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Render settings

Dink Render Settings

image

Here is a list of all the custom Dink Render properties and what they do.

Output Path

Self-explanatory. This is the base output directory where the script will save the rendered sprites. The actual sprite images will actually be saved in subdirectories based on the action names.

Name Format

Select the file name format to be one of the following:

  • 4 letter prefix, 1 digit - direction, dash, 2 digit - frame number
  • 5 letter prefix, 1 digit - direction, 2 digit - frame number

Example: sprt2-01.bmp vs sprit201.bmp

Sprite Prefix

All saved sprite images will have this 4/5 letter prefix to their name. Dink sprite names can be up to 8 characters long, but the last two are reserved for the frame ID, and we use one more for the direction ID digit.

The name of the Sprite Prefix gets limited to 4 or 5 characters based on the Name Format property.

Sprite Size X/Y

This sets the Output->Format->Resolution X/Y properties when rendering and defines the size of the sprite image.

Warning

Do not set the Output->Format->Resolution X/Y properties manually as they will get overwritten!

Sprite Ortographic Scale

This sets the Camera->Lens->Ortographic Scale property, which determines how big the sprite is in the rendered image.

A larger value results in a sprite that is zoomed out more, and a smaller value zooms in on the sprite.

Warning

Do not set the Camera->Lens->Ortographic Scale property manually as it will get overwritten!

Sprite Render Samples

This sets the Render->Render->Samples property. The higher the value, the smoother the sprite will be. The lower the value, the more pixelated the sprite will be.

Warning

Do not set the Render->Render->Samples property manually as it will get overwritten!

Output Format

You can select the classic BMP or PNG for more modern Dink engines that support PNG format. If you're using PNG, the sprite will have transparency, but the shadow will still be the good old grid shadow.

BMP Edge Filter Threshold

Ranges from 0.001 to 1.000, default value is 0.05

When saving BMP, you need to have hard pixels on the edges, not semi-transparent ones. This threshold changes a parameter in the compositing process that affects the edge pixel "hardening". Basically, the higher the value, the more of the sprite will be cut off when calculating edges. If you set it to 1.0 you will pretty much only end up rendering the shadow, and not the object.

Note

This property is only available when using BMP format!

Shadow Filter Threshold

Ranges from 0.001 to 1.000, default value is 0.92

Determines how much of the Shadow Catcher data is actually part of the dink pixel grid shadow. The lower the value, the more pixels get ignored. If this is too close to 1.0 you will end up with pretty much everything being part of the shadow!

Adjust this if needed.

Render Normal Shadow

This option is available when using PNG format. If enabled, it will render a regular plain normal shadow instead of the classic Dink grid pattern shadow.

Note

This property is only available when using PNG format!

Normal Shadow Amplifier

Ranges from 0.001 to 8.000, default value is 0.8

This option is available when using normal shadows with the PNG format. Increasing the value makes the normal shadow darker, while decreasing it makes it lighter. Adjust as desired.

Note

This property is only available when using PNG format with normal shadow enabled!

Normal Shadow Filter Threshold

Ranges from 0.001 to 1.000, default value is 0.02

This option is available when using normal shadows with the PNG format. It filters out some low value noise/parasite pixels from the shadow. Adjust if needed.

Note

This property is only available when using PNG format with normal shadow enabled!

Scene actions & Refresh Action List

This is a list of what actions from your blender file you want to render. You can untick the checkboxes if you don't want to render them.

Warning

Unfortunately, for now, the script does not automatically update the list when you create/import new actions, it only populates the list upon running the script. So if you added new actions, click the "Refresh Action List" to update it.

Render Sprites

There are 3 render buttons here.

  • Render All Directions - This does exactly what you think it does.
  • Diagonal Only (1379) - This renders only diagonal directions, aka directions 1, 3, 7 and 9
  • Straight Only (2468) - This renders only the straight/horizontal/vertical directions, aka directions 2, 4, 6, 8

After you start rendering, you can see the progress: image

Progress Bar

The progress bar is only available in Blender V4.0 or newer. In Blender V3.6 you will only see the progress text.

In Game Preview Example

To preview what the sprite would look like in-game, you can do a quick render with F12 to refresh the Compositing previews, then go to the Compositing workspace and check the Preview nodes of the In Game Preview Example group. They should show you what the sprite would look like in a DinkHD rendered screen from the Periculo Island DMOD, like so: image

You can also adjust the sprite position using the Translate nodes in the group.