PATCHING TUTORIAL
By: Arinos

How Patches Work
How to Make / Use a Patch
Attaching a Patch
Combining Patches

Frequent Patch Problems Answered:

 

Patching Tutorial

When you upload a dream with a patch, you're telling Furcadia to look in a folder you have previously specified. It looks there first - before loading all the default objects and floors. Since every dream needs all of the files that you'll find in furcadia\patches\default, it takes what it needs from your folder first and then looks in that default patch directory for all the rest.

That means though that Furcadia expects the file names to be the same as what's in your default directory. Most of the time, extra items are put into iteme.fsh and floors are put in floore.fsh. You can put up to 199 objects in your iteme.fsh file. Usually that is enough for a fairly good, patchy dream but occasionally people want even more stuff. In that case, you have to use one of the other object or floor (or wall) files. We'll talk about walls in a bit. Items and Floors can go into item.fsh or item2.fsh. There is an item3.fsh, but at the moment, there is a little bug which makes the objects you replace not work as expected.

A lot of furres get excited when they realize that they can change every object and floor (and walls) in the dream. They grab the files and make a lot of changes without really trying to only add what they need. This isn't bad, but somewhere near the end of getting the dream done, the furre realizes that they haven't used half of what they've put in. I suggest that if you are going to make a patch for your dream - do it as you are making the dream so that you have only the objects that you're going to actually use in the patch.

 

HOW TO USE A PATCH

As I mentioned before. Patches are just a bunch of files that you put into a folder or a directory and furcadia looks for certain file names. To make or use a patch, make a new folder. It doesn't really matter where that folder is on your hard drive. If you don't know how to make a folder or how to cut and paste items - please see our tutorial on BASIC FILE MANIPULATION.

Once you make a folder to put things in, you can download a number of patches from the internet:

You can also make your own patches which will be later on in this tutorial.

Patches are usually zipped. That means that all the files for that patch are compressed into one easy to open file. You have to unzip them first - if you don't know how to unzip a file, please see our Basic File Manipulation page listed above. When you unzip the files into that folder that you made, they will usually work as is. The only exception that I have found to this is the Rivendell patch which has 3 or 4 objects too many to be able to work properly.

Unzip the file into the folder you're going to use with your dream. Remember that the file names should match up with the file names in your default patch directory.

 

ATTACHING THE PATCH

 

  1. Open your Dream Editor and open the dream you want to use your patch in. If you haven't made the dream yet, make a new dream and save it.

  2. In your Dream Editor click on PATCHES and then choose DREAM SETTINGS. This will open a new little window that gives you some options.

  3. Click on the check box for "I want to use patches from this folder or directory".

  4. Next, right under there you will see a text box. You can type in the path to your new folder, or click on BROWSE and move to the folder you unzipped the patches to.

  5. Click on OK.

  6. Save the dream again to save those changes. Your new objects, walls, or floors will appear in Dream Ed. Portraits, Avatars, and marbled.pcx files won't appear until you have uploaded the dream.

 

COMBINING PATCHES

What happens when you find some objects in one patch and some more in another? Since each dream can only have ONE file called iteme or item - you will have to combine the patches.

There are two ways to do this. First, and easiest is to use a patch merger utility. At present there are two that Furres have made for other furres to use. You can get the programs from:

The File is the file you want to add to and the Source is the file that you want to copy things from. It's fairly straight forward and the best part is that it sets all of the positions and properties to whatever they were set to before. It's a lovely thing.

The second way, before we had Patch Merger (which I adore), is a bit longer but almost as simple.

You can open two patch editors at once. One with the patch you want to add to, and one with the patch you want to copy from. The patch editor has a little dotted line box tool that you can use to mark out shapes then you click edit and then copy, go to the second patch editor and find a blank spot and paste the object, wall, or floor there.

Once you copy all of the shapes over, you'll need to click (in your patch editor) "view" and then "shape position" to move the shape onto the tile where you want it to go.

Then also click on "view" and "shape properties" to make the item walkable, getable, or sitable. Chairs are walkable and sitable, but not getable. A pillow is walkable, sitable AND getable. A Kiwi is walkable, but not sitable or getable.

If it's a chair or a rock or ladder, you may also want view: furre position to move the furre up on the ladder or higher on the chair. It sets where you want to furre to be while they are on that object.

FREQUENT PATCH PROBLEMS ANSWERED:

 

  • My patches aren't appearing even though I have done it right!

