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| wmebook:ch1_1 2007/12/15 23:25 | wmebook:ch1_1 2008/01/10 16:07 current | ||
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| {{wmebook:p3.jpg| Save games}} | {{wmebook:p3.jpg| Save games}} | ||
| - | **Personal savegames** – I strongly recommend you turn this on Yes. If those are set to No, game tries to save your game directly into the game folder in the subfolder called Saves. The problem with this approach is that it might not run well on Microsoft Windows Vista. Personal savegame creates a folder in your My Documents folder and you’re safe. | + | **Personal savegames** – I strongly recommend you set this to Yes. If this is set to No, the game tries to save your saved games directly into the game folder in the subfolder called Saves. The problem with this approach is that it might not run well on Microsoft Windows Vista. The Personal savegame option creates a folder in your My Documents folder, with the same name as your game. |
| - | **Save directory** – in case you ignored my warning. you can specify, how is the save folder in the game directory called. In the Personal savegames approach it’s called the same way as your game. | + | **Save directory** – if **Personal savegames** is set to No, you can specify what the save folder in the game directory will be called here. |
| **Thumbnail height, width** – are dimensions of the thumbnail images of your current position in case you want to include them in your savegame files. | **Thumbnail height, width** – are dimensions of the thumbnail images of your current position in case you want to include them in your savegame files. | ||
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| **Indicator** is a little progress bar which runs through the save / load process. Here you can set some basic parameters like position, height, width, color and transparency of this bar. | **Indicator** is a little progress bar which runs through the save / load process. Here you can set some basic parameters like position, height, width, color and transparency of this bar. | ||
| - | **Save/load screen** – is a custom screen which is showed during the save / load process. You can set here individual images and the screen positions for load and save process. | + | **Save/load screen** – is a custom screen which is shown during the save / load process. Here you can set individual images and screen positions for the load and save process. |
| **File extension** - specifies the extension of savegame files. Simple as that. | **File extension** - specifies the extension of savegame files. Simple as that. | ||
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| {{wmebook:p4.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p4.jpg|}} | ||
| - | **Debug mode** – if this mode is on, it displays on the right side of the game window important statistics like poly count, how many scripts are running, mouse position, current and previous scene etc. It also allows you to see / set several additional things: | + | **Debug mode** – if this mode is on, the right side of the game window displays important statistics like poly count, how many scripts are running, mouse position, current and previous scene etc. It also allows you to see / set several additional things: |
| - | **Show FPS** – displays frames per second on screen to see a current frame rate. | + | **Show FPS** – shows the current frame rate on screen in frames per second. |
| - | **Allow windowed** – even if the game itself disallow window mode, you can allow it in the debug mode. | + | **Allow windowed** – even if the game itself disallows windowed mode, you can allow it in debug mode. |
| - | **Debugging console** - is a .Net 2 application which runs in another window separately and where you can watch the state of variables, set a breakpoints, debug your scripts step by step etc. Here you can choose if the console is activated always, never or only when the game is in window mode. Note that the game starts much longer when the console starts too so be aware of that. | + | **Debugging console** - is a .Net 2.0 application which runs separately in another window where you can watch the state of variables, set breakpoints, debug your scripts step by step etc. Here you can choose if the console is activated always, never or only when the game is in windowed mode. Note that the game takes much longer to start when the console is started too, so be aware of that. |
| - | **Startup scene** – here you can choose a scene file of the scene which starts in debug mode. Note that this is only for debugging purposes. As soon as you compile the game or turn off the debug mode, the game starts from the position which is defined in the master brain script we’ve discussed earlier. | + | **Startup scene** – Here you can choose which scene starts first in debug mode. Note that this is only for debugging purposes. As soon as you compile the game or turn off the debug mode, the game starts from the position which is defined in the master brain script we’ve discussed earlier. |
| {{wmebook:p5.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p5.jpg|}} | ||
