A Newbie's Guide to Eclipse Origins[EO2.0]

[XPiXel]

**This guide 100% supports Version 2.0,but some parts may not work on outdated versions.**

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**Introduction - Yet Another Tutorial**

Welcome to my newbie guide to Eclipse Origins 2.0.
I am Apple Bloom and this is my first tutorial.

This tutorial will lead you to a world of game development and teach you to use the most stable and currently in development Eclipse engine,**Origins**.

To begin with,I recommend you get these programs first:
**Eclipse Origins 2.0**
**Eclipse Origins Runtimes Installer**
**Visual Basic 6.0(Enterprise/Professional Edition)**
**Visual Basic 6.0 SP5: Run-Time Redistribution Pack**
**WinRAR**
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**Chapter One:Getting Origins to Work**

**OPTIONAL:If you do not have WinRAR,download and install it.**
First,open up the **Eclipse Origins Runtimes Installer**.
Install it and wait for it to finish installing.
After that,open your Eclipse Origins archive and extract it.

Go to the **SERVER** folder and run **"server.exe"**.
Then,go to the **CLIENT** folder and run **"client.exe"**.
Click the **REGISTER button** and fill up the fields.
Do the same when making a **NEW CHARACTER**.

Once you've done that,you will automatically get on the game.

Here are some controls before we move to the next chapter:
**Arrow Keys - Move
Attack/Interact - CTRL
Pickup Items - ENTER
Hotkeys - F1-F12**
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**Chapter Two - The User Interface**
When you login,you will see six buttons to your right.

The **INVENTORY/INV** button opens your inventory.
The **SKILLS** button opens your skills interface.
The **CHARACTER/CHAR** button opens your character information interface.
The **OPTIONS/OPT** button opens up the game options interface.
The **TRADE** button sends a trade invitation to the targeted player.
The **PARTY** button opens the party interface.

You will see the **health,spirit and experience bars** on the upper-right hand of the screen.
You will also see a total of your **money** and your **ping** below the **experience bar**.
At the lower-left hand of the screen,you will see your **chatbox**,you may chat there and see trade and party invitations. Above the **chatbox**,you will see the **hotkeys**. You may drag items and skills there,and you may press F1-F12 to fasten the use of the skill/item.
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**Chapter Three - A Developer is YOU!**

Before you get on any coding,let me introduce you to the **ADMIN PANEL**.
But you need to be an administrator to access this.

So,is that a problem?
Well,not really!
If you host the server,you could be an administrator in no time!

Just go to the **PLAYERS tab** in your "server.exe".
Then,right-click on your character's name.
After that,click **MAKE ADMIN**.
Don't mess up,though.Selecting **KICK** will kick you out of the game.
And some several features like **BAN** will crash your game.

When you are administrator already,you will find yourself with a **YELLOW** name.
But no matter,now you can open the **ADMIN PANEL**!
Press **INSERT** or type **/admin** in the chatbox to open the **ADMIN PANEL**.

There,you will find lots of editors like the **MAP,ITEM,RESOURCE** and the **NPC editor.**

The **MAP EDITOR** can edit the map.
The **ITEM EDITOR** can edit,make and delete items.
The **NPC EDITOR** can edit the non-player characters.
The **SHOP EDITOR** can edit and make shops.
The **RESOURCE EDITOR** can make resources such as trees and mines.
The **SPELL EDITOR** can edit spells/skills.
The **ANIMATION EDITOR** can manage animations.
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**Chapter Four - The Custom Feature Developer**

That's not the half of what you can make!
That's just more like a one of a hundred!

The Origins developer,Robin made Origins using **Visual Basic 6.0**.
That means,you can edit with it too!
Unfortunately,we won't do everything for you!
We have our own games after all.
But if you want,you could grab a copy of **Visual Basic 6.0(Enterprise/Professional Edition)** so you can make your own custom features!

Just double-click **"client.vbp"** or **"server.vbp"**.
That way,you could make alpha blending,guild systems,quest systems or any other feature you could think of!
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**Chapter Five - Making A Custom World**

This chapter will then teach you how to edit and design your GUI/graphics.
Go to the **CLIENT** folder and double-click the **DATA FILES** folder.
Then,open the **GRAPHICS** folder.

Let's stop here first,as I will give you a tour around the **GRAPHICS** folder.

The **ANIMATIONS** folder contains your animations.
The **CHARACTERS** folder contains your character/NPC sprites.
The **FACES** folder contains your character/NPC faces.
The **GUI** folder contains your game GUI.
The **ITEMS** folder contains your item pictures.
The **PAPERDOLLS** folder contains your paperdolls.
The **RESOURCES** folder contains your resource sprites.
The **SPELLICONS** folder contains your spell icons.
The **TILESETS** folder contains the pictures for the map.
The **BARS** .bmp file contains the smaller health and mana bars.
The **BLOOD** .bmp file contains the picture of blood that appears in combat.
The **DIRECTIONS** .bmp file contains your directional blocking editor's arrows.
The **MISC** .bmp file contains a picture that is used in one of the editors,but don't delete it.
The **TARGET** .bmp file contains your target picture.

