[guide]The Bible expained to Dummies, opinions wanted

Zacha Pedro

The Bible For Dummies (tentative name)
How to make the most of the Holy Book with your editor

Introduction (note: these are to be internal links to the different sections)
1: What the heck is the Bible?!
2: Operation
3: An example: the oütf resource
4: Rinse and repeat
5: From theory to practice
6: The most important parts
7: The tricky parts

Introduction
The Nova Bible is the most important document in plugmaking, being the ultimate and universal reference. Yet, It's approach is quite steep, as It's very technical. You may have been puzzled when you first read It, and wowed never to use It again. But no one can make plugs without the Bible. Even the most experienced plug maker has to look It up. The aim of this guide is to allow you to get the invaluable information It contains from reading It. It assumes some basic knowledge about plugmaking, such as the beginning tutorial I wrote, and it does't aim at replacing the Bible. I recommand you to have the Bible open while reading this, and be ready to open your plug editor.

1: What the heck is the Bible?!
The Bible is the Holy Book. To best explain it, allow me to go back in time and tell you its history...
In may 1996, Escape Velocity is released. Matt Burch has made both the engine and the scenario of an awesome game that combines space arcade flying and combat with traditional space adventure/trade simulations. But the best is to come. He separated the engine from the scenario, implemented as a separated resource file, and put a way for the game to recognise partial scenario files, called plug-ins, that when put in the plug-in folder add their scenario to the built-in one, or even replace parts of it. This allowed easier distribution of third-party mods, since only what was changed/new needed to be transmitted, whereas changing the sounds or sprites of Maelstrom required one to put all sounds or sprites, including the unmodified ones. As resource files, the creation and edition of plug-ins could be done with Apple's ResEdit, no need to release an unsupported developing tool. Most importantly, Matt made and released the documentation of the actual format of the resources and the meaning of all the fields of this format. This technical documentation was the EV Bible, on which the Nova Bible is still based. This spawned from the beginning a thriving plug community, churning out plugs, but also TCs and alternate plug editors, to the EV community.

The Bible is the technical reference of the format and the values to give to the resources that are inside the data files and that should be in a plugin for it to work. It has never been meant as a learning guide. It is best thought of as a reference; if you don't remember or don't know yet the value to give to this field for your plug to work as expected, by reading the Bible you will know you need to enter in the field the value you want to see in the shipyard info multiplied by 10, or the price in credits you want the outfitter to charge for the outfit, or the amount of mass, in tons, that you want the ship to have free on top of all the preinstalled outfits and weapons (for instance). It should be open whenever you're making a plug-in, and available just a few clicks away.

2: Operation
The Bible is a big document, the raw text version (included with your distribution of Nova) weights 184kB; it could actually make a small book.

There are other versions available, such as an HTML version, from the Ambrosia addons page. You may wish to use the features they offer, such as internal linking for the HTML version, but they feature the same content. This guide will assume you're using the text version, if another version allows you to go quicker, that's good; everything here will still apply.

Due to its size, it can be hard to navigate to find the section you're interested in. But a few tricks will make your life much easier:
-most of the sections, each one dealing with one resource type, are in alphabetical order of the resource type, i.e. the oütf one comes just after the öops one and just before the përs one. The exceptions are the spďn and shän sections that have more to do with graphics and are put before all others, and no one knows why, but jünk is before ďntf.
-the part that explains Nova Control Bits, the new incarnation of Mission Bits, is near the beginning.
-at the end are appendixes that document things that do not fall on any resource. Especially, go read now the last one, and make sure you are able to make a debug log and pilot log, it will make debugging your plug easier.
-you can go directly to one section by invoking the search function of the text reader (usually command or control-F), and putting in the resource type with the umlaut (for instance, oütf). Tell to go to the next occurence a few times until you're at the beginning of the desired section (each section begins by a line of dashes, then :"* The %%%% resource").

3: An example: the oütf resource
Go to the oütf section (see tip above), and read. First, you have a quick description of what the oütf resources are for: store information on the items you may equip your ship with, i.e. the outfits.
Then, in a first column are names. These are actually the names of the fields in ResEdit, when you open a plug-in with it. At the beginning, the EV Bible was meant for use with the only editor available, ResEdit (helped with provided templates so that it could recognise the resources). Based on the original EV version, the Nova Bible still assumes ResEdit is the editor used, and this may confuse you. But this is not a problem. Your plug editor has fields that match the ResEdit ones, just with different names that are close enough to be recognised. You should be able to find the field, that is named DispWeight in ResEdit, in your editor. Some other fields, that only can have a couple of values, can be implemented as popup menus in your editor (ModType, a little below, probably is), and flags fields are probably as a number of checkboxes. In the future, I'll refer to the fields by the name the Bible gives them, since it would be hard to cover all editors, plus new editors may appear or the existing ones may change. The Bible should not.

