solid tile (like ground or walls), while all tiles which are
assigned a 0 will indicate sky pieces or transparent tiles. This option
presents you with a dialog box in which you may change the assigned values.

Click on the current tile number to change to another tile. Click on the
NEW TILE value to set the type for the current tile. Choose QUIT to leave
this dialog when you are done. Tile types are saved with the MAP file, so
you must remember to save the current map after changing tile types.



OBJECT MENU
~~~~~~~~~~~
Objects may be placed on the map by switching to the object quick-pick bank
and simply pasting objects on the map window. This is known as "object
mode". While in object mode, you may toggle numerical display by pressing
N. If active, this will display the object numbers superimposed on the
upper-left corner of the actual objects within the map window. This makes
it easier to determine which object is which. You may increase or decrease
the current object image used for placement by pressing the plus or minus
keys. This changes the image number, not the object number. Objects may use
positions up to 2000 in this version of the Map Maker. Managing such a
large number of objects can be difficult, so an object menu has been
implemented.

When the MAP window is active and the object quick-pick bank is being used,
the object menu is available to the user. This menu provides total control
over the object image numbers, positions and display status.

The object information structure for the current object is displayed in the
dialog box. You may alter any of the figures by clicking on the number and
typing in a new one. Object numbers range from 0-2000, on/off status must
be 0 or 1, x and y coordinates may be anywhere from -32768 to -32767, and
the image number is based on the object file loaded.

To move to another structure, use the PREV or NEXT buttons. To find the
nearest empty structure, use one of the FIND buttons. The leftmost FIND
button will search below the current object number, and the rightmost
button will search above the current object number. Use the DELETE button
to erase the current object structure or the DELETE ALL button to erase ALL
object structures in memory. If you want to see where the current object is
on the map, choose the GOTO button. The lower right-hand corner of the
dialog will show the image used for the current object structure. Change
the image quickly by clicking on the plus or minus buttons instead of
typing in a new value.



MAP SIZE
~~~~~~~~
This option will allow you to set (or change) the dimensions of the map you
are creating. Dimensions are displayed in units of tiles. With tile sizes
up to 64*64, your coordinate system can go as high as (320*64) by (200*64)
or 20480 by 12800 pixels. Current dimensions are displayed in the middle of
the dialog box. Click on the number you wish to change with the mouse
button. Type in the new number and press ENTER. When you are done (even if
you didn't change anything) choose QUIT. If you have been editing a map
with larger dimensions and decide to shrink the map, the extra data will
not be lost until you leave the Map Maker. Later on during your session you
may expand the map size again and recover the extra data.



EXPORT PCX
~~~~~~~~~~
Sometimes it is desirable to create screen captures of your programs to use
as advertisements. The PCX export feature will allow you to output the
entire map (currently in memory) as a compressed image file. PCX is a
standard image format which was introduced by PC Paintbrush for Windows.
Even with the compression technique used, image files may be very large
when created with this feature. Make sure you have enough room on your hard
drive before you select this option. Once selected, the program will prompt
you for a filename to save the image under, and then it will display its
progress as each line
of the output image is saved.

Once created, the PCX file can be altered using any of hundreds of
available image processing programs or loaded using the WGT system library.
WGT only supports 320*200 images, so this is not a likely use for the
picture. Most commonly the pictures will become part of an advertisement
for your game.



MISCELLANEOUS MENU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MEMORY STATUS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is one of the most important features of the system. It will tell you
exactly how much memory is used and available, as well as what type of
memory it is.

The dialog box which appears will display the conventional ram free, the
EMS totals for free and used, and the total memory used by tiles, objects,
and map data. If EMS has been enabled for any of these three items , the
word EMS will appear beside the total. For example, if EMS has been enabled
for objects and tiles, and a tile file has been loaded, the display might
look something like:

           Tiles:        54098 bytes    EMS
           Objects:          0 bytes    EMS
           Map:              0 bytes

When you are done checking the totals, press any key or click a mouse
button to close the dialog box. If you notice that memory levels are low,
it is highly recommended that you save all current data. The program may
crash if it attempts to allocate memory which does not exist. Enabling EMS
will help to avoid this situation from occuring.



DISK SPACE
~~~~~~~~~~
This option will allow you to see how much space is available on any of the
valid hard drives installed on your system. The dialog displays info such
as:

                DISK SPACE

            Current drive is D:
            Type:  HARD DISK

        Free:       12390785 bytes
        Used:      108854365 bytes

        QUIT                    NEXT

Click on NEXT to advance to the next logical drive available. Drive
listings will loop around once you reach the last available drive. Click on
QUIT to leave this dialog box at any time. Floppy drives are not available
with this feature.