| - | Last part of section 1 is contextual and we’ll get back to it a bit later when we’ll discuss game packages. Right now you can see that all game packages can have a description, can be on certain CD in case you won’t install the game or some of its packages on the harddrive and can have some priority (which is very useful for patches). But let’s get back to this later. So we’re done with section 1, take a deep breath and let’s bring on some more goodness. | + | The last part of section 1 is contextual and we’ll get back to it a bit later when we discuss game packages. Right now you can see that all game packages can have a description, can be on a certain CD in case you don’t want to install the game or some of its packages on the hard drive and can have some priority (which is very useful for patches). But let’s get back to this later. We’re done with section 1, so take a deep breath and let’s bring on some more goodness. |
| Now we'll move onto Project Manager section 2: | Now we'll move onto Project Manager section 2: | ||
| - | Section 2 is basically what’s inside your game. Before we speak about the section two though, let me backtrack a bit and tell you something about the WME [b]design vs. runtime mode[/b]. | + | Section 2 is basically what’s inside your game. Before we speak about section two though, let me backtrack a bit and tell you something about WME's **design vs. runtime mode**. |
| - | If we design game we’d want to use a lot of folders and subfolders to keep our game neatly organized. But we don’t have to fear that after we want to give our game away, someone will have to create complex directory structures, because WME makes a single file out of every folder which has been marked as a package in the Project Manager. | + | When we design a game we want to use a lot of folders and subfolders to keep our game neatly organized. But we don’t need to fear that after we give our game away someone will have to create complex directory structures, because WME makes a single file out of every folder which has been marked as a package in the Project Manager. |
| - | Let’s look closely at the section 2 now: | + | Let’s look closely at section 2 now: |
| {{wmebook:p6.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p6.jpg|}} | ||
| - | You can see, that the folder called **data** has completely different icon. That’s because it has been marked as a package. Now this operation is called “Promote to package” and you can do this only to folders which are in the top level hierarchy – next to our data folder. As there is none, we can’t promote this package. For our WME game we need at least one package or there will be nothing to play with. Let’s keep everything in one package data for now. And let’s move on. | + | You can see that the folder called **data** has a unique icon. That’s because it has been marked as a package. You do this with an operation called “Promote to package”, which you can do only to folders which are in the top level hierarchy, next to our data folder. As there are currently none, we can’t promote any packages. For our WME game we need at least one package or there will be nothing to play with. Let’s keep everything in one package (**data**) for now and move on. |
| - | There is quite a lot of folders but their structure is entirely up to you. What you see is just one way how to organize your game. I’ll for now stick with it and later expand on it and bring more packages into question. | + | There are quite a lot of folders, but their structure is entirely up to you. What you see is just one way to organize your game. I’ll stick with it for now and later expand on it, bringing more packages into question. |
| - | Again you can try to expand for example the scenes folder and click on “room” to see that you have a neat quick preview of what’s in the scene. The preview is contextual for graphics files, full scenes or sounds. | + | Expand the scenes folder and click on “room” to see that you have a neat, quick preview of what’s in the scene. The preview is contextual for graphics files, sounds, or full scenes. |
| - | Now press right mouse button on the folder scenes to get the following window (in this image I went to the sub menu Add as well). | + | Now right-click the mouse on the folder **scenes** to get the following menu (in this image I went to the sub menu Add as well). |
| {{wmebook:p7.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p7.jpg|}} | ||
| - | You can see various operations you can do with the folder but the most used will be various adding, especially of scenes. Also note that you see the Add scene function twice. That’s because Project Manager uses a contextual approach and recognized that scenes are being stored in this folder. In the Add submenu you see all addable things in case you want to add something else. The addition itself uses various templates which we will uncover later. | + | You can see various operations you can do with the folder, but the most used will be the Add function to add various things, especially scenes. Also note that you see the Add scene function twice. That’s because Project Manager uses a contextual approach and recognized that scenes are being stored in this folder. In the Add submenu you see all addable things in case you want to add something else. The Add function itself uses various templates which we will cover later. |
