X-ED Beta test version 2.6 ========================== 14 November, 1998 Filename : X-EDb26.zip (Size 244KB) Author : Troy Dangerfield E-mail : troyd@picknowl.com.au File Description : X-Wing Mission/Briefing Editor. WARNING: ------- This is a BETA VERSION so use it at your own risk. Installation: ============= Just unzip the exe file to where you want it and run it. Its only required support file is 'X-ED.ini' for preferences, so if it doesn't find it (i.e. the first time you run the program) it will prompt you for details and create that file in your Windows directory. Beta 2.6 ======== This version now includes wireframes for FRTs, CONs and CRVs. There are significant differences between the shape of the CRS in X-Wing95 and the previous versions, so there is a new Preference to select which version you've got, therefore which CRS wireframe will be shown. There is also a difference in the centre point of the CRV in the original X-Wing and the OPT in XvT. I'm assuming X-Wing95 uses the XvT OPT. The 'Minimum wireframe' preference will restrict how much a wireframe will shrink when you zoom out. With this selected the wireframe will always stay at least the size the icon used to be. There are now 3 lock buttons in the Map: Lock 1 (lock start point Y), X (locks current X coordinate) and Y (locks current Y coordinate). There are also 3 small buttons on the right which control what happens when you change view in the map: Centre Map, Centre on Current FG, or Zero vertical axis. ====================================================== Beta 2.5 ======== The main addition in this version is that Capital ships in the Map are now shown as a wireframe, at the correct scale and orientation. The centre of the wireframe will be shown as a white dot and this is what you need to grab to move it. A couple of points I've noticed: - A ship without WP 1 enabled will always lie parallel to the Y axis. - A ship with Start 1 and WP 1 having the same coordinates (and WP 1 enabled) will lie at 45 degrees to each axis. When loading a mission file, a backup of it, 'Backup.xwi', will now been made so if you mess something up while editing it you can load Backup.xwi to get back the original. Remember, the backup file will be overwritten each time you load a new mission file. There are also some more preferences which are fairly self-explanatory. =================================================== Beta 2 ====== I've added a briefing editor. Again, it's a conversion from XvtED so there may be some bugs in the conversion I haven't picked up yet. For those of you familiar with XvtED, X-Wing briefing files have 2 major differences to XvT's briefing format. Firstly, they consist of several "pages", usually with the first being the Map animation page, and the rest being pages of full text. Secondly, the Flight Groups shown in the Map are a separate list from the actual Flight Groups in the mission, so that list can either be a duplicate of the mission's list, or it's possible to have different ships in the briefing from those in the mission. Pages ----- A Map page uses basically the same instructions as XvT briefings, with another necessary one: Clear Text - this must be added before changing the briefing text, otherwise the previous text will not be overwritten. Text pages only need 2 instructions; Title Text and Briefing Text. Text pages can also be "Hint" pages, the format for these will be constructed when you choose "Add a Hint Page" from the "Page" page, using strings that will be automatically generated when you make a new briefing. The text strings for Text pages are much longer than those for Map animation pages, so editing strings is done in the editor by clicking on the appropriate slot in the list and editing the text in the memo box above. To highlight words in the text, enclose them in [] brackets. Unlike XvT these brackets won't be stored with the text. Map Flight Groups ----------------- This list can be changed without affecting the FGs in the mission. You can "inherit" the FG list from the mission using the Inherit button. This will use the FGs' start point 1 as their briefing point. You can drag briefing icons around the Briefing map to move them (at any time that it's not playing.) The X and Y snap is relative to Map grid units rather than kms. (I can't be bothered rewriting the whole briefing editor details, so these are converted from XvtED's readme files.) Briefing Editor =============== The main tool bar includes a row of buttons along the right side to insert instructions into the current briefing. (All instructions except 'End Marker' because it should be added automatically.) Instructions can be added from the "Page" page OR the "WYSIWYG" page. Hold the mouse pointer over each button for a description of what they do. Just click on them to insert the instruction. If they are added from the "Page" Page, they will be inserted at the currently highlighted position in the list. If they are added from the WYSIWYG page, they will be inserted at the current Time in the Playback. You can either pause the playback at the point you want to insert the instruction then choose the button from the toolbar, or just hit a button on the toolbar and, if necessary, the playback will pause automatically. Some instructions require no further parameters to be set i.e. Stop Point Clear Boxes Clear Tags Clear text Wait for click The rest will require you to give more information. If inserted from the "Page" page, the boxes for the required parameters will become visible for you to manually set the parameters. (Note: X and Y Coordinates are in 