The Dink Network

...since we've heard anything about Windmere. Whats up? how is the project moving along, and do you have any teasers for us? Can I jam any more questions into a post? The answer to all of these questions is Tal. Please mark the selected answer in your scantron form now.

There IS a website, you know? It has a project status thing too! I'll let you find it (which ain't too hard).

Also, if you want more up-to-date news, you can join the mailing list. You'll find a link at the webpage.

We won't have many teasers until a few days before release, mainly because the whole thing needs to coalesce into a big playable whole rather than us starting with something playable and adding on to it ("Francis, I added sprite support. Let's release more screenshots!")

And that image loader caused Francis and me "more stress than 2 simultaneous hemorrhages."

On the flip side, there are more supported image formats:

.bmp, .cut, .gif, .jpeg (or .jpg), .mng, .pcd, .pcx, .pic, .png, .pbm, .pgm, .ppm, .psd, .psp, .tga, and .tiff (or .tif).

I just thought of something incredibly important if you're not making your own graphics (and it can still be useful if you're doing your own). In the original Dink you can only choose between white and black when it comes to the transparent color. Now, I don't know that much about game programming yet, but I've already studied about bitmap transparency and defining custom colors as the transparent color doesn't seem to difficult. Any chance this will be in?

What about that ass purple? I thought only that and black was transparent? Anyway, Windemere supports 32-bit Alpha so you can define your own transparency. Is that enough? I'm going through right now and working with colorkeys so black and that ass purple are still supported.

Anyway, Windemere supports 32-bit Alpha so you can define your own transparency.

Yeah, quadruple the file size so users can define their own single-color transparent region... that makes sense...

Uh, it's not really quadruple the size.

Near enough.

Regular 256 color graphic you want to have green be the transparent color: 8 bits per pixel.

32-bit bmp with custom transparent color: 32 bits per pixel.

This worries me. So many graphics to make and the engine is coming together so fast ( its a good worry. This is going to be cool..) As for transparencies, white was the default transparent. Sometimes this could be a problem that having a differing transp color would fix. Would the filesize get large only for the effected images? If so, that wouldn't be so bad.

I'd rather use 32-bit PNG. At least the size will be a little less then.

I have a few questions about the new engine .

-Will there be any basic graphics effects like drawing a sprite in greyscale or at 50% transparency . It would cut down on the number of frames you would have to prerender and the mod's file size . Rotation and scaling would be nice too but I know would be much harder to program .

-What frame rate will the engine run at and will that be adjustable.

-Will there be support for prerendered cutscenes (.avi .wmv .asf .mpg).

Due to these people's obsession with portability, you can most likely exclude at least .wmv/.asf and any other Windows specific format.

Will there be any basic graphics effects like drawing a sprite in greyscale...

You can load a greyscale image. It will automatically be converted to 32-bit.

or at 50% transparency.

PEOPLE! Look up the freaking work ALPHA! I've explained this about 7 times already.

Rotation and scaling would be nice too but I know would be much harder to program.

We're planning rotation.

What frame rate will the engine run at and will that be adjustable.

Uh, the fastest possible, duh. I think you're confusing "Frame Rate" with "Dink's Speed".

-Will there be support for prerendered cutscenes (.avi .wmv .asf .mpg).

No. Maybe. Probably not.

-Will there be support for prerendered cutscenes (.avi .wmv .asf .mpg).

No. Maybe. Probably not.

why not?

Merlin, freaking think.

He wants to import a FULL COLOR sprite and tell Windemere "hey, make this grayscale for me".

And likewise, he wants to say "Hey Windemere, load this, say, 256 color bmp and make it 50% transparent".

Hard-coding these attributes into the images themselves leads to bloated file sizes, and much less flexibility.

Also, sometimes it is better to hard-code a frame rate so it is consistent... rather than wildly fluctuate between 30 and 90 FPS, it might be better to limit it to 30. Though this really isn't much of an issue with 2d games.

