The Dink Network

Okay this has me stumped.

I've replaced original Dink graphics without a hitch, usually replicating the number of frames per sprite slot, and sometimes changing these without any issue.

I was taking a look at the graphics Ric developed for the cancelled "Windemere" project and thought, hmmm, back in 2006 when png format was not a workable thing for Dink 1.08, I wonder what these would look like now in DinkHD.

As Ric made a new character which had new images for walk, idle, attack, magic both weaponless and with a sword/shield combo I thought let's swap the old Dink out for these ones, but for some reason idle direction 2 just doesn't want to play.

Now the graphics will load into other slots than 12 via dink.ini but for some reason they wont load into slot 12.

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\ds-i2- 12 250 33 70 -12 -9 12 9

this line does load the original graphics without an issue, even with all the others directions loading 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Ric's graphics are in all 8 directions for all his sprites).

Now Ric's idle images use 10 frames, but this isn't the issue I think, as if I change the folder structure just for those graphics back to match the original games but replace the name with the new sprites they show up.

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\midl2- 12 250 33 70 -12 -9 12 9

So is the engine hard coded just on this slot 12 to use that folder structure? And if so, are they any other slots it is hard coded for?

Well that's uncanny. I've recently been investigating that pack too. I've managed to get the idle working in the four directions by getting rid of all the frame alias and delays in dink.ini, as well as by removing all the init lines in both main and weapon scripts.

If it's just showing blank in that direction, then I assume there's something wrong with dink.ini or the files themselves. If it's falling back to main data on the idle, it suggests that there's a stray init line somewhere. The are no hard-coded paths for sprite graphics in the engine, only sequence/frame numbers.

Hmmm, this sounds very odd indeed! Looking through the DinkHD source, at a glance, I can't see anything hardcoded related to Dink's Idle animation...

Could some DinkC script be overriding it?

To my knowledge, there is no script overriding it that I can see. It just shows up as a blank blue slot in WDED+ if I use the same folder path as all the other idle sprites, and all the others show up, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 in WDED+.

I can swap the graphic sprites around and put those in direction 2 into slot 11, and they show up in WDED+ - so it is not the graphic files themselves. And swapping direction 1 into slot 12, they also disappear

So the weird fix is match the folder structure of the original game, but not the name and they appear in slot 12.

I am using the Robj gelatin skeleton dmod, which I haven't had an issue with this before - Necromancer, which is using custom Dink graphics that all show up correctly but they are using the identical folder structure for the game for the Dink replacement graphics.

I've searched through the dink.ini and can't find anything else trying to load into slot 12

This is what I currently have in the dink.ini file to get around this weirdness

//NEW DINK idle 
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl1- 11 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
;load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1id1\test\midl2- 12 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl3- 13 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl4- 14 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl6- 16 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl7- 17 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl8- 18 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6
load_sequence_now graphics\man-1\man1idl\midl9- 19 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\midl2- 12 250 47 81 -13 -13 13 6

I know that there is no cause for all the diagonal directions, but since Ric made the graphics I thought to see what would happen if I use them all.

I even enabled the diagonal attacks for fist and sword on his replacement character for Dink, and that is fun to run and hit on the move.

I've scripted the woman character(s) so she can flip between brain 9 and 10 and attack with as a "attacker" or a "caster" - she is taller than the main character which is fun.

There were no death graphics for the "man" character, nor push or crawl, which is a shame.

I did rename a fair few files to follow the standard dink format of xxxxx-00.png.

I have a basic DMOD working for all these sprites now, although most enemies don't have a specific script just some settings via WDED+ to get them moving. The only ones I've not used are the inventory stuff.

I plan to upload this as a revised file if possible, if that sort of thing is allowed seeing as I'm not the original author.

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Am looking forward to when WDED+ supports sprite slots above 1000 to match the current DinkHD and YOD engines

In the commented-out line there's a 1 instead of a lowercase L.

D'oh!! Thanks for that, I really need to get my glasses replaced, and stop using lower case L and I and number 1...

Bah, classic, the amount of times I have had that issue with passwords... Using a font where they are more different helps too sometimes lower case ls really do look like 1s