Elysian Door - NARAKA [WIP]

[BPzeBanshee]

Nice!

[nasty_wolverine]

So, I am really stuck with art for enemies, for the fact that i cant draw to save my life, or i really need to reconsider my budget for the next year to hire a artist.

So, heres a poll, vote art type 1(original) , 2(custom design) or 3(shitty pallete), or i hire a artist to do art.

[railslave]

3 looks realy nice!

[BPzeBanshee]

I like 2 and 3. If you can keep your art as consistent as that it should be fine, no need for potentially holding up your project on petty things like art.

[Ebbo]

I think that you should stick whatever style you find easiest to work with. As BPzenBanshee said, as long everything ingame looks consistent enough it should be fine. Personally I don't mind more abstract look of type 1 and I'm not that fond of the palette choices of type 2 & 3 but all of them certainly look passable otherwise so don't worry about the graphical prowess too much

[nasty_wolverine]

really thanks for the feedback, i was just concerned that my art might be off putting. after all not everyone can draw pretty stuff like rozyrg.

I think i will stick with the type 2 pallate, its more my love for greys.
I am good at creating very abstract designs, but an utter failure at concrete stuff.
well for the time being i will just put in whatever i can come up with, and maybe later overhaul the stuff that me and you guys think should change.

[nasty_wolverine]

Yay or Nay on the new sprite!!!

[railslave]

Yay or Nay on the new sprite!!!

Nice colors, striking..

only one way to know, stick it in a video..

[nasty_wolverine]

so i was trying to do scanlines.... works in windowed mode but not in fullscreen mode..

windowed mode:


fullscreen mode:


any idea what i am doing wrong?

[n0rtygames]

so i was trying to do scanlines.... works in windowed mode but not in fullscreen mode..

windowed mode:


fullscreen mode:


any idea what i am doing wrong?

Yeah, your ratios are off. Had the same problem myself when trying to learn from the source of the mame shaders. You're most likely dividing things wrong to obtain the values for your shader and quite possibly not maintaining the same aspect ratio.

[nasty_wolverine]

Yeah, your ratios are off. Had the same problem myself when trying to learn from the source of the mame shaders. You're most likely dividing things wrong to obtain the values for your shader and quite possibly not maintaining the same aspect ratio.

I am not using shaders, its an overlay image. game resolution is 600x800, overlay is 600x800 rendered on top of it. Turns out, if i TATE my monitor and then go fullscreen its fine. maybe i should be changing the way the overlay is rendered...

I think i ll look at mame source to see how they did it with the overlay mode.

[nasty_wolverine]

So, I kinda fixed the problem. or atleast found out what has been causing it.

Since I am rendering an overlay of scanline on top of the game image, as long as the resolution is 600x800 that is TATE mode, either full or windowed, things are fine. But when the monitor aspect is YOKO, and i try to go fullscreen. there is no 600x800 mode, lowest possible is 800x600, which results in the effective game display being 450x600 while maintaining TATE aspect. cropping the overlay to that resolution in fullscreen landscape mode to that gives almost the correct effect.

now i just need to make it a little less jarring.
Edit: So i think i am satisfied with this effect in yoko-tate mode, proper tate gives pixel perfect scan...

[nasty_wolverine]

So i moved my code over from SDL 1.2 to SDL 2.0 RC. and everything went fine, except a few cases where i had to change over to newer versions of the same functions. Also, changed context to GL 2.1 with hardware acceleration support. Didnt realize earlier i was just using windows default software implementation of GL 1.1

This though caught me off guard. Either SDL is confusing endianess or opengl expects data in a fixed endianess. Is it a SDL bug or a GL quirk, not sure.

[nasty_wolverine]

Watch out Watch out!!!! (queue DOJ boss theme)
latest video:
http://youtu.be/wj5QHdGILeU

[BPzeBanshee]

That's quite some progress! I almost daresay you have similar bullet designs to my own.

The music sounds like the ROM Transfer tune in MAME 0.99 though.

[nasty_wolverine]

The music sounds like the ROM Transfer tune in MAME 0.99 though.

Its my own version of electro crap I will eventually change the music and sound effects, but i dont want to focus on sound/music right now...
My priority is getting the gameplay and stages in first...

[n0rtygames]

I sense a new god on the horizon.. his name could be Nasty_Wolverine...

Watch out! Watch out!

[BPzeBanshee]

The music sounds like the ROM Transfer tune in MAME 0.99 though.

Its my own version of electro crap I will eventually change the music and sound effects, but i dont want to focus on sound/music right now...
My priority is getting the gameplay and stages in first...

I'm glad you have your priorities right nasty_wolverine. I only mention it in advance so that we don't get to final beta stages and everyone's like "why is the music like x?" like some threads have ended up here.

