Sorry for the lack of updates ! But I have a reason. In one of my classes our teacher gave us an open assignment. He told us to learn asp.net MVC3 and make a project with it. Anything. So my team and I decided to make a browser game. It's called Battle For Lurnia (very original) and it's going to be very simple. Players register on the server and create characters who then fight between themselves for Xp and maybe gold. I'll post a link to the repository when it will be more tidy in there.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Progress !
Nothing beat fresh new progress ! Phase one complete, I've got my zone. It's not great but it works. But images speaks better than words so here goes :
This is the first try at my basic grid. It's not beautiful yet but at least I can shove things in the screen now. It's made of two classes, a Zone which is a "manager" of Tiles. A manager is a kind of Overlord that watches over the Tiles and assigns them values and executes action. The update and draw method are found here :
The result is then :
It's messy but it's cool, I've got a small spritesheet I used in a previous project. I added the cool functionality of randomly changing the map again when enter is pressed. Fun little feature. As always grab a peek at the source here.
What this does is create an array of Tiles and loops through them in the Draw() and Update() method.
The Initialize() method is used to create the instances of Tile and put them in the array. All of this is done by looping through the the rows and then the columns. It's fairly easy but simple once you get the gist of it.
Now I updated it a bit by adding a spritesheet instead of single sprites and the random generation of the map. The functions are found in pictures of course, below :
It loops through the tileValues array(which is the array of integer values representing which tiles to grab from the spritesheet) and puts a random value in it. Then when I draw the tiles, the manager goes through the values in the tileValues and tells the Tile to draw a specific rectangle from the spritesheet.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Title Screen !
Couple of days ago I messed around with Paint.Net because I wanted to have a nice cover for my game, like a splash-screen or a main screen.
It's certainly not final but at least it's a start.
Hehe, it's just an image I took from google image and I added some text. I especially like the font and the contrast with the font color.
I'm also not sure if it's "Nights of Lurnia" or "The Nights of Lurnia". Depending on which one sounds better.
It's certainly not final but at least it's a start.
Hehe, it's just an image I took from google image and I added some text. I especially like the font and the contrast with the font color.
I'm also not sure if it's "Nights of Lurnia" or "The Nights of Lurnia". Depending on which one sounds better.
Step one : Map
The first thing on my list if the map so lets get on to it.
And yes ! It`s time for another wonderful diagram :
And then :
Now the map is the first milestone of my little project. As said in my little graph the map is a grouping of classes that I call Tile. They hold a background sprite for the terrain they have room for an NPC or object to occupy the tile. I'm not sure yet if the tile has a reference to objects on top of it or the object on it has a reference to the tile, or both. Loading a sprite on a tile (and thus, loading the whole grid with tiles) is another thing I'm not sure about. My first reflex is to throw an 2d array at it and translate the integer values to images. Lets say :
{ 3, 2 }
{ 3, 1 }
3 is a road, 2 is grass and 1 is water. When the array is sent to the Grid it assigns a sprite depending on the value received. Of course this is a cheapo solution, a better way would be of creating a custom data structure that contains lets say an array of sprites. The way the sprite array is created is by using technique that I didn't figure out yet. Now that the structure is filled with images I send it to the grid at generation or I use a function to replace the current grid and render the grid again to reflect the changes. In the end I think that whatever technique I use I'll have to translate an array to images anyway. The big difference is what I send to the grid. If I send an array the grid needs to do the translation, if not an external module does the translation and send the already constructed structure to the grid and it simply replace the structure with the one I sent. I need an idea.
In my last game I used the array of int technique to create my maps. A simplified version looks like this :
{ 3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 }
It looks pretty simple, lets say the 1's are roads, 3's are grass and 2's represent water. Just by looking at the array you can see a rough outline on how the map will look. Road starts from north goes to the center of the map next to a little pond and veers right to the east. The problem comes from the fact that there might be a hundred of sprites used and I need a number for each. After a while the map might look like this :
{ 33, 33, 33, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
103, 3, 3, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
6, 3, 3, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 88,
33, 33, 33, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
46, 45, 9, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2,
33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33 }
Thats pretty much the same map as above exept I added a house and replaced the lake by a river. Can you make sense of this array now ? Not me, at least not with a quick glance. Last time I ended my project by trying to create a program, some kind of map-editor, on which I placed tiles and I it returned the array that I could copy & paste on my game and use. This was a semi-good idea in the sense that it kind of worked but it was a pain to create the external program and it took my attention off of the main project.
