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1

Entertainment / Guy makes HD videogame screen remakes

« on: February 15, 2009, 05:32:23 pm »

So I just stumbled on this blog post: http://gamerlimit.com/2009/02/a-must-see-high-definition-retro-gaming-art/

The actual guy's deviantART is here: http://orioto.deviantart.com

The pictures are amazing, and he has Metroid, Sonic, and Megaman as well. I especially love the Zelda one; it's inspiring.

2

Discussion / PC Gamepads

« on: December 15, 2008, 06:17:19 pm »

I was just wondering what type of gamepads people here have (or don't have) for their PCs. I think it could be useful for developers in designing controls for more than their own setup.

Personally I have a microsoft joystick, an old sidewinder (pic) that has a pad but to get input you use the x/y axes, and a fancy logitech that is essentially a ps2 controller and you use POV-hat inputs for the pad.

3

Feedback / Forum search?

« on: August 12, 2008, 11:52:44 pm »

Is there still a search function somewhere and I'm just not seeing it?

4

Adverts & Recruitment / Guitarist Central

« on: July 12, 2008, 05:40:07 pm »

So I decided to try to get into internet commerce and started a website:

www.guitarist-central.com

Basically it's a site with articles and eBay auctions. I'm still working on writing more articles, but what do you guys think of it so far?

BTW I'm not necessarily asking anyone to buy or click on ads, I'm just looking for some feedback at this point

5

Discussion / Best way to parse XML in C#?

« on: November 29, 2007, 02:56:32 am »

I should be able to figure out how to do this on my own, but I doubt it would be as efficient as it could be/done as fast as it could be if I had some help. The only thing is there are so many ways to use XML that I get lost looking through all there is online. Anyways, the file I'm parsing is basically defining a menu in the game and I have it set up something like this:

Code: [Select]

<Menu>
    <Text ID="0">
        <X>10</X>
        <Y>10</Y>
        <String>Words...</String>
        <!-- Etc... -->
    </Text>
    <Text ID="1">
        <X>10</X>
        <Y>30</Y>
        <String>More words...</String>
        <!-- Etc... -->
    </Text>
    <Button>
        <X>10</X>
        <Y>10</Y>
        <Action>StartGame</Action>
        <!-- Etc... -->
    </Button>
    <Button>
        <X>10</X>
        <Y>10</Y>
        <Action>GoToOptionsMenu</Action>
        <!-- Etc... -->
    </Button>
</Menu>

There are way more elements for each, and a few more types, but hopefully you get the basic idea. I'm just wondering what the best way to read through this is.

I had it working temporarily, but the way I did it was by reading straight through in order (with attributes instead of child elements), so there was basically no flexibility. Plus, it was ugly

. I have some (very

) pseudo-code here, but I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Read to a 'base' element (like Text, Button, etc, is one level below Menu)
Check what kind of element it is
Initialize all the temporary variables (x, y, action, etc) for that element to defaults
Read through the child elements, setting the temp variables that are there
When the end of the base element create the MenuObject using the temp variables

6

Entertainment / Gibson's Robot Guitar

« on: November 27, 2007, 04:56:57 am »

Look here: http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar.

It's basically a Les Paul with a CPU that can automatically tune to whatever tuning you want, tell you when it's out of tune, and (help you) set inotation.

I'm really looking forward to getting one of these. Well, looking way forward because I definitely won't be able to afford it for a while

.
Someday she will be mine. Oh yes, she will be.

7

Other Discussion / So I'm thinking about building a computer... help?

« on: October 13, 2007, 03:50:48 pm »

Well I have two old computers that I assume I can use parts that I want (Hard drives, disk drives, RAM, keyboards/mice/monitor. Hopefully case and/or power supply too but if I can't that's no big deal). So basically I'm hoping that I can get a new motherboard, CPU, and video card (and maybe case/power supply) and use them with my old components. I was wondering if this will work and whether or not I'm looking at good processors/motherboards/video cards. Here is what I have picked out:

CPU- Athlon 64 X2 5600+

Motherboard- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD

Video Card- I have no idea where to start

I'm buying all this from NewEgg.com. Basically I'm wondering if I'm picking underpowered hardware that will be obsolete in a year, or if I'm shooting too high and paying for way more than I need. Also, an idea of the video card to get would be nice

I'd really appreciate any help :/

8

Other Discussion / Difference between celeron and pentium?

