important question

[manikus]

Has anyone made any artwork for the 1024x768 resolution?
If so, please let me know.
Why? I'm thinking very seriously about tweaking some sizes in it. The change will be to the viewport, effecting small pics,backdrops, walls and sprites; and to big pics.
The good news is that the backdrops on Dreamlands are already at the new size, and the Dreamlands walls hosted on mine are already set for it as well.
It has been my observation that not much already created artwork will be effected, based on what is publicly available.
The changes will make it much easier to resize art between the 3 resolutions, getting rid of some ugly stretching and/or the need for cropping.
There will be a change to the 800x600 sizes as well, but I've neither seen or heard any talk about art of this resolution.
I will be updating all of the Official templates and default art. I will let everybody know when the change occurs and when the new files are uploaded. It will be soon...so if you have thoughts on this, let me know.

[Tarlanon]

So what are we talking here? Everyone working on any existing designs are going to have to go back and rework all their art? What will this change do to the existing designs that are out there?

And as far as resizing arts goes....any image editor worth it's salt has a decent resampling routine to alter overall picture sizes without much need to do anything else to the image. True going from very small picture resolutions(like 320x200) to very large picture resolutions(like 1280x1024) will produce some pixelation obviously because there just isn't enough image data...But even the old Paint Shop Pro version 4.0 I sometimes use can convert 640x480-->1024x768 at a reasonable quality.

Oh, and since I am on rant...I've seen some of the discussions about tall wall formats, how it should be the new default, best thing since sliced bread, etc. etc. etc....Unless someone is going to build a utilitiy (like 3d wall tex) or write some scripts for the Gimp (or other open source tool)to help generate them, I would urge that it be set as an option, not the default.

Not everyone in the world can afford to(legally) purchase photoshop to generate these types of walls. So unless the few artists that can are willing to do requests...Make it something the general population can use.

/rant off

[Dinonykos]

Dear Tarlanon,

I think most DC users would like to keep a resolution of 640x480, last but not least because it takes less time to draw the art - and I think all of us use this editor because we are kind of nostalgic and want to edit cool adventures and not because we want to do hi-end-graphics in a fantastic resolution.

However, I thought that DC can deal with all three resolution, so why shouldn't Manikus update the existing art files to a higher resolution? I think it's not so easy to deal with this pixelation problem when you are changing from 640X480 to 1024X768 pixels.

The wall-discussion is unnecessary in my opinion. I made a this new "high-and-broad-wall-template" when I realized that DC can deal with several wall-formates in the same project (which is very cool), otherwise I would never have done that.

By the way, I also still use Paint Shop Pro 4.0 (it's my personal favourite bitmap-programm although it crashes sometimes on my computer). It is not very difficult to use the "high-and-broad-wall-grid" I've posted on Manikus' forum in PSP4, just draw your wall over it and then change the 4 colors of the grid to white - done! You don't need several layers. (Okay, they would be helpful...)
I personally print the grids, draw the walls by hand, scan the sheet and position the scanned walls back on the template, because I want to have a comic-style-look...

Who needs photoshop, by the way?
PSP9 has almost all the possibilities of Photoshop and is much cheaper.

[manikus]

Good morning, Tarlanon.

Obviously, I didn't do a very good job of explaining.

640x480 resolution: nothing changes. All walls are still available to use, and I even want to add Dinonykos new format at the fourth alternative.

800x600 resolution: viewport size is shortened by 7 pixels so that it is exactly 1.5 times larger than in 640x480

1024x768 resolution: viewport size is shortened by 11 pixels so that it is exactly 2 times larger than 640x480

In both of the higher resolutions, the big pic size would be changed so that both dimensions are the same ratio to the 640x480 big pics.

Changing the default walls: maybe I would change the order in the config.txt maybe not, it doesn't really matter b/c all wall types would still be there. What I was going to do was use tall walls art as the default art. Why? Because that's the wall I like to use. Ziroc's stuff is great, but it's been years since he's been active. Have you seen the default walls for the higher resolutions? They are FRUA walls.

Plus, I'll let you in on a little secret. There are only five people active with Dungeon Craft. The three of us in this thread so far, Telwyn and Sigrid. {Edit: I forgot Steve McDonald. Sorry, Steve. So, it is really 6. /Edit} If I can stir up even a couple of other people who view these forums or read the mailing list, it would be pretty cool.
That's why I've stuck "dates of action" and used words like "importnat" so that someone might actually respond.
The truth of the matter is that CocoaSpud is done with Dungeon Craft. I'm not a coder. PAul Stevens is done with Dungeon Craft. There are four new developers whom I've not heard a peep out of, despite my asking what they are working on. I think that pretty much just leave you, Tarlanon. I wouldn't worry about ANY changes happening any time soon unless you are the one making them. (Granted, CocoaSpud has been promising to upload his last efforts as soon as he gets the time, but he's been saying that since June.)

Originally posted by Tarlanon: So what are we talking here? Everyone working on any existing designs are going to have to go back and rework all their art? What will this change do to the existing designs that are out there?

