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|C|h|a|r|a|c|t|e|r| |D|o|c|u|m|e|n|t|a|t|i|o|n| |a|n|d| |F|A|Q|
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V 4.0
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Shortcut Commands
III. Prep.
IV. AGI Studio Concepts
V. Steps for Extracting Cels
VI. Actors.js File
a. Example actors.js Code
VII. Final Notes
VIII. Contact and Support
IX. Document History
X. Copyright Notes
**********
Section I - Introduction
**********
Creating characters in Good Old Adventures may seem like a hassle to you....but really it is fun! Once you get the hang of it, it is actually very easy.
Some programs that are more or less a requirement for easy and fast character creation are:
Jasc Paint Shop Pro
Agi Studio
Notepad
***********
Section II -Shortcut Commands
***********
Some common shortcut commands to remember are:
- Ctrl + X = Cut
- Ctrl + C = Copy
- Ctrl + V = Paste
- Shift + S = Resize (PSP)
- Crtl + E = Paste to current Layer (PSP)
***********
Section III -Prep.
***********
To make your task simpler you should first open the programs that you are going to use, in the order that you are going to use them. Normally i open them in this order:
1.)AGI Studio
2.)PSP
This is so that you can do the work in one fluid movement, not having to search for the program on the programs bar.
**********
Section IV - AGI STUDIO Concepts
**********
When AGI STUDIO is opened, open the game that you are going to use that contains the view to be extracted. Go to the specified view number that contains your character and double click on its number. This should bring up the view editor. Let me break this down for those who know nothing about AGI:
- View - Contains all visual data for sprites in the game
- Loop - Direction or movement that the view uses.
- Cel - Parts of a loop that contain the visual movements or actions.
Heiarchial it goes like this
View
|
|
Loop
|
|
Cel
**********
Section V - Steps Extracting Cels
**********
To quickly extract a cel, first you need to do the following:
--------------------------------------------STEP 1--------------------------------------------
Make sure all the dimentions all the cels are equal. It really complicates things if you have: (ex.)
Cel 1 = 7x33
Cel 2 = 7x32
...just go ahead and make cel 2 be 33...but be sure to move the character down using the down arrow in the bottom left of the view editor screen...or else your character wont look like he is taking steps!
--------------------------------------------STEP 2--------------------------------------------
Set your PSP canvas size (new image) to be:
Number of cels going left + number of cels going down * Width * 2 -OR-
Number of cels in Loop 0 + number of cels in Loop 2 * Width * 2
(remember that 2 pixels = 1 width where 1 pixel = 1 height in AGI.)
(ex.)
All these cels have a dimention of 7x14
If you have 0-7 cels in loop 0 then there are 8 cels going left and right becuase about 99% of the time, walkable characters Loop1 is a mirror of Loop0.
If there are 0-5 cels in loops 2 and 3 then there are 6 cels going up and down.
So the equation for the dimentions of the canvas is:
8+6*(2*7) --> 14(14) --> Width = 196
The height will just be:
Height * 2
In the example, the height would be:
33 * 2 --> Height = 66
So the dimentions of this canvas are 196x66!
--------------------------------------------STEP 3---------------------------------------------
Set initally the resolution of your pallate to be 16 million colors, so that you may initally choose any color of all gradients for your character's color.
--------------------------------------------STEP 4---------------------------------------------
Double click on a VIEW.XXX file and the view editor will come up.
--------------------------------------------STEP 5---------------------------------------------
Specify a cel from a loop to be copied and press ctrl + C to copy it onto the clipboard.
--------------------------------------------STEP 6--------------------------------------------
Go into PSP and press ctrl + E to paste this onto your already premade canvas
--------------------------------------------STEP 7--------------------------------------------
In your origonal canvas, which in our example had the dimentions of 196x66, press ctrl + E. You should set up your pasted cels like this....
***
Key
***
L = Left
R = Right
D = Down
U = Up
_________________________________________
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|R1|R2|R3|R4|R5|R6|R7|R8|D1|D2|D3|D4|D5|D6|
|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|L8|L7|L6|L5|L4|L3|L2|L1|U1|U2|U3|U4|U5|U6|
|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
--------------------------------------------STEP 8--------------------------------------------
Repeat all steps from 1 to 5 to complete the image.
--------------------------------------------STEP 9--------------------------------------------
When you are done...save!!!! (be sure to save as a lower case name AND as a PNG file!!!)
