Quake Name Maker Help File [version 1.2]

This page represents the help file included with QNM. For the most up to date version please visit the QNM website. Any questions concerning QNM are most likely answered on the website under Questions and Answers. Thank you for trying QNM.

Table of Contents

Overview of QNM The Menu System The Top Toolbar The Name Animator The Directional Arrows The Most Frequent Buttons The Favorite Buttons The Character Grid The Name Editor

The Message Maker The Save Messages Wizard The Middle Toolbar The Animation Wizard The Animation Viewer The Binding Wizard The Options Window The Export Bitmap Windows QNM is Shareware

Overview of QNM

Quake Name Maker is a Win95/NT program created to take the hassle out of creating text using the high ASCII characters that Quake can display. With QNM you can create single names, animated names, and block messages using the keyboard or mouse.

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The Menu System

	File-New-[Name,Animation,Messages] Clears the selected text.
	File-Load-[Name,Animation,Messages] From Script File Load a previously saved script (*.scr) file or QNM (*.qnn, *.qnm, *.qna) file. From Config File Attempts to Load the last name in a config file.
	File-Save-[Name,Animation,Messages] To Script File Save the name to either a script (*.scr) file or QNM (*.qnn, *.qnm, *.qna) file To A Config File Attempts to replace or adds a name in a config file you select. To Clipboard Copies the name into the Windows Clipboard for pasting or Shift-Inserting.
	Recent Files-[Name,Animation,Messages] These are the last 4 previously saved files. Click one to load it.
	Switch To-[Name Editor,Name Animator,Message Maker] Places the focus on the selected item.
	Edit-[Cut,Copy,Paste] These options allow you to remove, copy or paste any of the text.
	Format-Align-[Align Left,Align Center,Align Right] Aligns all or just the current text to the left, right or center.
	Format-Case-[Upper To Lower,Lower To Upper,Switch Case] These options perform case switches on the case of the characters.
	Format-Color-[Color1 To Color2,Color2 To Color1,Switch Color] These options perform color switches on the color of the characters.
	Format-Reverse-[Reverse Name Order,Reverse Characters] Either reverses the order of the animation names or reverses the characters in the text..
	Tools-[Animation Wizard,Animation Viewer,Binding Wizard,Change Settings] Brings up the selected tool.
	Export-Export Bitmap-[Name,Animation,Messages] Brings up the Export Bitmap Window for the selected item.
	Help-QNM Help Loads this file.
	Help-About QNM Shows the About window for QNM.

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The Directional Arrows

Left clicking here will move the cursor up, down, left, or right. The direction will be displayed as Red. Keyboard shortcut is the same as hitting the arrow keys.

Right clicking will move you to home, end, top or bottom. The direction will be displayed as Blue. Keyboard shortcut is Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down.

Holding down the mouse button will continuously move you in that direction.

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The Name Animator

Animation is achieved by repeatedly renaming yourself and changing the appearance of your name. Pauses or ticks are used between each name change to make the name stay at the last name for a period of time before another name is used.

QNM allows you to make animations of up to 90 names. In the animation portion of the screen you will see the following items.

	The names that make up the animation as they appear in Quake. If the animator has the focus the cursor will be blinking at the current position. The next character placed will be placed at this location. Left clicking on any of these names will move the cursor to the character you clicked on. Right clicking will place the last character you right clicked on in the character grid.
	A number at the top left and bottom left of the animation correspond to the name number of the name to its right.
	The wait number to the right of each name corresponds to the amount of ticks the current name should wait before moving on to the next name. Left click to increase this number, right click to decrease it.
	The vertical scroll bar allows you to scroll through all of the names.
	The total names in the animation. Use the spin button to increase or decrease the total names in the animation.
	The set all number provides a way to set all of the ticks for the names.
	The insert button inserts a new name at the current name and increases the total names. Keyboard shortcut is CTRL-Insert.
	The delete button removes the current name and decreases the total names. Keyboard shortcut is CTRL-Delete.
	The move up button moves the current name up one place in the animation. Keyboard shortcut is CTRL-Up arrow.
	The move down button moves the current name down one place in the animation. Keyboard shortcut is CTRL-Down arrow.

