Sebright wrote: Mon Jul 14, 2025 8:05 pm
Hi Morgul,
Thanks for your detailed reply. So as I understand it, the NAPS system allows you to create adventures as databases that work on other platforms, as well as exporting to the QL as a Quill-compatible database. That sounds great, and hopefully will allow more adventures to appear on the QL.
Yes, that's correct.
NAPS is still an ongoing project, so it has some missing functionality, such as changing the maximum number of objects that can be carried at once. But it's already very convenient to use for developing (or porting) adventures, and for testing them, it's a big time saver.
And it can do some things that the original editors couldn't do, such as adding truly functional new line characters on platforms where the editor wouldn't allow them, like AdventureWriter versions of Quill. So we will no longer need to add spaces on the adventure texts to move to the next line, and we won't waste many bytes on the database for those white spaces, as one single byte will be used for each new line.
NAPS can also compact Quill databases into smaller size than any other tool can do, with its "optimized" export options. But take into account that the optimized databases shouldn't be edited on the editor, as they skip markers that the interpreter doesn't use but the editor does, and the things you modify on tables can potentially affect other parts of the database and leave it corrupt, or with seemingly random code added. And editing any text that had new lines on it, will trim it to the first new line on editors that didn't allow them to be entered. Safe things to change on the editor are the ones out of the tables, such as the initial colors, and the maximum number of objects that can be carried by the playing character.
But no worries because you still will be able to safely load these optimized databases on the original editor, and don't be scared if you get an Input/output error when loading them... as long as they import and display perfectly on NAPS, they will be ready for release on the target platform, and testing them from the editor will confirm that. So you can pack them without a problem with the original editor to produce the adventure file. NAPS cannot create adventure files (databases packed with the interpreter ready to be run), or at least not yet.
My apologies if I seem too verbose on giving information. These are details I didn't share anywhere else online, so at least now it's already documented in here, so other people hopefully can find it with web search engines. I'll eventually write a NAPS manual with all of these details, but as you can imagine for a multi-system multi-platform interpreter and development environment, the list of potential things to do is pretty big.
Sebright wrote: Mon Jul 14, 2025 8:05 pm
QL Quill doesn't support graphics, which is why I wrote a utility (see:
https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/games/adv ... vutils.zip) to convert QL Quill databases to SuperBASIC, after which you can add graphics as you please by altering the SuperBASIC code to suit. I prefer to write adventures that include graphics.
That's very nice. So you can get graphics on QL and as an extra feature add code to do things that Quill wasn't able to do, very nice.
Sebright wrote: Mon Jul 14, 2025 8:05 pm
As for exporting from Adventuron in PAWS format, the current version of the website only seems to allow DAAD ready download. Maybe this is just me, or just a temporary problem.
In the meantime, I'll persevere with trying to interpret the DAAD Ready output. It's keeping me amused / out of trouble, so it's no bother. Trying to recreate the DAAD "processes" as SuperBASIC procedures will be the real tricky part. If I don't crack it within a month, I'll probably lose interest and give up, but if I succeed, I'll let you know!
Enjoy it then, Alan, hehe, I certainly know the feeling.
Someone should contact Chris Ainsley about the missing PAWS export option on Adventuron, by the way. I wonder if he removed it because of the smaller limits the platform would require.
