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shoggothic
Hero
Joined: 03/29/2007
Location: United States
Posts: 78
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| Posted: 04/02/2007 at 12:17pm | IP Logged
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Hi all
I have been a lurker in the Dundjinni forums now for quite some time to observe the progression of the program and I would like to jump into this thing, but I had a reservation or two that I had hoped you could help clear up, being such the great support group that you are and all 
The map examples in the gallery all look great BUT, how many were touched up after the fact with other software (GIMP, Photoshop, etc.)? And do I need to have one of these programs to make a good map? I am not a programmer, and this has been the biggest reason why I haven't bought the program/art packs.
Many complain about slow reloading of the screen when populated with many placable objects, and I wanted to know if it is simply a RAM issue or a program issue?
Finally, with all the talk about a release of Dundjinni v2.0, should I just wait until then to pick up a copy or will it be 'backwards compatible' with the original Dundjinni?
Many thanks in advance!
Greg
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heruca
Janni (Moderator)
Joined: 09/28/2005
Location: Argentina
Posts: 6328
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| Posted: 04/02/2007 at 12:56pm | IP Logged
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Welcome, Shoggothic.
AFAIK, none of the gallery images have been retouched. You shouldn't NEED any other program to make decent maps, but they can be useful for adding lighting effects, cropping, resizing, and making your own art with transparency to add to DJ. I think DJ does a good job of letting you make decent maps on its own, even if you're not an artist.
Having lots of RAM and a decent CPU certainly helps the speed issue, although I don't think it's ever going to be a speed demon, due to DJ being a Java program.
I'm not sure what degree of backwards compatability there will be between DJ1 and DJ2. In any case, DJ2 is still a ways off, so if you need maps for your games NOW, it doesn't make too much sense to wait for DJ2.
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shoggothic
Hero
Joined: 03/29/2007
Location: United States
Posts: 78
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| Posted: 04/02/2007 at 3:04pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for responding so quickly Heruca!
It's good to know so many great maps are done entirely with DJ, that is very reassuring!
The user art is what has kept me coming back since the programs inception...I've even got all the art from GM's Parlor, and all the downloads of the week already! Just wanted to wait a while to see how it would pan out, and I have to say, it is the commitment of the user base that makes Dundjinni what it is today.
I'm sure I'll be posting some stuff for everyone to critique, and thanks again for the info.
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WayneFrancis
Janni (Moderator)
Joined: 08/31/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 962
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| Posted: 04/02/2007 at 5:08pm | IP Logged
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Let me make it clear what end touches are being done by some mapmakers in 3rd party programs like PS, Gimp, etc.
Some map makers like to do shadowing and special lighting effects in other programs. While this can make a map really jump out at you it is not needed to make a good map and you can even do similar effects in some situations within DJ. I may be missing something but you might even be able to do it completely within DJ.
For maps that don't use the built in raised walls feature you can use transparent textures to paint in shadows. I often use this technique outside to make the ground look a bit more realistic like this
Those dark patches are not post processing. In fact those dark patches would have been harder to do in GIMP/PS then in DJ. The same technique of using transparent wall textures can be used to create shadows that are very crisp at the edge or fuzzy, by using multiple textures at different levels of opacity.
Some people might say that they can do everything in PS so why use DJ? I asked the same thing to myself before buying DJ. The answer came down to speed for me. I could create maps much faster in DJ and if I needed to use PS or Gimp to do extra work on it. Many other people use the adventure writing tools in DJ which PS/Gimp can't do at all.
Memory does help a lot. And in these days where memory is so cheap in the skeem of things it is a wise investment. It will probably speed up your computer, for all applications, for the least amount of money if your computer has just the stock amount RAM that the vendor provides. If you are already at 2gig I’d start to question it but if you are still sitting at 512 or lower you’ll definitely benefit from it.
This isn’t only an issue with DJ. Many apps slow down with less memory. DJ more so because of the sheer volume of data it handles. While a full map may only take up just under 200meg there is a lot of buffering that needs to be done to layer object etc then you also need memory for the objects. In some of my work I can get programs like Corel’s PSP to complain there is not enough memory on my box which has 2gig of RAM and another 4gig of virtual memory.
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Kepli
Djinni (Admin)
Joined: 01/04/2005
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 16797
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| Posted: 04/03/2007 at 1:08am | IP Logged
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Hi Shoggothic,
Glad you decided to stop lurking and post your questions here too 
As you can see, the answers I gave you are practically the same ones Heruca and WayneFrancis gave you. Hope this will make you decide to buy DJ 
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SeekerOfPeace
Legend
Joined: 10/05/2006
Location: China
Posts: 412
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| Posted: 04/03/2007 at 2:13am | IP Logged
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Quote:
| The user art is what has kept me coming back since the programs inception...I've even got all the art from GM's Parlor, and all the downloads of the week already! Just wanted to wait a while to see how it would pan out, and I have to say, it is the commitment of the user base that makes Dundjinni what it is today. |
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Amen to that.
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feytharn
Hero
Joined: 01/29/2007
Location: Germany
Posts: 61
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| Posted: 04/03/2007 at 3:47am | IP Logged
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While many maps were modified, some are not. Perhaps it could be helpful for you, if some map designers could give a quick statement if they did or did not some graphic program on their maps, so you can take a look at those maps that were done exclusively with dundjinni to evaluate the quality of this tool. My maps for example are not retouched, although they rely heavily on user art - a big thank you to all contributors by the way...
Edited by feytharn on 04/03/2007 at 3:48am
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Bludragn
Legend
Joined: 02/02/2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2415
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| Posted: 04/03/2007 at 4:05am | IP Logged
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All my maps you see posted here are done only in Dundjinni with no post addons. I have used PSP if I found a small error of white spots I had to fix but that about it.
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Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums : Questions
Topic: To Dundjinni or Not to Dundjinni...
