Developing with HD 1.89
So, quick question for those who have tried, can you develop DMODS using the HD version? Can you even do it? Are you better off running 1.08, develping using that and TEST on HD? The "issue" with the HD release is that it more forces you to A) Upload your DMOD to a site where it can be downloaded into HD B) Upload your betas to The Dink Network. Choice B sucks, no offense to TDN of course.
I don't know if it is possible to "develop DMODS using the HD version". I suspect that it is possible.
But I know this:
a Version 1.08 is (according to many) the most stable.
b If you make a version that is not compatible with 1.08 then some dinkers will not be able to run it.
I'm not sure I understand your "The issue with the HD release is that it more forces you to A) Upload your DMOD to a site where it can be downloaded into HD B) Upload your betas to The Dink Network. Choice B sucks, no offense to TDN of course." issue.
But I know this:
a Version 1.08 is (according to many) the most stable.
b If you make a version that is not compatible with 1.08 then some dinkers will not be able to run it.
I'm not sure I understand your "The issue with the HD release is that it more forces you to A) Upload your DMOD to a site where it can be downloaded into HD B) Upload your betas to The Dink Network. Choice B sucks, no offense to TDN of course." issue.
DinkHD can download any dmod from this site.
You should be able to test in HD, you may just have to set whatever editor you're using to open up HD instead of 1.08. I've never done it so I'm not entirely sure of how to go about it, but it might just be a pathing thing.
You should be able to test in HD, you may just have to set whatever editor you're using to open up HD instead of 1.08. I've never done it so I'm not entirely sure of how to go about it, but it might just be a pathing thing.
The biggest problem with developing with DinkHD is Seth moved where DinkHD looks for D-Mods.
v1.08 and freedink look for subdirectories immediately below where dink.exe is, while DinkHD looks under another folder (called 'dmods' IIRC). I don't think any existing editors support this, so you'll need to copy files around or get fancy with symlinks (junctions).
v1.08 and freedink look for subdirectories immediately below where dink.exe is, while DinkHD looks under another folder (called 'dmods' IIRC). I don't think any existing editors support this, so you'll need to copy files around or get fancy with symlinks (junctions).
Yeah @redink1, that's what I was seeing as well. Bottom line is to create DMOD's, testing with HD can be cumbersome because it will require you to package it up, upload it somewhere, and then download/play.
1.08 it is.
1.08 it is.
On a side note, I LOVE the change Seth made. Downloading and playing DMOD's with HD is so simple now for those folks just wanting to play DINK. It's great.
Downloading and playing DMOD's is so simple now for those folks just wanting to play DINK. It's great.
Maybe this is a Windows thing, but I have always done that with dfarc+freedink...?
When you have packaged a D-Mod, why do you need to upload+download it? Can't you just unpack and run it locally? Sure, unpack on download is easy, but upload+download instead of unpack sounds like you're making it much more complicated than it needs to be.
Maybe this is a Windows thing, but I have always done that with dfarc+freedink...?
When you have packaged a D-Mod, why do you need to upload+download it? Can't you just unpack and run it locally? Sure, unpack on download is easy, but upload+download instead of unpack sounds like you're making it much more complicated than it needs to be.
You no longer can if you use the new 1.89 HD version. With Freedink, 1.08 Windows, you certainly can. It just makes debugging and testing HD difficult.
You don't have to upload your DMOD to play it in DinkHD. Also, you can set up DFarc to use DinkHD, and then set an additional DMOD directory to wherever your DMOD's are stored. Give it a shot. That's what I do to test my Dmod in DinkHD.
Another thing worth to mention is that Dink HD supports PNG files. For me this is the most important thing ever as ya can finally use the actual transparency (and most likely even the alpha channel). Hope FreeDink adds that as well and bring more features.
Freedink has supported png files unofficially for about ten years now.
Freedink has supported png files unofficially for about ten years now.
Tell me about this secret way of getting PNG file loaded into FreeDink.
Tell me about this secret way of getting PNG file loaded into FreeDink.
if he told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore.
Freedink just uses SDL's image loading capabilities. They will autodetect the file type; it accepts almost everything.
This means that for copy_bmp_to_screen and show_bmp, you can just pass any non-bmp file and it will work.
Sprites are implicitly named *.bmp, so that's harder, but I think if you have a png file and rename it to bmp, it may also work for them; I'm not sure if SDL requires the filename to match the format.
This means that for copy_bmp_to_screen and show_bmp, you can just pass any non-bmp file and it will work.
Sprites are implicitly named *.bmp, so that's harder, but I think if you have a png file and rename it to bmp, it may also work for them; I'm not sure if SDL requires the filename to match the format.
Well I'll be darned; I got my Png Farmer D-Mod to work with Freedink. As you said, I had to rename my .png to .bmp, but it works:
And DinkHD doesn't mind if the file extension is wrong either. And neither does MsPaint.
For fun, I tried running it with v1.08, and it just results in invisible pigs.
And DinkHD doesn't mind if the file extension is wrong either. And neither does MsPaint.
For fun, I tried running it with v1.08, and it just results in invisible pigs.
Yep, JPEG also works as well if you're interested. In my tests, PNG didn't result in particularly great space savings once packaged up relative to standard bmps, however.
Cool but it's only a completely useful feature if it works in every version. Someone want to program 1.08 to work? Haha
1.08 is pretty much obsolete in modern PCs due to compatibility issues. Hence why people prefer source ports than the original.
Now that Dink 1.09 and Freedink are both mature and stable, there's really no reason not to use either of those. Should we still be supporting the original CD version because there's one person out there still running Windows 95?
The main barrier to testing mods in Dink 1.09 was the lack of the -game command line switch but that's been added recently.
The main barrier to testing mods in Dink 1.09 was the lack of the -game command line switch but that's been added recently.
There's still some bugs in dink Smallwood hd, that didn't get fixed.. One In particular that messes up the sprites (even causes sprites to face wrong direction while walking.. Eg. Walking north while south direction sprite is playing) in one of the dmods I'm developing, which makes the dmod unplayable. Code is all correct but but only works in anything pre HD.
If you can provide instructions on how to reproduce an issue like that (or create a small demo dmod), it's possible that Seth, me, or someone else could fix it and get that change into a new release.