[nasty_wolverine]

I'm glad you have your priorities right nasty_wolverine. I only mention it in advance so that we don't get to final beta stages and everyone's like "why is the music like x?" like some threads have ended up here.

As a one man team I have to prioritize, I have no choice.

Also, little update on the progress, I wanted to release a playable demo of the first stage before july, but thats not gonna happen. Development will be on hold for July coz I have exams, I will probably release a demo by November.

I was thinking of a scoring and rank system.
Scoring system: Bakraid style multiplier where destroying large enemies gives a multiplier from x2 to x10 for a limitted time and a rechargeable bomb that stops chain from dropping, and pointblanking increases enemy base score at a rate determined by rank like Hellsinker.
Rank system: Mix of Hellsinker and Raizing style games. Aggressive style play, like bombing, pointblanking increases and staying on top half of screen increases rank, while dying, dropping chain and staying on the lower half of the screen reduces rank.

What do you guys think of the system? Is it worthwhile implementing?
Constructive feedback would be great!!!

[n0rtygames]

Do what you feel is right with the system. Do not allow your judgement to be swayed by a vocal minority.

All of the things you've mentioned exist in my game, but my game used to have a buttload of Hellsinker style gimmicks. Close proximity bullet slowdown (hence the name CHRONO BLAST (Implying that you fuck around with time)), variable weaponry on ships, radial based lock on system etc etc. I took a lot of it out because I wasn't sure how well it would be received. I only played Hellsinker this week and my jaw hit the floor. "Wait.. I wrote all these mechanics.. they're commented out somewhere!" - Because I know that people love Hellsinker.

My advice is, whatever you want to do with your scoring system Wolverine - just do it. If anyone tells you that your system is bad, challenge them to an STG of their choice for score and then slap them with the l2p-fish.

Seriously. Just do it. I've come around to a better way of thinking recently

[BPzeBanshee]

Definitely stick in whatever you feel works best and get a beta out for testing. That way you can (hopefully) get appropriate feedback based on it and tweak whatever needs to be tweaked from there.

[nasty_wolverine]

Hello all,

I updated the first post with the latest WIP. As an advice, turn down the music, I know its crap, and I will change it in the future.
Also, if the game end abruptly, because I still havent worked out continue and game over phases properly.

[BPzeBanshee]

Awesome! But I downloaded and got an error regarding MSVCR110.dll. Be sure to mention the requirement for Visual Studio C++ 2012 64-bit (AND 32-bit apparently) Runtime as well.

Is there a way for me to get a framerate display for this?

[nasty_wolverine]

Awesome! But I downloaded and got an error regarding MSVCR110.dll. Be sure to mention the requirement for Visual Studio C++ 2012 64-bit (AND 32-bit apparently) Runtime as well.

Is there a way for me to get a framerate display for this?

Thanks for testing this out. I added the runtime requirement in the first post, along with a link to where to get it. There is a basic FPS system inside the code, but its only per frame basis, I need to add code to average over last 60 frames to display a proper FPS display. I will add it to the next release.

And also, whats your feedback on this, did you get any stuttering, slowdown, screen tearing. Were all the effects too jarring, confusing, or it fit well?
As a one man team, i just keep adding what i think looks good without a second opinion, feedback from you guys will be great.

I also need to add another weapon when you hold down shot with two charge levels. Finally I would like to have 4 weapons per character and atleast 2 characters.

[BPzeBanshee]

My apologies for not going into too much detail before, detailed feedback of course is everything: just had to get the time to do it.

I don't think I had any significant visual glitches which I was half-expecting after the last OpenGL/SDL experience I've had in the last month, but I suspect it was either not running fullspeed or stuttering: wasn't very smooth for me for what I assume is a 60 FPS game. An FPS display would reveal pretty quickly whether it's a performance issue or something else like a compatibility problem with Intel Integrated. I did however notice R did nothing for me apart from go out of fullscreen and back in again, which I just noticed in your OP is supposed to rotate the screen: it certainly didn't do that, so I wonder if it is a GPU->SDL issue.

One thing I had a slight issue with was the controls. I kind of had to get used to the button set for a bit there, but once I figured it out it was pretty straightforward. One idea might be to have something that says what buttons do which, even if it's small like Hellsinker's menu does it, around the place. Having a readme.txt in the file couldn't hurt either, it was the first thing I looked for when I was figuring out the controls before going back to your OP - but I realise most people don't pay attention to readmes because they're stupid and expect to be spoonfed.

With the visual effects, I think they fitted well especially ingame where it was very straightforward, although the strange jarring I had makes me not want to quickly judge too much on aesthetic issues in case that issue influences my view on possibly unrelated matters. From what I could see though: quite neat.

