Virtual Reality Madness/VRMAD96_ONE.ISO/worlds/flatdisk/nitemall/flatdocs.txt

Text File | 1993-05-02 | 14KB | 284 lines

Wait A Minute, Something's Wrong Dept.

Before I describe the program you have just downloaded, I must offer the
following diatribe to those among you who have loyally downloaded any or all of
the six previous fLAtDiSk VR Dreams, or to anyone who has purchased
Domark's Virtual Reality Studio 2.0 as a result of having sampled a fLAtDiSk VR
Dream.

If you are not one of these former VR Dreamers, or if you're in a hurry, you may
skip over to the Usual Rambling Docs Dept. and find out how to experience
NITEMALL, but I suggest you all read my

Angry Essay Written After Upgrading to Virtual Reality Studio V2.0


I was a pretty cocky guy back in '92.

I had quite a bit of success with Domark's VR Studio 1.0. Over 1500 people
downloaded the six fLAtDiSk VR Dreams, and I'd made some new friends and
gotten lots of nice email for my efforts. People were talking to me like I was some
sort of VR guru (I'm not, but I enjoy the spotlight, ok?). New Media offered me a
free six-month subscription.

No money, but what's money, eh? I'm in the FreeWare business, after all.

Well, kids, money is what you use to pay for commercial software like Domark's
VR Studio 2.0. Even though I was a registered user of VRS1, I got no offer from
Domark to upgrade cheap. I had to trot down to the Egg like everybody else and
take a chance that there really was a reason to buy a new version at Egghead's
slightly-off-list price. I had already begun a new project in VRS1. I wasn't
eggactly rolling in dough. I wanted to buy Vista Pro and Distant Suns. Etc., etc.

I gave in. I bought VRS2 anyway. After all, it could only be an improvement,
right?

Yes and no.

VRS2 is not what it appears. It is a new version to be sure, but the designers
have made some bad decisions about what to change and/or sacrifice to make
changes. The resulting version has bugs that can drive you right up a virtual wall.
The astute among you will notice only two of these in fLAtDiSk VR Dream #7,
and they won't affect your PC or cause your mouse to drop off, but before you go
out and invest in VRS2 I feel you have a right to know THE TRUTH. You might
be better off buying VRS1 (which is probably going cheap) or not upgrading at all
if you already have the original.

Here's the list, Domark. (If you had only done me the courtesy of answering
my letter, eh?) Readers take note that all references are to the VRS2 PC version.
The Amiga version may work just fine. Maybe it's Todd R.'s fav for all I know
(or care).

The VRS2 editor "supports" AdLIb, Roland, and horrible PC speaker. Exactly how
this sound support works is not documented. VRS2 also comes with a separate sound
editor for each of the above, so you can compose sound effects for your programs.
Unfortunately, the main VRS2 editor doesn't always remember the custom sounds you
loaded into your program file in a previous session.
It gets worse:
VRS2 makes stand-alone programs, but the compiler refuses to compile any sounds
at all. I have, I admit, an AdLib compatible, ATI Stereo FX card, but it worked
fine with VRS1. The only other VRS2 user I am contact with could not get the
compiler to do sounds with his card either. Hi, Josh.
The box also lists Sound Blaster, but there are no visible drivers for SB.
Final compiled programs won't even run silently without all of the (useless)
drivers for all sound options in the user's directory. (I don't know zilch about
Roland, but support for that card was one of the "improvements" made for VRS2.
Maybe it works, maybe not.)

As you will see when you run NITEMALL, programs compiled in VRS2 do not start up
right. The first thing you get is a borderless picture of the first scene
(or Area, to those in the know). There is no documented way to correct this.
If you don't know that it is necessary to press Esc to reset the program and
get it to start, you might think something has gone horribly wrong. Many users
might press the PC's reset in tears, fearing Albanian viruses or something.
This problem did not exist in VRS1.

There have been several changes in the editor's user interface that make it
clumsy and overly complex. Using the okay button on the object edit interface
lands the mouse pointer right on the reset button in the main control panel,
for example. There is a new, confusing, nonintuitive system of menus that will
make Windows or Geos users shake their heads with pity. The new attribute clicks
in the dialog boxes are useless, as they are only temporary. You must write
code in various condition windows to permanently affect an object's attributes.