    1. Check to make sure the patch is attached correctly. In Dream Editor, click on Patches, Dream Settings, and then look down and see where it says your folder is. If the folder isn't listed in the box and you've typed it in - you forgot to save your dream after you attached the patch.
    2. Are the files unzipped and in the folder you told Dream Editor they would be in?
    3. Are your files named properly? Items can only be in iteme.fsh, item.fsh, or item2.fsh (Item3 has a problem with properties at the moment). Sometimes in a patch the files are called item.fs2 - if this is the case, the objects will not show up until you upload the dream.
    4. Look at each patch file.
      • item.fsh There should be EXACTLY 0 - 304 objects in that file. The first object - 0 - has to be a strange graphic of a pillow and a half with some boxes around it. There shouldn't be blank shapes. If you want to leave it "blank" - put an X or an O in that spot.
      • item2.fsh There should be EXACTLY 0 - 319 objects in that file. There shouldn't be blank shapes. If you want to leave it "blank" - put an X or an O in that spot.
      • item3.fsh - At the moment, don't use this to add more objects. I'm sure it will be fixed - "some day".
      • iteme.fsh - There can be 0 - 199 objects in an iteme. There should not be large chunks of blanks in the file. A few at the end doesn't seem to hurt anything. 20 at the end sometimes does.
      • floors.fsh - There are exactly 0 - 207 floors in floors.fsh There shouldn't be blank shapes.
      • floore.fsh - There can be 0 - 199 floors in floore.fsh. There should not be large chunks of blanks in the file. A few at the end doesn't seem to hurt anything. 20 at the end sometimes does.
      • wall.fsh - There are EXACTLY 0 - 47 shapes in that file. There has to be. You can't change the properties of the walls, but you can change the shapes.
      • wall3.fsh and wall4.fsh- There are EXACTLY 0 - 17 shapes in that file. There has to be. You CAN change the properties of the walls. Wall4 and 5 - I think you can't change the properties.
    5. Check to make sure that there are objects in the files that you're using. Yes, believe it or not - someone saved a blank iteme - over and over again.
    6. Really huge objects and objects that sit too high on a tile used to not appear. I'm not sure if this is the same anymore after this last update, but it is something for a last resort.

 

  • My floors look weird - like mirror images!
    1. Look for stray pixels in that floor you're using.
    2. Make sure that your floors.fsh or floore.fsh have the right number of objects. (see My objects aren't appearing even though I have done it right!)
  • My patch is showing up even on main maps!
    1. You have copied over files that were in Furcadia\patches\default To fix this, download this file and unzip it into furcadia\patches\default. It will replace the files you over-wrote and you can try again. To save space, I did not add font files. If you need those, contact the guild. - See How to Make / Use Patches.
  • My stuff doesn't sit right on the tiles.
    1. Open the file that object is in, in your patch editor. Go to that object and then click "View" and then choose "Shape Position" and a box will appear. Click on the object and drag it to where you want it to sit on the tile. Then save the file.
  • The patch attached ok, but I keep sitting down on every tile!
    1. Each file (except for walls.fsh, breath, fire, and avatars) has an object properties file that also sits in the same directory with your patch files. These files are called iteme.fbj, floore.fbj - they have .FBJ as the file extension. If this file is not present, you will sit everywhere. To create the file, open your iteme or floore files in patch editor, click "View" and then choose "Shape Properties". You will see a little check box for "FBJ Properties" Make sure you check that box, and then scroll through each object or floor in the file and set the properties to sitable, walkable, or getable - or all three - or none - just however you wish. Then, save the file!
  • Furres keep walking on my clouds!
    1. The default cloud floor is one of several "pre-programmed" shapes. Anyone with wings or a dragon or phoe can "fly" over that tile. It is meant to be that way. If you want a cloud floor that no one can walk over, either fill the cloud floor with object 254 (invisible, but unwalkable shape), OR, copy the cloud tile into a floore.fsh and set the properties by opening your floore file in patch editor, click "View" and then choose "Shape Properties". You will see a little check box for "FBJ Properties" Make sure you check that box, and then leave "walkable" unchecked.
  • I walk into an object and go to some other dream!
    1. There are several "pre-programed" objects in Furcadia. Object 24 (a red ball) is always going to act like a red ball - even if you change the graphic, you can't over-ride that programming - whatever object you put there (say a kiwi or a frog) is going to "hop" like the ball. Other pre-programmed objects take you places. 284 is an exit to Meovanni Village - you may change the object, but anyone moving into that object will go to Meovanni. Object 585 goes to Dusk 2 Dawn - an old, often forgotten map where "evil" rules the day. There are a lot of other objects like that - but most of them say what they do - Like "Exit to Meovanni" or "Allegria Island" or just "Exit".
    2. Check your DS.
  • I can walk through my walls!
    1. If you are using wall.fsh the second full white wall and second full brick walls are walkable. This is to correct some places where an object is cut in half. You can replace the wall with the first blank walls in either set just by placing them there in Dream Ed.
    2. If you are using a patch, you've used a walkable wall, or haven't set the properties for the walls. Set the properties by opening your wall3.fsh file in patch editor, click "View" and then choose "Shape Properties". You will see a little check box for "FBJ Properties" Make sure you check that box, and then leave "walkable" unchecked. SAVE the file.