Predseda

it doesnt work

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Michael Parent

Sorry, the link is now fixed.

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Samurai_Crow

http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/am...ic.php?f=5&t=4 is the thread in question.

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Michael Parent

Thanks Much, Samurai Crow.

Boo Boo

Ive checked out your demos and there very good I belive a similar affect is used and mentioned on Codetapper page James Pond: Underwater Agent intro screen.


Ive not had a chance to realy look over the code.
Im not going to get into what can be done and what cant in AMOS looking at the demo you can see for youself by what you or your brother have done so far - Did you ever think of continuing that demo into a game.
I might be able to help but dont want to let you down.

Michael Parent

Thanks for the compliments. It's too soon for me to start thinking about making a complete game... but I think we should keep expressing ideas to make the best game making tool set and libraries, keep swaping techniques, and when possible contributing to bounties so programmers can afford to spend the time to make this stuff really happen.

pmc

Can a diverse range of games that push the hardware to its absolute limit really be made using a standard toolset library?

I'm asking this as a genuine question because I don't know the answer.

The key phrase is "that push the hardware to its absolute limit". Often, to push the hardware to its limit, routines have to be custom written to be as tightly coded as possible. It's probably quite difficult (maybe impossible?) to produce such tightly coded routines that also lend themselves to catering to a wide range of general uses is all I'm thinking.

That, after all, is the issue with game creator applications - they cater to the general case but that brings the inherent weakness that the general case can't be folded into a particular specific requirement.

To re-iterate: I'm not knocking this project cos I think it's a great idea, just wondering, from the perspective of writing game code, about the practical possibilities is all.

spoUP

wow! fresh graphics!

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Michael Parent

The idea is a collection of code and libraries...open source...so people can choose, use , and mix and match all these diferent hardware banging tricks per level/screen, per game.

The "proof is in the pudding".. I've already supplied the amiga comunity with the exact method of having translucent/tinting efects on any Amiga with zero slowdown compared to normal bobs...this can be used for ANY game on any Amiga.

The Sprite BG tricks whould be availible for anyone to use as they see fit...and customize when necessary...

It's making this knowlege accessable to everyone and allowing programmers who might otherwise not be knowlegeable enough or just not have enough time to incorporate all these cool tricks.

A large collection of cool tools and pre optimized tricks free for anyone to use AND CUSTOMIZE is even better for a game than one REALLY good programmer working from scratch. ESPECIASLLY of you wan't to make a game in a reasonable amount of time.

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pmc

So, you're after descriptions of particular effects that can be achieved and the method by which each can be done as opposed to re-usable code libraries?

I suppose what I mean is: if I know about the repeating sprite background trick as used in Jim Power then I, as a coder, armed with that knowledge could set about implementing that as a method to display the background in my game.

However I think that's far different to a general purpose code library that does the repeating sprite trick for me. For example, how would that fit with my own particular game's custom copper list? Would I have enough DMA time with my game's specific requirements to implement the sprite trick? etc. etc. It would be quite difficult, in my opinion, to write a tool like that without making it quite general purpose which would probably restrict me in some way further down the line with my game if I really want to push the hardware to the limit within the confines of its own particular set of specific needs.

I could perhaps help with descriptions of how certain things might be able to be done with the hardware if that would help...

Michael Parent

There's no reason that both cases can't mutually co-exist is there? If there's documentation explaining techniques, code examples, libraries, and complete engines, that lets some users use exactly what someone else has done, and other more advanced users, mix, match and alter and optimize to their hearts content.

I will hopefully lead to general users being able to use and understand more of what the Amiga can really do, and even let advanced users make more cool things more quickly.

pmc

OK, thanks - I understand much more clearly the breadth of what you're trying to gather together now.

As and when things occur to me I'll try to contribute descriptions and / or code.

Michael Parent

Awesome. Thanks pmc

discomeats

I can only hope that this causes other folks who were on the fence about starting projects to get started where previously they might have been a bit scared of doing "programmer graphics" or something when there's truly skilled pixelers willing and able to do amiga graphics

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Michael Parent

Exactly discomeats.

As a teaser update, here's some awesome news: An awesome Amigan by the name of Codetapper has already started adapting some of his previous code and tools to help not only make my art come to life as the actual demo, but will be sharing the code examples and tools with all of us once its finished (the demo, not the entire game)!

It's already shaping up nicely and the awesomeness of the tools is more than I could have ever hoped for.

Stay tuned for the actual demo...no real ETA because we're both working on it as we have free time.