WinDinkedit
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- Author(s): Gary Hertel, WC
- Categories: Development, Utility
- Downloads: 237
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This is a very powerful editor for Dink. It has numerous advantages over DinkEdit and only looses out in a couple of areas.
Advantages: It is windows based, you can scroll between screens easily. You can copy, paste and more importantly delete screens easily. Sprite editing and placement has several advantages such as a properties screen that showcases standard information in once glance – I find this very useful in writing scripts – the ability to edit scripts while using the editor and thus you can have the screen/sprite the script applies to visible on one side while writing the script on the other.
You can toggle between default sprites being hard or non-hard. You can edit a sprites hardness faster in WinDinkEdit than in DinkEdit.
Hardness copying and pasting is a dream. The ability to multiple select tiles makes this so much faster than DinkEdit. And don’t forget to try the Hardness Polygon tool (press H for hardness mode and then hold down the SHIFT key and click four points to define the shape) – it used to crash WDE, but now doesn’t and is a great starting point for making hardness for large irregular sprites like houses etc.
Viewing tile sets is better as you can see more than one at a time.
If you unzip the whole package it includes a skeleton DMOD. This is then used as the basis to create new DMODs within the program.
The list goes on and on.
If you want to learn how to use it, read the readme file first – then if you still like to have screen prompts go to the options menu (under settings) and turn on the show help text and other info.
Low points:
The ability to place sprites at the edge of screen or off screen is not great. Accessing sprites that are under other sprites can be tricky. This is where DinkEdit’s cycle mode of selecting sprites (using keys) is good.
Doesn’t appear to have that may customisable options regarding saving and playing DMODs.
I have found this program to run really slow on huge epics - but the readme suggests using 16 bit mode instead of 32 bit mode to conteract this, and turning off the sprite info hover mode. I’ve tried this and it seems to help a lot. The full test would be to do a new epic with this tool and see what happens with months of constant use. I just wish it’d work fast in 32 bit mode as I don’t like changing modes just for one application.
There is something called set warp end, which I’m not sure how it works exactly.
The default hardness in the skeleton version was missing, I ended up copying the hard.dat rewrite of Dan’s into my new mode to get the hardness to shop up.
Actual editing of hardness for certain tiles is still an area which requires experimentation, although once you try a few things out it becomes clearer what you have to do. I still think you should read mimifish’s tutorial on hardness editing first to get a hold of the concepts.
Other things that could help is a button which launches dink.ini in wordpad (not notepad as this file gets large when you start adding lots of new graphics)
The hardness editing of sprite window could do with the option of zooming in on the sprite.
Overall 9.5 out of 10.0
Advantages: It is windows based, you can scroll between screens easily. You can copy, paste and more importantly delete screens easily. Sprite editing and placement has several advantages such as a properties screen that showcases standard information in once glance – I find this very useful in writing scripts – the ability to edit scripts while using the editor and thus you can have the screen/sprite the script applies to visible on one side while writing the script on the other.
You can toggle between default sprites being hard or non-hard. You can edit a sprites hardness faster in WinDinkEdit than in DinkEdit.
Hardness copying and pasting is a dream. The ability to multiple select tiles makes this so much faster than DinkEdit. And don’t forget to try the Hardness Polygon tool (press H for hardness mode and then hold down the SHIFT key and click four points to define the shape) – it used to crash WDE, but now doesn’t and is a great starting point for making hardness for large irregular sprites like houses etc.
Viewing tile sets is better as you can see more than one at a time.
If you unzip the whole package it includes a skeleton DMOD. This is then used as the basis to create new DMODs within the program.
The list goes on and on.
If you want to learn how to use it, read the readme file first – then if you still like to have screen prompts go to the options menu (under settings) and turn on the show help text and other info.
Low points:
The ability to place sprites at the edge of screen or off screen is not great. Accessing sprites that are under other sprites can be tricky. This is where DinkEdit’s cycle mode of selecting sprites (using keys) is good.
Doesn’t appear to have that may customisable options regarding saving and playing DMODs.
I have found this program to run really slow on huge epics - but the readme suggests using 16 bit mode instead of 32 bit mode to conteract this, and turning off the sprite info hover mode. I’ve tried this and it seems to help a lot. The full test would be to do a new epic with this tool and see what happens with months of constant use. I just wish it’d work fast in 32 bit mode as I don’t like changing modes just for one application.
