---------------------- ISOMETRIX v1.0 ---------------------------------

Greetings fellow programmers,


With this file you should find an example of an isometric engine
running under Win95 with DirectX5 (though I guess DirectX3 must be OK too).
Everything was compiled under Visual C++ 5.0 using the DirectX5 SDK.

The original engine was developped in 1996 by Jim Adams and was designed
for DOS in low resolution.

A first DirectX port was made by Terence Tan in 1997.

My DirectX port is only very loosely based on Terence's and includes
the following features which Terence didn't include :
- Windowed and Fullscreen modes are supported.
(windowed mode is only available while in 256 colors screen mode).
- Game map is contained in separate binary file.
- Source code is more flexible.
- Scrolling is smoother and quicker.
- new sprite, map and screen classes.
- a player sprite moving in all eight directions.
- landscape objects.
- a better way of handling keyboard input.
- support for MIDI file playing (not essential to the engine I agree).
- and ... enhanced graphics !

A map editor/converter is also available though still in the work (that's
why I didn't include it with this release). If you really need it, e-mail
me.

What I am working on at the moment (28/09/98) :

- mouse movements.
- a totally graphical map editor.
- interaction with objects.

While I want to improve this engine, I am willingly open to any help
and suggestions for better performances. 

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These are the keys you can play with :

- arrows to move around.
- '0' to '9' (not on keypad) to change scrolling speed (0=minimum).
- 'M' for music.
- 'F' to display frame rate.
- ALT+ENTER to switch between windowed and fullscreen mode.
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There is no copyright to this code and I am not responsible for any damage
caused by its use on your computer.
If you use it in any way, at least give credit (or money) to the author(s) !

Credits
-------

The MIDI file "yewtree.mid" is not mine. If anyone knows its author or
who owns the copyright to it, please tell me and I will credit him.

The player sprite graphics are largely inspired by a sprite character 
from Origin's UO... (I hope they don't mind).

The map class in the source files is from Guillaume Jay (jay@mail.dotcom.fr).



Yannis Deliyannis
Paris, France.
e-mail : yannis@club-internet.fr
http://come.to/MrY
June/September 1998.





Included are the read me files from Jim Adams original isometric engine
and Terence Tan's DirectX port :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello!

  This is an example Isometric graphics engine ala XCOM.  Compile however
you like.  To compile you will also need LIBRARY.ZIP.  Read library.txt
for info in that archive.

  Note that it is slow, I programmed it in full C, not much optimizations.
I wanted to make it easy to understand.  Feel free to modify it.

                     Have fun,
                              Jim Adams
                              Game Developers Network, Inc
                              tcm@accessnv.com

All work in this is property of Jim Adams.
  I assume no responsibility of damages resulting in its use.
  You may freely distribute this as you feel.
  Make sure to give credit to me if you do.

                    Jim Adams  1996

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This is a directX version of Jim Adams sample isometric engine.
I did it to learn DirectX, and the isometric engine.
There are still a couple of bugs(such as the clipping of the map when you move really fast at the bottom)
and could be enhanced alot to be more efficient.

I learned quite a bit from it, and am submitting back to Ian
so he can have a DirectX example on his isometric home page.

Special thanks to Ian and Jim(who I have never emailed before)
for their help in figuring out the isometric engine..

I used Visual C++ 5.0 to write the stuff..I didn't bother to make a makefile
but I am sure you can figure out how to compile on different systems.

The ddutil.c file is a grab from the directx examples..
its basically does some palette stuff and bitmap loading which I didn't want to reinvent.

Terence Tan
terenctb@hotmail.com(for now)
WebWorks Interactive
soon at www.webworks.com
