Game Killer/Game_Killer.bin/690.LEVITILT.DOC

Text File | 1991-05-15 | 8KB | 153 lines

LEVITILT.EXE

Jim Ross 70235,143

This program will levitate (raise above ground level) all objects created
  by MicroSoft's Aircraft & Scenery Designer (except navigational aids). It
  will tilt (pitch or bank) all buildings (class 9) except: trees,
  windsocks, and radio towers, and will also tilt timing gates. See Warning
  below on SEE library objects and ASD objects modified by SEE.

In order to determine the object to modify, the user is encouraged to
  use (1) the report function of SEE, (2) ASDLIST, which comes with
  Steve Wigginton's ASDMOVE, or (3) the report function of Hans van Wyhe's
  FSMOVE. The number of the object can also be determined from the ASD
  editor by tabbing through the objects in a given type. When you have a
  complicated .SC1 file, it might be necessary to use all of these! Note
  down the FS coordinates of the object you want to change in order to
  compare them with those you will get with the prompt in LEVITILT.

User is prompted for type of object (2-9); 0 to quit.
Then there is a prompt for the particular object in that type. Before
  processing there is a prompt showing the coordinates of the object,
  and, in the case of buildings, the style of building. (There may be a
  very slight difference in the decimals of the coordinates from those
  given in the reporting programs, due to somewhat different method of
  calculation.) If there is no such object of this type in the file, you
  will be informed and allowed to choose a new type/object.

  When the user indicates that this is the proper object, a prompt for
  [L]evitate, [P]itch, or [B]ank is given, or (as above), for [L]evitate
  only -- plus [Q]uit (on this object) in all cases. After each operation,
  success or failure is reported. Then there is another prompt for "More
  changes?". If none, cycle to the top and ask for another object: again 0
  to quit. So in each session the user can change several objects, and make
  several changes to any given object.

You will first be asked for an input file, which can be on any drive or
  path (supply drive/path if not default, but no extension).
  Input filename.sc1 will be changed to filenam_.sc1 for output (this is
  similar to the convention used in Joe Lincoln's SEEPLUS (in SEEHOT.ZIP),
  but Joe uses ...$...., so there should be no conflict). In case
  filenam_sc1 already exists, you will be prompted for overwrite or a
  new file name (supply drive and path if not on default; no extension). In
  all cases if you decide to bail out without doing *anything* in a given
  session, the output file will be deleted and you will be so informed,
  that is, nothing permanent will be done.

Warning: This program will *not* affect and indeed will screw up SEE
  library objects. These, however, can be levitated, pitched,
  or banked at their original creation by using the commands
  z, ### (meters) for levitation; pitch, ###, and bank, ###
  (latter two degrees) prior to the library, name.sc0 command. And
  it is most probable that other regular ASD objects which have been
  manipulated in SEE will also be adversely affected -- certainly those
  that have been run through EZC for day/dusk/night effects (they will show
  up with a (S) before them in SEE03's report output). Advice: do your
  levitating, pitching, and banking *before* using SEE.

LEVITILT can detect most SEE library objects, and regular ASD objects which
  have been modified by SEE to the point where their coordinates can no
  longer been correctly interpreted, and will so inform the user and allow
  no levitilting. There may be some such objects, however, which were put
  in with older versions of SEE, and these LEVITILT cannot pick out. They
  can always be recognized, however, since their coordinates (as reported
  in LEVITILT) will be radically different than their true position.

Usage notes:

Banking and pitching are to be conceived just as if you were sitting in a
cockpit on top of the building/object, facing the same way as you were when
you first created the object. All banking and pitching is done in a
counter-clockwise direction. (If you have forgotten where you were, pretend
to revise the object in the ASD editor, but don't really do it!) Degrees
banking is therefore lowering the left wing; degrees pitching is lowering
the nose. Over 180 degrees will, of course, cause pitching or banking in
the other direction. Some experimentation is called for here.

If you bank or pitch a building, it will merely turn on the proper axis,
and therefore part of it will be below ground level (but, curiously enough,
still visible). So you usually have to do some levitation along with
banking and pitching. Bank/pitch 180 degrees and levitate half the
length/width of the building will make it stand on one edge. Buildings will
be invisible from below after manipulation by LEVITILT.

Tip: thermal generators can be any size and color (but they're always
rectagular). Unlike buildings they are visible from both top and bottom,
and have no vertical dimension. If you want a "floor" for a square
building, just put it on a thermal generator and levitate them both. And of
course such generators make free-standing (floating?) rectangular polygons;
normal polygons, unfortunately, cannot be tilted. I used a pair of banked
and levitated thermal generators to make my windmill in MAAACKJR.SC1. Note
that you can control the "thermal effect" in the ASD editor: you might want
to set it to 0 to avoid adverse affects when flying nearby <g>.

It is, of course, somewhat redundant merely to levitate a timing gate,
since that can be done in the ASD editor.

If you revise a levitilted object in the ASD editor, it will lose its
levitation and tilting parameters, and you'll have to do it over again.
However, levitilted objects treated in ASDMOVE or FSMOVE will retain those
parameters, so you can move/cut/copy/paste them as you wish.

Examples:

Draw a line of towers (radio towers, not control towers), all at the same
height.
Draw a black line which connects the tops of the towers, using the "P"
(point) stroke when pivoting.
Determine the number of this line by editing lines and counting, or by
using SEE/report or one of the other listing programs.
Go into LEVITILT, specify Line as the object type (5) and the correct
object number.
Tell the program you want to [L]evitate the line to the height of the
towers.
Take a look at your finished handiwork in filenam$.sc1. Fly under the
lines.

Make a big flying saucer:
Construct a multi-side flat-roof building with a large length, width, but a
very small height, 16 sides: use interesting colors. Tell LEVITILT you want
to levitate it, bank it, and pitch it. You will find that this revamped
building will be invisible from the bottom. Typical of flying saucers.

One can get some interesting building effects with LEVITILT. It has always
been a problem in regular ASD that if you draw one building inside another,
its sides (if they are of a different color) will bleed through the sides
of the outer building. This can be avoided by simply levitating the inner
building. So also radio towers on mountains (note Nels Anderson's radar
dish on a mountain in his Bedford scenery, MAABEDNA.SC1). There are also
obviously some possibilities in drawing doors, windows, etc. Tryg Lee has
created some interesting building lights effects by drawing lines around
them, levitating those lines to the proper height, and then changing them
to dots with SEE. With SEE you can also get day/dusk/night coloring for
such dots/lights.

Lots of other possibilities: fences, ramps, bouncing balls (deciduous trees
with real short trunks), skywriting.

To my knowledge Andrew Tuline was the first to discover levitating and
tilting, and in his original examples he had some interesting "monolith"
effects inspired by 2001.

Thanks here to Steve Wigginton, Hans van Wyhe, and Laemming Wheeler for
their help in refinining this program. Unclarities, mistakes, and general
bugs are all my own responsibility, however.