Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum

I like it a lot as well.   

I agree with almost everything durnurd wrote.  Although no sound I don't mind since I have no room to talk as I haven't entered the world of putting sound in my games either.  But i plan on composing some midis soon, and recording some sound effects.  ( I like to try to use my own work when possible)

Also, reading durnurd's post about spacebar beforehand helped me past that small frustration quickly.

I enjoyed it a lot, and I was even on the phone through many of the levels, (easy to play one handed:))   I thought I was going to get though it all without diieing, but I died in the late teens somewhere, then edited the project to restart at that level, and played through to the last level.  I had to restart the last level a few times because I got stuck, then a few times because some of the crates would fall through platforms instead of riding on them, but I finnally figured it out and got to the end.

All in all, I would say its a great project, a few minor tweaks here and there and it could be one of the most simple yet complete and entertaining projects on the list.   
I'd be interested in any other projects you would care to share.

A little side note on design with SGDK in general.  I think you could avoid a lot of the busy work with sprites, collisions, and special functions if you did one of several things.  You could have made all the levels on 1 or 2 maps (one for scrolling and one for non-scrolling) and reused all the sprite templates, collision definitions, and special functions.  OR, You could also have made 1 fully functioning map with all necessary templates, collisions, and special functions and then copied and renamed the .map file 25 times and added them all to the projected by editing the .gdp file. (this is very easy to do)  Then edited the content of the maps as normal.

It probably depends on how realistic you want it.

I'm assuming you want a super metroid or super castlevainia like grapling hook, and not just a simple ladder creator.

Going for a realistic look, where the player swings a semi circle around a fixed point (where the hook is attached)  you are talking some pretty complicated scripting.

Once the grapling hook sprite contacts the attach tile or sprite, I would switch the player sprite template to inert and start controling everything through script, including gravity.  You would have to store variables for rotational velocity that is effected only by the left right keys and gravity.  Just to display the rope you would need a 36 state rope sprite who's state and location are both controled by player location in script.  When the player lets go of the button that holds the player to the hook, the sprite could switch back to SGDK control after the appropriate velocity is set (which is determined by rotational velocity and relative position or angle to the center point of the semi circle)

The things that can complicate it are numberous.  keeping collisions with sprites and solidity with tiles.  A varying sized rope controled by player (up and down keys)  Even the interaction between the grapling hook and the hook-to tile could be tricky.  Another issue I noticed is the inability to us some keys when holding down 2 arrow keys at the same time, so the good ol computer keyboards as in input device might stop us here.

I might try to tackle it someday when i start my side scroller, but i could see it taking me weeks to implement.


Going the simple route:
If you are going for no player control or eye candy, it would be pretty staight forward to just have a tile interaction between the hook sprite and the hook-to tile that starts a series of special functions that have the player swing through the air in 2 or more graphic frames and land safely on the other side every time, but that wouldnt be too much fun:)

Without a hub switch or router, you will need a cross over cable

a crossover cable is the same as a network or eithernet cable except that 2 wires are crossed.  You can pick one up at your local computer store.  If you don't have one, you can try the regular network cable but it probably won't work.

Assuming both computers have a network card or onboard network, just plug each computr in each end of the crossover cable.

In 98 i think you have to load tcp/ip and make both computers the same workgroup.  Share something out on both of them to make sure you can access each computer.  If you have a firewall, be sure to disable or allow open access from each other's IP.


Hope I didnt make it sound too hard

Thanks for the code, It works perfectly.

After trying it out a few times, I see that using the make command is just as easy as using the run command, except the lack of keyboard shortcut.

There is also a "make project" command which does the exe and dll at the same time, so the binary compatability thing shouldn't be something to worry about as far as design is concerned.  I think I know how to do it though, edit the .dll properties for binary compatiability to the last version.

Another interesting thing I noticed is how much faster the code executes.  I had a debug mode that collected a lot of data and drew it on the screen every frame.  When entering this mode, I would get about a 1/2 drop in framerates in the IDE.  With the compiled dll there is not even a noticable slowdown not even a studder, ever.

I knew a compiled dll would be faster, and i've seen it increase performance in another project, but I never noticed this much before.

