TFIV Rebirth dev thread

[wondersonic]

Great stuff, man. That's pretty much all my issues solved. I'd still recommend the way you've gone about the asteroids being more like Raiden in the form of only being on the one dimension, but if the transparency's good enough for the huge useless annoying rocks it shouldn't be much of a problem anymore anyway.

Hi, I've just released version 0.03. You can go to the download area.

One other thing about the YouTube videos man - I can't complain about quality when I can't upload decent videos myself from internet constraints anyway but maybe just turn the volume down a bit on the video recordings, the sound gets quite distorted when it is amplified and then lowered in quality and can be quite painful for people's ear (mine especially).

Ok, noted for next video

[BPzeBanshee]

Controls are much better along with understandable shields, though I'm still finding the black rocks somewhat annoying and feel like there's WAY too much asteroids for easy mode. Lol
I lost all my lives getting to the green asteroid and used the shield to get from the top part to the bottom only to see it get tractorbeamed in and a black screen. Still hoping for a fullscreen-toggle sometime soon.
Much better than previous release, keep it up.

[wondersonic]

Controls are much better along with understandable shields,

Thanks I indeed found a better way to handle controls (I was previously using code from an other project).

though I'm still finding the black rocks somewhat annoying and feel like there's WAY too much asteroids for easy mode. Lol

Ok, for me, the first level development is finished (I've just the information panel to finish although it is common to all levels).

So now I can start to work on game balance according to difficulty levels.

In a next post I'll list all the parameters that can be modified in this level in order to define them per difficulty levels.

BTW, won't you be an official tester for this game?

I lost all my lives getting to the green asteroid and used the shield to get from the top part to the bottom only to see it get tractorbeamed in and a black screen.

Congrats, you finished the first level!

Still hoping for a fullscreen-toggle sometime soon.

See the installation manual and search for fullscreen option in the optional game.properties file.

Much better than previous release, keep it up.

Thanks!
I'm currently working on the second level...

[wondersonic]

The game has 4 difficulty levels: EASY, NORMAL, HARD and MANIAC.

Now is time to define difficulty parameters for the first level.

The first level consists of 3 scenes:
-1- the asteroid tempest
-2- the asteroid belt with spiders
-3- the asteroid pirats HQ appearing

Each scene has an 'appear time' parameter thus a scene can last the duration we want.

Existing parameters:
- scene start time, currently: scene 1 at 37s, scene 2 at 56s and scene 3 at 2:04s
- scene duration, currently: scene 2 lasts about 70s
- the shield has an initial power capacity of: 50, decreased by some units when fire key pressed, increased by a factor of 8x, 6x, 5x or 4x some units (according to difficulty level)
- the shield color changes if the power crosses 15, 10 and 5 power units (modifiable according to difficulty level?)
- asteroid generation rate: 0.08; 0.04 if shield reloads
- big asteroid in frontground transparent at 75%
- big asteroid generation rate: 0.08; 0.04 if shield reloads and the chance it appears on screen is 1/100
- asteroid size random between 0.8 and 1.3
- big asteroid size random between 1.6 and 3.6
- background asteroid generation rate: 0.1 with a size between 0.5 and .833
- spider generation according to background asteroid generation rate and size > 0.7 and 1 chance on 5
- spider laser generation: at every frame, and chances according to difficulty level is: 1/200, 1/100, 1/50, 1/25
- spider laser speed: 220
- asteroid speed: along X axis, random from 350 to 750; along Y axis, random from 0 to 70
- golden asteroid: 1 chance over 128 for an asteroid to be golden (bonus); speed as other asteroids

That's all I can see currently.

[Kaiser]

Not bad so far. You're improving but please, get rid of those foreground rocks. They're disturbing the gameplay/view. I know it looks cool, shiny and all but it's not good game design if player can't see anything or see much. However getting rid of inertia is a huge plus in my book. So not bad, you're improving, just do not try to insist on what people suggest kay?

[BPzeBanshee]

BTW, won't you be an official tester for this game?

If I have the time, sure.

EDIT:
I suspect there's a bug somewhere along the line with the game.properties handling. Now I can't make it fullscreen again if I wanted to. xD

[wondersonic]

I suspect there's a bug somewhere along the line with the game.properties handling. Now I can't make it fullscreen again if I wanted to. xD

You were right. In fact fullscreen mode deactivation was forced for MAC OS X whatever was the parameter value in the properties file!
It's now corrected: if parameter not present, false as default for MAC OS X, true otherwise.

Thanks,
WS

[wondersonic]

Not bad so far. You're improving but please, get rid of those foreground rocks. They're disturbing the gameplay/view. I know it looks cool, shiny and all but it's not good game design if player can't see anything or see much.

Ok, I've again darkened these background asteroids. And yes, they must remain since they are here to allow the spiders to be there.