--------------------------------------------STEP 10--------------------------------------------
Now...go to the top and find Set Pallate Transparency in the top menu and click on it. From here you will need to select the 1st option button and press OK then the 3rd option button and search for the color for the backgrounds of all your cels. This sets the transparency so that you will not see a background while your character is walking.
--------------------------------------------STEP 11--------------------------------------------
Before we started, we set the resolution to 16 Million Colors. Now, go to the same area, and select decrease resolution by clicking on 16 Colors...just choose use the
options "optimized octree" and "nearest color" (NEVER dither). This
results in a 16 colored image with exact the same rgp values of
the original. and then it will optomize the pallate to have the amount of colors that you used...this will help you be able to load GOA quicker!
--------------------------------------------STEP 12--------------------------------------------
Save your work again!!!
--------------------------------------------STEP 13--------------------------------------------
Now press Shift + S to resize the WHOLE picture to PictureWidth / 2 x PictureHeight
In my example you would resize the image to 96x66. This make the canvas smaller...while losing no visual data!!!
***********
Section VI - Actors.js File
***********
If you have successfully done all these steps, then your image should be ready to generate the character's actors.js file. To do this you have to specify a few things in a file read by the engine that tells it what to do with a character.
To start off, you must specify these things listed below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**** A.actorACTORNAME = function() {
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This line specifies the name of the actor...just replace ACTORNAME
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**** this.actorTemplate({w:WIDTH,h:HEIGHT,l:LEFT,r:RIGHT,d:BOTTOM,u:TOP});
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This line does many things with minimal coding. Using my process you should be fine with this...otherwize...youll have to go the old school way...so try to use my process or one similar that keeps ALL cels the same height and width.
w:WIDTH - The width is the width of a cel (width of cel in game * 2) .
h:HEIGHT - The height is the hieght of a cel specified in the game.
l:LEFT - The left is the Y line in which the cel's left side is contained.
r:RIGHT - The rght is the Y line in which the cel's right side is contained.
d:BOTTOM - The bottom is the X line in which the cel's bottom is contained.
u:TOP - The top is the X line where the cel's top is contained.
Sound confusing? Ok let me show you an example.
This is a cel:
Width
|------|
Top
_ ------
| | _||_ |
|H | :-D |
|e | _||_ |
|i Left| || |Right
|g | (||) |
|h | || |
|t | /\ |
_ |______|
Bottom
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** this.html = "
"; };
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These lines load the picture.
FILENAME - This needs to be in all lowercase letters and needs to be a png like we created above.
PICWIDTH - This needs to be replaced with the total picture width of the picture.
PICHEIGHT - This needs to be replaced with the total picture height of the picture.
***********
Section VI a. - Example Code
***********
For the actor that we used in our examples, our actors.js file would simply look like this:
A.actorGOAExample = function() {
this.actorTemplate({w:14,h:33,l:8,r:8,d:6,u:6});
this.html = "
";
};
That is all that there is to it! Simple...? YES!
***********
Section VII - Final Notes
***********
Finally when you are done, put the 2 files, the actors.js and the image, into a Compressed Zip directory. This will make it smaller for when you send it!.
Send the file to debikkel@hotmail.com.
************
Section VIII - Contact and Support
************
First for general questions regarding anything even remotely pretaining to GOA...visit http://www.agigames.com and go to the fourm!!! Your question will 99% of the time be answered there...
but for everything that dosent get answered...
debikkel@hotmail.com - Martin Kool
-General Questions concerning the Q42/GOA projects and everything else.
smartguy240@angelfire.com - Patrick Schiess
-Bugs, Errors, and Suggestions, on this Documentation, Questions on the steps, PSP, and the such.
Keep in mind that your questions will be answered faster on the fourm than they will on email...so you should try the fourm first!
***********
Section IX - Document History
***********
02/25/03 - First release of FAQ! WOOHOO!
02/28/03 - Second relase of FAQ...added more documentation and fixed some minor errores.
03/13/03 - Added the new aspects of the actors.js file! My GOA character calculator is obsolete now thanks to this new feature! Also changed the title.
03/7/03 - Took out multiple sections in the step process becaseu i found a better way to complete the extraction with LESS steps!!!
***********
Section X - Copyright Notes
***********
Good Old Adventures is a trademark of Martin Kool/Q42
This Documentation is Copyright to Patrick Schiess, March 2003.
Good Old Adventures engine, world, and scripting is copyright to Martin Kool/Q42
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