I found it very helpful when trying to understand the GUI classes, particularly the inheritance hierarchy. Once I get more accustomed to the code base I might try to write a basic overview of it’s plumbing.
I tested doxygen yesterday and I generated docs for vcmi with uml diagrams, call and caller graphs etc. but it’s very huge, about 160MB 
Anyway I think, it’s very powerfull tool for understand how all work.
After playing a bit with LaTeX, I came up with first VCMI manual. Hopefully it will stop people from asking about new resolutions over and over again.
Nice initiative!
A couple of suggestions:
- add a (working) link where WoG 3.58f can be downloaded from (the fileplanet one would work, but the registration might confuse some ppl; I know some other links but to non-English websites… I could have a look for a better link if necessary)
- specify that 1280x1024 is incomplete (though I will try to make some time one of the next days to finish it)
- mention also other features/hotkeys introduced by VCMI (I’m not sure if Tow/TowDragon already have a list somewhere, otherwise I’ll put something up).
Certainly I’d be thankful for this one. Since new version gets hundreds of downloads it would be nice to inform players about all the features.
VCMI Enhanced Hotkeys:
- ‘Q’ - Toggles the stack queue displaying (so it can be enabled/disabled it with single key press)
- CTRL+Arrows - scrolls Adventure Map behind an open window
- CTRL pressed blocks Adventure Map scrolling (it allows us to leave the application window without losing current focus)
- Keybindings for components in selection window: 1, 2, and so on (e.g. for Treasure chest, Skill choice and in the future could be expanded to Commander skill choice and even screens such as Hill Fort).
- Keybindings in the Split Stack screen (e.g.: 25 will split the stacks as such that there are 25 creatures in the 2nd stack)
- NumPad 5 centers selected hero (it did nothing in H3; the other NumPad number keys function as in H3, moving hero on the 8 directions)
- NumPad Enter functions same as normal Enter in the game (it didn’t in H3)
- NumPad keys can be used in the Save Game screen (they didn’t work in H3)
- Home / End - move to the top or bottom of the Scenario / Saved game list
- Mouse wheel - scroll through the Scenario / Saved Game list
Currently we also have:
- ‘T’ hotkey opens Marketplace window
- however I believe that should change, as ‘T’ had a different functionality in H3 (select next town). I’ll update this post once we take a decision about this.
For reference, I’ve posted a list with all the original H3 Hotkeys HERE.
@Tow: I know you’ve worked on implementing most of them probably. Check the list again as I’ve made some changes today (the ‘T’ hotkey, plus updates for the Adv.Options & Sys.Options hotkeys).
Ok, manual updated. Now it’s informative value is more than none 
Wow. That was fast.
Two minor things need to be updated:
- for Home, you need to remove the “or bottom” description
- you can remove “Selection dialog can be closed with Enter key” from the list. That existed in H3 as well. It was a mistake from my part in the above post (I removed it now).
It’s fast if you use the right tools. LaTeX does the entire formatting automagically, I need only to add text and a few tags.
WinShell, open-source LaTeX editor
Wikibooks manual explains all common functions.
Miktex is a program used to manage packages, covering pretty everything from quantum physics to bottle labels.
Any new functionalities to describe? I’m gonna update manual, at least by bumping version to 0.8.
If you have a bit of time, can you also update the topics on CH/HC? At CH it’s still mentioned about “Upcoming release 0.76 (1st January)”.
Manual updated with some new info as well as FAQ (finally!).
[size=75]A couple of details (mostly cosmetic, so can wait for the next release to correct):
- Indroduction
- paragraph 1: is it just me, or there are 2 spaces between “HoMM3:” and “WoG”?
- paragraph 2: “VCMI is a fan-made…”
- Installation
- “VCMI requires full Heroes of Might and Magic 3” - and optionally you could even add between brackets “SoD, Complete or Platinum”, because I think just RoE or AB won’t do it (perhaps not for VCMI, but I’m not sure if WoG installation would be allowed). Though perhaps that’s what you meant by “full”.
- New resolutions
- 1336x768 to be replaced by 1366x768. Plus you can add an asterisk next to it and a foot-note, mentioning that this resolution presents issues in combination with old video cards
- Stack Queue is visible regardless of the resolution, just differently, so perhaps the part about it can be rephrased
- Release notes
- “Monster has been enabled” - I guess it should be “Monster area of control…”
- “Online game, random map generator as well as some other parts of the game” perhaps replaced by “Online multiplayer, RMG, Tutorial, High Score & Credits”
- Credits
- Maybe we should have somewhere a list with the devs & testers. Pointing the reader to the board is not exactly “Credits”. Or we should just use another title there i/o Credits.
PS: I seem to have pretty lousy technical skills. I installed WinShell, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it to edit the pdf, to try the changes myself. 
Oh, and an unrelated heads-up: The 0.81 link on page 3 of the VCMI tread on CH is pointing to the 3rd post in the topic i/o the original (#4714 i/o #4712).[/size]
You can’t. PDF is compiled (rendered?) file and it contains info about all packages used to create it. There is no way to revert this process.
I will update the file as soon a spossible.
I prepared doxygen documentation in Wiki style, hopefully now it can be more useful.
New file replaced the old one:
Clicky
I just though of something else we could put in the manual : H3 known bugs which were never fixed in NWC’s add-ons/patches, but not “copied” in VCMI.
I think we had a couple of these, though the only one I can recall now is boats not corresponding to alignments if bought from the town shipyard. This crossed my mind now because I just found another H3 bug (mentioned in my note to Mantis #370), which we might end up correcting as well.
No need to put this in the manual until we have a decent list, but I wanted to write this down before I forget about it. Maybe I’ll update this post if I remember of other examples (and feel free to point them out if you can think of any).
Manual updated to version 0.9 with new fetaures.
dc93.4shared.com/img/135714811/d0214227/vcmimanual.pdf
I’d like to geyt some feedback on main menu background customization (couldn’t make it work properly). Also, on installation notes for multiple supported systems.
In general, list of supported systems would be handy.
4shared asks for registration. Maybe reupload it somewhere else?
English language files - I think that VCMI should work with localized data as well. At least Russian works fine for several releases.
What about GUI?
Console way is disabled due to high res main menu.
Editing files? That’s too complex
Unpack this into game directory (won’t work with 0.89)
dl.dropbox.com/u/22372764/vcmi/ … w-menu.zip
I’ve changed format of of config/mainmenu.json a bit so old package does not works with trunk.
On Linux-based systems ALL data files can be placed in ~/.vcmi directory (one of new FS features)
And it is not “home directory”. Home is /home/username/, shortcut is “~”.
BTW - check for typos (“sysems”)
Logging:
On Linux-based logs are in ~/.vcmi directory, no crash dump
Regarding systems from TODO list:
Linux - OK, compiled packages for Debian\Ubuntu and possibly Fedora (if beegee is still around)
Mac OS - can be compiled AFAIK
Android - …
Haiku - Still 0.86. Probably not maintained. haikuware.com/directory/view-det … -magic-iii
Maemo - 800x480
FreeBSD - no success so far.
EDIT
Forgot about this:
Starting from 0.90 VCMI can be installed on H3 + Era setups
I suggest including the documentation source (LaTeX) in the svn tree. This way everything is in one place and accessible. Another thing that should be included are the main-menu graphics and configs. I think everything should be in svn.
Also, are there sources available for the new graphics? I mean native files of the program used for editing. Preferably any such sources should also be in svn.
