m.u.g.e.n tools v0.

98a beta (linux)

(c) 2001 elecbyte
www.elecbyte.com

this toolset was updated: 1 november 2001

included in this archive are aireditor, sprmaker, sndmaker, and fntmaker.

the maker tools are needed to make .sff and .snd files used in m.u.g.e.n.
as you might have guessed, sprmaker works on graphics (.pcx files) and
sndmaker is for sound (.wav files). see below (iii) for an explanation
of fntmaker.

the documentation for aireditor is in airedit.txt.

what's new
----------

aireditor now sizes the sprite view window according to the screen
resolution. the zoom option works better now.

====================
i. sprmaker
====================

sprmaker generates sprite files (.sff) that m.u.g.e.n can read.

usage
-----

running sprmaker from the command line will show:

enter name of new or existing sff file:

type in the name of the sprite file you wish to make, and press
enter. your filename should end in ".sff", like "kfm.sff" or
"mysprite.sff".

once you enter a name, you will see the prompt:

enter name of graphic file:

at this point, enter the name of a .pcx file to add (other image
types are not supported). your .pcx file should be a 256-color
image.

next, you will be asked for group number, image number, and the
x and y axes of the sprite. for example, let's say you are
putting in a pcx file called test.pcx. a sample output would
look like this:

enter name of new or existing sff file: mysprite.sff

enter name of graphic file: test.pcx
 group no: 1000
image no: 0
x axis: 45
y axis: 35

the group number and image number entered here are used to access
test.pcx in the .air (animation) file. it's just a pair of
numbers you will associate with the sprite. for this example, in
the .air file, instead of referring to test.pcx, you will refer to
1000,0.

the x and y axis is used as a pivot point for the graphic. for
example, assume test.pcx is a 20x20 size image, with its axis at
(10,10). imagine the axis coordinates as a pin through a paper
cut-out that represents the sprite. if we say we want to draw the
sprite to the screen at location (100,100), it means the axis point
will be at (100,100). take the pin with the paper cut-out on it,
and stick the pin at (100,100). now the square will occupy a space
on the screen from (90,90) to (110,110). however, if your axis was
at (0,0) instead of (10,10), then the square would occupy a space
from (100,100) to (120,120). that is how axes affect the position
of images.

see air.txt and spr.txt in the docs/ directory of the m.u.g.e.n

archive for more information on what group numbers you should use.

usage options
-------------

there are some options you can use while running sprmaker to help
generate a smaller file.

the pound sign (#) brings up an options menu. the first menu is
available only at the "enter name of new or existing sff file"
prompt. currently, there is only one primary option:

options:
1. palette type
choose:

enter 1 to continue. this brings up the palette options menu:

palette type:
1. individual palette
2. shared palette
choose:

"individual palette" means that all sprites will keep their own
palette data. this is the default behavior if you did not enter
the options menu.

"shared palette" means that all sprites will use the palette data
of the first sprite in the .sff file. you should always use this
option for your characters' .sff files.

the second set of menus can be accessed at the "enter name of

graphic file" prompt. enter "#" to bring up this menu:
 options:
1. palette type
2. override duplicate file linking

don't worry about the "override duplicate file linking" option. it

is a debugging option we used when developing the .sff format, and
will not useful to you.

enter 1 to bring up the palette type options:

palette type:
1. individual palette
2. use previous sprite's palette
choose(was 2):

this menu lets you override the default palette-type behavior set in
first menu. please note that in this case, it only overrides for
the next sprite you add. subsequent sprites additions will need to
be overridden again if necessary.

what's the use of overriding a shared palette file to add a sprite

with an individual palette? in m.u.g.e.n, character sprites must
all be "shared" type, but there is one exception: the large portrait
sprite (sprite 9000,1). if your character's default palette does not
give you enough colors for the large portrait, you are allowed to
add it as an "individual palette"-type sprite.

don't worry about "override duplicate file linking." it's a debugging

option when we were developing the .sff format.

command-line options
--------------------

you can type "sprmaker -?" at the command line to see these options.

usage: sprmaker [-c] [-f] [-p] [-q]

options: c - automatically crop images and adjust axes
f - eliminate duplicate files
p - eliminate duplicate successive palettes
s - summary mode (displays only summary and errors)
q - quiet mode (except errors)

use -c -f -p to generate the smallest file. you are highly

recommended to use these three options, as they save space and
memory.

