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SAMUS'S TUTORIAL PAGE
CREATING THE SPRITE FILE
Now the next step to creating a background is creating the image file for MUGEN to use. This is called an SFF file. This contains all of the sprites or images that you are going to be using to create this stage. What you'll need is SPRMAKER.EXE, from the ELECBYTE homepage in the developer section. Have SPRMAKER.EXE in the same directory as MUGEN.EXE.
Now open Microsoft Notepad from your Accessories folder. What we are going to do next is create a text file for SPRMAKER, just to make life a little easier.
The first thing to do is in the text file, on the first line, write:
stages\backgroundname.sff
Where 'backgroundname' is the name of your background, and it should be no more than 8 characters. This is going to tell SPRMAKER what the name of the file is going to be. Next you will be writing down the path of your PCX files and their image groups. It should look like this: work\stages\backgroundname\image.pcx
0
0
0
0
The first line:
work\stages\backgroundname\image.pcx
This is the path of your image.
0
This is the 'group number' of the image. Used to help sort each part of the background. For example this number would be different when you want to keep all of the background images in one 'group', and all of the foreground images in one 'group', and all of the images of a background animation in one 'group'.
0
This is the 'image number' of the group. You are to assign each image a different number. If two images are assigned the same 'group' and 'image' number, the first image will be overwritten.
0
0
These are the X and Y values of the image. For all intents and purposes these can remain at 0 and 0.
So when you're finished your text file should look something like this:
stages\backgroundname.sff work\stages\backgroundname\image1.pcx
0
0
0
0
work\stages\backgroundname\image2.pcx
0
1
0
0
work\stages\backgroundname\image3.pcx
0
2
0
0
; end of file
As you notice there are no spaces in this demonstration. This is very important because as soon as SPRMAKER sees a space, it will assume that this text file is over and will quit.
When you are finished and have all of the images included that you will need for the background... save it as backgroundname.txt. Then go into your MS-DOS prompt by either clicking the 'MS-DOS' icon on your start menu or click 'Run', from the start menu, then write 'command.com' and run it. Then navigate into your MUGEN directory ('cd..' to go up a directory, 'cd foldername' to go into that directory, 'dir' to see a list of the folders.), then choose this command line:
sprmaker.exe < backgroundname.txt.
After you close your MS-DOS prompt you are ready for the next step.