Help:Images

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THIS IS ALL PLACEHOLDER OH GOD PLEASE LOOK AWAY IT'S NOT READY YET!!! Welcome to the help section about Images. Most of the content here assumes you've already read the basic rundown on images in the starter guide.

Images

You probably already know what an image is, in fact you've probably seen plenty of those on the way to this guide. In regards to the wiki images serve to both provide visual context to information and to help break up that information into something more meaningfully digestible and readable. Obviously the media you upload and use should be both relevant to what you're writing about and overall useful to the reader. It should also follow some standards to make sure it remains consistent with the rest of the images on the wiki.

Supported File Types

• .png - The standard and usually preferred image format for most stuff like sprites.
• .jpg - A comparatively lossy format that reduces file size compared to png. Ideally these are used for large screenshots, photographs, or art.
• .gif - This filetype is mostly used for media that's animated, like sprites that animate over time. See below to make sure you get the best possible quality out of this format.

How to Upload

There is only one way to upload to the wiki, but there are two methods to reaching the means to do so:

1. Click Upload file on the left side of the screen.
2. Click a red link (also known as a broken link). This has the added benefit of filling out the filename for you.

Once you're on the upload page, hit the Browse button to select the file you want to upload, in this case an image that is hopefully supported. Afterwards just set the filename to something relevant to the image (ex. uploading a picture of a toolbox sprite, you'd just name it toolbox or maybe even btoolbox if the toolbox is blue). If the image you're uploading is a sprite then the sprite probably already has a name, and those are probably fine to leave alone. After that give it a summary describing it if you want (makes it easier to look up if we need to find it), then hit Upload file at the bottom. Assuming you didn't get an error then congratulations, that image is on the wiki and hopefully won't sink us due to licensing! Lastly, you should always try to make an effort to make sure the image/sprite - or an older/outdated version of it - doesn't already exist on the wiki. If it does then you should overwrite the existing one, unless it's exactly the same (the wiki will tell you this).

What to Upload

As stated above, you should only be uploading content that is relevant to what you're writing about. If you're writing about a compendium of items then you'd probably be uploading their respective sprites, but if you plan to upload every single sprite in the game to add next to every mention of those respective items on every wiki page then that's something you can save your breath on; we'd rather you not. If you're uploading sprites, please make sure they are the original sprites in their original resolution. For lore articles, art, diagrams, and infographics do wonders to help sell to the reader what you're writing about and to put things into context. Now, onto the big disclaimer:

Licensing and Use

Please only upload media that's from Space Station 13, Aurora Station, or relevant to Aurora's lore and that it is your work, is compatible with our license, or you have permission to use the work from the author. Any media that does not follow this is infringement and must be removed. There's no way around this, no matter how cool some random art you found on the internet looks and how it would serve the page you're writing about.

The 520 Error

Basically means you aren't allowed to upload a picture to the wiki. Ask a maintainer to review the media to be uploaded and they'll do it for you.

Wiki Usage

Putting an image on the wiki is as simple as typing [[File:Yourfilenamehere.png]], and your image will appear where you typed it! Obviously it'll look a bit strange or even out of place, but we can use the methods below to get it looking right!

Syntax

The usual syntax for getting an image to display looks like the following:

[[File:Yourfilenamehere.ext|option|option|option|Your caption here]]

Options/captions aren't always necessary but can help expand the function of your media, and are always separated by vertical bars. Ideally all options are kept lower case (except the caption):

• Format can be any of the following to help render the media a certain way on the page:
  • border - adds a small gray border around the image.
  • frame - adds a noticeable frame around the image, which can also render the caption, and also defaults the picture to the right side of the screen.
  • frameless - tends to size things down while respecting aspect ratio.
  • thumb - similar to frame but it keeps things small.
• Resizing is useful for scaling images on the wiki instead of uploading larger/smaller versions of your pictures, especially for scaling sprites up.
  • (width)px - typing in a number where (width) is will scale the image by its width, while keeping the vertical dimension unlocked.
    • For sprites that are 32x32 in resolution, using 64px will scale them up to 64x64, doubling its resolution.
  • x(height)px - similar to the first option, but it scales off of height instead of width. Width is still unlocked.
  • (width)x(height)px - this is used to fine tune the dimensions of an image, regardless of aspect ratio.
    • You can make an image look like spaghetti this way if you set one of the dimensions to 1. Don't do that though.
  • upright - attempts to resize an image to something reasonable, according to user preferences (which no one uses and you shouldn't change otherwise things might break).
• Horizontal Alignment is for when you want to dictate which side of the page you want the image to render, based on where it's typed.
  • left, right, center, and none are your options. Text will try to wrap around the image at all times.
• Link is where you want the image to take the reader if they click on it. By default clicking on an image will take you to the image's file page. You have two options:
  • link=Some Page - will take you to a page named Some Page when clicked.
  • link= - will take you nowhere if you click on the image.
• Caption is another option type that doesn't actually require anything special to initiate, just type whatever you want after a vertical bar and it'll appear one way or another.

