Scorpion Engine

[acidbottle]

I have fudged so many things, is sometimes my favoured way of thinking

Now talking of fudging things, I do have a simple question. Has anyone attempted a highscore table in SE yet? I know string variables exist, I think, have forgotten under the waves of new builds!

If so, an example would make a very nice new demo project

[earok]

So far as I know, it hasn't been done, but there's no reason it couldn't be done.

In practice it might be bit of a slog, there's technically no "array" or sorting support in Scorpion yet, the code would have to look something like this:


if NewScore > HighScore8
HighScore8 = NewScore ;Overwrite the bottom score
HighScore8Name = NewScoreName
else
return ;Don't need to check further up the list
endif

if NewScore > HighScore7
HighScore8 = HighScore7 ;Bump the old score down one position
HighScore8Name = HighScore7Name
HighScore7 = NewScore ;Set the new score
HighScore7Name = NewScoreName
else
return ;Don't need to check further up the list
endif


etc etc

[acidbottle]

Cheers earok, look forward to array support someday but the logic again from you looks solid .. appreciate the pointers

[flibble42]

@Earok


Unless i can do it properly i won't do it. I refuse to half arse it like Tiertex and US Gold for instance (i would have quit my job rather than release some of the S*&T they put out).


I have an idea, it involves a large version of the cars profile on the map stage that i can check to see what i'm standing on. Seems cumbersome, but more accurate than just 3 platforms.


Ah well..


Bob

[flibble42]

I still think that the ability to assign a data scratch pad would be a good addition. Use Peek and Poke to access it. Would make it easier to store and track map states/game progression etc.


Also, i'm pretty sure we could do away with the Array situation, we can handle the data ourselves.



Bob

[flibble42]

@Earok


If i'm going to try to emulate slopes any chance you can give information on the logic so i can be consistant with the Scorpion version?


Bob

[earok]

Latest experimental is a fairly heavy reworking that's likely broken a few things. I think this is the point where I need to call a feature freeze on 2022.8 and work on getting everything stable.

The "data" folder is no longer used, this can just be removed from the "output" folder. There's now a single "cartridge" file where all of the individual files are merged into.

The reason for the new single "cartridge" structure is really future preparation - for consoles that don't have file systems (Mega Drive) but also potentially to work towards the ability to create Amiga NDOS disks that have no file system (this would save a fair chunk of RAM since the OS could be completely unloaded).

The one exception to this is ANIM5 files aren't part of the cartridge file, there's complications around that to resolve.

---

@flibble42 in slopes, each block has an array of 16 tiles with the height for each pixel. If the player is below that height, then they're bumped up to that height.

[earok]

Latest update, mostly just tidy up

* Some minor fixes related to the new cartridge format
* When speed scaling, Target speed cannot be below Logic speed anymore (potentially causes issues where odd numbered frame counts can't be evenly divided)
* Added constants for logic_speed and target_speed to the codeblocks, so you can do logic like:

if target_speed = 50
;is 50 hz mode
else
;is 25 hz mode
endif

* Blocks can now be assigned to asset bundles. To be honest there's probably not a lot of memory savings to be made from this, but it does allow blocks to use the palette of the asset bundle or linked level.

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by earok

Latest update, mostly just tidy
* Blocks can now be assigned to asset bundles. To be honest there's probably not a lot of memory savings to be made from this, but it does allow blocks to use the palette of the asset bundle or linked level.

TY! This seems handy to me… I’ve got at least one block-based enemy with a bunch of frames that only appear on occasional levels. Every little probably helps.

Wizonk’s entire menu system is block-based too so it’s nice to be able to have that out of the way. (Particularly because of the low target spec)

[earok]

@Mixel hope it helps!

---

Latest update fixes two issues reported by RaptorGames

- The Schedule Event command (essentially like Yield, but Yields to a different codeblock) was broken
- Blocks were visually broken by the latest update

[flibble42]

Talking of blocks, In Dan Dare i have an animated rotating alert light, the problem is that the FPS is so low it ruins the rotating effect and also whenever one is on screen it makes the game "appear" to be running slow.
Is there a way to increase the FPS of the block update? If not, would it be possible to have one please?


Also, as a future feature for the Editor might i suggest a system not unlike the Animations Tab for the Blocks Tab, it is a real pain to create animated blocks at the minute.


Bob

[earok]

Latest experimental was a couple of trivial usability fixes:

- An error is displayed if you try to edit a file without having an associated tool (specifically, it'll ask you to install Tiled if you haven't done so when attempting to edit a map).
- Clearing the TileID in the Actor or Block tabs will remove the Actor/Block from the tileset (as opposed to needing to set it to a negative number)

---

@Flibble42 I've marked down the ability to have better control over block FPS as a future feature

[flibble42]

@Earok


Thank you

[earok]

@flibble welcome!

---

Latest check in is a fairly minor one, flibble mentioned on discord issues with disabling if statements so I reworked the behaviour a little bit:

- Deleting or disabling an IF statement will disable (but not delete) the following ENDIF in order to keep conditions balanced.
- Likewise, adding or re-enabling an IF statement will reenable a disabled ENDIF if possible.

In practice, this should make adding/removing IF statements a little less painful, without undoing the recent change that removed the need to manually add EndIFs for every single IF statement

[skyzoo73]

@Earok
I need some advice, I have various instances of enemies walking on the same platform, when they approach the player both from one side and the other they start their attack, and so far so good, but I should make sure that the others who are farther away pause momentarily diligently in line waiting to approach. Without overlapping with each other. What approach should I take? Is there the possibility of knowing actor_x of each instance of the enemies so as to create a useful codeblock for the case?

Thank you.

[flibble42]

@skyzoo73


Did you ever get an answer?


I would create a codeblock for each enemy type's behavior and then use "do for every" of that type. Each actors x,y etc should be used in the codeblock automatically.


Bob

[Lemming880]

Originally Posted by flibble42

Talking of blocks, In Dan Dare i have an animated rotating alert light, the problem is that the FPS is so low it ruins the rotating effect and also whenever one is on screen it makes the game "appear" to be running slow.
Is there a way to increase the FPS of the block update? If not, would it be possible to have one please?


Also, as a future feature for the Editor might i suggest a system not unlike the Animations Tab for the Blocks Tab, it is a real pain to create animated blocks at the minute.

You can use Tiled for animation. Load tileset.tsx in Tiled and press the movie camera icon for the Tile Animation Editor. There you can make an animation and set the speed the way you want. Animation only works with tiles, not blocks. But you can place an invisible block on an animated tile.

[acidbottle]

Good tip that Lemming! Sometimes is easy to puzzle away at Scorpion but forget that tiled is also itegral to how the whole system works. Also found tiled documentation a little daunting to follow.

[skyzoo73]

Originally Posted by flibble42

@skyzoo73


Did you ever get an answer?


I would create a codeblock for each enemy type's behavior and then use "do for every" of that type. Each actors x,y etc should be used in the codeblock automatically.


Bob

No unfortunately, the problem is that I don't know
if there is a real way for an actor to know about
the existence of another of the same type and then
do code accordingly, reacting based on this.
And hopefully it should be possible to compare variables
of one, with variables of the other.

[flibble42]

@Lemming880


I did try Tiled and it animated really nicely. As soon as i compiled the Map in Scorpion no animation, I can't remember the reason, so i went with blocks.