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Topics - durnurd

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16
Help, Errors, FAQ / High Tile Count
« on: 2008-03-05, 01:11:19 PM »
Out of curiosity here, what sort of limit would you suggest be put on the number of tiles displayed on the screen at a time?  I was prototyping something in SGDK2 where I wanted very small tiles and lots of them on the screen at a time, and it caused the system to slow down considerably.  To make sure it wasn't just my calculations that were slowing the system down, I removed all of the calculations, and the system was still running rather slowly (~25 FPS).  So the question is: what would you put as a minimum on tile size?

Also, while working on this, I found that pressing the delete key anywhere in the Tileset editor assumes you want to delete a tile, but if focus is in the Tile Size textboxes, it should instead delete the text.

17
Projects / Dynamic map loading
« on: 2008-02-20, 05:17:31 PM »
I'd like to let it be known that there will eventually be a custom code object to allow for dynamic map loading.  This basically means you release your game with 10 levels and then later the user can download new levels online through the game's interface.

These maps are designed in the SGDK2 IDE just like regular maps, with a bit of a different flow afterwards.  You need to (or at least should.  Not entirely certain) keep the original game's exe around (the one without any maps in it) to reference, so after you've made a new level, save the .SGDK2 file somewhere else and compile it.  Then, using a program I have tentatively named "MapExtractor" (because that's basically what it does) you will select the code file(s) created by the IDE that you want to include in the update and compile them into a DLL file.  This file can then go online and be indexed into a list, and in the original game, the list can be looked up and the new map found, downloaded, and switched to with a function similar to SwitchToMap.

The basic code object and compiler are both pretty much complete.  The only thing is that they both rely on .NET 2.0 code, so the custom code object won't work with SGDK2.0, so we must wait until SGDK2.1 is released.

Errata: (not really, since I haven't actually edited this post :))
  • At least for now, the map must rely on sprites and tiles that are defined in the original game.  No new sprite definitions or tiles or graphics of any kind can be added or updated with the new DLL.  This may change in the future.  Not sure. 
  • You can include multiple maps in a single dll, so that from a single mod, you can access multiple areas, as long as you define the starting map in the resources of the dll file.

18
Help, Errors, FAQ / Snap-to-tile
« on: 2008-02-20, 03:56:27 PM »
When in the map editor, moving a sprite, the "Snap To Tiles" option has no effect.  I wanted to post more errors to make this post seem more worthwhile, but it was the only one I came up with right now.  So I'll just ramble on for a bit until it seems long enough.  I think that should do it.

19
Help, Errors, FAQ / Slow and kludgy keyboard response
« on: 2008-02-01, 12:53:22 PM »
I don't know if this is just my computer or if it's DirectX or what.  When I go from a window to full screen while playing a game, the keyboard gets really screwy.  Tapping a key does nothing for about a second and then the game acts as if it's been pressed for a full second before stopping.  This is especially noticeable while playing my Tetris game (never played it full-screen while developing) where I can't get the blocks into the right column sometimes.  It works fine in windowed mode, so it's not a problem with my code.  Does anybody else notice this problem at all?  Or is it just a problem with my computer?

20
Help, Errors, FAQ / Control Labels
« on: 2008-01-15, 08:06:23 PM »
I just noticed this while playing SGDKTetris (I've dubbed it that now).  It may be in other games, but I preface it with this note because I modified the Controls window a bit, so it's not the normal one, and I can't look at the code because I'm currently not at my computer.

When editing the controls while playing, If an input is the left arrow, it's labeled "LeftArrow".  Similarily, down arrow is "DownArrow".  But up is just "Up" and right is just "Right".  I don't know if these labels come directly from a compiled library (in DirectX?) so it's unchangeable or something else, but I thought I'd point it out, because it seems like a silly little blunder that would annoy somebody who's OCD ( :-[ hint, hint)

21
Projects / Weather Effects
« on: 2007-12-16, 08:56:32 PM »
I've uploaded a couple of files to the SGDK2 project templates section.

One is a set of explosion sprites and points sprites.  The explosions automatically disappear after their animation is done.  The points sprites (like "50" for 50 points) automatically disappear after their lifetime (set in the Life parameter of the sprite).

The other, more interesting one, is a weather overlay custom code plug-in.  It allows a game designer to use snow, rain, or a "fire storm" as weather effects in-game dynamically, without the hassle of creating a layer and animating sprites, etc.

It should be made known that the snow effect is... interesting.  The snowflakes are not included in the project.  Instead, the program gets them dynamically at runtime from http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/, converts them to the right format, and then adds them to a queue to be displayed on the screen.  If not connected to the Internet, or if you have a slow connection, this doesn't work so well.  A set of 20 flakes is included, which will be used over and over continuously instead.  This is not enough for a level-4 snowstorm to be fully effective, and this could probably be fixed by including a larger initial set, or reusing the flakes on the screen at the same time.  As it is right now, just... don't use a level-4 snow storm if you're not connected to the Internet.

The upshot of all that is that the snowflakes really are random and different every time you run the game (except for the first 20)


22
When appending new frames to an existing empty frameset with the Frame Remapping Wizard, an Index out of bounds error occurs when clicking finish, on the line:

lastFrameIndex = allFrames[allFrames.Length-1].FrameValue;

23
Off-Topic / Gamemaker Vs SGDK2
« on: 2007-11-15, 10:18:08 PM »

24
I happened to find a link to this set of graphics (about a day after BlueMonk happened to find it...) and thought it would show off overlapping tiles quite nicely, so I imported some of the graphics into SGDK2 to see what it looked like.  So far, it looks very nice.  I will continue to work on importing more of the graphics in my spare time.

