Author Topic: Serenity (Read 63924 times)

jsj795 · « **Reply #120 on:** December 07, 2009, 12:26:28 am »

that's a nice graphics you got there WOW!
Happy to see this project back~ I love ur main screen

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #121 on:** December 07, 2009, 06:53:10 am »

This is looking really nice. I'm looking forward to being able to test a playable version. I do have a suggestion though. It appear that your life bar starts out completely white and turns black at the top of the bar and fill towards the bottom as you take damage. This seems a bit confusing to me. I might do it the other way around. Have it black and filled from top to bottom and have it slowly erase from the top to bottom. In other words, invert the colors. Completely white looks empty, and like you are out of health to me. Just my thoughts anyway. =) Keep up the great work, this is looking really excellent!

Builderboy · « **Reply #122 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:21:10 am »

Mmmm there are two reasons for that configuration:

First is that i actually think it looks full when white and empty when black

I'll have to test out some more configurations though.

The second reason though, is that it makes it a lot easier to lose health. This needs a little explaining of how the engine works. There is a picture of the terrain, without your character, that is recalled every frame in order to restore objects you walk over (and therefore erase, because text erases 1 row underneath it) and to restore tiles that you can walk through, like support wires. The health bar inadvertently becomes a part of this picture, and so is recalled as well. In the beginning, if the health bar were to be filled with black, it would also be stored in the picture and recalled every frame. If, then, say you took damage, the level of black would change and lower. However, the black that is still in the picture would be recalled and overwrite it to make it look full again. I would need to restore the picture after it is edited, making sure enemies, crates, and you have all been removed before i take the picture again. With the system I have now, the original pic has no black, and so does nothing to stop when your health lowers. The problem only arises when you get your health filled back up again, but that happens much less often, and under controlled circumstances.

I hope that made sense

But I cannot switch to a directly inverted health bar without significant slowdowns every time you are hit. (I can't even imagine what would be happening during boss fights

)

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #123 on:** December 07, 2009, 11:23:05 am »

i had lot of troubles with health/stamina bars where when you had no health it was black, especially when you could lose variable amount of HP. Because of this, I simply had the bar flicker when taking damage (I recalled the pic containing the empty energy bar (black) then displayed the new white area again with Line( command), which doesn't look as good, though, and less professional (altough it can make it easier to see when you are taking damage)

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #124 on:** December 07, 2009, 02:51:28 pm »

Hmm... the way you have the program designed I see what you mean. That sux. It wouldn't be very practical to redraw the health bar every frame after recalling the picture either. It's ok the current design you have seems to fit into your program alot better. I'll just have to get used to it. =)

ztrumpet · « **Reply #125 on:** December 07, 2009, 04:10:15 pm »

Builderboy, this is awesome! I'm so glad you are working on this again! This made my day.

I'm glad you will be using xcopy to make this bigger, and also in this case, better.

I have a couple of questions:
The title screen looks very, very nice. How do you Text Serenity on the title screen so fast?
I like the Map idea. Are you using a pic 0-9, or a hacked pic? My vote is for the hacked pic.

The pause menu looks very nice also. I hope we get a demo soon.

Builderboy · « **Reply #126 on:** December 07, 2009, 07:27:00 pm »

I use two very long text sprites one on top of the other, a good 100 or two bytes well spent

Building the menu only takes 385 bytes overall, but operating it takes 1450 bytes :O

For the maps, I have a decision to make. Should the picture be present even after you quit the game, and risk being deleted by the user, (but consequently giving very little load time) or should it be generated every time you run the program, ensureing no crashing happens, but then giving a load time when you want to see the map for the first time.

Geekboy1011 · « **Reply #127 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:01:49 pm »

hmm if it was posible i would think to have it render it at the start of the game if it is missing like a loading screen this way it doesnt lag and risk crashing from a error and people think it isjust the game restting up its enviroment (which it is

)

ztrumpet · « **Reply #128 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:03:55 pm »

Quote from: Builderboy on December 07, 2009, 07:27:00 pm

For the maps, I have a decision to make. Should the picture be present even after you quit the game, and risk being deleted by the user, (but consequently giving very little load time) or should it be generated every time you run the program, ensureing no crashing happens, but then giving a load time when you want to see the map for the first time.

I vote for the second one, but you might want an options menu for stuff like this. It would mean redesigning part of your main menu, but I think it would be worth it.

Builderboy · « **Reply #129 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:06:10 pm »

Actually I just ran some tests, and I can render the whole map frame in under a second, so I might not have to deal with this picture thing at all! It takes about just as much time as it takes to load up the new/load window in the main menu, for comparison

I'm integrating the map system into the pause menu right now, and soon will start integrating xcopy into everything (ahhhh! :O)

ztrumpet · « **Reply #130 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:10:45 pm »

Sounds great! I'm glad you got it to work nicely!

*ztrumpet wishes for a screenshot showing the map*

Builderboy · « **Reply #131 on:** December 07, 2009, 10:13:04 pm »

All in good time my friend

Builderboy · « **Reply #132 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:12:43 pm »

As promised, here is the screenshot of the (most likely) finished map display thingy

16 rooms, this will be the smallest sector in the game, and used to get users used to controls and game style

There are different types of rooms represented here. The 4 rooms on the right are the prison cells, the one in the bottom left is the Boss Room. The normal one in the top right looks weird because it is flashing to show your current position. These are quadruple layer text sprites, but only use 2 strings (they use each string twice with an offset of 2 left/right). For other sectors, other strings/maps will be represented.

Now that the map system is up and running (phew) I will start hard coding in all the dialogue, which might take a while as i'm running out of room, and i need to get everything archiving and unarchiving properly now

Eeems · « **Reply #133 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:27:01 pm »

Wow looks amazing! As always :p
good job!

ztrumpet · « **Reply #134 on:** December 10, 2009, 09:17:39 pm »

Again, amazing job! Quad sprites. Wow.

Author Topic: Serenity (Read 63924 times)

jsj795

Re: Serenity

TIfanx1999

Re: Serenity

Builderboy

Re: Serenity

DJ Omnimaga

Re: Serenity

TIfanx1999

Re: Serenity

ztrumpet

Re: Serenity

Builderboy

Re: Serenity

Geekboy1011

Re: Serenity

ztrumpet

Re: Serenity

Builderboy

Re: Serenity

ztrumpet

Re: Serenity

Builderboy

Re: Serenity

Builderboy

Re: Serenity

Eeems

Re: Serenity

ztrumpet

Re: Serenity