FURCADIA FSH EDITOR 1.04 HELP FILE (Version 1.3 by Zephyr) Last modified 04/04/2001 Furcadia comes with just a few hundred Shapes to make and decorate your Dreams right away. One of the game's main goals was to be a flexible outlet for creativity, and yet, not be a huge download The answer is to let every Dream can have its own unique art and music, attached (IN THE DREAM EDITOR) to the Patch owner's Dream. (NB. http://sanct.net/furc/furcadiaupdate.htm explains this in detail.) The answer is... PATCHES! "A PATCH? WHAT'S THAT?" A Patch is a bunch of custom files, all kept in any one folder in the `Patches' directory of your `Furcadia' folder. You can give this folder any name, and you can make as many Patches as you like. The number of Dreams that uses that Patch is also unlimited. "WHO CAN SEE MY PATCH?" If you change your files in the `Default' folder, you'll change the graphics only for yourself. Everybody who enters a Dream with a Patch attached will see the graphics in that Patch, until they leave the Dream. "WHAT THINGS CAN I CHANGE WITH A PATCH?" Furcadia uses graphics in files called `.PCX' and `.FSH' (which stands for Furcadia Shape Handler format). You can change walls, objects, player "walkabouts" ("avatars"), floor tiles, and portraits. These are all "Shapes". The .PCX files holds the opening game screens, and can be edited using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, etc. If you make a custom version of "marbled.pcx" and put it in the Patch, then that's what the whole screen will look like for somebody until they leave your Dream. You can also find a lot of free MIDI (music) files on the Internet. (Sorry, Furcadia doesn't use .MP3's because they take too long to load) "DO I HAVE TO BE AN ARTIST?" You don't have to be an artist (or a musician) to make a Patch. There's alot of things made by others, and you can pick and choose the things you like. If you enter a Dream and the Dream's author didn't "lock" the Patch, then you can use the FshEditor to "extract" one or all of the Shapes. You'll find these files stored in the `TMP' folder in your `Furcadia' directory. Your Patch can be a "recipe" with your favorite "ingredients"! Now, let's get you started on the road to making patches! *** A NOTE *** You can only get Shapes out of .FSH files if the Dream you found it in was left "unlocked". If you don't want somebody else using things in your Patch, make sure you "lock" the Dream in the Dream Editor. Your Patch will be sent in ".FS2" form at instead of .FSH. *** *** *** -------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ _/ /` Beekin says: )_ 66 "Here's a step by step guide \ ,_) to making a very basic patch. `) ( Follow me if you can!" 1. Let's get that FshEditor program up and running and working for you! Start up the FshEditor program, select "File", "Open", and then browse for the copy of the player.fsh you made and select it. "THERE'S SOMETHING FSHY GOING ON AROUND HERE (HEE HEE!)" There are other FSH files, but to get started, here are the main ones and what they do. These are the exact names that the main Furcadia program needs and recognizes. FSH NAME --- GRAPHIC wall.fsh - flat walls, walls with windows etc. junction.fsh - door ways, and the joints between walls item.fsh - objects in Furcadia. item2.fsh - more objects in Furcadia. item3.fsh - Yet more objects in Furcadia! player.fsh - normal furres player2.fsh - winged furres player3.fsh - dragons tile.fsh - floor tiles portrait.fsh - furre portraits FshEditor lets you import and export .BMP (Windows "bitmap" format) files. Warning: you should never, ever add or subtract a whole Shape from a .FSH. There's an exact count for the number of Shapes each .FSH is *supposed* to have! 2. Make a folder called `Practice' in the `Patches' folder of your `Furcadia' folder. 3. Copy item.fsh into your Practice folder. (You'll find it in your C:\Program Files\furcadia\Patches\Default folder) Play around with this copy so that you don't mess up your Furcadia. 4. As the FSH file loads you'll see a blank screen but with a single tap of the + key on your keyboard, low and behold. A Red Pillow! Different kinds of Shapes have different "Properties". Object Shapes (Shapes from item.fsh, item2.fsh, and iteme.fsh) can be "walkable", "sittable", and "gettable". The pillow happens to have all three Properties. (For a full list of default Object properties, see http://www.furcadia.com/pixel/dreams/furcobj9.txt) Iteme.fsh is a file that's exclusively for use by Patchers, and there aren't default objects that get replaced. Changing properties is an advanced topic, and properties are stored in their own files, called .FBJ. 5. As I'm sure you've already seen, there is a color palette on the right. These colors are the only ones you can use for Furcadia, other colors won't show up. Select a color with a simple left click of the mouse on the color of your choice. (NB. The Black color in the top left hand corner of the palette is the invisible color which you use for the background of an object or furre picture.) 