Do not attempt to save files on a disk which does not have enough space.
Check the MEMORY STATUS dialog to see roughly how much memory is required
by the map itself. You can expect up to 14k extra to be added to this total
when saving (depending on the number of objects stored with the map data).



CLEAR ALL
~~~~~~~~~
If you wish to reset the Map Maker and start over, this is the menu item
which will let you do it. This option will present you with a dialog box
containing text only. It will instruct you to press "Y" to restart the Map
Maker, or any other key to abort the reset (mouse clicks abort too). Any
changes made to the files loaded will be lost. All items in EMS memory are
cleared and the program will start over from the very beginning. You should
see the text screen again with the program statistics, followed by the
menubar and an empty window area. At this point you are free to start
fresh.



CREATE SOURCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once a map has been created, this option will allow the user to save C
source code for a WGT program which will instantly give life to the image.
This option will not work unless the program has filenames for the tiles,
objects and map. If you have created a map from scratch and haven't saved
it, you must do so before attempting to use this. If you do not have any
objects loaded you should do so (if you don't want objects, you still have
to load in a bogus object file to get this option to work).

The program will present you with a screen which allows you to customize
the code which is produced. Available options are window width/height, x
and y location of the window, and the initial viewpoint of the window.
Window (in this paragraph) refers to the scrolling window used in the WGT
program, not the a window in the Map Maker. Window dimensions are based on
tiles, not pixels, and the same goes for the initial viewpoint. X and Y
locations are screen coordinates for the window (based in pixels).

To set the window dimensions or location, click on the button displayed and
then use the mouse to select the positions on the screen. The Map Maker
will allow values based on tile and map dimensions, therefore simplifying
the user's input process. Clicking the mouse and dragging it to the second
corner is all that's required for setting dimensions. One click is all
that's needed for the window X and Y location.

An initial viewpoint is selected using a reduced map mode. The map is drawn
on the screen and you simply click the mouse button when the cursor is
highlighting the desired location on the map.

The EXIT button will abort code generation, and the GENERATE button will
save source code based on the current settings. A file selector will prompt
you for the filename to save.



QUICK PICKS
~~~~~~~~~~~
A new feature to the Map Maker is the addition of "Quick-Pick" banks. These
banks are displayed along the bottom control bar. In one bank, the user may
store the most commonly used tiles (for editing), and in the other bank
objects may be stored. Instead of constantly moving to the tile window,
selecting two tiles for editing, moving back to the map window and pasting
tiles, it's much easier to use the quick-pick bank.

When the tile window is active, select a couple of tiles (one for each
mouse button) and then move the cursor over the two leftmost boxes on the
lower control bar. Clicking on one of the tiles will then place your cursor
into the quick-pick bank. Move the cursor to the slot in which you want to
store the tile, then click with the left mouse button. Clicking with the
right button will cancel this action.

You may switch between quick-pick banks at any time by clicking the mouse
button on the gray area of the lower toolbar. This area is located between
the actual quick-pick slots and the active tiles (or object). This is not
effective during template paste mode.



Programmer's Info
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Map File Format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those who want to attempt their own editor, or to access the map files
from a different library, here's the map file format:

NAME         SIZE        Value          Meaning

MAGIC        2   bytes   8974      	Magic number for v4.0 files
WIDTH        2   bytes   20-320    	Width of map (in tiles)
HEIGHT       2   bytes   10-200      	Height of map (in tiles)
MAPDATA      WID*HGT     0-255 each     Actual map data (stored in rows)
TILETYPES    256 bytes   0-255 each     Tile types for all 256 tiles
TOTALOBJECTS 2   bytes 	 0-2000    	Number of object structures stored 
OBJECTS      7 byte struct              One for each object in file

typedef struct {                        Object structure
     char on;                      	Sprite is turned on=1
     int x;                        	World x coordinate (max 320*64=20480)
     int y;                        	World y coordinate (max 200*64=12800)
     unsigned int num;                  Sprite # from object file to show
     } objects;



Project File Format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

typedef struct {                        This defines a rectangular region
     short x;
     short y;
     short x2;
     short y2;
     } coord;

The following structure is saved as the project file:

struct {
     unsigned char  title[20];               Project file header string
     unsigned char  tilepath[80];            Path to TILE file
     unsigned char  mappath[80];             Path to MAP file
     unsigned char  objpath[80];             Path to OBJECT file
     coord          tile;                    Window coordinates (4 windows)
     coord          map;
     coord          object;
     coord          template;
     char           winorders[10];           Window priorities
     short          picks[18][3];            Quick pick banks
     unsigned char  activebank;              Currently active quick pick bank
     } PROJECT_FILE;


*** Notes:     - 3 quick-pick banks are saved, but only 2 are currently used
               - 10 window priorities are saved, but only the first 4 are used

