DarkSOURCE Getting Started Manual
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DarkSOURCE is a collection of nearly two hundred source code snippets that cover everything from simple math problems to advanced shader techniques. You can use the browser that accompanies this product to search through the snippets quickly and easily, and even search for keywords within any snippet to find what you are after immediately. Also, as DBPro updates are released, more snippets will be placed in the Projects\Snippets folder to demonstrate any new commands and features introduced.

Finding the browser
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You can find the browser in one of two ways. The first is to find it from the START MENU\All Programs\The Game Creators\DarkSOURCE\ and run Browse Snippets. The second is to navigate to the snippet folder itself, the default path being C:\Program Files\The Game Creators\Dark Basic Professional Trial\Projects\Snippets and running the application BrowseSnippets.exe. You will also find the browsers source code and project in case you want to make any changes.

Controlling the browser
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Once the browser is running, you will notice the snippet list on the left, the currently open snippet on the right and the control keys displayed in the bottom right. There are a number of controls which allow you to search and use the snippets:

[ARROW UP] & [ARROW DOWN] - Used to select which snippet you want to look at. The names of the snippets are on the left of the screen and the snippet name highlighted in white is the currently selected on. This list will scroll as you move the highlighted snippet choice

[PAGE UP] & [PAGE DOWN] - Used to skip quickly through the snippet list by leaping over 30 snippet selections at a time, useful for a snippet collection that numbers in the hundreds

[F] - Press this to enter a keyword you want to search for in all the snippets, not just the current one. You can use this to find the name of a command or phrase you are interested in, a great shortcut to learning how certain commands are used in practical examples

[N] - Press this to find the next occurrence of the keyword entered using the [F] search operation. Handy when there are many occurrence of the keyword and you are interested in a particular snippet or arrangement of commands

[ENTER] - Uses the pre-installed Dark Basic Professional to compile and run the selected snippet automatically. This is done outside of any DBPro project you are editing at the time and is useful for testing whether a snippet is appropriate for further study

[SPACE] - This action loads the snippet project into a new instance of the Dark Basic Professional editor, useful when you have found the snippet you are interested in and want to make modifications or experiment with the code

[ESCAPE] - Quits the browser

Other DBPro Editors
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You may experience problems loading the DBPRO files from these snippets in a non-standard editor such as CodeSURGE. If you are not using the default editor, load the DBA file instead and create a new project around it.

