Reply to Re: Test my Standalone DMOD Packager!
If you don't have an account, just leave the password field blank.
This newest release includes a feature that converts all your tiles to JPG. This works due to Freedink using SDL_image meaning it supports loads of different file types. However unlike Dink 1.09, Freedink specifically looks for the ".BMP" extension meaning it must rename all the JPG files back to "*.BMP" even though it's a JPEG file. Obviously don't use this release if you require palette changes in 256 colours as it won't work.
I read somewhere that one of the greatest final determinants of people downloading and playing online games is the time they have to wait for it to download which is why Flash and other instantaneous in-browser games are so popular. What I am now attempting to do is to get the final size of most packages down to something under 10 megabytes. Converting the tilesets on average seems to make them take up about 1/5th of the space they formally did without any noticeable degradation. Converting the sounds to Ogg Vorbis seems to achieve a similar thing sound-wise, although I imagine that the ".BMP" caveat also applies to ".WAV" files in this case.
Alternately, I could just make it so that it deletes all the sounds and music, but that's no fun. The bulk of the final file size is still the graphics collection. JPEG is not suitable in that case because of possible artifacts which interfere with transparency. My tests with PNG have not been fruitful, as the final size of the file ends up being very similar to what it would be in the 7z archive.
I suspect my next step is to figure out how to intelligently scan through Dink.ini and MAP.DAT to see which sequences and tiles are being used in order to determine what may be deleted.
Also, try dragging him around!
I read somewhere that one of the greatest final determinants of people downloading and playing online games is the time they have to wait for it to download which is why Flash and other instantaneous in-browser games are so popular. What I am now attempting to do is to get the final size of most packages down to something under 10 megabytes. Converting the tilesets on average seems to make them take up about 1/5th of the space they formally did without any noticeable degradation. Converting the sounds to Ogg Vorbis seems to achieve a similar thing sound-wise, although I imagine that the ".BMP" caveat also applies to ".WAV" files in this case.
Alternately, I could just make it so that it deletes all the sounds and music, but that's no fun. The bulk of the final file size is still the graphics collection. JPEG is not suitable in that case because of possible artifacts which interfere with transparency. My tests with PNG have not been fruitful, as the final size of the file ends up being very similar to what it would be in the 7z archive.
I suspect my next step is to figure out how to intelligently scan through Dink.ini and MAP.DAT to see which sequences and tiles are being used in order to determine what may be deleted.
Also, try dragging him around!
