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************* Introduction. ************* The name of the game. Doopsi-GS means: Dinamical Object Oriented Programming System Interface - Game System. We named our program this way for many reasons: Doopsi remember us of Boopsi, the Object Oriented Intuition System of our beloved Amiga; it's an Object Oriented program in the tecnical meaning of the word, that is to say as far as its internal structure is concerned; it's a Programming Interface because it simplifies the the programming task making it completely automatic and quick. This Programming System is very different from other products devoted to the same scope because it is extremely easy to use, even for people that has little programming skill: the user draws all the graphics and supplies all the sounds and musics he needs and then our program puts all things together. The idea that lies under all the inner workings of this program is straightforward: you first define the scenes, then put some objects on them and, at last, you specify how each one of the objects must react when the guy that is playing acts on it (this is the only coding part you have to face). Well, to be sincere there are other parts of the work I've not included in the previous description, but you'll learn them as you get more involved in Doopsi: for example, one of the tasks you have to deal with is to build the path along which the Man walks (the Man with the capital letter is the chief character of the adventure), or another task is to write the dialogs between the Man and some other object, and so on. These are the features of Doopsi: - OS sensitive (it works under V37+). - completely localizable (it uses our "locator.library" to change languages, but in future versions we will adapt it to the standard "locale.library" if we can make it work also under V37). - AGA compatible. - the Editor is completely system friendly. The Doopsi Game System is made of two indipendent programs: the Editor and the Player. As their names might suggest, the Editor is the one that builds the adventure, while the Player exploits the datas produced by the Editor to make you play your game. You have to think to the Editor as generating some sort of program and to the Player as an interpreter of such a program: if occurs any runtime error the Player will prompt you with an error message and, if it can, continue the processing of the game, just as any interpreter of any language would do (well, actual languages can't continue after a runtime error, but we are better and we do!). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****************************************************** The authors (the most interesting part of the manual): ****************************************************** this is the situation up to 27 - 6 - 1996 (date of first upload): Andrea has just got a degree in Physics at the University of Milan, and is now studying to enter a Ph.D. course. Fabio is working as a Project Manager at DeAgostini MultiMedia, in Milan. He likes Amigas, cakes, girls, fun, OOP programming and DOOPSI ;) Our addresses are: Fabio Rotondo Andrea Galimberti c.so Vercelli, 9 via Villoresi, 87 28100 Novara 20029 Turbigo (Mi) Italy Italy E-Mail: fsoft@intercom.it Phone: (ITA) - (0)321 - 459676 Phone: (ITA) - (0)331 - 871009 The Web pages are: http://www.intercom.it/~fsoft/doopsi.html -> DOOPSI Home Page!!! http://www.intercom.it/~fsoft -> Fabio Soft Home Page DOOPSI Mailing list: TO SUBSCRIBE send a mail to fsoft@intercom.it With: SUBSCRIBE DOOPSI your_name@your_email.addr in the body. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************** Greetings go to: **************** Mik and Gio of ClassX: for some useful routines. For their support, for their ideas, for beign them. Giorgio Fornara: for the great graphics of the Demo that is not included in this package, but will appear sooner than possible. He has drawn also the Doopsi logo that appears on the Editor's screen. Andrea Rotondo: for the Tutorial graphics. Stefano Clemente: for beta-testing. Lele and Paolo of Intercom: for creating DOOPSI - Mailing list. ******* Hellos: ******* from Andrea to Laura: for having endured me until now. from Fabio to his mommy (and also his father). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************* LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR DOOPSI-GS ******************************* I. LICENSE RIGHTS AND RESTRICTIONS Fabio Rotondo and Andrea Galimberti ("authors") grant you the non-exclusive, non-assignable right to use enclosed DOOPSI-GS software in object code form (the "DOOPSI") on a maximum of 1 computer system at one time. You may not reverse engeneer, decompile, or dissassemble DOOPSI, except to the extent that the foregoing restriction is expressly prohibited by applicable law. You may not rent or lease DOOPSI, or otherwise transfer DOOPSI and accompanying written materials. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by authors. II. NO WARRANTIES DOOPSI and accompanying written materials are provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, authors declaim all warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringment. