The Dink Network

The Vinx Project is a Dink Smallwood port I'm trying to write. It's not just a port, it's basically the same game using a different engine. A full 3D engine (6D view actually). The engine I'm going to use is called Voxlap, written by Ken Silverman.
Remember, It's only an IDEA. I'm not saying I'm gonna release stuff (however I probably will).

Let me know what you think of this.

Wait for Windermere. Porting to another engine isn't a small task, and definitly can't be done on your own.

I have seen many 3d rpg maker engines and stuff like that to me it the whole 3d engine thing doesn't appeal to me. It takes way to long to design and code 3d games. That means alot less d-mods and a really high learning curve that most people won't even try. Dink would not be good in 3d.

Barnabyd, I want to learn more about c++ and I think this is the best way to do it. Don't try to stop me .

Igloo15, I'm trying to make Vinx as backwards compatible as possible. For example, it should be able to read the map.dat file and auto-generate a 3d world from it.

All right, if that's the way you're going to be...

Um, pick a different engine. If you think you can do it (honestly, you probably will give up - speaking from experience), it will look like crap.

and dink doesn't look bad , though you bring up a point in 3d visuals are very important.

Does this look like crap?

Quite honestly, the second pic made me think of Vaultdweller's many colors of poo.

So his crap looks like the screenshot, but the screenshot doesn't look like crap .

Crap or not being compared to crap is just as bad...if not worse..

It depends on your definition of crap. But to me, crap means.. crap

Crap-(Vulgar Slang )
n.
Excrement.
An act of defecating.
Foolish, deceitful, or boastful language.
Cheap or shoddy material.
Miscellaneous or disorganized items; clutter.
Insolent talk or behavior.

intr.v. crapped, crap·ping, craps
To defecate.

Phrasal Verb:
crap up
To make a mess of; bungle.

...yeah...

Whatever, I'm still using Voxlap. It's very easy, at the moment I'm commenting out many lines of code and adding only a few lines of built-in Voxlap functions.

Well how about, you do your project. And if we like it we'll tell you then

I thought they looked interesting.

What do you think of the splash screen?

I think it's pretty bad, actually.

I agree.

I would suggest putting the dink above the voxalised and trying to do the Dink in it's Joyeuse font style to link it back to the original game.

So what does this new engine do that is so great...? all I can figure out is it means you can destroy walls and such more realistically than via polygons.

This is a full 3D engine? How will the graphics be done then?

"So what does this new engine do that is so great...? all I can figure out is it means you can destroy walls and such more realistically than via polygons."
With voxels, you can create round edges without things like 'polycount' . For example, try using this spring in a game. That would be impossible without a voxel engine, not only because this particular model is made of voxels, but because a polygon model of the same spring would use way too much poly's.

"This is a full 3D engine? How will the graphics be done then?"
Do you mean 'who will do the graphics' or 'how are they rendered'?

I mean, how are they rendered?

ikkejw: It wouldn't be impossible. It's quite possible using a NURBS surface.

Wow, voxels or not, that is one dang ugly spring.

Voxel doesen'r support hardware rendering, you might know that, so the thing will quite like crap.
Not exactly but will not look excellent. I recommend, if you want something great, something realistic, start from scratch. I am working on a graphics engine, they are at source forge, you can also get help there.

AmoebaLord: "I mean, how are they rendered?"
You should ask Ken Silverman about that. The Voxlap engine is free, but for the biggest part closed source, so I can't tell you anything about it.

merlin: "It wouldn't be impossible. It's quite possible using a NURBS surface."
Aren't NURBS surfaces incredibly slow?

Tal: "Wow, voxels or not, that is one dang ugly spring."
It's from a KVX file, and they have a maximum limit of 256x256x200vx and 256 colors . KV6 files, however, have a maximum of 1024x1024x1024vx (I think) and support 32-bit colours.

People are too much used to 3D stuff. Your work looks pretty cool, especially because you made it all by yourself!

But if it's possible, you'd best make the voxels smaller...

I didn't make the spring model, it's included with Slab6, Ken's voxel editor.

Aren't NURBS surfaces incredibly slow?

Yes and no. Compared to textures, yes. Compared to complex polygonal surfaces, definitely not. If you plan to have many curves, NURBS or textures are the way to go.

I'll stick to voxels .

Not sure why you'd stick to such pixelated crap, but go ahead.

Bah, who cares about graphics? As long as it works.

I'll stick to Chaotic .

On topic: I want to create a sf.net project page for this, however I don't know what license to choose since Dink, the Dink Source and Voxlap all use a different license, and my project is a combination of them.

It's a Dink clone, it just uses the Voxel engine. So use Dink's one. Simple as that.

I wanna be a devloper when you list your project up.

It's gonna be GPL'ed.

dinkme: After I finish the first version, you're in.

I wanna be a bug-tester.

Ah, yeah. Beta testers. I haven't even thought about them. Once the first version is close to release I'll try find some beta-testers, I don't really want to give people some specific status yet.

