I've been talking about it for a while. Asking questions about how to do this or that. But without any real progress.

Scroll down for a question I have about ship/terrain assets.

Well as of the past week or so, that has changed. I sat down, turned off my Minecraft (with great internal suffering) and got to work. Over the past week, I succeeded in creating the shields, the major non-combat systems, damage reception, power control, and more.

At this point in time, there is no networking implemented and the file is quite large (~15kb). Much of this is due to graphics and AI calculations which, when networking is implemented will no longer be present. The intent is also to hold graphics server-side and send the relevant sprites to the calc during runtime, which will be saved in a temporary assets file. Also, as Kerm told me that CALCnet will likely not be a thing for the CE due to differences in network protocol, I'll probably use the existing USB protocol on the CE with a computer side program to send data to the hub, which would have the ability to interact with connected CE's and CALCnet, allowing the color and monochromes to play on one server. I'll also open source this when done to allow it to be ported to the CSE.

But more on that later. I have very little left to do before I can release a demo. Basically just AI ship control, player ship control, rendering the viewscreen, and firing. In the scope of what I've done already, that shouldn't take too long.

Now, feast your eyes on some screenshots:









The Question:

This game is played in a virtual 3D world. The map objects and ships are technically 3D. My question is, would it be better, both in terms of rendering speed and data size, to create several versions of each sprite, to view the object from different angles, or to create full 3D models for the ships and the spherical map objects (the irregular objects will be rendered differently). For full 3D, I could make 16x16x16 models for each item, leading to an overhead of 4096 bytes per object, which if it's in an external assets file on the CE isn't a major issue. When this game eventually gets backwards-ported to the monochrome calcs, we'd be talking about 512 bytes per object.

If the common consensus is the latter (3d models), is there someone here who has experience making them?

http://clrhome.org/bugs

Issue: Click on "Post a Bug". In the widget that pops up, the drop down menu is properly formed but I also get the selected option echoed back out in front of the object. Why? Code for the entire page is here: http://pastebin.com/6edLrcfE

Could this have to do with using the jQuery .show() method on the form makes interior hidden elements visible as well?

Here are some of the sprites that I'm gonna be using for Slender the Eight Pages. I am asking anyone with a prowess at pixel art to please make them look nicer. I will upload the image and the bitmap for observation. Thanks.

Also anyone who has or wants to make a sprite of a tall tree, a piece of paper, a shack, a car, and an oil tanker can do so and upload. Remember, 4-level grey, and as though viewed at night.

4-level greyscale:

Slender:
; layer 0
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111110,%10111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%10111111
.db %11111110,%10111111
.db %11111110,%00111111
.db %11111110,%10111111
.db %11111110,%10111111
.db %11111110,%00011111
.db %11111110,%00111111
.db %11111110,%01111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
; layer 1
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%01111111
.db %11111110,%00111111
.db %11111110,%01111111
.db %11111111,%01111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%01111111
.db %11111111,%01111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111
.db %11111111,%11111111

A page:
; layer 0
.db %11111111
.db %11000011
.db %10001001
.db %10110001
.db %10001101
.db %10110001
.db %10000101
.db %10011001
.db %11000011
.db %11111111
; layer 1
.db %11111111
.db %11000011
.db %10001001
.db %10110001
.db %10001101
.db %10110001
.db %10000101
.db %10011001
.db %11000011
.db %11111111

So, for my game, I'm trying to come up with a quick way to take a player's current location, and check a set distance, like say 20 units, away from them, and maybe like 10 units either direction at that distance (kind of like the field of vision), and determine what objects are in viewing range. I have a scaled sprite routine that I've figured out how to work, so now I just have to draw a tree, a house, a car, a few oil tanks, and a note. Once this bit is done, I'm ready to compile and test!

That being said, anyone any ideas? I have an 8.8 FP number for your current location and a 1-byte angle for your direction.

I'm trying to borrow the Axe code for 4-lvl greyscale. So as I've done before, its the code from p_Disp4Lvl to __Disp4LvlEnd. However, the line I can't wrap my head around is:

call $3F00+sub_Safety
What is this? How do I adapt that line for use in my own code?

As the mostly-under-wraps progress on Star Trek multiplayer nears the 50% mark, I thought I'd share some of the new planned features for the game, as well as share what is done.


First off, the game's source code is being hosted privately, on my private web server. Access is via ssh. Anyone who wants to help with what's left can comment the topic and I'll PM you the URL and password to the repo.






Shields


I have slightly revised the way the shields work. Originally, it was intended that weapons have an energy damage rating and a solids damage rating, for damage to shields and ship, respectively.


The new system uses a payload rating for a weapon and a dispersal rating for a shield. The shield's current dispersal rating is equal to its max rating multiplied by its current percentage health. For example, imagine a weapon with a payload of 10 is fired at a shield with dispersal rating of 10, at 100%. The weapon impact damage is reduced as such 10 - (10 * 100%) which equals 0, and the shield health is reduced by 10. The next time the damage occurs at 10 - (10 * 90%), which equals 1. So 1 damage is dealt to the ship, and full 10 damage to the shields. **If a weapon's payload is less than the shield can block, no damage will be dealt, but shields will not gain health (sorry :p). If the weapon's payload exceeds the shield's blocking ability, even at 100%, the weapon will still break through.


You will have the ability to install more than one shield module onto your ship. One module will deplete its health, and then be replaced by another. In this case, however, as long as you have one other active shield module that is online, no damage will break through, even if the current module's percentage of health drops.


Sensors and Multi-targetting


The ability to install more than one weapon module will also enable you target your ship's weapons at either one target for combined damage, or to target each module at a different ship. Sensors will enable this by displaying three different targeting interfaces. Press a key to toggle between single target and spread target.


AI Borg Cubes


In keeping with the series, the server will control several Borg cubes with powerful weapons and shielding, designed to be attacked in groups, or fled from if you can run. They will be occasionally spawned in some distance away from an online player and will pursue that player or whatever player moves closest.


Stealth Tech


You can purchase (using points) and equip stealth tech modules. Stealth tech includes: (1) cloaking devices, a level 1 cloak automatically shuts off if you fire, a level 2 does not, and the cloak drops if the module looses health, (2) EMP pulses, which knocks all power systems (warp and impulse) offline for a time, which knocks all systems offline for just as long, (3) viruses, which damage a targeted ship. You may also emit a scrambling signal, which stops all sensors in a certain range from working. Lastly, you may scan another ship to gain info about where their systems are, their shield modulations, etc.






Currently done in the game is the opening menus, most of the CALCnet routines. Still to be done, rendering and the hub. I should have a beta done in a few months.

I am thinking about rebooting an old game I was working on a while back, and as I was thinking about it, something very ingenious came to me. Let's say for a minute that the game's map is done in 3/4 level greyscale. I was wondering if it would be possible to have, at some point in the game, a timer to start running, and as that timer elapses, the map actually starts to darken (i.e. the greyscale slowly becoming darker until eventually the whole map is just black). If I could do this, then how hard would it be to have the effect not occur within a certain radius around a moving player?