Scripting Help

I have a Lua and DirectX background, and I need some help with Python.

I'm working on a game called Belli, you can look into it here.

Here's what I help with:

Okay, I just figured out how to make the scripting/programming for the battles (both danmaku and RPG) much easier:

I found a way of opening OSU beat-map files in Firefox, and when doing so, I can see the actual beat-map timing, placement and all the other data.

I'm going to use said data to create bullet hells for the shmup elements and beat timing for RPG elements, but I need some help figuring out how to make it "read" the data, and from there, translate it into bullet spawning and timing.

What's an OSU beat-map file? Is it just plain text? How is it parsed?

If it is plain text, why would you need Python? There is a file object, a text manipulator, and various other things that can help you get the data and sort it with events.

If it's not plain text, you will likely need some kind of custom plugin to read the file.

Well, an OSU beat-map file is a compression of 3 files, but I know how to open the text part (the actual programming) individually.

So basically, for what I'm trying to do, it is just a text file.

Text manipulator should do the job, depending on how complex the format is.

What does the text manipulator do, is it a technique?

It's an object. You add it to the layout like a sprite, or any other kind of object. It has actions, conditions, and expressions that allow you to manipulate text, of all things.

Well what I'm trying to do is manipulate timing + bullet spawning (from a specific source) using text, would the manipulator object let me do that?

yea, with enough know-how. A better explanation would also help a lot, because i have no clue what that file type is! Can i see the file or something?

yea, with enough know-how. A better explanation would also help a lot, because i have no clue what that file type is! Can i see the file or something?

http://osu.ppy.sh/

Any one of the files in the listings, but if you throw it into Mozilla Firefox you get the beat-map coding without any of the zipped graphics and sounds.

It may be just me but I can't see any way to get at a file there.

Do you mind uploading a plain text file, i don't have Firefox installed atm. I wanna check how the beat map is set up. Opening with notepad doesn't work.

Forget about my horribly misguided plan to use OSU text files, it wasn't very well thought out at all.

Now, I'm trying to find out whether or not Construct/Python can simply use data from sounds, and because I don't know much of the complicated terminology for this, I'll describe it in a more literary to visual manner:

Think of a stereotypical, multi-bar/line visualization on the LCD screen of a large, modern day "boombox".

I want to know if I can use the same data that that visualization is based on and have it trigger functions (I.E. Danmaku bullet spawning, enemy movements) with Construct. Like, whenever a specified bar reaches such and such a height, it will spawn a bullet going in a certain direction.

You'd have to code your own algorithm in C++ and use it as a plugin, or else write a very complicated Python script.

xaudio2 has the get peak level expression, but it's twitchy and unsuitable for anything more than a visualization. You can play around with the RMS and peak level expressions to get raw sound data and try to program something out of that. My Shmup 'Bit Fortress' in the your creations forum was planning on using this method. It requires alot of patience and tweaking to get right however, and the sounds you use have to be tweaked like crazy, sometimes returning unpredictable results. As rich said, the best would be a custom c++ algorithm/plugin. The Xaudio 2 expressions can only do so much. You're better off using those OSU text files for complex functions, because those expressions are only a single bar.

Wouldn't it be better to use several sounds, then use a timeline to play them?