Dir Help

ID:268692
 
Oct 19 2004, 3:13 pm
I was woundering if I added more dir's to the .dmi icon file. Would I be able to create custom dir= value's from that .dmi icon file's new dirs?

Some details:

.dmi files are setup so they can either take 1,4, or 8 directions.

dir default = SOUTH I think any who.
SOUTH I think = 0 Tell me if Im wrong.
NORTH = 1, East = 2,West =4 SOmthing like that I think.
Then the other dir's. I think it's some kinda binary setup. Any info on this topic would be cool?

Any way what Im saying is if I added more dir's to the .dir file.

Could I define new Dir values and have them work?
Oct 19 2004, 3:48 pm
You can do that, but using seperate icon_states. I made a system to have 16 working dirs, it could easily be 360 dirs. You just need to program that yourself, it's not hard.
Oct 19 2004, 4:10 pm
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
You can do that, but using seperate icon_states. I made a system to have 16 working dirs, it could easily be 360 dirs. You just need to program that yourself, it's not hard.

So for your 16 dirs it would be just two icon states each with 8 dirs right?

Then just change the icon state along with the dir?

Oct 19 2004, 4:52 pm
In response to Green Lime
Actually, it was just 1 icon_state with 1 dir. It was a top-down graphic, so I generated the dirs automatically.
Oct 20 2004, 3:32 am
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
Actually, it was just 1 icon_state with 1 dir. It was a top-down graphic, so I generated the dirs automatically.

O.O so you made 16 icon states each with 1 dir?

Then just changed the icon state instead of the dir?

Would that be more laggy than the 2 icons states with 8 dirs?
Oct 20 2004, 4:55 am
In response to Green Lime
No, I generated all the dirs when the world is created. I then added them to a list, and everytime needed, I took it from the list. It was simple, and a lot less work.
Oct 20 2004, 6:29 am
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
No, I generated all the dirs when the world is created. I then added them to a list, and everytime needed, I took it from the list. It was simple, and a lot less work.

But doing that would be the same as making 16 icon states each with 1 dir or 2 icon states with 8 dirs right?
Only difference is the work part.

I wounder, would generating them when the world is created have any difference in the rsc file than the 16 icon states? If so is generating the dirs when created better and cause less lag time than pre made dirs or more?

Cause when you create a dir its just added to the resource right?
Oct 20 2004, 6:39 am
In response to Green Lime
It's a lot less on the RSC load. BUT, it does take about 2 seconds to completely generate 16 directions. So less than 2 seconds of loading at world/New() beats 4 minutes of loading.
Oct 20 2004, 9:21 am
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
It's a lot less on the RSC load. BUT, it does take about 2 seconds to completely generate 16 directions. So less than 2 seconds of loading at world/New() beats 4 minutes of loading.

Umm lets say I had 2000 objects each with 32 dirs It would be better to do it rsc wise then right? Cause the loading time in world/New() would be too great.
Oct 20 2004, 9:40 am
In response to Green Lime
Woah, you have 2000 DIFFERENT objects? I haven't even come close to that in any of my projects.
Oct 20 2004, 9:50 am
Green Lime wrote:
I was woundering if I added more dir's to the .dmi icon file.

It can't be done.

Lummox JR
Oct 20 2004, 12:37 pm
In response to Lummox JR
Lummox JR wrote:
Green Lime wrote:
I was woundering if I added more dir's to the .dmi icon file.

It can't be done.

Lummox JR

Actually I tested it this morning at 8:32. It gave a strange byond bug error thingy. :) Thanks for posting though Lummox JR :)
Oct 20 2004, 12:42 pm
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
Woah, you have 2000 DIFFERENT objects? I haven't even come close to that in any of my projects.

Ive been working on it for 3 months. Then all of a sudden my comp died. Good thing I had a lot on paper. Currently Im in the stages of re doing it. Im around 98% sure my objects will reach into the 2k range.

Speeking of object range. Would you happen to know the limit for byond on objects?

Also have any clue whether it would be better for 2k objects with that many dir to be loaded when loading the rsc file than on world creation?
Oct 21 2004, 3:12 am
In response to Green Lime

following this thread I found no info excpet that it can be done. Well first off, what is the view of the game? If it's top down (directly overhead) you really don't (i believe) need to make all those directions.
Look up the Turn (icon) proc. make say NORTH be your 0. then break down 360 into how many directions you want. Let's take 32. that's broken down into degrees of 11.25(not fun...) Using turn you can then just turn the icon. In a top down view, the icon will still look the same. Then in the move proc(this would be the hard part) adjust the move based on the angle(you'd have to do the math)

There is a vehicle move demo out there that has 90 (I think)( different diretions you could move in. Check out the demo section.
Oct 21 2004, 6:45 am
In response to Crashed
Crashed wrote:
It's a lot less on the RSC load. BUT, it does take about 2 seconds to completely generate 16 directions. So less than 2 seconds of loading at world/New() beats 4 minutes of loading.

It may have a much smaller rsc file, but connected clients still need to download all the icons that you generate at runtime. In the end, the connected client eats the same bandwidth either way.

If it takes a while to render your extra icons, it's probably best to pre-render them and include them in your resource file. You can write a short BYOND program to do all the processing and use the ftp() proc to export the final result as a dmi file that you can include in your project.

If you set preload_resources properly, they won't need to download them until they see them, but the first time a player sees something with a resource that isn't downloaded, they won't be able to see it until the resource downloads.