fwininger / studio

STUdio - Story Teller Unleashed

STUdio - Story Teller Unleashed

Instructions en français

Create and transfer your own story packs to and from the Lunii* story teller device.

DISCLAIMER

This software relies on my own reverse engineering research, which is limited to gathering the information necessary to ensure interoperability with the Lunii* story teller device, and does not distribute any protected content.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Be advised that despite my best efforts to keep this software safe, it comes with NO WARRANTY and may brick your device.

* Lunii is a registered trademark of Lunii SAS. I am (and this work is) in no way affiliated with Lunii SAS.

USAGE

Prerequisite

• Java JDK 11+
• On Windows, this application requires the libusb driver to be installed. The easiest way to achieve this is to have the official Luniistore* software installed (but not running).

Installation

• Download the latest release (alternatively, you can build the application).
• Unzip the distribution archive
• Run the launcher script: either studio-linux.sh, studio-macos.sh or studio-windows.bat depending on your platform. You may need to make them executable first.
• If it does not open automatically, open a browser and type the url http://localhost:8080 to load the web UI.

Note: avoid running the script as superuser/administrator, as this may create permissions issues.

Using the application

The web UI is made of two screens:

• The pack library, to manage your local library and transfer to / from your device
• The pack editor, to create or edit a story pack

Local library and transfer to/from the device

The pack library screen always shows the story packs in your local library. These are the packs located on your computer (in a per-user .studio folder). Three file formats may exist in your library:

• Raw is the official format understood by the older devices (firmware v1.x -- these devices use a low-level USB protocol)
• FS is the official format understood by the newer devices (firmware v2.x -- these devices are seen as a removable storage)
• Archive is an unofficial format, used by STUdio only in the story pack editor

Conversion of a story pack will happen automatically when a transfer is initiated, or may be triggered manually. Variations of a given story pack are grouped together in the UI for better readability. The most recent file (highlighted in the UI) gets transferred to the device.

When the device is plugged, another pane will appear on the left side, showing the device metadata and story packs. Dragging and dropping a pack from or to the device will initiate the transfer.

Pack editor

The pack editor screen shows the current story pack being edited. By default, it shows a sample story pack intended as a model of correct usage.

A pack is composed of a few metadata and the diagram describing the various steps in the story:

• Stage nodes are used to display an image and/or play a sound
• Action nodes are used to transition from one stage to the next, and to manage the available options

The editor supports several file formats for audio and image assets.

Images

Image files may use the following formats (formats marked with asterisks are automatically converted when transferring to the device) :

• PNG
• JPEG
• BMP (24-bits)

Image dimensions must be 320x240. Images may use colors, even though some colors may not render accurately due to the screen being behind the plastic cover. Bear in mind that the color of the cover may change.

Audio

Audio files may use the following formats (formats marked with asterisks are automatically converted when transferring to the device) :

• MP3
• OGG/Vorbis
• WAVE (signed 16-bits, mono, 32000 Hz)

MP3 and OGG files are expected to be sampled at 44100Hz.

Wiki

More information, including an illustrated usage guide courtesy of @appenzellois, available in the project wiki.

FOR DEVELOPERS

Prerequisite

• Maven 3+

Building the application

• Clone this repository: git clone https://github.com/marian-m12l/studio.git
• Build the application: mvn clean install

This will produce the distribution archive in web-ui/target/.

THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS

If you liked STUdio, you will also like:

• mhios (Mes Histoires Interactives Open Stories) is an online open library of interactive stories (courtesy of @sebbelese)
• Moiki is an online tool to create interactive stories that can be exported for STUdio (courtesy of @kaelhem)

LICENSE

This project is licensed under the terms of the Mozilla Public License 2.0. The terms of the license are in the LICENSE file.

The vorbis-java library, as well as the VorbisEncoder class are licensed by the Xiph.org Foundation. The terms of the license can be found in the LICENSE.vorbis-java file.

The com.jhlabs.image package is licensed by Jerry Huxtable under the terms of the Apache License 2.0. The terms of the license can be found in the LICENSE.jhlabs file.