Docking Station was designed to allow for easy expansion and development by users of the software.  You can learn more about the inner workings of DS at Creatures Developer Network and make new agents (objects in the DS world such as toys, machines, plants, etc.) to suit your needs or those of others.  The following development tools for Linux DS were developed by Meikel Brandmeyer and Tina Hirsch and can be found on their Tools Webpage.

C16 Converting Tools

These tools can be helpful when developing agents for Creatures or Docking Station.  You can use them to convert from a C16 file, a DS image file format, to PNG and back again.  It features a command line interface to be used from a shell.  Version 0.3, released 09/18/01, features support for S16 and BLK sprite files as well as experimental support for transparency.

Creatures Sprites - GIMP Plug-in

Creatures Sprites, a plug-in for the GIMP, introduces the loading and saving of different image formats used by Creatures3/DS.  It works under Linux as well as under Windows.

easyPRAY

An easy to use wizard for compiling agents for DS.  Used in combination with PRAYbuilder developed by Creature Labs.

gtkScriptorium

A developer's dream tool for browsing through the injected scripts in a running world.

maxiCAOS

This is a Perl-Script, which features a CAOS command line in a shell and thus can be brought up in a separate window from DS (it sure beats having to type shift-ctrl-c every time you need to use CAOS).  From the term window you can inject CAOS commands directly into the game.  It features a command line history and, if using Term::ReadLine::Gnu, you get command completion using the tab key.  Works like a charm. :-)

Vim Filetype Plugin

This is a filetype plugin for Vim 6.0.  It features auto indenting of CAOS source code, syntax highlighting and injection of code pieces into a running game.  Additionally you can get online help from the game by placing the cursor over the unknown command and pressing a hotkey (default: <M-m>), or you can search for the given word (default: <M-a>).

XEmacs Major Mode for CAOS

This tool for XEmacs features syntax highlighting, automatic source code indentation, PRAY Template generation and the ability to comment whole regions or single lines in and out with a simple key-stroke.

The following set of tools was developed by Mirality Systems.

Revelation

This is a console program that takes an .agents file, decompiles it and produces the sound, graphics and script files in a user specified directory.  Its use is left up to the ethics of the user.  Did I hear someone say "reverse engineer?" (grin)

Decompress

This is another console program that takes a compressed world data file, such as ~/.dockingstation/My Worlds/world name/SpaceAndAllThatIsOutThere and decompresses it.  Tinker away!

The following set of tools by Daniel Mewes are used for genetic engineering.

Live GMS

Finally, thanks to Daniel, we have a genetics editor for Linux.  This is an online gene editor that can be used with Docking Station as well as Creatures 3.  You can find it at Live GMS.

Insertgen

This is a simple shell script which inserts a genome into Docking Station using netcat to the CAOS injection port 20001.  After downloading from here, make sure the file is executable (chmod 755) and install it in /usr/local/bin or wherever you think best.  Type "insertgen GENOME SEX" at the command prompt, where GENOME is the genome's file name without .gen (must be placed in your creature's Genetics folder) and SEX is 0 for random, 1 for male and 2 for female.