In a second column, you have the desciption of the value you find or need to enter in the field (depending if you're checking an existing plug or data file or if you're trying to make your own). I recommand to open a known resource of the data files while doing this, the description will make much more sense. For instance, open Nova Data 4, pick the oütf resources, and in them open the resource with ID 128, "Light Blaster". It has a DispWeight of 100; thus outfits with a lower DispWeight, as the description tells, will be displayed after it, and those with an higher DispWeight will be displayed before it in the outfitting screen. Notice most oufits actually have a DispWeight of 100 as well, in that case the outfits are ordered in increasing ID order, as was before Nova.

Perhaps the next field will tell more to you. It's name is Mass. Pretty obviously it's indeed the mass taken by the outfit in the free mass of the ship. This field holds 3 for the Light Blaster, confirming the description; the description will always make much more sense if you view the value for something you already know from the game.

TechLevel is a little trickier. This is an arbitrary number (i.e. it's not a value in a certain unit), 4 for the Light Blaster, that tells the technological level of the outfit. Planets have a Techlevel field themselves (plus some special ones), that tells up to which level of technology the planets outfitter and shipyard will be equipped, this means that the Light Blaster will only be available in planets with a TechLevel field with value 4 and above. Traditionally, values from 1 to 10 or so are used, plus some arbitraryly high tech levels that are given to outfits that are to appear via a SpecialTech. But as the description says, "see the section on spöb resources for more information."

Then we have a ModType field, and a ModVal field. There we have three columns. Indeed the description for the ModVal field (the ModType field can only have a restricted number of values that are all given) depends on the value of the Modtype field. Notice the ModType field may instead be a popup menu directly listing the kind of modification: weapon, cargo space, etc... For the Light Blaster, the ModType field is set to 1 or the popup menu is set the "weapon". Nothing surprising. The ModVal field is set to 128. What does it mean? The small oütf resource cannot contain weapon information for the weapon outfits. Therefore, this information is actually contained in a wëap resource, that this field indicates, in our case the one with ID 128. If you go and check the wëap resources in the same file, you will see weapon ID 128 is indeed the weapon "Light Blaster".

The Max field is pretty much self-explanatory (did you know you could have as many as 8 light Blasters?)

Then, we have a "Flags" field. This kind of field can be found in many Nova resources, it stores info for things that are either set or unset, check or unchecked, true or false. For this reason, they are almost always put as checkboxes in editors, with as many checkboxes as there are flags in the Flags field(s), so you needn't bother with the "0x0001" and the such (which are hexadecimal numbers). The checkboxes come with labels that should allow you to know which flag in the Bible they match, here the Light Blaster is a fixed gun, not a turret (note those two are only here for the purpose of limiting your gun/turrets amount by the available slots in your ship), not persistant, it can be sold, it's kept after purchases (I'd better be!), it isn't even persitent by mission operators, it's shown even if some requirement are not met, it's price and mass are constants, it can be sold only wher it can be bought, neither it has any of the other characteristics below. Notice there are some things that does not make sense to you yet. They will later, they are paraphernalia which you shouldn't bother with for now.

Continue reading the Bible section on the oütf resource and compare with the actual values in the Light Blaster one. Some may not make sense to you, ignore them.

Then, open another outfit, a non-weapon one such as the fusion reactor. Examine the values it has while checking the Bible for their meaning, and see how the effect of the outfit (recharging energy, there) is put. Check a variety of outfits to improve your understanding of the basic values of the oütf resource.

4: Rinse and repeat
You can now try the same with other resource types, first going to the corresponding section of the Nova Bible, while checking a known instance to give more sense to the quite abstract desciptions. Remember that interface of the plug editor may be far from what the Bible says, but keep in mind it's just an interface difference. The plug that the editor will save will have the same format as the plugs made by others, and another editor will allow you the same options, just with a different interface and maybe some time-saving features. I recommand you to study the resources in this order:
dësc
gövt
spöb
jünk
wëap
shďp
düde
s˙st
flët
përs
öops
ränk
crön
nëbu
böom
roďd
spďn
shän
and lastly mďsn
If you're wondering these dots have an actual purpose, they have. Matt told us it was to avoid overlaps in resource types. These dots are called an umlaut, by the way.

If you really have big problems with one resource in particular, search the web for annoted templates, then if you can't find any, ask us a PRECISE question in the EV Developer's corner (note: NOT to be made a link, I want the guy to try first then ask, he will tend to click the link and ask first if we give him it) of the Ambrosia Webboard. It's not important if you don't understand things at first, a good idea of how the main stats of something (such as the information displayed in the ship info dialog, for instance) is implemented is enough for a first pass.