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of DOOPSI and any accompanying written materials remains with you. III. NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMGES To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law: in no event shall the authors or their suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use DOOPSI, even if the authors have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. IV. SHARING AND SPREADING You are authorized in spreading and sharing this document along with all the rest of the archive, only if the program is a "SHAREWARE" version or it is a "SPECIAL EDITION". The "SPECIAL EDITION" may not be uploaded to Aminet or to any BBS and may not appear upon any magazine without the written permission of the authors. You can, and you are invited to do so, copy and spread the original DOOPSI SHAREWARE VERSION archive, but you MUST NOT COPY in any form the DOOPSI REGISTERED VERSION, except for personal use. V. MISCELLANEOUS If you acquired this product in the United States, this Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Washington. If you acquired this product outside the United States, local law may apply. If either party employs attorneys to enforce any rights arising out of or relating to this Agreement, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys fees, costs and expenses. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************* Installation. ************* There is an Installer script to accomplish this task, but for the ones that like to do it manually we describe what should be installed and where. (By the way: to use the script you must have the Installer program and the Lha utility.) The three archives have already the final directory structure. You have first to depack the Programs.lha archive; the latter creates two directories: one contains the Editor and the other contains the Player. There's also a third directory in which you find two libraries: the "locator.library" and the famous "reqtools.library"; you have to copy these libraries to your Libs: directory. The final step consists in making the following assignment: Assign Doopsi: to the Editor directory. The default language is english, but are supplied also the catalogs to install the italian language: you just have to extract the Catalogs.lha in the same directory where you put the Editor drawer (not IN the Editor drawer, but NEXT to such a drawer). This creates a Catalogs directory in the Editor directory and also adds the file "player.catalog" in the Player/Data drawer. Then you have to depack the Tutorial.lha archive to the Same directory where you put the Editor drawer (not IN the Editor drawer, but NEXT to such a drawer): this will create a directory Tutorial in the Editor drawer, where you can find some graphical datas to start immediately. The resulting directory structure is: Editor | +---Catalogs | +---Docs | +---palettes | `---Tutorial | +---Objects | +---Berny | +---Scenes | `---Sounds Player | `---Data The Editor Must find in its directory the file "doopsi.dat". The Catalogs directory is needed only if want to use a language different from english (up to now only the italian catalogs are supplied): you copy in this drawer only the catalogs of your favourite language and leave out all the others. The Player Must find a subdirectory (of its own directory) named "Data" with the following files: "player.dat" and "panel.iff". The "panel.iff" is the console image you can change (see the Appendix B). The "player.catalog" file is needed only if you want to use a language different from english, otherwise you can throw it away. The catalogs' sources will be supplied (if wanted), with the executables used to create them, in a separate package. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Editor needs the Doopsi: assignment, but the Player has been built in such a way to be completely relocable (no assignments needed). When you start the Player from a Shell you just have to make the Player directory the current one and then call the program: the Player searches then in the current directory for a subdirectory named "Data", where it Must find the files "player.dat" and "panel.iff". If, instead, you start the Player from the Workbench, it is unable to find the current directory (sorry, we'll fix this sooner than possible) and searches for the subdirectory "Data" in the Sys: drawer. The commandline to start the Player is: Player Doopsi_file_name. If you forget to give a filename, the Player will open a file requester and asks you to select a file. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************** The Main window. **************** The story begins from here. First of all, let's describe the window contents. The topmost part is divided in two sections: the left one is related to scenes, while the right one is dedicated to objects. Then there comes a row with miscellaneous editors and, last but not least, the final row contains gadgets devoted to load and save your work as a whole. Let's start with the scene section. To create a new scene you have to press the "New" button. To select the scene to work with, you have to use the "List" gadget. The remaining gadgets all open new editors. The "Attrs" one is for entering the Screen Attributes editor, where you can change some features of your scene; the "Spot editor" button calls the Spot Editor to put Spots on the scene; the "Path editor" gadget enters the Path Editor used to edit the path on which your Man is supposed to walk. The "New" gadget creates a new object and opens the Object Attributes editor to allow the user to edit such an object. The "List" gadget displays the list of all objects created up to now. The "Attrib" gadget opens the Object Attributes editor; the "Doopsi code" button enters the Doopsi Coder used to specify what the Player should do when the user acts on an object; the "Anim