Off the top of my head:

Create a small, transparent object (CameraProxy) and pin it to ObjectA. Then, when you collide with ObjectB, destroy ObjA, spawn ObjC, move CameraProxy to ObjC's origin point and pin it to ObjC.

Cheers,T

I have a related problem where I can't see my global variables because some of the names are a bit too long (That being said, I tend toward long variable names, so maybe it's me<img src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0" align="middle" />).

It's a bit frustrating that the readouts in the debugger can't be resized (so, I could slide over the divider to see my globals properly.)

silkc2

I've just been dealing with this in my own game, transitioning from a simple roll-your-own tilemap system based around objects to a proper tilemap. Here's what I've found:

1. Using 'Is overlapping?' and 'On Collision' does not seem to be reliable for tilemaps when fast moving objects -- bullets -- are in play. If the bullet moves too far into a tilemap section without destroying the tile or itself, you can't get collision information. Example: Is overlapping will come up 'no'.

2. Ashley explained how tilemaps are automatically broken into square sub-sections when you have large areas full of the same kind of tiles. I assumed that you could still tell when an object is inside on of those squares, but apparently you can't. It's almost like the interiors of the sub-sections are simply tiled backgrounds. All you can reliably collide with are the borders.

What I did about it:

I just bypassed the 'on collision/is overlap' commands by rolling my own. I'm just testing each bullet once per tick and seeing if there is a tile at the same position. If there isn't, I move on to the next bullet; if there is I do further filtering by tile type to decide what to do (Tile A: bounce bullet, Tile B: destroy tile, Tile C: Destroy bullet & tile, etc...). This seems to be working perfectly.

Hope that helps,

Tim

P.S. The other thing I've done is switch from the built in bullet behavior to using the Custom Movement behavior. This has resulted in a MASSIVE speedup for my application. I can now put a couple thousand fast moving bullets onscreen with no slowdown and faultless tile collision. <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Just want to say thanks: Bryce was the first piece of software I fell in love with, all the way back in 1998. Back then it was version 4; it's changed surprisingly little in the interim. While dated, I still use it to this day; the interface is as intuitive as any I've ever seen, and it has it's own little niche that no other piece of software has ever quite filled...procedural textures are teh coolest... <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Getting v. 7 for free is like Christmas come early, and I would have missed it if I hadn't happened to glance at the forum today; strangely, the first time in a couple weeks. COuld it be...fate? <img src="smileys/smiley10.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

p.s.

Bork, bork bork, bork bork bork, bork bork, bork, bork bork bork...

The problem here is that the government is using a scapegoat to justify an act of intimidation. Look at the timing: this is a big middle finger to the SOPA and PIPA protests, as if to say "we ARE going to take down sites our paymasters don't like, and pretty soon we won't even need a real reason, so get used to it".

Instead of thinking of all the illegitimate content on Megaupload -- and I will admit, there was plenty of it -- think of all the people hosting legitimate files on it who just lost everything. Think of all the copyrighted content on Youtube, much of which stays up forever and ever; why isn't it getting shut down instead? The part I like best: Swizz Beatz, the CEO of the whole organization, has NOT been arrested...who says you can't buy justice? <img src="smileys/smiley42.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

When doing some genealogy research on my great-grandmother, who was the first Chief Cook of the White House, I stumbled across this old article from the Feb 8th, 1920 edition of the New York Tribune; I downloaded the archival quality version from the Library of Congress and reposted it on Internet Archive as a easier-to-download standard jpeg. A fascinating bit of early sci-fi, presented as speculative science, back when Heinlein was playing hooky and Asimov was still in the cradle:

archive.org/details/NyTribuneFeb81920ScientistsAgreeMartiansAreSuperRace

Thanks for more great suggestions guys.

GenkiGenga:

Hey, another 'Another World'er! What an amazing game; way ahead of it's time...Another World would have been quite an accomplishment for a team, but for one guy, developing in the early 90's? Absolutely unbelievable, and still holds up today. He even has it on his site for free now; the one thing I would say is: play it with an emulator that has save states. The difficulty is very frustrating at times, to the point of almost ruining the game, but well worth suffering through. The designer -- Eric Chahi -- also worked on a neat game called Heart of Darkness that's worth looking up; has some similarities to Limbo, though the art and vibe is totally different. He also just released a game called 'From Dust' on Xbox live which is really fascinating; totally different concept.

Heard they spent up to 200 million on this game. That's 19 times as much as the original film, almost as much as avatar, and 2/3 the budget of the entire lord of the rings trilogy...that's right, the ENTIRE trilogy. Enough money to make 2000 indie games at $100,000 a game. Really puts it in perspective, eh?

I read about this awhile ago. I really don't know what to say about it that hasn't already been said. Due to the vague and sometimes contradictory wording it is, in effect, defacto martial law. May you live in interesting times, eh?

Personally, I use a program called Reaper. I like it because it's fast, rock stable, immensely powerful, highly customizable, and cheap. Easy to use? Well, I don't think it would take top honors there, but if you take some time to configure it and read the manual it's as good -- and in some ways even better -- than just about anything out there.

That being said, never stop experimenting with new programs. Of all the tracks I've made, some of my best were with a homebrew music app for my psp called Rhythm. Even with it's massive limitations -- 16 note polyphony anyone? -- it's proved useful and creatively inspiring to me. When your creative vision is not clear, absolute power and endless options can be your worst enemies. The decision on whether to set those limits yourself, or use tools that set them for you is one everyone has to make; both approaches can lead to great work.

profMobi:

BTW, one question for you: when reading about appMobi I noticed that you guys were touting improved audio functionality over existing html five abilities. Will this be a cross platform feature, ie. will it work on pc's and macs as well as mobile environments?

Don't know how I missed this before...looks really, really slick. Can't wait to give this a spin.