Difference between revisions of "EasyDolMaker"

Latest revision as of 18:56, 26 May 2009

Information

After some weeks spent on how to make homebrew developers life easier, I had the idea of a tool which can be used to automate some basic tasks. After a few developement of this tool, I realized that I had to add something to its aim (because we were all newbies one day) and I decided to create a tool that allows people to create some GameCube programs without any knowledge in C programmation. A few skill on workflow processes is need of course, but its more logic than computing knowledge. And then I finished a first version of EasyDolMaker.

EasyDolMaker is a XML to Dol converter. It allows you to define some actions and also some transitions to link them together, using a XML file. An action is a state where you can define a background picture or background color, and also some items can be added, such as texts, pictures or list of choices. A transition is defined for one origin action and create a link between a button on the pad and the next action. I also add two pre-defined actions, "reset" which restart the Gamecube, and "sdload" for those who want to come back to the loader.

Usage

The tool is really easy to use, command line is EasyDolMaker <XMLFileName>. There is an example in this archive. EasyDolMaker returns a C code source, a batch Makefile and launch it to create the dol.

In this archive, I also add an old version of libogc slightly modified, and an extra light version of devkitcube, don't heistate to change both, it's only for low-skill people.

XML Schema:

(?: O or 1, +: at least one, *: at least 0 and nothing: exactly one)

       dol                                                          
       |___image *
       |___action *
           |___display
           |___transition +
           |___text *
           |___list ?
               |___item +

TAG STRUCTURE

   <dol output="dol filename" c="C code source file name" init="Id of the initial action"> 
   <image id="Id of the picture" source="Image file name">
   <action id="Id of the action">
   <display source="Id of the background image">

OR

   <display bgcolor="English name of the background color">
   <transition button="Button to match" next="Id of the action to execute">
   <text str="Some text" x="horizontal position" y="vertical one" color="Name of the color">
   <list x="H coord" y="V coord" color="item color" selected="sel. item color" button="To Valid">
   <item str="Description of the item" next="Id of the action to execute">

Notes:

Color names are those which are recognized by the .Net Framework Supported buttons are A, B, X, Y, Start, L, R and Z Picture format can be BMP(8 or 24 bits), JPG, TIFF, EXIF, GIF or PNG Pictures will be displayed twice larger, but with the same height (due to YCbYCr format). Resolution is 640x480 ie the background pictures should be 320x480 To restart the cube, add a transition where next="reset" To return to SDload menu, add a transition where next="sdload" Transitions Action A->Button B->Action C and Action C->same button->Action D are not a good idea, because the time delay is too short, it will do Action A -> Button B -> Action D

Requirements

• Windows XP

Compatibility

History

Download

EasyDOLMaker 1.0

Acknowledge

• Scarta

See Also

• NintendoMax Le Forum