The WAW File

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This chapter is an abbreviated form of the material you can find under "3. 'Where Are We?' Facility - WAW FIles" on the GPSS Web page for adding maps.

WAW files enable GPSS to tell you where you are relative to towns, cities, landmarks - virtually anything you want to add as a reference point while traveling.

Note that these are not WAV (sound) files.

The order of landmarks in the WAW file doesn't matter.

It is important to note that WAW files must be coordinated with DES files. The DES file has to contain the name of the WAW file applicable to a given map (for more on the DES file).

Each line of a WAW file contains four elements:

location name sound radius

location is expressed in a geographical format understood by GPSS

name is the landmark's name as you want it to appear in message bars or dialogs

sound is the name of a WAV sound file that contains the words you want GPSS to say about this landmark

radius is a number representing the landmark's radius in kilometers

Thus, in the BOSTON.WAW, Boston proper (isn't that town always proper?) shows up as:

422014N0710209W,Boston,BOSTON.WAV,1.5

This means that you'll find Boston at 42 degrees 20.14 minutes North, -71 degrees 2.09 minutes West, that
GPSS will display "Boston" when appropriate and play BOSTON.WAV (a sound file that contains Robin's voice inimitably reciting "Boston"), and that GPSS should consider Boston to have a radius of 1.5 km, or 3 km diameter, around 1.8 miles from edge to edge.

For a tiny bit of information about WAV (Windows sound wave) files: WAV Sound Files

Some WAW files come with GPSS, some accompany downloads for country and regional maps, and some (ones that tell GPSS where your special landmarks are) you create yourself.



By Dave Gehman
© Copyright 2004, Robin Lovelock
Send changes, suggestions to Dave Gehman