BCI NET 2/BCI NET 2.iso/archives/demos/commercial/gamesmithdemos.lha/GameSmith_Demos/readme

Text File | 1995-01-16 | 13.5 KB | 383 lines

GameSmith Development System Release 2.0
________________________________________

These demos and the included demo source code are designed to give you
a first hand look at the types of things that are possible with the
GameSmith Development System.  For more information please contact us at:

In North America contact:

Oregon Research
16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162
Tigard OR 97224

Phone: [phone]
FAX:   [phone]
Internet:    [e-mail]
Genie:       ORA
CompuServe:  71333,2655

In Europe contact:

HiSoft
The Old School
Greenfield, Bedford
MK45 5DE    UNITED KINGDOM

Phone:  [phone]
FAX:    [phone]
Internet:  [e-mail]


GameSmith retails for $129.95 and is available at Amiga dealers everywhere.
You may also order directly from Oregon Research or HiSoft.


Demo Notes
----------
Some of the blitter/animation demos can run in Super72 800x600, but this mode
is not used by the demo scripts.  See the demo code itself for how this is
accomplished, or simply type the name of the demo file (in each subdirectory)
for a list of available command line options.  Note that Super72 mode is
only possible if the Super72 monitor is installed in your Devs: drawer.

IMPORTANT: Most demos require a mouse button click to exit (either one).
           The Tutorial demo requires a Joystick to exit.

           Most of the demos have the Joystick routines activated and will
           do extra things when you use a joystick.

           Some of the demos, the Moonrocks in particular, require a lot of
           chip ram.
           If you get a setup error, or a message saying "Bad news from the moon".  Then
           try closing some windows or other means of freeing up additional chip ram.

*****************************************************************
******** The GameSmith Development System Release 2 *************
*****************************************************************

So you want to write a game? Why?  Games are fun!  Besides that,
about 99% of the games out there just aren't quite up to your
standards.  In this case the old adage rings true: "If you want
something done right..."  There's just one hitch: up until now,
there were only 2 options: 1) Spend years developing all of the
necessary low-level tools you'll need to make the games you want,
or 2) Surrender to the empty promises of restricting BASIC
language environments.

'C' and assembler programmers, this is your answer!  AMOS and Blitz
users: tired of BASIC restrictions?  Tired of so-so tools?  Do you
want COMMERCIAL QUALITY results without spending years in
development?  Then check out what the GameSmith Development System
has to offer.

Three years in the making, the GameSmith Development System
provides all of the low level muscle your programs require, freeing
you to concentrate on the things you really want to spend time on -
GAME CREATION!  With the introduction of Commodore's exciting new
CD32 game machine, more people than ever want to get in on the
action.  Amiga owners are in luck, because the GameSmith
Development System allows even novice programmers to create
stunning results.  Its unrivaled power is currently available ONLY
for the Amiga!  Whether you're an experienced game programmer,
hobbyist, or just getting your feet wet, the GameSmith Development
System will SIGNIFICANTLY reduce development time, allowing you to
be more creative.  No matter what model of Amiga you're targeting,
no matter what operating system level, GDS functions will run on
it.  Whether you want to make a fast paced shoot 'em up or a role
playing adventure, the GameSmith Development System has a lot to
offer.


What is it?
-----------
The GameSmith Development System comes with a linker library of
highly optimized game systems and several programs for game
creation.  Most of the system was written in assembler, giving you
true arcade performance.  Your programs can make use of any or all
of the individual pieces in the linker library.  Want to use the
GameSmith animation and/or sound systems in an Intuition screen
instead of the GameSmith display?  No problem.  And the utility
CITAS lets you graphically put together your animated objects (i.e.
BOB's).  There are also utilities to encrypt your IFF graphic and
sound files, keeping them safe from prying eyes when you're ready
to distribute your program.  You can even write your own encryption
algorithms!

The major components of the toolkit include:

1: The most sophisticated programmable animation system available
today, and all at arcade speeds.  Using animated objects has never
been easier!  It automatically and transparently handles:

- Double buffering (if desired).

