Welcome to the second release of the 3D tools for Sword Dream.
We did our best to create software that is both immediate to use, and allows scenario designers to create elegant three-D structures. To do so in a timely manner, we are implementing ScenarioMaker in a modular fashion — not all features of the powerful3D Engine in Sword Dream 3D are currently supported here. Some features, like animated textures and 3D non player characters, will be supported with subsequent developer releases of the 3D tools. Each subsequent developer release offers more features.
A full-length manual in Microsoft Word 5.1 format can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.comenius.com/pub/software/mac/dream/ The complete manual for ScenarioMaker has a length of 100.000 characters and is saved in Microsoft Word 5.1 format).
This read me file details the features related to creation of 3D places. Features new to this release are written in blue: if you used the previous version, just read the blue text.
3D places
To the ScenarioMaker user, a 3D place is just another kind of Dream place, like a temple or a shop. To create a 3D environment, open your scenario (or create a new one), then select "New" from the Place menu. In the dialog box that appears, select the "3D" radio button.
All other controls in the "Place information" dialog box are documented in the main ScenarioMaker manual.
Whenever you create a "3D place", Scenario Maker shows two palettes along the main window. The horizontal palette shows the 100 functional building blocks; the vertical palette, along the left side of the screen, shows the available materials. A tool bar appears above the place map, in the main window.
To create a building, select a material (like bricks); then click on the building blocks palette to select the shape you need. Finally, click inside the main window. That's all!
Most functional building blocks have a number in the topmost right corner. This is the height, in floors, of the block. For example, if you click on the bricks icons, and then on the straight line marked 1, you can create a bricks wall. If you chose the straight line marked 2 (directly below the first one, inside the functional building blocks palette), you'd create a taller wall — twice taller.
The taller the buildings in your place, the slower the 3D Engine will be in rendering the place. ScenarioMaker, starting with Developer Release 2, optimizes the 3D place for maximum speed — still, you might wish to keep very tall buildings to a minimum. If you created a 3D place with a previous version of ScenarioMaker 3D, open it in this version, then immediately save it: this is all you need to do, in order to have ScenarioMaker optimize your place.
Use the blank icon (leftmost) to plot a square of land with no building. The second and third blank icon (directly below) can be used interchangeably - they internally default to the same instruction for the 3D engine.
Note that you shouldn't leave any space unplotted (white). This is a traditional requirement for ScenarioMaker.
Also note that the traditional Scenario Maker features still work in 3D mode. You can use the F key to fill a place with the selected building block (or Option-f to fill overwriting). You can take a look at the structure of the 3D place (Scenario Maker will show you a map using the materials) pressing Command-T. You can add specifics to any location by double-clicking it.
Backgrounds and other features of the 3D place
Before you save your place, you can choose some texture to be used for the floors and rooves of the place. To do so, click the relevant buttons in the toolbar and select a texture from the list that appears. You can add your own textures to your scenario, using ResEdit: just paste them inside a resource. Use a resource of type "cicn" and a numeric ID between 1000 and 9999.
When reopening the 3D places you create, older versions of ScenarioMaker 3D forgot your selection for floors and rooves. This version will keep those information from previous saves.
If your 3D place is an outdoors space (or if it contains windows), you might wish to add a background. A range of mountains, a vast barren expanse, or some trees, may add a lot to the gaming experience.
The 3D Engine can use any picture, sized 200 by 1440 pixels, for a background. Paste your picture inside your scenario as a PICT resouce, then click the first icon in the toolbar: ScenarioMaker will allow you to select your background picture, and will instruct the 3D Engine to use it.
For the technically minded
Scenario Maker will save three resources for each 3D place you create. All three resources have the same numeric ID and name. The "Plac" contains the 2D representation that you see in Scenario Maker, along with peculiar Dream information (related texts, encounters etc).
The "SqMp" contains the information for the 3D engine. The "3DEn" is a template which contains information about the background, roof and floor textures, lightings and other display features of the 3D environment. Future versions of ScenarioMaker will allow you to further customize this environment.
You can see inside all three resources using ResEdit.
Weather
For outdoors places, the 3D Engine supports a simulation of atmospheric weather. You'll find a popup menu in the toolbar. The default selection displays a sun icon (for clear weather). Select the snow icon or the rain icon to change the weather conditions in your 3D place.
You can create your own customized weather. To do so, you'll have to draw some frames for the weather. The frames will be plotted, cartoon-like, in front of the 3D scene — and this will do.
Use Mister Monster Maker (the companion utility to ScenarioMaker) to create your own weather. Then select the last icon in the popup weather menu (in the toolbar). A dialog box will appear, and you will be allowed to select your custom weather definition.
Dialogs
Dream 3D introduces the possibility of multiple-choice "dialogs" between the player and the monsters. Scenario Maker now allows you to choose a location where such dialogs happen. Double click on a location and use the dialog box that appears to place a dialog.
The dialog itself, for now, is created via a separate application, the Talk Editor.
The Talk Editor features will be rolled inside Mister Monster Maker, the companion utility to ScenarioMaker, at a later time.
3D Events
ScenarioMaker 3D DR2 allows you to position a "3D Event" in a 3D place.
The more common example for a 3D event is the animated opening of a door when the player gets near. More complex events can be associated to the presence of a player character in a location. For
example, you could see some leaves falling when you stand below the branches of a tree.