However getting rid of inertia is a huge plus in my book. So not bad, you're improving, just do not try to insist on what people suggest kay?

Thanks again for your encouragements And yes, I try to keep the direction I choosed but since there are a lot of TF fans, I guess sometimes they can bring me back to reality. Anyway, I appreciate you took some time

[BPzeBanshee]

I suspect there's a bug somewhere along the line with the game.properties handling. Now I can't make it fullscreen again if I wanted to. xD

You were right. In fact fullscreen mode deactivation was forced for MAC OS X whatever was the parameter value in the properties file!
It's now corrected: if parameter not present, false as default for MAC OS X, true otherwise.

Thanks,
WS

Well I was referring to my tests in Windows (I dont do anything really on the Mac OS side) though I guess the source works the same way on any OS so it still applies here.
But yes, hopefully when you update the source with this fix I'll have a nice-looking Batch file to replace the existing one that has a basic menu for full-screen vs. windowed mode.

[wondersonic]

I suspect there's a bug somewhere along the line with the game.properties handling. Now I can't make it fullscreen again if I wanted to. xD

You were right. In fact fullscreen mode deactivation was forced for MAC OS X whatever was the parameter value in the properties file!
It's now corrected: if parameter not present, false as default for MAC OS X, true otherwise.

Thanks,
WS

Well I was referring to my tests in Windows (I dont do anything really on the Mac OS side) though I guess the source works the same way on any OS so it still applies here.
But yes, hopefully when you update the source with this fix I'll have a nice-looking Batch file to replace the existing one that has a basic menu for full-screen vs. windowed mode.

In fact under MAC OS X, I've got a bug still open. To close it, I would need someone to launch the game (just that) and tell me if the title screen appear (yes just that).

[BPzeBanshee]

I got an error something along the lines of an Exception in main thread tf4r/Main, and this was after spending *hours* updating Java and other software and then having to run it in the Terminal because SH files aren't associated like batch files were.
I'll give another crack at this from scratch tomorrow but at the moment it looks like your .sh file aint correct or something.

[wondersonic]

I got an error something along the lines of an Exception in main thread tf4r/Main, and this was after spending *hours* updating Java and other software and then having to run it in the Terminal because SH files aren't associated like batch files were.
I'll give another crack at this from scratch tomorrow but at the moment it looks like your .sh file aint correct or something.

Can you copy/paste the exception please? or can you check if it is the same as here.

Is there an extension for command file under MAC other than .sh?

Thanks for your time!!!

[BPzeBanshee]

Like I said, I'll check it out again tomorrow. But just to clarify, contary to what you said about my experience with it here, I'm using a Mac computer, but I'm *NOT* using Mac OS X (the Mac software). I played this game under Windows.

[wondersonic]

Like I said, I'll check it out again tomorrow. But just to clarify, contary to what you said about my experience with it here, I'm using a Mac computer, but I'm *NOT* using Mac OS X (the Mac software). I played this game under Windows.

Ok, I removed the comment

[BPzeBanshee]

This was the error I was getting yesterday.

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: tf4r/Main

Then I found out that Mac OS X doesn't use Java SE 6 unless you strictly specify it in the Java Preferences.
I did that, made sure it was properly installed and all, now I get this:

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: tf4r/Main
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: tf4r.Main
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:248)

It seems to be the same error with a lot more debugging crap in it. For the record, I had to copy the info inside the run.sh file into the Terminal and run it from there just to get this.

[wondersonic]

This was the error I was getting yesterday.

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: tf4r/Main

Then I found out that Mac OS X doesn't use Java SE 6 unless you strictly specify it in the Java Preferences.
I did that, made sure it was properly installed and all, now I get this:

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: tf4r/Main
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: tf4r.Main
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:248)

It seems to be the same error with a lot more debugging crap in it. For the record, I had to copy the info inside the run.sh file into the Terminal and run it from there just to get this.

Hi BPzeBanshee, the debugging crap is called a stacktrace and this lists all the successive calls performed.

As I understand this stacktrace, it seems the Java libraries are not properly referenced in the script/command.

Could you copy/paste exactly the command you ran please?

[BPzeBanshee]

The exact command is what was in the .sh file, which from what I see on the copy I have in the WinXP side is this:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
java -classpath ./core.jar:./lib/lwjgl.jar:./lib/lwjgl_util.jar:./lib/jinput.jar:./lib/jl1.0.2.jar:./lib/freetts.jar tf4r.Main

Now I dunno what's going on with the bin sh thing, but when I paste the whole thing into Terminal it just has that at the top and then the Java command runs the exact same even if its not there.

