frpnit's Forum Posts

  • Some stuff, not game related:

    <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo55zb0k9i1qlxa7po2_1280.jpg" border="0" />

    <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo4hg5w9O61qlxa7po3_1280.jpg" border="0" />

    And the paperboy character for a now dead project from Construct 1 =( :

    <img src="http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/4926/paperboy.png" border="0" />

  • mineet I like your enthusiasm :D

    When you have the possibility to, I really recommend you learning how to load the skeletal animation on your Construct project, instead of exporting as a animation spritesheet. Because, as someone here told before, it saves memory usage and reduces your game final size, since it uses a lot less bitmaps.

    I wish you good luck!

  • mineet

    Oh, Inkscape (nice free software) is a vectorial program, so things aren't the same as paint.net, as you works with math/bezier curves, the workflow changes considerably.

    The reason i've not mentioned Spriter before is that i thought it's not free at all, but it seems even when in final version, will be there a free version. It's a good way to go, because there is a plugin that loads spriter format on Construct. As for animation, things works much like the Blender tests, but as it's directly made for 2D, will be easier to setup.

  • Hi Mineet,

    Indeed, manual interpolation (traditional frame by frame animation) can be such a pain. Every tecnique has it's pros and cons, and thus, limits. Cutout animations requires a bit of planning before, so that all character parts fits well together during the moviment.

    If you are doing this kind of stuff, rotating limbs and such, i really recomend you to use some software that automatizes it for you. I've created a post a long time before about free tools, there are two apps for animation that could help you in there, besides blender - they are Cool Motion, and Tisfat. Check the post out at:

    http://www.scirra.com/forum/free-tools-and-resources-for-game-development_topic42219.html

    If you are interested in learning what i've done in Blender, you could read this tutorial:

    Part 1

    Part 2

    Good luck with your work :)

  • Hi all,

    I was messing around with Blender 3D for 2D animations. It's not that difficult at all, but consumed a good time of mine, since i had to plan the cutouts, and learn about rigging, uv maps, weight painting... Anyway, i think it might be a good solution for spritesheets, or maybe for a realtime 2d skeletal animation (blender can export the whole thing as a .fbx file, dunno if it's possible to parse it back using Construct).

    First test - Bending an arm using two bones and an armature deform:

    [tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9g_fhDFpHs[/tube]

    Second test - A traditional walking cycle, using some old sketch i had here:

    [tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ0l6H540hU[/tube]

    Hope you like it :)

  • Hi all,

    Construct is really a great freeware tool we can use to code a game, but itself alone can't handle all the job. We need graphics, sounds, etc.

    I'm starting this thread because i think many people here doesn't have too much $$$ to spend on tools for such task (photoshop came in mind), and besides, not everybody has knowledge to do artwork or anything else. But there are many free / open source or cheap alternatives and free resources that can do the job very well, and to help everybody, a good compiled list in on thread should help a lot, huh?

    For this thread (that also could be called as 'how to make games if you are short on money'), i will contribute with some tools i've found on internet that are free;

    * TOOLS - GRAPHICS *

    FREEWARES OR OPEN SOURCE

    Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/

    A well known image editor, this one isn't a full photoshop replacement, but probably it's the most complete free one. You can deal with layers, multiple undos, many features and export work in many bitmap formats. Plus, it accepts 3rd party extensions! Supports tablet pen pressure.

    Mypaint - http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

    This one could be called the free Corel Painter tool. It's very simplistic and minimalistic in terms of features and interface, but it shines when it comes to the brush engine. Also supports tablet pen pressure.

    Inkscape - http://inkscape.org/

    The best freeware vector-drawing alternative i know (if not the only one). Good drawing tools (bezier, free form), good plugins, bitmap export.

    Hornil Stylepix - http://hornil.com/en/products/stylepix/

    A decent and very small image editor, although not as good as Gimp. Has layer support, effects, and more. Also supports tablet pen pressure.

    RealWorld Paint.COM - http://www.rw-designer.com/image-editor

    Weaker than Hornil, but yet with useful features like layer support. Again, this one supports tablet pen pressure. Interface very clumsy.

    * TOOLS - ANIMATION *

    FREEWARES OR OPEN SOURCE

    Synfig studio - http://synfig.org/

    A very complete open source animation software, that supports automatic inbetween animation (like flash). Doesn't have bones system.

