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Topics - Cassyblanca

Pages: [1] 2 3 4
1
Coding / [C++11] Header-only binding library for Squirrel
« on: July 22, 2014, 07:30:57 am »
I don't know how many people here actually use C++ anymore, but in case there are a few of you I figured I'd post this here. I've recently started digging into variadic templates, a change made to template metaprogramming with the C++11 specification - essentially, it's variadic arguments (think va_list), but for templates. Anyway, I've used this, along with lambdas and the STL function object to begin work on a really simple and intuitive binding API for the Squirrel scripting language. Right now, there isn't a large amount of functionality, but the most critical parts are in place.

If you want to take a look, it's on my GitHub.

2
Feedback / Ruby (Furigana) Support
« on: August 23, 2012, 02:08:05 pm »
Something that could help with hawthorneluke's Japanese lessons could be the addition of a BBCode for the HTML Ruby tag. While the Ruby tag isn't supported in the default installation of most browsers, it's available as extensions to most (I'm using it in Firefox right now).

This page best describes the benefits of this, if you're not sure what Furigana is: http://thejapanesepage.com/w/index.php?title=Furigana

Edit: It looks like the link to the Firefox plugin on that website is broken, but the addon can be found by going to Firefox's "Get Addons" section and searching for "Furigana" - I'm using the bottom of the three results, HTML Ruby 6.22.3

The HTML code to achieve the Furigana is:
Code: HTML
  1. <ruby><rb>漢字</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>かんじ</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>

So something akin to the following may be an appropriate BBC tag:
[ruby=わたし]私[/ruby]

3
Zelda Projects / Paper Zelda Gameplay Experiment
« on: April 10, 2012, 01:43:17 pm »
As anybody poking around the Recruitment board may know, I'm working on an experimental gameplay project pulling the 3D gameplay style from Super Paper Mario to a Legend of Zelda setting - to see how it feels, and to potentially develop it into a full project.

Current Build: http://minalien.com/experimental-gameplay-paper-zelda/
Current Controls:
Arrow Keys / WASD - Move Link

A special thanks to Mitsu for the pixel art currently being used in the project. :D

From my blog page:
Quote
Project Description

This project is intended to experiment with the “sprites-in-three-dimensions” gameplay style that is seen in Nintendo’s Super Paper Mario game for the Nintendo Wii. The focus of the experiment is to test the entertainment value of the Super Paper Mario gameplay style (with regards to the 3D portion of the gameplay) in an adventure game setting, rather than the platform setting from which I got the idea.

For the first implementation of this system, I am using Unity 3D, rendering the player as a two-dimensional animated texture mapped to a that has been rotated to face the camera (similar to a billboard, but without the billboard implementation – the plane just happens to be rotated for the camera). While I search for an artist willing and able to provide graphics in the Super Paper Mario style, I am working on the project with sprite rips from other Legend of Zelda games to experiment with a control scheme and rendering.

Right now, I'm developing the experiment using Unity3D 3.5 and deploying it to the Unity Web Player on my blog.

4
While crawling across the great Interwho, I started watching a few gameplay videos for Super Paper Mario on YouTube. While I haven't played the game itself, the three-dimensional gameplay looks like something that would be interesting to play around with from a design and development perspective.

What I'm looking for is a 2D artist capable of knocking out a small sprite sheet for Link in a Super Paper Mario graphics style for use in an experimental gameplay project. If it turns out to be entertaining enough to begin development beyond a simple gameplay experiment, I'd love to play with the idea as a full-fledged fan game - but at the very least, it would make for an interesting addition to a development portfolio for anybody involved in the experiment.

If there's anybody interested, I'm mostly looking for the following:

Link movement animations (back/front view). I'll leave it to any interested artists to decide whether or not they want to include a sword/shield.
Link attack animations to match with movement animations.
One minor enemy sheet, I'm not too concerned about the complexity of its animations.

Until I can find an artist, I'm going to push forward with the experiment using graphic rips from ALttP or MC, but I think having appropriate graphics would do much more justice to determining the feel of the gameplay.

5
Updates / Legend of ZFGC: Return of the Chatroom
« on: April 04, 2012, 10:07:57 am »
The ZFGC IRC channel is back! :D

For users interested in connecting, point your IRC clients (I recommend mIRC for Windows, irssi for Linux, or Linkinus for Mac OS X). If you're not interested in downloading a client, you can connect through Mibbit to join in.

