Scorpion Engine

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by Kaizen35

Yes Saimon69, I also tried to do that. Create a bobs animation of my images, but I didn't know what code to write to display it. (if anyone can help a coding newbie, thanks ^^) But now I have an idea that might be a little silly but that might work ... create an empty level, with my actor right in the middle.

I tried doing some stuff like this where I have a null player invisible actor that doesnt respond to anything, or move, etc. (you could make their fire/attack command trigger the leave the intro codeblock) Then you could do quite elaborate things by making different scenes in the intro as just different sections of the map and teleporting the camera (and the null player) to different parts... And potentially panning about like Earok said too (you don't need a player for that.. But if you want a bunch of cool animating BOBS on screen you might need a player too..? I think? Maybe not.)

Either way now you can attach an actor only to a specific level, actor based cinematics seem like a really neat idea.

Originally Posted by Tsak

My biggest issue with push is that lowest value for it is 1px, which means that at 50 fps you get a 50px push per second which is way, WAY too fast for most cases. So getting in an 1px push every 2 or 3 frames e.t.c. is high priority for starters. I think that combined with an added acceleration or deceleration value this fix will cover most cases. Stuff like resistance or momentum can be controlled fine then.

That all sounds great TBH! I think I lucked out by only ever trying to push things kind of quickly but that does seem like a big limitation!

Adding variables/dice to it sounds pretty handy too for efficiency's sake.

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by Mixel

That all sounds great TBH! I think I lucked out by only ever trying to push things kind of quickly but that does seem like a big limitation!

yup, I think the push code you have (f.e. when you hit enemies and such) will surely benefit. This push currently feels too quick and abrupt imho (same issue in my projects as well) but with smooth deceleration and slower speeds we'll be able to sell the effect a lot more efficiently

[Kaizen35]

Thanks guys, I'm going to see how the camera moves work with Ace Attorney.
Another somewhat subsidiary question: how does the "cpu_path" work in "actor / movement"? because I opened the Translucency demo but I don't understand where the path that the actors follow is located

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by Kaizen35

Thanks guys, I'm going to see how the camera moves work with Ace Attorney.
Another somewhat subsidiary question: how does the "cpu_path" work in "actor / movement"? because I opened the Translucency demo but I don't understand where the path that the actors follow is located

Paths are created inside Tiled, using the polygon tools.

[Kaizen35]

ok ! Thank you Tsak

[earok]

Bear in mind CPU_Path is very limited right now, it only moves by tile alignment rather than being able to follow an exact path.


Latest check in to experimental - https://github.com/earok/scorpion-editor-experimental - there was indeed some bugs with ANIM5 that prevented playback that I've fixed.

In addition, Tsak has let me upload an example of an ANIM5 file that we know works (with the latest experimental) if it's any help with diagnosing the issue (https://earok.net/intropatchwork.anim5)


Anim5 was *mostly* just included for backwards compatibility with Backbone, I'm not sure what to do with it going forward. I may see if I can spin it off into a separate executable (so that the vast majority of games that don't need it won't have it added to the executable, saving some memory at least)

[Kaizen35]

ok thanks, Earok. It works ! Good work !
now the problem is the animation doesn't use Dpaint frame rate (12 fps) and seems to play it at 50 fps. I was hoping to resolve this by changing the "Frame_wait" value but it's not it. Is there a way ?

[earok]

Originally Posted by Kaizen35

ok thanks, Earok. It works ! Good work !
now the problem is the animation doesn't use Dpaint frame rate (12 fps) and seems to play it at 50 fps. I was hoping to resolve this by changing the "Frame_wait" value but it's not it. Is there a way ?

Did you set the frame rate value in the Audio/ANIM5 tab for the animation specifically? (not in codeblocks)

[Kaizen35]

Originally Posted by earok

Did you set the frame rate value in the Audio/ANIM5 tab for the animation specifically? (not in codeblocks)

Yes, very cool ! right under my nose! thank you

[earok]

No worries, glad you got it sorted!

---

Fairly exciting little update to Scorpion experimental that fixes a long standing issue.

What we've got now is that if you
A) Use SetType to change an actor, and
B) The idle/walking animation has the same number of frames as before

Instead of restarting from frame #1, it continues from where it was before




So you can see here, our AlarCity hero has two animation states (arm up for shooting, he puts his arm back down a moment after you've stopped). Those are two different "actors", and it tweens between them whenever fire is hit or released without restarting his walk cycle.

Some potential use for this.

- If we had an actor with a "white flash" animation for when they're damaged, we can switch to it without restarting the walk cycle
- If we had the same animation playing at different speeds (say a Sonic like character accelerating), we can switch between them without restarting the walk cycle.


Doesn't need to be configured, so long as the relevant animations have the same number of frames, it should just work.