*Idea*
One way I could use is to create a .png of the map and import it to my game, the game will now take this image and turn it into a instance of a Grid readily available. Pros and Cons are:
Pros :
It's fairly easy to create a map in paint.
Importing it is extremely easy and fast.
Cons :
I need to make a custom content importer.
I need to make sure the map is 32 * MapSize.X and the tiles need to be spaced exactly on the right spot or the content importer will get the wrong tiles. For example if the first tile is at (0,0) and 32 in size, the tile to the right of it needs to be placed exactly at (33, 0) or I'll lose part of the tile. If my hand slips and I place the tile at (32, 0) I'll lose the one line of pixel. When the content importer takes the image and divide it by blocks of 32x32 it will not grab the right tiles, like everything's going to be offset by one pixel.
In the end I think I''ll try it, for lack of a better idea.
And yes ! It`s time for another wonderful diagram :
{ 3, 2 }
{ 3, 1 }
3 is a road, 2 is grass and 1 is water. When the array is sent to the Grid it assigns a sprite depending on the value received. Of course this is a cheapo solution, a better way would be of creating a custom data structure that contains lets say an array of sprites. The way the sprite array is created is by using technique that I didn't figure out yet. Now that the structure is filled with images I send it to the grid at generation or I use a function to replace the current grid and render the grid again to reflect the changes. In the end I think that whatever technique I use I'll have to translate an array to images anyway. The big difference is what I send to the grid. If I send an array the grid needs to do the translation, if not an external module does the translation and send the already constructed structure to the grid and it simply replace the structure with the one I sent. I need an idea.
In my last game I used the array of int technique to create my maps. A simplified version looks like this :
{ 3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,
3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 }
It looks pretty simple, lets say the 1's are roads, 3's are grass and 2's represent water. Just by looking at the array you can see a rough outline on how the map will look. Road starts from north goes to the center of the map next to a little pond and veers right to the east. The problem comes from the fact that there might be a hundred of sprites used and I need a number for each. After a while the map might look like this :
{ 33, 33, 33, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
103, 3, 3, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
6, 3, 3, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 88,
33, 33, 33, 2, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
46, 45, 9, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2,
33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33,
33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33 }
Thats pretty much the same map as above exept I added a house and replaced the lake by a river. Can you make sense of this array now ? Not me, at least not with a quick glance. Last time I ended my project by trying to create a program, some kind of map-editor, on which I placed tiles and I it returned the array that I could copy & paste on my game and use. This was a semi-good idea in the sense that it kind of worked but it was a pain to create the external program and it took my attention off of the main project.
*Idea*
One way I could use is to create a .png of the map and import it to my game, the game will now take this image and turn it into a instance of a Grid readily available. Pros and Cons are:
Pros :
It's fairly easy to create a map in paint.
Importing it is extremely easy and fast.
Cons :
I need to make a custom content importer.
I need to make sure the map is 32 * MapSize.X and the tiles need to be spaced exactly on the right spot or the content importer will get the wrong tiles. For example if the first tile is at (0,0) and 32 in size, the tile to the right of it needs to be placed exactly at (33, 0) or I'll lose part of the tile. If my hand slips and I place the tile at (32, 0) I'll lose the one line of pixel. When the content importer takes the image and divide it by blocks of 32x32 it will not grab the right tiles, like everything's going to be offset by one pixel.
In the end I think I''ll try it, for lack of a better idea.
Monday, November 7, 2011
The man, the plan and the plan and the plan and more plans.
Since I want to do things the right way, I decided that the planning phase would take a greater amount of time this time than my usual projects. It's been 3 days since I started this project and I still haven't started programming. I think this is a new record.
I made a small Dev plan and here is what's included :
I made a small Dev plan and here is what's included :
- Generate a map
- Make a character
- Create the camera system
- Implement movement
- Make NPC's
- Give properties to the tiles
- Integrate actions, that is actions you can execute on tiles or NPC's
- Start generating screens. The intro, the game scene, options...
- Make character screens, inventory/map.
I might shuffle things around so be prepared for an edit. Or just another post.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The tools I will use
Since my new project is starting and I aim to start it the right foot. The right foot being planning before jumping down in the mud. In this post I will document some of the tools I will be using during development. The list might grow and I probably will make another post in the end[sic] explaining the tools I ended up using after all.