The box and manual proclaim a new "VCR style playback function". It works nicely
in the editor, but forget the manual's claim that it can be added to your
final stand-alone using Freescape commands. (Freescape is the programming
language built into both versions of VRS). If there are such commands,
they are completely undocumented.

The documentation looks impressive. Domark includes a video like the last time,
and there is a very funny, reasonably thick, Douglas Adams style manual.
Unfortunately, the book only skims the surface and then resorts to a badly laid
out glossary that makes the old Microsoft manuals look friendly. "Double the
number of control commands", the box proclaims. Useless if you have to spend the
rest of your life figuring out what they're for, says I.

The "print out/screen dump" option claimed on the box is not documented, if it
exists at all. The Freescape code is written in modular fashion, and each module
can indeed be dumped to a .TXT file, but there is no overall code dump.

The new graphic drawing commands, which could be quite powerful, are not
documented outside the glossary.

Some of the new commands definitely don't work. (DISK, for example.)
Added I/O support is completely ignored in the manual. You can load in a title
screen (see NITEMALL), but it may take you ten hours to figure out how.

The manual and the dialog boxes refer to .IFF as being the file extension for
all graphic files used by VRS2. The correct, undocumented PC extension is .LBM.

The perfectly wonderful 256-color palette control from VRS1 has been replaced by a
clumsy menu system. VRS2 doesn't allow you to save your palettes for future
projects. The blend option is gone. Unclear border load options can wipe out your
palette changes. The old color system was one of VRS1's best features. Customizing
a palette with the new system is annoying and time consuming.

The load and save options have been extended and speeded up, but they remain
unusually unintelligent. There are still no warnings against overwriting existing
filenames. VRS2 needs to be first told and then constantly reminded which of its
subdirectories contain its various file types. The program's install sets up these
directories. Is it too much to ask that it knows their names?

Instead of just a couple of compact files like VRS1, a "stand-alone" for VRS2
now requires 15 separate files. When does a stand-alone stop being a stand-alone?

To be fair, there are many new features that work just fine. You'll see some of
them while you're tripping around in NITEMALL. (Too bad you can't hear them
too). After all, this is still the only program of its kind for PC, and some of
the old VRS1 bugs have been stomped out, but, there's a lesson here, dear
Potential Dreamsters:

Don't upgrade just because an upgrade is available. Do your homework first. Check
out a working copy before you buy. Or wait for the PC mags to do it for you.

It's ok to put your faith in ShareWare and FreeWare, but beware "commercial"
software. The big guys worry most about their car payments.

Personally, I take the local bus.

!o)Old Indy.



Usual Rambling Docs Dept.

NITEMALL
A fLAtDiSk(tm) FreeWare Virtual Reality Dream
(7th in the series - see BDREAM.ZIP, FURTHER.ZIP, PURPLE.ZIP,
NOUPDOWN.ZIP, EARTHNAP.ZIP, MOANBIRD.ZIP, in no particular order.)

System requirements: AT or better, with minimum VGA/MCGA 256-color
card/monitor. Rodent, and/or joystick required. No sound this time (see above
essay for why).

Tools Used This Time Department:

Programmed using the Domark Virtual Reality Studio 2.0, by Rich La Bonte,
(a.k.a.. FLAtRich on America OnLine, the user-friendly network).

The fLAtDiSk(tm) User Interface was created in ZSoft's PCPaintbrush V+ and
John Wagner's IMPROCES 4.1, then converted to .LBM format using VPIC.

Title Screen and Sneaky Spock Self-Promotion created in IMPROCES 4.1.

NITEMALL is FreeWare by fLAtDiSk SoftWorks, circa 1993. Abuse at will. We
will always make no reparations to any eye strained individuals addicted to VR
or computers who can't get enough of a good thing. Please include all files if you
want to distribute NITEMALL, or it probably won't work. (Considering the
buggy nature of Domark's VRS2, I make no absolute promises that it will work
with all the files on specific systems either, but it probably will. At least I tested it
on several very different systems before I uploaded it.)