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The Top Toolbar

The top toolbar provides a quick and easy way to most of the commonly used menu items.

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The Most Frequent Buttons

Clicking the button with the F+ on it will cause QNM to calculate the most frequent characters that are used in the name, animation, and the messages. It then places these most frequent characters on the 3 buttons under the F+ button.

Clicking on one of the most frequent buttons will place that character in the current cursor location.

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The Favorite Buttons

The favorite buttons work the same way as the most frequent buttons but are set by you. Left clicking will place that character at the current location.

Right clicking will bring up a character grid with 2 cursors on it. The Red cursor is the old character for that button. The yellow cursor is the character you wish to use instead of the old one. Click OK to use the new one, or Reset to retrieve the last character used.

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The Character Grid

This displays all of the characters in the character set. Moving the mouse over this area will move the cursor to the character it is over. Left clicking will place that character at the current position. Right clicking causes QNM to store that character and then whenever you right click on any of the text areas it will place that character. Characters that cannot be used in Quake are not available and the cursor will disappear when moving over them.

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The Name Editor

If the name editor has the focus the cursor will be blinking at the current position. Left clicking anywhere in the name moves the cursor to the location you clicked. Right clicking places the last character you right clicked on in the character grid.

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The Message Maker

If the message maker has the focus the cursor will be blinking at the current position. Left clicking anywhere in the message maker moves the cursor to the location you clicked. Right clicking places the last character you right clicked on in the character grid.

Max Length

Adjust this up or down to increase or decrease the length of the messages. Min is 31, max is 50. NOTE: If you are making block messages it is a good idea to make the messages shorter than this. Test it yourself at 320x200 to make sure the message doesn't wrap to the next line.

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The Save Messages Wizard

	Everyone Or Team Members Select if everyone will see your message, or just you team. This is equivelant to "say" or "say_team"
	Select Messages Select which messages to write to the script file.
	Quake or Quake2 Quake has a bug that places a quote at the end of messages. Check this to eliminate the trailing quote. Leave it unchecked if the messages are for Quake2.
	Remove Name This will temporarily remove your name to make more room for the message. Then it will rename you to the name that is currently loaded in QNM. MAKE sure you put your name in the Name Maker. Also, some servers will kick you off if you don't have a name.

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The Middle Toolbar

Components of the Middle Toolbar are as follows:

	The SCR button corresponds to the state of the keyboards Scroll Lock button. If Scroll Lock is on, all keyboard hits will be displayed as color1 characters. If Scroll Lock is off then characters will be displayed as color2. Toggle this button by clicking it to switch between the 2 colors.
	The INS button corresponds to the state of the keyboards Insert Mode. If Insert is active then all characters placed will be placed at the current location and the characters to the right will be moved over to the right. If Insert Mode is not active then placing characters will overwrite the character in the current location.
	The CAP button corresponds to the state of the keyboards Caps Lock Mode. If it is off then all keyboard characters will be placed as their value. If it is on then keyboard hits are capitalized.
	The NUM button allows you to toggle the NUM Lock Mode of your keyboard. The NUM Pad on your keyboard if active gives you access to the NUM Pad keys. If it is not active then the NUM Pad reacts like the arrow keys etc... Click the button to toggle the NUM Lock on or off.
	At the bottom is the current location of the cursor. If the name editor has the focus then it displays a single number, the current character position of the cursor. If the animator or the message maker has the focus then the current name or message and the current character position is displayed.

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The Animation Wizard

There are 2 purposes of the animation wizard. The first is to take a single name in the animation and automatically make an animated name from it. The second is to apply a change to a series of names in an existing animation.

Automatically creating an animated name is easy. You only need to make a single name. This name is typically the last name of the animation and it is the name that will be used when you are not animating your name in Quake. Once you have made the name you go to the wizard and select the styles or changes that will occur to the names that make up your animation.