5: From theory to practice
You should now know enough to make a little plug featuring a small number of resources. As a rule of thumb, as there are things you may not be understanding yet, I recommand always starting from a copy of an existing resource rather than from scratch: to make a new ship, you will copy the one with ID 128, the shuttle, from Nova Data 1, paste it in a new plug, and modify the fields you know to make the ship you want, while letting the fields you don't understand yet in place. Don't forget to change the ID of your new ship to an unused one or it will replace the Shuttle (I mean completely, it will show in place of the Shuttle in the Shipyard, people normally with shuttles will fly your new ship, etc...). You should know enough to basically know what you should put, and be able to refer to the Bible at times for the tricky or complex things, such as the values to give and their meaning for the various outfit types.
Remember to test your work from time to time by running Nova with a debuglog and pilotlog.

6: The most important parts
These are the places in the Bible that are of utmost importance, that the most experienced plug devers still have to check, as there is so much info that very few people can remember it all, and you can never know if there isn't some info in the Bible the plug editor doesn't tell you.
-"A quick word about controls bits...", at the beginning. This is the above all reference for the possibilities of the test and set expressions, especially the X### operators.
-most of the flags descriptions. Even if your editor gives labels to the corresponding checkboxes, they can't be as descriptive as the Bible.
-the wilcards at the end of the mďsn resource section. You just can't know them all.
-the ModType/ModVal part of the outfit section, there are too many different cases with each time a different meaning for the value in ModVal
-the appendixes, especially appendix III.
The other information in the Bible is just as important, but after some time you will not need to check them as much as these.

7: The tricky parts
There is some stuff that requires some knowledge that you may not have, and other stuff that's completely ununderstandable at first.
A, The hexadecimal. Usually the editor takes care of this for you, except when it doesn't. If you need to enter some hex, then I'll let the plug dever FAQ speak:

Using HEX flags is very easy, but many people are confused or intimidated by it at first. To incorporate several aspects into a field, add the corresponding HEX flags together. All you have to do to add the HEX flags is to add up the columns. The trick is, though, you don't carry. Rather, 10 = A, 11 = B, 12 = C, 13 = D, 14 = E, 15 = F. So, say you've got the following flags to add:

0x0001
0x0002
0x0008
0x0010
0x0040
0x0800

0x085B

0x1000
0x0020
0x2000
0x0800
0x0100
0x0400

0x3D20

0x0010
0x0020
0x0040
0x0080

0x00F0

The last column adds to 11, so put in Add the columns and substitute a letter for any value that is over 10. In EV, HEX numbers are either 4 or 8 digits, and both work the same way. The '0x' before the number indicates that it is a HEX number, and is ignored when you add them together. IMPORTANT: When you enter a HEX number in a ResEdit field, replace the '0x' with a '$'.

There's one place it will be even trickier: if you're making a cloak outfit. The field is set to take decimals, and you have to enter an hex number! The best way is to make the hex number following the instructions (for instance, if you want the cloak to drop shield and use 10 (8+2) units of fuel per second, the hex number will be 0x00A4), then convert it to decimal. There are calculators for that purpose; if you don't have any, then take the most significant digit of the hex number (here A), enter its decimal value (10 here) in a basic calculator, computerised or not, multiply by 16 (giving 160 here), then add the decimal value of the next digit (4 here), multiply by 16 if necessary, add the next digit, and so on until you add the last digit (don't end by multiplying by 16). Then we have the hex number converted in decimal (164 here), that you just enter in the field.
The same problem arises for the cloak scanner and the paint (and it has the same solution, though you will need an utility to convert the desired color to the hex number).

B, The contribute/require bits, the scanmask bits
-to be filled-

C, The Nova Control Bits
Fortunately for you, we have tried to explain their use (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum9&topic;=005474")here(/url).

D, The other resource types: PICT, STR#, RleD, etc...
These are not Nova-specific resources, you can find them in other places, therefore it's not the aim of the Bible to document them.
The 'PICT' resource is a very Macish image format (it's actually made of opcodes for the (former) drawing engine, QuickDraw), that is often found in application resources for their images, as well as independant files. It's mostly used in Nova for still images. You usually can't edit them with a plug editor, instead you make an image with a graphic program then import it to your plug (the way you do it varies with your editor, check its docs).
A 'STR#' resource is simply a collection a strings (with a maximum length of 256 chars each string), that Nova looks up for some purposes, for instance for a list of names from which to pick up the name for the special ship in a mission (the name of the pirate you have to kill for the bounty, for instance). Editors can edit it.
'Rle8' and 'RleD' are compressed, multi-frames images. They replace PICT (though you can always stick to PICT, but loading time may suffer if there is a large number of them) for all animations such as ships, shots, planets (that can be animated), etc... don't think that the PICT image format supports animation, but for that purpose a big PICT image containing all the frames in the following format is used (for 36 frames):
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36
With the first one being the ship/weapon shot pointing up, just like the first frame of the Rle, then turning clockwise (same for Rle's). A plug editor usually can't edit Rle's directly. On Mac you can make them from the PICT image with EnRle, a Carbon program found in the NovaTools package, while on PC EVNEW allows you to import such an image into a RleD.
'csüm' you shouldn't touch. 'nuff said.
'vers' tells the version of a program or dependant file on Mac, and you shouldn't bother with it.
'STR ' is a resource containing one string each. It serves only to patch STR# resources, and even then, less than it used to. The editors can edit it.
'snd ' resources are one sound each. Nova has all its sound in this format. It can't be edited by plug editors. You need to make one with some sound program, save it in (Mac)system 7 sound format, that you open with your editor then move the unique sound resource to your plug (PC).wav format, that EVNEW can then import.
If you open Nova.rez on PC or the Nova application on Mac, or the EV or EVO TC, you may notice some other resource types, that are not important for you, such as DITL, but can be modified and have effects in the game (such as changing the layout of some windows). The thing is, they are only documented in Apple's developer documentation, next to which the Bible is easy.
(end for now)

