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Control Tags

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Sage-of-Mirrors edited this page May 25, 2016 · 17 revisions

This page documents the control tags and other control characters used by the editor to represent Ocarina of Time's text control codes.

Table of Contents

Visible Tags

These tags are strings enclosed in < and > chevrons.

Colors

The color tags change the color of the text that follows it, with x being the color to change to. There are 8 pre-defined colors available:

  • White
  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Cyan
  • Magenta
  • Yellow
  • Black

These are represented in the editor like so:

  • <W>
  • <R>
  • <G>
  • <B>
  • <C>
  • <M>
  • <Y>
  • <Blk>

<Delay:x>

<Delay:x> will cause the text to stop drawing for x amount of frames. This is used to create pauses in dialog.

<DC>

<DC> will set the character draw type to character-by-character. That is, text drawn after this tag will be "typed" out. For example, "Link" would be rendered as "L-i-n-k" with a short delay between characters, instead of appearing instantly like "Link". "DC" is an abbreviation of "Draw Char."

<DI>

<DI> will set the character draw type to instant. That is, text drawn after this tag will be rendered instantly. For example, "Link" would be rendered as "Link" rather than being typed out, like "L-i-n-k". "DI" is an abbreviation of "Draw Instant."

<Fade:x>

The <Fade:x> tag will cause the game to wait for x amount of frames before automatically closing the textbox, without player input.

<High Score:x>

<High Score:x> will display the high scores for certain minigames, with x being the minigame to display a high score for. A key for all the possible minigames can be found here.

<Icon:x>

The <Icon:x> tag inserts an icon into the textbox at the tag's position, with x being the item to display. Currently, the icon to display is shown as the icon's ID in the editor.

<Jump:x>

<Jump:x> will cause the game to load another message after the current one, with x being the ID of the message to load.

<NS>

The <NS> tag, used only at the start of a message, prevents the player from causing the text to be displayed instantly. That is, the player cannot continue until the entire message has been displayed. "NS" is an abbreviation for "No Skip."

<Pixels Right:x>

<Pixels Right:x> will shift the text that follows it x pixels to the right. This is used to center text within a textbox.

<Player>

The <Player> tag will print the name of the current file in the textbox, effectively printing the player's name.

<Shop Description>

<Shop Description> allows the player to move the cursor on a shop menu after text has been displayed. Without it, the game will softlock once the text has been drawn.

<Sound:x>

<Sound:x> will play a sound, determined by the value of x. A list of valid sounds can be found here.

<Two Choices> and <Three Choices>

These tags are used to allow the player to choose either two or three options, such as whether they want to play a minigame. These tags are only used to show the choice superficially; the results of the choice are handled by the speaker that created the textbox.

Formatting

These are technically control codes, but they are not enclosed in chevrons like the codes above.

Accented Characters

Ocarina of Time does not support the normal encoding of accented characters, such as à or Ï. Instead, these are mapped to specific control codes. The text editor shows these characters as they would normally appear, while converting them back to their control code encoding upon export. A list of the characters supported by the Master Quest Debug version of Ocarina of Time can be found here.

<New Box>

Unlike later games in the Zelda series, Ocarina of Time uses a specific control code to cause text to be split between textboxes. In the editor, this split is marked as <New Box>. Texts that are displayed in two different textboxes are therefore displayed in the editor with a line containing only <New Box> between them.

Every textbox in Ocarina of Time has a limit of 4 lines of text. Here is an example of how formatting might look within the editor:

This is textbox 1.
It has 2 lines of text.
<New Box>
This is textbox 2.
It has 4 lines of text.
It is separated from
textbox 1 by a new box tag.

It is important to remember that control tags will not be shown in-game and thus will not affect the location or spacing of the text.

Line Break

Like box breaks, Ocarina of Time encodes line breaks into a specific control code. This code is represented in the editor as a single newline - that is, one press of the enter key. Using the example from above, this text

This is textbox 1.
It has 2 lines of text.

uses one newline, which is right after the period (".") on the first line.

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