VEW2VEW User Documentation
VEW2VEW
An AGI to SCI view resource converter by John Nickerson (Mokalus of Borg), mokalus@yahoo.com.au
(c) John Nickerson (Mokalus of Borg), March 2002

-- License Agreement --
You are hereby granted the right to do whatever you like with this software
and it's source code, including redistribution and alteration, on the following
conditions:

1. The author's name and contact details (John Nickerson (Mokalus of Borg), mokalus@yahoo.com.au)
are not removed or hidden.

2. The author accepts no responsibility for any damage that may be caused
to your hardware, other software, or wetware, through use of the program.

3. No warranty is given, either express or implied, including, but not limited
to, usability or fitness for a particular purpose, except where prohibited
by law, and on the planet Neptune ('coz we all know what they're like about
warranties).

-- Executive Summary of License Agreement --
Go nuts, but don't bother me.


-- Current Version --
2.0.0


-- Using the Program --

(The file "vew2vew.exe" has been compiled from "vew2vew.py" with "py2exe", available from Starship Python, and requires "python22.dll" to run.)
(The files with ".py" extensions require the Python interpreter, which can be downloaded for free at www.python.org for a variety of platforms.)
The graphical interface is only available in the source distribution, because of unwieldy file sizes: compiled Tkinter modules require two more DLLs to run, increasing the size of the binary distribution by over a megabyte.

The program is run either with command-line arguments or with a graphical interface. The command-line syntax is as follows:

vew2vew [options] (Win32 binary version)
OR
python vew2vew.py [options] (Source version)

Valid command-line options:

* -i[filename]
Set input file to 'filename'. Prompt if no filename given on command line. Note: no spaces between '-i' and filename argument.
* -o[filename]
Set output file to 'filename'. Same behaviour as '-i' if no argument given.To print this summary from the command line, run the program without any options.

The graphical interface version is run as follows:

python gui.pyw (Source version)

The graphical interface consists of six elements:

* Input file field
Type the name of the AGI source file here.
* Input file browse button
Click to browse for a source file.
* Output file field
Type the name of the SCI target file here.
* Output file browse button
Click to browse for a target file.
* GO! button
Click to perform the translation.
* Quit button
Click to quit the program.
The program works with AGIv2 views, and will not work with encrypted
views.


-- Further Information/Programs --
To extract AGI views: http://www.nailhead.org/agistudio/
The AGI view format: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ptrkelly/agi/specs/view/6-1.html
To show SCI views: http://www.bripro.com/scistudio/download.html
The SCI view format: http://freesci.linuxgames.com/scihtml/x1681.html
The Python interpreter and language: http://www.python.org


-- Known Issues --

1. AGI views can include a text description to be used in the game when the
illustrated object is LOOKed at. The SCI view format does not include descriptions,
and so any description found is dropped during translation.
2. The standalone executable sometimes misses a cel, usually when being run repeatedly from a batch file.

Workaround: use the original Python script instead for views where this problem occurs.


-- Bug Reporting --

To report a bug, please email me at mokalus@yahoo.com.au, with the following format:

Name:
Date:
Program version:
Command line used:
Description of error:
Error message (if any):