I may need to give a conclusion, but wanted to have opinions from peers before. Notice it's to be read after an introduction to plug making (guy discovers the principle, how to create a plug and put a little modified resource in it), and in parallel to annoted templates, everything will be at Space Pirate's new plugdev space in HTML.

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The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-19-2004).)

Spoony

God Dam man, that's a lot of text, anyways, looking at the concept, it's good, I do think it should be released in HTML format. It should also go hand-in-hand with Nova Tools and ResEdit seeing as most Nov Dev's use those two the most. It should provide a comprehensive description of each field and an example or several of them. There should be a variant that does not include examples for those pro's who just want to look the stuff up.

One thing is the volume of the Guide, you should be able to go to any point in the bible in 3 clicks. No more, no less, it should of course be HD based so load times are instant. I mean by instant, you should be able to pinpoint the particlecolor field in 3 clicks, 1 on the Wëap, one on a particle link, one on the particlecolor and wham, you are right there. No more randomization of locations inside the bible. Everything should be classified in their own sections agreed upon by a bunch of designers.

Those are essentially ramblings. It would be nice to install it as a package, that way you could modify the installation via a package based installer, this wouldn't work on windows, but, eh, whatever... It needs some clarification.

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The Evil Spoonman - I Am Everywhere, I Know All
Albatross!!!
"Life is to important to be taken seriously."
"If there was such thing as normal, even the plague would avoid it." - The Evil Spoonman

Dr. Trowel

Nice work, Zacha P!

For what it's worth, the images in a PICT sprite to be EnRLE'd don't have to form a square 6 X 6 grid. 8 X 8 grids are also commonly used, but non-square configurations seem to work too. The "Worldship" sprite in Polycon has a single 1 X 4 row of images. The first image in the row displays when the ship is facing anywhere in the NE quadrant. #2 = SE, #3 = SW, and #4 = NW.

When you mention the HTML Bible, you might point out that that version doesn't necessarily get updated when a new update of Nova comes out.

orcaloverbri9

Because I have little better to do, I'll HTML-ize this guide and correct English mistakes (I found a few, but even you expect that to happen). I'll let you know when I finish.

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There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)

Zacha Pedro

Evil_Spoonman, need I remind you that ResEdit/NT does work only in pre-OSX? Plus, other editors may appear, and I don't want this guide to get outdated.

