Copyright: DTX Help Information Copyright 1995 Stefan Nilsson


yesTRUEyesyesyesDTX - Help InformationDTXyesyes25/05/95


Table of Contents
Contents

General Info

Loading and saving resource files

Image Manager

Sound Manager

Cheat codes


Help file produced by  HELLLP! v2.3a , a product of Guy Software, on 1995-05-25 for Unregistered User.

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Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Format

Windows display drivers and the Image Manager


General Info

DTX is a utility that allows you to examine, save, and replace most of the images and sounds in registered versions of the game Descent.

DTX is distributed as shareware. Please see the file README.TXT for more information.

Coming features

- Better clipping routines when importing BMP files

- Support for music resource editing

- Some means of distribution of added/changed resources

- Other great ideas suggested by innovative DTX users

Known problems

- Replaced images don´t always look good if the Windows display driver supports less than 64K colors

E-mail

Please send comments/bug reports to one of the following addresses:

Internet: stefan_nilsson@msn.com

CompuServe: 100277,2432

MSN: Stefan_Nilsson

DTX is Copyright © 1995 Stefan Nilsson

Descent is Copyright © 1994, 1995 Parallax Software Corporation.

Descent is a trademark of Interplay Productions, Inc.


Loading and saving resource files

Descent keeps most of its data in two main resource files: DESCENT.HOG and DESCENT.PIG. DTX has the ability of manipulating DESCENT.PIG, which contains most of Descent´s image and sound data.

When DTX starts for the first time, it will ask for the name of a Descent PIG file. If a valid PIG file name is supported, the file will load, and a status bar will indicate the name of the resource file and the file´s version number. Currently, versions 1.0 and 1.4 of registered Descent are supported.

When image/sound resources have been changed, the resource file can be saved to disk. Don´t forget to make a backup copy of the original DESCENT.PIG before saving to a file with the same name in the Descent directory.


Image Manager

The Image Manager shows all images in the current resource file.

Description: A short description of the image.

Size: Image width and height in pixels.

Name: Descent´s internal name of the image.

Transparent: Any white pixels (palette color index 255) of the image will not be drawn on the screen.

See-through: Any dark brown pixels (palette color index 254) of the image will be replaced with whatever is beyond the wall with this texture on it.

Animated: The image consists of two or more image frames that will be shown in sequence as an animation. (Note that some of the images are not really animated, but still share the same name. Look at ´gauge18´ in the ´Cockpit Info´ section for an example).

Replaced: An ´R´ in this column indicates that the image has been replaced with another image since the resource file was loaded.

Commands

Save: Saves the image as a BMP file (256 colors).

Replace: Reads a BMP file from disk and replaces the current image. See note about Windows display drivers.

Show frames: Shows all frames of an animated image.

Hide frames: Hides the frames of an animated image.

Replacing an image

When a BMP file is opened to replace the current image, you will be given the opportunity to control the clipping of the imported image. The clipping dialog has the following options:

X offset: The spin button changes the X offset into the imported image.

Y offset: The spin button changes the Y offset into the imported image.

Width: The spin button changes the width of the new image. All frames of an animated image must have the same width.

Height: The spin button changes the height of the new image. All frames of an animated image must have the same height.

Stretch: When this button is pressed, the imported image will be stretched as necessary to completely fill the area of the new image. In this case, the X and Y offset values will have no effect.

When the Ok button is selected, DTX will convert the BMP file to a Descent bitmap, and optimize the palette as far as possible. Please note that images with many different colors may not look good after optimizing. This is because the available colors are restricted to those contained in Descent´s standard palette.


Sound Manager

The Sound Manager shows all digital sounds in the current resource file.

Description: A short description of the sound.

Length: Sound length in seconds.

Name: Descent´s internal name of the sound.

Replaced: An ´R´ in this column indicates that the sound has been replaced with another sound since the resource file was loaded.

Commands

Play: Plays the sound.

Save: Saves the sound as a WAV file (11025 Hz, 8 bit, mono).

Replace: Reads a WAV file from disk and replaces the current sound. The WAV file must be a standard, unpacked PCM file, and can be of any format (e.g. 44100 Hz, 8 bit, stereo); it will be automatically resampled and converted to Descent´s internal sound format.


Cheat codes

Here is a list of all known Descent cheat codes as of may 23, 1995.

All cheat codes should be typed in when playing. First, enable cheats by typing GABBAGABBAHEY. You will receive a ´Cheats Enabled´ message. Then, type one or more of the following codes:

Shareware/registered cheat codes

FARMERJOE - Warp to another level

GUILE - Cloak on/off

MITZI - Get all keys

RACERX - Invulnerability on/off

SCOURGE - Get all weapons in shareware version

TWILIGHT - Recharge shields

Alt+F in map mode - Display full map

Registered only cheat codes

AHIMSA - Robot firing on/off

BIGRED - Get all weapons in registered version

BIOPSYTOYBIOPSYTOYBIOPS - Destroy Main Reactor/Boss

BRUIN - Extra life

BUGGIN - Turbo speed on/off

FLASH - Mark the exit path with energy powerups


Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Format

This is the standard Windows sound format. It stores the sound as uncompressed 8 or 16 bit samples. To convert any other WAV file format to PCM, use a suitable converter, such as the Sound Recorder if you are using Windows 95.


Windows display drivers and the Image Manager

To get the best results when replacing images, use a Windows display driver with 64K colors or more. A 256 color display driver will give good results when the imported BMP files have 256 colors or less. A 16 color display driver will only work well with BMP files of 16 colors or less.