Dungeon Master Forum

So here it is.. I know that the walls I've done are now capable of being shown along with all the other items I've actually completed. I've had a large number of requests to complete the set but it's been so long and I'm so horribly disorganised that I've not gotten around to it.

I propose, to any takers, that I will gradually complete the set on one condition.

Some one helps me. Now I'm not expecting you to draw anything.. What I need is for someone to organise what should be done next. Now this is not all.. The file for placing them and centering them etc needs to be updated to correctly select the items for the correct folder under their correct name etc etc etc. So more or less what I would require is that someone email me each week with one Item to do. This email would include file name and sizes for the X Y of the image (ie wall_main.bmp width:102 Hight:54 ) I will do one item per week.. all images of it. like a pit for example it has 7 images.

Anyway, I leave it to you. If someone really wants me to complete them then you need to keep me going.

Moo

(oh BTW if you don't already know.. I'm the artist previously known as Prin.. erm I mean DRAKE. I just changed alias')

Sure, I'll try.

I did some of that after Grphireader .12 got through the IBM/DM1 file and let me sort everything out. I even used Blitz-BASIC-Demo to hack together a viewer.

It was surprising how several objects were based on the wall texture.

billgus @ teleport.com

<a href="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1024 ... 620.JPG</a>

image of the New CSB Entrance for RTC.. Moo

Very nice indeed - DM enough to look like DM, but different enough to look more interesting.

This brings up a good point though - George, would it be possible to change the entrance graphics some how so that parts of the border can be above the doors (a higher 'layer') - then you could have things like vines hanging down in front etc - it would really add an extra dimension. Or alternatively, keep it as it is, but also allow a fullscreen overlay with transparent parts to achieve these effects. It always bugged me that the doors were so perfect and straight - using an overlay could help avoid that.

Kind of in the wrong place now, but connected to the thread. Could the overlay support be built in to v0.20????

It already is (or at least should be - let me know if it doesn't work).

The magenta bit on the entrance background can contain a foreground. The algorithm for displaying the entrace screen goes something like:

- Draw entire background
- Draw dungeon view into view area
- Draw doors on top of view area
- Draw view area from background on top of view area on screen

In this way anything that isn't magenta in that view area will appear to be infront of the doors and will remain there as the doors slide back...

So where do I put the vines or what not to make them appear *over* the doors? As it is right now they overlay the background not the other way around. So the doors are overlapping a bit of the stone texture I had put in on the background edge near the Magenta portion. What you seem to be suggesting is that the doors do not go past the magenta area though..

Nope - you've lost me now.

To restate the above though, any pixels that are not magenta that appear in the area that is currently all magenta in the background image; those pixels will be drawn to the screen last. This means that they will appear on top of the doors.

Then it's not possible to do it using this method, because the doors are larger than the pink area and overlap, thus:

<a href="http://www.dmcodex.com/test/en_overlay. ... lay.gif</a>

Either the doors need to made smaller (thus creating a difference between RTC and the original games) or a full screen overlay would be required, as I originally suggested.

Ahhh - got it.

Going from that picture, the current algorithm will correctly overlay anything in that magenta bit however what you're saying is that that isn't sufficient to do what you want as the magenta bit doesn't extend to the edges of the doors?

If that's right, then yes, to do something like a vine that is both attached to the wall above and extends down over the door an proper overlay is needed....

AM I the only one who cant get that first image to show up?
( <a href="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1024 ... 620.JPG</a> )

it displays directly in my forum if you want to check it out there. That may work better than the link.

Ok, I can't seem to find a link to your forum.

top right links on www.dmjump.net

or i could stop being lazy, and give you the actual address:

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/126792 : )

Just to let you know (and stop you whinging I've added an extra parameter (FOREGROUND) to the dungeon entrance section of the text file format. If you supply a bitmap for here then this will be layed over the top of everything else when drawing the entrance.

To show this in action I've added a nice little vine dangling from the roof of the Tomb entrance in walls.txt. This appears on top of everything and when the doors are opened they appear to slide out from underneath them.

Available for V0.20....

Any more suggestions?

Cool, cool, cool. Thanks George - sorry if it sounded like a whine.

I'm off sick with 'flu at the moment, and have just woken up to discover that (unsurprsingly) Brazil beat England. Now I feel really sick -- it was nice to have briefly thought that we could have gone all the way...

How about 16bit PNG with Alpha channel support?

Not only are they easy to compress they can provide nice crisp and fabulous graphics.. but wait.. act now and you could also get some free code to look at containing just how to add this fabulous addition to RTC to make it the best clone on the morket.. yes you too can have PNG supprt.

So call now.. operators are standing by!

Don't take it from me though.. take it from a happy PNG client..

"Hi, I'm unhappy skull head.. before my PNG transplant I was grainy and pixelated. The other ghosts would make fun of me, but now with new PNG support. I'm not unhappy any more. Adventurers take me seriously!!
Thanks PNG"

See for yourself from these before and after pictures of unhappy skull head. Look at his eyes gleam..
<a href="http://chaos.zpc.cz/art/PNGsupport.jpg" ... ort.jpg</a>

so act now.. don't delay!

Agreed, PNG support would be cool, but I suspect that this is a Big Deal in programming terms. Can you enlighten us George?

Me thinks this has been carefully swept under the carpet.. along with animation support.

Animation is still up there in my list of "to dos" and certainly hasn't been forgotten about.

I might consider 3 channel graphic formats other than BMP but there doesn't seem much point as virtually any format can be easily converted by 3rd party stuff into it. Full 4 channel PNG is at the very bottom of the "to dos" though....

What about the use of masks for very specific items. Things that *need* variable translucency? Ghosts, fire, and smoke?

the ability to make bmp's with anywhere from 4-16 colour greyscale to use to mask out these things.

Some of the biggest things that are going to need this sort of thing are the teleporters and the green smoke in order to look half decent.

You can pick the number of greys but we need more than just on or off.. So any other way you can think of doing this would be great.