First and most important : The very humble and well respected Visual Studio
It's simply the best IDE I've ever used. First because it is very complex (which I like) and when you get to know it it is very easy to use. The IDE really completes the programmer, IntelliSense works like a charm. You can also add extensions which can be very useful. In the screenshot above you can see I'm using ReSharper, this extension is a little manager that looks at your code and gives you advice on how you can optimize your code. It's a really good extension and really helps me when I need to refactor a piece of code or make it more readable. Check it out here, unfortunately it's a paid product and you need to pay a hefty sum to use it. I only have 8 days left on my trial, after that I'll have to get back to normal.
ZScreen, the screenshot application.
ZScreen is a very good application when you need to take screenshots on the fly. You don't need to press print screen and open paint, paste it and modify it. Just press the a hotkey and it will execute what commands you told him to do. I chose to save it automatically in a folder when I press [prt scrn] so I can browse my screenshots of the day and modify them. In the end, they probably get sent on this blog ! It's freeware so I encourage you all to give it a try.
GitHub and GitExtension
As you all probably know I usually use Git as my preferred source control provider. It's really useful to have a repository of code on projects, even the smallest ones, because it gives you an overview on what has been done and how. Having a complete history of the project's changes is awesome and being able to revert back any changes is always useful. I don't need to comment 200 lines of code just because I don't need it or might need it in the future. I can safely erase it and get it back from the repository when I need that piece of code.
Github is a host server of repositories and GitExtensions is my GUI of choice. I can see the timeline very clearly and any branches can be inspected at ease.
So there we go, those are the tools I plan on using immediately. Among them, not tools but technologies I should mention is that I am using C# now with the XNA framework. This makes creating games much easier and streamlined. Big change from vb.net I know, but it's for the best. Giving visual basic up was one of the best decisions I could have made. So keep up with me, I'll try to make the code as easy to follow as I can.
First and most important : The very humble and well respected Visual Studio
It's simply the best IDE I've ever used. First because it is very complex (which I like) and when you get to know it it is very easy to use. The IDE really completes the programmer, IntelliSense works like a charm. You can also add extensions which can be very useful. In the screenshot above you can see I'm using ReSharper, this extension is a little manager that looks at your code and gives you advice on how you can optimize your code. It's a really good extension and really helps me when I need to refactor a piece of code or make it more readable. Check it out here, unfortunately it's a paid product and you need to pay a hefty sum to use it. I only have 8 days left on my trial, after that I'll have to get back to normal.
ZScreen, the screenshot application.
ZScreen is a very good application when you need to take screenshots on the fly. You don't need to press print screen and open paint, paste it and modify it. Just press the a hotkey and it will execute what commands you told him to do. I chose to save it automatically in a folder when I press [prt scrn] so I can browse my screenshots of the day and modify them. In the end, they probably get sent on this blog ! It's freeware so I encourage you all to give it a try.
GitHub and GitExtension
As you all probably know I usually use Git as my preferred source control provider. It's really useful to have a repository of code on projects, even the smallest ones, because it gives you an overview on what has been done and how. Having a complete history of the project's changes is awesome and being able to revert back any changes is always useful. I don't need to comment 200 lines of code just because I don't need it or might need it in the future. I can safely erase it and get it back from the repository when I need that piece of code.
Github is a host server of repositories and GitExtensions is my GUI of choice. I can see the timeline very clearly and any branches can be inspected at ease.
So there we go, those are the tools I plan on using immediately. Among them, not tools but technologies I should mention is that I am using C# now with the XNA framework. This makes creating games much easier and streamlined. Big change from vb.net I know, but it's for the best. Giving visual basic up was one of the best decisions I could have made. So keep up with me, I'll try to make the code as easy to follow as I can.
The makings of a new game
I've always wanted to make games, couple of years back when I was programming with VB.net I started to make a small RPG. It was just a small practice project because I wanted to build something much bigger but it was a start. Back then I didn't really fully understand the task at hand and I believe now I know enough stuff to create one damn game. Simple or not I'm ready for it, so here I am launching myself headfirst into another time-consuming, probably useless in the long run and a project that will probably be abandoned in a few weeks. why do it then you ask me ? Well theres always the off-chance that I will actually push it further this time and I believe it is a worthy endeavor. So wish me luck !
Also, this time I'll try to take more pictures alongside my work. I'll try to better document my work, I think it helped last time.