'Raw' format, not kms.) If you insert them from the WYSIWYG page, visual controls will become available, as well as a 'Done' button. Move Map - X and Y scrollbars will appear to move the map to where you want -------- it to go. Zoom - a Zoom scrollbar will appear to adjust the zoom to the level you ---- want. Briefing Text or ------------- Title text - a dropbox will appear to select which string you want to use. ---------- FG Box - a dropbox will appear to select which FG you want to box. ------ Map Tag - a box will appear to select the Tag you want to add. To position it ------- just click on the Map where you want it. You can keep clicking (but not drag) to reposition it until you've got it where you want it. You can move it later by dragging it around the map. When finished adding the instruction, press 'Done' to add it or 'Cancel' to discard it. - I'd recommend always putting a 'Move Map' and 'Zoom Map' instruction at Time 0 in every briefing. - Briefing End Markers must have Time value 9999 so I have disabled editing of it. From the Instruction List page you can alter any parameters of any instruction, regardless of how you inserted them. There is an Option on the "Page" page to 'adjust time for all following instructions'. When this is selected, increasing or decreasing the time of an instruction will adjust all following instructions by the same amount, so you can 'slide' the rest of the briefing back and forth to adjust the length of time between events. The 'Time Adjust Increment' determines the interval when changing the Time in the spinbox. Briefing Playback ----------------- The playback controls are, in order: Play from Start - returns to start and begins playing --------------- Stop - stops playback and returns to start. ---- Pause - Pauses playback at current position. ----- Play - continues playback from current position ---- Step - will advance the current time by 0.1 seconds and pause ---- Next instruction - advances to next instruction (while Paused or Playing) ---------------- FF - Fast forward through whole mission -- ================================================================================ Beta 1 ====== Introduction ============ If you've used either XMB or XvtED you should have a pretty good idea of how to use X-ED. The program is basically a conversion from XvtED (apart from a few changes, the Map is virtually straight out of XvtED 9.5.) One thing XvtED users should note is that in X-Wing, objects are NOT Flight Groups, they have different data structures and so have to be handled separately. This means (at this stage) things like selecting an object from the dropdown list or FG list in the Map can't be done. So far I've only tested the editor with the original disk version of X-Wing, but I think it should work with all versions. X-ED has been designed for 800x600 screen resolution. It should also work in 1024x768 and 640x480 (although low resolution won't look very good.) The editor can be assigned to .xwi file types so that double clicking on an .xwi file will open with the selected file loaded. Main Edit Window ================ The colored Ship List on the left shows a display of: ------------------------------------------------------------------ X [FG Size] -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ for each Flight Group. The Player's craft will be marked by a '>' on its left. Clicking on the Ship List will place that FG in the 'datapad' on the right. Note that both the Flight Group list and the Object list are Multiselectable. i.e. hold mouse button down and drag, using Shift key for extended select, or use CTRL key for non-consecutive selections. Changing parameters will then affect all selected ships. MultiSelect does not currently work for Deleting FGs or Moving them up and down. Clicking on the Ship list will put the datapad into "Ship" state, clicking on the Object list will put it into "Object" state, with a lot less parameters. Most functions on this page are pretty well self-explanatory, with a few exceptions: - The "Waves" value represents the TOTAL Waves in the mission, not replacement waves. - The "Player Pos" value defines which ship in the FG is the Player craft. A value other than zero will means it is the player FG. There can only be one player FG, and the Player position value must be <= FG size. - The "Special Ship" numbering begins at 1, so if you've got a FG with 3 ships in it, the possible Special Ship numbers are 1,2 and 3. A Special Ship number higher than the number of ships in the FG means the Special Cargo will not be used. - "IFF" has the values Default, Rebel, Imperial, Neutral. As far as I can tell, the "Default" values are: Rebel: X-W, Y-W, A-W, B-W, CRS, FRG Imperial: T/F, T/I, T/B, T/A, GUN, ISD, TRN Neutral: Everything else - FG Names You can customise the names that appear in this list by including a file named FGNames.txt in the directory that you define as your X-ED directory in Preferences. The default list is included with this release for you to modify. Toolbar ------- There is no pull-down menu. The buttons on the tool bar are: (Project)- New Mission, Load, Save, Save as. (To close the program just close the window.) The program saves a history list of the last 7 different files you have opened. Use the pull down list in the Open File dialogue. Up Arrow - moves FG or Object up in its List Down Arrow - moves it down Add New FG Add New Object Delete - deletes the current FG if the datapad is in "Ship" state, otherwise deletes the current object. Cut/Copy/Paste - for Flight Groups or Objects depending on State. Error Check Preferences