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HowToModifyAMediascape
How to Modify and Reuse Bits of a Mediascape
Looking at other people's mediascapes is the best way to learn about how a mediascape is put together. Luckily for you, our plucky mscape user, mediascapes use an open format where anyone can look at, learn from, and (licence notwithstanding) reuse code and media in their own projects!
Reusing Media Files
When you download a mediascape from
mscapers.com you are actually downloading a whole bunch of files zipped up into a bundle with a .msz (MediaScape Zipped) extension.
When you download a msz file, mscape library will helpfully extract this file into its constituent parts and save it into your library folder (by default called 'My Mediascapes' in your 'My Documents' folder).
You can therefore poke about with the innards of a 'scape really easily by using Windows Explorer to navigate around this folder to see what pieces of media are used. For example, a mediascape called 'earthlings!' will consist of a msl (Mediascape Scripting Language) file that contains all of the code, and a folder called something like earthlings_Content that contains all the audio, images, videos, web pages, maps, and flash movies used.
Provided that the licence on the mediascape you downloaded allows it, you can use as a learning tool to inspire or inform your own media creation activities, or even directly use these media atoms in your own work.
If you have mscape maker open already, you can add media from other mediascapes in your library by simply clicking one of the import buttons, navigating to a content folder within the My Mediascapes folder and picking and choosing whatever media takes your fancy.
Reusing Bits of Code
When you play the latest, greatest mediascape creation you may find yourself wondering exactly how they managed to achieve some particularly clever effects. Again, you are in luck as the open format that mediascape use means you can look directly at the code so you can learn exactly how it was done.
For the masochistic or XML fetishist it is possible to simply open the .msl file directly in a text editor, but this isn't really recommended (but we won't stop you..). Instead try opening the mediascape in mscape maker (File / Open, navigate to the My Mediascapes folder in My Documents and select the mediascape you are interested in.
Poke around a bit, click on various objects in the script view and read through the code in the events window. If the designer of the mediascape was particularly helpful you may even find they have commented the code (shown in green in the events window) describing exactly what they have done and how it works.
If you are really stuck and can't work out what's going on, you may find that the author is a regular on the
mscape forums. So why not try writing a post there? You'll probably find that they are more than happy to help you out!