And now comes the big question:
1st or 3rd person view?

IMO, it should be 3rd.
I'll try to focus the camera on the talking sprites whenever say_stop(...); is used.

3rd, of course! You'll have to keep to see Dink!

Another question:
wasd+mouse or arrows/ctrl/shift/etc controls?

arrows/ctrl/shift/etc

Stick to arrows. I only like WASD for shooters and ASCII character games from back in the day.

Hmm, I'd imagine the mouse would be used in both setups as you want to look around in the 3D world.. if you'd set the arrows keys, a few things would hinder the player: right-handed persons would have both of their hands on the right side of their keyboard/mouse/mousepad combi.. second, you'd have to bind the other keys as well like fire, talk, magic et cetera.. well, it might be that I'm used to WASD but it seems unhandy to bind them around the arrows. I'd say make it WASD for movement, mouse for looking, space for talk, LMB for attack, RMB or shift for magic and any random key like E, R or Enter for inventory..

In case of walking around and doing slow actions, you'd have the keys around and in case of battle, the player must be able to act quickly to (counter)attack/cast a spell.

Or in other words, can't you make it configurable?

"Or in other words, can't you make it configurable? "I will, but not in the first release(s). My main priority now is to get it to work.

"wasd+mouse or arrows/ctrl/shift/etc controls?"

Let the player choose between classic and 3D configurations.

Read my last post.

Yeah, but I didn't mean "configure keys", but also some pre-defined sets.

whatever.

Vinx has been rejected at sf.net because of 'Inadequate registration description or license detail; or additional information required'. I don't understand what's wrong with the description since I entered EXACTLY what they asked. I'd like to know what kind of description Windemere has. Here's the description I entered:

# The names of the programming languages, libraries (such as graphics libraries), databases, and frameworks you will be using to develop this software: #
Programming language: C/C++.
Libraries: Voxlap (by Ken Silverman, closed source), Dink Smallwood Source Code (by RTSoft, own license)

# The names of the OS platforms or environments you will support: #
Microsoft Windows 98 to XP
Linux (if Voxlap supports it)

# A description of why this game is being written: #
To improve the 2D top-down view game Dink Smallwood, and make it a full 3D first/third person view game.

# A list of the major obstacles (technical problems) your team will need to overcome in writing this software: #
- Backwards compatibility with the original game.
- 'Voxelising' the original artwork, not using the original art source.

# The major features which will be included in your software (an itemized list is preferred): #
- 3D game using voxel sprites and world
- Backwards compatibility with the original game, Dink Smallwood. For example, it should read the map.dat file (the file Dink Smallwood uses for storing the maps) and auto-generate a 3D world from it.
- Enhancings to the Dink Smallwood programming language, DinkC (used for making so-called DMODs or Dink MODules, also used to create the original game), while preserving backwards compatibility.

# If applicable, a listing of the existing data formats your software will use, software with which your project will interoperate, network protocols supported, etc: #
- *.KV6, voxel sprites.
- *.KFA, voxel animations.
- *.VXL, voxel world.
- *.PNG/JPG/TGA/GIF/PCX/BMP, used for the original 2D sprites and things that don't need to be 3D like status bars and menu's.
# Information about any existing work (i.e. links to existing source code or web sites related to the project): #
Voxlap: http://www.advsys.net/ken/voxlap.htm
Dink Smallwood: http://www.rtsoft.com/dink/index.htm
Dink Smallwood Source Code: http://www.codedojo.com/

# Important: Do you intend to host any game data, statistical information, servers, hub lists, or other materials needed for the operation of your game using SourceForge.net resources? #
Yes

Do this projet yourself. Usually you get 3 to 5 devlopers at SF.net but rarely anyone of them help in your project, the devlopers are kind of a show, I tried it two times but ultimately, i am the lone person devloping my project. So SF is no real help.
Though you may try,

Well, I found something else: www.gforge.org . I don't have a web server, so I'll ask a friend of mine to host it, together with Bugzilla.

Good for you.

How's the project coming along?

It's.. um.. coming along, but not very much. I only work on it in the weekend, because the rest of the week is filled with school . Holidays start in a few weeks, so expect to see more news + a website then.

Besides Vinx, I'm also working on another (DMod-like) project. DaVince already knows a few things about it, however I want to keep it secret for now.

wouldn't this take years to complete?

You know, you have to edit new graphics for the whole game, and make a new engine!

thats like a whole new game!

But the result will probably kick ass!

Hmmm, maybe if you could find a way to show the old Dink sprites (and thus all custom art) in a 3D-ish view, you wouldn't have to create any new gfx for it!

Ok, today I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is, as you probably would have guessed, Vinx is dead. The Dink source code is completely unusable in it's current (horrible) form.

The good news is, on the other hand, I will try to clean up the Dink source to help and speed up future projects like this.

unDink has already cleaned up most of the source, but a few parts need to be completed.

The only thing I can say is Go Ikkejw! Do it!