saving yourself some work

-------------------------

now, you might be thinking: "i have 100 .pcx files. but i don't
want to have to type all that in everytime!"

luckily, you don't. just make a plain text file and put exactly
what you would type at the command line into it. then you can
pipe this text file into sprmaker everytime you need to make
your sprite. to pipe a text file named "sprite.txt" into sprmaker,
you would type:

./sprmaker < sprite.txt

if your sprite.txt file is in the work/ directory, you would type:

./sprmaker < work/sprite.txt

here's part of an example text file to get you started. this way
you just make the text file once and then run sprmaker on it. if
you need to add more sprites later, just edit the text file and
pipe it into sprmaker again. the lines you see at the top of
this example are options for generating a shared-palette sprite.
you should use that option for character sprites. it will help keep
your character's .sff file small.

;options
#
;palette
1
;shared palette
2
;filename:
chars/test/test.sff
work/test/mypic.pcx
9000
0
0
0
work/test/mypic2.pcx
9000
1
0
0

note that a semicolon (;) is used for comments. comments can only
be used at the beginning of a line.

if you don't get any errors, your .sff should be where you specified
in the text file. in this example it would be in
[current dir]/chars/test/, where [current dir] is the directory you
are running sprmaker from.

====================
ii. sndmaker
====================

sndmaker is used to generate sound (.snd) files. the way sndmaker

works is almost exactly like sprmaker. again, it's best to redirect
its input from a text file.

the format is the same as sprmaker minus the palette options and such.
also, you don't need an x and y axis.

chars/test/test.snd
 work/test/mysound.wav
0
0
work/test/mysound2.wav
0
1

if this file was saved as work/test/sound.txt, then you would type this
at the command line:

./sndmaker < work/test/sound.txt

====================
iii. fntmaker
====================

the fonts generated by fntmaker work for 2000.06.27 and newer versions
of m.u.g.e.n.

pcx file - supply a pcx file which contains all the characters in your font
alphabet, arranged from left to right in a single row. the pcx
file must be an 8-bit color sprite.
txt file - copy a txt file from work/font in custom.zip, and edit it to fit
your font's pcx file. the first part is are the font settings.
it is followed by character and offset pairs. the character is a
letter or symbol in your pcx file you wish to represent. the
offset is the starting x location within the pcx file of the
character. for example,
b 55
means that character 'b' begins at an offset of 55 pixels from the
left. semicolon is treated as a comment character. to put in
entries for special characters such as a semi-colon, you need to
use a hex sequence representing the ascii number of the
character. hex sequences start with 0x. for example, a semicolon
(ascii value 5b) starting at pixel 100 would have an entry:
0x5b 100

fonts with more than one color use "color banks" in their palette to store
multiple color arrangements. each color bank in the palette has a number of
palette entries equal to the value of the "color" parameter in the font's
txt file. the first color bank starts at color 255, and its entries are
laid out in reverse palette order. the next color bank's first palette entry
starts immediately following the first, and so on. for example, a font with
16 colors has its first bank's entries from 255 to 240. the second bank has
entries 239 to 224 and so on. the number of banks you can have is limited by
the palette space.

look at the files in custom.zip to see how fonts are composed in the .pcx
files. the concept of font banks will be clearer if you look at the
palette arrangement of some of the pcx files.

====================
iv. distribution
====================

please follow our distribution policy stated below. please pay

particular attention if you are a software developer making frontends
for our tools.

elecbyte grants the permission to redistribute the programs included in

this archive, specifically sprmaker, sndmaker, fntmaker and aireditor,
for any use, under the following restrictions:

1. the program files must remain in their unmodified form. edited

program executables may not be distributed.

2. this file (mtools.txt) must accompany any one or more of the program
files you wish to redistribute. if aireditor is included in your
distribution, airedit.txt must also be included.

3. permission is granted to redistribute edited documentation, specifically

mtools.txt and airedit.txt, as long as this original distribution notice,
the copyright line at the beginning of this file and the disclaimer
notice are present and their contents unchanged. you may, at your
discretion, add your own distribution policy, so long as it does not
conflict with this original policy.

====================
v. disclaimer
====================

elecbyte will not be held liable for any damages to either the user
or the system it is run on, that may occur as a direct or indirect
result of the use of any of the programs included in this distribution.