Also, this time I'll try to take more pictures alongside my work. I'll try to better document my work, I think it helped last time.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Turns out SQL server is awesome.
Well its not. I messed around with it a bit and I'm amazed. Being a feature crack addict I just can't resist the interface with all its menus and functionality toolbars.
The code editor is great and offers IntelliSense and bla bla, the usual Microsoft development'ish features you would find in any other product. You can schedule publications to subscribers and manage remote servers.
So there goes my craze placing images. I'd like to get more code sample but with school killing us I won't be coding anything really fun for a while. Just 20 more days and I'm outta there. Can't wait.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Back from the dead ! (Again)
Yes I did it again ! I fled the clogging world and now I'm back ! Actually I've taken a detour at tumblr and since it sucked so much here I am again !
I've moved from VB.net to C# and overworked with school. So expect better and rarer posts (at least until school is over) so why do I bother to tell anyone at all ? Nothing really.
I've moved from VB.net to C# and overworked with school. So expect better and rarer posts (at least until school is over) so why do I bother to tell anyone at all ? Nothing really.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A small find : Labyrinth algorithms !
I've been looking at this guy's blog and it struck me as extremely interesting. He shows several algorithms to generate mazes, while fairly useful and fun. I don't know how to implement this kind of logic so I am researching hard on the matter. Expect a post about it soon !
Here is the blog I'm talking about, go check it ! http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation-algorithm-recap
Here is the blog I'm talking about, go check it ! http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation-algorithm-recap
Monday, February 7, 2011
Regex are AWESOME
So today in class we`ve seen regular expressions ( widely known as Regex ). They are expressions used to recognize if a piece of code follows a certain pattern. A regex is usually a string of character representing the expression. Regex'es are language agnostic, meaning they will work with whatever language you are using provided it uses the right libraries.
A regex looks like this : "^[a-z]\d[a-z][\s-]?\d[a-z]\d$" .
This particular regex is used to check a string to see if it represent a canadian postal code (they look like this H2Y 8D7 with a space, dash or nothing in the middle).
How does it works ? Like this : A regular expression is filled with special alphanumeric characters and symbols. How you place these characters determines how the target string will be evaluated. Rather like programming languages with keywords and expressions.
The first set of symbols is the [a-z] interval. An interval is used to represent any value comprised between those two. In this instance I mean any lowercase letter between a to z.
The second set of symbol is \d . \d is a pre-defined character. It means whatever numeric character. It is the same as [0-9] but shorter. Then is another a to z interval. These three expressions are used to check for the first three characters of the targeted string. The last three is checked the same way.
A simple problem we are faced is the middle space, or the absence of it. Indeed we have to check that the fourth character is a space, dash or nothing. Several operators are used to check occurrences of several characters.
A regex looks like this : "^[a-z]\d[a-z][\s-]?\d[a-z]\d$" .
This particular regex is used to check a string to see if it represent a canadian postal code (they look like this H2Y 8D7 with a space, dash or nothing in the middle).
How does it works ? Like this : A regular expression is filled with special alphanumeric characters and symbols. How you place these characters determines how the target string will be evaluated. Rather like programming languages with keywords and expressions.
The first set of symbols is the [a-z] interval. An interval is used to represent any value comprised between those two. In this instance I mean any lowercase letter between a to z.
The second set of symbol is \d . \d is a pre-defined character. It means whatever numeric character. It is the same as [0-9] but shorter. Then is another a to z interval. These three expressions are used to check for the first three characters of the targeted string. The last three is checked the same way.
A simple problem we are faced is the middle space, or the absence of it. Indeed we have to check that the fourth character is a space, dash or nothing. Several operators are used to check occurrences of several characters.
- * : The asterisk is used to check 0, 1 or several occurrences of the previous character. A* will return true to A, AA, AAA, AAAA and basically every A in the text.
- + : The plus sign is used to check 1 or several occurrences of the previous character (or expression between brackets [ ] a "class" ). H+ will return true to HH, HHH and every other series of two consecutive H. Not simply one though.
- ? : The interrogation mark is used to check 0 or 1 occurrence of the previous class. It will test if a class is there or not. This what we need to test if there is a space, a dash or none.
Lastly, you can see symbols in the first and last position of the regex. These are to make sure the value we check does not contain any other characters before and after the string. The ^ symbol is used at the beginning of an expression to check if the string *starts* with the tested expression and the $ is used at the end to check if it *ends* with the expression. Using both we make sure the tested string starts and ends with our pattern.
