Scenariomania/SCENARIOMANIA.BIN/c&c/editors/mixman/mixman.doc

Text File | 1995-03-19 | 9.1 KB | 200 lines

MIXMAN V2.0  The Mix Manager
(C)1995 Vladan Bato ([e-mail])


This program is distributed as Freeware. That means that it can be freely
copied, as long as no fee is charged for it and it is not modified in any
way.


USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. I CAN'T BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE
CAUSED BY THIS PROGRAM. I CAN'T GUARANTEE THAT THIS PROGRAM WILL WORK AS
DESCRIBED IN THIS DOCUMENT. MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF FILES BEFORE YOU CHANGE
THEM.


The use of this program should be quite intuitive, but here are some notes.

The program is meant for extracting and putting files from and to the
GENERAL.MIX files, but it can be used with any other mix file as well.

There are two different GENERAL.MIX files ; the GDI and the NOD one.
The program should identify them automatically and in that case it also
displays the names of the missions and suggests a default file name when
extracting the files.



The Type column in the table indicates the type of the file:
INI means it's a scenery description file
MAP means it's a map
TXT means it's a text file (used for MISSION.INI (see later)).
PAL means it's (probably) a palette. (See later.)

The Index column indicates the index in the internal file directory (it's at
the begging of the file), while Pos reflects the actual position in the file.
Pressing "O" key will change the ordering (by Pos or by Index). I suggest
you use the Pos ordering since the missions are much easier to find (they are
in reverse order).
The Last Column displays either the Offsets of the files inside the MIX, or
the four unknown bytes found in the Header. (If someone knows their meaning
please tell me.) This can be changed by pressing the "L" key.

The suggested filenames for the INI files are the correct ones (I hope),
so all you have to do is put them in the C&C directory to override
those inside GENERAL.MIX. The suggested filename for the maps is the same
as for the corresponding mission but with a .MAP extension. However you can't
override the default map by putting it in the C&C directory; you have to
replace the map inside GENERAL.MIX.

Note : I also added default file names for multiplayer scenarios but I am
not sure whether they are correct. I heard their names are SCMnnEA.INI, where
nn goes from 01 to 16, but somebody said they have different numbers
(like 70,71). Unfortunately I can't play multiplayer so I can't check that.
If somebody could do that for me, I would appreciate it very much.

Note about MISSION.INI :
I don't know how many people know this, but the MISSION.INI is the file that
contains the briefings for all missions. It's the last file in GENERAL.MIX
(in Pos order). But it can also be overridden by putting a MISSION.INI file
in the C&C directory. This way you can also change the briefings for your
add-on missions. You don't have to put the briefings for all the missions,
just the ones you changed. The other missions will be without briefing until
you delete the MISSION.INI file.



To Extract a file use the "E" key (it's also in the menu on the bottom). The
program will ask you for a filename (and eventually suggest a default one).
If you don't want to extract the file press ESC.


To replace a file (put a file inside the mix), press the "R" key, you will
be asked to select a file. You can change your mind and press ESC or select
a file. If the file is of the same length as the old one, the procedure will
be almost instantaneous (maps for example are always 8192 bytes long), and
won't need any additional disk space. If however the sizes are different,
you will need enough space on the hard disk for two mix files. (The old one,
and the new one). The old mix file will then be deleted. It will take some
time (10 seconds or so) to make the new mix file.


To view a file, select a file and press enter. The file will be shown in the
default viewer. You can always change between the viewers.

The Hex and the Text viewer are always available.
The keys you can use with them are :
  Up,Down     : for scrolling one line up or down
  PgUp,PgDown : for scrolling one screen up or down
  Left,Right  : for scrolling left or right (Text viewer only)
  Home        : go to start of file
  End         : go to end of file
  "W"         : Toggle line wrapping (Text viewer only)

The Palette viewer displays the palette in graphics mode.
(If you have an SVGA it will be displayed in High Res.)
Note that all files that are 768 bytes long are identified as palettes.



The Map Viewer shows the map in graphics mode. If you have an SVGA with
at least 512K it will be displayed in 640x480 otherwise the standard
320x200 resolution will be used.
(If you have only 512K of video memory, you'll see a lot of flickering.
I'm sorry, but I didn't know how to solve the problem.)

If you want to use the High resolution, you must have a VESA driver loaded.
If the program doesn't detect a VESA driver it will display the map in low
res.
I'm not sure whether it works with all cards, since I haven't had the
possibility to test it on many computers.
Here's a little troubleshooting guide:

 - If you are absolutely sure that your card supports the 640x480x256 mode,
   and that you have a VESA driver loaded, but MIXMAN still displays the
   map in low resolution, then there's no hope for you. That's because the
   program doesn't support some very weird memory configurations. If you want
   your card to be supported in the next version (if there will be one), run
   MIXMAN with the -V option, it will display some info on the VESA support
   of your card. Redirect the output to a file and then e-mail it to me.
   I'll see what I can do.

 -If the computer locks up when you try to view a map. You can try starting
  MIXMAN with the -P switch. That will prevent the program from using the
  SetDisplayStart function which is not correctly supported on some systems.

 -If that doesn't help all you can do is force the program to use low
  resolution with the -L switch. Sorry.

The Theater for the map will be automatically chosen. However sometimes this
identification may be incorrect. There are some cases when it is impossible
to tell whether the Temperate or the Winter theater were used (without looking
into the INI file of course). You can however change the theater with the "E"
key. If you do change it, you'll probably see the message "BAD TILES" in the
lower right corner of the screen, that means that some tiles are not supported
in that theater. They will be shown as black holes. (As will they in the game)

You can change the zoom level with the "Z" key. The Zoom levels are mostly
zoom-outs, from 1:1 to 1:4, the exception is zoom level -2 which is a zoom-in
of 2:1. (this not true for low res. where it really doesn't make sense to
magnify it). If you are viewing the map in high res. the zoom level 4 will
let you see the whole map, while in low res. you will still have to scroll to
see it.

You can switch to the other viewers by pressing the appropriate keys.

! IMPORTANT !
In order for the map viewer to work, you must tell MIXMAN where to find the
TEMEPERAT.MIX, DESERT.MIX, and WINTER.MIX files. This can be done in one of
the three ways :

 -The 3 files can be in the current directory.

 -You can set the Environment Variable THDIR to contain the directory where
  the files can be found (they are in the root dir. of the CD).

 -You can use -t switch on the command line to provide the path to the files.


COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

  MIXMAN [-v] [-l] [-o] [-p] [-f] [-td:\path\] mixfile[.mix]

    mixfile : is the name of mix file you want to view. The default extension
              id .MIX

    -v      : This will display some info on your graphics card and it's VESA
              support. See above for more info.

    -l      : This will force the program to use low resolution even if it
              detects a VESA compatible card.

    -o      : This will open the file as read only. You must use this switch
              if the MIX file is on the CD-ROM.

    -p      : This will force the program to use a single video page in high
              resolution. This will result in a lot of flickering but it may
              solve some incompatibility problems.

    -f      : This will prevent the program for checking whether the file size
              stored in the header matches with the actual file size. This
              switch is provided because some third party utilities don't
              update that field correctly when replacing files. If you want
              to fix the file, there a secret key combination (Not listed in
              the menu) to do that. Start MIXMAN with the -f switch, and then
              press Alt-F, that will update the header.

    -t      : Used to provide the directory where the Theater specific MIX
              files are stored. See above for more info.


That should be all.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments you cane e-mail me to
the following address:
  [e-mail]


(Note that I probably won't be able to check the mail during the period
from 23-Dec-1995 to 9-Jan-1996).