| - | As a side effect we’ve covered the section 3 as well. Section 4 is for various contextual help texts and other messages so let’s move directly to section 5. | + | In the course of covering section 2, we’ve covered section 3 as well. Section 4 is for various contextual help text and other messages so let’s move directly to section 5. |
| {{wmebook:p8.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p8.jpg|}} | ||
| - | Graphic icons from left to right are – New Project, Open Project, Save Project followed by Cut, Copy and Paste clipboard operations. Next three icons opens the following tools: | + | The graphic icons from left to right are: New Project, Open Project, and Save Project followed by the Cut, Copy and Paste clipboard operations. The next three icons open the following tools: **Scene Editor, Sprite Editor** and the **String Table Manager**. |
| - | **Scene Editor, Sprite Editor and String Table Manager**. We’ve already covered the red exclamation mark as a run game and the last icon is opening the help file. | + | |
| - | In the upper menu you find icon functions as well, but there are some important settings too. | + | We’ve already mentioned that the red exclamation mark is **Run game** and the last icon is for opening the Help file. |
| + | |||
| + | In the upper menus you will find the same functions as performed by the icons, as well as some important settings. | ||
| {{wmebook:p9.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p9.jpg|}} | ||
| - | Compile packages (key F7) will create a folder called Packages in your game tree and in this folder you’ll find the game ready to be distributed. It will contain two exe files (for running game and for invoking base options) and all the compiled packages you’ve promoted to package in the project manager. | + | Compile packages (key F7) will create a folder called Packages in your game folder. In this folder you’ll find the game ready to be distributed. It will contain two exe files (one for running the game and one for setting the game's base options) and all the compiled packages you’ve promoted to package in the project manager. |
| - | Project settings is yet another window which would set the basic parameters like compiler, output filename, icon etc. | + | Project settings is another window which sets the basic parameters like compiler, output filename, icon etc. |
| {{wmebook:p10.jpg|}} | {{wmebook:p10.jpg|}} | ||
| - | Exclude from build are file types, which won’t be put in the package. Do not compress means that those file will be stored with no compression, use script compiler defines what filetypes will be treated as a pieces of script (include files inc are included to the script files so they don’t need to be set separately). You can override output folder with a path of your liking. Build Master index is “a part of the projected file system. It's only useful for multi-CD games, because it contains references to individual files and what CD they reside on. This way the engine can request a particular CD when needed“ (from the engine creator) | + | **Exclude from build** are file types which won’t be put in the package. **Do not compress** means that these files will be stored with no compression, **Use script compiler** defines what file types will be treated as pieces of script (include files are included in the script files so they don’t need to be set separately). You can override the **Output folder** with a path of your liking. **Build Master index** is "a part of the projected file system. It's only useful for multi-CD games, because it contains references to individual files and what CD they reside on. This way the engine can request a particular CD when needed" (quote from the engine creator). |
| You can rename the executable file, and change its icon. | You can rename the executable file, and change its icon. | ||
| - | Last option allows you to create an executable which will have appended the data file in case you want to ship a single file. | + | The last option allows you to create an executable, which will have the data file included, in case you want to ship a single file. |
| - | On closing of this section, I’d like to introduce the most important feature of Project manager. There’s a full **WME documentation which is accessible from Project Manager by pressing F1**. In the next chapters I’ll reference this documentation for more detailed description of components, objects etc. | + | In closing this section, I’d like to introduce the most important feature of Project manager. There’s **full WME documentation which is accessible from Project Manager by pressing F1**. In the next chapters I’ll reference this documentation for more detailed description of components, objects etc. |
| - | So for now let’s leave the Project Manager and we’ll move on the next tool: **Sprite Editor** | + | Now let’s leave the Project Manager and move on to the next tool: **Sprite Editor** |
| [[wmebook:ch1_1|Up]] | [[wmebook:ch1_1|Up]] | ||
