2 | GETTING STARTED

Before you begin the tutorial, there are 2 things you will need to do:

  • Download and install the Flatland Rover software
  • Download and install the tutorial files.

If you haven't downloaded your free Flatland Rover software, download Rover now!

There are also a few files you will need in order to follow along with the tutorial. You can get the tutorial files here. This file will unzip to a folder called Flatland Tutorial on your desktop. Save your 3DML files that you create during the tutorial in this folder.

Now let's get started. Open a new file in your text editor. You'll want to use software that displays all ASCII characters in the same amount of space. This is also called monospacing, meaning that an "i" takes up just as much space on the screen as a "Z". Monospacing is very important for creating 3DML, because your maps will appear as easily readable grids. The Windows 95 Accessory program Notepad works well, and is included with Windows 95/98/NT. If you use a fancier word processor such as Microsoft Word, which does not display characters with monospacing, your maps will not appear as easily readable grids. You will find this enormously frustrating and you are likely to land in prison for assaulting the person nearest your workstation long before you finish building your first spot.

 
Everything in a 3DML file must be bounded by the <SPOT> and </SPOT> tags. The <SPOT> tag has one parameter: VERSION. The VERSION parameter specifies what version of Rover the spot was designed for. If someone visits your spot with a version of Rover that is older than the version specified in the VERSION tag, then they will be prompted to upgrade Rover before visiting your spot. The current version of Rover is v1.5.1.

Start a 3DML file
Go ahead and type the following lines of code to get started:

<SPOT VERSION="1.5.1">
<HEAD> 

</HEAD> 

<BODY> 

</BODY> 
</SPOT> 


see code next lesson

texture styles orientation guide tips,tricks more blocks actions sprites popups lighting sound linking orientation textures navigation mulitilevels body tag head tag starting welcome


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