tttool-1.6: README.md

Das tttool hat jetzt eine deutsche Webseite für Anwender: http://tttool.entropia.de/

tip-toi-reveng
==============

The goal of this project is to understand the file and paper format for the
Ravensburger TipToi pen. The ultimate goal is that everyone can create their
own books, with their own sounds.

The current status is that we understood most of the file format (see the
[GME file format specification](GME-Format.md)). We provide a tool that allows
you to dissect these files.

The tool can also be used to generate completely new files from scratch; see
below for details.

If you want to learn more please have a look into our wiki (https://github.com/entropia/tip-toi-reveng/wiki).

The tttool tool
---------------

Use the tool `tttool` to investigate the gme files and build new ones. It
supports various subcommands:

GME creation commands:
assemble creates a gme file from the given source

OID code creation commands:

oid-table creates a PDF file with all codes in the yaml file
oid-codes creates PNG files for every OID in the yaml file.
oid-code creates PNG files for each given code(s)

GME analysis commands:
info Print general information about a GME file
export dumps the file in the human-readable yaml format
scripts prints the decoded scripts for each OID
script prints the decoded scripts for a specific OID
games prints the decoded games
lint checks for errors in the file or in this program
segments lists all known parts of the file, with description.
segment prints the decoded scripts for a specific OID
explain print a hexdump of a GME file with descriptions
holes lists all unknown parts of the file.
rewrite parses the file and reads it again (for debugging)

GME extraction commands:
media dumps all audio samples
binaries dumps all binaries

Simulation commands:
play interactively play a GME file

Run

./tttool --help

to learn about global options (e.g. DPI settings), and

./tttool command --help

for the options of the individual command.

Installation
------------

This program is written in Haskell and can be installed on Windows, MacOS or Linux.

For Windows users, we create zipfile containing `tttool`, you can find them in
the [releases section](https://github.com/entropia/tip-toi-reveng/releases) of
the github project.

Otherwise, installation from source is not difficult either:

1. If you have not done so yet, fetch the source code and change to the
directory containing the code:

git clone https://github.com/entropia/tip-toi-reveng.git tttool
cd tttool

2. Install the *Haskell platform*, see http://www.haskell.org/platform/
for details for your system. Users of Debian or Ubuntu simply run

apt-get install haskell-platform

3. Install the development packages for ncurses, i.e.

apt-get install libncurses5-dev

4. Install the Haskell dependencies. The Haskell platform comes with a tool
called `cabal`, and you should run the two commands

cabal update
cabal install --only-dependencies

5. Now you can build the program using

cabal install --bindir=.

6. At this point, `tttool` should be ready to go. If you run

./tttool

you should see the list of commands shown above.

If you have any problems, you can [report an issue via GitHub](https://github.com/entropia/tip-toi-reveng/issues).

Building your own gme files
---------------------------

Once you have installed `tttool`, you can create your own `.gme` files. The
process is as follows

1. Record the audio samples you want to include, as Ogg Vorbis files, mono, 22050Hz. I use

arecord -r 22050 foo.wav
oggenc foo.wav
rm foo.wav

2. Write a `my-book.yaml` file containing some general information, and especially
the scripts (i.e. what to do) for each OIDs (i.e. the various fields of a
book). You can use the [example.yaml](example.yaml) file as a starting
point; it contains more information in its comments.

3. Run `./tttool assemble my-book.yaml`, and make sure it reports no error, i.e.
finishes silently.

4. Copy the now generated `my-book.gme` to your TipToi pen and enjoy!

If you need to find out what OID code corresponds to what part of the book, you
can generate a debug gme using the `debug.yaml` file, adjusting its
`Product-Id` to your product’s id, building it with `./tttool assemble
debug.yaml` and loading the resulting `debug.gme` on your pen. It will then
read out the codes, as a sequence of english digits.

We are also collecting template files, where the OIDs are commented; these can
be found in the `./templates` directory. Please improve and contribute!

Again, please let us know if you have problems, but also tell us what fun
things you did if you succeded.

Text to speech
--------------

If you have `libttspico-utils` and `vorbis-tools installed`, you can have tttool
generate audio files from text for you, which makes developing your yaml file
much easier. See [text2speech.yaml](text2speech.yaml) for more information.

Printing your own books
-----------------------

With the code in this repository, you can create GME files. This is even more
fun if you can also create your own books! „Pronwan“ found out how that works,
as you can see in [this video demonstration](http://youtu.be/KC97F4PfNhk). He
also published 30 minute [video tutorial](http://youtu.be/4AjvjFM8GzM) (in
German).

Press Review
------------

* [tiptoi hacking](https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/05/tiptoi-hacking-und-systemanforderungen/) by Guido Arnold
* [TipToi Hacking](http://www.nerd.junetz.de/blogbox/index.php?/archives/1377-TipToi-Hacking.html) and [TipToi Hacking II](http://www.nerd.junetz.de/blogbox/index.php?/archives/1378-TipToi-Hacking-II.html) by Mr. Blog
* [Various posts](https://www.joachim-breitner.de/blog/tag/Tiptoi) by Joachim “nomeata” Breitner (the main author of `tttool`)
* [Self-made animal figures](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yic57Y9VORA&app=desktop) demonstration video

TODO
----

* What are all the header fields? (See [wip/Header.md](wip/Header.md))
* Finish decoding the games. (See [wip/games.txt](wip/games.txt))
* What is the purpose of the additional script table?

Other resources in this repository
----------------------------------

* [`oid-decoder.html`](http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/entropia/tip-toi-reveng/blob/master/oid-decoder.html) allows you to manually decode an OID image.
* `scripts/updates.sh` downloads all gme files from the Ravensburger server.
* `gameanalyse.c` and `libtiptoi.c` is an alternative tool to investigate gme
files. It can also [replace audio files in gme files](Audio/README.md);
compile and run it for diagnostic output.
* `Audio/` contains some audio files, such as digits read out.
* `docs/` collects information about TipToi found elsewhere.
* `matlab/` contains scripts to analyse gme files in Matlab
* `wip/` (work in progess) contains notes about the parts of the gme files that are not
fully understood yet.
* `perl-tools` contains a perl based script, to generate a PDF with all OID codes from a yaml-file as well some functions to generate PNG-files, inject pHYs-chunks with resolution hints into GD generated PNG files as result from some testing