thomasmahler's Forum Posts

  • 44) Okay, just wanna know if I miss something about the hotspots - Is there any better way to set them to the same coordinates for all frames? If my Attackcycle has different sprite dimensions (because the sword makes the whole sprite larger) than my runcycle and I need to adjust the hotspot of one animation cycle to the other (so that I don't get jerky movements when I start running after I attacked), how am I doing that? Do I really have to go into every single animation frame of the cycle that I want to adjust and manually, by hand (using the arrow keys on the keyboard) match them up?

    Cause that'd be quite terrible. For detailed animations, that could take me HOURS - when all I want to do is to save the hotspot coordinations of one animation cycle and copy them to the next. Or save the hotspot coordinations from one frame and copy it to the other. Especially since I can't playback the animation in the sprite editor.

  • Just another 'yay!' for a 'fade through black' transition. That'd really be helpful.

  • Actually, I really like this show:

    http://www.bytejacker.com/

    It's basically a review podcast that's all about indie games. Pretty cool stuff.

  • Yeah, I think this thread isn't productive anymore since it's way too heated up. There'll always be topics where one group of people thinks solution A is better and the other group pledges for solution B - in the end, it's not worth getting all mixed up about that.

    Personally, if I know the app has global variables, I sorta assume that we'd also have local (the better term actually is layout) variables. Getting to the solution that I'll have to use a buffer sprite and use its private variable would've taken me longer to figure out than having layout variables natively built into the app.

    It doesn't really matter right now since we get the same result using both ways, so let's not get all fussed up about it anymore. There are more important things to talk and research about

  • Interesting. I've used invisible walls so far for this Gotta take a look at your cap in a bit.

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  • 43) Platform behavior again.

    I'm currently designing enemies and it's kinda hard to define their behavior. What I want to achieve is this: The enemies are patrolling - which means they walk left for x amount of pixels, stop and go to the idle animation, then they turn around, walk x amount of pixels, stop and go to idle, etc. etc.

    Very basic stuff. The problem is this one: I want the enemies to move based on the platforming behavior, since it already has all the stats set-up. The speed, gravity, jumping, everything. But it's kinda hard to define right now (at least I don't see how it could be done efficiently) that the enemy should walk from his current position to X:360 and from X:360 to X: 1200, etc.

    That also makes it hard to take control over the character in cutscenes - usually, what do we do in cutscenes? We set the player inputs to ignore and run an event, so that the designer can 'take over' for a while.

    It'd be cool to have a couple more actions with which we could actually control our characters behavior in form of simple events.

  • This would potentially also help with the font rendering, right? Cause it won't render font itself, but bitmaps as text.

    This would be really sweet, then.

  • Not in the way this plugin works - cause it's essentially just a sprite with a private variable, but without the memory footprint.

    But I still think it'd be cool to have a local variable that's based on layouts without having to use sprites as buffers.

  • 41) It'd be neat if we'd have a 'wait' action in our platform behavior. It'd just freeze the platform behavior for a certain amount of ms and then keep going again.

    So if I want to send a guard on patrol, I'd have an invisible wall where he'd 'wait' and set the animation back to idle - then, after a certain amount of time he'd start patrolling again, heading into the other direction. Hits a wall, waits, idle, starts patrolling again, etc.

    We could also use 'Wait' for timed stuff in Cutscenes. If Cutscene happens, wait for 5000ms, then move forward, etc.

    42) It'd be cool to have a 'repeat last action' key in the IDE. So if I just toggled an event, I could select another one, hit the 'repeat last action' key and boom, this event also is toggled. Should also work with delete, invert, etc.

  • Actually, Maya is very well designed. It's clever, the UI is still pretty good even though it's over 10 years old now and you can do so fucking much in it. Node-based design, it's very expendable, you have MEL or Python as scripting languages, its polymodeling toolset is halfway decent, the mental ray integration isn't too bad...