A 3D event is composed with a sequel of pictures, wich the 3D Engine will draw in front of the rendered scenery. You should draw the picturs first (320 x 200 pixels and 256 colors, for maximum speed), then paste them inside your scenario (as PICT resources). Give the PICTs consecutive numeric IDs in the 1000-9999 range.
Next, use Mister Monster Maker 3D to crate a "3D Event" resource. This resource will be used by the 3D Engine as a description for the event, and details the speed of the animation, among other things.
Last, use ScenarioMaker 3D to position your event. Double click on the place location where the event is supposed to take place. Type the number of the "3D Event" resource that you crated, and click on the "Invokes 3D event" radiobutton. You are done.
Previews
The resource picker used inside ScenarioMaker now sports a preview feature. For now, the preview is supported for pictures, texts and patterns.
Text
ScenarioMaker 3D now includes a full-featured text editor. You can use the editor to type the texts that will be displayed inside a separate window in Dream 3D. A text piece can be attached to a place (use the "Place info" dialog box in the Place menu); a location (double click on a location inside the main place window in Scenario Maker, then type the text ID inside the "text on enter" box); or an item (that is, a book — use Mister Monster Maker to generate the item, and while in there type the ID of the text piece that you created in Scenario Maker).
The text editor is accessed via the Text menu. Please note that there is a bug in the current version: the program might crash if you open more than one text piece simultanoeusly.
Custom materials
The materials that ScenarioMaker displays on startup are taken from the Dream DB. You can add your own building materials. Suppose you wish to place your scenario in a tropical environment, and you plan to create some straw huts for a village there. You can add the straw building material to the ScenarioMaker vertical palette — and then have it displayed inside Sword Dream 3D.
To do so you need some ingenuity and ResEdit.
Open the Dream DB file in ResEdit, and also open your scenario. Copy a complete series of the square elements building blocks ("SqEl"), up to one hundred resources, numbered from 900 up to 999. Paste them in your scenario, and renumber them. The first material you add must be numbered 1000, and its related SqEls should occupy the Ids from 1000 to 1099. A second building material can be added and should use the IDs from 1100 to 1199, and so on.
You must then add a texture: the 3D Engine will use it to render the new material. The easiest way is to open the SqEls while you are renumbering them, and note the internal reference to either PICTs or cicns (large color icons). Also copy those from the Dream DB, and then create replacements showing your own texture — the straw, in our example.
You are restricted to using the numbers from 1000 up to 9999 for your pictorial resources. All other numbersare reserved for Dream 3D.
There's just one more need — you have to create a 32x32 icon or the "cicn" variety, for ScenarioMaker to use in its building materials palette. Create such an icon (you'll typically want to grab a piece of your main texture), paste it inside your scenario, and assign to it the same numeric ID as the first SqEl of the series. So, the first custom material you'll add will be displayed in ScenarioMaker using the cicn ID 1000; the second using cicn ID 1100.
If you did all this correctly, ScenarioMaker will automatically recognize the new building material, resize its materials palette, and allow you to use it.
Custom building blocks
You probably noticed that the building blocks palette is vastly incomplete. We left some free spaces so you can add your own custom-designed walls, niches and architectural elements.
The Dream team reserves the usage of the first 90 building blocks in every series — you can create your own additions for both the standard series (that is, for the materials that are built into Scenario Maker and the Dream DB) and your own.
For example, you might wish to add a straight bricks wall, with a sign painted on it. You would add the new wall to the bricks series.
To add a building block to the palette you must create:
1. Your own texture for the new building block
2. Your own icon, to be shown in ScenarioMaker
3. A description for the building block (that is, how it is shaped).
Step 1.
The texture can be any cicn resource. Use any ID you have free in the range 1000 up to 9999. You'll refer to this number from inside the SqEl resource, in step 3.
In our example (the painted sign), you would copy the bricks texture, create a new cicn, give it the number 1050, paste the bricks texture, paint the sign above the texture, save your work inside your scenario.
Step 2.
The icon should be numbered 99x (with x any integer — so you can use the numbers from 990 up to 999). You must create it in both the"icl4" (16 colors) and "ICN#" (black and white) varieties.
Scenario Maker will display your new icon in the building blocks (horizontal) palette FOR EACH AND EVERY MATERIAL. You must be certain to use the new building block only in conjunction with the correct material.
In our example (the painted sign) you might copy icon ID 901 (both icl4 and ICN# resources) from Scenario Maker into your scenario. Renumber those icons to 990. Modify them so that you can recognize that they contain the sign.
Step 3.
Now to the element itself. A building block is saved inside a SqEl resource. You should copy a standard SqEl (the one which resembles what you are trying to obtain the most), and modify it. Edit the resource, and substitute the original texture with your own. Then renumber it and give it the correct number. The last two digits are the same as with the icon you created in step 2. The first digit, or digits, are characteristic of the series.
Back to our example. Use ResEdit. Copy a straight wall building block from the Dream DB to your scenario. SqEl 901 would be acceptable. Renumber it to 890 (800 is the bricks series, and your icon was numbered 990 in step 2). Open it and set the texture to the texture you created in step 1 (write 1050).
Known bugs and problems
• This text refers to MisterMonsterMaker 3D. This utility is not yet ready as of this writing (January 20th, 1997).
• The icons in the toolbar change their looks according to their state. For example, the "background" button will look pressed when a background is selected. The icons sometimes are not redrawn after a change state.
• Send your comments to akko@ilmioweb.it. We will consider all of them before we decide what other features of the 3D Engine to incorporate in ScenarioMaker. The full list of available features in the 3D Engine is at http://www.comenius.com/dream/tn28.html
