A 16-bit Color Switch

Just thought I would share this really quick in case it helps anyone.

In most cases, when you go to run DS under windows, your computer will tell you to switch to 16-bit color if you haven't. This can be pretty frustrating, especially if you prefer to stay in 32-bit color. I recently went searching for a way to fix this, and this is what I came across. Of course, try this at your own risk; everyone's computer setup is different and I only know what works for me, so don't hold me responsible if you screw up your computer.

There's a little command-line application called QRes that makes switching color-depth from the command line possible. Download it, put the exe somewhere (I just put it under C:\ for sake of ease), and create a batch file (that is, a plain text file with the extension changed to .bat, see this guide for more info if you've never created batch files before) with the following simple text:

C:\qres.exe /C:16
engine.exe
C:\qres.exe /C:32

Obviously, if you don't put qres.exe in C:\, you'll have to change those paths to match. Save the batch file in your DS folder, and create a shortcut to that batch file on your desktop, start menu, wherever you want it, and run DS from that shortcut whenever you want to play.

If all goes well, your screen will flicker a bit as it changes to 16bit color, and then DS will start. After you exit DS, you'll get more lovely screen flickers as your screen changes back to 32bit. Then you can carry on as normal.

This works great for me under Windows 7, and I imagine it would work fine for older versions too, but I haven't tested it outside of my specific situation.

If you have any problems feel free to mention them here-- I might not be able to answer them but I'm sure there are people in the CC that know more about this stuff than me. Maybe this will spark people to come up with an even nicer solution.

Quick note regarding the GB forums.

So um. I guess at you guys have probably noticed by now, I uh, didn't really have the motivation to get anything CCSF-related done. Sorry ._.

But it's been brought to my attention that the Garden Box forums have been broken, for... months. You guys need to tell me these things, or I will never know to fix them ._.

Anyway, until I can figure out how to get the activation emails to send again, I've disabled the activation requirement and am instead keeping out spambots with a question-answer captcha detailed in this post.

I've also wiped all inactive accounts so if you created an account during the "broken" period and never got an activation email, you'll have to re-register.

If you guys have any problems, leave me a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Of Anticlimaticity

Well. This is not as explosively awesome as I originally imagined it, but hey, looking back on it, it's come pretty far.

Garden Box Central is now open to the public. Despite there not being a lot of agents, there are plenty of development resources to (hopefully) stop that from being the case for too long. It is what you guys make it. Have fun!

Note: If you're getting an SQL error, just wait a bit-- it usually resolves itself. If it continues to be a problem, I'll figure something else out. The world will not end.

Here is another post with just a video.

Alright, progress is being made. They're awfully cute, aren't they? Even when they're all killing each other, they're cute.

Would you guys mind a Garden Box release with like... just a few patch plants and decorations and these guys? I know the polls said otherwise but I'm not sure I trust my tendency to burn out enough to carry through with my original plan of having like, the entirety of C3 life included >:

Seriously, what was I thinking. "Oh sure, I can totally do amazing conversions of every single plant and animal by myself in a reasonable amount of time; I can also eat four-million sandwiches, and conquer China." Something like that.

I guess I tend to bite off more than I can chew sometimes. Maybe.

Well... um...

I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen.


Hi guys. I'm not dead, just been struggling with uh... severe CAOS burnout. I thought maybe if I did something really cute and silly like play with gnarler-scripts, I could ease myself back into it. We will see where this goes.

I kind of miss Hera too, so maybe something about that will be forthcoming.