Editor" gadget calls the Anim Editor that allows you to convert an object to an AnimObject by building an animation from its images. The next section contains three buttons: the "Prefs" one enters the Preferences editor where you can change for example some names the Player uses as defaults, or your favourite paths, and so on; the "Dialog Editor" calls the Dialog Editor used to create dialogs between your Man and any other character of your story; the "Info" gadget tells you how many objects and scenes you created up to now and the amount of free memory. Now we describe the last row. The "Save All" gadget is for saving all the adventure. The "Save Final" button differs from the "Save All" gadget because the file saved will be encrypted. The "Load All" gadget allows you to load a file saved with the "Save All" or the "Save Final" gadget. Some notes on how the Player finds the Man. This problem arises because the Man is an AnimObject (actually four objects: one for each direction) like all the other AnimObjects you may link to your game. Thus the Player has to know which objects represent the chief character of the story. The Man's internal name is composed of a root name (the default one is "Man") and an extension indicating the direction (e.g.: U for up, D for down, etc.): so the AnimObject containing the animation representing the Man walking right may be called (internal name always!) "ManR", and so on. You need also other four AnimObjects representing the Man speaking in the four directions: the name of such AnimObjects is built from the root name, adding to it a first extension (the default is "Talk") and the second extension is the direction as before. So the tipical name of an AnimObject showing the Man speaking to the left is "ManTalkL". You can choose your favourite root and extensions by writing them in the preferences editor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********** PATH EDITOR *********** INTRODUCTION Path Editor helps adventure creator to develope paths on which players will move. Paths creation is probably one of the more complex things and requires some attention. The path created upon a scene will limit players' movements during the game. This must take the creator to an accurate planning for the creation of the path. PATH THEORY Path is structured in nodes, stop units. Every node can be some special features that allows better control of player's movements in the scene, but we'll talk later about these features. Every node has some branches (max. 7 per every branch) that allows links with other nodes. Path sets, using nodes, player's freedom of movements. A path is so build up by nodes, linked each other with branches, so to create a sort of "web". Player's movements on the scene will apply on this "web", as nodes and branches were a sort of "invisible railroad" on which player will move. Warning: player's movements on a scene are binded ABSOLUTELY to the scene. It is not possible in any way to allow player to move somewhere else than path's extension. If you'll ask to the player to reach a point out of path's limits, the player will reach the nearest point to the one selected. This aspect of the path could be seen as a limit, but it is one of the greatest features, which will allow a great flexibility in game-designing: for example, it is possible to create a scene that encloses more paths and "to forbid" certain areas until a particular condition happens. With a bit of practice, you'll certainly design complex and various paths. Path Editor will trustly follow you step by step in this task. Happy working. NOTE: following tutorials presume you already know other features of DOOPSI, such as scene creation, anim creation using Anim WorkShop and object handling with Object Attributes. TUTORIAL 1 - A Simple Path In this tutorial we'll learn to draw a little path of four nothes and to link these nodes each other with very simple diramations. Goal of this tutorial is to get you used to Path Editor's basic commands. You'll learn to add and delete nodes, to add branches and to force redrawing of the scene (needed in some occasions). In the next one, we'll talk about more complex arguments. Execute this tutorial more than one time, until you'll be sure you have complete knowledge of the commands. To follow this tutorial, you must have already created a scene called "tutorial_room1". Press Path Editor in DOOPSI main panel. Do not be afraid for the great number of buttons, as time goes by, you'll perferctly know them. First of all, it is better to place all nodes on the screen. Naturally, you can add some of them later, but in this way you'll be certain to cover all important locations. To add a node on the scene, you just have to do these steps: - Press "Add Node(s)" From now on, until you choose to stop, every mouse click on the scene will generate a new node. - Create four nodes, as they were formin a box. - Press "Add Branch(es)" to add branches. From now on, until you choose to stop, you'll be able to add branches among nodes. - Press on the first node (it will change colour) - Press on the second node (it will change colour and a straight line will link these two nodes) We have just created the first link. To create another one, follow these steps: - Press on the second node (it will change colour) - Press on the third node (it will change colour and a strainght line will link these two nodes) Follow these steps to link each node to the next, creating a box. Now you have created these nodes, you can test the movements that the player will