Sphere General Documentation
5.3.1999

Written by Darklich
Edited by Chad Austin (AegisKnight)




Table of Contents
------------------------------

1.0 What is Sphere?
 1.1 Great, what are the minimum requirements?
 1.2 Is that it? That's nothing!
 1.3 Help! How do I run Sphere?
 1.4 All I can see is this box with a list of words like Sphere X.xx and
     "Demonstration" and "Pack-In Demo"...
 1.5 What are the keys to the game?

2.0 This kicks ass! How do I make a game?
 2.1 How do I use Reflect? Why do I need Reflect?
 2.2 What the heck is rss.exe?
 2.3 What the heck is rws.exe?
 2.4 How do you use rfont.exe? I don't understand it!
 2.5 How do I use rmap.exe?
 2.6 ssc.exe?

3.0 SphereScript. What the...?
  3.1 Refer to spherescript.txt

4.0 Is there anything else you wanna tell me?
 4.1 The last thing I wanna see.... - Darklich
 4.2 Uh.... -  AegisKnight (Do you wanna add this AK? If not, just cut it out,
                            and you can change Uh... to something.)

Appendix A: Verge and Verge2
Appendix B: Distribution for games

Appendix W: About the authors (using invisible ink to write this ;) )
Appendix X: Version Info
Appendix Y: Copyright Info
Appendix Z: Credits and Information




1.0 What is Sphere?
-------------------
Sphere is a 32-bit truecolor RPG engine developed by AegisKnight, which
features a powerful 2D engine, and a flexible, C-like scripting language.

 1.1 Great, what are the minimum Requirements?
 --------------------------------------------
 What you need to run it:
 + Windows 95, 98 or NT4
 + Pentium
 + 16 megs of RAM
 + 5 megs of hard disk space

 1.2 Is that it? That's nothing!
 -------------------------------
 Um, no. That is the BARE REQUIREMENT. Actual games will need more than that,
 and as a result I recommend this:
 + Pentium 133
 + 32 megs of RAM (for the large pictures)
 + more than 5 megs of hard disk space (depending on how many games are installed)

 1.3 Help! How do I run Sphere?
 ------------------------------
 Run main.exe, it's just that simple. :)  The first time the engine is run, it
 runs setup.exe so you can configure the various options.

 1.4 All I can see is this box with a list of words like Sphere X.xx and
     "Demonstration" and "Pack-In Demo"
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 The list of words are the Games/Demos you have. Select the Game you want with
 the the cursor keys and then press Enter to select the program.

 1.5 What are the keys to the game?
 ----------------------------------
 Here the keys to the games:
 Up Cursor - Moves the character up
 Down Cursor - Moves the character down
 Left Cursor - Moves the character left
 Right Cursor - Moves the character right
 CTRL - talks to other people/Enter selection
 ESC - Quit Game

 1.6 Sphere looked kinda funny. What gives?
 ------------------------------------------
 You probably haven't configured Sphere properly.  Run setup.exe and use the
 drivers and key configurations that best matches your system.




2.0 This kicks ass! How do I make a game?
-----------------------------------------
You need the Sphere development tools (listed below) and Reflect, an alpha
channel editor for Sphere.

rss.exe                 RPG Spriteset Manager
rmap.exe                RPG Map Editor
rws.exe                 RPG Window Style Manager
rfont.exe               RPG Font Manager
ssc.exe                 SphereScript Compiler

Other than that, make sure you have plenty of time. Making a RPG game takes
time, and you need to dedicate around 5-10 hours at least to make a worthwhile
game.

 2.1 How do I use Reflect? and why do I need Reflect?
 ----------------------------------------------------
 Read the documentation that goes with it if your not sure on how to use it.
 If you don't understand why in the hell you need Reflect, it's for converting
 images to I32 files for use with the Sphere development tools.

 2.2 What the heck is rss.exe?
 -----------------------------
 RSS stands for RPG Spriteset Manager. This is to convert either i32 or
 Verge's CHR files into a spriteset file (.rss).

 2.3 What the heck is rws.exe?
 -----------------------------
 RWS is the RPG Windows Style Manager. It imports i32 files for use with
 the windows you see in the game screen when specified. Please note that
 you must make the unwanted bits like the box inside the window transparent,
 otherwise it's just going to block all the stuff inside the window when
 you're testing the game... and that's a bad thing...

 2.4 How do I use rfont.exe? I don't understand it!
 --------------------------------------------------
 That was my first impression too! But no fear, it's not too hard. There's
 only 3 things you can do with the RPG font manager: Create a new font,
 open an existing font, or import Window's Fonts. These converted fonts are
 used by Sphere for all the text you see in the game screen when specified.

