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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
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.
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.
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.
The top toolbar provides a quick and easy way to most of the commonly used menu items.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Components of the Middle Toolbar are as follows:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
All available options are placed on separate tabs. These options are optionally restored when you restart QNM. Everything will be as it was.
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.
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:
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.
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 Thursday May 31st, 1998