IRC Server: irc.kbfail.net
Channel: #ZFGC
Ports: 6667, 7000
SSL Port: 6697



Bear in mind, the chatroom's been dead for the past couple of years, so it will take time for the activity to pick back up. Currently, we've left the previous channel operators in place. Some of them are users who haven't been around the forums for a while -- I'm hoping to pull a couple users back into the fold. If anybody has any issues on the channel and an operator isn't present, send a copy of the chat log to gm112 or I and we'll make sure it's taken care of.

6
Sponsored Tutorials/Engines / [GLZelda] Chapters 1 & 2
« on: March 30, 2012, 02:21:01 am »
Chapters 1 & 2 of Learning OpenGL through Fan Game Development focus on project setup, conveying the initial game concept, and establishing our project in Xcode 4 and Visual Studio 2010. We will begin building the game as of Chapter 3, where we establish SDL and begin working in a platform-independent manner (where Chapter 2 is largely platform-specific).

PDF Download (Approx. 2.7 MB)
iBooks Download (Approx 9 MB)

EDIT:
Just as a quick note, I didn't actually include linking the SDL lib in the Visual Studio build because that is intended for the next tutorial (as I will also be adding SDLmain, which is handled via lib in VS2010).



Chapters 1 & 2 have been released!

I'm releasing this series in both iBooks and PDF format - if anybody could please test the iBooks version, it would be appreciated. I understand that the majority of the pictures are not present in the PDF version, but please bear in mind that they should be unimportant (the document would be flooded with them if I'd put them in as images instead of galleries) to completing the tutorial, and that future images will only be related to showing in-book shots of the effects being achieved (meaning iBooks users will get more preview images, but there will be no difference beyond that).

However, if users desire all of the images for PDF copies (for these chapters - I'm not going to bother with including extra previews through the rest of the tutorial), I will consider a re-release for PDF copies.

7
Feedback / GeSHi Syntax Highlighting
« on: March 26, 2012, 05:41:36 am »
I've just implemented GeSHi Syntax Highlighting into code tags within the forum.

Use is simple:
[ code = <language> ]

For example, to display a syntax-highlighted Ruby script, you would use [ code = ruby ] (sans the spaces):
Code: Ruby
  1. def ExampleClass
  2.     def initialize(p = {})
  3.         @name = (p[:name].blank? ? "" : p[:name])
  4.     end
  5. end

Because it is the most commonly-used language within these forums, here is an example with GML ([ code = gml ]:
Code: GML
  1. global.PlayerX = 5
  2. image_index = 20

For a full list of supported languages, you can go to GeSHi's website: http://qbnz.com/highlighter.

8
Feedback / Karma System
« on: March 25, 2012, 09:41:41 pm »
In considering methods to improve user recognition, I thought it might be nice to bring back the Karma system. This system will allow users to give Positive and Negative karma to users based on their actions, and can be a great way for users to be recognized for their actions - and recognition is a great motivation for improvement.

In keeping with our transparent decision-making, I want the community's input on this - do you feel that a Karma system would benefit the community, and provide recognition for members who put effort into the community?

9
Feedback / Community Changes
« on: March 25, 2012, 09:13:57 pm »
With all of these changes that are happening within the community, our focus is on improving the community as a whole. Along with this, we want your input on what you would like to see come to ZFGC - including features that you would like to see integrated into the new system (currently in conceptual development stages) to power the community.

So, if you have any questions about our new management or (most importantly) ideas that you would like to see implemented, feel free to post them within this thread!

10
Updates / Forum Time Change
« on: March 25, 2012, 08:35:26 pm »
As a courtesy notice to all users, the forums have been changed to use the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) timezone. You can edit your local time offset by visiting your account settings, under Look and Layout Settings.

11
Updates / [PRIVACY POLICY] - Last Updated 26 Mar, 2012
« on: March 25, 2012, 08:12:53 pm »
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This privacy policy takes effect on March 26, 2012. Any time a change is made to the contents of this Privacy Policy, users will be notified through email. It is the responsibility of the user to make adjustments to the information stored in their accounts if they do not accept the terms of the updated policy.