[wondersonic]

The exact command is what was in the .sh file, which from what I see on the copy I have in the WinXP side is this:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
java -classpath ./core.jar:./lib/lwjgl.jar:./lib/lwjgl_util.jar:./lib/jinput.jar:./lib/jl1.0.2.jar:./lib/freetts.jar tf4r.Main

Now I dunno what's going on with the bin sh thing, but when I paste the whole thing into Terminal it just has that at the top and then the Java command runs the exact same even if its not there.

Hello, the first line is here to say, this is a shell script. If the script doesn't work, it may be because:
- the script has no executalbe rights (chmod +x go.sh)
- the script has DOS carriage returns chars

But regarding the stacktrace, I'll need you to list the content of the directory from which you are running the command.

TIA
WS

[BPzeBanshee]

[edited - I got it working with a new script file]
HOORAY!
Got it working properly now, and changed the extension to .command so that it opens on double-click with Terminal automatically. A little research meant I could put in a variation of my Windows fullscreen-optional menu into it as well. So now I truly can say that the game works under Mac OS X - but to take full advantage of the script that update with the fullscreen you've got will need to be release and I'll need somewhere to upload my superior script files.
Also, I am now capable of beating the 1st stage on Easy mode without losing one life and without even losing color in the shield.

Also, have you got MSN or something? This having to wait a day for progress is quite frustrating for me, and it'll be faster to explain to you how I got it all working with it anyway.

[wondersonic]

[edited - I got it working with a new script file]
HOORAY!
Got it working properly now, and changed the extension to .command so that it opens on double-click with Terminal automatically. A little research meant I could put in a variation of my Windows fullscreen-optional menu into it as well. So now I truly can say that the game works under Mac OS X - but to take full advantage of the script that update with the fullscreen you've got will need to be release and I'll need somewhere to upload my superior script files.

Also, have you got MSN or something? This having to wait a day for progress is quite frustrating for me, and it'll be faster to explain to you how I got it all working with it anyway.

Congratulations And thanks. I've sent you a pm

BTW, I think the shell script header should look like:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash 

cd `dirname $0`
java ...

WS

[BPzeBanshee]

My method is a bit more complex than that, cause I tried that the first time of research around and found that it didn't work. But yeah, /bin/bash was one thing that I had to change.
Should I just send an email to you (I presume you dont have MSN but have mail) with the scripts attached?

[wondersonic]

Should I just send an email to you (I presume you dont have MSN but have mail) with the scripts attached?

Yes please (and yes I don't have MSN)

[BPzeBanshee]

Just tried to send an email with the attachments - got a failure notice. I'll send them tomorrow in a ZIP instead, sorry.
EDIT: ZIP still fails because your GMail is shit and blocks anything with "illegal attachments" in it. Argh.

I'll upload them somewhere tomorrow when I have the time, and since the .command and the exit function is exclusive to OSX (I think) I'll make a sh file with Bash Linux commands tomorrow, but please man, get MSN. I'll need a tester for Linux for this batch file to work properly and I presume since you have the sh there to begin with that you must have a Linux PC with Ubuntu or something modern.

[wondersonic]

Just tried to send an email with the attachments - got a failure notice. I'll send them tomorrow in a ZIP instead, sorry.
EDIT: ZIP still fails because your GMail is shit and blocks anything with "illegal attachments" in it. Argh.

Maybe you can send me a mail with the message content being just the content of the command file?

I'll upload them somewhere tomorrow when I have the time, and since the .command and the exit function is exclusive to OSX (I think) I'll make a sh file with Bash Linux commands tomorrow, but please man, get MSN. I'll need a tester for Linux for this batch file to work properly and I presume since you have the sh there to begin with that you must have a Linux PC with Ubuntu or something modern.

Ok, take your time and many thanks!

BTW, I don't have Linux installed on my computers that's why I need testers for this.

[wondersonic]

New version uploaded with a piece of the 2nd level under heavy development...

[BPzeBanshee]

Am about to test on the Windows side, but a few things right off the bat:

- spelt pirates wrong (pirats) lol, there for japanese translation validity?
- Speed for Styx on Stage 2 is ridiculous and I cannot adjust to the sudden changes for the life of me
- BIG ISSUE - I swear your "precise collision detection" is broken as of this release. I distinctly saw my pod explode when it didn't even touch a rock, so the hitbox must be set wrong or something.
- I dunno if you intended on having the TF4 noise to go along with the intro, but I have a looped version I made of the intro without that thruster junk if you're interested in using as a replacement. I also have some remixes, but I wouldn't recommend putting those in until I try it myself.
- Fullscreen in Windows version still does not seem to work, though it worked when I set it to true on Mac OS X.
- Your .command does not work right either - the method used to make it run from current directory does not work for OS X, but my .command works. I'll upload that to a remote place for download later today, or if you'd let me host it on Google Code somehow.

