SCM4 Documentation - Written by Mark Sheeky Document version 1.01D 0. Demo Version This is a PD demo version of SCM4. This is identical to the full version except for the following changes. A. The map size is limited to 16x16. B. The IFF->RAW tile conversion has been disabled. C. SCM4 files connot be loaded. The full version of SCM4 is available from 5th Dimension Licenceware at the following address:- 5th Dimension Licenceware 1 Lower Mill Close Goldthorpe Rotherham South Yorkshire S63 9BY 1. SCM4 - Introduction. SCM4 is a game map designer program. It is used for designing levels for games like platformers and other programs that need a background map built up from map blocks. The main program has several features never before seen in mappers. You can... * Import maps from saved games * Convert an IFF brush into a map (pixel by pixel) * Create walls with the correct corners, T-junctions etc with a single mouse click (auto-walling). * Edit byte, word or longword maps and save them as raw data or in a custom file. * Convert an IFF picture of 16x16 blocks (any depth) into raw format with a single mouse click. * Edit the map bit-planes at binary level. * Make numbered tiles incase you don't have any graphics. 2. Using SCM4. 2.1 System requirements. The mapper can be run on any AGA Amiga. The size of the maps and the quantity of the graphics are limited only by available memory so any extra memory will be utilised. SCM4 also requires the reqtools.library for its file requestor. This must be in the libs dir of your boot disk. 2.2 Basic information. After loading the main screen will show two main panels of icons. One panel runs along the bottom of the screen and contains the numbers 1 to 12 as well as cut/copy/delete icons. This is the Buffer panel. The other panel is on the bottom right of the screen. This contains all of the main mapper icons. This is the icon panel. Above the icon panel is a black space. This is where any graphic tiles that have been loaded in will be displayed. This is known as the tile palette. 2.3 Icon panel screens. The icon panel displays one of three different screens. These are SETUP, EDIT and FILES. At the bottom of the panel there are three icons which control which screen is displayed. A light appears next to the selected panel. Click on one of these icons to change screens. 2.4 Other info. Most icons in beige (as opposed to white) require a right mouse click to be used. This is usually to stop an accidental click. Occasionally, a message will appear in the buffer panel. Just left mouse click to continue. 3. The SETUP screen. 3.1 Information shown There are three numbers shown on this screen. Map width in blocks (x), Map height in blocks (y) and the number of graphics tiles to use. The latter value is used for... * Reserving the correct amount of graphic memory. * Specifying the amount of numbered tiles to convert (see later). * Specifying the amount of graphic tiles to convert to raw (for ILBM -> RAW conversion). 3.2 Setup Icons. 3.2.1 Firstly, on the left there are two icons which control the map width. Click on these and hold to accelerate the map width in either incrementing or decrementing amounts. 3.2.2 Directly right of these are the map height icons. Use as you would use the map width icons. 3.3.3 The arrows on the far right of the panel control the number of graphic blocks to use. Click on these with the right mouse button to advance 100 tiles at a time or use the left mouse button to accelerate the increment- decrement. 3.3.4 X->Y will copy the width value to the height value. It's just a quick way of setting up the values for a square map. 3.3.5 BYTE, WORD, LONG buttons are used to specify whether the map is to be made of bytes, words (two bytes) or longwords (four bytes). * Byte maps use the least memory but can only contain 256 different map blocks. * Word maps can contain 65536 map blocks which is more than you'll ever need. As most of the bits of each word will remain unused in a word map, you may store much more information than mere graphic information in a word map. * Long word maps can store a lot of information in each block. This may be needed when designing a complex game, like a driving game for example where you would have to store the computer controlled car driving information. 3.3.6 TRANSFORM will convert a byte map to a word map or a word to a longword map etc... This is very useful for importing maps from other sources as well as for changing your mind about map block size without having to redraw all of your maps. To use transform, just select what block size you wish to convert the reserved map memory to and then right click on the icon. It is then done. NOTE - to convert a map, the map must be in memory, you may convert a 'blank' map but only if the memory is reserved. 3.3.7 ALLOCATE - will reserve the map and graphic memory depending on the current settings. Right click on this and the memory size (in bytes) will appear in a message in the buffer panel. Click again to clear the message. 