TANX (Iron Strike)

[Chebmaster]

Of course. I didn't suggest to change anything now. That would be unwise -- as old saying goes, "better" is the enemy of "good". :roll:

[Huehnerschaender]

Please don't get me wrong. I am very happy about any comments about anything. The suggestions you made are very good and I will let them influence my game when I have the time. I just wanted to point out that I don't have the time right now, even if it would be a good thing to continue in a more "future-proof" way. As usual, TIME is the factor which doesn't allow me to do the things like I wish...

I don't expect to get a rating on one of the first places in IGF, I don't expect to get a special price for innovation, gameplay, graphics or whatever.
But I need a playable game on 8th of September... to proof myself I can make it. This is my first game which is "playable"... I need to see it played by someone *hehe* :twisted:

[Chebmaster]

Oh... 8th of September - that's harsh. :shock: I wish you to make it in time then.

[Huehnerschaender]

Thank you Chebmaster. I think now you got the point of view

[WILL]

I have the basic layout of the first mission done. Need the final enhancements to complete it, but it's a start. Will PM the map to you so you can use if for some testing.

Maybe stress testing is a good thing at this point too? I mean, I've put quite a bit of trees and am to be honest wanting to put a lot more for a heavy wooded effect. How much 'strain' can I put on the engine with trees? Is having a ton of trees on a mission map a bit of a problem or is it perfectly ok?

BTW: It's all the trees and ground layout that will be the most work on these maps. Anyone ever design their own C&C Red Alert, Starcraft, WarCraft3, etc... maps? It's making the land look good rather than placing the buildings and objects that take up most of the time isn't it?

[WILL]

Awe crap! I just noticed a BIG problem with the Briefing Text. :?

It comes up as garbage when loaded from file. I also get an "Error while loading Map!" message and an application error message that is in German saying "Zugriffsverletzung bei Adresse 00404B1C in Modul 'ISEditor.exe'. Lesen von Adresse 00B5E170."

Can you retrive my briefing text and fix this issue? Or is my briefing text gone for good. Darn! It was a good one too. :?

[Huehnerschaender]

Investigating....

[Huehnerschaender]

Ok, got it... of course, my fault. I changed a little thing just before I uploaded the editor for you ops: It was already late and so it seems I forgot to test what I changed *hehe*

Your mission briefing text is unfortunately gone, only crap saved in file. The rest of the file is still ok.

Since it should be night in Canada and daytime here, I will use the time to get the missing additional things into the editor. Then, hopefully, you will have a "fully functional" editor with (nearly) all the features we discussed on ICQ.

Ok, I will start now

[Traveler]

Just a tip: Always write all of the texts in a word document and then copy/paste into your game/site whatever it is your making. That way texts are a whole lot easier to look up when you need to change something. Or in case you need to translate them, you can just handover the document to your translator. You are also less likely to loose the material in case of crashes like these.

[Chebmaster]

I'd go further and store all the text not inside the level itself, but as an external text file (maybe with the same name as the map file). You kill two rabbits with one stone: both the text becomes easily modifeable, and the map format becomes easy to maintain.

Like this:
#EXPL_VID_RESTART_REQUIRED
~Russian
Переключение этой настройки требует перезапуска CGE%0.
~English
Changing this setting requires to restart CGE%0.

#EXPL_BECAUSE_OF_COLOR_DEPTH_MISMATCH
~Russian
, поскольку не совпадают глубина цвета рабочего стола и глубина цвета, выбранная для полноэкранного режима, и при переключении потребовалось бы изменить формат видеобуфера. Если попытаться сделать это без перезапуска, очень высока вероятность сбоя.
~English
, because the desktop color depth and the fullscreen setting for color depth do not match each other. Switching it would require changing the frame buffer format on the fly, which may cause a crash

#EXPL_BECAUSE_OF_ANTIALIASING
~Russian
, поскольку при включении суперсэмплинга происходит фактическое изменение размера и формата видеобуфера, что крайне не рекомендуется делать ¬´на лету¬ª.
~English
, because switching the the full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) practically changes the size and format of the frame buffer, which may cause a crash if performed “on the fly”


PLUS, editing it in Word/OpenOffice/Whatever gives you the spell checking.

Tip #2: share the same code (via {$include xxx} ) between the game and the level editor. Namely, the code that defines the data structures and the code that saves/loads the map. You can try it even at your current "deadline-is-looming!" stage, because it's very easy to implement, but saves a *LOT* of troubles with inconsistencies. The effort of keeping the different version consistent and de-bugging [shudders ] them does *always* outweight any expenditures from making the piece of code shared.

Note: I, for example, gone even further and use the same definition block in *four* different places (see below: the purpose is to export some functions *backward*, from the main executable into the DLL loaded by it).
[pascal]{
This header is used by both the core and the modules.
The core definition style:
function A (): integer;
, so macro e_fun_1 is "function", e_fun_2 is "", and e_cm is "".
The module definition style:
var A: function (): integer;
, so macro e_fun_1 is "", e_fun_2 is ":function", and e_cm is "".
The core exporting proc definition style:
3: p:=@A; //a part of Case statement
, so macro e_fun_1 is "", e_fun2 is "" and e_cm is ":=@"
The module importing proc definition style:
RegisterProc(3, @A);
, so macro e_fun_1 is "RegisterProc(", e_fun2 is ")" and e_cm is ",@"

************************************************** ********************}

e_pro_1 {$ifndef header} 05 e_cm {$endif}AddLogOK e_pro_2 {$ifdef header}(); expconv{$endif};

e_fun_1 {$ifndef header} 07 e_cm {$endif}GetModNum e_fun_2 {$ifdef header}(): integer; expconv{$endif};
e_fun_1 {$ifndef header} 08 e_cm {$endif}GetModName e_fun_2 {$ifdef header}(num: integer): PAnsiChar; expconv{$endif};

e_fun_1 {$ifndef header} 10 e_cm {$endif}GetGLProcAddress e_fun_2 {$ifdef header}(ProcName: PAnsiChar): Pointer; expconv{$endif};
...
[/pascal]

- may look scary at the first sight, but is *always* consistent, saving me a lot of unnecessary work!