It's time for the sequel to last year's smash 'Bonus Pack', and this time the extensions strike back! In the sense that you'll be knocked over by their greatness, that is. (Sorry, it's the most suitable clichι I could come up with :|) There are 6 great extensions for all MMF users, and 3 more for Pro users, and this guide briefly describes each one and why you would use it. If you don't know already, they're listed below:

• Alpha Channel
• Int64
• Mersenne Twister
• ModFusion EX
• Named Variables
• Particle Spray

PRO ONLY:
• Process Viewer
• Regular Expressions
• XML Parser


And now for something completely different: descriptions of said extensions.

Alpha Channel

A long-requested feature, Alpha Channel lets you display pictures with alpha transparency. You can also rotate and resize these pictures, as well as create animations - and the best thing is, all the images are internal, so no messy external files. However, you can load BMP, JPEG, GIF and PNG files if you wish.

Great for: displaying alpha channel images, rotating/resizing internal images to replace the Active Picture object, loading/saving PNG files for use with Overlay


Int64

Some of you might have noticed there's a limit of around 2 billion on values. While this won't affect a lot of people, sometimes you need numbers greater than that - and that's where Int64 comes into play. You have 64 bits of data, giving you a much greater range (about 9 x 10^18 either way). Although you can't store such values in counters, you can store them as strings, and perform calculations on them using the object.

Great for: calculations that use very large numbers


Mersenne Twister

Another number-related object, this one gives you a more powerful random number generator than MMF's own Random() expression. It is more 'random', lets you generate random numbers in any range, and has a greater range for seeds - up to 80 bits for over 10^25 different random number sequences.

Great for: Randomly generated levels, very random data


ModFusion EX

MMF's best MOD playing extension just got better - among some of the new features in ModFusion EX are crossfading, multiple track playing, better module control and FFT to create visualisations. You also have WSF support to password protect your music. Excellent for anyone serious about adding music to their games.

Great for: playing modules... with style


Named Variables

This array object lets you associate values and strings with a string 'key' - hence 'named' variables. You can manipulate the array in various ways, and save and load to the object's own NVO format, as well as INI, CSV and XML.

Great for: associative data storage


Particle Spray

This highly-controllable object simulates the movement of particles of any kind - sparks, fire, snow, the list is endless. You can apply random or even forces to them, create magnets (see the Magnets example) and give the effect of wind. It is a powerful object and will liven up any game.

Great for: cool particle effects



If you're lucky enough to have PRO, you also have these extensions:

Process Viewer
If you have 2000 or XP, the Task Manager lists all running processes on your computer and lets you terminate any one. Doing something like this was previously impossible in MMF, but now you can use the Process Viewer to get a list of processes, threads and modules running, and return various pieces of information that Windows stores about all three.

Great for: applications that detect certain programs running (e.g. spyware removers)


Regular Expressions
Anyone who's used Perl, PHP or ASP will know how useful regular expressions are for parsing and formatting strings. Now MMF users can enjoy their flexibility with the Regular Expressions (Regex) object. Match, split, search and find/replace strings with functionality almost exactly like Perl/POSIX, and change options to suit your purposes.

Great for: More complex (and/or freeform) string parsing and formatting


XML Parser
Parsing XML files is a breeze with this handy object. Read and write to XML files in a structured manner, accessing various elements, their content and their children via an easy interface.

Great for: adding XML functionality



If you have MMF 1.5, download Bonus Pack 2 now at http://download.clickteam.com/webftp/files/8/2/BonusPack2.exe - but if you don't, this bonus pack could push you closer to upgrading. With objects like Alpha Channel and Particle Spray, MMF just gets better and better, and can really make your games sparkle.

Hopefully this article will have inspired you - and as a challenge to all of TDC, the first person who makes a game using one of the new extensions and adds it to the Downloads gets 5 DC points. Bonne chance!