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The User Interface

Here's a reduced screen shot of a typical MapMaker screen. Click at the image to get further explanations.

The titlebar shows the name of the currently active document window The icon bar Map Window Tile Window Layer selection Titlebar
The titlebar shows the name of the currently active map window.

Icons
Shortcuts for file new, open and save

These are the Undo/ Redo buttons

These buttons are shortcuts for the clipboard functions cut, copy and paste

Using this button, you can switch to selection mode, allowing you to select rectangular portions of the map, and copy them to the clipboard

This button switches to edit mode (which is the default), allowing you to set tiles in the map, or to change the attributes of a cell.

This button switches to attribute draw mode. While in this mode, you can "draw" with the attributes currently selected, allowing you to set a lot of tiles to the same attribute values.

Redraw map. If the display gets garbled, try this button. If that doesn't help, mail me. Hey, this is the beta version, after all.

These buttons allow to switch from Layer selection mode to attribute edit mode. While in tile edit mode, you can set tiles at the current layer by left clicking the map. In atttribute edit mode, you can change the attributes of a cell.

This button displays the Visible Layers dialog, allowing you to select the layers of the map which should be visible or hidden.

This button will allow you to print the map. Printing is not possible with MapMaker release 1.4pb. I'm working on it.

This button displays the About dialog box.

Tile Window
The titlebar of this window shows the name of the Map it belongs to. If you're in edit mode, you can select a tile by clicking on it, and then draw with it on the map.

Map Window
This window allows you to view and edit the map.

Layer selection
The layer selection dialog bar consists of 4 radio buttons, allowing you to select the layer to edit. The Base layer is the first layer drawn, the Roof layer the last. Each layer will paint over those below it. So you can place a stone tile (object layer) on a grass tile (base layer). If you need more information on multi- layered maps, you should read the Tile FAQ, which can be found in the Web at the tile based section of the Game Programming Galaxy.

Cell Attributes
Since the attribute dialog bar is relativly complex, I'll explain it in morde detail. The first combobox, labeled Walkable Area, allows you to set the walkabilty information of the cell. Using this information, you can restrict the sprites to part of the tile. This can be usefull for roleplaying and jump'n'run games.
Walk Special allows you to set additinal information on the type of walking possible at this cell. This is mainly for rpgs and strategicals, here's a short description of the possibilities:
  • None - nothing special
  • Ice - the tile is frozen, player slides and glides at this position
  • Swamp - the tile is swampy. Player can only move only slowly
  • Water - there might be some kind of current, which can be set using the flags, or special attribute
  • Rock - player might need some kind of climbing equipment
  • Fall - used to indicate that the tile is aligned vertically and the player cannot stand on it

The next 16 buttons toggle the corresponding bits in the ObjectFlags member of the cell (button 15 sets/ clears the highest bit). The first 4 buttons are labeled with names for flags used in rpgs, namely
  • Obj.Mov. Object at this position can be moved
  • Chest Object is a chest and contains treasures
  • Unique Object at this position is unique
  • Trap This position/ object is trapped
Since these buttons do just toggle the lowest 4 bits in ObjectFlags, you can use them for other purposes, also.

Special allows you to enter a 16 bit value to store additional information.



© 1997 Lennart Steinke<lennart_steinke@bigfoot.com>