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by earok

Fairly exciting little update to Scorpion experimental that fixes a long standing issue.

What we've got now is that if you
A) Use SetType to change an actor, and
B) The idle/walking animation has the same number of frames as before

Doesn't need to be configured, so long as the relevant animations have the same number of frames, it should just work.

This is super cool! I have a slow francis actor for walking through mud etc and a normal speed one, now he’ll look right when he’s transitioning from fast/slow/having a shotgun! And I don’t even have to do anything!

[Kaizen35]

it is really very interesting this optimization on the sprites of the player. Scorpio is getting sharper and sharper!
I will see if I can use it on my character.
I was trying to show you a little video of my progress during the day, to show you some bugs that I am encountering and that I will not be able to explain without a video.

[Lemming880]

Something I wanted to report earlier but couldn't put my finger on: Occasionally the music starts to play on twice the speed. And in rare cases I get a guru after this happens. Also scorpion gives this error: ERROR: FMOD failed to initialize the output device.: "Error initializing output device. " (60).

But I can't reproduce it. It just happens sometimes. So I'm not even sure if the guru's are caused by the music. I just suspect that it does. I was also thinking there could be something 'wrong' with one of the mods I'm using. But at this point I'm clueless.

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by Lemming880

Something I wanted to report earlier but couldn't put my finger on: Occasionally the music starts to play on twice the speed.

But I can't reproduce it. It just happens sometimes. So I'm not even sure if the guru's are caused by the music. I just suspect that it does. I was also thinking there could be something 'wrong' with one of the mods I'm using. But at this point I'm clueless.

Is it triggered when loading a panel mid level? (Replacing another panel) I’ve had that too.. Most of my musical glitches and gurus were related to loading new panels while a level (specifically my world map, haha) were running. i think there was also a bug that earok has fixed in the experimental build where graphics/audio corruption could be caused by a panel element being erroneously outside of the screen? (So switching to experimental might fix it if you’re not using experimental already)

[Lemming880]

I didn't load a new panel when it happened. And no panel element is outside of the screen. I'm using version 2021.5.1. It will be hard to test in experimental since it happens so rarely. So if it doesn't happen it can still be luck.

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by Lemming880

I didn't load a new panel when it happened. And no panel element is outside of the screen. I'm using version 2021.5.1. It will be hard to test in experimental since it happens so rarely. So if it doesn't happen it can still be luck.

There wasn't visibly anything outside the screen in my case either, I just looked back through my chat logs, it was a error in the panel code to do with undefined menu options that was causing it to try to blit things outside of the screen(?) and other people have had panel errors he fixed in experimental updates too. So if it's anything at all to do with panels elsewhere in the game hopefully your music/guru errors are the same thing will just stop happening once the experimental build becomes non-experimental..

similar eg, I had the error in my menus where if would make a strange noise, then in some parts of the game the music would be corrupt sounding.. But it was caused by the main menus ages before.

It could be an entirely different bug, unrelated to panels, just saying I've had very similar things happen, and stop happening.

[Lemming880]

Where can I find chat logs? I only see a build log. But fingers crossed for official version 2021.5.2. Edit. I just found the error.txt file with the before mentioned fmod error but nothing else.

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by Lemming880

Where can I find chat logs? I only see a build log. But fingers crossed for official version 2021.5.2. Edit. I just found the error.txt file with the before mentioned fmod error but nothing else.

Oh no, i just mean my chat logs with Earok, we spoke about it elsewhere and I needed to look back because I didn't remember the exact details.

The changes that stopped the panel/menu/audio glitches for me were June25th. So fingers crossed this is somehow related.

[Lemming880]

Originally Posted by Mixel

Oh no, i just mean my chat logs with Earok, we spoke about it elsewhere and I needed to look back because I didn't remember the exact details.

The changes that stopped the panel/menu/audio glitches for me were June25th. So fingers crossed this is somehow related.

Oops haha got it.

[Kaizen35]

Hi, my game is not as advanced as yours, but here is the progress.
So I have some concerns, the main ones being those with the tire.
I had to assign the pull function to the "X" key because I couldn't get my parallax system to work with the joystick pull.
here is a copy / paste of the text of my video for explications:

It's a parallax test with objects.
- Player sprites and enemies are still temporary.
- color palette not yet optimized
- The "X" key bug if you shoot too fast. The sprites follow the directions of the joystick but not the projectiles. (at 1min30sec)
- Using the "X" key to shoot does not pose a problem with the parallax of the objects, but using the joystick shoot button causes the plants to keep moving according to the direction of the axes of the joystick. (at 2min)
- I have to set the "camera box" to 0: 0: 0: 0 and otherwise not use acceleration / deceleration with my character, otherwise my parallax schedules do not follow.
- sorry for the sound of the laser! ... but I only had that on hand.

And at the end, the new sprites to come

[ Show youtube player ]