Stuff to add/modify (that I put here instead of modifying directly to make orca's job easier):
-the one-item list at the beginning of "2: Operation" should actually be just indented, but there is no better way to do it here that (list).
-add to the end of that indent: "notice, though, that only the text version is official and updated; however such updates are usually small, not-that-old versions are reliable enough. If you encounter a problem (plug doesn't work), check the latest text version of the Bible, included in the latest update of the game, to see if the info has changed since."
-in "3: An example: the oütf resource", at the end of the second paragraph, change "in that case the outfits with equal DispWeights are ordered in increasing ID order"
-in 5, before the last sentence of the first paragraph, add "This is a very important feature of plugs: the engine first loads the data files, then the plugs, so if it finds in a plug a resource with the same type and same ID as a resource in a data file, the resource in the plug completely overrides the matching resource in the data file, that is no longer seen at all. So if you want to replace the Shuttle with a better version like we did, have the better version have ID 128 in your plug. Remember this will completely replace the old version: AI ships normally flying the Shuttle will be flying your better version, and so on, so you may wish to avoid making it too powerful. However, if you simply wish to add your new things, without them replacing anything, you need to give the resources in your plug IDs that are not in use in the default scenario. For instance, the default scenario uses oütf ID 128 to 348, 358 to 364, 374 to 378, and 433 to 443 (check the oütf list of Nova Data 4), so your additional outfits have to have IDs not in these ranges. Notice that, as is said of the beginning of the Bible, Game Constants, there can be up to 512 different outfit types, this means that, the first having ID 128, you can use oütf IDs up to 639. The procedure to change the ID varies with the editor, it usually involves going back to the resource list and edit the resource info. If you're wondering why the IDs start at 128 instead of 0 or 1, that's because all IDs from -32768 to 127 are reserved by the system, and you shouldn't even think about using them. IDs can have values up to 32767, though most resources are limited by the max number there can be of them; however dëscs only have this upper limit.", and remove the text in parentheses just before.
-in 7, before A add a new A (so renumber A into B, B into C, etc), and this A is:
"A, Editor/Bible inconsistencies
Most of the editors have features that make editing different from what the Bible assumes and describes. Not that it's bad, these features save time and make things easier, but this is confusing at first. For instance, one of the main features of NovaTools is the ability to suppress the discrepancies between using index numbers and IDs (as is explained at the beginning of the Part II, before the resource descriptions) by allowing you to choose once that you wish to edit everything in one. In such a case, the editor has precedence over the Bible, as it will transparently convert the values for you.
As has been said, some fields with few possible values may be implemented as popup menus, and the field "CanAbort" of the mďsn resource, having only two significant values, is usually implemented as a checkbox, as are flags. This also applies to some fields that have few main ranges, such as the LinkSyst field in the flët resource: in some editors, you can choose the main range with a popup menu ("any system" - "systems of the govt" - "systems of allies of the govt" - "system not belonging to the govt" - "system of ennemies of the govt"), and an associated field allows you to enter the ID or index of the government.
Some editors provide graphical editors to place the systems in the map and the planets in the system, or other such stuff; by placing your planet/system this way, it replaces (and saves you the trouble of filling) the xPos and yPos fields.
Sometimes the name of the resource itself has a meaning (in that case it is explained at the beginning of the section for the resource in the Bible), and some editors does not make you edit it the same way, you may have to go back to the resource list and edit it there, for instance in ResEdit/NovaTools you have to get info there like you do to change the ID."
(note: there may be other stuff to add, but I really know only NT. Does the others have more confusing at first features?)
-to D (now E), add "For instance, a ship with 36 rotation frames, which is the default, has it's appearance in a PICT organised this way:" before the frame template, and remove "(for 36 frames)" before.
Then after "(same for Rle's).", add "There can be an arbitrary number of frames in a PICT or Rle, for instance ships with banking frames have usually 108 (3×36), in a 6×18 template if in a PICT, big ships have more detailed rotations with 64 frames (in a 8×8 template in a PICT), planets usually have one while hypergates have 42 in the default scenario for their animation. When such a PICT is used, it always comes with a mask, which is the PICT with the outline in white and the background in black (warning: there should be no other color in a mask)." (note: this is too abstract not to give links to actual examples, all the more since there are none in the data files, and this is required by all editors to import such multi-frames images. Just let me DeRle some, convert to JPEG, and post to my webspace).
Then replace "On Mac you can make them from the PICT image, its mask, and a spďn, with EnRle, a Carbon program found in the NovaTools package, while on PC EVNEW allows you to import an image and his mask organised this way into a RleD." Add then: "How to create the mask is more a problem of ship modeling, but let me warn you: never attempt to use a JPEG as an intermediate or the image you import. It is NOT lossless compression, and is especially destructive on masks that have to have only two colors: black and white."
Add at the end of 'snd ': "Remember, though, that Nova can only use sounds that are 8 bit, mono, uncompressed, so pay attention when saving with your sound program."

I think that's all for now. Let me now make examples of PICTs to show.

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The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-20-2004).)

Zacha Pedro

There, it's done.
EDIT 07/27: Note that these pictures have since been removed; watermarked ones are in the guide however.
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1000.jpg")Shuttle(/url) (example for 3 × 36 frames for banking)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1001.jpg")Shuttle mask(/url)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1008.jpg")Pegasus(/url) (example of simple 36 frames)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1009.jpg")Pegasus mask(/url) (best mask example to give, but I've put them all just in case...)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1024.jpg")IDA Frigate(/url) (64 frames in 8 ×
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/1025.jpg")IDA Frigate mask(/url)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/204.jpg")Heavy Blaster shot(/url) (shot example)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/205.jpg")Heavy Blaster shot mask(/url)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/2000.jpg")Earth(/url) (stilll planet)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/2128.jpg")Earth mask(/url)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/2001.jpg")Hypergate(/url) (hypergate example, obviously, as well as 7 × 6, i.e. unusual numbers example)
(url="http://"http://perso.wanadoo.fr/webpierre/2129.jpg")Hypergate mask(/url)

Apart from the hypergate and IDA Frigate (even if I took care to compress those JPEGs more than the others), they can be put in IMG tags without too much impact.

Now they just need to be put as links (I prefer them as links rather than as images, in the guide it will make reading harder if it is interrupted by all those images).
-the template (that when put in HTML should be at least in <pre> tags and maybe a table) should link to the Pegasus
-"in a 6 × 18 template" link to the Shuttle
-"in a 8 × 8 template" link to the IDA Frigate
-"one" (after "planets usually have") link to Earth
-"hypergates" link to the hypergate
-"a mask" (after "it always come with") link to the Pegasus Mask

One thing, though: even if they are more difficult to use as I posted them in JPEG, maybe I will need to watermark or at least put a copyright notice in the real guide. What would be best, pipeline?

