Jade
PC Tag Builder
Release Version 1.0 by Pythos


Introduction
Jade is a tag builder for Myth II: Soulblighter. It will build a new overhead or pre-game 
tag for use in any Myth II plugin file.

Version 1.01
There was a minor bug in the original release relating to the method which Adobe 
Photoshop stores bitmap files. Essentially, it often writes only a portion of a 256-entry 
colour palette. Jade assumed all 256 entries existed, even if some went unused. This lead 
to a skewed image in Myth, as the file pointer that Jade used would become offset. The 
problem was quickly noted and fixed, thus prompting a new release. I'd just like to thank 
those people who brought it to my attention.

Using Jade
Jade builds two types of collection tags: pregame images and overhead maps. The first 
step in the creation of either of these images is to actually draw them in an application 
such as Photoshop.

Pre-game images are the small pictures you see when you select a netmap in Myth II. 
When drawing your pre-game, make sure it is exactly 377x190 pixels in size and no more 
than 256 colors in depth. Unfortunately, there is a bug in Myth II which causes these 
images not to be loaded until you have actually played a game on that map. If you 
attempt to test your pre-game, play a game before deciding whether or not it works.

Overhead maps are the images displayed in the top right corner of the screen once a game 
actually begins. The overhead gives you some idea where you are in relation to your 
opponents. At this point, it seems as though any size of image will work, however, most 
are roughly 150x150 pixels. If you look at other overhead maps, you'll notice that there 
are transparent regions. The first color index in your image represents this transparency. 
You may want to reduce your image to 256 or fewer colors, then decide which areas are 
going to be transparent.

When you've finished drawing your images, you should save them in the 8-bit Windows 
bitmap (.bmp) format. Load Jade, and select the bitmap file from the browse button. The 
location will be copied into the text box labelled "Path". Next, select a name for your tag. 
This can be anything, but it should be meaningful to you. You'll also need to type a 
unique four-character code to represent your tag. Finally, select the type of image you'd 
like to build, and hit the build button. A "Save As" dialog will prompt you for a file 
name. Save the tag in your /Myth II/local/collections folder. If this path doesn't exist, 
you'll have to create it.

Finally, you'll want to set the pre-game and overhead tags for your mesh. To do this, 
launch Fear and open the mesh tag. Select your pre-game and overhead from the drop 
down lists in the Collections section. Remember that the sorting algorithm used by Fear 
is case sensitive. You may wish to name all of your tags in lower case to make them 
easier to find.

Distribution
In an effort to maintain version control, I am not allowing Jade to be publicly distributed 
directly from your site. You may, however, link to the Vista HTML page which hosts 
Jade. If you disregard these instructions, you will be asked to immediately remove the 
application from your server. See the included software license for details.


Contacting the Author
Jade is not a full-blown collection editor, it was simply intended to patch a problem with 
the Bungie editor Fear. As such, I won't be adding new features. I am, however, interested 
in bugs, crashes, or any other problems you might encounter. Please record any messages 
you receive and write me as soon as possible.

E-mail me at matt_barry@usa.net or visit the Vista web page at http://vista.i-craft.net

Matt Barry (Pythos)
