Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place or anything but I haven't been posting here for over a year, and I was just wondering about the feasibility of certain aspects I would like to include in my next game.
So far none of my games have been officially "released" as I have been "practicing" with klick software since KnP... I am now wanting to create and release my first official game based on some older projects I have made over the years... (technically this game will be the 4th game in the series)
Some of the ideas I would like to include, but not really sure how feasible they are to include:
(1.) Minimap (I know there is a minimap object but I am struggling to get my head around it)
Is there some GOOD tutorials available on using this infernal tool? So far all I've been able to make it do is make me angry.
(2.) Scrolling Zoom (or scaling) - I want to be able to have a slow moving object (a car to be exact) where the "camera" will be zoomed in close to the car, but as it speeds up the "camera" would zoom back showing more of the area around the car.
Is this even possible or am I wasting my time? Would this effect coordinate based tracking in MOO? If this is in fact possible, but on a difficulty scale of 1 to 10 ranks at 23, then I just won't worry about it lol.
(3.) Night/Day cycle and random weather - I already have a fair idea of how this should work, but wondering what is going to be the most effective in terms of performance. I have thought of making a large alpha mask which will turn day into night, but the resolution of the game will be 1024x768 or perhaps 1280x960 (an be a large scrolling map)... so not sure how this will impact on the performance of the game. Things like rain will be easy enough, so no worries there.
Any suggestions?
Other than those things, the rest I am fairly confident I can achieve (though MOO is going to really piss me off no doubt). The driving "physics" should be a snap, along with collision and effects... the graphics will be easy enough as well
I will post an overview of the game once things get a solid start, as I crave feedback... I want to make sure that people are going to want to play this game and not find it lacking in obvious ways that I may miss.
the zoom i could not help with, and i dont think its possible (without resizing the car a million times, and making an animation) and the minimap is really easy. you make a minimap object, and make all the object on the minimap different actives on there own, then do do something like
-always
+set x pos (minimap object) to (minimap) + (actual object) / 3 (or something, it depends on how big the playfeild is)
+set y pos (same as x)
its something like that, just mess around with the code untill you get it right, and i have no clue how to use the extension, ive never tried.
Your just jealous that you're not as awesome as me.
(And my megaman avatar )
Yeah I figured the zoom thing was proably a little ambitious... as ar as the minimap goes, I can't seem to get the Tigerworks minimap object anymore, the sire is no longer there and the new site doesnt seem to have any MMF2 stuff on it... I'm restricted to this other inferior minimap object which doesn't seem to be very good.
oh, the way i explained doesnt use a extension, but it would probly be easier and les time consuming to use an extension.
but how did you figure out a zoom?
Your just jealous that you're not as awesome as me.
(And my megaman avatar )
To use the zoom create a viewport object (I can't remember if it is an extension or not). And set it to the size of the frame, make sure that it is set to be in front or it won't work. (Right click -> order -> to front) Than in the event editor:
-always
+Set source region to X=X Left("Car or whatever you call it") Y=Y Top("Car") Width=A little bit more than the width of the car + Speed("Car") Height=A little bit more than the height of the car + Speed ("Car")
-Every 00"-01
+update
I haven't got the viewport extension... any chance you can host it or link it to me? I want to see what you have come up with!
From reading what you said, it doesn't really sound like what I was looking for, but none the less the help is appreciated and I should at least check it out.
@MacAdam - I didn't really get zoom working, it was just an idea I came up with while retro-gaming with some of the old "King of Fighters" games where the camera zooms in and out based on the distance between the fighters... I thought having something like that would be cool and give the game more "feel" rather than having a static camera from a set distance away.
*EDIT*
nvm i just found viewport object lol!
Edited by the Author.
*EDIT AGAIN*
Wow this is pretty much the idea I was looking for... I will have to play around with it to see what it can do... any idea how to get the object the viewport is following to be in the centre of the screen? I tried the old trick of scrolling>follow object, but that didnt work... I'll mess around with it. Thanks!
Edited by the Author.
*EDIT EDIT... EDIT?*
Ok cool I got it all centred in the playfield easy enough... now just to tweak the scaling etc... this is pretty much EXACTLY what I wanted.. major kudos to you sir! I wonder if this messes with the coordinate translation in MOO for online play... only one way to find out I guess
I used the command "set source region (centered)" instead of "set source region (top-left)"... this makes the object in the center of the frame instead of in the corner. I have run into another problem though...
It's kind of hard to explain... bare with me here:
The viewport only seems to "draw" the objects that are in the original dimensions of the window size... IE if your game window is 1024x768, then the viewport only draws the first 1024x768 of your level, even if your level is 2500x2500 in size and scrolls following the main object. If you go outside of the original window dimensions you encounter nothing but blackness. I have tried making the viewport follow the frame, not follow the frame, and even set the position of the viewport to the x/y coordinates of the moving object (in this case a car)... I also tried making the viewport the same size as the entire level... all to no avail.
It seems to work great if your game in a "single screen" game, where no level scrolling is taking place. It's quite a shame I haven't been able to get past this problem despite a few hours now of attempting to rectify it... as this was exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks again for the info though, it may come in handy for later projects but in this case I seem to have hit an impenetrable wall.
If you want to see what I mean, try making the example level you made much larger, and scroll with the movable object... no matter what I did I couldn't get it to work over a large area that scrolls.
Your method of the day/night cycle is probably close to what I'd do too. You could mess with the transparency of it.
I suppose the best way would be to have different colorations / shades for every single graphic in your game but that'd be crazy. I do think this is how the guy who's making Heart Forth: Alicia did it though.
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Originally Posted by Del Duio Your method of the day/night cycle is probably close to what I'd do too. You could mess with the transparency of it.
I suppose the best way would be to have different colorations / shades for every single graphic in your game but that'd be crazy. I do think this is how the guy who's making Heart Forth: Alicia did it though.
Yeah, this is pretty much the way I thought would be the easiest... I seriously don't have the time to recolour everything, though with this game I am kind of leaning towards just having it in the night-time... it would add some cool atmosphere to the game and I could attempt to use the overlay plugin to make some groovy headlights for the cars. I started messing around with the example for it last night and it seems fairly straight forward, though again I'm not sure how the MOO object will handle this.
@Jared
Yes please give it a try... you might figure out something that I missed. I had a few ideas about it on the way to work this morning which I will try at home later, but I still don't think it's going to work :/
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Edited by the Author.
