Creating your own custom cardsets for winDetective ================================================== You need: The following files: cardset.rc square.bmp gencard.bmp wdtlib.c cardset.def cardset.mak copybmps.bat generic.wdt The following software tools: Microsoft C 6.0, C/C++ 7.0, or Visual C++ Windows Software Development Kit 3.1 A paint program such as Windows Paintbrush For users familiar with Windows programming, this file can be skimmed over. Essentially you are creating a resource-only dynamic link library with the .WDT extension. All you need to do is edit the supplied make, definition, and resource files to refer to the new cardset library with the name of your choice, copy and edit the bitmaps for the new cardset, alter the stringtable definitions in the resource file to match the names on the new cards, and compile it. After a successful compile, copy the new .WDT file into your winDetective game directory and you are ready to load and use it. For users unfamiliar with Windows programming, more detailed instructions follow. 1. Setting up for a new card set. You should create a new subdirectory specifically for each cardset you want to create, and copy the required fileset into it. Decide on a filename for your custom cardset, up to 8 characters in length. If your cardset is to be called, for example, MYCARDS, copy the file cardset.rc to a new file MYCARDS.RC, copy cardset.def to MYCARDS.DEF, and cardset.mak to MYCARDS.MAK. Edit all three of these files to change every reference to "cardset" inside them to read "MYCARDS" instead. (The file wdtlib.c can be left unchanged.) Run the batchfile called COPYBMPS.BAT to (1) copy square.bmp to six new files, sqred.bmp, sqgrn.bmp, sqblue.bmp, sqyel.bmp, sqpurp.bmp, and sqcyan.bmp, which will form the player pieces; and (2) copy gencard.bmp to 27 new files, names who1.bmp thru who6.bmp, how1.bmp thru how6.bmp, why1.bmp thru why6.bmp, and where1.bmp thru where9.bmp, which will form the cards. 2. Player pieces and floor tiles. The player pieces (sqred.bmp, sqblue.bmp, etc.) should be edited with Windows Paintbrush, or, if possible, with one of the Windows development toolkit editors designed to enlarge a complete small bitmap file for pixel editing. You should retain the color scheme for player markers suggested by the file names. (The game does not currently use the purple and cyan player pieces, but they are included for future enhancement.) The file square.bmp will form the "floor tile" design for your playing board. You may want to design the floor tile to complement the cardset you create, and you should try to build in some contrast to the designs you create for the floor tile. Remember that the doorways on the playing board are white arrows, so your color scheme should have enough contrast to show them up. 3. The card set. The COPYBMPS.BAt batchfile creates 27 new files, a set of six cards for the suspects, named who1.bmp through who6.bmp, a set of six for weapons named how1.bmp through how6.bmp, a set of six for motives named why1.bmp through why6.bmp, and a set of nine for rooms named where1.bmp through where9.bmp. Design your new card set on these 27 bitmap files, using Windows Paintbrush or another bitmap editor. The pixel ratio of 112 pixels across to 160 pixels down, including any border, MUST be respected for cards to fit correctly into the playing field. Room cards double as room displays on the game board, and the rooms have entrances, the locations of which you may want to keep in mind when designing the room cards. The current version of WinDetective does not support 256 colour bitmaps, and the most reliable colour display is achieved when bitmaps are saved as 16 colour bitmaps. A full-size 16 colour bitmap will be about 154K in size; 256 colour bitmaps are about double that. The layout of room cards by number on the playing board is as follows (you can also see this layout by loading GENERIC.WDT as your current cardset): --------------------------------------- | --- --- --- --- | | | 6 | | 2 | | 4 | | 8 | | | --- --- --- --- --- | | | 1 | | --- --- --- --- --- | | | 7 | | 3 | | 5 | | 9 | | | --- --- --- --- | --------------------------------------- Be sure to include the name of the card in its design (either implicit in the picture, or as text), as this is needed for rooms and cards being shown to make sense to the players of the game. 4. Resource header file. Finally, edit the file you have renamed MYCARDS.RC, in the area below the heading "STRINGTABLE". Where the supplied file has the names "Suspect 1", "Weapon 1", "Room 1", etc., replace these standard names with the names you used for your own cards. DO NOT REMOVE the quotation marks. Because display space in the game is sometimes cramped, try to keep the names within 12 characters, all lower case except for the first character. In the first entry under "STRINGTABLE", labelled IDS_BMP_CREDIT, you can place your own name, in quotation marks. This allows an artist's credit to be displayed in the game's About box, and in displays of the View Cardsets option. The second and third entry under "STRINGTABLE", IDS_JAIL and IDS_WARP, are reserved for a future enhancement. If the zeros within the quotes are replaced with numbers corresponding to a room number (ie "1" through "9", corresponding to Room 1 through Room 9), the selected rooms can be played with either a "jail" rule, whereby the player whose piece lands there loses the next turn, or a "warp" rule, whereby the player who lands there may go to any other room on the board on the next turn. Although these rules are not yet enabled in release 1, you may want to associate either or both of these items with rooms in your cardset for future use. 5. Compiling. When you have completed the bitmaps and all editing on the files, compile the new .WDT cardset library file with the command (in Microsoft C), nmake MYFILE.mak If you do not have direct access to a C compiler, you can take a complete set of edited bitmap files, the renamed and edited files copied from MYFILE.RC, MYFILE.MAK, MYFILE.DEF, and wdtlib.c, to the computer of someone who has a compiler. Also, the make file MYFILE.MAK can be altered to the form required by another vendor's compiler. (The winDetective game program was created using Microsoft's C7 compiler, but this should not restrict the choice of tools for the cardset library. You might also contact us through Internet e-mail (simon.claughton@canrem.com) to arrange to send your cardset files to us for compiling.