Reply to Re: Some questions on FPS, true colour, and the DinkEngine
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: I've read the message of IvanMZ, and asked DethLord what that FPS was about. Now I know it's frames per second, but I still don't have a clue how that can screw up colours.
: So some questions...
: 1. I press alt + D to check FPS: in DinkEdit or in the game itself?
Use the Dink Engine
: 2. Why is true colour 'wrong' in a D-mod?
Dink uses 8 bit (because it uses less memory back in the day). 640x480x8 = 2.5 meg video card, 640x480x24 = 7.5 meg viedo card. See?
: 3. What has true colour got to do with FPS?
On now day computers, you would see no diffrece (but it really depends on your video card processor), back in dink's day, it showed a tad bit of a slow down.
: 4. What has true colour and FPS have got to do with the DinkEngine?
Uhh, FPS is how many times a game can 'draw the screen' per second. So dink's fps (lets say 33) is drawing all the sprites (33) times per second. True color isn't supported in dink, so all the graphics have to be in the 8-bit dink palette.
: 5. What's the difference between true colour and the Dink Palette?
True color supports 16 million colors, dink palette and all palettes support 256 colors.
: 6. Do many graphics on the same screen have something to do with FPS?
The more graphics, the more it has to draw per second. If you have 1 tree compared to 100, it's going to draw a 100 times faster. But keep in mind this. The bigger the sprites, the slower it will draw. You could have 100 flowers and not see too muhc of a diffrence, but you add 100 houses, you may get 2 FPS.
: 7. I know that adding many graphics in the same screen slows down the loading speed, but if you do have as many as 99 sprites on the screen (placed with the editor) does it screw up all comps? Or only the slow ones?
Well, hard question, even fast computer with a slow video card, or one with less that 4 megs of memory on it will be slow, but it all depends on the sprites you place (see above).
: 8. Is there a difference in performance of a computer, of FPS, and of the DinkEngine when placing sprites on screen by using the editor or by using a script to place sprites on screen?
I would think not, but I tested this, and it seems to work a tad (not by very much) bit faster with sprite ran by scripts. Either way it does matter, they will both slow it down. If you don't go over 50 sprites per screen, you shouldn't have a problem.
: 9. Even if you have a fast comp, does the Dink Engine limit the speed of loading when you have many graphics? So, what speed is more important: the DinkEngine or the computer?
Depends what you mean by loading. If you are talking about the begining, the you computer being slower will slow it down, but there are several other things too. With windows XP, it has some type of buffer system, redink pointed out to me that if you were to load a d-mod, then load it again, it will load 10 times faster. This also happens in game. Your FPS starts out kinda slow and then kicks up.
: 10. Can you still not put any new graphics in (with Dink Palette applied of course) even if you have a fast comp, without making sure it's not true colour?
Dink only supports 8 bit fomat. You can add 32 bit graphics if you wish, but in run time, that sprites colors will be converted to 8-bit 'nearest color matching' which you don't want.
: 11. DethLord said the Dink Engine is capped around 60-70 FPS. So more FPS's is good? Or is the 28 FPS IvanMZ mentioned good? What IS good? I'd say more FPS is good, but IvanMZ says less FPS is good - well, compared to 60-70 FPS...
Dethlord is a fool. Dink caps around 100 FPS in the classic dink game for me. You shouldn't be under 30 FPS otherwise you may have crappy game play, but FPS depends on the computer.
: 12. If I have a new graphic (from one or the other source) what do I have to do to make sure that it doesn't overload the Dink Engine - the FPS and colour part?
Just apply the dink palette to it thats all. The dink engine is rather flexable.
: 13. Is this a problem that only occurs on fast comps? I didn't encounter any colour problem when playing my D-mod (Dink Smallwood's Christmas, that is) and neither did SabreTrout. I don't know the specs of his comp, but mine is real old (300, 32MB, 4 MB videocard.)
Well, kinda. On your computer you could play dinkanoid very well, on mine the ball moves too fast to keep up with. You can work around that with wait()
: 14. Any other things I should now on this subject?
