This is the readme.txt for the iso-view addon v0.2.4 for Angband. Table of contents ----------------- 1.) Introduction 2.) Control 2.1) Command line arguments 2.2) Special key mapping 3.) Troubleshooting 3.1) Current status 3.2) Known Bugs 1.) Introduction ---------------- The isometric view is a graphical view for Angband. It uses tiles of 64x64 pixels to display the Angband world. If you compare tile sizes, this roughly matches 34x16 traditional tile size. The isometric display has a tighter packing of the tiles, and tehre is some overdraw, thus the larger tile size doesn't really need as much space as one could assume by just dividing screen resolution by 64x64. The tiles are stored as truecolor images. This means the Iso-View addon needs at least 16 bit graphics hardware to display the tiles properly. The Iso-View addon uses the SDL library (http://www.libsdl.org) to display the graphis in a platform independant way. A version for X-Windows which does not use the SDL library is also available. There are two makefiles provided with the source files: Makefile.isov-x11 to compile on Unix/X11 based systems Makefile.isov-sdl to compile the Iso-View using the SDL library The tiles are provided as PPM images, 40 tiles per image. They are preprocessed by a tool called 'Makepak' to get optimal rendering performance. The output of makepak are two files, daten.pak and daten2.pak containing the preprocessed tiles. Both daten.pak files are read by the Iso-View on startup. 2) Control ---------- 2.1) Command line arguments --------------------------- Angband divides the command line into two parts. Global options and display module specific options. It uses two dashes as separator. The SDL based isometric display module recognizes these options --grid n n is ine of 0,1,2: 0 = no grid 1 = display grid under items and monsters (default) 2 = display full grid --shadow b b is one of 0,1: 0 = display no shadows 1 = display shadows under items and monsters (default) --hexfont name name is the name of the font file to laod. The font size determines the windows size (font size * 80,24 = window size) Supplied fonts: 12x24.hex, 15x30.hex 12x24.hex -> 828x528 pixel 15x30.hex -> 1036x660 pixel 2.2) Special key mappings ------------------------- The isometric view addon uses some special keys to control the view: - Scroll Lock toggles zoom mode. Scroll lock is pretty illogical for this, but Angband itself uses that many keys, that I found nothing better than scroll lock. - Print Screen saves a screen dump as BMP in the SDL based version. - '#' cycles through grid display modes: 1) No Grid 2) Grid below items and monsters (default) 3) Full grid *NOTE* this key doesn't seem t work on some windows systesms If it doesn't work for you, please try the --grid command line option instead. 3.) Troubleshooting ------------------- Well, no FAQ or similar thing exists yet. But if you run into problems feel free to contact me by email at There is a Yahoo Group existing for this project: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iso-angband/ Probably the group is a good choice to get in contact with Iso-View users and maintainers. 3.1) Current Status ------------------- The isometric view addon is still in alpha stage. That means, basic functionality is there and working, but it is neither complete nor well tested. ATM about 97% of all monster and item images are missing, being replaced by colored letters. 3.1) Known Bugs --------------- In general you should turn the following options on: view_yellow_lite, "Use special colors for torch-lit grids" view_bright_lite, "Use special colors for 'viewable' grids" view_granite_lite, "Use special colors for wall grids (slow)" view_special_lite, "Use special colors for floor grids (slow)" center_player, "Center view on player" Known Bugs in the iso-view code - the big look command (L) doesn't work - the map (m) command doesn't work - ball spells/breath attacks might be displayed wrong - to be tested - many tiles are missing, maybe some are wrong assigned. Written by Hj. Malthaner, 14-Dec-2003 Update by Hj. Malthaner, 21-Dec-2003