Wtf... Byond Icon Formats?

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May 2 2010, 5:15 pm
Pmitch wrote:
Geldonyetich wrote:
Any good guides around here about importing from Photoshop?

You can import Pngs jpgs and gifs into DM, if thats what you're asking. I dont know about PSDs though. Id just save the file as any of the other file extensions i listed.

I think what I'm mostly curious about is how it handles the parsing of animations into frames.
May 2 2010, 5:29 pm
Neblim wrote:
Pmitch wrote:
Again, you're not restricted to 32x32 in DM, and you verywell could use it as a serious development tool, and be good at pixel art.

No, but the zoom feature can be a problem like you mentioned. If you cannot see it, then it's pointless.

It is naive to think you need a bunch of tools to do pixel art or that DM, or even MS Paint are for beginners. You dont need layers, bezier curves or any of that stuff.

You don't need a bunch of tools. You have the LUXURY to use OTHER tools. I have found such tools to prevent a headache I could have had in DM. I didn't say you would be a pixelated god for using them. While getting use to a more advanced graphics program you can expand your artistic abilities other than pixel art as well. DM is where you cannot. You may not want to now, but if you're serious in art at all you will prefer Photoshop over it. While you wasted all your time not learning the Macros, drawing in DM or paint, you could have sped up your work process with something more advanced.

Well yeah, as a more advanced development tool, Photoshop is indeed better than MS paint and DM. This is not about whether photoshop is better than DM or not. The bottom line is, you can be serious about pixel art, and competantly use DM, and be just as good as someone using Photoshop. The Program does not make the artist.

DM is for pixel art and only pixel art, that is a given.
May 2 2010, 5:55 pm
DivineTraveller wrote:
I don't know why you wouldn't; it's handy, has a reasonable amount of tools, and it's zoomed in based on your constraints (except with the recent additions of larger palettes; zooming on on those would be a blessing, too, *sigh*)

Because it sucks?
May 2 2010, 6:52 pm
Please post a bug report and we can try to fix this. AFAIK, the icon editor should be reasonably stable and I have not heard of this particular issue.

As far as the editor goes, we do have plans to update it at some point (better palette, scalable canvas). It will never be perfect for detailed editing but I think that even in its current form it is fairly intuitive for typical 8-bit sprites. The intent of the current DMI format is such that it can be loaded directly into the majority of graphics programs so that people feeling limited by DreamMaker can use a program of their choice.
May 3 2010, 12:36 am
http://www.byond.com/members/TheMagicMan/files/watdo.png

$10 if you guess what they were made with.

Also, I'll add this.
I have known various professional pixel artists in the past. Most of them prefer to use simpler programs than stuff like Photoshop.
One of them even used MS Paint.

You don't need stuff like Photoshop for pixel art. It is big, bulky, and overly complex, and offers nothing of real use in exchange for this.
Unless you specifically find a need to use photoshop filters in pixel art (which I honestly doubt).

Even this
http://files.byondhome.com/TheMagicMan/mspainted.png
Which a friend of mine drew was done in MS Paint.
May 3 2010, 2:41 am
http://www.byond.com/members/ DreamMakers?command=view_tracker_issue&tracker_issue=1344

Unless you started messing with the icons after the glitch occurred the data should still be there.
May 3 2010, 5:56 am
The Magic Man wrote:
http://www.byond.com/members/TheMagicMan/files/watdo.png

$10 if you guess what they were made with.

Also, I'll add this.
I have known various professional pixel artists in the past. Most of them prefer to use simpler programs than stuff like Photoshop.
One of them even used MS Paint.

You don't need stuff like Photoshop for pixel art. It is big, bulky, and overly complex, and offers nothing of real use in exchange for this.
Unless you specifically find a need to use photoshop filters in pixel art (which I honestly doubt).

Even this
http://files.byondhome.com/TheMagicMan/mspainted.png
Which a friend of mine drew was done in MS Paint.