« on: September 22, 2007, 08:00:53 pm »

So I've heard that the Celeron processors are worse than Pentium processors, is this true? Basically I got a 'new old' computer with a 2.8 GHZ Celeron processor, and my older one has a 1.5 or 1.6 Pentium 4. I'm pretty sure Celerons have a smaller cache and I think I figured out what that is, but does it make that much of a difference with this big of a speed difference?

9

Coding / Need help with Managed DirectX... Again

« on: August 07, 2007, 03:54:55 am »

So I have my own designer and figured out how to get DirectX set up and actually used, and have it coming along pretty well, but I've been living with this problem and I'm deciding to finally ask how to fix it. Basically my DirectX control gets resized, and instead of expanding to have a bigger 'field of view' (I guess), it just stretches. I've been looking on and off for the past couple months, hating MDX for not having much for documentation, and I can't figure out how to make it just expand instead of scale. Here's a picture of what I mean:

The weird thing is the first image is the normal size and it still stretches for some reason. To draw the tiles I use the DirectX Sprite class, and the viewport can be panned. The top left of the first tile is 0, and the other tiles are all drawn on multiples of 16.

Also, this is another little question, I have no idea why the mouse coordinates that DirectInput gives me are so weird, but they do change pixel-accurately.

10

Discussion / [WIP] Bomberman: Bombs Away!

« on: August 03, 2007, 09:40:59 pm »

Description

Well, I decided that I needed a (short) break from my Zelda game and C++, so I decided to create a Bomberman game. I also realized that I technically never really finished a game (besides those very first "Touch the clown!" things) and I want to be able to at least say that. I have the engine completely done, all that remains is to polish and add more playable levels. I wanted something a little less ambitious, which shouldn't take too long, and this is the product of about a week's work total (not straight, I don't have that much time

).

This game is solely a multiplayer game, playable with up to 4 players (currently) using any combination of keyboard and joysticks. I have plans to make it at least LAN-able, well, if I'm still interested in this once it's done.

Features

- Customize-able gameplay: three game modes to choose from, number of players, controls, "ghosts"
- Standard Bomberman: Placing bombs, trying to trap the other players into exploding and losing lives
- Powerups: More bombs, Stronger bombs, Faster movement, Pick up other players, and Kicking bombs
- Multiplayer: Up to 4 players at once, using combinations of keyboard and joysticks (possibly LAN later)

Screenshots

Trailer

Here's a trailer showing some quick 2 player action and after-game screen(well, both controlled by me). Of course YouTube messed with the quality a little bit.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01gPS_6aE_4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01gPS_6aE_4</a>

Help?

All I'm really looking for is a good font to use, as you can probably see the one I use now sucks pretty bad.

11

Coding / Screen Ripple/Distortion?

« on: June 06, 2007, 01:23:40 am »

I really want to include some kind of 3D screen warping effects in my 2D games (like in Zelda FSA or Paper Mario, for example) but I have no idea how I would do it.
Is it possible in SDL, or do I need to switch to DirectX? What kinds of effects can I do in 2D? Is this what 'shaders' can do? I've also seen some mask images in that FSA rip that seem to go with the effects; does that have anything to do with it?

Ha I really have no idea.

12

Coding / Map Editors

« on: May 07, 2007, 02:27:52 am »

Alright so I'm trying to set up a map editor in C# (because of the form designer, and I've heard it makes development faster). I can figure out how to get basically all of it to work (including my own map and tile formats), besides the area of the form where you select tiles and the area where you place them. I've never worked with any kind of graphics in C# (besides SDL.net and DirectX, but I did that without the designer), so I really don't know how to get some kind of graphic box within the form that I can draw tiles, grids, etc to and get mouse clicks from as well. I vaguely remember seeing something about creating a custom control derived from the Image control, but I don't really know how to draw to it or even create it or anything.

Or if I'm way off using C#, what should I be using?

13

Coding / Vectors of vectors of vectors

« on: May 06, 2007, 05:11:00 pm »

I'm having a few troubles with this. I can get it to work fine, but I don't know how to do out-of-range checking. Here is the line of code accessing the vector:

thisTile = tile->tiles[0][leftTileIndex + i][topTileIndex + j];

Code: [Select]

for (int i = 0; i < SCREEN_WIDTH / tile->tileWidth + 1; i++)
{
	for (int j = 0; j < SCREEN_HEIGHT / tile->tileHeight + 1; j++)
	{
		try
		{
			thisTile = tile->tiles[0][leftTileIndex + i][topTileIndex + j];
			srcRect.x = (thisTile % tile->numTilesPerRow - 1) * tile->tileWidth;
			srcRect.y = floor((float)(thisTile / tile->tileHeight));
			destRect.x = i * tile->tileWidth;
			destRect.y = j * tile->tileHeight;

			SDL_BlitSurface(tile->image, &srcRect, screen, &destRect);
		}
		catch (std::out_of_range &)
		{
			// Vector was out of range, so just let the bg color be drawn
		}
	}
}

and this is the declaration in the TileSet class:

std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<int> > > tiles;

tile is a pointer to a TileSet object, the part I'm talking about is bolded.
Basically all I want to know is how I could somehow use .at instead of each set of brackets for exception handling, since at the edge of a room the tileset ends but the function still checks for more tiles.

