making an rpg using gif

magickat · Post by **magickat** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 3:43 am

I'm stuck. I'm trying to use Tek's Tile Engine as my skeleton for a tile game I'm writing but I want to use gif graphics (I'm a crappy artist when it comes to making tiles outside of grass and dirt and simple trees). I also looked at code from a program called Ninja (a simple rpg that featured a ninja) that used gif graphics, but trying to combine the two is making my hair fall out. Is there a way I can do this or I have to write entirely new code? I can't think straight anymore. This has been giving me grief all week!!

lurah- · Post by **lurah-** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:33 am

Well, at this point it would probably be best choice to make your own code.
Combining two different programs that you dont know like your pockets is a _hard way_.

Neither of these programs you mentioned arent very familiar to me so probably some one disagrees totally

Mitth'raw'nuruodo · Post by **Mitth'raw'nuruodo** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:01 am

ya, you should never copy + paste.

Get ideas from other people's code then make your own to suite your needs.

As for making .gifs....is that your question? You don't have the skills to do it? Well there is a great tut on it on this site....forgot where it is, but just look for it. You'll find it.

Post by **Pete** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 12:08 pm

The best way to get around this problem is to use the GIF loader program you already have and load up your GIF images, and then once they're loaded, save them as regular BSAVE files. (You'll probably also have to save a palette file too so the colors don't get screwed up.)

Then when you load them into your RPG tile engine program, you can load normal BSAVEs without having to bother with GIFs -- which will take up more memory to load anyway.

{Nathan} · Post by **{Nathan}** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 3:11 pm

Pete... I guess great minds think alike.

*snickers at others*

Mitth'raw'nuruodo · Post by **Mitth'raw'nuruodo** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:31 pm

I resent that!

{Nathan} · Post by **{Nathan}** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:22 pm

Kidding, my dear watson, kidding! But really... I'm rather suprised that Pete was the first one to say that...

Again, I say: "If only I had gotton here earlier"

*gets idea for new sig*

lurah- · Post by **lurah-** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:16 am

Mitth'raw'nuruodo wrote:Get ideas from other people's code then make your own to suite your needs.

Yah, prolly the most important tip for new (and for older) coders

Nodtveidt · Post by **Nodtveidt** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 5:30 pm

Unless you have the time to delve into an LZW decompressor, writing your own GIF decoder is probably out of the question.

So using one already made is a better idea, mitth and lurah...

Post by **Pete** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:37 pm

Yeah, seriously.

Don't waste your time reinventing the wheel. If code is already written that does the job, don't rewrite it. Use it and give credit where credit's due.

If everyone wrote original code for every program they made, we would still be in the dark ages of computing.

MystikShadows · Post by **MystikShadows** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:22 pm

Would we really?

I believe that the driving force of computer creativity is in it's name..creativity. So sure there's alot of reasons not to reinvent the wheel...sorting algorithms, data structures standard screen drawing routines etc etc....but I say there's always room for improvement

....and if we just keep on using what's there, we don't move forward, we move sideways.

Nodtveidt · Post by **Nodtveidt** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:47 pm

The word "improvement" though focuses on something that already exists and making it better. Because of that, you can't improve on something which doesn't already exist. So an improvement in this case would be taking an existing GIF decompressor and making it faster, adding more supported features, etc. NOT rewriting the whole bloody thing from scratch just to end up with the same results as one that already exists. Making steel-studded tires from normal tires isn't reinventing the wheel, it's improving an existing wheel for your purposes. However, making rubber tires while ignoring the fact that everyone else already has rubber tires IS reinventing the wheel...literally. So why would you do it? And if you make your rubber tires better than the other rubber tires, then you've improved on something that already exists, even if you started from scratch, so you've not reinvented the wheel.

Mitth'raw'nuruodo · Post by **Mitth'raw'nuruodo** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:09 am

No. Nek, No.

Nice arguement, but no.

Improvement does have to do with something that already exsists and making it better. But you don't have to have it in order to improve it.

Your're talking about adding something to it there by improving it. But sometimes you don't need to do that.
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Now here's the philosophizing:

Now. Ok. There are many reasons to make something from scratch and to "reinvent" the wheel. MystikShadows already hit some good points but I'll do two:

1. You will get an understanding of how something works, thereby able to do #2.

This has always been a fear of many philosophizer peoples: That we will continually make stuff, then we will forget how we (meaning all people) made those things and we won't care how something works as long as it works.

We won't then be able to fix it, to make other and better things, to make more. etc. It is one of the things that will lead to our downfall, what happens if it all of a sudden got taken away?

2. The second thing: The thing that effects us today: What if something somebody make doesn't exactly do what we would want it to do? Then we could rebuild another one in order to mold it to our needs. But you call this reinventing the wheel.

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You know computers were already invented by the time ol' billy was around. What if he and that other guy whatshisname, thought why reinvent the wheel. Then oh! We wouldn't have the apple computer, which wouldn't have started the craze for information tech. and these computers wouldn't be here today.

But they did, and did it from scratch. and reinvented the wheel.

So it is good to do that.
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But you guys also have a point.

If I wanted to use windows, why not reinvent it? Yes sometimes you dont have the time, or don't want to. So it is good sometimes to use something with out reiventing it.

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Did I cover everybody?