**(NOTE:You also need to give graphics in the folders a number as a name,the first file must be 1,the second must be 2,and so on.)**

Now let's move to the **MUSIC** and **SOUND** folders.
They are also located in the **DATA FILES** folder.

The **MUSIC** folder contains your game music.
The **SOUND** folder contains your game sounds.

You can edit or place any graphics,sounds or music by placing them in the correct folder.
This way,you can make a game with your own custom graphics,music and sounds!
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**Chapter Six - To Release To Public**

There are two major options that the community uses to host their games.
One is **No-IP** and the second is **LogMeIn Hamachi**.
I recommend No-IP,but you will need to portforward.
If you cannot portforward,I recommend that you use **LogMeIn Hamachi**.
To portforward,you may use this website.
[http://www.portforward.com/](http://www.portforward.com/)

After that,just follow a few guides to using **No-IP**,and you're off to the public world!
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**Epilogue - Releasing The Client**

Before releasing the client,remember to change **"config.ini"** in your CLIENT's **DATA FILES** folder.
You may also want to change some things in **"options.ini"** in your SERVER's **DATA** folder.

After that,don't include **"client.vbp"** and **"client.vbw"** and the **SRC** folder in the player's copy to make sure nobody will edit the codes in the game clients of other players.Changes of the files in the **DATA FILES** folder is their loss,for they cannot change anything in the server as long as they are not administrators.

Good luck with your games!
-Apple Bloom
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**Links**
If this guide did not help you much,I have included a few links to help you.
[[TUT]Portforwarding](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,71563.0.html)

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Comments are welcome,
But corrections and suggestions are very welcome.

[erkro1]

When I saw this I thought, no, not another Newbie Guide.
But this is the best one I've ever seen, easie to read, alot information and important things are marked Bold.
I recommend this to all newbies. ;)

[XPiXel]

@Erkro1:

> When I saw this I thought, no, not another Newbie Guide.
> But this is the best one I've ever seen, easie to read, alot information and important things are marked Bold.
> I recommend this to all newbies. ;)

Thanks,Erkro1!
EDIT:Might add pictures soon.

[erkro1]

@Apple:

> Thanks,Erkro1!
> EDIT:Might add pictures soon.

Ok, it would also be nice if you add some links to other tutorials, like portforwarding, etc.
And wouldn't it be better if the horizontal line is under the Chapter name?

[XPiXel]

What do you mean under? Im gonna find links tommorow it's night here. Suggest some links,some tutorials I can link here.

[erkro1]

@Apple:

> What do you mean under? Im gonna find links tommorow it's night here. Suggest some links,some tutorials I can link here.

Like this :
@Apple:

> **Introduction - Yet Another Tutorial**
> –----------------------------------------------------------------

And I'm searching for links, will post them soon. ;)

[Robin]

@Apple:

> After that,delete **"client.vbp"** and **"client.vbw"** to make sure nobody will edit the codes in the game clients of other players.

_Please_ don't try and explain something you don't understand.

Read through it and it seems like you've just duplicated the official guides and just missed the point completely. No point writing a guide when you don't understand the software yourself.

[XPiXel]

Right! I'ma try to add pictures and some edits later,i'm using a laptop with a small screen :S

[XPiXel]

I didn't copy them.
I just put everything in my brain and tried my best not to copy a tutorial I have read before. :P
By what I've said,I mean not to include them in the player's copy,but to make things clear,I'll edit :P

[Robin]

Ignore those two idiots. I wasn't claiming you copied my tutorials, I said you were simply duplicating information which is already out there and you were writing about systems you don't understand.

The vb6 project files do _not_ contain the source code. The 'src' direction contains the source code.

[XPiXel]

Oh,right! Thanks,Robin!

[Alekion]

This was rather helpful, Now if only I could find the proper download files/etc for VB6.0… Microsoft gives me so many options I don't know which to download D: I don't want to load my computer down with a bunch of unnecessary junk[more than what's already on it, anyway] after all. Hopefully I'll find a torrent of it somewhere~
All in all, thanks for the tips~

~Leki

[XPiXel]

Lol,thanks anyway. :P

[Ravenshade]

A very nice guide! Shame about the lack of help on the VB stuff XD I'm clueless when it comes to VB but I'm happy to learn. (albeit…reluctantly...vb...bleh..=P)

Could you provide some info about the source code? Like where to find things and what absolutely not to edit out XD

[ivi98]

Thanks!

[BlakerZ]

I will tell the true: I am a Eclipse SUPER Newbie. This tutorial helps a lot!

It explains better than in some videos!

I had a lot of problems with the tilesets and i didn't know why but… LOOOL Numbers, not Names 

I'm creating a zombie survival game, i have to change a lot the GUI's  Learning with the Pro's!

Thanks a lot!

[MadalinV]

Good tutorial, apple, but i thought NPC means non playable character, not non-player character, it may be the sources, you heard it somewhere, and I somewhere else.

[jackALL]

ummmm, the ENTER button opens chat for me but not pick up items :s

[Matt]

> ummmm, the ENTER button opens chat for me but not pick up items :s

You're using EclipseVB, not EO 2.0