 2.5 How do I use rmap.exe?
 --------------------------
 RPG map editor is 12-25% of the entire work. Without these maps, there would
 not be any game areas to explore, treasures to find, enemies to fight,
 essentially the stuff that a gamer would see when he/she plays. When you
 create or open a map, another window would appear. This window is used to
 store, import or open tiles to be used in the map. These tiles are the
 building blocks in creating a map. Without them, the map would just be a
 black screen.

 2.6 ssc.exe?
 ------------
 The SphereScript compiler is used to compile scripts for sphere, which are
 (will be) described below.



3.0 SphereScript. What the...?
------------------------------
SphereScript. The stuff that customizes intro and plot sequences, or how menus
are displayed in the status screen, and more! This is one of the most flexible
C-like scripts around.

 3.1 Refer to spherescript.txt
 -----------------------------
 Self-explanatory.




4.0 Is there anything else you wanna tell me?
---------------------------------------------
Sphere isn't limited to making 2D RPG games.  With SphereScript, other types
are possible.  

 4.1 The last thing I wanna see... - Darklich
 --------------------------------------------
 The only last thing I don't wanna see is FF (Final Fantasy) rip-offs. Believe
 me, I can seen a fair share of these games on Verge, and no doubt it will
 come to Sphere too. If you're going to make games with FF chars, just be
 creative, and I really mean CREATIVE. 

 4.2 Uhhhh... - AegisKnight
 --------------------------
 Hmmm...  Send me suggestions!  Use the engine!  Break it!  I've been adding
 features that I think are necessary, but I'm not actually developing a game
 at the moment.  It's getting hard to continue...  I will anyway though.
 Sphere will be finished!



Appendix A: VERGE and VERGE 2
----------------------------
You might have realized how I sometime say stuff like Verge Packfiles, CHRs
and stuff like that around the document. Well, I'll explain what VERGE is.
VERGE stands for "vecna's extraodinary roleplaying game engine". It's
another game engine similar to Sphere. However, the engine is a lot simpler
and only works in 256 colors. Currently only Verge is released but not
supported anymore due to the (would have been) imminent release of Verge 2.
Verge 2 is the more powerful version of Verge, being able to have more sprite
movements like Sphere's Sprites, and have a more better and complex VergeC
scripting commands. During the time of this writing, Verge 2 is still being
delayed due to VergeC scripting bugs. Like other Vergers, I find that really
annoying because vecna and his crew promised to release it around the
Christmas of '98, and then January of '99, and then February of '99. Even
up to now (5th of April), it still not released. Wheather or not this would
have an effect on the Verge Community was already known. A lot of people have
not bothered making their games/demos, because they wanted V2... 




Appendix B: Distribution for games
----------------------------------
If you're going to distribute your game, you're gonna have to include a readme
file on where to get the latest binaries of Sphere. Otherwise people are
gonna get pissed on how to run your game... :p

BTW, the executables of Sphere and the drivers do not have to be included in
your game. The binaries of Sphere should cover it. And if you're not sure on
how to write the text (or your English isn't top notch like me, and you're
converting your Australian English text to American ones, you would too),
here's how you go about writing it:

----------------------Begin Text----------------------------------------------
SPHERE BINARIES
===============
You must have the latest binaries of Sphere to run this game. Get it at:
   http://www.nerv-un.net/~aegis/

----------------------End Text------------------------------------------------

To distribute your game, just make a .zip file of the game directory and have
the users unzip that into a subdirectory of the Sphere engine directory. For
example, if c:\sphere is the location of the engine, c:\sphere\game1 would be
a possible location for the game.



Appendix X: Version Info
-----------------------
See changes.txt




Appendix Y: Copyright Info
--------------------------
Sphere is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability
and fitness for a particular purpose. In no even will the author or 
copyright holder be liable for any damages caused by the use or inability
to use of, Sphere.

Copyright 1998, 1999 Chad Austin. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.nerv-un.net/~aegis/




Appendix Z: Credits and Information
----------------------------------
Document written by Darklich
Document preread and edited by AegisKnight

MIDAS Sound Library is a product of Sahara Surfers (http://www.s2.org/)
Microsoft Visual C++ is a product of Microsoft
LCC-Win32 is a product of Jacob Navia
Verge and Verge2 is a product of vecna (BJ Eilrich) and the VergeCore
Pentium and Pentium II are products of Intel

No pixels were harmed during the production of this project, but rather the
author's sanity got shot...

Suggestions and bug reports to aegis@nerv-un.net

Sphere 0.07
1998, 1999
Chad Austin