6. Now this pillow looks rather far away to do any detailed drawing, so let's get it a bit closer shall we? See that button to the left with a magnifying glass with a + sign on it? Press that three times :) 7. Eek! Ok, maybe too close there? Just left-click on the magnifying glass with a - sign on it. Much better. 8. Now its just a matter of drawing till your hearts content. 9. Once you're satisfied with your pillow, click on "File", and then "Save". *** Big Tip *** "ISN'T IT WASTEFUL TO CHANGE JUST ONE OR TWO THINGS?" Don't worry: Your Patch folder contains a whole .FSH, but Furcadia only uploads the Shapes which are different from the default. That means, if you have changed one pillow object Shape, you don't have to download all the other objects which haven't been changed. But Do Keep In Mind: The more new objects you attach to your dream, the longer it will take to download for other furres. If the download time is too long, you may lose furres deciding they don't want to wait. *** Big Tip *** 10. Get attached to your patch! Run the Dream Editor (dreamed.exe). Make a new Dream. Click on `Patches' on the taskbar at the top. It has a blank that says Dream Settings. Click the CHOOSE button. Find your folder: \furcadia\Patches\Practice Click OK. Next, click the dot next to "I want to use files...". Click OK. Now you should see your new pillow instead of the plain red one. Add it to the Dream, and click the taskbar: File, Save. Go to Furcadia (I love that part!). Type Control-A to get to Allegria Island. Then type Control-T, to upload your new Patched Dream. And there you have it. Easy when you know how isn't it? :) OBJECTS FROM "SCRATCH" Now there is one other thing you need to know. The pillow you just drew on was a premade object, but do you think its exactly the same for making an object from scratch? Well, yes there is one slight difference, if you're making the object yourself you will need to "center" it. Centering is where you program into the patch the exact co-ordinates for where the object should appear when placed on a tile. Fortunately it's not as difficult as it sounds :) FshEditor comes with a useful new gadget which allows you to quickly and effortlessly center an object. Go into "View", "Shape Position". This should bring up a separate window containing a pink tile and the object you have currently selected. The pink tile stands for the tile you have placed the object on. The Position of the object shows where the object will seem to be if you place it on that tile. Now all you want to do is use your mouse to drag the object over to where you want it to be. Once you are happy with the placing of the object press "File", "Save". Appart from that, making an object from scratch is exactly the same as normal. *** BIG TIP When drawing furres and portraits *** Ever wondered how certain parts of furres come up as different colors(trousers, shirts, etc)? Well certain colors in patches mean different clothing types. As you can see in Player.fsh, for example, the purple color stands for trouser color, and the orange color stands for cape color. So be very careful when you're drawing portraits and furres with which colors you use :) *** BIG TIP When drawing furres and portraits *** ------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL THOSE BUTTONS Now as I'm sure you are aware there are lots more buttons left on the program that I haven't told you about, but at least now you know the basic requirements for making a patch :) Now lets look at what all those other buttons do... [Tool buttons] The tool buttons are on the top button row on the left side of FSH Editor. They are called pencil, eraser, hand, eyedropper, select, and paint bucket. Pencil This tool is meant for simple drawing. Press left and right buttons for different colors, which you can choose from the palette on the right. Pen size buttons effect on the size of the pencil mark. Eraser This tool erases from the image, leaving transparency where used. Pen size buttons effect on the size of the eraser mark. Hand While zooming, the hand is useful tool for moving around the picture. Additionally you can use arrow keys for this. Eyedropper Selects the color from the drawing. Use left or right