KarlosTKG now on GitHub

[abu_the_monkey]

will do

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

no, I have always downloaded it through github website.

my system (the PC and Amiga) is becoming a mess at the mo, time to declutter me thinks.

Ah. Well, I hadn't even pushed it, so there is that.

[abu_the_monkey]

I now get the option for high/low spec but the visuals are the same. all vector objects for pickups (well in the first couple of rooms at least)

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

I now get the option for high/low spec but the visuals are the same. all vector objects for pickups (well in the first couple of rooms at least)

Did you extract over something? Make sure there isn't a test.lnk in the Includes directory. It should exist in HighSpec/Includes and LowSpec/Includes respectively.

[abu_the_monkey]

that's most likely it. off to check now. go go gadget file review!

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Did you extract over something? Make sure there isn't a test.lnk in the Includes directory. It should exist in HighSpec/Includes and LowSpec/Includes respectively.

The first simple pickups you'll find are the health and shotgun boxes. The blaster ammo is still vector because it's actually the same object as the one in your hand.

[abu_the_monkey]

yep that was it

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Finally some usable wall light textures for those grey expanses...

In other news, I am thinking to create a slightly different version of the mod that goes back to fully bitmapped pickups, ultimately for everything, so that the only vector objects will be the occasional boss and your viewport weapon. This should improve performance since basic bitmap objects are the fastest object class to draw. Furthermore, they aren't affected by lighting either, so they are always visible.

However, rather than try to make some half arsed 32-colour sprite that never looks quite right, I thought I'd take a leaf out of quake 3's book here. In our case, 32x32 icons, with a 3-pixel box around them to indicate they are ammo rather than a weapon. The weapon pickup icons (not done yet) could stretch to 64x32.

If you can tell what they are from the image immediately, then that's all the proof I need it's not a bad idea.

The launch script would choose between one of two different game link files for the game by tricking the engine through the use of assign add to merge a version specific subdirectory with the main AB3: assign (though I do need to test that works).

A different version would be cool. My last download was from the 8th of June, have you stuck any of these icons in yet?

Is there many people running this with 060 processor on AGA only machine or are most running RTG?

I'm able to play @Karlos version of the mod and it is playable, few options needs tweaked to get it running a little better, but the original with the executable runs a lot better for me and I am over clocking quite a bit. Running at 100mhz the other day.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

A different version would be cool. My last download was from the 8th of June, have you stuck any of these icons in yet?

Is there many people running this with 060 processor on AGA only machine or are most running RTG?

I'm able to play @Karlos version of the mod and it is playable, few options needs tweaked to get it running a little better, but the original with the executable runs a lot better for me and I am over clocking quite a bit. Running at 100mhz the other day.

Please read the posts above for the WIP changes.

It's inevitable that the original game will run faster simply because it has less geometry, fewer textures and fewer objects. However, it is clear that the proliferation of vector models in some of my levels were adding a lot of overhead, even after I spent a lot of time eliminating expensive division operations in the renderer.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

yep that was it

I did try to convert all the bullets and explosions to basic bitmaps but that did not end well.

[abu_the_monkey]

some interesting colour combinations I imagine

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

some interesting colour combinations I imagine

I don't understand why, at all. Each sprite is 32 colours, those colours are all from the global palette. Only glare/shadow objects have a special palette as far as I know.

I might try re-converting the original assets, as I have done for the pickups, and seeing if that fixes anything.

[Karlos]

What I need to do now is try and objectively measure how much improvement there has been. If any.

Although the technique appears to confuse leveled, merging several directories by assign seems to have no effect on the game, so we can make other changes too. For example now could make less detailed versions of the levels. I don't fancy having to do that, but there's a lot of stuff in there for show only. The shelves in the medical bay and the patient pod. Compare this to the positively spartan slab you wake up on in the original.

Fortunately I don't think the texture variation has much impact beyond memory use. The way the textures are stored in memory, even if we used 640*128 for all 16 slots, it's only about 870K of memory.

[abu_the_monkey]

So having played through a few levels with the 'low spec' option, I am afraid I find it does not seem to fit it with the general mood of the game.
I think it would fit into a deathmatch multi player game or if there were an 'arcade' faster paced option for individual levels.

Maybe if had not played the game previously I would think differently

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

So having played through a few levels with the 'low spec' option, I am afraid I find it does not seem to fit it with the general mood of the game.
I think it would fit into a deathmatch multi player game or if there were an 'arcade' faster paced option for individual levels.

Maybe if had not played the game previously I would think differently

Do you think that more traditional sprites would be a better option then? I could use developer mode to get screenshots of some of the vector pickups on their own (turn off rendering of everything else) and use those

[Karlos]

More importantly, any speed improvement? You'll need to compare interpreter/cycle exact to get a remotely meaningful answer to that.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Do you think that more traditional sprites would be a better option then? I could use developer mode to get screenshots of some of the vector pickups on their own (turn off rendering of everything else) and use those

yes, that would suit it better. I think the bright icon pickups would suit the 2 player deathmatch though.

More importantly, any speed improvement? You'll need to compare interpreter/cycle exact to get a remotely meaningful answer to that.

I will try and find some time later to do some comparisons, @rabidgerry it would be nice to get some feedback from those running on 'real' hardware

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

yes, that would suit it better. I think the bright icon pickups would suit the 2 player deathmatch though.

I can keep those for DM. I did originally begin an entire death match episode for the mod too. I think the levels may even be in there still.

What I will have to do is take this sharding of the main AB3 assign to it's logical conclusion and start putting levels and things in there too. This does present some challenges but the DM version should probably not have a high spec version as you want the fastest experience, not the most atmospheric.

[abu_the_monkey]

well it goes without saying that when there are a boat load of pickups on screen the bitmap version wins hands down under winuae at least.

[Karlos]

It's almost as if that's why they were bitmap in the first place or something