    Plastic Animation Paper - http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/

    This one was released some time ago as a full freeware animation app. It's designed for traditional (frame by frame) animation.

    Cool Motion - http://www.yuzhesoft.com/cool-motion.html

    This one is a free alternative to flash 6/7 ( mx / mx2004, if i do remember correctly), although less powerful, but still very useful. It can only import bitmap files to the library, but has a vector drawing tool, has some transforms and motion tween, so it has enough resources that makes it suitable to cut-out animation like flash. Supports AS aswell. If you are familiar to flash, you will be familiar with this one, since interface is very similar to its comercial counterpart. Has some bugs (freezes here everytime i try to dropdown comboboexes), but perfectly usable. Unfortunately doesn't support bones like newer flash version, and only exports swf output. But, there are some freeware tools floating around that converts SWF to image sequence or png spritesheet. Take a look at SWFSheet (good one - http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2977 ) or Kurst SWF Renderer (simpler but efficient - http://swfrenderer.kurst.co.uk/) or SwfSpriteSheet (not tested - http://fermmm.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/swf-spritesheet-creator/) - they all relies on adobe air framework, wich is also free.

    TISFAT - http://t.sektorz.net/

    This little one is very buggy when it comes to frame by frame exporting, but it's also free and has pivotal animation system that behaves much like 2d skeletal animation system (bones). Features timelines, layers and keyframes, similar to Flash. Neat features that could really be useful (i've heard rint screen? lol)

    * TOOLS - MUSIC*

    FREEWARES OR OPEN SOURCE

    Pxtone - http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022293/pxtone/index.html

    A simple music composing software, it's good for 8-bit styled retro music. The same tool was redistributed with a great manual by Locomalito (from hydorah fame) and is available at: http://www.gr87.com/?page_id=64

    LMMS - http://lmms.sourceforge.net/

    Excerpt from LMMS site: "LMMS is a free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio?, which allow you to produce music with your computer. This includes the creation of melodies and beats, the synthesis and mixing of sounds, and arranging of samples. You can have fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more; all in a user-friendly and modern interface."

    ---------

    That's my contribution. I would glad to see more tools here, and improve this post. Maybe you should sticky this post, i think it's could be very useful!

    And sorry about my bad english, not my native language hehe.

  • Nice and colorful. Good job.

    Thanks, Danny! I'm very busy right now, but on my free time i'm working on character's positions like standing, light attack...

    I hate you all! No, really

    Most of the artwork presented here is not only good, it's fantastic. I mean, just look at the work of saint11, pyteo, inkBot, frpnit or Julmust. They are so professional by any positive means.

    And me?

    average programming skills

    average music composing skills

    average writing skills

    below average drawing skills

    ...

    If I only had 5% of your skills!

    Damn!

    *walks away crying and full of self-pity*

    Tulamide, thanks for positive comments like 'professional artwork', i really apreciate that. But believe, it's hard for me doing a good artwork. And people like saint11 and pyteo are professional illustrators, so don't discourage yourself, 'cause i think that a good game relies much more on playability and fun factor than in art. And I read music composing skills?

    Soon (if my work allows me to) more updates from me. Thanks all of you

  • My current project in very early stages of development - It's gonna be a fighting game with cartoonish characters (barely inspired in artwork from Danny Phantom's animated series). Currently working on first (and probably main) character, the unnamed paperboy:

    More basic poses for him soon (I hope hehe).

  • Great work scidave!

    I hope someday improve my UDP netcode... I'm on another project right now and besides that, i have a work hehe.

    Python scripting capabilities is really a great way to improve Construct.

    • FRP -

  • nn.nn.nnn.nnn PORT: nn

    nevermind, router doesn't want to play along

    You can test locally on same machine if you want to, just open two program instances, in one you click on start server, and on another you put your lan address to connect.

    Arrow keys doesn't work after clicking on buttons or input fields, I have to switch to desktop or another window and then switch back to program. It's a focus issue i don't know if it could be avoided.

  • Excellent work! Just downloaded it and it worked well. I like how you in-lined the library code so folks don't have to mess with custom Python builds.

    Besides that, It's easier to debug , since it's directly attached to Construct itself.

    My code is pretty much novice friendly (at my point of view), maybe someone could understand the UDP connection basics just reading that (maybe not )

    btw.. I stumbled upon pysage today which is a Python tool on top of pyraknet. May be worth a look.

    http://code.google.com/p/pysage/

    Pretty interesting stuff. The actor's system seems interesting for applications that demands high levels of data traffic (thinking in games like battlefield, that support 32 or more players across the net).

