The Dink Network

Seth has risen from the darklands and updated Dink Smallwood HD to version 2.08.

The web version has also been updated and Android version to come shortly.

See below for the list of changes and bugfixes.

Limits:
Sequences = 2000
Frames = 100
Addressable sprites = 30000
Active sprites per screen = 300
Script callbacks = 200
Vars = 250
Scripts = 400
Concurrent audio channels = 64
Loadable sounds = 200
Tilesets = Up to TS61, tile index 0 - 7808
Background Sprites = 200

Fixes, Additions, Alterations:
* get_dinkspeed() will return dinks internal speed value; whatever the current set_dink_speed value is.
* enable_all_sprites() and disable_all_sprites() now works correctly
* make_global_function now works correctly
* gfx_alttext_disable in the ini will disable the text box effect; set_gfx_alttext_disable(0 or 1) can also be used in DinkC
* Re-enabeled preload_seq DinkC command
* DinkC version (get_version) increased to 114.
* NPC Text sprites(say, say_stop, say_stop_npc) sp_x return value will not increase past 470 (position of text when at right screen bound), prior to this it could retrieve incorrect position of text sprite when text is against right side of screen.
* Fixed issue where some variables won't be totally cleared when a second game/dmod was loaded, could cause the intro screen to have tiles on it from the previous game, oops
* Fixed issue where the black background used with aspect correction of the window size might not fully cover an 8k monitor (untested, I don't have one!)
* Checked midi issue with 9 gems of life II, 1.mid doesn't play at startup because FMOD doesn't like the format of it. If replaced with a different midi it will work. (unfixable by me, FMOD issue)
* When playing with "Smoothing" off and at an exact 4:3 screen ratio, DinkHD will now be "pixel perfect" (thanks Drone). I guess with some work this could also work with smoothing on (sub pixel and texture clamp settings?) but maybe for another day
* set_use_latest_fixes_level() dinkC command added, currently level 1 will cause next two bugs to be fixed. (the idea is new DMODs can say "hey, fix the bugs" but old ones won't break because things got fixed)
1. BUGFIX: "/=" math operations now work correctly (previously, only "/" worked right.. so er.. yeah)
2. BUGFIX: Missile weapons with an odd # like strength 5 can now actually do 5 damage sometimes, previously they couldn't due to using integer division

Just testing this out... and while it does play almost everything I've got in Necromancer, which is over 9000 images at present, it still occasionally doesn't play my new Dink dying, even with preload_seq() and init() in all scripts that can cause Dink to die.

There is a noticeable load time with the screen black on using warps into another screen which has preload_seq for a sprite with 8 directions, death, and 4 attacking directions, at least compared to the previous version of DinkHD for me.

what about the gog version

SimonH: Hmm, I don't think I did anything that would make it slower, weird. I did enable preload_seq back in this version so it actually preloads things to ram/vram instead of ignore it and preload when actually used - so it's possible that could slow down scripts (but save time later as things shown were preloaded)

GOG: Too much hassle to use their packager and submission process, but the beauty is anyone who downloads and plays the GOG version is still going to get hit with a "click to download the new version" at startup, so hopefully they'll do that.

iOS and Android versions of V2.08 were submitted today, hopefully they'll be approved within a week or so

no, they're not going to do that. people using platforms like gog expect to be able to manage and update their games in one place. if they're hit with a notification telling them to update and it sends them off to another website to download it, they're just going to throw a negative review onto the game and move on.

there is no beauty in that process at all. THAT'S too much hassle, not the part where you take responsibility for your game you submitted like everyone else does when they submit a game to a digital distribution platform.

>anyone who downloads and plays the GOG version is still going to get hit with a "click to download the new version" at startup, so hopefully they'll do that.

I don't use the GOG version of DinkHD, but if I did, I wouldn't see the notification because my firewall blocks non-whitelisted games.

Skurn: >>THAT'S too much hassle, not the part where you take responsibility for your game you submitted like everyone else does when they submit a game to a digital distribution platform.

I absolutely didn't accept any responsibility to update a specific platform to the end of time nor would I ever. I specifically told GOG I would link new non-GOG versions to their users when the time came and they were ok with that.

Seseler>> I don't use the GOG version of DinkHD, but if I did, I wouldn't see the notification because my firewall blocks non-whitelisted games.

If someone has ignored the "allow this program to use the internet" pop-up (it might be auto whitelisted, not sure, not my installer) they also can't use the in-game dmod browser/loader so not seeing an update message is probably not the biggest issue they have.

In other news: iOS version is now live, Android version was rejected, will re-submit again today

@Seth Still rooting for a steam release... Anyways will wait for the android version update , i mostly play dink hd on the phone since years now

Thanks!

New iOS version on my 8 year old iPad, and Necromancer Demo plays through the intro without crashing... oh yeah!

then why the actual duck did you even bother uploading that

@Seth Thanks for the update. Hopefully I'll finally be able to play Dink on my phone once the android version is up.

Dink's mod support is what got me into programming and game design when I was a teen, and I can't help but come back to every now and then when I get a spark of an idea for a mod. Thanks for supporting it after all these years.

That reminds me, there's a box that pops up after the inbuilt update checker runs that tells you to exit and install it. The box has a button that presumably is supposed to exit, but instead does nothing and has no text label.

@Seth:
I want to take a little time to express my gratitude for your ongoing support too!

Edit 2: Found a bug with sounds too.

I have installed the Android version on my phone, Samsung A52s 5G, with Android 14, and I have noticed a few bugs:

- Sometimes the game crashes on screen changes: Happened once in Pilgrim's Quest and also in the main game, after I picked the AlkTree nuts and went up north, the game crashed when I entered the screen where you can see Milder and Lyna talk. I reopened the game, then went in an out of the same screen multiple times and the crash didn't happen. It is not the conversation scene that causes it either.

- At one point the game started detecting taps as if I was keeping my finger pressed on the screen: A single tap on the directional input and Dink would walk endlessly in that direction. It also affected the menus, I'd tap the "Quit" or "Quick Save" option and the icon would be grayed out without anything happening, until I tapped the screen somewhere else and it detected me releasing the menu button. It also happened outside the game and mods, in the DinkHD main menus.

- Playsound seems to be ignoring the piece of code that adds a variation to its playback rate: When I cast a fireball, the sound 17 plays exactly like it is when you make a menu selection, rather than the pitch shifted version that normally plays when a fireball is cast. I have added a pitch shift to a specific sound to test it and the game played the sound at its regular pitch/playback rate too.

These bugs above only happened in the Android version so far.

The only bug I see on both PC and Android is a thin line that is rendered between connecting PNG graphics:

See an example here

On windowed 640x480 the lines don't exist, even with Pic Smoothing on, but they are there on fullscreen 640x480.
For the other resolutions, they are always there, even windowed. I noticed having Pic Smoothing off removes some of them in some instances where the lines are really thin, but the examples seen in the screenshot remain with any setting (except windowed 640x480).
Curiously, in the Android version, only the vertical black lines are visible. The one horizontal line that is in my example image does not show up on Android.

I have noticed that setting set_keep_mouse to True seems to disable the option to hide the HUD by tapping the top of the screen on DinkHD Android.
When active, tapping the top of the screen plays a click sound, but nothing happens.

> GOG: Too much hassle to use their packager and submission process, but the beauty is anyone who downloads and plays the GOG version is still going to get hit with a "click to download the new version" at startup, so hopefully they'll do that.

I dunno about that. Seems that GOG for some time has a Steam-like way of releasing updates.
Link
Link 2