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-20-2004).)

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-27-2004).)

Dr. Trowel

Another note on PICTs, which happen to be what I'm dealing with at the moment:

For PICTs to display at the proper size in ResEdit, including in the NovaTools spin and shan editors that are used to configure sprites, their resolution needs to be set to 72 dpi. (I don't know whether EnRLE or the Nova engine itself will compensate for differences in image resolution, nor do I know what happens in EVNEW & WinNova.)

Edit: OK, I've found more reason to care about dpi. I took a landing pic from a plug, changed its resolution from 72 to 150 dpi without resampling the image, and pasted it into MissionComputer. Rather than adjusting the PICT's dpi value and leaving all its pixels intact, MC actually downsampled the image! The result was a low-res landing pic, which Nova then blew up to fill the dimensions of the display space in the landing screen.

(This message has been edited by Dr. Trowel (edited 07-20-2004).)

Zacha Pedro

72 dpi just indicates the "real world" density the picture has (72 dpi is 72 pixels per inch). By dividing the dimensions in pixels by it, you obtain the dimensions of the image in inches. I think this information is completely disregarded by the engine, which considers only the size in pixels; it actually surprises me ResEdit considers this information, that's only really useful for print: computers work entirely with sizes in pixels, and for display the programs do not actually know anything about our screen size, just the resolution, so the same picture can have a different apparent size displayed on a 14' screen in 1024×768 (that has in this mode a sqrt(1024^2+768^2)/14=91dpi resolution) and a 20' screen in 1024×768 (that has in this mode a 64dpi resolution), but the same size in pixels.

By the way, this guide is mostly to allow people to use the guide productively in order to avoid someone saying "I can't understand a word of it!" when we tell him to lookup the Bible for the actual value to give the ModVal for the outfit to work as he wants. And as I'm at it, I document some things (such as image and sound format for import) that does not fall on any resources. Things that fall on resources (for instance the-way-the-free-mass-is-computed-in-a-ship-with-multiple-default-same-ammo-using-weapons) will be included in the relevant annoted template, shïp and wëap (when dealing with same ammo using weapons) in this case; remember, this is all for Space Pirate's plugdev webspace. I franly never had any problem with PICT resolution, 72 is the default, and only some programs (such as Photoshop) allow to choose other values, and even then 72 is the default. Maybe in a FAQ, this issue seems to me rather minor (but still to put in a corner of my NEW built-in hard drive. There, it's done).

------------------
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The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

Dr. Trowel

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
**72 dpi just indicates the "real world" density the picture has (72 dpi is 72 pixels per inch). By dividing the dimensions in pixels by it, you obtain the dimensions of the image in inches. I think this information is completely disregarded by the engine, which considers only the size in pixels; it actually surprises me ResEdit considers this information, that's only really useful for print: computers work entirely with sizes in pixels, and for display the programs do not actually know anything about our screen size, just the resolution....
**

I just ran a check, and unfortunately (and inexplicably, for the reasons you mentioned) the Nova engine does pay attention to the dpi numbers stored in PICT resources. Without really knowing what I'm talking about, I'd guess that mburch used a graphics-handling ability built into the Mac OS, or a canned code routine, or somesuch....

Anyway, I just tried to use a 612 X 285 pixel selection from a scanned photo as a landing pic. As is almost always the case, the slide was scanned at a non-72 dpi resolution; in this case, it was a 600 dpi scan of a Southeast Asian temple set amidst tropical vegetation. ResEdit displayed the image as no bigger than an icon, giving it a size in 72 dpi "screen inches" of (612/600) by (285/600). Pasting from ResEdit back into GraphicConverter, however, confirmed that all 612 X 285 pixels were still intact "behind the scenes" in the ResEdit resource.

So ResEdit has a display problem. But here's the worse thing. This is how Nova itself presents the image in-game:

Posted Image

My original photo might have been a bit out of focus, but not that much! Basically, Nova seems to perform the same resolution "correction" as ResEdit, then blow up the resulting low-res image to fit the 612 X 285 pixel display space provided by the landing screen.

Yeah, Nova's preference for 72 dpi images is a minor issue that likely is only going to affect a few people who use non-computer-generated images in their plugs. It may or may not be worthy of a FAQ mention. Anyway, now it's documented.

(This message has been edited by Dr. Trowel (edited 07-21-2004).)

SpacePirate

Excellent start Zacha! A bit lengthy, but eh. I'd say only about 6-7 print pages worth, and that's not really so big of a deal. We'll just have to make some random images to keep things interesting. I mean, seriously, how many of you actually read all of that text?

ZP, I'm sure you'd be happy to know that I now have a few hours of free time for the rest of the week, at least. So, I'll get a fairly large portion of the guide up and running.

~ SP

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 07-21-2004).)

Zacha Pedro

Great, SP!

That's really odd indeed, Dr Trowel. May we see the original image, by the way?