Yeah, you are worring too much.
: Thanks.
: So some questions...
: 1. I press alt + D to check FPS: in DinkEdit or in the game itself?
Use the Dink Engine
: 2. Why is true colour 'wrong' in a D-mod?
Dink uses 8 bit (because it uses less memory back in the day). 640x480x8 = 2.5 meg video card, 640x480x24 = 7.5 meg viedo card. See?
: 3. What has true colour got to do with FPS?
On now day computers, you would see no diffrece (but it really depends on your video card processor), back in dink's day, it showed a tad bit of a slow down.
: 4. What has true colour and FPS have got to do with the DinkEngine?
Uhh, FPS is how many times a game can 'draw the screen' per second. So dink's fps (lets say 33) is drawing all the sprites (33) times per second. True color isn't supported in dink, so all the graphics have to be in the 8-bit dink palette.
: 5. What's the difference between true colour and the Dink Palette?
True color supports 16 million colors, dink palette and all palettes support 256 colors.
: 6. Do many graphics on the same screen have something to do with FPS?
The more graphics, the more it has to draw per second. If you have 1 tree compared to 100, it's going to draw a 100 times faster. But keep in mind this. The bigger the sprites, the slower it will draw. You could have 100 flowers and not see too muhc of a diffrence, but you add 100 houses, you may get 2 FPS.
: 7. I know that adding many graphics in the same screen slows down the loading speed, but if you do have as many as 99 sprites on the screen (placed with the editor) does it screw up all comps? Or only the slow ones?
Well, hard question, even fast computer with a slow video card, or one with less that 4 megs of memory on it will be slow, but it all depends on the sprites you place (see above).
: 8. Is there a difference in performance of a computer, of FPS, and of the DinkEngine when placing sprites on screen by using the editor or by using a script to place sprites on screen?
I would think not, but I tested this, and it seems to work a tad (not by very much) bit faster with sprite ran by scripts. Either way it does matter, they will both slow it down. If you don't go over 50 sprites per screen, you shouldn't have a problem.
: 9. Even if you have a fast comp, does the Dink Engine limit the speed of loading when you have many graphics? So, what speed is more important: the DinkEngine or the computer?
Depends what you mean by loading. If you are talking about the begining, the you computer being slower will slow it down, but there are several other things too. With windows XP, it has some type of buffer system, redink pointed out to me that if you were to load a d-mod, then load it again, it will load 10 times faster. This also happens in game. Your FPS starts out kinda slow and then kicks up.
: 10. Can you still not put any new graphics in (with Dink Palette applied of course) even if you have a fast comp, without making sure it's not true colour?
Dink only supports 8 bit fomat. You can add 32 bit graphics if you wish, but in run time, that sprites colors will be converted to 8-bit 'nearest color matching' which you don't want.
: 11. DethLord said the Dink Engine is capped around 60-70 FPS. So more FPS's is good? Or is the 28 FPS IvanMZ mentioned good? What IS good? I'd say more FPS is good, but IvanMZ says less FPS is good - well, compared to 60-70 FPS...
Dethlord is a fool. Dink caps around 100 FPS in the classic dink game for me. You shouldn't be under 30 FPS otherwise you may have crappy game play, but FPS depends on the computer.
: 12. If I have a new graphic (from one or the other source) what do I have to do to make sure that it doesn't overload the Dink Engine - the FPS and colour part?
Just apply the dink palette to it thats all. The dink engine is rather flexable.
: 13. Is this a problem that only occurs on fast comps? I didn't encounter any colour problem when playing my D-mod (Dink Smallwood's Christmas, that is) and neither did SabreTrout. I don't know the specs of his comp, but mine is real old (300, 32MB, 4 MB videocard.)
Well, kinda. On your computer you could play dinkanoid very well, on mine the ball moves too fast to keep up with. You can work around that with wait()
: 14. Any other things I should now on this subject?
Yeah, you are worring too much.
: Thanks.