There is something called set warp end, which I’m not sure how it works exactly.
The default hardness in the skeleton version was missing, I ended up copying the hard.dat rewrite of Dan’s into my new mode to get the hardness to shop up.
Actual editing of hardness for certain tiles is still an area which requires experimentation, although once you try a few things out it becomes clearer what you have to do. I still think you should read mimifish’s tutorial on hardness editing first to get a hold of the concepts.
Other things that could help is a button which launches dink.ini in wordpad (not notepad as this file gets large when you start adding lots of new graphics)
The hardness editing of sprite window could do with the option of zooming in on the sprite.
Overall 9.5 out of 10.0
Purpose: This is an editor which with you can create the map of a D-mod, and attach scripts to sprites and such.
Installation: Unzip the zip file and extract it into the dink directory.
Use: If you are used to the original editor, you really need to get used to this one. The main difference in usage is that this one is mainly mouse based, whereas the old one used the arrow keys.
Advantages over the old one: You can easily move the mouse in the minimap to the screen you want to edit.
You can set the screen gap, so you can choose for a very thin line between the screens or a very thick one – and everything in between.
You can set the undo option up to 999. Being able to undo an option is a big plus and a splendid option.
You can choose to show the sprite info when the mouse hovers above the sprite – you can also still use the I.
You can choose to show the hardness info on sprites when the mouse hovers above the sprite – although you can also still use spacebar.
By clicking the right mouse button, you can view several info screens, such as screen properties that will show you if the screen is inside or outside, if a midi is attached and what number the midi has, and if any script is attached. Another splendid and very handy option is to delete a screen. In the old editor that was impossible, so if you happened to open a screen where you did not want it, you were stuck with that screen.
Another outstanding and very useful option is that you can right click on an empty screen and choose to either copy a screen or make a new screen, and especially the last option is very handy since that will give you a nice green grass screen instead of the screen you were last working on: as is the only option in the old editor.
You can see a couple of screens at the same time, which is very useful since you can now see exactly where borders are, and if everyting is al right. Another very good thing about this option is that you finally have an overview of the landscape, and one that is a lot bigger then the general overview in the old one. By using the arrow keys you can easily scroll in every direction you want, and you can therefore place the same sprite on several screens without having to open and close every single screen.
Although I tried several times in the old editor, I never could get to copy a screen from another map, but with this editor that is real easy.
There is even a converter for .c scripts to .d scripts and an ffcreate available.
When in tile mode you can see four tile bitmaps at the same time.
There is a list on the left side of the screen that shows all the scripts; another thing that is real handy since now you can adjust a script while you are in the editor while in the old editor you had to switch everytime between the editor and Explorer.
I heard a lot about the splendid possibility of picking up a sprite that is behind another sprite. Doing this in the old editor can sometimes be annoying, especially when you are using different depth ques. But picking up a sprite behind another one is not that much easier in this editor. I used to use the [ and ] keys. In this editor you use the mouse to select a sprite, and although that works indeed easier then in the old editor when the sprites are standing next to each other, you have the same problems as in the old editor when the sprites are standing in front of each other or when there is a whole bunch of them real close together.
In the old editor you had no choice when you closed the progam: all changes were saved. This editor gives you the option to either save or not save the map.
When right cliking on a sprite, you can choose the property page, where you can set all the properties for each sprite. This screen is real handy since you can now set all properties by just filling in a screen, and check them as easily, whereas the old editor used a lot of keys for the same thing.
Disadvantages over the old one:
There is no information on what converter is used, nor what version ffcreate is used. I find that information on those should be given as the original ffcreate does not work – well, it does work, but it makes .ff files that are larger then the original .bmp’s. I asume the ffcreate used here is ffcreate2.
