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Clickteam has made several
advancements with Multimedia Fusion 2 and none are more obvious than how
the Properties Toolbar works. In this guide we will explore the various
tabs of the Properties Toolbar.
To begin
with.
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We will explore a few of the application properties tabs (of which
there are 6). Each tab contains a collection of functions that are
grouped according to their commonality. |
The Settings Tab 
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This property is rather straightforward: it defines the most generalized
settings that will effect your entire application. |
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Graphics Mode.
256 colours.
A rather old-fashioned
graphic mode, also called palettized mode, the colour
of each pixel is stored in one byte. This means a 320x200 pixel sprite
will need 64Kb of memory. The colour of each pixel is not directly stored
in memory, but as the appropriate number from a list of 256 numbered colours,
known as the palette. Under Windows, the first 10 and last 10 colours
of the palette should be set to fixed values. (Some graphic programs like
Paint Shop Pro allow you to include this system palette in the graphics.)
When you
import an image with more than 256 colours into a 256 colour application,
or an image that does not include the Windows system palette, Fusion has
to remap the picture: that is, it must use the nearest
match available in the colour palette to the actual colour used in the
picture. This is the reason why you might seen some slight modifications
in the appearance of an image when you insert it in a 256 colour application.
Multimedia
Fusion comes with a default colour palette that has been carefully designed
by graphic artists to match all the shade of colours without too many
problems. We suggest you use it.
Pros :
- Smaller applications
- Faster display (less bytes to move)
Cons :
- Limited number of colours giving very bad results in gradients
or flat areas
- Remapping pictures is tedious
- Not really worth doing given modern machines' capabilities.
- Bad, limited and possibly slow ink effects (fades)
Fusion is not a drawing package : for better results we suggest that you
use the remap function of a true paint program, remapping the pictures
to the Fusion palette (or the palette you use in your application), with
the use of dithering to emulate the colours. You can also set the palette
of each individual frame with the frame property: Frame / Properties /
Palette. Just prepare a 256 colours BMP file with the palette you want
to use, and enter it in this box.
Note for sub-applications:
sub-applications are run in the middle of a the host-application frame.
The palette of the host frame is enforced for all the frames of the sub-application.
Having separate palettes in a sub-application will have no effect at all:
all the graphics will be remapped to the host palette. Therefore, if you
plan to have sub-applications, create all the graphics with the correct
palette to avoid remapping problems and increase the loading speed (since,
of course, when Fusion detects that the palettes are the same, the remapping
process is skipped).
32768 colours.
This is the mode of choice for publishing an application. Each
pixel is stored in two bytes: a 320x200 pixel sprite will use 128Kb of
memory. This mode is the first true colour mode: the
actual values of the red, green and blue components of the pixels are
stored. Each one of these values is stored in 5 bits, which gives 2^5
possibilities.
Pros :
- True colours
- No need to remap
- Good compromise between size and quality
- Good speed
- The mode used on the majority of display cards
Cons :
- Bigger applications than 256 colours
- Number of colours sometimes limited for gradients
16 million colours.
The mode of choice for editing an application. Each pixel is
stored in four bytes: a 320x200 pixel sprite will use192Kb of memory.
The number of possible colours is far beyond the possibilities of the
human eye to distinguish.
Pros :
- More than enough available colours
- No need to remap
Cons :
- Very big applications
- Slower, three time as much memory to move than with 256 colours
My
advice :
- Always develop your application in 16 million colours: this
will ensure you work in the best conditions.
- Before publishing or building your stand-alone application, reduce the
number of colours to 32768 in the Graphic Mode property
box. Warning One: this operation cannot be undone, so make sure you work
on a copy of your application. Warning Two: if you have a project with
multiple applications, you will have to manually reduce the number of
colours in each application.
- If your intention is to produce a 256 colour application in the first
place, develop in 256 colours: this will make sure you
actually see the true results as you work (Otherwise, the subsequent remapping
could reveal the colours you're currently working in to be deceptive...)
The application window setup.
This tab of the Properties Toolbar contains many check
marks, and a few new ones since Multimedia Fusion 1.5, owing to user suggestions.