An example :
We want to check if a string is a Canadian permanent code. These codes are made of four letters and 8 numbers with spaces(or not) at the 5th and 8th position.
Regular Expression :
^[a-z]{4}[-\s]?\d{4}[-\s]?\d{4}$
Test strings :
SIGH03129117
DUG712345673
SIGH 0312 9117
SIGH 03129117
SIGH0312 9117
1234DUGH9154
Using the expression above, we can see that the second and last expression does NOT fit and we did that only by checking it against a string of symbols. Much less hassle than going by letter by letter with a loop.
Here is the program I made in class today, it contains many good examples. Available with the .net framework 4, as are the majority of what I do anyway. Don't forget to grab the latest version.
EDIT : Testing a regex can be a pain in the ass. This is why I use a tool, its here if anyone would like to try it. It is an AWESOME regex testing tool and I recommended it to anyone interested.
EDIT : Testing a regex can be a pain in the ass. This is why I use a tool, its here if anyone would like to try it. It is an AWESOME regex testing tool and I recommended it to anyone interested.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
We need a new prog post !
Ok well, since this is a blog about prog and I'm starting on a very boring and prog-less path. So ! My next post is going to be about some programming stuff, still in VB.net because I like it very much and its easy to explain.
Not sure when I'll make another post, probably in less than 6 months though.
Not sure when I'll make another post, probably in less than 6 months though.
First things first : I need a name
OK, I already have a name. MY name, and I'm not using it for this. I need a company/team name. Its not lerouxtechnologies anymore because it has to be a name to represent multiple people, I intend to make this a team. I have a few candidates I can choose from, this should be fun.
I only have a few choices yet :
I only have a few choices yet :
- Dragon Roost + Software, Team (Not sure which one yet)
- Drunk Gamers
- CodeHackers
- Team Coders
The trouble of finding a new idea
They say ideas flow miles a second in our head. Thats probably why they get out so fast, and why we can't hold on to one. Its a shame really, having abandoned so many projects and having a hard time finding a new one.
So here I am, in search of an idea. One that I can, hopefully, complete in order to learn the right development process. It has been 272 days since my last post and I have created some many project stubs and samples. So many empty test projects. Of course I learned a lot in programming since then, learned new languages (or at least parts) and concepts. With that I hope to create another project with a tad more complexity, or at least something with fun features.
Also my urge to write some new stuff is growing again. So I'll try post my idea gathering here, maybe a couple posts a week. That'd be fun.
So here I am, in search of an idea. One that I can, hopefully, complete in order to learn the right development process. It has been 272 days since my last post and I have created some many project stubs and samples. So many empty test projects. Of course I learned a lot in programming since then, learned new languages (or at least parts) and concepts. With that I hope to create another project with a tad more complexity, or at least something with fun features.
Also my urge to write some new stuff is growing again. So I'll try post my idea gathering here, maybe a couple posts a week. That'd be fun.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Design update !!
Hey, I told you all that I would take my time and post something eventually. Well now is the time !
I have been working on the way my main form looks like. I had a few problems:
First I wanted to get rid of the ugly conversation panel I have. The idea of a form popping whenever you talk to someone is crap, and having to close it again and again is a pain sometimes. I wanted to have some kind of control that would show messages for me. I have recently learned to make my own custom controls and found the idea of having a portable "messages & communication" box quite good. And here is the control and the code:
The images speaks for themselves. The messagebar has a sub named addMSG() used to send messages to the textbox. The textbox is readonly to prevent the user disturbing the text and because the keys I use to move are the arrow keys I have made a sub to replace the caret (the little horizontal line standing where you clicked) every time a key is pressed. That way you cannot scroll through the textbox inadvertently when moving, only with the scroll bar.
I have also begun to look into the code involved in moving around. The same 4 subs ( one for each direction) are both used to move and initiate a transition and I think this is a flawed way of getting around since the complexity is very case-by-case and thus need a lot of if's to verify stupid stuff. Due to the complexity of the overhaul this could take some time but I am still working on other parts while I'm digging around for a better solution.
I have downloaded some tiles on a website because I don't really have *that* much time on my hand for designing .jpegs, time that could be better used somewhere else. They look good and I plan to make use of them someday to showoff a better version of the game.
The game now looks thus:
As you see I have made some subs to handle conversation. Now every sprite has an NPC class that is used to store conversation and other relevant stuff. I'll explain it in a later post. On this note see you all at the next post !
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Blog is NOT dead.
Like I said in an earlier post. I won't be posting a lot these days. I have a shitload of work to do for school and friends to take care of, so the little time I get to program stuff is spent in fruitless attempts to re-engineer my movement system. That or creating sprites or tiles. I'm hoping to be able to post a bit more in the coming weeks, I just need some new material to blog about. I'll find something new to implement in my game and work on it.
Until then, take care !
Until then, take care !
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Ha, been a week already !
Yeah no kidding, more than a week without post. You guys must be really bored. Well as you know I've been doing design lately and since I'm doing this on paper ( with a pen yes ! Like old times ) because it illustrates ideas better when you can freely draw and cross things out.
I have nearly a page of story and some pages of mechanics for the game that I'd like to implement. The story will be put in a .doc format and sent online so it can be browsed. Its NOT finished yet and I might just take another story that I started from scratch.
Beside that I'm pretty busy with other stuff, school and friends have successfully managed in keeping me away from concentrating on programming ( or sprite creation ), I'll be sure to make a couple big updates when I get a breather.
I'm also looking for books to read on subjects like A.I. , game design, story writing ( for games), graphical design ( Pixel art preferred, I don't do 3d ) and programming ( vb.net, of course ^.^ ).
I have nearly a page of story and some pages of mechanics for the game that I'd like to implement. The story will be put in a .doc format and sent online so it can be browsed. Its NOT finished yet and I might just take another story that I started from scratch.
Beside that I'm pretty busy with other stuff, school and friends have successfully managed in keeping me away from concentrating on programming ( or sprite creation ), I'll be sure to make a couple big updates when I get a breather.
I'm also looking for books to read on subjects like A.I. , game design, story writing ( for games), graphical design ( Pixel art preferred, I don't do 3d ) and programming ( vb.net, of course ^.^ ).
Monday, March 29, 2010
Big Update is finished.
I have finally finished the overhaul I was talking about couple of days ago. And I think I managed to create some good stuff, albeit messy and hard to understand.
Part 1: The Problem
The problem I had was the arrays. At first I wanted to be able to store them in a class, or a structure or even inside a text file that I would load. I rejected the first two, because making a class directly for a single array would be contrary to Object Oriented Programming and text files were useless since placing them outside my program was just as bad as bluntly dropping them in the middle of my main form, which was what I wanted to change.
At first, I had arrays. My procedures would activate themselves with the arrays I needed by parameter and would fix the matrix accordingly. The problem with this approach, is that I need to know exactly what arrays to load when executing my procedures. This is chaotic because of transitions, going from map to map, as my game is not linear. I know not if the player will take a turn right or left. How can I decide what tile array to load in my functions ? This could have been hell...
Part 2 The Solution
Instead I made a Terrain class. This class would have several parameters to hold the various arrays such as the tile and sprites arrays. As well as track which map is to its right, left, bottom or top. So instead of giving my sub several arrays. I would give him an instance of the clsTerrain class that represented a map. For example BasicRoad. I can them access its parameter inside the matrix such as BasicRoad.Spritemap or BasicRoad.TilesMap. I would have a block of code on top that job would be to instantiate each map and give them the geographical location in relation to the other maps.
Part 1: The Problem
The problem I had was the arrays. At first I wanted to be able to store them in a class, or a structure or even inside a text file that I would load. I rejected the first two, because making a class directly for a single array would be contrary to Object Oriented Programming and text files were useless since placing them outside my program was just as bad as bluntly dropping them in the middle of my main form, which was what I wanted to change.
At first, I had arrays. My procedures would activate themselves with the arrays I needed by parameter and would fix the matrix accordingly. The problem with this approach, is that I need to know exactly what arrays to load when executing my procedures. This is chaotic because of transitions, going from map to map, as my game is not linear. I know not if the player will take a turn right or left. How can I decide what tile array to load in my functions ? This could have been hell...
Part 2 The Solution
Instead I made a Terrain class. This class would have several parameters to hold the various arrays such as the tile and sprites arrays. As well as track which map is to its right, left, bottom or top. So instead of giving my sub several arrays. I would give him an instance of the clsTerrain class that represented a map. For example BasicRoad. I can them access its parameter inside the matrix such as BasicRoad.Spritemap or BasicRoad.TilesMap. I would have a block of code on top that job would be to instantiate each map and give them the geographical location in relation to the other maps.