It is probably because I am so used to the old editor, that I find the differences somewhat difficult to overcome. For example, I am so used to use shift plus the arrow keys to define what part of a tile I want to stamp and how many boxes, that I find it difficult to use the mouse for the same job. One other thing about tile stamping that has nothing to do with me being used to use shift plus the arrow keys, is that in the old editor you could just choose what part you wanted to stamp and how many boxes, you pressed enter and then pressed S. And the part you choosed was stamped onto the screen. But in this editor, after you have selected the part of the tile you want to stamp, you have to select a certain amount of boxes on screen where you want the choosen (part of the) tile to be stamped and then press S. Hence, you have to remember how many boxes you want to stamp, which is quite annoying. And if you want to stamp the same tile again, you have to click and drag again untill you have got the right number of boxes, and again, and so on and so forth, since the part you selected does not automatically stay.
I actually expected that you could scroll through the screens instead of having to use the arrow keys, and altough the readme.txt says that that can be done by using the mouse, that did not work.
You can also create a new D-mod (Skeleton B is included) but I find this a little troublesome.
Remarks: The author states at one point in the readme.txt that you can create a new D-mod, but in the next chapter he states that you can not create a new D-mod with this program.
I also have the feeling that the readme.txt is not correct on some other points as the author states that you have to open a D-mod by opening the dink.dat file, whereas the program has an 'open file' option. And the readme.txt says that you have to manually save since the program will not give a prompt, but yet it does.
Not so good: I saved the huge map of the original Dink Smallwood as a test, since the author states that you should make back ups in case something goes wrong. When I saved that map and reopened it, it turned out that every single screen of the map was changed: all screens were on another place. So you indeed have to make back ups in case something like this happens.
Overall: This program has outstanding advantages over the old editor, and some flaws which mostly depend on whether you are used to the old editor and have worked with that one for a while or not, and one fault that might make a mess of the screen.
Fit for: If you do not mind making back ups just in case something goes wrong, this a very good editor with lots of possibilities. It is also a splendid and very useful editor to use besides the old editor.
Installation: Unzip the zip file and extract it into the dink directory.
Use: If you are used to the original editor, you really need to get used to this one. The main difference in usage is that this one is mainly mouse based, whereas the old one used the arrow keys.
Advantages over the old one: You can easily move the mouse in the minimap to the screen you want to edit.
You can set the screen gap, so you can choose for a very thin line between the screens or a very thick one – and everything in between.
You can set the undo option up to 999. Being able to undo an option is a big plus and a splendid option.
You can choose to show the sprite info when the mouse hovers above the sprite – you can also still use the I.
You can choose to show the hardness info on sprites when the mouse hovers above the sprite – although you can also still use spacebar.
By clicking the right mouse button, you can view several info screens, such as screen properties that will show you if the screen is inside or outside, if a midi is attached and what number the midi has, and if any script is attached. Another splendid and very handy option is to delete a screen. In the old editor that was impossible, so if you happened to open a screen where you did not want it, you were stuck with that screen.
Another outstanding and very useful option is that you can right click on an empty screen and choose to either copy a screen or make a new screen, and especially the last option is very handy since that will give you a nice green grass screen instead of the screen you were last working on: as is the only option in the old editor.
You can see a couple of screens at the same time, which is very useful since you can now see exactly where borders are, and if everyting is al right. Another very good thing about this option is that you finally have an overview of the landscape, and one that is a lot bigger then the general overview in the old one. By using the arrow keys you can easily scroll in every direction you want, and you can therefore place the same sprite on several screens without having to open and close every single screen.
Although I tried several times in the old editor, I never could get to copy a screen from another map, but with this editor that is real easy.
There is even a converter for .c scripts to .d scripts and an ffcreate available.
When in tile mode you can see four tile bitmaps at the same time.
There is a list on the left side of the screen that shows all the scripts; another thing that is real handy since now you can adjust a script while you are in the editor while in the old editor you had to switch everytime between the editor and Explorer.
I heard a lot about the splendid possibility of picking up a sprite that is behind another sprite. Doing this in the old editor can sometimes be annoying, especially when you are using different depth ques. But picking up a sprite behind another one is not that much easier in this editor. I used to use the [ and ] keys. In this editor you use the mouse to select a sprite, and although that works indeed easier then in the old editor when the sprites are standing next to each other, you have the same problems as in the old editor when the sprites are standing in front of each other or when there is a whole bunch of them real close together.
In the old editor you had no choice when you closed the progam: all changes were saved. This editor gives you the option to either save or not save the map.
