Mapper V1.0 By Reaper of the PowerLords UK in January 1990. Introduction : This mapper utility will allow the creation and update of a map ~~~~~~~~~~~~ which can then be used as a scrolling backdrop in your game or demo. The map must be rectangular and cover at least the size of the screen. The building blocks used to make up the map must be of size 32*32 pixels. They are also limited to low-resolution mode, the interlace and hi-res modes are not catered for. However, the blocks can consist of any number of bitplanes. Note that to save time on input (and also my programming time) all the input and output filenames are fixed. All file access is done in the current directory. The operations allowed on the map are fairly limited. In fact there aren't any. All you can do is place a block on the map. Anything more complicated, eg. moving/copying sections of the map will have to be done by yourself. The file format will be described below. Keyboard input : Here you can enter the number of IFF files to be read, which ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ is limited to 26, but you will probably get an error message before then due to a lack of available memory. Also you must enter the screen size in pixels which should correspond (closely) to that used in your game/demo. There are lower and upper limits of 256..352 pixel width and 160..288 pixel height. Also these inputs must both be a multiple of 32. Then you must enter the width and height of your map. These inputs refer to the number of 32*32 pixel blocks, eg. if your screen height is 256 pixels then your map must be at least 8 blocks high. Finally you have the choice to load an input map. File input : The IFF filenames must correspond to the notation "a.iff", ~~~~~~~~~~ "b.iff"... "z.iff" and should be stored in the current directory, eg. if you have requested an input of 4 files then the files a,b,c,d will be read. The screen colours and number of bitplanes are taken from the first file "a.iff" and the remaining files are assumed to be of the same format. All the IFF files are assumed to be of size 320*256. Note that if you are using a 32 or 64 colour display then you will lose three/six colours respectively. This is because the pointer used consists of two sprites and uses colour registers 17,18 and 19. The input map should be called "in.map". Execution : When on the IFF screen use the left/right mouse buttons to move ~~~~~~~~~ down/up the files respectively. Press fire to grab a block and enter the map screen. Then move around the map as desired using the joystick and press fire to place the block. You may then scroll around the map for viewing purposes, before pressing fire again to return to the IFF screen. To exit the program press both mouse buttons for about one second. File output : If desired, the map can be saved. Its filename is "out.map". The ~~~~~~~~~~~ maps contents are stored in left to right then top to bottom order. Each block is defined as a word-sized number on the map. This block number is related to the horizontal and vertical position of its graphic data in the appropriate IFF file, ie. each file consists of 80 blocks in eight rows of ten, eg. 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 Thus the first file "a.iff" contains block numbers 0..79 and the second file contains block numbers 80..159 etc. An empty map position will be denoted with the number -1 and will appear on the screen as a blank block. The order of the map output file will also look like the above diagram. If your map is 20*20 blocks then the output file will be of size 20*20*2=800 bytes. Note that the input map file will not be altered and that no extra information such as map width and height are stored along with the map itself. This is to avoid any confusion when including the map(s) in your program. Filename summary : Input Output ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ a.iff Necessary out.map b.iff Optional c.iff Optional etc. in.map Optional Notes : If you are wondering why this document has not been stored separately ~~~~~ from the program it is because I know how easy it is for programs and their instructions to become separated from each other!