12
Learning OpenGL Through Fan Game Development

This thread will serve as a general discussion for the tutorial series, "Learning OpenGL Through Fan Game Development." Because this tutorial is focused on the community, I would love to have any input that the community is willing to offer in regards to the development of the series - any ideas, requests, questions, suggestions, or grievances that you have with the series itself are welcome in this thread. However, I ask that comments/questions affecting only a single tutorial in the series be placed in their thread (see the linked topic, above, for a tutorial index) for the sake of organization.

Things that I am specifically looking for at this point:
  • Any ideas regarding gameplay - we are going with an overall "feel" of A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap, but that doesn't mean that we can't innovate. Ideas such as new game mechanics, things from other games that you'd like to see make an appearance (such as the clock system from Majora's Mask, weather, etc.) or various dungeon puzzle mechanics are all more than welcome.
  • Beyond OpenGL, what technologies and libraries would you like to see implemented into the game? This includes things such as scripting, basic networking, and so on.
  • How much information regarding OpenGL's shading language (GLSL) should be present in the tutorial? There will be some basic shading information, but how much beyond the basics are readers interested in?

13
Welcome!
Welcome to Learning OpenGL through Fan Game Development! In this tutorial series, I intend to take you through the process of programming a complete computer game, from start to finish. Throughout this tutorial series, we will be developing a fan game, a popular project type for budding game developers due to their familiarity with the source game, an abundance of resources, instant product recognition (I say that in the term of the game itself – it is illegal in most countries to make any sort of profit from fan game development due to copyright law), and the level of enthusiasm developers possess for the game series (it takes a lot of love to deliver a video game from conceptualization to completion).

In this series, we are going to be developing a Legend of Zelda fan game. Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda video game series has been a major presence in the games industry, and is the series that originally got me interested in game development. More importantly, the series possesses traits that make it an excellent, complex, and rewarding target for fan game development – including complex dungeon puzzles, minor character customization (various items and equipment to solve numerous tasks, and a great chance for player creativity), intriguing story, and amazing boss fights.

   Starting with establishing a project directory structure, obtaining and setting up our programming environment on Windows, Ubuntu Linux, and Mac OS X then laying the framework for our game, we will cover important cross-platform development techniques using C++, the OpenGL graphics library (please excuse the redundancy), and the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library that will provide us with a wonderful cross-platform development opportunity without introducing hundreds of megabytes’ worth of runtime dependencies and platform-specific code.


GitHub Repository

Tutorial Series Index
Series Discussion
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Setting up your IDE

14
Feedback / "Double-posting" with regard to Replies
« on: March 20, 2012, 01:15:09 am »
Just a quick thought that I'd noticed while updating my tutorial thread. Why does the community still seek to enforce avoidance of "double-posting" in replies? While pointless double-posting (say, posting two responses within a minute of each other) is annoying, and having too much running consecutively can be disruptive, double-posting is a more valid means of providing an update to a thread than editing the original post's subject line with an "[Updated]" tag.

I propose that we change any currently-existing "double-posting" rules to instead enforce the avoidance of 'bumping' a thread, and focus instead on enforcing a common-sense approach.

15
Feedback / OpenGL Zelda Tutorial Series
« on: March 18, 2012, 10:31:28 pm »
I am planning a new start to a tutorial series that I've attempted to start up several times in the past (failed for various reasons, including military service and moving cross-country). This time, however, I'm going to have some (limited) support from ZFGC staff.

Because this tutorial will be focused on this community, I'd like some input from you all as to what you would like to see in the tutorial. The tutorial will be focusing on developing the game in with OpenGL rendering, but that's all I've decided at the moment.

What I would specifically like to know is:
  • What type of gameplay would you prefer? While developing in the NES/GB style is easier (and easier to teach), the ALTTP-style gameplay is more entertaining and immersive.
  • Beyond OpenGL, what technologies and libraries would you like to see implemented? Scripting (Lua? Another language), networking, etc?
  • What sort of information would you be interested in with regard to shader programs (GLSL), if any at all?
  • What level should I target with regard to the programming language? I understand the majority of ZFGC's community members are not very familiar with much beyond Game Maker, but at the same time I don't want to develop a tutorial for beginners and end up solely with readers who are intermediate-level programmers
  • What sort of gameplay elements would you also like to see included? This can include anything that is part of the traditional Zelda style, or something original that you would like to see.

