< Definitions Index Adventure editor >

Adventure Looks

The look of the game interface may be adjusted to individual preferences. In particular, a look defines the colours of the toolbar and the colours and the font of text areas. A look is stored in a file with the extension adl, and the look to use is determined by the game in the Game item.

A look may be defined either by textual code or using the look editor.

Look Grammar

The grammar for looks is quiet simple. It consists only of one item type Look, which is used without a name (Look <>). The grammar is defined in a file named look???.adg. The current version is 003. Look code is translated into a look definition with the compiler.

Item typeLook
DescriptionThe look of the game interface.

KeyTypeDefaultDescription
header[byte][41 44 4C]The header to identify adventure look files. Never change!
versionbyte03The grammar version number. Never change!
toolLightcolourThe light colour of the toolbar.
toolDarkcolourThe dark colour of the toolbar.
toolBackcolourThe background colour of the toolbar.
textLightcolourThe light colour of text areas.
textDarkcolourThe dark colour of text areas.
textBackcolourThe background colour of text areas.
windowBackcolourThe background colour of the window (if resizable/full-screen).
fontSizeint12The size of the font.
fontNamestring""The name of the font. If the name is invalid, the default font is used.
fontBoldbool0Flag for bold font.
fontItalicbool0Flag for italic font.
fontRaisedbool0Flag for raised 3D style.
fontShadowbool0Flag for shadow 3D style.
text3dbool1Flag for 3D style.
shadowSizeint2Gap between text and shadow for 3D style.
borderSizeint1The size of the border around some parts of the game interface. Negative values result in an inverted border.
libraryfile""The file name of a resource library.

Resource Libraries

The resource library is a windows dynamic link library (DLL). (You need a compiler for windows executables to create such a library.) It may contain icons and cursors that are refered to by the resource name.

The icons are used for the menu buttons and the page arrows of the game interface. The following names are valid: menu, new, quit, read, write, info, options, inventory, diary_open, diary_changed, diary_write, previous, previous_, next, next_.

The cursors may be used by the Tool item in the same way the predefined images are used. You may overwrite the images for the predefined cursors.

All icons and cursors have a size of 32x32 pixels. Other formats may be specified in the Game item with the buttonSize key. If the size differs, the image is stretched to fit.

Look Editor

The look editor consists of three tabs (Colours, Text, Miscellaneous) and six menu buttons.

Colours

The colours of the toolbar and of text areas may be defined. Because of the 3D style, each has three colours, namely Face, Back, and Shadow. Usually, these colours will be the same hue and range from bright to dark in the given order.

Text

The font of text areas is defined by the following parameters:

You may define name, size, bold, and italic by selecting a font from the font dialog. It is opened with the button right to the area for the font name.

Below the font definition is a preview window for text areas according to the look. It reflects the text colour and the font definition. The alignment is not part of the look.

Miscellaneous

Here, you may select a resource library with icons and cursors.

Menu Buttons

The menu of the look editor has the following buttons: