Tutorials I could benifit from... in Design Philosophy

ID:153608
 
Aug 17 2003, 8:24 pm
I would like to see these tutorials, that will explain concepts that are foreign to me:



Random Dungeons *eyes splattergnome*


Pathing (Not finding paths, but following preset paths, and getting off of them sometimes, but after their done with whatever they are doing, finding their way back to the path and following the path again.)
#1 Aug 17 2003, 8:37 pm
#2 Aug 17 2003, 8:44 pm
In response to Garthor (#1)
Nice :) Thanks.
#3 Aug 17 2003, 10:33 pm
Maybe I'll write a "pathing"-type library for you. It won't be BYONDscape-worthy material, but future additions to it could make it so. I've been aiming to make a huge Pathfinding library anyway, so this could be one part of it.

I'll start when TextMUD 2b is out - probably within a week. Probably.

-LoW
#4 Aug 18 2003, 1:19 am
Adding to this list I want some tutorials based on icon manipulation, I understand swapcolor but things like blend and icon multiply are still beyond me.
#5 Aug 18 2003, 3:02 am
In response to Maz (#4)
Maz wrote:
Adding to this list I want some tutorials based on icon manipulation, I understand swapcolor but things like blend and icon multiply are still beyond me.

Icon manipulation creates a new icon out of two existing icons.

Blend:
ICON_ADD adds up the RGB values of both icons. Wherever one of the icons is transparent, the end result is transparent in that pixel. Adding an icon that is solid 255,0,0 (red) to an icon that is a dither-patterned (i.e. odd pixels are transparent) 0,0,255 (blue) will produce a dither-patterned icon that is coloured 255,0,255 (fuchsia).

ICON_SUBTRACT subtracts the second icon's RGB values from the first. Subtracting an icon that is solid 153,153,153 (grey) from an icon that is solid 255,0,0 (red) will produce a solid icon that is 102,0,0 (dark red, almost appearing brown).

ICON_OVERLAY draws the second icon over top of the first icon, replacing the pixels of the first icon with the second icon's. Unlike ICON_ADD and ICON_SUBTRACT, it doesn't care about the transparency of the first icon -- it only draws the second icon on top, and anywhere the top icon is transparent, the bottom icon shows through.
#6 Aug 18 2003, 4:15 am
In response to Kunark (#2)
I hope you'll stop eyeing me now, Kunark.

Kunark?

The dungeon generation matrix is over -there-, where Garthor is. Not over here. Look at Garthor. Not at me! At Garthor! Gah!

*runs away from Kunark*

splatty
#7 Aug 18 2003, 8:33 am
Kunark wrote:
Random Dungeons *eyes splattergnome*

http://roguelikedevelopment.org/development/

Although this was a convenient time for the server to go down again. You may have to wait an unspecified amount of time before its back up.
#8 Aug 18 2003, 9:04 am
In response to Spuzzum (#5)
I'm curious. how is ICON_MULTIPLY different from ICON_ADD?

Anyway:
You can use the shift() procedure on icon datums to shift it like while in the icon editer.
Turn() will also do a good job like in rotate. (as an added tip always turn from a fresh icon. Never turn an icon twice. The distortion starts to get very bad)
I'm not sure about flipping.

A utility I would like- A program that takes an icon with a single icon state ('90') and it rotates it a specified number of degrees having each icon_state in that icon be the degree level.
This would help with non-pixel based movement.
#9 Aug 19 2003, 11:03 pm
In response to Exadv1 (#8)
Exadv1 wrote:
I'm curious. how is ICON_MULTIPLY different from ICON_ADD?

ICON_MULTIPLY multiplies the RGB values, while ICON_ADD just adds them. =) In practice, this means that ICON_ADD operations leave the resulting icon looking more "washed out" than ICON_MULTIPLY operations do.
#10 Aug 20 2003, 8:54 am
In response to Crispy (#9)
Crispy wrote:
Exadv1 wrote:
I'm curious. how is ICON_MULTIPLY different from ICON_ADD?

ICON_MULTIPLY multiplies the RGB values, while ICON_ADD just adds them. =) In practice, this means that ICON_ADD operations leave the resulting icon looking more "washed out" than ICON_MULTIPLY operations do.

One thing that should be said is that ICON_MULTIPLY can't be compared to ICON_ADD, but rather to ICON_SUBTRACT. Multiplying a grey 153,153,153 icon by red 255,0,0, will make a deep red 153,0,0 icon. In other words, ICON_MULTIPLY acts as a ratio, where 0 destroys all of that colour, and where 255 keeps all of it. (In that example, the red colour was kept because it was 255, but the other colours were destroyed.)

As for the "washed out" statement, that's true. I should mention that there are plenty of viable uses for ICON_SUBTRACT, though. The fading can sometimes be a desired effect (especially for things like tinted pottery, glass, cement, etc.). =)


That does make me wonder how someone would go about desaturating (or even saturating) an icon in BYOND, however (in case you're wondering, desaturating means making the colours less vibrant, until, eventually, it reaches greyscale -- saturating is the opposite, and makes colours brighter and more vibrant). (Desaturation works wonders when creating graphics for modern cities and the like. So does applying a layer of blurred white noise (the "black and white ants" your TV sometimes shows), to make things appear weathered.)
#11 Aug 23 2003, 7:20 pm
Another tutorial that would greatly benefit the BYOND community is a tutorial on laws, especially copyright laws. Many BYONDers seem to be able to figure out how to make verbs and declare vars, but knowledge of copyright laws is still, uh, beyond most BYONDers.
#12 Aug 23 2003, 11:47 pm
In response to OneFishDown (#11)
I dont think it would be too helpful. Most people either dont care about copyright laws, or belive that a disclaimer legalizes anything they do (and a tutorial on the subject wouldnt change it, because "my friend said it really does").
#13 Aug 24 2003, 8:57 am
In response to DarkView (#12)
There's also the little problem of laws being different depending on the country. You'd need a LOT of different tutorials.
#14 Aug 24 2003, 12:10 pm
In response to Jon88 (#13)
Jon88 wrote:
There's also the little problem of laws being different depending on the country. You'd need a LOT of different tutorials.

Not really. Copyright follows the laws of the country it is established in; failure to comply can create an international incident, which means you'd be responsible for paying the other country's, your country's, your prosecutor's, and your defense lawyer's legal fees, in addition to whatever settlement is reached, if a settlement is even reached. You might say that copyright laws in other countries are even more binding than local copyright laws, because you have to worry about the costs incurred by the countries as well.

International copyright law is pretty simple: if it's not yours, then don't try to use its intellectual property, unless you're citing a tiny snippet as part of an example.
#15 Aug 24 2003, 12:20 pm
In response to Spuzzum (#14)
Oh great, so this means I have to abide by the DMCA when dealing with anything american?? >:( http://www.anti-dmca.org/