When right cliking on a sprite, you can choose the property page, where you can set all the properties for each sprite. This screen is real handy since you can now set all properties by just filling in a screen, and check them as easily, whereas the old editor used a lot of keys for the same thing.
Disadvantages over the old one:
There is no information on what converter is used, nor what version ffcreate is used. I find that information on those should be given as the original ffcreate does not work – well, it does work, but it makes .ff files that are larger then the original .bmp’s. I asume the ffcreate used here is ffcreate2.
It is probably because I am so used to the old editor, that I find the differences somewhat difficult to overcome. For example, I am so used to use shift plus the arrow keys to define what part of a tile I want to stamp and how many boxes, that I find it difficult to use the mouse for the same job. One other thing about tile stamping that has nothing to do with me being used to use shift plus the arrow keys, is that in the old editor you could just choose what part you wanted to stamp and how many boxes, you pressed enter and then pressed S. And the part you choosed was stamped onto the screen. But in this editor, after you have selected the part of the tile you want to stamp, you have to select a certain amount of boxes on screen where you want the choosen (part of the) tile to be stamped and then press S. Hence, you have to remember how many boxes you want to stamp, which is quite annoying. And if you want to stamp the same tile again, you have to click and drag again untill you have got the right number of boxes, and again, and so on and so forth, since the part you selected does not automatically stay.
I actually expected that you could scroll through the screens instead of having to use the arrow keys, and altough the readme.txt says that that can be done by using the mouse, that did not work.
You can also create a new D-mod (Skeleton B is included) but I find this a little troublesome.
Remarks: The author states at one point in the readme.txt that you can create a new D-mod, but in the next chapter he states that you can not create a new D-mod with this program.
I also have the feeling that the readme.txt is not correct on some other points as the author states that you have to open a D-mod by opening the dink.dat file, whereas the program has an 'open file' option. And the readme.txt says that you have to manually save since the program will not give a prompt, but yet it does.
Not so good: I saved the huge map of the original Dink Smallwood as a test, since the author states that you should make back ups in case something goes wrong. When I saved that map and reopened it, it turned out that every single screen of the map was changed: all screens were on another place. So you indeed have to make back ups in case something like this happens.
Overall: This program has outstanding advantages over the old editor, and some flaws which mostly depend on whether you are used to the old editor and have worked with that one for a while or not, and one fault that might make a mess of the screen.
Fit for: If you do not mind making back ups just in case something goes wrong, this a very good editor with lots of possibilities. It is also a splendid and very useful editor to use besides the old editor.
This editor has many nice new features, but you shouldn't think of it as an improved version of Dinkedit. The interface is very different, and both editors have their strengths and weaknesses.
The best new feature is that you can see and edit multiple screens at once and scroll around with the arrow keys or with the mouse by holding down Ctrl, so if you really didn't want to, you'd never have to view the overworld map, whereas in Dinkedit you have to exit the screen to edit another screen everytime. This feature makes finding hardness and screenmatching errors easy, and gives a really nice overview of areas, like towns and caves.
The biggest weakness is that Windinkedit is a lot slower to use than Dinkedit, much because there are many things that can only be done with the mouse. Some things are easier and faster to do, but basic things, like pasting tiles or assigning sprite properties, take much longer. On the other hand, I suppose Windinkedit is easier to learn to use for someone unfamiliar with both editors.
The best new feature is that you can see and edit multiple screens at once and scroll around with the arrow keys or with the mouse by holding down Ctrl, so if you really didn't want to, you'd never have to view the overworld map, whereas in Dinkedit you have to exit the screen to edit another screen everytime. This feature makes finding hardness and screenmatching errors easy, and gives a really nice overview of areas, like towns and caves.
The biggest weakness is that Windinkedit is a lot slower to use than Dinkedit, much because there are many things that can only be done with the mouse. Some things are easier and faster to do, but basic things, like pasting tiles or assigning sprite properties, take much longer. On the other hand, I suppose Windinkedit is easier to learn to use for someone unfamiliar with both editors.
Gread piece of work! If it were not for Windinkedit, I would never attempt to author a DMOD.
I did find some bugs. Two having to do with Hardness.
The Hardness picker grabs the box to the right of the one you think you are selecting.