Here is an explanation of the types of changes:

	Position These styles move the characters' positions. You may select to just use the same name and Fill in all names with the selected name, or creating drifting names or any of the styles listed.
	Color These styles change the color of the characters in the names.
	Case These styles change the case (upper or lower) in the names.

Now, to automatically create an animated name you need to select all of the style changes you wish. Selecting the first positional change will apply the selected style to all 14 names in the animation. Selecting the first and second positional change will apply the first positional change to the first 7 names, then apply the second positional change to the next 7 names. The last name is displayed as is.

Next you need to choose which name you wish to use in the automatic animation. Again, use the last name you want to stay with you in Quake.

Now you may select a color change style. And select the type of change, color1, color2, or switch the color.

Next select the case style to apply. Select either upper, lower or switch.

Finally you need to select where the animation is to be placed. Start being the position of the first name, and end being the last.

Click Build and QNM will automatically create the animation for you. There are probably about 2 million variations to the Animation Wizard to experiment with.

To apply a change to the current animation you would leave the positional changes as No Change. Select the color and or case changes that you wish to use and select the Starting and ending names to apply the change to.

Click Build and QNM will apply the color and case changes to the current animation, leaving the names as they are.

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The Animation Viewer

The animation viewer allows you to see your animation exactly as it appears in Quake. QNM displays a Rankings screen from Quake and places your name on the screen. At the bottom are the buttons to press to Play, Stop, Move Forward, Move Backward, Go To The Beginning or End, and Stop the animation. Click Play to see you animation in real time and your animation will pause or wait for the appropriate amount of time that you selected. Go back to QNM and change the waits for the names to fine tune your animation. Click OK to return to QNM. You can specify your own screenshot to be displayed as the background. Just take a screen shot from Quake and convert it to a bitmap. Then choose the bitmap you made on the Options page and you have a customized preview.

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The Binding Wizard

The binding wizard takes the hassle out of editing configuration files and binding script files. For the detailed explanation of what the binding wizard does see below.

Select the Configuration To Change will allow you to choose a cfg file that Quake runs when starting. Typically you would choose the autoexec.cfgfile located in the Quake/id1 directory. This file is the last file to be executed when Quake starts. Therefore any bindings or changes done to the configuration are overwritten by this file.

Select the Script File To Bind. Valid names are *.scr, *.qnn, *.qna, *.qnm files. This file must be located in the path that Quake searches for when it attempts to execute it. Typically you would place it in the Quake/id1 directory as well. But if you are playing a modified version of Quake like Qrally then Quake's path would also include the Quake/qrally directory. To determine the path that Quake is searching you would bring down the Quake console with the tilde key ~ and type paths and hit enter. You will either see one or to paths listed. The first takes precedence over the second.

After you have select both of these files the Keys to Bind are displayed. To the left is a list of All available keys. Select one as the key you are binding to. In the middle are the keys that are not bound in this config file. And to the right are the keys that are already bound. Click Accept and the wizard will either replace the bound key or add the binding statement to the config file for you. Pressing this key in Quake will execute the script file you selected to bind to.

To further educate you on what the binding wizard is doing Please read the following: Here are some commonly used keywords or functions that Quake uses in its configuration files.

	Bind This keyword causes Quake to bind or apply a change to what Quake does when pressing a key or clicking the mouse. Bind "a" "to whatever action" will cause Quake to perform the action specified when the user presses the "a" key.
	exec <script file> This keyword causes Quake to open and execute the named script file. By executing I mean that Quake will retrieve each line of the text file and perform the function or task that is called on. So if you are going to animate a name, Quake would open and execute each name change and wait tick that is listed in the text file.
	<script file> A script file is a editable text file that Quake opens. Quake does not limit the extension of script files to only *.scr files so you may exec any text file with any extension. QNM allows you to save script files as *.qna, *.qnn, and *.qnm files. Quake does however require you to name you script files using the Dos 8.3 naming convention. Which means the file must be named with 1 to 8 character up front, with no spaces or other special characters, and a 1 to 3 character ending. Example of a valid script file name Myani.scr(5 characters up front ok) Myanimat.qna(8 characters up front ok) Invalid script file names My Ani.scr (No spaces allowed) My-Animation.qna (Too long and minus sign is illegal)
	paths Typing this into the Quake console will cause Quake to display the paths it searches when attempting to open and execute files. Make sure that the script file you saved is in one of these paths.

