RTC vs. DM Java

[14621]

I'm trying to decide which to use in making my dungeon. Do people play RTC because it's more faithful to the original, or are there other reasons? Do you have preferences which to use when playing custom dungeons? I'm interested in adding my own music, so I'm of course more interested in RTC, but is Java much more popular for playing custom dungeons? I guess the automap is useful for some types of dungeon. Any thoughts?

[beowuuf]

People seem to have issues installing DM Java, and some of the harsher elements of the engine (stamia loss, etc) have put people off.

Certainly RTC is the more popular engine if you go by the vocal minority wo make up the board. Whether this is really the case is another matter.

Also, Roquen was playing around with the DM Java engine so may hae a better version to play with. I do not kow how far he got with his project.

In the meantime, RTC does support a few features DM Java currently does not: logic processing through relays, multiple floor tiles possible, arbitrary container size, etc. And it does contain some features of DM Java like event windows being possible. However RTC's design methodology takes a bit of getting used to.

[linflas]

there have been lots of great new additions recently for DMjava but there hasn't been any custom dungeon for a long time.
most of recent custom dungeons were made on RTC engine : the editor simplicity and the immediate (sic!) result is probably the reason why most of designers choose it. I don't know what kind of complexity you want in your dungeon, but RTC provides new "actions" that i don't see on other engines, or you will have to *code* them.
as a normal player, DMjava is a little bit more compicated to install because of its prerequisites.

did you have a look at CSBwin and DSB ?

[ian_scho]

I suppose you could look at this from various angles, ask yourself what's important for you:

* Stable game engine!
* Graphics
* Easy to use editor or dungeon creation process
* Scripting / Modding - All have this but, each has advantages and disadvantages
* Portability - want it played on various platforms then DMJava (I hope!)
* Source - if there's a bug and the original engine author isn't active (you can nearly always get around these)...
* Community - some questions for an engine will get answered fast

I've spent hours with my head stuck in the DMJava editor and really enjoyed my time. I found a few bugs but no show stoppers. The RTC engine is just as fun, is better supported here, and IMHO it will offer you more possabilities if you don't want to change the DMJava source code.
I've become more engine agnostic now, and after playing/modding with DSB you change your style of dungeon to morph into what the game engine can provide.

[Roquen]

Heck. Even I don't know how far I've got!

[14621]

Thanks for all the replies. If nothing new and shocking comes up, I think I'll build my first dungeon with RTC, since I have already gotten rather used to it, and I have some grand plans involving the use of music, which may not be very cross-platform friendly anyway.

If someone is interested, this is what I used in the shortcut to DM Java:

"C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_12\bin\javaw.exe" -cp . dmnew
and
"C:\Dungeon Master Java"

I had some problems with it at first, too, but that works for me (I have win XP).

[Trantor]

It seems you already decided, but maybe it helps you to read that you made the correct decision in my mind. I only tried playing DMJ once - I didn't last 20 minutes. I was already mildly annoyed because of trouble installing it, and the gameplay with the high difficulty and tiny window (I never found an option to play in full-screen) quickly put me off. It felt too different from traditional DM and RTC (which is not identical to the original, but very close).

I can't speak of the two engines as a designer since I never looked into DMJ editing. But as a player, I much prefer RTC (and CSBWin and DSB, too!).

[14621]

A quick question about the RTC editor... How can I choose which doors are indestructible? I've assumed that strength 100% makes a door indestructible regardless of the material of the door, is this correct?

[Remma12]

Yes

[14621]

Thanks.

[Chaos-Shaman]

RTC engine ROCKS! no comparison

[Sophia]

Thanks for your detailed, objective analysis.

[linflas]

what is obvious about RTC is the number of custom dungeons that have been made with for a couple of years.

[Chaos-Shaman]

The engine is just so well done. You can do anything with it just about. The two years I've spent messing around with it has been nothing more than a fantastic voyage to me, almost as good as playing it... I hope to see lots of RTC dungeons. Thank goodness for the freeware gimp, with the many tutorials to help learn graphics that it has been fun. I started off knowing absolutey nothing, but the gui engine made it possible even for daroou to learn. I never would have even attempted any coding. Expect some screen shots of an RTC dungeon i'm working on soon.

[14621]

Haven't abandoned my dungeon project, but I'll prolly be taking a break for the summer.

[Duckman]

Hmm... RTC in overall is by far the best, mostly due it's possiblites, but DMjava is bit more simple to use (if you manage to install it thats it) and more powerful at some situations: it can add different items and mosters faster and make a bit different versions of them much more quickly (you do not have to make attack methods first for example). You also won't have to mess with all those offsets and co-oordinates when placing pits and stairs as the engine automaticly places another end for stairs. And one big thing: there will be no compiling errors in DMjava editor no matter what you do with it. General motto would be: DMjava editor for those who want to do much but don't have much experince, RTC for those who have some experince and want to do a bit more special but still fairly swiftly, DSB for very good editors who clearly value quality over quantity, and CSBwin builder if you want to do as original as possible. (DMute and DSB do original too but CSBwin is more effective and simpler to use)