Scorpion Engine

[Tigerskunk]

Hey! You need to leave us non Scorpion devs some room to shine, Earok... haha

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by earok

Sorry, yes you're right! I got the vairable names mixed up.

An early version of Scorpion did have a system that scaled actor speed and such based on whether you had it on 25fps or 50fps mode, so you could release a super smooth version for AGA (for example) and a less smooth version (but still constant fps) for OCS. The problem was it was just too difficult to scale everything and still expect it to behave the same way so I think the best thing to do is just to leave it to developers to hand craft and test 25fps versions if they really want to do that.

That makes a ton of sense! No problem. I’m experimenting with lower spec versions of the cmo demo as test runs for the eventual full game.. framewait seems pretty great! I’m having a fun time reducing colour count too, though I’ve found an odd bug with parallax in the process.. (not asking for a fix now, haha!)

With fmode1 on, and the game set to 32colours, this happens to the copper background.. it’s fine with Fmode1 off though.

[UltraNarwhal]

Originally Posted by earok

The problem was it was just too difficult to scale everything and still expect it to behave the same way so I think the best thing to do is just to leave it to developers to hand craft and test 25fps versions if they really want to do that.

Basically what I did for Duckstroma on ZX/MSX (25/50).
Fine for me as I'm only targeting A500/600 hardware, after a quick test looks promising for playability with more colours and bigger characters.

[earok]

Re: F-Mode 1 thing, that's a really tricky thing with DMA timing being odd on F-Mode 1 and 5BP. I don't know how to fix it.

Got lots of bug reports piling up, so I'll be focusing more on those than new features for the meantime.

Today's check in to experimental fixes an issue where the "attack" animation slots were being automatically filled with the "walk" slots if empty. I'm honestly not sure why I did that to begin with (and hopefully it hasn't broken any other projects), but it has allowed us to resolve a certain issue with AlarCity, eg.

The main character is supposed to be able to shoot and strafe while walking, and shoot while not walking. So what we've currently done is we've got is a setup like this:

Player actor:
- Idle anims = Frames of the player standing
- Walk anims = Frames of the player walking
- Attack anims = (unset)

Player shooting actor:
- Idle anims = Frames of the player shooting while standing
- Walk anims = Frames of the player shooting while walking
- Attack anims = (unset)

(Previously, since attack anims were being filled with the walk anims, the player would be walking on the spot while shooting)

[Kaizen35]

Hi !
I would like to play a short video in the introduction (32 images in png 254x150 pixel).
I saw that there was "Anim5". is it used to read this kind of intro video? How to use it ? (I understand that you have to rename an image at the root of the working folder to * .anim5)
otherwise, I thought I would do an animation in the "animations" area. But what should I write in code to make this appear before my title screen for example?

[Samurai_Crow]

https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/ANIM_I...nimations#ANIM is a description of the file format. Deluxe Paint 3+ will generate them though Personal Paint can also generate them.

[earok]

I can't really give any advice on making ANIM5s (though Samurai Crow's advice would be a good place to start. I use ADPro myself but it's extremely unwieldly with assembling animations).

On playing them, it's just a case of using "Display -> PlayAnim5" in code. This will load the anim, play it, and unload it before continuing. Any music you have playing will continue to play.

[Kaizen35]

Thanks Samurai_Crow, this is fantastic! I completely forgot that it could be an animation format ... and specific to the Amiga on top of that! ^^
And I'm sorry I forgot to research this format before asking my question!
Thanks Earok. I had to go test that! i just hope my images are not too big, otherwise it will scam shrink

[Kaizen35]

Earok I thought I noticed that Scorpion, loaded all the images in the project folder when the game starts, which is probably the cause of using more CHIP memory and that it takes at least 2MB of Chip to launch my project. Because by deleting the images which do not serve me for the moment, I was able to redo my project working on an amiga with only 1 mo of ram Chip, and some fast.
My goal being that my project runs at least on an A500 with 1MB of Chip + fast, and with a little power too. A TF536 would be necessary.
Is there a way in the future, or maybe even existing, to make the graphics not load all, or put them in FAST?
Even on vacation, thank you for answering our questions!

[earok]

It's no worries! I'm actually not on holiday any more (but I'm still very busy with work, so progress is slow)

Recently I added a feature to the experimental - https://github.com/earok/scorpion-editor-experimental - where you can assign an animation to a level, so that animation is only loaded when that level is in memory. But there's improvements to be made, this is currently only really good for "boss" characters that are only in a single level.

[Mixel]

Edit: Earok got there first lol.

Originally Posted by Kaizen35

Earok I thought I noticed that Scorpion, loaded all the images in the project folder when the game starts, which is probably the cause of using more CHIP memory and that it takes at least 2MB of Chip Even on vacation, thank you for answering our questions!

My understanding of the current form of asset loading (may be wrong): In the experiimental build you can assign animations to levels, which might help if you have enemies etc that only appear on a single level.