be able to do during the adventure: - press the button "Try Movements" and select starting node (for example, the first). Node will change colour. - Select the second node (for example, the third). Node will change colour. Program will try to compute the path between two selected nodes and will show it, step by step, highlighting nodes. If you have selected the first and the third and you have linked how we described in the example, you should see highlight nodes one, two and three. Naturallym this is a quite simple example, but the chance of testing path is very useful in complex scenes. Now create a new node where you want and link to it other nodes, following previously described steps. Try again to use the "Try Movements". Before end this tutorial, let's try to delete a node from the scene: - Press "Kill Node" - Select node you wish to remove. - Node will be erased. At this point, some graphics on the scene could be damaged and that the node you have just erased seems to be still there. This is not a DOOPSI problem, but you need to refresh completely the graphic. Press "Redraw All" to update the graphic, you'll see that now the deleted node will not appear anymore. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************** The Spot editor. **************** This allows you to put "Spots" on the scene: they are simply little crosses with two coordinates and a name. You use this name to address a particular spot and Doopsi will use its coordinates. Here is a TUTORIAL: - Create a new scene (using the "New" gadget in the scene section of the main editor window). - Enter the Spot editor. - Click on the "Add Spot" gadget: a message will appear saying "Add mode enabled". - Click on the scene where you want to put a spot: you can repeat this last operation until you have positioned all your spots. - Click again on the "Add Spot" gadget to disable the Add mode. - Click on your scene to select a spot: a message will appear saying "Get Info" - You can modify the currently selected spot name by just writing it in the string gadget "Spot Name" and pressing Return. - Quit the Spot editor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************************** The Screen attibutes editor. **************************** This editor allows you to change the name of the current scene, to load a different background without removing objects, path and spots you have already linked to that scene, and other useful things... The bottom row says something like this: "Use Action Open of Object foo". In other words the Doopsi code contained in the specified action of the selected object will be executed every time you enter the scene during the game. To switch off this option you have to clear the object's name in the string gadget. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************** The Object Attributes Editor. ***************************** This editor allows you to specify an object characteristics and to put it on the scene. A first tutorial: "the little sheet of paper". - I suppose you already loaded a scene to put objects on it. Now create a new object by pressing the "New" gadget in the object section of the main window. - Enter the Object Attributes editor. - In the "Name" string gadget enter "the paper". - Click on the "Internal Name" string gadget and write "paper". - Click on the cycle gadget to select the "Graphic" object type because our object is going to be drawn on the scene. - Press the "Add" button and, using the file requester, choose the "paper" image in the Tutorial directory. Now the image is linked to the object. - Eventually press the "Pos" button to position the object on the scene. - You can move the object to its final location by selecting it with the mouse and dragging it around the scene. A second tutorial: "an empty zone". - Create a new object just as in the previous tutorial. - Enter its name and (more important) internal name. - Click on the cycle gadget to select the "Empty" object type: our object will be an empty frame (not drawn on the scene during the game). - Press the "Set Zone" button: a rectangle will appear on the scene. - Drag the rectangle around the scene with the mouse and scale it using the gagdet in the lower right corner of the rectangle itself. - When you're done, click on the "Pos" gadget to link this object to the scene. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************** The Doopsi Coder. ***************** Introduction The Doopsi Coder is the editor that allows you to "program" the objects to react to the user's actions. As far as the Doopsi Player is concerned, objects are only complex data structures without a precise meaning: the task of the Coder is to coordinate the user's actions with the behaviour of every object. The Coder is probably the most important part in the editing of an adventure, because it allows the user to give a "real" appearance to the objects on the scene and allows the player to interact with such objects. Note: the following tutorials suppose that you already know something about Doopsi, like the Object Attributes editor. We refer the reader to the chapter related to such an editor to revise how to create and edit a new object. Tutorial 1 - "A door that open and close" To use this example you are supposed to have created an object called (internal name) "door" with two shapes linked to it, the first representing the door closed ("door_closed") and the second representing the door open ("door_open"). - From the main window make the "door" the current object and enter