Automap 1.0 
Random SP map generator for Half-Life
by SuperJer
www.superjer.com


QUICK EXPLANATION:
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To generate a random map, just click the GENERATE button. If you don't like how the map looks in preview, just generate another one - you're not going to run out!

Before you can play a map, you must COMPILE it for Half-Life. Automap will take care of that automatically but you need "Zoner's Half-Life Compile Tools" on your computer. You can get them from:

http://www.valve-erc.com/files

When presented with a choice, download the file labelled "win32 installer".

Compiling may take a long time on slower computers or ones without much RAM. You just have to wait it out.

When your map finishes compiling, just click PLAY!


FILE > SETTINGS:
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Automap needs to know where Half-Life is installed and where the compile tools are in order to function. If Automap does not find these places itself, it will ask you for the correct folder locations.


POWERUPS:
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This frame allows you to change Powerup Frequency and available weapons.

Powerup Frequency allows you to alter the difficulty level of the map by changing how much weaponry, ammo, armor and health appear. 0 means no powerups and 100 is the maximum - setting it above 100 has no further effect.

You can disable certain weapons from appearing by leaving their boxes unchecked.


MONSTERS:
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This frame allows you to limit the total maximum number of monsters as well as the number of each kind of monster. These limits will not necessarily be reached when a random map is generated, but they will not be exceeded.


GENERATION SEED:
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The seed determines the physical structure of the map - where rooms, doors, crates and other things are. It can be any positive number. If you use the same seed twice, you will get the same map. So, if you find a really interesting map, you need only tell someone else the seed number, and they can play the exact same map! (Possibly with different monsters/powerups of course.)


MAP NAME:
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This allows you to specify the filename of the map. Name after seed: if the seed is 123456789 and you choose "Name after seed", the map will be named "gen123456789.map". If you generate a lot of maps this way, they will start to take up a lot of space! On the other hand, using the same name every time will always replace the previous map.


MAP PREVIEW:
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When you click GENERATE, if you have "On command prompt" checked, a text preview of the map will show up on the command prompt after the generator is done. Unless you have Windows XP, this doesn't work very well because you will not be able to enlarge the command window to see the whole map.

On the other hand, if you have "In Notepad" checked, Notepad will pop up with a text preview of the map. TO MAKE THE NOTEPAD PREVIEW LOOK RIGHT, CHANGE THE FONT TO "TERMINAL".


PREVIEW LEGEND:
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 = solid wall
 ^  = doorway
+-| = ventilation ducts
... = bottomless pit
### = catwalk
1 2 = wooden crates
Kkv = metal crates of descending size
s e = start and finish points
 L  = light
[ _ = electrical wiring
/// = outdoors

Monsters and items do not appear on the preview.


AMAP_GEN.EXE:
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This is the program that actually generates the map. It takes up to 3 parameters:

amap_gen [seed] [output file] [preview]

Seed: map seed number. If 0 or missing, the generator uses the CPU clock to get a number.
Output file: filename to output to. If 0 or missing, the generator uses "gen" + seed + ".map".
Preview: Any value here causes the generator to pause when finished so the user can view the text preview.


DOFILE.TXT:
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dofile.txt stores the user preferences available in the front-end. It is processed by amap_gen.exe which uses its values for monster limits and weapon availability etc.. It is not recommended that you edit it yourself because the file-reading code is very picky.
