Instruction manual for the
Virtual Jigsaw Puzzle program.
Getting started.
Run the program by double-clicking on the "JigsawPuzzle.exe"
icon.
Choose the Load New Image item from the File menu.
Select and load the picture in the program.
Note 1. The program supports following image formats:
BMP, JPEG (JPG, JPE), PNG, GIF, TGA, PSD, PGM, PPM
Note 2. Although you can load a picture of almost any size, but for the game,
the minimum height or width of the image must be at least 32px,
the maximum height (width) depends on the video card of your computer.
Select Start menu item in the Game menu.
After that, the picture will be divided into elements - Jigsaw Puzzle pieces that fly around the entire program window.
Please do not worry - nothing happened with the original picture.
You can verify this by opening the original picture in any other program.
Now you have to "assemble" the original image from these pieces using the standard drag-and-drop method.
Basic techniques of working with the program.
Press and hold the left mouse button while the mouse cursor is over the puzzle piece.
Move the piece to the place where you want it to be.
To align the selected piece to the center of its place, right-click and select Align menu item from the popup menu.
(You can enable to display centers of puzzle pieces by selecting the corresponding option in the Options dialog box.)
If it necessary, rotate the selected piece to the desired angle.
To do this, right-click and move the cursor to the menu item "Rotate +" (or "Rotate -" or "Rotate 3D")
and select the desired rotation angle in the new popup menu.
Positive ("+") rotation angle is considered to be a counterclockwise rotation,
and a negative ("-") rotation angle is considered to be a clockwise rotation (see the figure below).
If "3D Game" option was selected,
then you will have to perform spatial rotations of puzzles (selecting "Rotate 3D" menu item).
Rotations of 180° around imaginary vertical axe (see the figure below to the left)
and horizontal axe (see the figure below on the right) are possible.
If you forget what the picture looks like, select Prompt menu item in the Game menu.
However, if you want to improve your visual memory, do not use this opportunity very often.
Finally, to check the correctness of the assembly, click Check menu item in the Game menu.
Change settings.
Change the number of pieces.
You can change the total number of pieces.
To do this, open the New Game dialog box by selecting Number of pieces menu item in the Change menu.
Enter a new number of pieces in the horizontal edge of the picture and close the dialog box by clicking on the "OK" button.
Then restart the game (ie, select Start menu item in the Game menu).
The total number of puzzles depends on the shape of the picture.
For example, if the picture is square, and the number of pieces in the horizontal edge is 10,
then the total number of pieces will be 10õ10=100. If the height of the picture is less than the width,
then the total number of pieces will be less than 100.
And, on the contrary, if the height of the picture is greater than the width, then the total number of puzzles will be more than 100.
Note that total number of pieces must not exceed 10 000.
Change options.
To change the options, open the Options dialog box by selecting the Options menu item in the Change menu.
Change the shape of puzzle pieces.
You can choose one of four possible forms of puzzle pieces.
Additionally, you can change the bulge of pieces in some limits by moving the trackbar's slider to the left and right.
Controlling the quality of animation.
When you move to the right the "Acceleration of the rotation of pieces" trackbar's slider the speed of the rotation of pieces will increase,
but the quality of the animation will deteriorate. And, on the contrary, if you move to the left the trackbar's slider,
the pieces rotation speed will decrease, and the quality of the animation will improve.
Change the time of the scramble puzzles.
After clicking on the Start menu item in the Game menu, puzzle pieces start to "fly" around the program window for a while.
By default time of the scramble is 15 seconds. You can change this time from 10 to 100 seconds.
Change the display options.
You can enable / disable the display borders of pieces, picture's frame and centers of pieces native places
by checking or unchecking corresponding checkboxes.
Change the color settings.
You can change the background color, the color of the picture's frame and the color of centers of pieces native places.
The choice of the game with or without rotation of puzzle pieces.
If checkbox "Game with rotations" is checked, then during of the "shuffling"
pieces will randomly rotate around their centers,
and you will have to rotate some of pieces.
If this option is not selected then the pieces will not rotate during of the "shuffling",
and you will just need to drag-and-drop each piece to its place.
By default, the "Game with rotations" option is enabled.
To complicate the game, you can enable the "3D Game" option.
In this case, imagine that the puzzle pieces are made of some transparent material,
such as glass, and can rotate around their own horizontal or vertical axes.
By default, the "3D Game" option is disabled.
Saving Current Game to a File.
If you do not have time to "assemble" a picture in one session, you can save the current game and continue do it at another time.
The game file "Virtual Jigsaw Puzzle" has an extension of *.pzz and an icon
.
Very important remark. The game file does not save the original image itself, but only the path to it.
Thus, you can not load the saved game if the original picture has been moved or removed.
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