Publish

The publish process creates a .CD subfolder in the work directory, and copies all files needed for the project into it.The content of the .CD folder can be then be put onto CD-ROM or on a website for distribution. In the free version, options are greyed out - just click [Ok] for starting the publish process. Otherwise the following options are available:

Resource	P  A .WRS resource file is created that contains all files belonging to the project in compressed and encrypted form. Note that some file types, like DLL plugins or movie files, can not be contained in a resource but must physically exist in the .CD folder - see remarks below.
Starter	P  Generates a window definition file (acknex.wdf) for the current script. This file determines the starting behavior of the application: showing a logo, setting command line options, displaying compiler messages and so on. If a syntax error was found in the window definition, or an image file belonging to it was not found or has a wrong format, an ERRNO error message is issued and the acknex.wdf file is not created.
Level Editor	P  Generates a redistributable level editor, WEDS.EXE, in the .CD folder (only when a resource is created). WEDS is a stripped down version of WED and can be used by the end user for creating own levels for their game. For this the WMP and WAD files belonging to the game levels should also be provided on the end user CD-ROM. WEDS uses all entities and behavior actions found in the resource file. For entities to be visible in the editor, they have to exist in the same folder as the resource file. The level script file can't be changed - it's always the main script file of the game. WAD files can be loaded externally, but not edited.
Compile EXE	LC  Starts the engine and compiles the source code into an executable that is then copied into the .CD subfolder.
Engine	Creates the EXE file (scriptname.exe) and redistributable engine DLL (acknex.dll) for starting the game. If [Compile EXE] is unchecked, the path to an EXE file can be given here (default: acknex.exe). When calling the engine DLL from an external application, give the path to the executable here. If the path field is left empty, no EXE and no engine DLL are created. Note that the engine DLL is 'locked' to the EXE file - it won't start a different game or an afterwards changed script. The Trial, Lite, or Team Editions don't generate an EXE and DLL file in the .CD folder.

Remarks - EXE files and icons:

• The free version (lite-C free) can create executables for lite-C Pure Mode only, and does not compile the .c and .h files. They are compiled on the fly when the program starts. Publishing Legacy Mode projects or C-Script (.wdl) projects is not supported by the free version.
•  A7.10  The EXE file contains a manifest that is compatible to the Microsoft Games for Windows standard.
• For using an EXE file with an individual icon, create a copy of the acknex.exe engine in your Gamestudio folder, alter the icon of the copy with an Icon Manager program, and give the path to the altered EXE in the Engine field (or just copy it back to acknex.exe). The executable will then be created from your copy with the altered icon, rather than from the original engine. Please note that afterwards altering the icon of a published executable won't work.
•  P  The engine window can display user defined icons in the task bar. If an icon named "32.ico" or "16.ico" is found in the work folder, it is automatically loaded and used for the task bar icon in stead of the default A7 icon.
• For creating a screen saver, rename the published .EXE to .SCR. When running it from the Windows folder, make sure to set the PLUGINDIR to a different path. By default, the published engine scans for plugin in the current folder. This will lead to problems when it contains lots of DLLs, like the Windows folder.
• The source code for acknex.exe is available in the engine SDK under an Open Source license. You can create your own executable as long as you provide a machine readable copy of the full source code along with the product.  P  If you own the Pro Edition or a SDK license, you don't need to provide the source code.

Remarks - data files and resources:

• For creating the .CD subfolder, the work folder must be write enabled - especially under Windows Vista. To be on the safe side, have your projects not in the Gamestudio installation folder (which is normally only write enabled for the administrator under Vista), but in the documents section of your PC.
• For determining which files belong the the game, the publish process scans the levels, the scripts, and all further WMP files given with the LEVEL statement. All file names given in quotes ("") or angular brackets (<>) in the script are included in the .CD folder or the resource. The file names must not be longer than 32 characters, and must not contain special characters except '-', '+', '_'. For preventing a file to be included, let it's name begin with underscore (i.e. _scene.avi). For including additional files, use the BIND statement. By default, files with the extension AVI, MPG, MOV, and DLL are not included in a resource file, but are still included in the .CD folder. Files with the extension TMP are not included at all, neither in the resource file nor in the .CD folder. The extensions to exclude from the resource or from being published at all can be given explicitely in the EXCLUDE_RESOURCE and EXCLUDE_PUBLISH lines in the data/options.scr configuration file.
• The files are searched in the order given by the order of PATH statements. Subfolders are not created in the .CD folder.
• Published projects have a limit of 40 .wdl files. If you need more than 40, combine several files together into one. This restriction does not apply for .c files or when creating a resource file.
• Make sure that you include all required plugins from the acknex_plugins folder to the published project. For supporting older DirectX9 versions on the target machines, make sure to also include the d3dx9_30.dll from the Gamestudio folder (engine version 6.50 or above only). Those files are not automatically included as WED can not determine whether they are needed or not.
• The engine EXE and DLL files are only created when the publish process does not encounter an error. Errors are indicated in the publish window. Typical errors are missing files, or exceeding the patch table memory by including more than 40 WDL files without using a resource.