14

Coding / Bitmap loading with SDL

« on: April 23, 2007, 02:41:15 am »

Alright, so I've been having this problem with my game engine. I narrowed it down to the fact that when it tries to load a bitmap (using SDL), for whatever reason the bitmap file can't be opened. However, for the heck of it I tried just going into the folder and running the program from there, and the file loading and displaying went fine. Basically what I'm asking is why this wouldn't work from within Visual C++.

Here is an image of the two situations:

The exception is an out-of-range exception for a vector class, which uses the loaded surface but only works if there is actually a surface there.

15

Coding / [Request / Solved] C# Game Loop

« on: June 16, 2006, 01:43:59 am »

I'm messing around with C# now, and I've made a Pong game. The problem is that I put the loop into the Paint event for the main Form, thinking that it would automatically call over and over. But it only calls when I make it redraw manually (like by dragging another program in front of it). So... I'm wondering how to make the program call Paint repeatedly. ???

Please don't say to use a while loop, though.

16

Other Zelda / [Custom] HUD Edit

« on: June 11, 2006, 09:47:22 pm »

I have a HUD for my game, but the problem is that it's kind of bland:

I'm hoping that someone can edit it and make it a little more interesting. The only things really would be to keep it the same size and to have the buttons in the same places. Thanks in advance! ;D

17

Discussion / Yay!

« on: June 09, 2006, 04:23:16 pm »

I finally registered Game Maker after using it for four years! ;D

18

Zelda Projects / Legend of Zelda: The Ring of Light

« on: June 09, 2006, 03:49:20 pm »

The Legend of Zelda: Ring of Light

Well, I'm finally bringing it back.
If anyone remembers, I was at ZFGC way back since EZBoard, but got shuffled around and I've been at DSR lately. I used to be MetalRidley, and I released this game about a year ago. I took a year off, and now I'm bringing it back! ;D

I can't remember who made the good tree sprites for me (they're in the demo, but not the screen shots). If whoever you are reads this, just tell me and I'll put you into the credits

Demos:
Demo 1: http://www.4shared.com/file/1909841/cae08efb/zelda_ringoflight.html Size: 6.98 MB
That's the best host I could find...

Screenshots:

^{Title Screen}

^{Beginning Story Inside a House}

^{Dungeon A field with grass}

^{Outset Island Outset Island}

^{Start Menu Start Menu}

Story:
After Wind Waker, Link returns to Outset Island with Tetra and they live happily for a few years. Then they get restless and want adventure. They find a bottle that has a letter from a princess in another land. That land is called Dramaria. Neither of them have ever heard of it, but luckily a traveling merchant named Beedle knows where it is...

KNOWN ISSUES:
I will most probably a Demo 1.1 with all these fixed (and any more that people find):

-Tetra's sprite and movements aren't perfect (If anyone wants to help, feel free!)
-Bland backgrounds and title screen
-Bland HUD
-"Waking up" music has no picture (I intentionally did that, but it's boring)
-Cutscenes are glitchy (I'm working on a grid-based cutscene engine)
-Talking to people in Outset (mainly the woman walking around)
-~~Grandma and Aryll sprites are needed (If anyone wants to help, feel free!)~~
-Some enemies need to be tweaked (such as in the boss battle when the Babas respawn in the wall)
-~~Start menu can be opened while a message is displayed~~
-Swimming in Castle Town (from river)
-Copying files (don't try it)
-~~Dungeon floor swimming~~

This list makes it seem much worse than it really is. I think the basic engine is almost perfect, though.
Also, if anyone is willing to help with the graphic problems, that would be great!

Controls:
A, S, D:----Items
F:------------Sword
G:------------Shield
Space:-----Action
Enter:------Menu
Arrows:----Move
Esc:---------Quit

The controls are also mapped for attached controllers, which makes it way better. I used a Microsoft Sidewinder as a basis.

Enjoy

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Topics - OriZak