The clsTerrain class:
So now that all our maps are there, we need to make our player able to switch maps. This is called a transition, it is triggered by stepping in a tile and pressing the according button. If you are at the top tile and you press the top arrow you get to the map that is right on top of the current one.But then we need to identify which tile is a transition, I could just leave it like if you are standing a tile in the border and you press the according button you get thrown to the next map. But then what would I do with doors and such ? I chose to make transition recognition as early as I can. For this I had a couple of choices: I could just programmatically make them by telling him which tile to mark as such by hand. That is tedious and stupid. Instead I choose to add a third array and in there marking the transitions myself once and let him do the work. But how can a tile remember that it is a transition ? By adding a property, so I created a Tile class that inherits from picturebox and I added a couple of properties like IsTransition, a boolean value that marks a tile as one used as transition.
The clsTile class
This being done, I only need to configure the movement sub of each direction to respond if they are on a transition. So the procedure is now ( in two parts ):
The moveRIGHT subroutine
Pretty big procedure. Theres 4 possible choices:
- You are NOT on the border and NOT on a transition tile: You walk normally
- You are are ON the border and ON a transition tile: Switch to next map
- You are ON the border and NOT on a transition: Walk as long as the direction you're going is not out of bounds
- You are NOT on the border and ON a transition: This is a "Door-transition", this will teleport you somewhere else. Not yet implemented
There IS a lot cleaner way to do it, but this is just a project to "make it work". The really big thinking process will be done in the final version of the project. Until then I just hack my way through my game and I will optimize later on. This is to keep me from falling out of morale. Since this is my first project that has a slightly bigger scale than normal ( for me ), I think that If I was to take 3 weeks to think out a single perfect function I would drop the project after 3 days. Now I can see my progress clearly, establish goals and accomplish them with relative ease, giving me the satisfaction needed to go forward.
Part 3: What's next ?
Right now, I have no idea. I'd like to take some time to create some more tiles to make rather more complex maps to bring me to the next features. The next logical course of action would be to make "Doors transitions", basically when I am walking on a door transition I get "inside" the building. Which is a map by itself. To do that I first need to create some kind of house tiles and that means a lot of work since all I did yet was some crappy grass and patches of road. And I was lucky with those, I just happened to arrive at a really good result on my 2nd try. I tried to make some mountainside tile a few days ago and it was really crappy. So lots of studies and practice incoming. I'd welcome any kind of suggestion, I understand that since this is not my final product I could just go to some website, rip some sprites and use them like some of my colleagues are doing. But what would be the point ??? I'm going to end up doing all the work anyway, might as well do it now and gloat the power of my magnificent tiles for a while. I would agree with the person that tells me that since they're nowhere near done yet that my tiles are "un-gloatable" but its a work in progress ! At least I can be happy in the fact that I don't need to steal all my shit. Anyway. I should also start thinking about the music and the game-atmosphere like the story and characters, in short the non-VB stuff. I'll be sure to keep you posted with updates. I still have a couple posts about problems that needs some explaining. I would like to explain in details how the transitions work because I think my system is pretty damn well though ( without wanting me to give myself too much credit ).
I'm pretty happy with my progress so far. In ONE month I went from a corpse-less form with nothing at all on it, to a corpseless form with nothing at all on it BUT at least now I can make characters pop on the screen and move around. OK OK, I admit. Some people could do that in a day and do it better. I am not one of those people, I am studying in my second year. This is some pretty heavy stuff for the amount we learned in class. And I plan on making a LOT more with increasing complexity. I am talking of course about the battle system, and inventory and menus and all. I have yet to know what and how I will do this, but it will be grand I think.
Until then ! See you on top of the next article.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Object's Virtual Frame
As an answer to the "un-escapable loop" problem I had a few days back, Object Oriented concepts are directly relevant. The virtual space an object take can be a complex topic and I will try to explain as I can.
Objects are just representation of a concept, or a class in VB. When creating a new object, you use the keyword "New" to tell the compiler that this object is totally another thing. When you have a clsChair class, you ideally want to pump out a chair that is going to be distinguished by other with its properties, its name, tag or any other. When VB sees the "New" keyword, its meaning to create another area in memory where this chair will be stored at. If you have two "New"' 's you will have two areas in your memory allocated to chairs.