How to Obtain Media

Ensure you've read the license blurb towards the top of this page before grabbing any relevant media you wish to use. If you are getting sprites from the server's files or taking screenshots of the game yourself then you can mostly ignore that bit. With that out of the way, this section mostly details grabbing relevant media from the game itself, whether it be sprites or screenshots, not necessarily about getting images from the internet that are compatible with the wiki's license for a lore page.

From the Files

If you're looking for a single sprite to upload to the wiki then you can retrieve it from the game's files yourself by downloading the code and extracting it from the relevant Dream Maker Image files (DMI).
In practice this is done by opening the Dream Maker Environment file (DME) and navigating to the DMI that holds the sprites you want.

Importing images from game to wiki

Turning sprites from .dmi to .pngs that can be used in the wiki is a relatively straightforward process. Prerequisites are Dreammaker and Paint.NET - the latter will be explained in the following instructions.

0. If you haven’t yet, download the codebase from our Github.

It is recommended, but not necessary, to use a Git client to download it - it will help in keeping it updated and prevent using outdated sprites!

1. In the files, search for the .dmi that contains your sprite.

Given that DMIs are functionally sprite atlases you aren't going to find an image easily unless you already know what DMI it belongs to.
Thankfully it's easy to find out assuming you already know the exact name of the object in game:
GitHub's search feature is robust enough that looking up the full name of an object will usually lead you to its defining entry. It will hopefully include what DMI it belongs to and what the sprite's actual name is.
If the icon variable points to 'icons/obj/tools.dmi', then that's the directory you would navigate to in order to get the sprite you want.

2. Right click and Export the sprite as a .png to somewhere easily accessible.

Be sure to export as a .png! If not, you can always rename the file extension. Depending on the sprite you are exporting, you may have to take some things into consideration.

• No directions, no animation - There shouldn't be any problems, just export as normal.
• Directions, no animation - In this case, you should be safe just right click exporting like normal since all sprites will be rendered facing south by default. Just make sure you don't export as a GIF, otherwise it'll do funny things.
• Coloring - For some sprites, they won't come colored - this mainly applies for recolorable clothing, but it is acceptable to post in greyscale. However, for tools, it may be not. BYOND applies color through MULTIPLY, which Paint.NET conveniently has. This can be selected through blending mode. For the color hexes, find the color defines used.
• Disassembled - Sometimes, sprites are split apart for arcane reasons, likely to take advantage of overlays and coloring. You likely shouldn’t face problems here, but reading through code will help. Mimicking the in-game sprite is also acceptable. Feel free to assemble the sprite in any way you like; in Dream Maker or otherwise, however the former does not have layers to work with!
• Transparency - This one you'll have to keep an eye out for. You can easily check this in Dream Maker using the eyedropper tool - the Alpha value on the left will be below 255! Make sure that the .png exported has the transparency transferred proeprly - you can check this by opening the image in Paint.NET.

Importing animated images from game to wiki

Getting animated images and sprites from the game files to the wiki follows the same process as normal images, mostly.
If the animation contains everything needed, then the process is the same as above except the DMI needs to be saved/exported as a .gif instead of a .png.
The additional item needed for this is just the Agif extension for Paint.NET.

1. Export the animated DMI sprite as a .gif.

Be sure to export as a .gif! If not, you can always rename the file extension.

Depending on the sprite you are exporting, you may have to take some things into consideration.