the Doopsi coder. - Press the "Open" button to code the object reaction to the action "Open". Now execute the following steps: - Instruction "IfStatus" - Select the "door" object - Insert 0 when you are asked for a value (in the Coder window will appear the line: IfStatus SELF, 00) - Instruction "ChangeStatus" - Select the "door" object - Insert the value 1 (in the Coder window will appear the line: ChangeStatus SELF, 01) - Instruction "ChangeShape" - Select the "door" object - Select the name of the shape representing the door open (in the Coder window will appear the line: ChangeShape SELF, 01) - Instruction "Else" - Instruction "ShowText" - When asked for a string enter: "The Door is already open" (in the Coder window will appear the line: ShowText The Door is already open) At the end of the previous steps you should have in the Coder's window the following code: IfStatus SELF, 00 ChangeStatus SELF, 01 ChangeShape SELF, 01 Else ShowText The door is already open EndIf This means (line by line): If the status of the object itself (SELF -> "door") is 0 Change the status of the object itself (SELF) to 1 Change the shape of the object itself (SELF) to 1 (the door open) Else Show the message "The door is already open" End of the If group Now we are going to write the code relative to the "Close" action. Press the "Close" button to code such an action, and execute the following steps: - Instruction "IfStatus" - Select the "door" object - Insert the value 1 - Instruction "ChangeStatus" - Select the "door" object - Insert the value 0 - Instruction "ChangeShape" - Select the "door" object - Select the name of the shape representing the door closed - Instruction "Else" - Instruction "ShowText" - Enter "The door is already closed" - Instruction "EndIf" The following code will appear: IfStatus SELF, 01 ChangeStatus SELF, 00 ChangeShape SELF, 00 Else ShowText The door is already closed EndIf "Translated" into everyday words this means: If the status of the object itself (SELF -> "door") is 1 Change the status of the object itself (SELF) to 0 Change the shape of the object itself (SELF) to 0 (the door closed) Else Show the message "The door is already closed" At this stage the coding of the "door" object is completed. You can press the Ok button to quit the Coder and return to the main window. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************** The AnimWorkshop. ***************** This editor allows you to build animations putting together some shapes in a sequence. The result is that you change an Object in a more complex thing called an "AnimObject", that is to say an object containing an animation. Such an animation will be played when the AnimObject is blitted on the scene. Let's start with a quick tutorial: "putting together a pendulum" - Create a new object with "Pendulum" as internal name. - Enter AnimWorkshop. - Select the "Load Frames" gadget and, using the file requester, select the shape named "pendulum.000". AnimWorkshop will then load the three shapes called "pendulum.000", "pendulum.001" and "pendulum.002". - Select frame number 0 and click on the "Add Frame" gadget; select frame number 1 and click on the "Add Frame" gadget; repeat again for the third and last frame. - Now enter 3 in the "Frame Rate" string gadget. - Press "Play" to view the animation and the right mouse button to stop it. - Press the "Ok" gadget to exit AnimWorkshop. Here's a more difficul tutorial on "how to build the Man": - First create a new object using the Object Attributes Editor (I suppose you already know how to do this) and call it (internal name) "ManRight". Now you are ready to enter AnimWorkshop. - Select the "Load Frames" gadget and, using the file requester, select the shape called "man_walk_right.000": AnimWorkshop will load this frame and all subsequent frames with the same name and increasing number; such frames will be displayed on a new screen. You can cycle through them using the "Prev" and "Next" gadgets in the upper part of the editor window. - Select frame number 1 (frame 0 is the rest frame and we will consider it later) and click on the "Add Frame" gadget: the number 1 will appear in the Sequence window. Then move to frame number 2 and click again on Add Frame; repeat these actions until the last frame is added. - Now you can enter the frame rate in the "Frame Rate" string gadget: write 12 and press Return. - Well, your animation is ok: press on the "Play" gadget to look at it. - Stop the animation by pressing the right mouse button. Then, exit AnimWorkshop by pressing either the "Ok" or the "Cancel" button depending on whether you are satisfied of your animation or not. - What about frame number 0? It cannot be included in the animation because it is the rest frame, but the Player has to know which frame to use when the Man is still: so we link it to our Man object and point to it by the "Default Shape" field in the Attributes editor. (Obviously this field has no meaning for a general animation.