    Arima: What are you using instead now? I have to switch back to Max in a couple of weeks, I'll probably miss my Maya config, but Max has a much better modeling toolset anyway - especially with release 2010 (polyBoost integrated, yay!).

  • But considering that is WORMS , not TONKS , and that it's also probably copyrighted.

    Anyway , had a shot at a theme , it's kinda more cyber-apocalypse , or something. I don't know :S

    http://filesmelt.com/Filehosting2/downl ... le=TMT.mp3

    Go listen

    Obviously, he shouldn't just rip that theme and use it, but get inspired by it

  • Aeal: It's cool, didn't want to piss you off. I just thought your plugin isn't what you suggest on the thread. I always thought you were talking bout layout variables.

  • right there: account. identity. community. nuf said? achievements are what people make of them. they're far from virtual. they affect the game on a different level than just code.

    That's clear, but I just wonder that it got that important for gamers.

    Like, I understand why a doctor would hang his certificates on the wall - if some guy cuts me open to play with my intestines, I wanna now that some other medical dudes think that he's the right man for the job.

    So it makes sense for real events and real issues - but have you ever really walked through your friendslist, checked someone elses achievements and been like:

    "Dude, WTF, WOW!!!!! BatFucker2010 actually managed to deliver 30 headshots in one game in Gears 2! That's so awesome!!!111"

    ?

    Like, seriously? I guess it depends on the person, but I never looked at other peoples achievements, since I don't even care about my own. It's just interesting that so many people do care about them. I guess Deadeye and me are in the minority when it comes to that though.

  • Just to clear this up:

    Aeal: Your plugin isn't really well designed. It's the same thing that deadeye suggested, it's just an object with private variables - so that doesn't make a lot of sense. I could use a sprite, use my own icon and fill it with a private variable.

    What I was thinking about is a local variable that's based on your layout. So you'd be able to click on your project and set global variables and you'd be able to click on each layout and set local (layout) variables.

    Rich: A workaround is not just something you do in order to steer around a bug. A workaround is also a solution you use, because a certain feature that you want is not implemented in the application yet - so you come up with your own little idea that might work, cause the program is complex enough.

    I'll give you one example - In Maya, you were never really able to store assets properly. So people just started creating 'groups' and deleting all the shit in it, so they ended up with a completely empty node and filled that node up with custom attributes (like private variables) - tada, we got an asset node.

    Now, in a recent release, Autodesk actually created a feature called 'assets' that handles this for you without the workaround that's using empty nodes and it's a lot more comfortable because it aids the user as well. It's easier to set-up, it's easier to organize, it is its own entity specifically designed for a certain task that users used all the time anyway - but they had to fake a method up until that point.

    We have global variables. If I have 300 levels and I want to use a variable for each level to control a certain event, I could just use a layout variable and wouldn't have to clutter up my global variables.

    [quote:31h9775w]The only caveat is that initial values for hash tables/array can't be set; this can be remedied via some very simple additions to the SDK. If a dev wants to take it on I can send them the sources for either.

    I'd fucking love that!

  • I wouldn't go as far as calling them retarded, but you definitely have to be an obsessive son of a bitch to fall for achievements. On the other hand, they would certainly help to teach your hardcore users certain lessons. Like, I'm thinking about Super Mario Kart on the SNES right now (best Mario Kart ever, but that's beside the point).

    There, an achievement could be: "Win championship without ever driving against a wall" - If someone's out to get all achievements, you can bet your ass he's going to become pretty darn good at playing the game, trying to get that achievement. It's just not a very hard thing to integrate from a developer point of view and it's certainly an interesting phenomenon that achievements gained such a huge popularity.

    Deadeye: Your highscore example isn't quite accurate, cause there it's more like the exp in an RPG - you get to a certain number of points and it will have an effect on you (getting an extra life). That's not what achievements are all about. Achievements are just tokens that are being activated once you reached a certain goal in the game - but they don't really have any effect on you in the game, they're external.