A correction: in the resource type list, after spöb, add "(stands for SPace OBject, as it can be a station instead of a planet)", then after shän, add "(stands for SHip ANimation)".
Then after "If you're wondering these dots have an actual purpose, they have. Matt told us it was to avoid overlaps in resource types. These dots are called an umlaut, by the way.", add "When browsing these resources, try to examine the relationships they have with each other: systems contain space objects, have a government that owns it, reference düdes for the system population, which in turn reference the ships they contain, that have weapons... etc, and most of this stuff have descriptions"

Add a new B section to the 7 (and therefore, push again B into C, etc.): "B, Hard linked resources
If you browse a mïsn resource, you may see it contains fields that specify the dësc ID to display at different times: BriefText, QuickBrief, LoadCargoText, etc... But you may notice one is missing: the offering text. That's because the dësc ID of this text directly depends on the mïsn ID: it has the ID 4000 +"mïsn ID"-128, or 4000+"mïsn index" (depends on you preferences, read the first note at the beginning of resource descriptions). This happens often, especially for descriptions (just browse the descs in Nova Data 3, you see that spöb ID xxx has the dësc ID xxx, the oütf has the dësc ID 3000+"oütf index", etc...), and ship external resources (a ship uses the shän that has the same ID as the shïp, a target PICT that has ID 3000+"shïp index", shipyard PICT ID 5000+"shïp idx", a dësc ID 13000+"shïp idx", etc...).
These hard linked resources are sometimes not very well documented, though they are easy to spot by browsing the data files. Sometimes there even are some that are completely hard linked by the engine: in Nova Data 5, check the last resources by ID (remember the max ID that can ever be is 32767), you have some resources that the engine references directly such as the race descriptions. This also happens for some STR# resources. At any rate, if you feel something is missing, think the relevant resource may be hard linked."

In the now C part, The Hexadecimal, indent or separate somehow what comes from the plug dever FAQ (that stops after "replace the 'Ox' with a '$'."

Notice the now D, contribute/require/scanmask, will probably be in its own guide just like ncb using is. This is the next thing I'll do when this one will be over (need to write a conclusion!)

------------------
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The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-21-2004).)

pipeline

Quote

Originally posted by Dr. Trowel:
Yeah, Nova's preference for 72 dpi images is a minor issue that likely is only going to affect a few people who use non-computer-generated images in their plugs. It may or may not be worthy of a FAQ mention. Anyway, now it's documented.

We ran across this one a couple of times during development, particularly with nebulas. The reason for this was that the instance of Photoshop running on the machine the nebs were created on was set to 100dpi. That took us days to figure out. :frown: We had a couple of massive ship problems with that, too.

Dave @ ATMOS

pipeline

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
One thing, though: even if they are more difficult to use as I posted them in JPEG, maybe I will need to watermark or at least put a copyright notice in the real guide. What would be best, pipeline?

A copyright notice would be good -- you'll want the following:

1996-2004 Ambrosia Software Inc.

Why Ambrosia? Because they own the exclusive rights to Nova.

Also, why not put (url="http://"http://berserkir.ambrosia.net/~pipeline/images/ATMOS.psd")this(/url) image over the top as a watermark? 25% opacity or greater would be fine.

best always,

Dave @ ATMOS

Zacha Pedro

No problem, just that someone will need to do the watermarking since I don't own Photoshop (though Safari is nice enough to show psd images), and as he's at it, add the copyright notice.

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-21-2004).)

EVula

Hrm, I think that this should be on a website somewhere, Zacha. Posted Image

Shoot me an email if you're interested.

------------------
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula,(/url) your friendly (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")self-promoting(/url) EV & EVO Boards/Newswire/Chronicles moderator
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.net/")net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/")org(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")evn(/url) // (url="http://"http://forums.evula.com/")forums(/url) | (url="http://"http://store.evula.com/")store(/url) | (url="http://"http://blog.evula.net/")blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://pftn.evula.net")pftn(/url) | (url="http://"http://dreamwave.evula.net")dreamwave(/url) | (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net")davidarthur(/url) | (url="http://"http://ucplugs.evula.net")ucplugs(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")stark(/url)

orcaloverbri9

Internet Explorer is officially the WORST browser ever. Seriously, it is the ONLY browser that I have ever used that doesn't support anchors properly. Yet another file, with virtually the same code, works perfectly with it. Basically I've decided to drop support for IE. Screw IE, it sucks, and if the user is stupid enough to be using IE, then they probably deserve IE's pathetic excuse for anchor support.

------------------
The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)

Zacha Pedro

Depends; I've heard that the Mac version is better than the PC one (I've not really compared, I used and still at times use IE for OS9 and OSX, but I've always used Firefox whenever on a PC).

Quote

Originally posted by EVula:
**Hrm, I think that this should be on a website somewhere, Zacha. Posted Image

Shoot me an email if you're interested.

**

Apparently your evil empire has grown too big for you to notice that I intend this for (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/plugdev/index.html")here(/url) which seems hosted by your services, O great self-promoting evil. But thanks for the offer.

