407906
seit 24.09.2000
Hell Bringer+
Mission-Pack:
N/A
number of players:
N/A
symmetrical Mission:
N/A
Checksum-Bug (Linux):
N/A
Hits:
229
Download
bringer2.zip
Textfile
-------------------------------------------------------------------- BriefEd V1.0 For Windows 3.1 & Windows 95 Readme File (C) Copyright 1997 Micah J. Lieske June 1997 -------------------------------------------------------------------- This file contains basic operating instructions for BriefEd Descent and Descent II are trademarks of Interplay Productions. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. --------- Contents --------- License Introduction Requirements for using briefings and BriefEd Using BriefEd -Stuff you should know -Scenes and Pages -Editing a briefing -Specifying a background in Descent 2 -Getting the Briefings to work A List of scenes for Descent 1 The Sample Briefings The End is here -------- License -------- This program is distributed as FREEWARE and is provided as is without warranty expressed or implied. You may freely distribute this program but you may NOT sell it or bundle it with any other software without my prior consent. In plain speak. If it doesn't work right, you can't sue me. You can give copies of the program to people (in fact you're encouraged to do so), but you can't sell copies to people unless you get my permission. ------------- Introduction ------------- Before I go any farther, I would like to thank Mike Rosack of the Action Games forum on CompuServe for helping me with the briefing codes, and for Beta testing BriefEd (Before it even had a name too :). Wouldn't have found half the bugs without him. -What is this BriefEd thingy BriefEd is a tool for writing and editing briefing files for Descent 1 and Descent 2. BriefEd allows you to edit and create briefings without having to know what all those funny little codes are. --------------------------------------------- Requirements for using briefings and BriefEd --------------------------------------------- -Briefings For Descent 1: Requires any version of Descent 1 For Descent 2: Requires version 1.2 or higher Of course a level wouldn't hurt either. :) -BriefEd BriefEd requires Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 to run. BriefEd also requires VBRun300.DLL, and CMDIALOG.VBX. You probably already have both of these files, but just in case you don't, you can get them on my Web Page. (Address given at end of Readme file) -------------- Using BriefEd -------------- When you start BriefEd you have 3 options Start a New Briefing Open an existing Briefing Exit :) -Stuff you should know Before you start creating a briefing you should have a little background. A Descent briefing consists of text and special codes. The text is what is displayed for your briefing, like "Hi Mom!". The special codes control how the current page looks, and how the text is displayed. The special codes control everything from what PCX is displayed for background (Descent 2 only) to text color. -Scenes and Pages Briefings are broken up into scenes and pages. For Descent 1 and Descent 2 these have slightly different meanings. In Descent 1 scenes are basically the different bitmapped screens available to display text on. Each level has at least one scene to it, and several have more. You must use all available scenes for a given level or Descent will crash. For Example, there are 5 scenes for the first level, so you must provide 5 scenes worth of briefing. Pages are for displaying more than one screen of text on a scene. That way you can have a lot of information in a few scenes. In Descent 1 the scene number determines the background PCX that's displayed. In Descent 2, however, there is a code (Actually a combination of 2) that specifies which PCX is displayed as a background. You can use this code more than one time per scene allowing you to change background for every page if you want. This eliminates the need for multiple scenes for each level so in Descent 2 scenes now correspond to the level that they are displayed for. Scene 1 for Level 1, Scene 2 for Level 2... You can also skip scenes if you want, (1,2,4,7...) The last scene number is used for your ending. If you have a two level mission, scene three would be your ending. In Descent 1 endings are a separate briefing. -Editing a briefing Editing of briefings is fairly straight forward. To edit a code, place the cursor on it and select Edit Code, or just double click on it. To place a new code, just place the cursor where you want the new code, and select Insert Code. That simple. -Specifying a background in Descent 2 Select Insert Code, then Background. A window will come up with a selection of PCXs to choose from. These will work on anybody's copy of Descent 2. Now if you want, you can type in the name of a PCX that you will put in your HOG file, but there is something you need to consider first. Descent 2 can handle low resolution (320x200) and high resolution (640x480) modes. In low resolution mode, Descent 2 takes the name you give it, and finds that file in your HOG. In high resolution mode though, descent takes the name you give it and adds a "B" to the end. So if you type "TEST.PCX" descent will actually look for "TESTB.PCX". The solution? Most people use High resolution, so just include the PCX in your HOG with trailing "B" and ignore the low resolution PCX. (That's what they did with the Vertigo Series) -Getting the Briefings to work In Descent 1 Briefings: Add the entry Briefing=[name] to your .MSN file. Where name is the name of your briefing minus the extension. EX: Briefing=brief Endings: (Just a briefing shown at the end instead of the beginning) Add the entry Ending=[name] to your .MSN file. Where name is the name of your ending minus the extension. EX: Briefing=debrief You can also use Hoggle to create the MSN for you. In Descent 2 Make sure you have Descent 2 version 1.2 or higher Add your TXB file to the HOG, making sure it has the same file name as your HOG. EX: Tarchan.HOG would have Tarchan.txb. That's it. ------------------------------- A List of scenes for Descent 1 ------------------------------- These are the scenes available for Descent 1, and the levels to which they are displayed. I also listed the PCX that descent loads for that scene. If you would like a different Background, just include a PCX of the same name in your HOG. Briefings: Level Sequence Background Picture ----------------------------------- 1 1 brief01.pcx 2 brief02.pcx 3 brief03.pcx 4 brief02.pcx 5 moon01.pcx 2 6 moon01.pcx 3 7 moon01.pcx 4 8 venus01.pcx 5 9 venus01.pcx 6 10 brief03.pcx 11 merc01.pcx 7 12 merc01.pcx 8 13 brief03.pcx 14 mars01.pcx 9 15 mars01.pcx 10 16 brief03.pcx 17 mars01.pcx 11 18 jup01.pcx 12 19 jup01.pcx 13 20 brief03.pcx 21 jup01.pcx 14 22 jup01.pcx 15 23 saturn01.pcx 16 24 brief03.pcx 25 saturn01.pcx 17 26 brief03.pcx 27 saturn01.pcx 18 28 uranus01.pcx 19 29 uranus01.pcx 20 30 uranus01.pcx 21 31 uranus01.pcx 22 32 neptun01.pcx 23 33 neptun01.pcx 24 34 neptun01.pcx 25 35 pluto01.pcx 26 36 pluto01.pcx 27 37 pluto01.pcx Endings: Scene Background Picture ------------------------- 1 End02.PCX 2 End01.pcx 3 End03.pcx Just in case you think that's a typo, the order is 2,1,3. --------------------- The Sample Briefings --------------------- Brief.txb is a Descent 1 briefing. This is taken from my level Tethys Experiemental. Debrief.txb is a Descent 1 ending. It has been taken from the same level. Tethys Experimental can be gotten off my web site, or in the Action Games forum on CompuServe (Tethys.zip). It demonstrates briefings and endings with custom PCX's. The level has some neat rooms to look at too. Demo.txb is a Descent 2 briefing put together just for demonstrating how a Descent 2 briefing looks and acts. ---------------- The End is here ---------------- You can get the latest version of BriefEd on my Web Site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MicahJon/ While you're there, check out Hoggle if you don't already have it. If you have any questions, comments, corrections, bug reports, or suggestions, please E-Mail me at the address given below. E-Mail address: MicahJon@Compuserve.com
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