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Please note, that this is a preliminary version of an editor for ADePT. It does not (yet) allow to load or save games or to define actions or complete scenes. The current version works only as an utility to visually define and arrange images and shapes of a scene. It is used by exchanging this information with a text editor via the clipboard. The programming of games still has to be done in a text editor, but the Adventure Editor facilitates the design of scenes.
The following first gives a short overview of the editor interface. Then, the basic concepts of setting up a scene are described. Finally, the details of editing shapes and images are given.
The editor has a menu bar, the scene area, and a status bar. The scene area is used with the mouse to define and arrange images and shapes. Additional functionality is accessible by the keyboard. A right mouse click opens a context menu. The status bar has three parts. First, the current position of the mouse in the scene area. Second, the shape type to edit. Third, the properties of the current shape in a short form, explained below.
The menu entry 'File > Scene' opens a dialog to define the size and the background colour of the scene. Other scene properties are not supported.
For regions, only one feature is supported: the translation of all positions in the editor relative to the position of a region. 'File > Region' lets you define the position of a region and enable/disable the translation of positions. The region position may also be defined by right clicking the position in the scene area and selecting 'Set region' in the context menu. 'In region' in 'Edit' and in the context menu is used to enable/disable translation. If translation is enabled, 'In region' has a checkmark and all positions in the status bar, the shape editors, and the clipboard are relative to the region position.
There are four shape types: Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, and Polygon. Only one shape may be edited at one time. The active shape is selected with the 'Shape' menu. A shape is defined step by step using mouse clicks in the scene area (see below). Also, a shape may be defined in an edit dialog opened with 'Edit' in the 'Edit' menu or the context menu.
'Image > Add image' adds a new image to the editor and places it in front of all existing images. It also selects it as the current image for editing. Images are added at (0,0) with their original size. The dialog to add an image allows to select an image file and optionally a mask file and/or a colour mask. These parameters are the same as in the Image and Transparent items.
'Image > Image list' opens/closes the image list, which lists all existing images. There are buttons to add a new image, to delete an image, to select an image for editing, to open the edit dialog, and to move an image up or down in the image list, which changes the order in which the images overlap in the scene area.
Editing is done with the mouse, the keyboard, and/or edit dialogs. There is a kind of undo and the exchange of data via the clipboard.
The steps to define a shape/image with the mouse depend on its type:
For Circle, Ellipse, and Rectangle, further mouse clicks replace the radius/size.
The arrow keys move the shape/image.
There are some keyboard shortcuts:
The dialogs for Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, and Image are straight forward: just enter the values. (The dialog for Image has the original size as an additional information.) The dialog for Polygon is a list of the points. Points may be changed, deleted, and moved up/down in the list. Also, new points may be added to the beginning of the list (which is the last point of the polygon).
'Back' takes back the last step according to the steps defined for mouse input (even if a shape was defined in an edit dialog). 'Reset' takes back all steps, i.e. deletes the shape. 'Clear' deletes the current shapes and all images. For images, 'Back' does nothing, and 'Reset' restores the original size of the image.
'Copy' copies the current shape/image to the clipboard as a text string. The format is the short form for the item grammar. (This format is also used to display the shape parameters in the status bar.)
'Paste' only works, if the clipboard contains text in the same format as for copy. Shapes are pasted as the new current shape. For images, the first image in the image list with the same name has the position and size applied to it. (If the selected image has the same name, this image is used, even if another image with the same names is prior in the image list. Note: Transparent images may be pasted, but copy always uses Image as item type.
The current position of the mouse may be copied to the clipboard by opening the context menu and selecting 'Copy position'.