4. The EDIT screen. This is where you'll do the bulk of the mapping work. 4.1 Information shown. There are two graphic squares shown on the edit screen each with a number below. The first square (Tile A) is the block assigned to the left mouse button and the second (Tile B) is the block assigned to the right. When the pointer is over the edit panel, the numbers below show the numbers of the graphic blocks. When the pointer is in the edit window, the numbers below show the x,y coordinates that the pointer is pointing to. 0,0 is the upper left corner. 4.2 The tile palette. When you have loaded in some graphics, the tile palette above the panel will show these. Just click here with the left mouse button to select the left tile and click here with the right to select the right tile. Their pictures and their numbers will be shown in the edit panel. 4.3 The map edit window. This is the large space that makes up the bulk of the screen. Click here with the left button to stamp down the left tile. Click here with the right button to stamp down the right tile. 4.4 The icons. 4.4.1 PICK will pick as a tile from the map itself. Click on pick and then on a tile in the map edit window and the tile currently under the pointer will be assigned to the left tile if you clicked with the left button or the right tile if you clicked with the right button. 4.4.2 THE SCROLL ARROWS are the cluster of four arrows. These enable you to scroll around a map larger than the 15x15 display. Click and hold to scroll. 4.4.4 SKY VEIW will give you a birds eye veiw of the map. Left click to return to editing. 4.4.5 THE TILE PALETTE ICONS allow you to see more of the graphic tiles than are on display. Left click here to move up one/down one row of tiles. Right click here to move up/down one screen of tiles. 4.4.6 EDIT BIT allows you to edit the individual bit-planes of the map data. Map editing at this binary level is useful for maps which store more in them than the normal graphic data. Byte maps have 8 bitplanes, word maps have 16 and longword maps have 32. Left click here to toggle editing. Right click here to toggle editing and advance one bit plane through the map. The map edit window will transform itself into a binary map. Dark squares represent zeros and light squares represent ones. You may edit the maps now. Only single square editing is permitted. 4.4.7 A->B will search through the map for any occurance of tile B and replace it with tile A. A right click is needed for this icon. 4.4.8 A<->B will exchange all occurances of tile A with tile B and vice- versa. A right click is needed for this icon. 4.4.9 Wall A->B,C,D is the auto wall icon. Auto walling needs sixteen tiles arranged in a specific order (the walls). Becuase the computer knows where the corners, T-junctions etc.. are then is can automatically put them in the correct places which can save a lot of time when mapping a complex wall or passage. To use auto wall.. 1. Draw where you want the wall to be in tile A (pick any tile for tile A but it must be one that is not elsewhere in the map). 2. Select the first of the 16 for tile B. 3. Click on auto wall and the job is done. The order of the sixteen tiles can be worked out as follows... 1. Write out the numbers from 0 to 15 in BINARY (0000 to 1111). 2. Each bit represents an 'exit' for the wall where it is safe to join onto another wall. Bit 0 is a 1 is a wall has an exit above. Bit 1 is a 1 if a wall has an exit to its right. Bit 2 is a 1 if a wall has an exit below. Bit 3 is a 1 is a wall has an exit to its left. So 0000 (0) is a solid, free standing block, 1111 (15) is a four-way crossroads, 0011 (3) is a bottom-left corner block. NOTE - You can use auto walling even if your walls are disorganised. Just select any tile (not in your walls preferably) for tile B, then auto wall. Then you can use the A->B or A<->B icons to put your walls in the correct places by replacing the filled in ones. 4.4.10 FLIP X will flip the map horizontally. 4.4.11 FLIP Y will flip the map vertically. 4.4.12 GRID will toggle a grid over the map to make editing easier. The grid is in colour 31 of the graphic tiles. 4.4.13 MAKE # TILES will make some plain tiles with a number on them for editing maps without graphics. Tile 0 will be darker than the rest. The number of tiles created will be the same as the number set on the SETUP ascreen. WARNING - This will erase any graphics currently loaded in. 4.4.14 CLS will clear the current map (put tile 0 all over it). A right mouse click is needed. 4.4.15 FILL will do a fill similar to a pixel fill in a paint package. Click on fill then click on the area of map to fill. Tile A will spread out until it reaches a tile different to the one first clicked on. 5. The FILES panel. This is where maps/graphics are loaded and saved and some other conversions are initiated. 5.1 The Icons. 5.1.0 SCRN->IFF will save out the map display as a full screen 32 colour IFF picture. This was designed to easily snapshot mockup screens. The screen will be saved out as an uncompressed IFF without the menu bars, just a full screen of map starting from the square in the top left corner. 