Tricon 2
MOTD Animations
www.tricon2.com
{NQP!}Qing


Tricon v290 supports motd "pages" that you can display in quick succession to create animation effects.

This is how it works:

First, you must define your 'normal' motd.  If you do not want a normal one, just animated ones, then set your normal motd to "\n".
$Tricon::MOTD = "Hi, this is my motd";

Now, set your display time for the normal motd.  set it to '1' if you want the shortest possible motd time.
$Tricon::MOTDTime = 10;

Ok, that covers your 'normal' motd, now Tricon looks for the presence of a MOTD sequence.  You define one by assigning text to the motd array...
$Tricon::MOTD[1] = "This is the first panel";
$Tricon::MOTD[2] = "This is the second panel";

You can define as many panels as you like, as long as they are numbered consecutively.  Tricon will stop at the first break in sequence.

Now you must define your time interval between panels.  The smaller the value, the quicker it changes from one panel to the next.  There is a minimum setting of 0.1.
$Tricon::MOTDSeqTime = 1;


Now, how to animate?  You have to put some thought into it, and you need to use different methods to format the text.  Here are the codes that format text in tribes:
"\n"		... skips to next line, you only have 3 lines to work with
"\n\n"		... skips two lines
<color:FFFFFF>   ... translates to hex codes for RRGGBB.  Reg/Green/Blue...00 through FF
<justify:left>	...aligns text to left, instead of the default 'center'
<justify:right>..
<justify:center>
<lmargin:20>	... sets left margin to 20 pixels
<lmargin:20%>	... sets left margin to 20% of centerprint width
<rmargin:15>	... obvious
<rmargin:30%>	... same
<font:arial bold:20>... sets font to arial bold, 20 point.  The available fonts and sizes are:

	arial 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20
	arial bold 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, or 50
	lucinda console 12
	sui generis 20, 22
	times 24, 36
	univers 12, 14, 16, 18, 22
	univers bold 16, 18
	univers condensed 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 28, 30
	univers italic 16, 18
	verdana 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18
	verdana bold 12, 13, 14, 16, 24, 36
	verdana italic 12, 13, 14, 16

you can try experimenting with normal windows fonts, but my experience has been that they
will not display all of the time


Animation tips:

To make something 'grow' in size, display the same text centered, but enlarge or reduce the font size with each consecutive panel

To make something blink, alternate the color of the text, setting every other panel to black 000000 or white FFFFFF or blank "\n" but using the same text

To make something move, increment the lmargin and set to left-justify

To make text chromatic, show the same text in several panels but with different colors

Use spaces to animate text, especially if your text is centered
"T     E     X     T"
 "T    E    X    T"
   "T   E   X   T"
    "T  E  X  T"
      "T E X T"
       "TEXT"



You can also use this to show sequential MOTD's if you have a MOTD that is too large to fit on one panel, just set a high interval, like 3 secs, and have only 2-3 panels


Examples:

	$Tricon::MOTD[1]="<font:verdana bold:12><color:000000>This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[2]="<font:verdana bold:13><color:200000>This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[3]="<font:verdana bold:14><color:400000>This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[4]="<font:verdana bold:16><color:600000>This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[5]="<font:verdana bold:24><color:800000>This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[6]="<font:verdana bold:36><color:A00000>This is my text";
Will show verdana bold font, starting at 12 point, growing to very large 36 point, with color changing from black to red

	$Tricon::MOTD[1]="This is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[2]="\nThis is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[3]="\n\nThis is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[4]="\nThis is my text";
	$Tricon::MOTD[5]="This is my text";
Will show the text will moving up and down

	$Tricon::MOTD[1]="T     E     X     T"
	$Tricon::MOTD[2]="T    E    X    T"
	$Tricon::MOTD[3]="T   E   X   T"
	$Tricon::MOTD[4]="T  E  X  T"
	$Tricon::MOTD[5]="T E X T"
	$Tricon::MOTD[6]="TEXT"
Will show the text starting very wide, but moving together towards the middle

