Space Shooter Game Editor

[robert83]

YEAAAHHH,

Here it is, smooth scroll works in both directions up and down, only minor problem which I need to fix now is (not a big problem for my intended game since it's a space shooter which goes in one direction only) , when I change directions it's visible. I find it difficult to explain with my english knowledge. See for youreself.

Anyway making some really nice progress (so I think atleast)

Greetings
Robert

[SilverWarior]

YEAAAHHH,

Here it is, smooth scroll works in both directions up and down, only minor problem which I need to fix now is (not a big problem for my intended game since it's a space shooter which goes in one direction only) , when I change directions it's visible. I find it difficult to explain with my english knowledge. See for youreself.

Anyway making some really nice progress (so I think atleast)

Greetings
Robert

From what I see the problem is that when you are moving UP your are not adding necessary line of sprites on uper side which makes that black line.

Any whay now if you would excuse me I would like to go to bed as it is 3:41 am here now.
Post any progress you made and I'll try to find some time tomorow to write you the whole map movment functions as explained in my previous post. I would also write you a Map file handling routines which would alow you to load several Layers when needed.

EDIT: BTW I recomed you to start commenting your code. While at this time it might seem unnecessary to do this but when your code grows you will find out that you can quickly get lost in it and then don't know what which part of the code does.

[robert83]

Hello,

thank you , I will start commenting, and cleaning up the code, possibly using more units, try and categorize the procedures in units in a meaningfull easy to see manner.
yeah now I see what you mean, though I'm way to tired to fully understand (went to sleep at 3:00 am, woke up at 06:30 am, at work now... will sleep today).
if I understand you're map format would allow map file to be read line by line when needed ? instead of beaing read at once?
once I get some sleep, I will modify the code, and I'll try to do it like you've told me .

Now that I think about it, I will not overcomplicate my life. I'll reamove up and down by 1 , instead I will put a simple demo mode there, which when clicked on will jump to the end of the map, and from there move up by one till the end of the map. Just like it would later in the real game. And I think I will also add another variable into the map data.... scroll speed, migh come in handy if later I decide I want a map that is faster for some reason then the rest.... ligthspeed travel or escape from some boss, or something.

Thank you for youre time, I'll post tomorrow on my progress.

Greetings
Robert

[SilverWarior]

You don't need to use more units. the only reason for using more uits is when you are trying to make part of the code so that it can be reusable in some other project of yours (you just add existing unit to another project).
Also you don't need to make procedure or function for about everyting. You only use procedures or functions for comonly repeated parts of code.

What I do suggest is simply use basic comenting of your code (you write simple coment on top of your procedure or series of source lines so nex time when you will look at that coude you will know what it is for.
I'm not usre which development IDE are you using but if your development IDE supports using of Regions (available in Delphi XE or newer and in FPC) learn how to use them.
The best feature of Regions is that they alow you to make foldable parts of your code and even name them. While regions don't affect the program execution they do provide a way to make your code easily redable.

About scrolling capabilities while removing smoth capability to scroll your map up and down isn't needed for your editor do make sure that you leave yourself the ability to scroll by line othervise you will just make life for yourself a bit more compicated

[SilverWarior]

Damn I can't seem to get old Asphyre 3.1.0 eXtreme to sucsessfully compile on my Delphi XE3.
Also the sprite engine itself is being dependant on some Units that are not present in newest Asphyre Sphinx so I can't get your sprite engine to work with newest Asphre engine.

Which development IDE are you using anywhay?
EDIT: Don't mind my last question I already got an answer using PE Explorer

I gues I need to get my old laptop out of all that dust which acumulated over past years on it, fire up Delphi 7 and try to make precompiled packages for both Asphyre 3.1.0 eXtreme and SpriteEngine so I might be able to use them with Delphi XE3

[robert83]

Hello,

thank you, I've modified myself the Asphyre eXtreme source I use, since dxbase.pas conflicted with devExpress components I use, attached I give you the modified Asphyre eXtreme sources directory zipped , only changed unit names where needed in order to work along with devExpress.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I do intend to leave alone line by line scrolling for the editor.