Out of curiosity, why do you use javaw for windows instead of normal java? I've had an incident yesterday in the previous release where javaw stayed up taking memory usage for other Java games, though this never occurred on Mac OS X because the other versions used normal java.

EDIT: WORKING SCRIPT FILES
http://www.mediafire.com/?jjzt2zntmi2
Downloading Ubuntu to test the .sh now. I'll report back when I get it working.

[wondersonic]

Am about to test on the Windows side, but a few things right off the bat:

- spelt pirates wrong (pirats) lol, there for japanese translation validity?

corrected, thanks

- Speed for Styx on Stage 2 is ridiculous and I cannot adjust to the sudden changes for the life of me

This stage is under development so the speed must be adjusted along the global travel speed in the corridor

- BIG ISSUE - I swear your "precise collision detection" is broken as of this release. I distinctly saw my pod explode when it didn't even touch a rock, so the hitbox must be set wrong or something.

Hmmm, I'm checking this since I made some optimizations in this part yesterday for 2D/3D collision detection. Thanks for reporting it!

- I dunno if you intended on having the TF4 noise to go along with the intro, but I have a looped version I made of the intro without that thruster junk if you're interested in using as a replacement. I also have some remixes, but I wouldn't recommend putting those in until I try it myself.

If you want to propose some music arrangments, do not hesitate! BTW, gmail attacmhents check can be easily bypassed by modifying filename extension

- Fullscreen in Windows version still does not seem to work, though it worked when I set it to true on Mac OS X.

Can you precise? accoring to the value of the fullscreen parameter in the game.properties file and the presence of this file or not

- Your .command does not work right either - the method used to make it run from current directory does not work for OS X, but my .command works. I'll upload that to a remote place for download later today, or if you'd let me host it on Google Code somehow.

Ok, this was just a try I've seen your link hereafter but my office firewall doesn't let me see it. BTW, to be able to upload it on google code, you must have a gmail account and be granted commiter in the project Also if you have such an account I can add you as a true tester

Out of curiosity, why do you use javaw for windows instead of normal java? I've had an incident yesterday in the previous release where javaw stayed up taking memory usage for other Java games, though this never occurred on Mac OS X because the other versions used normal java.

javaw doesn't write console outputs, it's a clearer way to start java applications. I've modified it to java for debugging purposes.

EDIT: WORKING SCRIPT FILES
http://www.mediafire.com/?jjzt2zntmi2
Downloading Ubuntu to test the .sh now. I'll report back when I get it working.

Wow, even Ubuntu tests, royal!
Oh, could you tell me what's your graphic hardware?

anyway thanks for your work!

[wondersonic]

- BIG ISSUE - I swear your "precise collision detection" is broken as of this release. I distinctly saw my pod explode when it didn't even touch a rock, so the hitbox must be set wrong or something.

Could you copy/paste the output of the game. (replacing javaw by java for windows).

I need this part:

Code: Select all

Checking system capabilities...
	- Video:
		- Mode: 640x480@75Hz
		- Alpha bits: OK (8)
		- Depth bits: OK (24)
		- Stencil bits: OK (8)
		- Vertex Buffer Object: OK
	- Audio:
		- Vendor: OpenAL Community
		- Renderer: OpenAL Soft version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.7.411

(this is mine)
WS

[BPzeBanshee]

I can't get that part because MS-DOS gives a whole bunch of errors whilst running java and not letting me copy it in time. However I can tell you right off the bat that the graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT (bit of a mouthful lol).

The fullscreen thing is exactly like the problem with the previous release, but only for Windows. It stays Windowed no matter what the setting is.

I don't have a Gmail account unfortunately but I do have a Google Account. Yeah, also bit hard to explain.

As for Ubuntu, I'm running it in VirtualBox under OS X and the one time I ran TF4R with the .sh file it crashed the whole system (emulated and real OS). I think it's something to do with installing Java correctly, will investigate further.

[wondersonic]

I can't get that part because MS-DOS gives a whole bunch of errors whilst running java and not letting me copy it in time. However I can tell you right off the bat that the graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT (bit of a mouthful lol).

The fullscreen thing is exactly like the problem with the previous release, but only for Windows. It stays Windowed no matter what the setting is.

Ok, you may have the following error appearing at the very beginning:

"ERROR: could not start full screen mode, switching to windowed mode!"

but you can't see it because ot the text scrolling too quickly.

And after some check, your video card has open gl 2.0 capabilities so it should be ok with the stencil buffer stuff (8 bit plans required).

I don't have a Gmail account unfortunately but I do have a Google Account. Yeah, also bit hard to explain.

And I imagine you don't want one

As for Ubuntu, I'm running it in VirtualBox under OS X and the one time I ran TF4R with the .sh file it crashed the whole system (emulated and real OS). I think it's something to do with installing Java correctly, will investigate further.

OMG! good luck