Along with this, I would personally like to know what other programming and development tutorials the community would be interested in. If you have a suggestion that you don't feel would fit in with the OpenGL Zelda series, feel free to send me a message (please keep suggestions/questions not related to this series out of this topic).

16
Discussion / [Dev Talk] Ep 1: Cross-Platform Development
« on: March 18, 2012, 07:48:16 pm »
Introduction
Dev Talk is a series of focused discussions related to various game development topics. In each weekly "episode," I will propose a topic and present an initial argument or statement, and hope to get an active discussion within the community regarding said topic. The point of these discussions is to encourage growth as both game developers and as a community.

Cross-Platform Development
Cross-platform development in the games industry has become the norm for game consoles, as simultaneous releases for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are almost expected by gamers, with the main exception lying in first-party IPs (Mario, God of War, Halo). However, with the exception of a select few developers (such as Blizzard Entertainment), cross-platform development for various computer operating systems has never been the norm, and has only recently started to gain any traction within the games industry.

The point of this week's discussion is the value of cross-platform development (from marketing, development, idealogical, and all other points of view), the positive and negative aspects of managing cross-platform development, the requirements for handling cross-platform development, and all other issues related to cross-platform development. Note that it is not confined to multiple computer operating systems, but even to console-computer platforms and even those relegated only to the various game consoles.



Personally, I love the thought of cross-platform development. It provides an excellent challenge for the programmers implementing the game systems, with each platform having specific "best practices" and quirks that must be managed. The challenge is, ultimately, why I am attracted to game programming in the first place.

One example of best practices that I'd mentioned is how Mac OS handles application bundles. On Linux and Windows systems, applications tend to be a large set of files that aren't often self-contained, with sometimes large dependencies being spread across the operating system. Mac OS X, on the other hand, primarily contains applications within a self-contained "folder," called an App Bundle. For smaller games and applications, such as one might find in development by an independent game studio, all of the game's media files are contained within this bundle (often under AppName.app/Contents/Resources), and even the application's dependencies (often in the form of Frameworks on Apple systems) can be contained within this single file. This makes packaging and distribution incredibly simple in comparison with the necessary distribution and installation methods on Linux and Windows platforms (such as the installation of the Visual C Runtimes on Windows systems).

However, this creates some difficulty with regard to accessing resource files in code, such as when you need to load a specific texture or script file. Whereas in Windows and Linux systems, you can easily specify a relative directory from the binary itself, the directory structure of the App Bundle separates the binary file and the folder, creating platform-dependent code for locating the binary itself.

One manner that I used to overcome this is to implement a static Platform class, with a function to transform the relative filename based on its platform. A Mac OS X implementation of this is:

Code: C
  1.         std::string Platform::DataFile(const std::string& fileName)
  2.         {
  3.                 std::stringstream stream("");
  4.                 char path[PATH_MAX];                    // Will store the absolute directory to the Resources directory
  5.        
  6.                 // Obtain a reference to the main application bundle
  7.                 CFBundleRef mainBundle = CFBundleGetMainBundle();
  8.        
  9.                 // Grab the Resources directory
  10.                 CFURLRef resourcesURL = CFBundleCopyResourcesDirectoryURL(mainBundle);
  11.        
  12.                 if(!CFURLGetFileSystemRepresentation(resourcesURL, TRUE, (unsigned char*)path, PATH_MAX))
  13.                 {
  14.                         std::cerr << "Error obtaining a file-system representation of the Resources URL!" << std::endl;
  15.                         return "";
  16.                 }
  17.                 CFRelease(resourcesURL);
  18.        
  19.                 stream << path << "/";
  20.        
  21.                 // Append the File URL
  22.                 stream << fileName;
  23.        
  24.                 return stream.str();
  25.         }

17
Entertainment / PS Vita
« on: February 25, 2012, 08:18:32 am »
So, has anybody else picked up their Vita yet?

I grabbed mine today for $8 - after trading in an XBOX and a bunch of games, none of which (games/system) I use anymore. :D

The system is great, though the lack of a game selection so far sucks. I went ahead and picked up Dungeon Hunter: Alliance because it was cheap. It's... entertaining, but it's a fairly straight-forward dungeon crawler, down to the atrocious writing in the story. Still, the Vita is a beauty to behold (and to hold <3), and I'm glad I got it. :3