I have even been designing this project from the begining to run at 30 fps since there was going to be so much per frame code and action, I didn't want any slowdowns.  It looks like a might be able to go back to 60 if I desire    

Thanks for the help.

I grabbed it from your msn link. :?   I figured the return message was becuase I tried to send it with an attachment the first time.

anyways, hopefully you get it now, I PMed you.

Thanks for the help ahead of time.

I just sent you a link.  Thanks for the help.

One of those errors that I don't understand.  I want enemies and the player to flash for a few frames whenever they get hurt.  I used the hurt demo as a reference and pasted it into my vb6.0 project and changed all the variable names and made it universal to work on any sprite:Public Sub DrawHurtTilesOverSprite(ByVal Spr As Sprite)
  Dim TS As TileSetDef
  With Spr
    Set TS = ProjectObj.TileSetDef(.CurTSDef.GetIndex + 11) '11 being separation between corresponding tilesets
    If Not TS.IsLoaded Then
      TS.Load
    End If
    If TS.LoadedInstance Is Nothing Then
      Set TS.LoadedInstance = DllDisp.CreateTileSet(TS.Image, TS.TileWidth, TS.TileHeight)
    End If
    DllDisp.DrawTile TS.LoadedInstance, .CurTile, .X - GdPlayer.MapScrollX, .Y - GdPlayer.MapScrollY, 0, 0, 640, 480, True
  End With
End SubSub Player_OnSpritesCollide(Name, ClsAIdx, ClsBIdx, CollDefIdx)
   Hurt = 100
End Sub

Sub Player_OnBeforeMoveSprites()
   Dim TS

   If Hurt > 0 Then
      Hurt = Hurt - 1
      If Hurt Mod 2 = 1 Then
         With ProjectObj.GamePlayer
            Set TS = ProjectObj.TileSetDef("tsHurt")
            If Not TS.IsLoaded Then
               TS.Load
            End If
            If TS.LoadedInstance Is Nothing Then
               Set TS.LoadedInstance = CurrentDisplay.CreateTileSet( _
                  TS.Image, TS.TileWidth, TS.TileHeight)
            End If
            CurrentDisplay.DrawTile _
               TS.LoadedInstance, _
               .PlayerSprite.CurTile, _
               .PlayerSprite.X - .MapScrollX, _
               .PlayerSprite.Y - .MapScrollY, _
               0, 0, 640, 480, True
         End With
      End If
   End If
End Sub
I have the hurt demo script on the bottom for reference.  (I run my code every other frame if the sprite is hurt using the same event as the hurt demo)

my error message is :
Run-time error '-2147418113 (8000ffffy)'
Method 'Image' of object 'TileSetDef' failed

Everything seems to work good except any time I call TS.image, i get that error (i even put it in a line by itself)  I've confirmed that TS.IsLoaded is True and TS.TileWidth has a value (32)

I even set the TS to a tileset I KNOW is loaded (the TS of the playersprite) and I still get the same error.
I've also tried breaking the lines into multipul lines and dimming the varibles different, but nothing seems to work.  I see that .Image is actually a Property and not a Method like VB seems to think, maybe this is the problem, but I don't know how to fix it.


Anyone know what to do or try? ($50 says bluemonk posts with a brillant easy solution )

You have to create another tileset that has the tilesize equal to the size you want your player sprite.  

(If your tiles are 32x32, make the new tileset 32x64 to make the player twice as tall.  do this in "tilesets")  Then draw you playersprite and change the tiles in his sprite template.  do this in "sprites and paths"

I would only recommend having the player at most two times as big as the tilesize in any dimension (wide or tall), although having him the same size as the tiles is ideal for reason i'll explain below.

There can be some problems that show up from having different sized tiles as player sprite, this is mainly due to how tile solidity is processed.  The entire player sprite (or any sprite) does not see solid tiles as solid, only the 4 corners of the sprite react to solidity.  So, if a large playersprie jumped at a thin platform, he could hit the platform head on, but still go through it because none of the corners of him touched the platform.  This problem is corrected if all platforms are 2 tiles high.  If your sprite is 3 tiles high, you platforms need to be that tall as well.

hope that helps