Exactly what redink said . I was thinking that you could do some simple color and transparency effects so you could reuse a sprite a bunch of different ways . I could render the same sequence 6 times in 6 different color and transparency schemes or once and script the effects in a hell of a lot smaller file size . Simple effects for brightness , hue rotation , color saturation , rgb component swapping and transparency changing would cut down on huge file sizes and give people with bad graphics skills a different way of making a game look new . As for the frame rate I was asking because if I render a sprite sequence for 60 frames a second and the game draws them at 30 frames a second it would look like crap . You also might want to consider taking a break from coding and do some porn surfing . You sound a little stressed .

Exactly what redink said . I was thinking that you could do some simple color and transparency effects so you could reuse a sprite a bunch of different ways . I could render the same sequence 6 times in 6 different color and transparency schemes or once and script the effects in a hell of a lot smaller file size . Simple effects for brightness , hue rotation , color saturation , rgb component swapping and transparency changing would cut down on huge file sizes and give people with bad graphics skills a different way of making a game look new . As for the frame rate I was asking because if I render a sprite sequence for 60 frames a second and the game draws them at 30 frames a second it would look like crap.

Oh, my bad. Those probably won't be implemented for the first release, but maybe in the future. Keep those thoughts handy.

You also might want to consider taking a break from coding and do some porn surfing . You sound a little stressed.

You bet. On the bright(er) side, only 3 days 'till Spring Break. Yehaw!

...Hey! There's playmates on my monitor!...

Rotation is planned but scaling isn't? There's even scaling in the original Dink... Or is this scaling not the same as sp_size()?

Is it going to be free?

not for you

Friendly community in action

Rotation is planned but scaling isn't?

WTF? I never said scaling wasn't planned. In fact, it's already done.

Rotation and scaling would be nice too but I know would be much harder to program.

We're planning rotation.

-------------------------

Eh?

I think scaling was a given... as Windemere will be backwards compatible with Dink and existing D-Mods, scaling would be a requirement by default.

What about...
- Direct 3d interface with full HAL and RGB support.
- Direct Input and force feedback support. Should be able to use any gamepad with the engine.
...from sentinel?
We would erect a monument to you and worship you as our god. And the "erect" and "worship like a god" does not imply some phalic monument, so Tal, you can worship elsewhere.

EDIT: Ok, know thats pretty unrealistic, but it would be awsome. I just checked out the site and it looks NICE! So, do you think that you'll be able to make the projected release date, or are you going to push it back in light of the time its taking to reach the next milestone. Also, tell us more of thi dink asembly language. Are we going to see people being able to do all sorts of crazy things with it or what?

- Direct 3d interface with full HAL and RGB support.

There will be no DirectX support what-so-ever.

Direct Input and force feedback support. Should be able to use any gamepad with the engine.

Ditto, no DirectX support. But, you'll still be able to use any GamePad that your OS has support for.

...from sentinel?

Uh, what?

We would erect a monument to you and worship you as our god. And the "erect" and "worship like a god" does not imply some phalic monument, so Tal, you can worship elsewhere.

Hey, nifty!

EDIT: Ok, know thats pretty unrealistic, but it would be awsome.

It sure would be!

I just checked out the site and it looks NICE!

Thanks.

So, do you think that you'll be able to make the projected release date, or are you going to push it back in light of the time its taking to reach the next milestone.

I don't know yet. It's gonna be close though.

Also, tell us more of thi dink asembly language. Are we going to see people being able to do all sorts of crazy things with it or what?

Actually, Dink Assembly will probably not make it to the release...or any subsequent releases.

And so far I have more than 1400 image files for it. Mostly animations mind you, 8 directions ,5 frame death seq.,and everyone gets an attack seq.(I'm even giving the little boy a slingshot.)
Of course Blender did the hard work.
Hm....
With and image of someone like hmmm.... merlin, I could use it to texture a statue....

Dude, you're just jealous because I proved to you that I pack Weapons of Mass Seduction.