18
Well, I've still got over a week left until my computer and other equipment arrives with the shipping truck, so I'm sitting on my mother's computer with none of my tools. Decided to pick up GM:HTML5, so that I'd have something to work on outside of Uni projects (my course is using DarkBASIC, and I refuse to lower myself to using that outside of that course). Started working on recreating the Pokémon Trading Card game (Gameboy Color) with Fire Red/Leaf Green graphics style. I'll post my progress and such here, since this has completely captivated my development efforts as it's gone from using GM to prototype, to me deciding to completely develop this game. XD

As it stands, I'm only planning on doing a direct recreation of the original game, so I won't be including any of the newer cards. If I end up porting this system to C++/OpenGL later (which was my original intention), I may end up including more cards, using Squirrel scripting for card effects. I honestly don't know how far I'll go with this project at the moment, but it'll probably occupy all of my time here in Ohio.

The most up-to-date progress will be posted via my Tumblr:
http://mina-kun.tumblr.com/

You can play an HTML5 version of the prototype here:
http://files.minalien.com/PTCG/

And the Windows executable can be downloaded here:
http://files.minalien.com/PTCG/PTCG.rar

2012.02.11
Working on the design and setup for duels. Here's a mockup:


Controls:
Arrow keys: Move
Z: Read book shelves
X: Run (Hold)

What I'm Looking For In Current Prototype
  • Thoughts on Animation Speed
  • Thoughts on Movement Speed
  • Thoughts on Collision System
  • Bugs with Text system

Known Problems
Both
  • (Fixed) Hyphen character looks odd with lower-case characters. (Lowered character placement.)
  • (Fixed) Tile layer issues in room - computer, table, and boards at top of room.
  • (Fixed) Text system is somewhat broken.

Screenshots
Please bear in mind that this project is still in the prototyping phase.

Feb 6, 2012
Dr. Mason's Lab:


DJ just made me an updated deck machine, too. :D


Thanks to Jordan for recreating the card table. <3


Recreated text from all of the book shelves. The HTML5 version has a lot of issues with the conversation system, however. I'm probably going to spend some time reworking it-right now it's a modified version of what I took from a Davve's (GMC;; www.stuffbydavid.com) sample.


Deck-builder room.

Feb 5, 2012

19
Recruitment / Looking for 3D Artist
« on: December 12, 2011, 02:57:23 am »
I've grown tired of working on two-dimensional sample projects as of late, so I'm looking for somebody who can do some basic 3D modeling, texturing, and animation to work alongside me in coming up with some sample and test work. Specifically, I'm messing around with Unity on top of my D3D 10/11 and OpenGL study.

I'm not expecting somebody who can produce AAA work at a moment's notice, mostly just searching for somebody with passable 3D skill (my own abilities are quite limited, to be honest. Anything with an organic form eludes me, as does anything with moving parts). Preferably, I'd like to work with somebody who is getting used to 3D art (I don't like to feel that I'm begging for art) and wants to eventually work to projects for sale. I don't have any solid projects in mind at the moment, I'd like to hash them out with whoever is willing to work with me.

The only real requirements I have are that you present yourself maturely and be willing to contribute to the design of the test projects. If you're interested in this, let me know either here, over messenger (MSN uses my email address, or Skype as Mina.kun), or by email (minalien [at] gmail). I'm working on a couple small, primitive-based projects so that I can show something of my current ability within Unity, but I'd prefer that somebody approaching me to work with this be able to show something of his/her abilities.

20
Graphics / Blender Stuff
« on: September 29, 2011, 03:18:43 am »
In lieu of my recent interest in poking around with OpenGL 4.x, I figured it'd be a good idea to start playing around with Blender so that I actually had some things that I could put into my experimental projects. These are the results of that, so far:


My first Blender project. I made a bench scene in 3DS Max a little while ago, and rehashed the project in Blender-- though with much better results.


Front view of a biped mesh I'm working on, with an MMZ reference.


Right view of a biped mesh I'm working on, with an MMZ reference.


A friend of me told me to make a Buster Sword model. I obliged. >_>


I enjoy making swords. This one's Ice, Lord Eddard Stark's sword from G.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, as seen on the Game of Thrones HBO adaptation. I really like how this one turned out. <3

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