Who's working on a design? Everyone active who has talked about a project is working at 640x480. This change will do nothing to existing designs. They come with their own artwork and config.txt. They will play exactly the way they always play unless some takes them through the editor.

Originally posted by Tarlanon: And as far as resizing arts goes....any image editor worth it's salt has a decent resampling routine to alter overall picture sizes without much need to do anything else to the image. True going from very small picture resolutions(like 320x200) to very large picture resolutions(like 1280x1024) will produce some pixelation obviously because there just isn't enough image data...But even the old Paint Shop Pro version 4.0 I sometimes use can convert 640x480-->1024x768 at a reasonable quality.

Absolutely correct. Making a picture 200% larger is easy-breezy, but making it 200% larger in one dimension and 220% in the other direction is still easy, but doesn't look as good. Or in the case of going from 640x480 to 1024x768 big pics, it is 164% in one direction and 218% in the other.

Originally posted by Tarlanon: Oh, and since I am on rant...I've seen some of the discussions about tall wall formats, how it should be the new default, best thing since sliced bread, etc. etc. etc....Unless someone is going to build a utilitiy (like 3d wall tex) or write some scripts for the Gimp (or other open source tool)to help generate them, I would urge that it be set as an option, not the default. Not everyone in the world can afford to(legally) purchase photoshop to generate these types of walls. So unless the few artists that can are willing to do requests...Make it something the general population can use. /rant off

I made the Photoshop actions at the request of Kaltusara a couple of years ago. As far as I know, they have never been used. Not even by me. I do almost all of my work in Paint Shop Pro. The truth of the matter is that making a wall is exactly as easy/difficult using the FRUA format as it is using the tall wall format. The reason for using tall wall is that it allows for more variety b/c the visible area for each wall is potentially larger.
And as far as the general population and what format they use, it's really moot b/c they can still use other formats and there doesn't seem to be much of a population using any format.

[ 11-01-2006, 12:07 PM: Message edited by: manikus ]

[Dinonykos]

Only six?

I for example made my first post in this forum concerning DC in 2005 I think, but I started to work with DC in 2001 [img]smile.gif[/img] , and I frequently read the posts in this forum. To be honest, it was the second art contest that drove me to "come out". Perhaps there are more guys like me?

And what about Hivetyrant? SilentThief?

[manikus]

I think there are more than 6 people who use Dungeon Craft, but there are only 6 of us that appear active- people that post at one of the various spots.

Actually, we had a day in the last week or two with 17 downloads of DC, so there must be a lot more interest than there appears to be on the surface. (I have my fingers crossed )

[Tarlanon]

Well, that's it! I Quit!!


(Just kidding! )

Good, I was worried with some of these changes that everything that is currently being worked for DC would have to be re-worked in order to continue to function.

Kind of scary to hear that CocoaSpud is done /w DC. He did SO much to get it to where it is today. Those are going to be some very tough shoes to fill. Yes, I am still actively developing for DC, but because of work that time is very, VERY limited right now.

As far as what I am working on...Well, bug fixes. I know everyone has a bajillion and 1 enhancements they want...But quite frankly I personally won't look at them until all these nasty bugs are squashed. If some of the other developers want to add these ehancements, that's cool. But my mission right now is to just get the stuff that is there to work properly.

[manikus]

I'm just glad you didn't fire me.

I want to make DC look nicer and be easier. And, I want more people to do more of everything. [img]smile.gif[/img] That's not too demanding is it. Discussion is a good thing.

(We haven't had any good flame wars as far as I recall, though thee was that episode with the Frank something-or-other using a bunch of profanity and calling CocoaSpud a facist b/c CocoaSpud wouldn't change the way DC worked.)

I've had a few emails from Richard. He has a bug fix update ready to go pretty much. It sounds like he just needs to find the time to update the CVS and put it together. It sounds like he is very busy in his personal life, so I don't know when he'll get the time to do this. He has sent me some ideas of what we should do to get DC to version 1.0. I think he'll always remain available for some of old-timers to ask questions of, but after nine or ten years, he is probably ready to move on. Of course, I secretly believe that one day he and PAul will return to the project. I mean, they've seen it go so far...it would be shame if it didn't get done.

I think that fixing the bugs that we know of is the most important thing at this point. At least one of the developers had said that's where he was starting...not that I've heard from him in a while...

[Telwyn]

It is a shame CocoaSpud is no longer working on DC, but it's good to know development will continue. I'm surprised by the lack of active involvement in the community, since DC is such a great tool, much easier than continually hacking FRUA as far as I can see, but I guess there is such a lot of resources available for FRUA that people still tend to use that instead.

If there is anything more I can do to help (skills and time permitting) let me know. I'll keep plodding away at more icons. They are not the best in the community by a long way, but they do at least have a consistent style so they may be some use [img]smile.gif[/img]

- Telwyn

[manikus]

People have a history with FRUA. A lot of pepple on the maiing list are also on the FRUA list. Once we reach 1.0 i.e. when DC can do everything that FRUA can do and import FRUA, I suspect a lot people will come over to the project.