If I run a DMOD under construction with the Windinkedit menu, when I quit the play, the hard sprites will not show. I have to exit Windinkedit and open it again it again to see the hardness I stamped on the tile.
The other bug is that the program crashes if I press Page Down past the second page of the Sprite Sellector.
I have learned to allow for these minor inconveniences.
Now, if someone (hint, hint) would write a user guide - - - - - -.
I did find some bugs. Two having to do with Hardness.
The Hardness picker grabs the box to the right of the one you think you are selecting.
If I run a DMOD under construction with the Windinkedit menu, when I quit the play, the hard sprites will not show. I have to exit Windinkedit and open it again it again to see the hardness I stamped on the tile.
The other bug is that the program crashes if I press Page Down past the second page of the Sprite Sellector.
I have learned to allow for these minor inconveniences.
Now, if someone (hint, hint) would write a user guide - - - - - -.
A very good replacement for the Dinkedit, which isn't really any good compared to this. The fact that it is windowed is a great advantage since when you are working on dmods you need quick and easy access to scripts and graphics, which Dinkedit doesn't allow without forcing you to minimise. It's controls are much more intuitive than Dinkedit's as well. You can do everything Dinkedit does in an easier and better way with WinDinkedit. You can even do things Dinkedit doesn't do.
I love this program. It greatly helped me to get my first dmod going. I would advise anyone who doesn't have it download it.
It has some ups and downs and I didn't get used to it right away.
Bot still it is great.
It has some ups and downs and I didn't get used to it right away.
Bot still it is great.
So you're planning to make a d-mod? Or you want take a look in the wonderful word of map-editing???? Guess what, you need a map editor! And this one's the one you need. I have no (really) negative critics for this utility. It's easy to use, for <humble> me its unsurpassable! (by the way, if you haven't downloaded it, what are you waiting for?)
This is a very good utility indeed! It essentially allows you to edit your maps from windows, and this is obviously a bonus. In other reviews, the mild problems are mentioned, so I won't go into them here. They did not trouble me much however, and I found this utility great. I found the selecting sprites system useful, with a small box appearing around the sprite you are hovering over. This file is very good, though I think I will still use the original edit, as I am more accustomed to it.
Windinkedit has never felt uer-friendly to me, and doesn't have that "warm-comforting" feeling that DinkEdit provides. Really.
Windinkedit has never felt uer-friendly to me, and doesn't have that "warm-comforting" feeling that DinkEdit provides. Really.
WinDinkedit is the best editor for D-Mods, period. It has all of the capabilities of DinkEdit, and does many, many things better than DE.
One of the new features with v1.00 (originally devised by myself) is it is now extremely simple to select sprites that are behind other sprites. Previously, with all former versions of WDE, it was near impossible to, say, select a door sprite that was 'behind' a house. Sure, you could move the house out of the way, or vision the house momentarily, but it was a real pain. WDE fixes this, as it will select the sprite with the least area, rather than the first sprite it finds.
Other improvements include the inclusion of a Hard Tile Editor and a Dink.ini Hardness Editor. Both work rather well... but the DE equivalents were slightly more easy to use. In WDE, they feel clunky, and don't feel right like their DE equals. Also, there is no hints as to how to use them from within the program: you have to read the readme.txt to understand.
Outside of those minor complaints, everything else in WinDinkedit is better. If you're interested in D-Mod editing, you simply have to download this program.
One of the new features with v1.00 (originally devised by myself) is it is now extremely simple to select sprites that are behind other sprites. Previously, with all former versions of WDE, it was near impossible to, say, select a door sprite that was 'behind' a house. Sure, you could move the house out of the way, or vision the house momentarily, but it was a real pain. WDE fixes this, as it will select the sprite with the least area, rather than the first sprite it finds.
Other improvements include the inclusion of a Hard Tile Editor and a Dink.ini Hardness Editor. Both work rather well... but the DE equivalents were slightly more easy to use. In WDE, they feel clunky, and don't feel right like their DE equals. Also, there is no hints as to how to use them from within the program: you have to read the readme.txt to understand.
Outside of those minor complaints, everything else in WinDinkedit is better. If you're interested in D-Mod editing, you simply have to download this program.