Most of the options are obvious, but some merit further explanations.
The
novelties in Build 92 (and above).
Three new check marks to customize the look of your final application.
No Minimize box,
No Maximize box. When checked, the relevant icons will disappear
from the title bar of your application. With them will also disappear
the possibility of reducing or zooming the window.
No thick frame.
In the Windows world a thick frame border is a border
that allow the window to be resized. Check this mark and the user will
not be able to resize the window of your application.
Do not center
frame area in window. As a default the frame area (where the graphics
are displayed) is always centered in the middle of the border window of
the application. This can only be seen if you make the window borders
smaller than the frame area. This was the solution we chose for the whole
click range, and some users asked us if we could remove this option. Now,
if you check this mark, the top left of the frame area will always be
displayed in the top left of the window, the remaining graphics being
clipped at the top right of the window.
The original 640x480 application running in a 640x480 window
Window reduced, without the new checkmark
Window reduced, with the new checkmark
The obvious
check marks.
Enables the title bar of the application
... ditto
if "Menu displayed on boot-up" unchecked, and
if "Menu bar" is checked, the user will have
the possibility of redisplaying the menu at any time in the application
by pressing F8
Creating a full-screen application.
There are different ways of creating a full screen application:
changing the resolution mode, or zooming the display.
Zooming the display
The simplest, as it does not depend on the machine or on the size of the
frame: create your frame in 640x480, and see it run in every resolution.
To create a full screen application like this, use the following settings
:
Fun with
the resize display option.
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If
you check the "Maximized on boot-up"
option and leave the possibility of resizing your application to
the user, you can end up with tiny applications running in as little
as 32x32 pixels! Note that all the zone detection and controls are
resized to match what was originally programmed in the application.
For example if you program a detection zone from 100 to 200, and
reduce the size of the application, the mouse coordinates will be
computed to simulate the 100 to 200, and the application will keep
on working. (Well, it should 8-) |
Resizing the display
can be very slow if your computer has no hardware acceleration for zooming.
Very..., very..., very... slow. Use it only when you are sure about the
machine on which the application is going to be run.
Changing the resolution mode.
This is the method of choice for creating a full screen application, but
you have to be careful as it is hardware-dependent. Windows only works
in a number of resolutions (find them in the desktop properties box).
- 320 x 200: the smallest and best for creating scrolling games. Hélas!
as we say over here, this mode is not supported by every machine. It may
work under DirectX6 better, but nothing is really sure in the wonderful
world of Microsoft. If Fusion cannot change the graphic mode, it will
open a tiny 320x200 window in the middle of the display, or switch to
640x480 with the window centered in the screen (which is better than nothing).
- 640 x 480: this mode works with almost every machine and is a good compromise.
- 800 x 600 , 1024 x 768 and above: will work on every machine.
Beware of the monitor limitation: some machines' installations are wrong,
and Windows may decide to raise the resolution to a graphic mode not accepted
by the user's monitor. In this case the picture will be blurred or black.
This ability to change resolution to a higher mode comes in useful for
complex applications which have a lot of data to display.
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You can specify in the Window Size boxes a size different from the
above values by simply typing the size in the edit boxes. |
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Programming a multi-resolution application.
This method will give the best results, but is the hardest to
program. Here too, different choices are possible :
Program multiple frames.
1. Create one
frame for each resolution you want to handle, and a preleminary switch
frame.
2. Program each
resolution-dependant frame the way you want.
3. Size of the
first frame should be big, at least equal to the size of our biggest frame
(here 1024x768). Leave this frame empty : it won't eat any memory space
in the runtime application. Maybe, change the background colour to black
to avoid a white flash...
The events of the switch frame look at the coordinate of the right edge
of the frame, and switch to the proper frame.
You will find
thie X Right Frame expression by following these easy
instructions:
3a.
Create a New Condition in the event editor and right
click on the Specials icon and select the "Compare
two general values" option.
3b.