I only intend to remove smooth scrolling in both directions, that is not needed only complicates my life, I will be only scrolling one way trough the game world anyway. Will only keep smooth scrolling up. That is what I meant. The finel editor
should allow me to test the level , so it would look like the real game, enemy ships comming down and shooting at the player , only the player would be not affacted by this . That reminds me, I will also need to specify for example if Layer3 will only include enemy ships and maybe power up's , I will need to specify in which direction and with which speed will they go, how many lives will they have etc...Will need to think this trough , but I think it would be logical and simple if the map data would hold enemy ship type , life, direction data no? (but this is a bit down on the road...)

I'm using Delphi 7 SE , works fine on Windows 7 here.

About the Units I've said, I wanted to seperate em like this, anything related to level loading, drawing etc... will be in unit level for example.
Everything related to enemies will be in a unit enemies.

Right now I have some programing to finish here for the company I work for, so I'll be back on programing this editor tomorrow hopefully.

EDIT :

meanwhile I've managed to test my editor, on a Duron 1400, SIS661FX_760_741, 512MB ram, Windows XP, got 30 FPS , only thing is in non full screen mode, the screen flickers ... on the Draw surface, but it dissapears in Full Screen mode, this is good. This is quiet a low spec system, Windows XP barelly works on it, not to mention the "GPU".

Greetings
Robert

[robert83]

Hello,

SilverWarriror, I've changed my map layout to the one youv'e suggested :

   TTileData=record
         ImageIndex: integer; // Tile Number
         AnimStart: integer; // Tile Animation Start Position
         AnimSpeed: Single; // Tile Animation Speed
         AnimCount: Integer; // Tile Animation Count
        end;
  TMapLine=array [0..19] of TTileData; // Stores one line of tile data
  TMap=record
         name:string[20];  // Name of the Map
         map_length:integer; // Length of the Map
         Lines: array of TMapLine; // stores the Entire map [0,0..19] , first value is 0 till map_length (vertical), second value is 0..19 (horizontal)
       end;

I've also managed to get smooth scrolling working in one direction using your method (took me a while I know, had some brainfog issues, was sitting before this damn computer for many hours and nothing, couldn't even start...then yesterday it suddenly hit me.

This is the code that moves the map down ( I'll reverse my logic...and guess it'll work for up )

 procedure TMain.TestExecute(Sender: TObject);
var x,y : integer;
    new_line : boolean;
begin
  if Offset < Map.map_length-14 then    // -14 , Number of Tile Lines Drawn on Screen
    begin
    inc(Counter,1);         // I'm using this to check if I've scrolled down one tile Height (32), if I did
    if Counter = 32 then    // then I'm increasing Offset by 1 and reseting Counter to 0, Offset is used to tell the new line of sprites which Line of TileData
      begin                 // to read from the array
        Inc(offset,1);
        Counter:=0;
      end;
    for y:=0 to 15 do
      begin
        for x :=0 to 19 do
          begin
            BackGround[x,y].Y:=BackGround[x,y].Y-1;
            if BackGround[x,y].Y = -32 then
              begin
                BackGround[x,y].Dead;
                new_line := true;
              end;
            if new_line = true then
              begin
                BackGround[x,y]:= TBackGround.Create(SpriteEngine);
                Edit9.Text:=inttostr(offset);
                BackGround[x,y].ImageName:= Images.Item[map.Lines[offset+15,x].ImageIndex].Name;
                if BackGround[x,y].PatternCount = 1 then
                  begin
                    BackGround[x,y].DoAnimate:=false;
                  end
                else
                  begin
                     BackGround[x,y].AnimStart:=0;
                     BackGround[x,y].AnimCount:=map.Lines[offset+15,x].AnimCount;
                     BackGround[x,y].AnimSpeed:=map.Lines[offset+15,x].AnimSpeed;
                     BackGround[x,y].AnimPos:=(GlobalAnimCounter mod BackGround[x,y].AnimCount)+map.Lines[offset+15,x].AnimStart;
                     BackGround[x,y].DoAnimate:=true;
                     BackGround[x,y].AnimLooped:=true;
                  end;
                BackGround[x,y].X:=x*32;
                BackGround[x,y].Y:=480;
                BackGround[x,y].Z:=1;
                new_line:=false;
              end;
          end;
      end;
  end;
end;

Everything is nice with this, works like magic, but I have one problem... the animation is not in sync, I'm using GlobalAnimationCount as you've suggested (it works when I scroll trough the map line by line, but not when I do this smooth scrolling)

EDIT : actually the newly created TILE Lines are in sync , meaning each New line which has 15 Sprites , all of them 15 sprites are in sync, but everytime a new line is created it's not in sync with the previous line.

