The Dink Network

Thanks to Beuc, I now have a beta tester, he is quite a good one acctually, so hopefully I will get more crap going on this. The problem is that everyone who crys about how WDE sucks, never gives me their input on the program. What would make it better? What would you like to see? Post here and tell me.

(Please, no stupid crap like "Automatic D-mod completion" or "time travel", only post real ideas)

Give the engine the ability to recognise .jpg or .gif or maybe a bit of a stretch but .mov files, then I'll be happy

sort of a built-in sprite replacer program would be nice...also add in the features that are in the original dinkedit but not in wde

Why do we need WDE anyway?

The DE is superior!
It has more features than WDE, except for the two screens at once.

not to mention the fact that dinkedit won't load on some people's computers

Dinkedit is the greatest.

WDE is realy exellent, but the only real thing it is missing is the built in hardbox editor.

a built-in script editor would be nice as well, instead of it opening up other programs to make the scripts

Why would that matter? Dink does not support any other format besides .bmp. There is NO WAY to fix that unless I get the source.

I often thought of that, but Paul made a sprite replacer program, and it would make is program pretty much useless if I added it. I rather not screw paul over.

If Paul says OK, then I will do it. Untill then, sorry.

..Read the readme, those editors are in the program allready.

A "cutscene" editor was proposed to me once..I didn't like it, but now I am thinking of adding such a thing. As far as a full blown script editor goes, I am still not sure. Every script editor has turned out really crappy. I imaged to make one just like a compiler. It would check scripts for errors and such, but that would take a enormous amount of work which I am not sure if it is worth it for WDE since no one likes the program to begin with.

I use both dinkedit and WDE. dinkedit feels better, but WDE IS better. So I use DE for doing things fast and WDE because of the multiple screen thing and for tile hardness

Or maybe just something that tells you what would happen in the script. I know that sounds kind of stupid, but like, if you ran a little protocol and it just went through your script and told you exactly what would happen, possibly even showing you? I dunno, sounds stupider and stupider as I type this, and I'm tired...

But a cutscene editor does sound like a really good idea, you could have options like where you simply drag sprites to where you want them and when, and it adds the move commands, and so on...

tiles placing sucks in WDE

make it like in DE please

Yeah, the cutscene editor would rock. Oh wait, didn't I suggest that

I've been trying to make one myself, but without a good GUI that displays things like WDE does, there's not really THAT much of an improvement.

Do ahead and add a sprite replacer if you want. I'm sure it will be alot slicker built into WDE than as a VB program.

I used all three programs on Mayhem and a one thing I missed from DE when I was using WDE was the way DE carries over the addributes of the last sprite you edited when you created a new one. It could lead to some problems too but it was also handy, so I would suggest making it toggalable. Or maybe when you right click a sprite it could give you the option "set as default" which would mean new sprites started with it's attributes. Then you'd also need a "reset default" up on a menu somewhere of course.

Another thing that seems harder in WDE, though it may just come form inexperience with, is possitioning a sprite presicely. The ctrl+arrow key method in DE makes it nice and easy.

Oh, and this is a wierd one, but I sometimes give sprite wierd brains, like 200 or 23, can't do that in WDE.

And of course, get that hard box editor in there!

It could lead to some problems too but it was also handy, so I would suggest making it toggalable.

lol, yeah. In one of the rooms in Mayhem, everything has the script of a barrel containing a strength potion... hit the bed, the barrel-breaking animation plays and you get a strength potion, and so on.

And of course, get that hard box editor in there!

Really? I *hate* DE's hard box editor... I prefer to do it manually, so it is much more exact.

I guess he means that you can have wde convert .jpg and .gif to .bmp and also convert .mov files to .bmp sequences, thou I think that's a fairly uh.. useless idea, cuz the of the pallette issue for instance.

Oppps.. I got confused about the topic, I thought you meant what changes to the engine would be nice...

Really? I *hate* DE's hard box editor... I prefer to do it manually, so it is much more exact.

Really? I've never had a problem using the DE hardbox editor (except with really big sprites). But anyway WC's going to write a better hardbox editor for WDE, I think we call all agree that's the best solution.

Here's an idea for it even, how about a quick way to edit the hardbox for a whole sequence at once (ideally while the animation played)

i hate the *16 bit?* colors in dink, whenever i make new graphics for it the colors are all screwey, is there any way to change it without having the source? simonk manages to make the colors look really good, anybody know what program he uses, and how he does it?

the dink palette is 256 colors

whatever, i hate it!

I refuse to make it like DinkEdit. Too clunky, and DinkEdit corrupts maps.

Fine, make yours slick and error-free then. Who suggested that it should be clunky or corrupt maps?

I liked the animation thing, but then I got to thinking. What about sequences like the trees and such which should not be animated? Newbie d-mod makers all over would cry.

you could have special cases for those sequences where it wouldn't animate them

I was thinking you'd just have a nice visible "Animated" checkbox. It should be fairly obvious to uncheck it if your trees are flashing by in an insane manner.

Though come to think of it, for animated one you'd pick a whole sequence, otherwise you'd pick on frame, so that could be how it tells.