    I think this should be .99.84.

    Thanks, fixed. Now I've put some interesting links regarding UDP network gaming that worth a look!

    • FRP -

  • Hey guys!

    As i've told before, i was messing around with UDP code stuff. Never programmed in Python before, but after some research, i could adapt MasterMind UDP library (that's on Pygame site) to work with Construct.

    So, It's a simple program, where server will move the red player, and client will move de blue one. Connection is done via UDP as said, but there is no optimization or prediction or etc here, just studying socket stuff. It's rough, but works. You can connect to external ip, if port is properly forwarded.

    I will try to advance on my experimentations and refine this thing a bit more. At the end of post, the source code for Construct is attached. And below, some links about UDP in Python and in general gaming:

    http://www.pygame.org/project-Mastermind+Networking+Lib-859-.html - Mastermind Networking Lib on pygame.org, from wich my code is based uppon.

    http://gafferongames.com/networking-for-game-programmers/ - To me, this one is a must-read article series. It covers the basics about game networking. take a look!

    http://gafferongames.com/game-physics/networked-physics/ - From the same guy, it covers aspects like client prediction, and i think it's focused on a FPS approach

    Cap file attached. Used Constructed 0.99.84.

    [attachment=0:1f8h547j][/attachment:1f8h547j]

  • Hey Scidave!

    I'm still messing with UDP socket stuff, yesterday i've done that simple example from mikepan and modifying some stuff, it worked. Seems that setting socket to setblocking(0) pushes socket operation to background thread. I'm trying to see if a external ip connects with properly port forward, i've searching on google about and teorically it works, but i've tested with some friend and nothing. Dunno what is wrong at all, perhaps client port must be forwarded too...

    Anyway, I will try to code something based on both libraries (mastermind and podsix), avoinding code that could hijack the mainloop.

    Wish me luck! (PS.: i've never used python before, but reading documentation and sample code, it's not complicated as well)

  • I think you are talking about this call: server.serve_forever() which leads to netbase.py and the while loop. The problem is this pretty much hijacks the main loop and that doesn't play well with Construct. That is why I like PodSixNet so much because it uses the Pump() feature to check packets but doesn't steal the main event loop. I'll have to look at Mastermind closer to see if there is a workaround.

    I think it's not the while statement what's hijacking main loop, but the actions from inside of it. I think it's not polling data in asynchronous event like Pump() in podsix, as it uses asyncore lib from python and mastermind doesn't.

    From that point of view, podsix is much more efficient than mastemind. Damn!!

    • FRP -

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  • Thanks for the great info frpnit! I didn't know Eve online used Python (UDP library).. that's pretty cool. I also noticed that this is your first post, so welcome to the forum! Construct is an awesome tool and this community is very helpful.

    Thank you, scidave! I've been observing Construct sometime ago, but my real interest came now i've seen it's possible to accomplish networking on games, even if has to be on small, simpler games.

    [quote:3ax109qh]

    That Mastermind library looks exactly like what is needed for higher speed over internet games. I don't know how good the performance will be, but it should be better. We will still have to do some interpolation/prediction to handle long lag times which unfortunately right now we have to manually do.

    I was reading superficially both Podsix and Mastermind code. Seems that what i told about podsix should work, just changing socket type on .py files. But both libraries does pretty much the same, connects two endpoints, and send encoded data to save traffic.

    About interpolation/prediction. Hmm, well, maybe even on Raknet library, this should be done by the programmer, since prediction may vary from each game style. A race game must use prediction in different way that FPS should. Dunno, just wondering here.

    [quote:3ax109qh]

    I did some more testing using a Network latency simulator and the Dungeon game actually performs pretty well up to around 150ms lag. That's not bad!! I think the slowness that MacieJ was talking about was how I made the game. The new version I uploaded seems about as laggy, but is more responsive so people may like that better. I've removed the old version and made a few server improvements and uploaded a newer version.

    Great! It becomes more and more interesting, keep the good work. I'm trying here do some silly stuff to test Mastermind library, used cxfreeze as on your tutorial, and library successfully exported, i own you thanks. Now i'm stucked, opened that Construct python script editor and seems the code is executing in infinite loop. When i initialize udp server, there is some function with while statement in there, and it freezes everything. Well, i'll try do something more today.

    • FRP -