• Animation, no directions - This can also be exported with the same normal method, you just need to export it in a format that is allowed to animate, namely GIF. Technically PNGs can animate but BYOND cannot export animations to that format.
• Animation and directions - This is the case you have to look out for. You'll have to double click the sprite to enable editing, then right click the direction preview states in the top left and export them as GIFs that way. If you try to use the normal method then BYOND will try to export every frame of animation in every possible direction in sequence, which looks very strange and is probably what you don't want to happen.
• Overlays and Transparency - For sprites with an animated overlay/underlay and/or with transparency, extra steps are needed.

2. Export the static DMI sprite as a png (If it has a static image as a base.)

3. Rename the animated DMI sprite to .agif instead of .gif

This is essential for this process to work. If you don’t change the extension to .agif, the file will open as the first frame and the first frame alone.

4. Open both files in paint.net

Open both in separate tabs as opposed to add layers. If you choose the second option, Paint.NET will place a white background at a way larger canvas size.

5. The animated sprite should have multiple layers named “Frame N // NNN ms”. Leave these alone for now and add an extra layer.

6. Drag this new layer to the bottom and name it “Background // UseAsBackground”

The “// UseAsBackground” will make this layer automatically present on every frame.

7. Copy the static sprite and paste it on the Background layer

Most if not all sprites that use an animated overlay align perfectly, meaning you don’t need to move around anything. If the alignment is off, however, move the static sprite, not the animated sprite.

8. If the animation reverses at the end, add “// Reverse” to the last frame name.

“Frame 8 // 250ms” would become “Frame 8 // 250ms // Reverse”.

9. Save the file using the “AGIF - AGIF Animations and Images” extension. This will automatically make it a .gif.

A dialogue box will appear when you save the file. The default settings are fine so don’t worry about adjusting those. If you want to preview the animation to make sure it is working, press the preview button.

Addendum

If the export went well then the sprite should look exactly how it looks in game, and also very small at 32x32 resolution (or whatever the sprite's original dimensions are; there are exceptions!). Unless it already exists on the wiki, you can probably just upload it as is with the same filename.

Notice: The DMI editor in the current version of Dream Maker is broken for NVIDIA graphics cards because of an error in its hardware acceleration features. This shouldn't meaningfully impact extracting sprites, but this info may be pertinent to know if sprites appear blank in some places. The only workarounds for this - if it truly matters to you - is to either use an older version of BYOND or get Dream Maker to use your iGPU, assuming you have one.

From Screenshots

You can find these options in the top left of your screen.

If what you're trying to write about can't be conveyed with sprites alone then you may need to resort to taking screenshots. Screenshots are most applicable for when you're trying to describe the setup of a room, if you need a picture of a player wearing clothes, or if you need to take a picture of a UI window popup. If the image you're trying to get isn't strictly about or from the game then the standards here are a bit more lax. Lastly you should try to compile the code and host it yourself to obtain the sprites without the usual round-to-round interference, among other reasons. Nonetheless, here are some of the steps you should follow if you are trying to obtain pictures from your BYOND client:

• Playing as a ghost/observer allows for greater freedom to screenshot; you can ghost (with the Aghost verb) freely if you set yourself as an admin on a private server.
  • Along with this, your screenshots should be taken without lighting using the Toggle-Darkness verb.
• Set your icon scale to 32x32 (see picture).
• Set icon stretching to Normal.
• Click File and press Quick Screenshot (or press F2).
  • Quick screenshots go to your document folder's BYOND directory.

This method will make your playable window very small and, as a result, give you a screenshot in its truest dimensions; 32x32 sprites will occupy 32x32 dimensions in the screenshot exactly. The following section will explain some standards to adhere to while cropping the image down to be suitable for the wiki.

Image Editing

Before we begin editing your screenshot, you should first get a capable image editing program. MS Paint is not suitable unless you enjoy agony, so you should get either Paint.NET or GIMP to save yourself the trouble if you somehow don't have either of them already. From there, you should try to edit the image down to only what is relevant. Here are some standards:

• Pictures of mobs should be of the mobs only: manually remove any other sprites like the floor yourself.
• Unless relevant to what you're writing about, the screenshot should be taken with lighting/shadow effects removed (no darkness).
  • This is accomplished by using the Toggle-Darkness verb as a ghost.
• The final image should have dimensions that are multiples of 32x32.

See Also

The File List