25
General Discussion / More editor upgrade ideas
« on: 2007-11-02, 03:23:05 PM »
  • When importing graphics, draw full lines rather than dots.  If, for example, you're importing a circle, none of the dots will touch the actual image, so it's very hard to tell where the tiles will begin and end.
  • If the image is too large to edit at the current magnification,after importing an image (allow the user to)? change the magnification so that it can be edited.
  • When importing an image, make it easier to make minute movements of the selection rectangle.  For example, have a magnified view of the corner, and allow arrow keys to move the starting pixel one pixel at a time.  Also allow for changing the selection size.
  • When making a selection in the graphics editor, do something similar to make it easier to see which pixel the mouse is pointing at, and which row and column will be cut off if a rectangular selection is to be made here.
  • Allow for arrow keys to move a selected portion of a graphic 1 pixel at a time (or part of a pixel if AA is on)
  • After pasting an image before deselecting it, is it possible to allow the Color selection tool and fill tool to work on it?  It's confusing as it is right now with two separate selections going on.
  • After importing an image, if the user wants to import another, default the filename to the previously used image.
  • Allow for zooming in on frame editing similar to graphics editing for lining up several frames of one graphic more easily.
  • Not sure about this, but can the blue line in the frame editor go behind the graphics instead of in front?  Or make it translucent?
  • If no changes have been made in the frame editor, don't prompt to save changes when going back to the frameset editor.
  • When dragging frames into the tile properties from the "Available Frames" if the frame is taller than the Frame list, the frame list window jumps up and down.
  • Previewing an animation of a frame that goes in the negative Y direction cuts off the top of the picture
  • Dropping down the Mapped Tiles list, if the list goes the full height of the screen or more, the mouse will overlap the list and will disappear as soon as the mouse is let go.
  • When importing a tileset, the "Select All" and "Select None" buttons do nothing
  • When editing a map, would it be possible to highlight the area that the tile takes up (with a translucent blue square or something) as you are placing tiles so that you know which tile you're changing (and maybe make the tile that it would replace disappear so you know which one is going away)

26
General Discussion / SGDK2: Not just for side-scrollers
« on: 2007-09-03, 09:13:22 AM »
As an example of a game you can make that's not necessarily what was in mind when SGDK2 was designed, here is a Tetris clone.  It acts slightly differently than Tetris (somewhat different speeds, scoring mechanisms, etc.), but it gets the idea across certainly.  Included in the project is a High Score Table custom object.

http://www.findmyed.com/files/tetris.zip

27
Off-Topic / More interesting Microsoft widgets
« on: 2007-05-20, 08:46:32 AM »
Microsoft Popfly (aka Microsoft Visual Mashup Creator Express May 2007 Community Tech Preview Internet Edition):

http://popfly.ms/

Perhaps of particular interest to /(SGDK2 (game)?)? developers?/:

http://popfly.ms/Overview/Explorer.aspx

Where you can share your visual studio express projects online and maybe eventually embed them in web pages without all that nasty coding... once you get around the DirectX issue, anyway.

It's only in alpha right now, but it's coming our way eventually.

28
Off-Topic / Microsoft CLR goes cross-"platform"
« on: 2007-05-01, 06:50:50 PM »
I just read an article on Slashdot stating that Microsoft intends to release a "cross-platform" version of its common language runtime (base of the .NET framework).  Their definition of "cross-platform" doesn't necessarily extend so far as Linux, at this point.  Only so far as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari Internet browsers.  I would suggest looking into methods of display other than DirectX which could allow SGDK2 to become an engine for making web-based games using the .NET framework for any browser. (Of course, DirectX still requires full-trust, so XNA would be the obvious choice, which also allows for SGDK2 development of X-BOX 360 games)

29
General Discussion / Right-click in map editor
« on: 2007-04-22, 11:27:56 AM »
I noticed that at one time, I think, at least, you had implemented something in the map editor which acts differently for a right-click than a left-click.  I can't find the post where I said something about this, so I'll create this one.  Also, in the latest alpha (4) I can't seem to find this functionality, so now I wonder if I'm just going crazy.  In spite of that, here's this:

What I was suggesting was when you right-click on a tile on the map, it selects that tile to be the current tile to be placed by left-clicking.  What it looks like happened is that you can simply have two selected tiles to place, one with LMB, one with RMB.  While this has some use, I think the other option would be much more useful (I know I would find it much more useful, anyway).  If, for example, you accidentally draw over one tile too far into another block of tiles, rather than finding the tile you want to put back in the list on the left, you can just copy it from the other tiles that are correct and put it right back where it belongs.

30
General Discussion / A* Search
« on: 2007-04-11, 05:35:03 PM »
I figured somebody had better eventually implement the A* search algorithm, so here is the code project, and a sample project that uses it.  It could use some clean up, certainly.  A few things are more hard-coded than I'd like, but it's pretty good for 6 hours work.

And on the plus side (like this isn't enough), I now know how A* works much better than before.

Note: It's using a Manhattan Distance heuristic, because it's simple to implement.  I may look up a better one some time.

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