Destalt Image Editor Instructions Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer: What's with this drawing board? How do I draw stuff? How do I change colors? How do I erase characters? I just want to see the drawing characters and their codes. How do I hide the information display? How do I draw a line? How do I draw a circle? Picking a new character to draw with each time is annoying. Is there a better way? How do I copy a block of characters? How do I paste a block of characters? What is this "DAMAGE SOLID STRIKEPOINT EXIT" on the bottom left? How do I apply attributes to spaces? How do I see what spaces have what attributes? How do I add attributes to stuff I've already drawn? What are frames? How do I insert them? How do I navigate through frames? How do I delete frames? How do I play the animation after I make some frames? How do I move what I've drawn if I need more space on the upper left, or if I want to move a frame of animation? How can I tell how far my drawing extends? What's the difference between images and frames? How do I add a new image to the collection? How do I delete an image? How do I navigate through the images? How do I rename each image from its default name of "untitled"? How do I save my works of genius? How do I load my works of genius? How do I quit? -------------------------------------------- What's with this drawing board? The drawing board is composed of a grid of spaces on which to draw ASCII characters. The only borders on the board are the top and left sides, but to the bottom and right, you can keep expanding the board until your computer runs out of memory. The coordinate system of the board is also different from what you would expect. The upper-left corner is X=0,Y=0, and the coordinate system looks like this: (0,0) +--------- Y | -> increasing | | | | increasing | V X -------------------------------------------- How do I draw stuff? Hit SPACEBAR to bring up a list of characters to draw with, then enter the 3-digit code of the character you want. Once you select what character you want to draw with, move to where you want to draw the character and hit TAB. -------------------------------------------- How do I change colors? Hit F to change the foreground color and B to change the background color. The foreground color can be any of the 16 colors shown, but the background can only be the first 8 (due to 8 bits holding the colors and other messy details you don't want to know about.) -------------------------------------------- How do I erase characters? Use BACKSPACE. -------------------------------------------- I just want to see the drawing characters and their codes. Hit T. -------------------------------------------- How do I hide the information display? Hit F1. -------------------------------------------- How do I draw a line? Move the cursor to where you want one endpoint to be, then hit K. Now move to where you want the other endpoint to be and hit ENTER, or hit ESC if you don't feel like drawing a line. -------------------------------------------- How do I draw a circle? Move the cursor to where you want the center to be, then hit C. Now move away from the center until the circle is as big as you want it, then hit ENTER. Or hit ESC if you don't want to draw the circle. -------------------------------------------- Picking a new character to draw with each time is annoying. Is there a better way? Use the shortcut keys 1,2,3,...,0. They draw whatever character is assigned to them. To change what character is assigned to shortcut keys, hit F8, then the key you want to change, then enter the 3-digit code of the character you want it to be. Then hit ENTER to exit. -------------------------------------------- How do I copy a block of characters? Hit CTRL-C. A box appears that you can expand with the arrow keys until you encapsulate the block you want to copy. -------------------------------------------- How do I paste a block of characters? Hit CTRL-V. The upper-left block that you copied earlier will be pasted where the cursor is currently. -------------------------------------------- What is this "DAMAGE SOLID STRIKEPOINT EXIT" on the bottom left? These are attributes you can apply to spaces on the drawing board. DAMAGE is a spot that hurts a player, like an enemy's weapon. SOLID is anything that the player cannot walk through, like a wall. STRIKEPOINT is a spot on an enemy that hurts the enemy if hit by the player. EXIT labels points in a map that take you to another map. So for example, if you're drawing a monster, you'll want to apply the DAMAGE attribute to the animation of the monster swinging its weapon. If you're drawing a room, you would apply the SOLID attribute to the walls. -------------------------------------------- How do I apply attributes to spaces? Hit A to bring up the attribute selection menu. Turn on or off whatever attributes you want to apply with the F1, F2, F3, and F4 keys. When finished, hit ENTER. Now, anything you draw will have the selected attributes applied to it. If you apply the SOLID attribute and draw a line, you just drew a wall. -------------------------------------------- How do I see what spaces have what attributes? Hit W to bring up a selection menu. Choose what attribute you want to view with the F1, F2, F3, and F4 keys, or no attribute with the F5 key. When you select an attribute, any space with that attribute will flash blue. -------------------------------------------- How do I add attributes to stuff I've already drawn? Move the cursor over the space and hit E to apply the currently selected attributes to that space. -------------------------------------------- What are frames? How do I insert them? Frames are collections of images that when played make an animation. To add a blank frame to the end of the frames, hit INSERT. If you want to make a copy of the current frame and add it to the end, hit X. -------------------------------------------- How do I navigate through frames? Use PAGE UP to go to the next frame, and use PAGE DOWN to go to the previous frame. -------------------------------------------- How do I delete frames? Navigate to the frame you want to delete and hit DELETE. You will be prompted if you want to delete the frame. -------------------------------------------- How do I play the animation after I make some frames? Hit P to play the animation. Use the left and right arrows to change the delay between frames. When you settle upon a speed you like, hit ENTER to save the speed and stop playing the animation. -------------------------------------------- How do I move what I've drawn if I need more space on the upper left, or if I want to move a frame of animation? Hit M to start the moving function. Use the arrow keys to move the image around, but be careful because anything you've drawn that goes past the upper and left edges of the drawing board will be erased (kind of like in MS Paint). Doing it this way applies to every frame in the image. If you just want to move one frame in relation to the others, hold down CTRL as you press the arrow keys. -------------------------------------------- How can I tell how far my drawing extends? Hit Z to show or hide a red box that shows how far your drawing extends. -------------------------------------------- What's the difference between images and frames? Each collection of frames you draw is an image. You can have multiple images in a file so that if you want to draw a bunch of rooms for a building, you can keep them all in one file. The same goes for if you want to keep multiple animations for a monster together in one file. -------------------------------------------- How do I add a new image to the collection? Hit F5 to add a new image to the end of the list. -------------------------------------------- How do I delete an image? Hit F6 to delete the current image. The program will make sure you are doubly sure about doing this. -------------------------------------------- How do I navigate through the images? Hit F2 to go to the previous image in the list, and hit F3 to go to the next image in the list. -------------------------------------------- How do I rename each image from its default name of "untitled"? Hit F4, then enter the new name. -------------------------------------------- How do I save my works of genius? Hit S to be prompted for a file name. The file name extension for these data files is DST. If you leave that extension off the file name, it will be appended to it. If you include the extension, then it will recognize that. The file will be saved into whatever folder the editor resides. -------------------------------------------- How do I load my works of genius? Hit L to be prompted for a file name. You may or may not type the extension DST after the file name. Either way works. If it was a success, your file will come up. If it failed, nothing will happen. Make sure that you've saved whatever you're currently working on before you load something else, because it will be lost. -------------------------------------------- How do I quit? Hit Q with the satisfaction that you've made something awesome.