Oh, and I would like to use this opportunity to remind people that "Zacha" just indicates that I'm a Zachit (in EVO, you know, the mercenaries paid by the Miranus to keep North Tip Renegades at bay), therefore Zacha Pedro can be shortened into ZP or Pedro or maybe Zacha P (Pedro, close to my prenoun, has been my game name for quite some time), but Zacha makes little sense.

------------------
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The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-21-2004).)

EVula

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
Apparently your evil empire has grown too big for you to notice that I intend this for here which seems hosted by your services, O great self-promoting evil.

Yeah, I just saw that in another topic. Oopsie.

I haven't been 'round the Dev Corner for a while. This is a problem I plan on rectifying, for various reasons.

------------------
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula,(/url) your friendly (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")self-promoting(/url) EV & EVO Boards/Newswire/Chronicles moderator
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.net/")net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/")org(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")evn(/url) // (url="http://"http://forums.evula.com/")forums(/url) | (url="http://"http://store.evula.com/")store(/url) | (url="http://"http://blog.evula.net/")blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://pftn.evula.net")pftn(/url) | (url="http://"http://dreamwave.evula.net")dreamwave(/url) | (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net")davidarthur(/url) | (url="http://"http://ucplugs.evula.net")ucplugs(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")stark(/url)

EVula

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
Oh, and I would like to use this opportunity to remind people that "Zacha" just indicates that I'm a Zachit (in EVO, you know, the mercenaries paid by the Miranus to keep North Tip Renegades at bay)

If I had the EVO Survival Guide up, I'd probably know that.

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
but Zacha makes little sense.

Actually, it makes perfect sense: you're the only Zachit posting. However, it does take on the sense that it's a racial slur, so I'll try to refrain from it.

------------------
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula,(/url) your friendly (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")self-promoting(/url) EV & EVO Boards/Newswire/Chronicles moderator
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.net/")net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/")org(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")evn(/url) // (url="http://"http://forums.evula.com/")forums(/url) | (url="http://"http://store.evula.com/")store(/url) | (url="http://"http://blog.evula.net/")blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://pftn.evula.net")pftn(/url) | (url="http://"http://dreamwave.evula.net")dreamwave(/url) | (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net")davidarthur(/url) | (url="http://"http://ucplugs.evula.net")ucplugs(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")stark(/url)

Zacha Pedro

By the way, no problem following my changes, orca?

Yet some other changes:
change 6 and 7 to be Appendix I and Appendix II, with same names and content. Then, after 5, add a new "6: ...and back again" and fill it with:
"Now you've probably crashed Nova (or at least made it act funny), and gathered some experience in the process, reread the Bible and try to give sense to what you didn't understand at first; the explanations and caveats in the appendixes of this guide should be helpful. Now you should be able to get the most of the Bible, though some stuff will probably remain obscure (most plug devers are still puzzled by KeyCarried), but the main features, that can be defined as what is being used by the default scenario, should be understood; if you still can't give sense to something after having read it 4 times while checking some stuff in the data files that makes use of it, then ask us at the EVDC (note: still not to be made a link) a precise question about what you don't understand. Notice you will always need to lookup the Bible at times for things too complex to be completely memorised (such as what is in the Appendix I), though after some time of making plugs you should know enough to make plugs without the constant need to check the Bible.
The objective of this guide is now complete: you are able to pull the technical information you're interested in from the Bible. Keep this guide in some place near the Bible, though, as a reference (heh, a reference for The Reference), especially for the stuff in Appendix II just below. You can save this guide to your hard drive as well as its images by using your browser's archive feature, telling it to include images and links up to one level deep, ignoring links to other sites.
I personnally wish you the best of luck in plugmaking, and who knows, it's possible some day I'll enjoy playing a plug-in you made...

Zacha Pedro"

Do you think this is a good conclusion? By the way, the title will be the one in the topic title, i.e. "The Bible Explained to Dummies" (the one at the beginning of my first post was put when I began writing and I forgot to change it when I posted what I has already written offline with TextEdit), but it will keep the subtitle I put (How to make the most of the Holy Book with your editor). From what I know about HTML, the page title inside the <title> markups should be the title (The Bible Explained to Dummies), the title, repeated in the page, should be there like a h1 or h2, the subtitle a h3 or h4, the section titles h4, the subsection titles of Appendix II, h5 (I don't like h6, sometimes you can't actually tell it from normal text). The internal links at the beginning should be in a list, with normal text size.

Lastly, here are preliminary credits, to be put at the end, obviously.
"Written by Zacha Pedro
HTML work and english correction by orcaloverbri9
Hosted by Space Pirate, in a division of the EVula Empire
Thanks to pipeline and Dr. Trowel"

Anyone can make it to the thanks, provided he's helpful.

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-21-2004).)

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[guide]The Bible expained to Dummies, opinions wanted