TR's Other Shapes

So why is this TR's Other Shapes? Well quite some time ago I was inspired to create the original TR's Shapes. I made it after I had fulfilled a request for a graphic with a certain shape.

 

OK, So what's different about this particular release? It is an entirely different beast. This is a set of three libraries that when used together allows for the creation of in-game vector graphics "shapes". That is, it allows you to create patterns on screen. These patterns are made by the arrangement of objects on screen. These objects can be connected by lines composed of bean vfx. Then again, it's also a learning resource if you need to know the very basics of vector graphics as used on computers. From that little description you don't get the full potential of what is included here. Maybe a brief description of the actual contents might help.

 

The 3 libraries are as follows -

Libraries 1 & 2 are fully compatible with both NwN Diamond and EE. Library 3 is EE only because in a single function there is a single call to an EE specific function. Unfortunately, this EE function is critical to the way this library works. If someone wants to go to the trouble of editing this third library to make it compatible with earlier versions of NwN, be my guest but pm me first. If someone wants to make use of either or both of the first two libraries for NwN Diamond I have included all three libraries as separate plain text files to copy and paste into their toolset's script editor.

 

In addition to the 3 libraries there's a deliberately minimalist demo module. There's also an erf file that just contains the libraries for importing into your module. Obviously, these are both EE only. As well as those there are a pair of custom 2da files which are usable with any current version of NwN. These 2da files are an integral part of the system which won't work without them. Finally, there's the documentation spread across 4 pdf documents as follows -

These are in pdf format for a couple of reasons. The first is portability you'll find that there are readers for files in this format for (AFAIK) all platforms. The second is that this document format supports bookmarks and all 4 of the above documents have them. In fact, because I went to the trouble of creating those bookmarks, please use a stand-alone pdf reader to view them and not a browser plug-in. Browser plug-ins latter don't support bookmarks.

 

In all there are 11 things that make up this package. While the above is the whole of the contents of this package it is not the end of the story. This package comes with a small number of pre-defined shapes that are not hard coded. In other words, you can expand the number of shapes you do not need to edit the code itself to do so.

 

Finally, because this library creates objects on screen (see 1st picture), this package potentially has other uses beyond just graphics.

 

 

Version 1.0 May 29th 2019