Compileable version of Alien Breed 3D II - The Killing Grounds

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

no they are just me having a play, trying to think what may/may not be useful or ways to implement odd requests.
they are like I said from a branch for 'brain farts' that I have occasionally.

Whenever I have a branch with the word "experiment" in the title, rest assured it's brainfart territory.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Whenever I have a branch with the word "experiment" in the title, rest assured it's brainfart territory.

I tend to name/comment things as they are, even at work. helps that I am the only developer where I am currently employed, otherwise I may have to use a more descriptive naming method.

god help the poor soul that has to decipher all of my shoddy work if I leave but for now it keeps the place running

[Karlos]

Very superficial suggestion for the new menu. The lower case characters looka bit naff in the game font used, I suspect this is why they used all caps originally.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Very superficial suggestion for the new menu. The lower case characters looka bit naff in the game font used, I suspect this is why they used all caps originally.

yeah I was just pratting about, I know what you mean though

[abu_the_monkey]

still looks odd to me but that's probably the tile like characters used to represent the state of the option.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

still looks odd to me but that's probably the tile like characters used to represent the state of the option.

Are Q and O using the same glyph?

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Are Q and O using the same glyph?

not sure what is going on with that. the reference image I have (and I can't remember where I found it) shows the 'Q' looking more like a 'D' but that ain't what gets displayed.

edit: added a screen shot with all capitols letters and numbers from an edited menu

[abu_the_monkey]

finally got round to opening the raw image of the font used in the menu and here it is.

[grond]

Looks like the upper case Q could borrow some pixels from the lower case q...

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by grond

Looks like the upper case Q could borrow some pixels from the lower case q...

The D isn't so great on CRT either. I remember thinking DUCK looked like OUCH.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

The D isn't so great on CRT either. I remember thinking DUCK looked like OUCH.

I took a couple of minutes and popped a few extra pixels in on the 'Q' and the 'D' I am no pixel artist as you can tell but I think it looks better ish.

[Karlos]

That's much more legible!

[abu_the_monkey]

I have attached it here as a .lha for you to test
I renamed it as font16x16.raw2b in the .lha

[Karlos]

@abu_the_monkey

I just got a moment to review your PR. It looks fine but I think it can be improved. TLDR, we could bss the text sections that contain the generic LEVEL X strings and copy the proper level names to the data once we've loaded the game link file.

This doesn't need to be a blocker however, I'm all for incremental improvements.

I just read that pipper has already approved anyway so I'll just merge that as is. I'll look into doing the thing above later maybe.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

I have attached it here as a .lha for you to test
I renamed it as font16x16.raw2b in the .lha

Cool. I'm actually thinking to make this a loadable file so that it can be edited by mods...

[Karlos]

@abu_the_monkey

Your level select PR is merged.

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Cool. I'm actually thinking to make this a loadable file so that it can be edited by mods...

That would be neat and give the mods a different look.
Are you also thinking of doing the same with the scrolling background image?

Also, I agree with your comments about the level select menu. I did try to read out the actual level names on my local machine, but failed. Clearly I am missing something. Assembly language is still relatively new to me, I am surprised anything works after I have touched it

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

That would be neat and give the mods a different look.
Are you also thinking of doing the same with the scrolling background image?

Pretty much everything like that, if possible, including the level text and endgame dialogue if possible. The includes directory is well placed to hold these.

Also, I agree with your comments about the level select menu. I did try to read out the actual level names on my local machine, but failed. Clearly I am missing something. Assembly language is still relatively new to me, I am surprised anything works after I have touched it

No need to be so modest. I may take a look at this later. Right now I need to fix a massive shading bug I unintentionally just I introduced in my branch. A lunchtime job for today

[Karlos]

Well that was a simple fix for once, I'd mixed up A2 and A4 in the wall flat shading code, resulting in some very interesting effects.

@abu_the_monkey

I recommend updating your branch from main. There are some minor performance tweaks and your menu PR was merged too.

[Karlos]

Tested the level select over lunch break, works a charm.