Show Map (see below) FG Library buttons: Flight Group Libraries ---------------------- You can maintain Flight Group library files (.xfg) separate from your mission files. So you can keep library files of whole squadrons, Bases etc. and reuse them in any mission. Because objects are not FGs, you cannot include these in libraries at this stage. The library button on the main toolbar will bring up the Library page. From there you can load, save, and add to your library files. To add FGs from the library to the mission just (Multi)Select FGs from the library and press the "Add FGs to mission" button. To Save the (Multi)Selected FGs from the mission into the current library, press the "Grab FGs from Mission" button, OR you can press the same button on the Ships page. The default directory for .xfg files is your X-ED directory. Keyboard shortcuts for Main Window ---------------------------------- Ctrl-S - Save File Ctrl-O - Open File Ctrl-A - Save As File Ctrl-N - New Mission Ctrl-C - Copy Ctrl-V - Paste Ins - New FG/Object Del - Delete Map === Both the Main editing window and Map window can stay open and active at the same time. There's no need to close the Map in order to edit FG parameters, just flick between the Main window and Map using the Windows task bar or: hitting the Map button on the Main form will bring the Map to the front, and there is a 'Tabbed pages' button in the Map which will bring the Main window to the front. When moving from the Main edit window to the Map, the current FG in the main window will become the current FG in the Map, and vice versa. Mouse Control ------------- Click on a FG/Object's icon to make it the Current FG/Object. Right click on the Map to centre it at the point you click on. You can zoom in by holding down the left mouse button on the map (somewhere other than on a waypoint.) Double clicking on the map will Zoom out in steps. Waypoints are shown linked by lines as follows: There is a solid line in IFF color from the FG's Start 1 position to its WP 1. This will indicate the direction a ship will be facing at the start of the mission. From WP 1 to 3 point is a dotted line in IFF color, then to its HYP point in a dashed white line. The buttons across the Map's toolbar are: X-Y, X-Z, Y-Z - Set map views --- --- --- WPs Off - no waypoints displayed ------- All WPs - waypoints for all FGs displayed ------- Curr WPs - waypoint shown for only the Current FG -------- Names on - (Toggle) Show FG names next to their icons. (It helps to turn names -------- off to get less clutter while working with WPs.) Curr FG only - (Toggle) Show only the Current FG. ------------ Lock Start 1 - (Toggle) this will lock a FG's start point 1 waypoint (the ------------ position of it's icon.) This is useful when working only with waypoints. e.g. if you chose to show WPs for only Curr FG, you can just click on the ship's icon to change the current FG (and if it's locked it won't accidently be dragged) and therefore see it's waypoints and change waypoints one FG at a time. Picture Buttons: ---------------- Centre Map Centre on Curr FG FG List - brings up a list of all the FGs. You can multiselect this list to ------- display any combination of the ships in the mission. (Selections here will override the IFF buttons.) Options - displays a panel of options: ------- * Snap: moving waypoints by dragging them with the mouse will move them by the selected increment. There are separate settings for X and Y values. * Link WPs 1-3: whether to join WPs 1 to 3 with a dotted line when WPs are on. * Link Hyperspace point - whether to include the white dashed line to Hyperspace point when WPs are on. IFF buttons - pressing them in will add that IFF to the display, releasing ----------- them will remove them from the display. The fourth button will turn objects on/off regardless of their IFF. All - Selects All FGs to be displayed. --- Zoom ---- You can either use the Zoom scrollbar to adjust zoom, or the '+' and '-' buttons to zoom in/out by steps. The '400' and '16' buttons instantly set the zoom to that value. Adding and Deleting FGs in Map ------------------------------ The currently selected FG in the Map is now highlighted with a selection box. To delete the current FG just use the Delete key. To add FGs from the Map, you can now choose from a palette of icons - just click on the ship type you want and drag it onto the Map to place it. To toggle the palette on and off hit the 'P' key (or there's a button on the Options panel). The keys from 1 to 4 will select a palette to add Ships with IFF Default, Rebel, Imperial or Neutral. Map Keys -------- Enter - Centre Map Space - Show All FGs F - Centre on Curr FG F1 - X-Y View F2 - X-Z View F3 - Y-Z View P - Icon palette On/Off 1 to 4 - IFF of icon palette (Default, Rebel, Imperial, Neutral) Z - Zoom in X - Zoom out A - Zoom to 400 S - Zoom to 16 + - Zoom in by steps - - Zoom out by steps C - Show Current FG only L - Lock Start Point 1 N - FG Names On/Off W - WPs On/Off H - include Hyperspace points when WPs linked CTRL-S - Save mission ====================================================================== * Disclaimer / Copyrights * This file MAY NOT be freely distributed in other hard-copy media such as CD-ROMs and other such sources. The distribution of this file on web sites need not be approved by the author beforehand. This is an unofficial and third party product for X-Wing which is not supported nor officially approved by LEC. Use it at your own risk! X-ED is copyright (c) 1998 by Troy Dangerfield. ======================================================================