Putting it all together we can bind a key to execute a script file and change our name or animate it, or send messages.

Example: bind "a" "exec myani.scr"

This statement will cause Quake to execute the contents of myani.scr when the user presses the "a" key. If the script file is not in the current Quake path then Quake will report an error.

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The Options Window

All available options are placed on separate tabs. These options are optionally restored when you restart QNM. Everything will be as it was.

	Other Settings Load Settings From Last Session At Startup Does what it says. Everything is restored to its original state that you had QNM when you last used QNM. Save Settings When Quitting When you exit QNM, QNM will save the current state and allow you to return to QNM exactly as you last used it. Sounds Toggle these On or Off for their respective triggers. Ranking Screen Shot Here you can specify your own back ground picture for the Animation Preivewer. All you need is a screen shot from Quake converted to a bitmap and select it here.
	Colors-[Grid Pointer,Name Pointer,Anim Pointer,Macro Pointer] Select the color of the cursor.
	Prompts Multiple Formatting Toggle these to turn the prompt on or off when formatting the text. The prompt allows you to choose whether or not to format the current text or all of the text in the animation or messages. Prompt For Binding When Saving Script Files Toggle this on or off and QNM will either prompt you or not to bind the script file you just saved.
	Character Sets Here you can change the character set. Click Change and locate one of the character sets that cam with QNM.
	Cursors Here you can select what you want the mouse cursor to be when moving the cursor over the listed areas on the main screen.
	Key Mapping Keyboard Mapping allows you to change the character that is displayed when you press a key or a combination of keys on your keyboard. There are 3 possible combinations for every key including Lower Case (no shift-CapsLock off), Upper Case (shift down-CapsLock on), and holding down the CTRL key and hitting a key. All of the keys that are used in QNM are listed in the list. Clicking any of these keys will show you to the right, what characters will be displayed if you were to hit that key. To change that character you need to click the character to the right and select the new character to display. This gives you 243 possible keyboard combinations which covers ALL of the available Quake characters. Clicking the Reset To Default button will cause QNM to use the predefined default values for the keyboard.

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The Export Bitmap Windows

This is a nifty option I added to QNM to make web art. QNM has the ability to make bitmaps from the names or messages. It will make these bitmaps and write to the QNM directory as follows:

	Names: "qnmexname.bmp"
	Animation: "qnmexani##.bmp". Replace the ## with the names position.
	Messages: "qnmexmac##.bmp". Replace the ## with the messages position.

The options for exporting bitmaps are as follows:

	Width: Allows you to stretch the width of the bitmap.
	Height: Allows you to stretch the height of the bitmap.
	Maintain Ratio Height x Width: If checked will adjust the height and width to be in proportion.
	Crop Trailing Spaces: If checked will remove any training spaces that are to the right of the text.

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QNM is Shareware

Quake Name Maker is a shareware program. It is not limited in any way, but does occasionally nag you to register. Registering is only 10 US Dollars and will give you priority assistance. Registering once registers all of the QNM programs that are released.

Here's how to register QNM:

Online registration is available, so check the website. Or, send a check or money order (cash is ok, but hide it in something) (payable to Tony Browneller) in the amount of 10 US Dollars to:

	Tony Browneller
	13 Graywood Rd.
	Baltimore MD. 21222

Include your real name and email address. Once I have processed the check or money order you will receive the registration information in your email. I cannot process the registration if I do not have your name and email address, so be sure to send that as well.

What is Shareware?

Shareware is a legitimate program. It is a try before you buy program. If you find it useful and use it often, it helps to support the author who wrote it. It encourage them to make it better and continue improving on it. QNM does not stop working, and all of the features are intact and operational. I made it that way because I hate to install something and uninstall it 10 days later because the trial period ran out. I really on honest peoples judgement and thus far I am very encouraged by the response. Thank You.

Last updated Sunday May 31st, 1998

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