It shouldn't be loading all the images in the project folder, only the ones that are included in animations and the main font.. Panels etc shouldn't load into chip until they're loaded and displayed? I think!

I used the level assign thing for Anna in the demo because she only appears on that one level.. No use for the full game but in this one specific situation it's great.

[earok]

Originally Posted by Mixel

It shouldn't be loading all the images in the project folder, only the ones that are included in animations and the main font.. Panels etc shouldn't load into chip until they're loaded and displayed? I think!

That's correct - only animations used in images are put into the project (even if you use the image multiple times, they only go into memory once). Panels are always loaded when requested (except for the talkpad which is always in memory), though I may make it so that specific panels can be kept in memory at all times (which will solve some issues around being able to trigger a "paused" panel at will)

[earok]

Minor check in to experimental:

1. For top down characters, they no longer "moonwalk" when firing when strafe ticked.
2. When character set to autofire (both platform and top down), if you tapped fire sometimes it wouldn't actually fire. This has been fixed.

Edit: I'm giving serious thought to reworking the "push" function so there's the ability to decelerate a push rather than have it moved at a fixed rate for a fixed number of frames. But it may mean that any current code using push may need to be re-tested. Do let me know if you've got any concerns (or any other ideas on how to enhance push)

[Mixel]

Originally Posted by earok

Edit: I'm giving serious thought to reworking the "push" function so there's the ability to decelerate a push rather than have it moved at a fixed rate for a fixed number of frames. But it may mean that any current code using push may need to be re-tested. Do let me know if you've got any concerns (or any other ideas on how to enhance push)

I'm totally into a rethink of push.. It'll break a ton of my codeblocks but easily enough fixed. (feature request - text search across all codeblocks? haha!)

Could you have actor variables like.. "resistance" and "momentum" or something, a bit like how gravity works, so you can push stuff but heavy things are slowed down by having a bigger resistance value (1=immovable 0=weightless), but something with a high momentum carries on "sliding" .. This sounds like it might be computationally intensive.. Maybe an overcomplicated way of doing it.

[Kaizen35]

Originally Posted by earok

I can't really give any advice on making ANIM5s (though Samurai Crow's advice would be a good place to start. I use ADPro myself but it's extremely unwieldly with assembling animations).

On playing them, it's just a case of using "Display -> PlayAnim5" in code. This will load the anim, play it, and unload it before continuing. Any music you have playing will continue to play.

I created my animation with a bit of trouble, but I got there ...

Unfortunately, Scorpio doesn't want to run it, although I see that there is a dark red image that goes on and off quickly. (I'm just guessing it's loading the palette because it's the dark red color # 1 of the palette that is stealthily displayed)
Dpaint V doesn't want to make animation too small, so I did several tests.
1- an animation in 320x256
2-an animated brush in 224x150 (the right resolution)
in 16 colors.

Strangely, there are some images that don't have the same color palette as the others ... Could it come from there?

otherwise, in the "startup" code blocks, I put "play anim5 intro" just after the line "unload the current level". I also tried with and without "don't play an anim5" right after. I don't know if that's what you have to do, to stop the animation like you say Earok, but that doesn't change a thing.

note: the animation in 320x256 (too big) is well in 15 fps but it seems to me that it is not adjustable for an animated brush. Can we adjust the FSP in Scorpion?

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by Mixel

I'm totally into a rethink of push.. It'll break a ton of my codeblocks but easily enough fixed. (feature request - text search across all codeblocks? haha!)

Could you have actor variables like.. "resistance" and "momentum" or something, a bit like how gravity works, so you can push stuff but heavy things are slowed down by having a bigger resistance value (1=immovable 0=weightless), but something with a high momentum carries on "sliding" .. This sounds like it might be computationally intensive.. Maybe an overcomplicated way of doing it.

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.

One extra note: we're also considering allowing expressions or feeding these values with variables (currently you can only set numbers). Meaning that f.e. you will be able to roll a dice and then set any value from push = dice for a nice randomising effect

[saimon69]

Maybe you should treat the animation frames like game characters? How good is Scorpion to do intros arcade styles with bobs?

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Maybe you should treat the animation frames like game characters? How good is Scorpion to do intros arcade styles with bobs?

Pretty good I'd say. This can also save loads of ram.

[Kaizen35]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Maybe you should treat the animation frames like game characters? How good is Scorpion to do intros arcade styles with bobs?

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.
Anyway, thank you Saimon69 for forcing me to study this track again.

Otherwise, what is the "pusch" command for? And I would also have to make a list of all the commands that I don't understand yet.

[earok]

Push command means move an actor by X pixels for Y frames. It's used for pushing things around, like crates on a sokoban game.

An alternative to using actors is creating a cutscene out of levels by moving the camera around (see the Ace Attorney intro in the unofficial games repo - https://github.com/earok/unofficial-scorpion-demos - there are no actors in the entire game)