ALL fLAtDiSk files are scanned for viruses with MS Anti-Virus before distribution.
(With the Stealth scan option on, just to be sure.) Practice safe data, use virus
protection.

Endless List Of What Should Be Included For This ZIP To Be Legit Department:

6x6font.3fd (818) - a font file.
8x8font.3fd (884) - another font file.
runner.3sd (1646) - a file that has to do with the sound that doesn't work.
runner.3wd (54528) - a file that deals with actual program graphics and stuff.
soundal.drv (2812) - a useless sound driver for AdLib
soundns.drv (377) - a sound driver for no sound, which appears to work too well.
soundpc.drv (2718) - another useless sound driver - for horrible PC speaker.
soundrl.drv (2902) - a sound driver that may or may not work with Roland cards.
video.drv (9859) - a video driver, most likely.
nitemall.exe (8859) - the program runner file.
runner.exe (96176) - the VRS2 runner file.
ad.lbm (23742) - the ad file.
fdvrd05.lbm (6374) - the cool fLAtDiSk border file. Steal if you must.
title7.lbm (55888) - the title file, 7th take.
runner.rsc (1327) - another obscure file.
flatface.gif (11865) - a GIF file that explains the fLAtDiSk mouse user interface.
flatdocs.txt (13761) - this file, of course. Longer than previous ones 'cause I'm mad!

I tried to eliminate some included useless and sound related files to make the
ZIP a little smaller, but the program won't load without them. Only the
aforementioned authors of VRS2 know why.
You can delete FLATFACE.GIF and this file if you don't need them. They have nothing to
do with making the program work.

Installation and Use Of Dept.

With all those files, it's probably a good idea to make a NITEMALL directory,
then put all the files unZIPped from NITEMALL.ZIP into that NITEMALL
directory. Use your brain and figure out how to complete these steps all by
yourself.

To run it, type NITEMALL and press ENTER.

The first thing you will see is a DOS menu that asks if you are English, French or
German. Make a choice or sit there staring at the screen wishing there was
some other option.

Another DOS menu asks if you are using a mouse, keyboard, or a joystick.
I KNOW the rodent works. (If you want to struggle with the keyboard
alternatives, they're listed at the end of these docs.)

Then you'll see a black screen with a scene in the middle. Yes, something's
wrong, but it's not your fault. It's also not my fault. It's Domark's fault.
(See essay above).

Press Esc.

Now you're at the opening fLAtDiSk title screen. Admire it for a while.

Press any key.

Now you're back to the first scene, but you've got a gray border and control
buttons to play with. The FLATFACE.GIF file tells you what does what. You
can probably figure it out. Go ahead. Try it.

GENERAL HINTS:

 fLAtDiSk (tm) Dreams are not games, only alternate realities. You're just a
Dreamer. You can't do anything to get killed or penalized. Take your time and
look around.  If the controls seem to go nuts or the view becomes unpleasantly
distorted, use the big button to righten yerself: you are probably upside down or
something.

 Collide to pass through obvious portals. Use the left rodent button to shoot at
anything that you are curious about: some things are actually portals. As I've
already mentioned, Domark blew it with the sound, so you won't hear any of the
nice effects I came up with this time.

 There are no dead ends in fLAtDiSk VR Dreams. Use them buttons!

 To restart at any time - or if you get stuck - click on the GUI button marked R.

 You will probably have to hold down the SHIFT and ESC keys for a while when
you QUIT back to DOS (or whichever shell). You should NOT have to press your
computer's reset button to get out.

 When you move around in there, the left mouse button is normal speed and the
right is double speed.

KEYBOARD ALTERNATIVES

O move forward        Q rotate left        I center view
K move backward        W rotate right        U u-turn
J move left        P rotate up        Esc reset to start
H move right        L rotate down        SPACE to shoot
R move up        N tilt left
F move down        M tilt right

TO QUIT back to whatever shell or OS you use, press SHIFT and ESC together.

This program may not launch from Windows because of (believe it or not) sound
driver conflicts. It will launch from GeoWorks Pro. I don't if it will launch
from GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0, OS/2, or Amiga or Mac DOS emulators. It's happy to
run any ol' time in MS-DOS 5 and 6.


Have FUN.


:o)FLATRich