This will bring up the something much like the Expression Editor but you
can select two items (properties) to compare. With the first expression
highlighted (circled in red below) click on the "Retrieve
data from an object" button. (Just like the Expression Editor)
3c. This will disply all of the available object on the
frame. Right click on the Frame icon and choose Frame
/ X coordinate from the right visible edge.
3d. Now change the type of comparison you are making using
the pulldown menu (this reads Equals initially). For this exercise we
will use Greater.
3e. Now just type in the horizontal size you are trying
to determine. Once you have completed the different sizes to check for
you can have the application jump to the appropriate frame tailored for
that users resolution.
4. Programming
one frame that handles multiple resolutions.
One neat new option
in Multimedia Fusion 2 is a new checkmark in the Properties Toolbar
/ Window Tab
This magic option
will automatically set the size of the frame at runtime to the current
size of the screen. All you have to do is to set the window of your application
to full screen with no heading or menu (see above), and check this option.
You should design your frames so that all the active objects are created
in the top left corner of the area (within the 640x480 limit), or uses
the Storyboard object / Frame / Width and Storyboard
Object / Frame / Height expressions in the expression editor
to get the actual size of the frame...
The runtime properties
This Properties
Toolbar Tab contains the remaining options for a fine tuning
the resulting application.
Multi-Sample
Gives you the possibility of having more than one sound at the same time
in the speaker, up to four sounds. Please note that enabling this option
introduces a small delay when starting each sound : some users prefer
to leave it off because of this delay. If your application can produce
many sounds in short periods of time (like space battles for example),
we suggest that you don't use this option, or use it cleverly: have some
un-interruptible samples looping in the background that use the first
2 or 3 voices to create a nice background of sounds, and play the sound
effects on the remaining channels. Otherwise you will end up in a sound-mess!
Play samples
over frames.
If checked, a sample playing at the end of a frame will keep on playing
while going to the next frame. If not checked, all the sounds will be
stopped prior to going to the next frame. Note that this option is set
as default when you create a new Fusion application, and unset
as default when you import a Games Factory application, to maintain compatibility.
Do not
stop samples when application loses focus.
If you plan to create an application that continues playing background
sounds, you have to check this option.
Machine
independent speed.
A very cool option that compensates for the speed differences between
machines. How does it work?
Without this
option.
Fusion runs at the maximum possible speed for this application on
this computer, with a top speed of 50 loops (or other values, 50 max)
per second. If your application only moves one tiny sprites one pixel
per loop, it will move at exactly 50 pixels per second. But if your application
moves large chunks of screen that take more than 1/50 of second to draw,
then the speed of the animation will be reduced. All the objects in the
application are affected by this, so if we have our little sprite in the
middle of a big, heavy graphics application, its speed can go down to
10 pixels per second, or even less.
With this
option.
When you check this option, Fusion does its best to keep your application
running at 50 loops per seconds. How does it do that? By skipping the
screen drawing for certain loops. The most time-consuming task in a multimedia
application is to draw all the objects on the screen. In Machine Independent
speed mode, Fusion keeps an internal speed counter running at exactly
50 counts per seconds, and compares it to the actual number of loops of
the application per second.
If the number of loops matches the counter, then everything is fine, Fusion
sends the graphics to the monitor, and one can see the sprites in the
new position.
If the number of loops is lower than the counter, then the application
is too slow! Therefore, Fusion skips the drawing of the
graphics for this loop, hoping that this will allow to recover the delay.
On the next loop, hopefully the two values match and Fusion can send the
graphics. Fusion allows up to 5 consecutive skips of the display, which
may result in a jerky animation. But the main advantage of the machine
independent mode is that the overall speed of the animation is preserved:
our tiny sprite moves at exactly 50 pixels per second, even on a slower
machine, but it moves 5 pixels at a time on the display.
This option is totally transparent to the programmer of the application,
as all of the calculations, collision detections, etc. are still done
internally.
That's it. I hope
that this tutorial has made things a little clearer for you. One
thing is sure: you should experiment with all the check marks! Please
send us some feedback: we try to write tutorials for both beginners and
advanced users, with both general information and advanced hints and tips,
as well as explanations of how it all works internally. Are we doing things
right? Please tell us!
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