5.1.1 TILES->RAW will convert an IFF picutre of width 320 and any height and depth into a column of interleaved 16x16 tiles. This is just an offshoot of the mapper and is not really part of the mapping process. Click on the icon and a select the IFF file to convert. After a short pause another file requestor will appear, this is to select the output filename for the raw tiles. Enter a filename and the process will be complete. 5.1.2 IMPORT MAP will load some raw map data into the mapper after skipping over a specified quantity of bytes (the import map offset). This can be used to load in maps with non standard headers or even maps from saved games. Apart from the offset this does just the same as the load map icon. 5.1.3 OFFSET ARROWS are used to set the map import offset. Use the left mouse button to accelerate one byte at a time. Use the right mouse button to accelerate 100 bytes at a time. 5.1.4 LOAD GX IFF will load in some IFF graphics to be used as tiles. The IFF graphic files must be of depth 5 (32 colours), and of width 320 (one full lo-res screen). They can be any height. Tile 0 should be in the top left, tile 1 to its right etc.... 5.1.5 LOAD MAP will load in some raw map data to the map. Loading in a large map to a small area will result in some chopping off of unneccesary data. 5.1.6 LOAD SCM4 will load an SCM4 custom file. SCM4 files contain map and sizing data, graphics and the buffer contents. These are most useful for editing large maps when it would take several mapping sessions to complete the finished map. 5.1.7 SAVE GX RAW saves out the raw map tiles as a column of graphic blocks. This means the blocks are always 32 colours. 5.1.8 SAVE MAP will save the raw map data. No sizing or graphic information is saved so be sure that you know the map size if you intend to edit again. 5.1.9 SAVE SCM4 will save an SCM4 file. This contains the map data, size information, graphics and the buffer contents. 5.1.10 QUIT will quit SCM4. Right click needed. 5.1.11 IFF->MAP will convert an IFF picture into a map. Each pixel of the IFF picture will correspond to a map block. So pixel colour 0 will correspond to map block 0. A picture bigger or smaller than the map will be fitted in intelligently. This feature is very useful. It means that you can design maps in a paint package and benefit from its editing facilities and then load it into the mapper. 5.1.12 APPEND will toggle whether to append or overwrite while saving if a filename already exists. This applies to ALL saving except... IFF Mockup screens (see SCRN -> IFF) will always be overwritten. SCM4 files will always overwrite (an appended file could not be read). NOTE - in older versions of SCM4, SCM4 files were always appended by mistake. This bug was fixed when the SCRN->IFF icon was added. 6. CUT/COPY/PASTE. There are 12 copy buffers in SCM4 for copying rectangles of map blocks. The buffers can hold any size of block from 1x1 (a single block) to 15x15 (one full mapper screen). 6.1 Selecting a buffer. First select the copy buffer to use. There are 12 to choose from. Click on one of the 12 numbered icons on the icon panel. The icon will light up, indicating that the buffer is in use. To deselect a buffer you may either click it again, select another buffer or select a new tile from the tile palette. 6.2 Pasting. Select a buffer and move the pointer onto the map. A black checked area will appear near the pointer. This represents the buffer contents (one block of tile zero at the start). Clicking with either mouse button will paste the buffer contents onto the map. Pasting is intelligent. When pasting to an area off the screen, the block will still be pasted. Pasting to an area off the map itself will not occur. 6.3 Cut/Copy/Delete To copy a map area into the buffer, select a buffer and then click on the COPY icon. Now move the pointer onto the map. The black checked block will appear. Now drag a rectange around the area you wish to copy by holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse. Release the mouse button and the process is complete. The area you just selected is now stored in the copy buffer. Paste mode will be activated, so the area you just picked up will be attached to the pointer, ready for pasting down. Cut is identical in operation to copy except that the area selected is also filled with the contents of Tile B. This can be used for drawing rectangles of a particular block onto the map. Delete is identical to cut except that the selected buffer is NOT USED. So the old contents of the buffer are preserved. 7. Program details. 7.1 Copyright This program and all associated files and data are copyright ©1995 by Mark Sheeky. All rights reserved. No unauthorised copying or data borrowing is permitted. 7.2 Disclaimer I have tried my best to ensure that SCM4 will function properley as described, but no warranty of any sort applies to it. I can not be held responsible for loss or corruption of data or any damage to files or hardware that may come about by using this program. This program should be taken as is and no assumptions about its reliablility should be made. Mark Sheeky - 29 Tynedale Avenue - Crewe - Cheshire - CW2 7NY - ENGLAND Tel 01270 650691