[nasty_wolverine]

I don't think I had any significant visual glitches which I was half-expecting after the last OpenGL/SDL experience I've had in the last month, but I suspect it was either not running fullspeed or stuttering: wasn't very smooth for me for what I assume is a 60 FPS game. An FPS display would reveal pretty quickly whether it's a performance issue or something else like a compatibility problem with Intel Integrated. I did however notice R did nothing for me apart from go out of fullscreen and back in again, which I just noticed in your OP is supposed to rotate the screen: it certainly didn't do that, so I wonder if it is a GPU->SDL issue.

R uses glulookat to change the screen orientation. I am not really sure why that wouldnt work, but I will look into. May be stop using glu.h functions and straight up use matrix manipulations. I think i need to setup virtual box/vmware and do some testing on different configurations, but i am not sure if my machine will hold out. Also could i get your system config to see if it was more to do with hardware than software?

Edit: According to [urlhttp://www.opengl.org/wiki/FAQ]OpenGL faq[/url], Intel's integrated GPUs have buggy opengl implementations. so not sure if that is the issue.

One thing I had a slight issue with was the controls. I kind of had to get used to the button set for a bit there, but once I figured it out it was pretty straightforward. One idea might be to have something that says what buttons do which, even if it's small like Hellsinker's menu does it, around the place. Having a readme.txt in the file couldn't hurt either, it was the first thing I looked for when I was figuring out the controls before going back to your OP - but I realise most people don't pay attention to readmes because they're stupid and expect to be spoonfed.

There is future plans to add a tutorial section, but for now, i will add in a readme file. tbh I always turn a game on first, see if i can figure things out, if not look for a readme file.

With the visual effects, I think they fitted well especially ingame where it was very straightforward, although the strange jarring I had makes me not want to quickly judge too much on aesthetic issues in case that issue influences my view on possibly unrelated matters. From what I could see though: quite neat.

Thanks, there is so much more to do, and I just dont find time at times. I usually put in 2-3 hours of work after work at night, and i always plan to add one feature in every time i sit down with it. I had to write the engine from scratch, so i well know there are going to be some bugs in it. Its gonna be a long grind, but i plan to finish the engine portion soon so later i can just concentrate on game design rather that engine design. If it all works out, I plan to release it commercially at something between $2.99-$4.99. But thats way down the line in the future.

Also, out of curiosity, is just releasing a x64 bit version viable or should I put out x86 version also. And should I put in XP compatibility. All of that would require recompiling all the libs, so days worth of work.

[BPzeBanshee]

I think in the long-term it'd definitely be worth the XP support. The more people that can run your game thanks to the way it's compiled, the better.

My specs:
Main Machine (which I ran Naraka with), budget custom-built PC
CPU: Intel i3-2120, 4 cores, 3.3ghz
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 2000
RAM: 4GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

iMac with Bootcamp from 2008 - main bottleneck here is in RAM unfortunately
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 cores, 2.8ghz
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT
RAM: 2GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Legacy PC from 1997 (had since 2007)
CPU: Intel Pentium III Coppermine, 1 core, 1ghz
GPU: nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64
RAM: I don't even remember LOL, like 256MB
OS: Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (and possibly dual-boot with XP Home)

[nasty_wolverine]

iMac with Bootcamp from 2008 - main bottleneck here is in RAM unfortunately
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 cores, 2.8ghz
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT
RAM: 2GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Haha, thats better than my dev system, except with intel dual core 1.8ghz and a nvidia gt520 1gb gpu.
And, yeah, gonna spend sometime recompiling stuff and add in XP support, also setup virtual box for some testing.

[nasty_wolverine]

Okay, so after BPz's feedback of the screen rotation not working, i took out all glu calls and replaced them with glm and glloadmatrix. works the same but now should work on intel integrated. (the only call the R button was mapped to was a glulookat call).

Also, put in a descriptive readme.

I am in the process of building a xp compatible built, also a 32bit built. i recompiled the minizip libs to be xp compatible, sdl and glew are already i guess. that parts done, but the 32bit build is having some problems with heap corruption (something in the C code of the archive and resource loading section). so as soon as thats done, will post xp compatible x64 and x86 built.

for now, I posted the updated glm modified build, so tate mode should work now. (check first post)

[BPzeBanshee]

Woohoo! TATE works! Unfortunately I just discovered that the fullscreen toggle seems to lock me into fullscreen rather than go into Windowed mode. It does *something* but it just seems to flicker in and out. Odd. Scanlines definitely work too and look beautiful.

Furthermore, I think I'm definitely having some kind of performance issue happening. When TATEd I find the game slows down when I use a bomb.

On the bright side though, the jitteryness I was having turned out to be from whatever timer system you've got in place (or at least I think it's that), because turning vsync on made it run quite smoothly apart from feeling a little bit laggy in input.