button depending on which color you want to change. Select With this tool you can select an area of the image and move it, or delete it (by pressing 'del'-key). Paint bucket Paint bucket fills an area with the specified color. Press left and right buttons for different colors. [View buttons] The view buttons are on the second button row on the left side of FSH Editor. They are called center view, second view, zoom in, and zoom out. Center view (the button with four arrows) While zooming, this button will center your view to the center of the drawing. Second view (the button with a guy in a box) While zooming, this button lets you see the drawing in real size (1:1) and returns back to zooming with second click. Zoom in Zooms in. Zoom out Zooms out. [Background buttons] The background buttons are on the top button row on the right side of FshEditor. By pressing these buttons you can change the color which stands for transparency in the background. [Pen size buttons] The pen size buttons are on the second and third button row on the right side of FshEditor. By pressing these buttons you can change the mark size of the pencil and the eraser tool. [Palette] Palette is on the top right side of the editor. Select a color by pressing left or right mouse button. For different scales of colors, see the "Color" menu. The color numbers are shown right next to the selected colors (which are next to the "pen size" -buttons). [Shape selector] On the bottom left of FshEditor is the shape selector. Press mouse button to browse through the shapes. You can change shape also with = + - ; and : -keys, from the "Move" menu, and from the "Jump Window". [Colors] This menu lets you choose from many different color settings. It's meant especially for drawing characters and portraits, because they need to have certain colors on certain spots of the drawings (ie. trousers). [Tools menu] This menu controls tool buttons, view buttons, background buttons and pen size buttons. [Preset menu] Sets default FBJ, or loads an external FBJ file to be used with the FSH (Shows on "Shape Properties"). Set Default FS2 Numbering sets the "This shape will replace the shape number" -entry to start from 0 and increase with the shape number. [View menu] Shape Properties Shows shape properties. Position X and Position Y are for centering and offcentering the shape. FS2 properties are for shrinked patches (ie. 2 shapes in the FSH file, the other replaces default shape number 4 and the other one default shape number 395) FBJ sets object properties, such as is the object sittable and so on. Furre X and Furre Y are meant to move the furre x,y pixels off the default when he/she walks on the object (furre position is not yet supported by Furcadia). Shape Position With this window, you can easily set the shape position (Position X and Position Y). Furre Position With this window, you can easily set the furre position (Furre X and Furre Y). Position settings Defining here an FSH/FS2 file and the shape number, the "position" windows will draw an additional shape to the background of the current shape. This is meant to ease the positioning in case you need to position shapes to work with other shapes. Show Grid While Zooming Turns grid on / off while zooming. [Edit menu] Swap with Swaps the current shape with defined shape number. Forecolor to backcolor Changes all pixels of forecolor to the backcolor. Draw something with forecolor, then choose this option to see the effect. Forecolor is the "left mouse button"-color. Revert the shape from last saved position Loads the shape from the last saved position. There you go, a full run through of all the buttons and menus in FshEditor, don't try to remember all of them. Quite a lot of those options are only required for very advanced and precise objects. Before I leave you I thought I'd like to give you two tricks which can speed up patching time 1. If you press Ctrl, you can use the eyedropper for an instant (select a color on the object) 2. When you're zoomed in, use the arrow keys to move the object around. Here's another small bit for Advanced Patchers about files: We strongly suggest you to use FSH file format when saving files. Your FSH files are converted automatically when sent to the server. FBJ files support is now complete on the server / client. You can use FBJ files with following FSHs: ITEM.FSH, ITEM2.FSH, ITEME.FSH, FLOOR.FSH, FLOORE.FSH All other FBJ files are ignored. BMP import supports 24-bit and 8-bit non compressed BMPs. PCX import supports 8-bit 640 x 480 PCXs. So there you go, a complete run through for creating patches. Now the rest is up to your imagination!