Similarly, you can omit the "New" keyword entirely. And it will not give you an error. Because if you do not specify the "New", you will just use the class as default and only object. And note here, ONLY object. Meaning he will re-use the default one over and over.
I say defaut but its not exactly that way, an object is pointed to by its reference address. Say our class resides inside the memory at 0x11AA00, thats the "reference" I will be using. Lets say I want to get the number of legs our chair has, I tell my computer to look at whatever class is stored at 0x11AA0 and return me whatever leg property is in there. It will NOT use the name of the class you defined. And this is exactly the problem.
When using the technique I used, that is, not using a new. You end up with every object ( in this case, pictureboxes) using the same address. Same address means properties having the same values. When looping through my image matrix, the lowerbound and upperbound had the same reference address, therefore the first object is ALSO the last one. Which explains why it stopped after a single iteration. Because it already complete ALL its run in a SINGLE shot ( because every other tile were already affected instantly ).
Take a look at this picture:
Objects are just representation of a concept, or a class in VB. When creating a new object, you use the keyword "New" to tell the compiler that this object is totally another thing. When you have a clsChair class, you ideally want to pump out a chair that is going to be distinguished by other with its properties, its name, tag or any other. When VB sees the "New" keyword, its meaning to create another area in memory where this chair will be stored at. If you have two "New"' 's you will have two areas in your memory allocated to chairs.
Similarly, you can omit the "New" keyword entirely. And it will not give you an error. Because if you do not specify the "New", you will just use the class as default and only object. And note here, ONLY object. Meaning he will re-use the default one over and over.
I say defaut but its not exactly that way, an object is pointed to by its reference address. Say our class resides inside the memory at 0x11AA00, thats the "reference" I will be using. Lets say I want to get the number of legs our chair has, I tell my computer to look at whatever class is stored at 0x11AA0 and return me whatever leg property is in there. It will NOT use the name of the class you defined. And this is exactly the problem.
When using the technique I used, that is, not using a new. You end up with every object ( in this case, pictureboxes) using the same address. Same address means properties having the same values. When looping through my image matrix, the lowerbound and upperbound had the same reference address, therefore the first object is ALSO the last one. Which explains why it stopped after a single iteration. Because it already complete ALL its run in a SINGLE shot ( because every other tile were already affected instantly ).
Take a look at this picture:
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Update !
Hello, I've been working a lot on the project these days. I have implemented transitions between maps ( will make a post about that piece of code soon, I'm still working on the "Un-escapable loop" post ), and I have arrived at a point where my system began to be messy and unorganized. I have began to code a massive overhaul regarding my arrays. I can't just let them sit at the top of my class. Because of my goal of having at least 30 minutes pf content, I will probably have to make a lot of individual maps. Outside maps, indoor, inside dungeons etc. And triple that because I need to add a sprites_map and a transition_map to each of them. That could mean a couple hundred of arrays just sitting there waiting to be used.
My idea is that I would make individual text files containing the maps ( single map per file or a single big file with all maps, I don't know yet. Or even an XML file on the condition that I re-read on the subject). I now have to make a class and get the I/O working well. Every time you move to the edge of the map over a transitional tile, the matrix will change its tileset and put you in place. This is particularly rough part on me and I need to read a lot of stuff and my post count will probably drop a bit. I will try to keep you all entertained ( all two of you reading my site ). even though I'm busy as hell.
Keep looking over my GitHub page, frequent updates are to be found. For those who forgot the link, check my pages.
EDIT 10:32 24/03/10 :
I have nearly finished the overhaul I was talking about. It is a MAJOR change throughout the project. If I was to explain everything I'd have enough material for 2 weeks. Prepare for some big posts later in the week or the next.
My idea is that I would make individual text files containing the maps ( single map per file or a single big file with all maps, I don't know yet. Or even an XML file on the condition that I re-read on the subject). I now have to make a class and get the I/O working well. Every time you move to the edge of the map over a transitional tile, the matrix will change its tileset and put you in place. This is particularly rough part on me and I need to read a lot of stuff and my post count will probably drop a bit. I will try to keep you all entertained ( all two of you reading my site ). even though I'm busy as hell.
Keep looking over my GitHub page, frequent updates are to be found. For those who forgot the link, check my pages.
EDIT 10:32 24/03/10 :
I have nearly finished the overhaul I was talking about. It is a MAJOR change throughout the project. If I was to explain everything I'd have enough material for 2 weeks. Prepare for some big posts later in the week or the next.
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