- Prioritized display of objects (objects can move in front of
  or behind each other).

- Saving and restoring of background data "behind" objects (if
  so desired).

- Object-to-object collision detection.  Objects may have any
  number of collision detection areas.

- Object-to-background data collision detection.  Objects may
  have any number of collision points.

- Software interrupt collision handling.  Tell the animation
  system what functions you want to handle collisions and those
  functions will automatically be called when a collision occurs.

- Translucent objects.

- Animating an object forward or backward.

- Single shot forward and/or backward animations (the animation
  system repeats the last cell until the sequence is reset).

- Automatic bitmap bounds checking.

- Automatic virtual space object coordinate handling.  Objects
  may lie outside of the actual bitmap.

- Ability to shift real space within virtual space; perfect
  for tilemap scrollers.

- Placement of attached, or child objects from a parent
  object.  Chain any number of objects.

- Automatic handling and placement of multi-sequence objects.
  To your program, these complex objects are as easily handled as a
  simple anim object.  Imagine a Street Fighter character with all
  sorts of different moves: to your program it would still be ONE
  LOGICAL OBJECT!  EASY!

- Automatic handling of objects in any number of simultaneous
  bitmaps.

- Optional use of the CPU or the Amiga blitter chip to display
  objects on a per object basis.

- Load disk-based anim objects with a single function call.
  Automatically allocate any number of objects in an array (objects
  use a single copy of the actual image data to conserve memory).
  Free them at any time.

- Full dynamic control over anim objects.  Many, many
  options.


2: A sound sample/effects player of unrivaled ease.  VERY
efficient!

- Load IFF 8SVX sound samples, including stereo samples and
  samples with a loop portion, with a single function call
  (including those you've encrypted with the supplied utility).

- Load raw sound samples.  Any file can be interpreted as
  sound data.

- Interrupt driven automatic playback of samples in the
  background.

- Playback of sound samples from Fast RAM (with a small, user
  specified amount of Chip RAM).

- Playback of sound samples in any octave and note.

- Unlimited sound sample size (memory permitting).

- Automatic handling of looping samples for real-time echo.

- Automatic special effects such as fades and frequency
  changes.

- Total Dynamic user control of samples in progress.


3: An ILBM picture loader.  Load any picture with a single function
call (including encrypted graphics), or merely interrogate the file
(get dimensions, color, etc.).  Optionally fill a color table at
load time and/or allocate one or two bitmaps to hold the picture.


4: Sophisticated display system for taking over the Amiga's display.
Complete hardware level display, yet totally compatible with all Amiga's.
You will not find a more sophisticated, compatible, and reliable display
system for the Amiga.

- FULLY AGA compatible.  Use any display mode available in any
  supported depth (included "promoted" double scan displays).

- Automatic and transparent double buffering.

- Split the display into any number of viewports vertically
  (resolution allowing).

- Hardware level smooth scrolling on a per viewport basis
  (yes, even on AGA machines!).  Easily scroll at full display
  speeds (60 fps NTSC, 50 fps PAL) even during intense game play.

- Put any viewport in dual playfield mode.

- Independently scroll either playfield in dual playfield
  mode.

- Optionally make use of user preferences for display
  placement (system display clip and positioning).

- Supports new AGA enhanced dual playfield modes: 7 or 8
  bitplanes.

- Change the color palette at any time: a single register or
  the entire palette (supports 24 bit AGA color values).

- Fast (near instantaneous) user copper lists, modifiable at
  any time (REALLY!).  Set AGA 24 bit color registers with the copper.

- Parallax scrolling for great "Shadow of the Beast" type displays.

- Hardware sprites.

- Supports hardware border blanking on ECS Super Denise and AGA
  systems.


5: Many utility routines:

- AmigaDOS librarian.  One call to open the libs you need, one
  call to close 'em.  Completely safe, open them as often as you
  like.

- Joystick polling: both ports.  EASY!