First time i think ive ever completely agreed with you.
May 3 2010, 8:31 am
Heh, well... this problem seemed to happen on a 32x32 file as well. I have a routine where I use CCleaner daily, to rid of garbage on my PC. So I'm positive it's nothing to do with my computer overall. I guess I'll just make a bug report, but I do almost EVERYTHING within Dream Maker. Only time I use Photoshop is when I'm creating layers for my base (clothes, etc..)
May 3 2010, 10:09 am
I'm no master pixel artist myself, but I get by.

There is one thing I don't like to do in Dream Maker's pixel editor, and that's 45 degree rotations on a top-down icon.

That being because Dream Maker doesn't do 45 degree rotations, because they don't make any sense from a program logic standpoint. You end up with a lot of sheered-off pixels. You can rotate the icon via a icon.Turn() call, but it doesn't look right for this reason.
        proc/SouthTo8DirIcon()

            /* I should add some code here to check to see if this particular icon has already been created against a global
               list of already instantiated icons and, if so, simply return that. */

            var/icon/baseIcon = new()
            var/icon/changeIcon
            var/icon/changeIconDiag

            for (var/thisState in icon_states(icon))

                changeIcon = icon(icon,thisState)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIcon,icon_state=thisState,dir=SOUTH)
                changeIcon.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIcon,icon_state=thisState,dir=WEST)
                changeIcon.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIcon,icon_state=thisState,dir=NORTH)
                changeIcon.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIcon,icon_state=thisState,dir=EAST)

                /*
                  Some pixelation is inevitable in the case of turning an icon any degree that is not a multiple of 90,
                  but this can be minimized by performing a slight thickening of the icon.  A pixel thicker may not
                  even be noticed by most players' eyes, but if so you could promote uniformity by also thickening the ones above.
                */

                changeIcon.Turn(90) // Return changeIcon to the default facing of south.

                // Blending together icon with one shifted a pixel out of place.
                changeIcon.Shift(NORTH,1)
                changeIconDiag = icon(icon,thisState)
                changeIconDiag.Blend(changeIcon,ICON_OVERLAY)

                changeIconDiag.Turn(45) // Turn so it's now diagonal, then it's back to business as usual.

                baseIcon.Insert(changeIconDiag,icon_state=thisState,dir=SOUTHWEST)
                changeIconDiag.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIconDiag,icon_state=thisState,dir=NORTHWEST)
                changeIconDiag.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIconDiag,icon_state=thisState,dir=NORTHEAST)
                changeIconDiag.Turn(90)
                baseIcon.Insert(changeIconDiag,icon_state=thisState,dir=SOUTHEAST)

            icon = baseIcon


That code works, but I'm going to have to get rid of it - it's just too ugly and inefficient. Enter a nice graphics modifying program, like Photoshop, to do a 45 degree rotation for me. No problem - it'll do a bunch of ghosting to make it look right.

Of course, if you have a 3D art program, you could also do something pretty cool that they were doing at about the time these programs were starting to become available. Have a 3D model made, and take shots of the model in various perspectives, and these become your sprites.

Now that we're making the jump to isometric support, I think we should start seeing more of these.
May 3 2010, 11:22 am
Paint, Graphics Gale, and Gimp. You should check them out sometime. I wonder what caused your base to format though. Either way let this be a lesson to back your art work up occasionally
May 3 2010, 2:22 pm
You may be able to recover this. Try out this! (The second line is indented once and first line is plain but spacing somehow I think got messed up)

client/verb/getfile()
 src << ftp('my icon.dmi')


Put that verb into the game with the icon file name, run it, save the file somewhere else like on your desktop! You should probably be able to recover it!
May 3 2010, 2:30 pm
Darkjohn66 wrote:
You may be able to recover this. Try out this! (The second line is indented once and first line is plain but spacing somehow I think got messed up)

> client/verb/getfile()
>  src << ftp('my icon.dmi')
>

Put that verb into the game with the icon file name, run it, save the file somewhere else like on your desktop! You should probably be able to recover it!

That makes the assumption that he was actually compiling the icon to save it, instead of just saving it. Also, that assumes that he didn't compile after it got lost.
May 3 2010, 4:07 pm
damn that sucks bro. that happen to me 3 times before. it was on a 64x64 though instead of 32x32.
I started to save every frame ever since
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