This is how GlobalAnimationCount is increased

   if GlobalAnimCounter = 1000 then GlobalAnimCounter:=0;
  inc(GlobalAnimCounter,1);

This above is defined on AsphyreDevice1.Render.


Any idea why my anim is out of sync when "smooth" scrolling down, but not out of sync when scrolling line by line. I'm doing the same thing on Drawlevel and there it works :

procedure TMain.CreateSprites;
var x,y : integer;
begin
// this procedure creates the starting sprites for one screen and fills them with Empty.image
  for y := 0 to 15 do  // vertically
    begin
      for x := 0 to 19 do   // horizontally
        begin
            BackGround[x,y] := TBackGround.Create(SpriteEngine);
            BackGround[x,y].ImageName:= 'Empty.image';
            BackGround[x,y].X:=x*32;
            BackGround[x,y].Y:=y*32;
            BackGround[x,y].Z:=1;
        end;
    end;
end;

procedure TMain.DrawSprites;
var x,y: Integer;
begin
// this procedure changes the images for every sprite created at startup, creating the illusion of scrolling trough the map
// line-by-line
     for y := 0 to 15 do   // vertically
        begin
          for x := 0 to 19 do // horizontally
            begin
            
             BackGround[x,y].ImageName:= Images.Item[map.Lines[y+Offset,x].ImageIndex].Name;
             if BackGround[x,y].PatternCount = 1 then
                begin
                  BackGround[x,y].DoAnimate:=false;
                end
              else
                begin
                   BackGround[x,y].AnimStart:=0;
                   BackGround[x,y].AnimCount:=map.Lines[y+Offset,x].AnimCount;
                   BackGround[x,y].AnimSpeed:=map.Lines[y+Offset,x].AnimSpeed;
                   BackGround[x,y].AnimPos:=(GlobalAnimCounter mod BackGround[x,y].AnimCount)+map.Lines[y+Offset,x].AnimStart;
                   BackGround[x,y].DoAnimate:=true;
                   BackGround[x,y].AnimLooped:=true;
                end;
            end;
        end;
end;

EDIT : I was thinking that maybe I should use another counter , which would count the time between two created sprites ?

1 I create the initial sprites 16 lines 0..15 .
2 I start moving the sprites up (lines 0..15) and start the differential_timer
3 I destroy spriteline which is -32 , and add a new sprite line and reset differential timer to 0 ( here I'm not sure... I maybe do this ?

                      BackGround[x,y].AnimPos:=(GlobalAnimCounter-differential_timer mod BackGround[x,y].AnimCount)+map.Lines[offset+15,x].AnimStart;

)

and I keep repeating step 1,2,3 till I reach the end. This idea any good?
Greetings
Robert

[User137]

Is this about drawing visible map section of 2D grid? You don't need to add any variables to that for background class. It's just small tricks you do in the Draw (DrawLevel?) function.

1) You have worldX, worldY: single, floating point coords yeah? To get deltaX, deltaY, you can use function frac() for frac(worldX), drac(worldY). I don't know about your scaling, but on all maps i have done, 1.0 value in coords matches size of 1 tile. So if i draw player on 0.5, 0.5, it's in the middle of first tile.

2) Getting drawable area should be done from the rendering context, be it TForm, TPanel or TOpenGLContext. SX:=context.Width div TileWidth, SY:=context.Height div TileHeight.

3) When it comes to drawing...

iX:=floor(worldX);
iY:=floor(worldY);
for j:=iY-1 to iY+SY do
  if (j>=0) and (j<SizeY) then
    for i:=iX-1 to iX+SX do
      if (i>=0) and (i<SizeX) then begin
        DrawTile(i-iX+deltaX, j-iY+deltaY, @tile[i, j]);
      end;

That's just from memory though, should work without much modifications.