- Vector routines.  Move an object in a straight line at any
  angle or plot a line in a bitmap.  User controlled speed and
  precision.  Very fast, and highly optimized.

- VERY good random number generator.

- File requestor (this is the only function available only to
  SAS 'C' users).  Runs on WB 1.3 systems.

- Vertical blank timer.

- Vertical blank controller: add any function to the system
  vertical blank server chain!!  One call to add, one call to
  remove.

- Fast plot routines for replacing the sluggish system ReadPixel
  and WritePixel routines.  Flip any pixels color.  Plot to any
  bitmap.

- Many low-level blitter routines.  These are the same routines
  used by the animation system.  Blit any image using the
  Amiga's blitter chip or the CPU.  Simple, just set a bit!
  Transparent operation.

- Many additional utility routines are available.


The system comes with 350 pages of manuals.  You get a User's
Guide, a Library Reference, and the CITAS manual.


CITAS 3.1
This revolutionary utility is like nothing you've ever seen before.
CITAS began years ago as a shareware utility that turned an IFF
image into 'C' or assembler source code so that the data could be
referenced by your program.  Well, CITAS has really grown up!  You
can now graphically build all aspects of an anim object beginning
at the image level, and progressing all the way through collision
detection.  All this simply and easily with the click of a button
or the press of a key.  You can still create source output for your
objects (including all of the complex controlling structures), but
you can also create the more flexible disk-based objects.  Disk
based objects can be loaded and freed by your program, conserving
memory by using only those that need to be loaded at one time.
What's more they can be encrypted (non-editable by CITAS) and even
locked to your unique serial number - only your program can load
them.  The beautiful part is that objects created by CITAS, whether
linked into your program or loaded from disk, are directly usable
by the animation system!  No additional setup is necessary, just
load 'n play!

CITAS let's you easily: sequence images in an animation, preview
animation at any time, adjust image placement, single step animation,
flip and rotate images, set display method and priority, define
object-to-object and object-to-background collision areas, etc., etc.
Lots of great features!  CITAS loads IFF images, so you can use your
favorite graphics program to paint or render your artwork.  CITAS will
run in any available display mode, even allowing you to save display
preferences.


Compatibility
The GameSmith Development System is fully compatible with every
Amiga ever made.  It will run on WorkBench releases 1.3 on up.  It
is also FULLY AGA COMPATIBLE, with many enhanced AGA features.
Finally!  Now you can write CORRECT AGA software!


What if I Want to Sell Something I Make With This System?
No problem.  There are no distribution royalties whatsoever.  In
fact, people won't even be able to tell that you used this system
for your program (although a little mention would be nice).



C Compiler and 680x0 Assembler INCLUDED!
----------------------------------------
Includes DICE GS C compiler and DevpacGS 680x0 assembler.  These are
fully functional special GameSmith versions of the commerical C
compiler DICE 3.0 and 680x0 Assembler Devpac 3.
Amiga
Requirements
------------
Programmers should be familiar with either the 'C' language or
assembler.  You don't have to be an expert by any means, but you
should be familiar with the basic things like pointers, structures,
hexidecimal notation, and how bitplanes are combined to form a bitmap
for display.

Other languages that support standard Amiga linker libraries and
can handle pointers and structures may be directly supported by
Oregon Research  in the future.


What if I Have a Problem or a Question?
Don't worry, we're here for you!  Technical support is
available by letter, phone Monday - Friday Wednesday 9am - 12pm Pacific,
FAX or electronically.  Our technical support specialists are there
for you.

In North America contact:

Oregon Research
16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162
Tigard, OR 97224

Phone:      [phone]
FAX:        [phone]
Internet:   [e-mail]
Genie:      ORA
CompuServe: 71333,2655

In Europe contact:

HiSoft
The Old School
Greenfield, Bedford
MK45 5DE    UNITED KINGDOM

Phone:  [phone]
FAX:    [phone]
Internet:  [e-mail]


GameSmith retails for $129.95 and is available from Amiga dealers everywhere.