Where to go - Mac BoA.

[nikki.]

So recently I sort-of made the switch to Mac. Sort of because I'm dual-booting Windows, but whilst the novelty of a new OS is still there I'll be using OS X. Anyway, obviously I'm pretty much down on what I need in order to design on a Windows machine (and if you haven't played my scenarios, you can only stop sucking by playing them NOW!), but Mac BoA is an entirely different animal. So, I'm asking which editor I need, if I need a text editor, and how I manipulate graphics, plus anything else that (Niemand) thinks I need.

 

Kthx x

[Niemand]

You want the 3D editor from my utilities page, it's the only one that isn't frightfully old. You'll want Graphic Adjuster for managing graphics, unless you feel like seeking out and figuring out some other, more general purpose, resource editor. I don't endorse Dialogue Editor, but you can use it if you want.

 

For a text editor, you might want to try the beta version of AScript; it's slow and buggy but specifically tailored for Avernumscript (including having Alint built in). Otherwise, go get TextWrangler, which you ought to have anyway. Around here somewhere there's a set of avernumscript highlighting definition files for it. (You can just use TextEdit for your text editor, in its plain text, mode, but you probably want something a little fancier.)

 

EDIT: It's really beyond the scope of this forum, but since I already had a list handy from a few months ago: my general list of basic software recommendations. Because I need to seize every possible opportunity to impress my opinions on the rest of the world.

[nikki.]

Nice list, but no VLC, really?

 

Anyway, thanks!

[Niemand]

No. VLC sucks. (Quicktime 'X' also sucks. The only righteous path is to keep using Quicktime 7. Forever.)

[nikki.]

VLC was pretty much my go-to on Windows (being able to intelligently read subtitle files was a necessity, and WMP sucks ), and I can't say I'm disappointed in it under Leopard. I mean for the one VLC download, you're needing 2 or 3 to make Quicktime play the same files.

[Niemand]

The advantage is that upgrading Quicktime has an impact on every other program which uses Quicktime as the engine for media playback: iTunes, the Finder, Quicklook, and so on.

 

In a desperate effort to get back on topic, I found Celtic Mistrel's TextWrangler files: He put them there.

[Celtic Minstrel]

I think I made some tweaks to those (missing keywords and such) when working on the contest scenario; I should probably update that archive.

 

As for VLC, it's not great, but it's available, and it's the only media player I've found that can basically play anything, including MOD files. That said, I rarely use it.

[aka Ravenwing]

I'll second Niemand's (shameless ) plug for AScript Beta. It's never done me wrong (that I can remember). And of course, I probably wouldn't have even released anything without the 3D Blades Editor. Some might argue that'd be a good thing.

 

However, I'm mostly stopping by to congratulate you on your new OS, Nik! It's about time.

[Enraged Slith]

Originally Posted By: A Disquieting Silence

However, I'm mostly stopping by to congratulate you on your new OS, Nik! It's about time.

You big tease, you.

[aka Ravenwing]

I do that. Sometimes.

[nikki.]

Oh hey, look who's back!

[The Mystic]

Yeah, I'm noticing that if you remain here long enough, you get to see a lot of people leave and return without warning. That said, welcome back, Nemesis!

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

Yeah, I'm noticing that if you remain here long enough, you get to see a lot of people leave and return without warning. That said, welcome back, Nemesis!

You're still a newbie to me, though.

(Slithy, do your worst.)

[Enraged Slith]

Originally Posted By: Nikki.

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

Yeah, I'm noticing that if you remain here long enough, you get to see a lot of people leave and return without warning. That said, welcome back, Nemesis!

You're still a newbie to me, though.

(Slithy, do your worst.)

I may have been here forever, but I'm still a newbie.

[Enraged Slith]

Okay, how do Macs work. I downloaded a scenario and all I got was this .sit file that doesn't look anything like the standard scenarios in the list. I can't even get the editor to work.

 

I thought I might try using my family's MacBook for BoA since my PC is slowly dying, but this is completely foreign to me.

[aka Ravenwing]

*takes a bow*

 

Yeah, we'll see how long I stick around. I seem to have trouble remembering to stop by when I'm able to… kinda depressing, when you think about it.

 

Slithy, what's the problem exactly? Is it just that the .sit file won't expand? Because StuffIt should solve that problem (although I don't recall if that comes standard or not).

[Niemand]

Quote:

I downloaded a scenario and all I got was this .sit file that doesn't look anything like the standard scenarios in the list.

What you have there is a Stuffit archive. Stuffit used to come installed on Macs, so it was a common compression format. Unfortunately, it now doesn't come installed, and it has fallen out of favor, but its previous popularity is now an annoyance. To get it open you'll need Stuffit Expander.

Quote:

I can't even get the editor to work.

You'll need to be a little bit more specific about that one; unless you just mean that the editor couldn't read the Stuffit archive, which is normal, if unhelpful in your case.

Quote:

Okay, how do Macs work.

This one is a pretty big question, but if you really want to know, you can start by reading the roughly 3000 technical notes from Apple.

[Enraged Slith]

The problem is more that the user interface is so completely foreign to me that I can't figure out where to go to help myself. BoA requires a lot of manual file moving to get set up, and I'm not used to navigating those odd menus.

[Niemand]

Quote:

The problem is more that the user interface is so completely foreign to me that I can't figure out where to go to help myself. BoA requires a lot of manual file moving to get set up, and I'm not used to navigating those odd menus.

Sorry you're having trouble, although I'm still not sure just which things are the sticking points. (I'm also not sure which menus are giving you issues; the ones in the editor are about the same as the ones in the Windows editor.)

I assume that you've gotten BoA installed the system wide applications folder, /Applications/ (Hopefully it isn't too confusing if I write unix style file paths? They're just like Windows file paths except that / is the root level of the hard-drive and instead of C:\ and they use slashes for separators).

To install scenarios (once you can get them unarchived), just drop them in /Applications/Blades of Avernum/Blades of Avernum Scenarios/. That should be exactly the same as on Windows, just in the Applications folder, instead of in Program Files or whatever.

The editor application you can download and put wherever you want; the sensible place would be to put it in /Applications/ as well. The first time you run it, it will want to know where the Blades of Avernum Files directory is, so just navigate there (if you put things in the places mentioned above, it will then be /Applications/Blades of Avernum/Blades of Avernum Files/) and press the choose button.

That's all of the setup work that I can think of; it really shouldn't be too different from the process on Windows. I hope something in there helps, and that I'm not just repeating things you already know.

[Celtic Minstrel]

You don't need Stuffit Expander to open .sit files, but you do need it for .sitx files. As for the "odd menus", perhaps he just means that they're at the top of the screen rather than attached to the window.