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************* DIALOG EDITOR ************* INTRODUCTION In every good adventure, dialogs between characters have to be present. Better dialogs are, brighter conversations, more funny is the adventure. To create dialogs is not an easy task: you have to consider a lot of elements and foresee a different answer for every possible phrase. That's why we strongly suggest to plan your dialogs and to track on a sheet of paper real flow charts where "to see" dialogs' structure. Dialogs, in DOOPSI, can be structured in a handy and powerful way and it is possible to write dialogs calling other dialogs or jumping from one part to the other to get back later. Dialog Editor is a easy and functional tool that will allow you to create complex dialogs in a minute: be carefull, anyway, because, as we have already said before, not planning the dialog, you'll risk to get lost... to loose, just to say, the dialog's path. WHAT IS A DIALOG In DOOPSI, a Dialog is composed by a sequence of "pages". As in all others DOOPSI elements, even Dialog's pages have their "internal name" that identify them. A page is made by an "answer", which is the phrase that the talker will say to our player and one or more phrases user selectable as "answer" to the "answer"... hmmm, said in this way, it may seem to be confused, let's try to explain better, with an example: let's start with the tutorial. TUTORIAL 1 - A Breef Dialog To enter into the Dialog Editor, simply press "Dialog Editor" button in the Main Window. At this point you'll see the Dialog Editor which will allow you to create the dialog. 1 - Press the "New" button to create a new dialog page. A string request will pop up asking for the page's internal name. We want this page to be the starting point, so write "Start_Dialog". Now you can start to write dialog phrases. 2 - Press the "Add" button (bottom left) to add a new phrase. The "New Phrase" string will appear in the string gadget called "Phrase:". Delete "New Phrase" and insert: "Hello! How are you?" 3 - Repeat step 2, inserting these messages: "How are you!" and "I should go now". 4 - Now we have to create a segond page, press "New" and place "How_Are_You" as internal name, se we'll remember this page is the answer to the "Hello, how are you?" question. 5 - In the "Answer:" gadget (top of the window), write "Well!", this is the answer that our friend will give us. To write something inside this field is not stricly wanted, but it is always better that the other says something... otherwise our Dialog could become a "monologue". The only solution in which we should omit an answer is in the first dialog's page, when we begin to talk with someone. 6 - Now repeat setp 2, and write "Now I go, bye". 7 - Now we have to "link" these two pages together. To do so, return to the first page. Press the "Select" gadget: a Lister containing dialog pages' names will appear. In our case there'll be two names: "Start_Dialog" and "How_Are_You", select "Start_Dialog". Dialog Editor's window will show the first page again. 8 - Now press on the phrase, "Hello, how are you?" that will appear in the string gadget (if you wish, you should also edit the phrase) and then select the "Jump" button, the same Lister we have seen previously will appear again, this time select "How_Are_You" phrase: the page's name will appear in the string gadget "Jump:". That's all! Now, when, during the game, user will select phrase "Hello! How are you?" the other will say "Well!". Is that easy, isn't it? 9 - Just for fun, we'll link also the "How Are You!" phrase to "How_Are_You" page. Press "How are you!" and then on "Jump" and select "How_Are_You". NOTE: a phrase without a jump means "END OF DIALOG". When the user will select one of these phrases, the Dialog ends. In our example, we have two phrases of this kind: the first is "I should go now" and the other is "Now I go, bye". NOTE2: as a convention, the exiting phrase is the last in the list. Where possible, please keep this convention. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********** PREFERENCES *********** DOOPSI is a complex and flexible program and some of its features can be adapted to programmer's needs. In DOOPSI, modifications apply by Preferences window, divided in four parts. Path Selection. In this section it is possible to choose dirs containing all files of a specific kind. Creating complex adventures, it is better to divide graphics, sound and all the rest in different dirs. With these paths, every time a file requester will appear (for example to load a background) the directory will be set to the preferences' one. In case you do not want any default dir, just plase an empty string in the string requester. Next to the string gadget there is a gadget called "R" (research), which will open a path requester you can use to search the directory you want to set as default. Palette Editing In this section it is possible to load, edit and save DOOPSI's colors. By pressing "Load" you'll be able to load up the first four colors of any IFF pic, with "Save" you can save the palette and with "Edit" you will be prompted to a standard Palette Requester which allows you to directly edit colors. Setting Default Names This is the most important secion of the preferences window. As you should already know, DOOPSI uses for the adventurer some default names, needed to the Player to use the right animations when needed. Just to fresh your mind, suggesting to go to read again the complete Player documentation, here there are default names: NAME DEF. VALUE DESCRIPTION Root Man It is the root name, which defines game player's anims. Left L These four vals set animations of player Right R in all the four directions. For example Up U ManU is "Man Up", that is: "animation of the Down D man walking forward". Talk Talk This is a kind of "second root" and it is the suffix that is added DIRECTLY to the real root to define anim of player while it speaks. To this new root, the usual suffix Left, Right, Up or Down. For ex. player speaking to the left is so defined: ManTalkL. These names, being just for "internal" use of the Player, should remain "rigid" and not modifiable, but we preferred to allow modification, to let everything be more readable. Infact, you can change these names, giving them a more exaustive meaning. Here there is an example. Root = Man Talk = _talking L = _left R = _right the old ManTalkL become: "Man_talking_Left", more elegant. Be careful, anyway: in DOOPSI internal name are fixed to 20 char length. Starting Scene With this last part of Preferences' window, you can define the name of the first scene that will be shown at the beginning of the adventure. "USE/LOAD/SAVE/CANCEL" Gadgets These gadgets allows you to do the following things: "USE" to use the current configuration, "LOAD" and "SAVE" to load a previous saved configuration and to save the current one, and "CANCEL" to abort settings. Note Preferences are ALWAYS saved with the complete DOOPSI file, to allow handling of different adventures at the same time with different settings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************* Appendix A: Doopsi instructions. ********************************* In the following list, objects and scenes are identified by their internal names, so Object represents the Object internal name, and so on. Here is the description of only a limited number of instructions: registered users will get the complete documentation. ChangeDescription Object, Text Changes the name field of the selected Object to Text. This name is the one that appears on the console display line when the object is selected on the scene. ChangeScene Scene If Scene has been found, this instruction exits the current scene and displays the new scene. ChangeShape Object, Shape Changes the current shape of the selected Object. ChangeStatus Object, Value Puts Value in the status field of the selected Object. IfOnScene Object Returns True if Object is blitted on the scene. IfSceneIs Scene Returns True if Man is currently in scene Scene. IfStatus Object, Status Returns True if the status field of the selected object is equal to Status. InvToScene Object Picks up the selected Object from the inventory and puts it on the scene at the internal coordinates of Object: such coordinates are initialized when the Object is positioned on the scene using the Editor. If Object is an AnimObject then the animation will be automatically played. MoveObject Object, Spot Moves Object from its current position on the scene to the location specified by Spot position. During the movement an AnimObject is substituted to the Object current shape if it has been previously specified with the SetMoveAnim instruction. MusicPlay File Starts playing the contents of File. File must be a standard tracker module. Open Object Close Object Look Object Take Object Drop Object Push Object Pull Object Talk Object Use Object These instructions execute the Doopsi code contained in the corresponding action of Object. They are treated just like subprograms, and you can nest at most 10 of such subprograms. PutObject Object, Spot Blits Object at the Spot location. Object may be also an EmptyZone. SceneToInv Object Picks up the selected Object from the scene and puts it in the inventory. If Object is an AnimObject the animation will be automatically stopped. SetManName Object This instruction is used to change the Man's animations: the root name (that is to say, after having removed any extension) of Object is used to build the Man's names until SetManName is called again or it is issued by a path node. ShowAnim AnimObject This instruction plays the animation contained in AnimObject. The animation will be displayed at the internal coordinates of AnimObject. The number of animations the Player can handle at the same time is limited. ShowDialog Dialog This starts a conversation between the Man and the currently selected object. Dialog is the first page of the conversation. If the animation showing the Man talking is found then it is played; you can choose an animation showing Object talking with SetTalkAnim. The Man text colour and the object text colour are selected using calls to ManTalkColour and ObjTalkColour respectively. ShowText Text Displays Text. The position and line breaks will be determined by the Man's position in the scene and by the width of the scene itself. The Man's direction determines which one of four animations will be played, if it is found, to make the Man speak; if the animation is not present the Player won't complain and it only leaves the Man still. The colour of the text is selected using the ManTalkColour instruction. The user has to click once on the left mouse button to quit the text. SoundPlay File Plays the contents of File. File must be a standard Iff 8SVX sample. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************* Appendix B: The console. ************************* The console is contained in the file "panel.iff". The console+disk screen must be a lowres non interlaced screen and the user can paint everything he likes on it, but he must remember to observe the dimensions of the sensing zones. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********** The Player. *********** The startup sequence. When the Player starts it searches, before anything else, for the console (the bottom half of the screen where the buttons and the inventory stay) and the file "player.dat". Then it looks for the Doopsi main file and, from this time on, all the actions are determined by the data it finds in such a file. If it doesn't find anyone of the above mentioned pieces then it complains and quits.