Genome Editor

You can get the Genome Editor for free at Chris Double's site.
Don't forget to download and install the Dylan Runtime Library!

First steps

First of all, you have to install the genome editor. Click on the file frund3.exe you have to download too! This is the runtime library. The setup dialog will pop up and the needed files will get installed on your computer automatically. Then unzip the file "genome editor.zip" and put the files in a new folder.

Now double click on the genome editor.exe file. The Genome Editor opens up. It will look like this:

In the picure you can see easily that the dropdown menu under "File" got opened already. Click on "open" in order to open a .gen file. A box will pop up and you can browse through the folders to find the .gen file you wanted to alter with the Genome Editor.

.gen files can be found in :

- in the directory"Creatures 3" or "Docking Station", in the folder "Genetics". Here you can find all the genomes the egg laying machine uses to produce eggs. Those are the "original" ones, like templates.

-in the directory "Creatures 3" or "Docking Station", in the folder "My Worlds"\nameoftheworld, in a subfolder called "Genetics". Here you'll find all .gen files of the creatures which are currently present in that world. Look also in the subfolder "Attic" and "Porch" there you'll find .gen files of norns which have died! If you know the moniker of a creature (the long name with numbers and letters) you can find the correspondent .gen file of that creature!

Doubleclick on the .gen file and it will get loaded into the Genome Editor:

Looks like this!

First, click on "Description" (see red arrow in the picture below) in oder to sort the genes alphabetically and also by their function.

Okay, the genes with names beginning with an "a" are on top! The first ones are the "Appearance" genes..

Click on the first gene . The right window side now shows a dialog, That's how the settings of a gene look like!

For a more detailed description I put some red numbers in that picture. They mean:

1 Age, when this gene gets switched on (Embryo = Baby, means, from the moment of hatching)

2 Sex for which this gene gets switched on. (both = male and female likewise)

3 Dup = Duplicate, i.e. this gene can get dulicated during conception; Mut = Mutation, d.h. this gene can mutate during conception; Cut = cut, d.h. this gen can be lost during conception, dormant = if ticked, it means: this gene is present but will not be expressed in the creature.

4 A value between 0 and 255 will determine how high the possibilty of mutation for this gene will be during conception. 0 = no mutation, 255 = highest possible chance of mutation.

5 This value is normally set to 0. It's kind of a "place holder", maybe CL will develop new Variants of this gene. So what? Well, just remember this: If it isn't set to 0, it will be present, but not expressed in the creature. Same effect as "dormant" in fact.

6 Species: Chooses the sprites sest of the species Norn, Ettin, Grendel or Geat.

7 Body part: in the picture: Arms. There are five different appearance genes each for head, body, arms, legs, tail.

8 Slot. Determines which sprite sets of which slot will be taken. In the picture it's C, means Civet sprites.

See here for a tutorial about pigment genes!