The Castle

[Chebmaster]

I tried it.

1. Supply OpenAL with the package. I, for example, don't have it installed on my WinXP, so I was playing with no sound.

2. The volumetric fog isn't visible in the bottom part of the screen (see 1, 2, 3).
Sempron 2400+, GeForceFX 5200.

3. With no sound it's very hard to see if you hit the monster or not.

4. Shouldn't be this dude textured somehow?

5. Solutions for the edge-of-level could include: a) impassabe cliffs/abysses at the edges of the landscape (too high/wide to pass even by flying) b) endless sea (level=island)

6. It could help if your game spewed out a log file.[/url]

[michalis]

I tried it.

1. Supply OpenAL with the package. I, for example, don't have it installed on my WinXP, so I was playing with no sound.

I'll include OpenAL installer when I will do real exe installer for Windows. For now, installation instructions point to OpenAL installation, and most people seem to get it

2. The volumetric fog isn't visible in the bottom part of the screen (see 1, 2, 3).
Sempron 2400+, GeForceFX 5200.

The screenshots look perfectly fine, I don't see any problem there ? Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.

So that's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously

3. With no sound it's very hard to see if you hit the monster or not.

Most monsters except the bosses get a "knockback"... I think that for bosses it can be indeed hardly visible (as they don't get knockback most of the time). Boss life indicator helps here, but maybe you're right, this should be improved somehow.

4. Shouldn't be this dude textured somehow?

He should But he is not for now. I will texture him at some point.

5. Solutions for the edge-of-level could include: a) impassabe cliffs/abysses at the edges of the landscape (too high/wide to pass even by flying) b) endless sea (level=island)

Hmm, both are good ideas. I don't want to surround the whole level with sea (I want the level to "feel" like in the middle of the forest). Actually, maybe I'll use all three ideas ---- on the left side of the level I could do a cliff, on the right and bottom I could use wall of fence, and add a little "opening on the sea" on the right side where the river ends.

Yes, I think I'll do it. Although this will have to wait untill I'll get some free time to do some modelling, I have it recorded in "TODO" file. Thanks!

6. It could help if your game spewed out a log file.

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report ). At some point some log file probably will be generated, but no need for now.

What information were you looking for when seeking for the log file ? I mean, maybe I should expand "View video information" or "View sound information" dialogs with some important info ?

Thanks for the feedback!

[Chebmaster]

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report Smile ).

Since people here aren't all normal players but some are pascal game developers trying to help each other. I'd send you such file anyway.

Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.

Try dark halos around the characters instead (work on your font in photoshop or use software approach). Because as it is, this feature feels like it's a graphical bug.

[michalis]

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report Smile ).

Since people here aren't all normal players but some are pascal game developers trying to help each other. I'd send you such file anyway.

Thanks But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful. That's why I didn't implement it for now --- although it probably will be added at some point. In case you're just curious what the game is doing, you have access to full source code

Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.

Try dark halos around the characters instead (work on your font in photoshop or use software approach). Because as it is, this feature feels like it's a graphical bug.

That's doable, but IMO darkened area at the bottom looks simply nice and I would like to keep it Why does it look like a graphical bug ? I mean, when you use mouse look, the darkened area always stays at the bottom of the screen, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen". Maybe removing the "fade" of the darkened area helps --- like on http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~mich...e_screen_0.png ?

[Chebmaster]

, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen".

Nuh-huh. It says "Oops.. something wrong here. Maybe the fog doesn't work in the bottom part of the screen due to some glitch in the shader?"

*Especially* after what I heard about bugs with the fog on ATI.

Thanks Smile But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful.

Well, it can tell you the system specs, supported OpenGL extensions and driver vendor.

[michalis]

, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen".

Nuh-huh. It says "Oops.. something wrong here. Maybe the fog doesn't work in the bottom part of the screen due to some glitch in the shader?"

*Especially* after what I heard about bugs with the fog on ATI.

Which basically means that you were mislead by some rumors, and when seeing a properly working feature you thought that it's a bug Bugs on ATI are intended to be fixed, that's different story.

I'll ask what others think about the darkened area --- so far noone considered it a bug, so I'm after leaving it the way it is, because it looks nice.

Thanks Smile But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful.

Well, it can tell you the system specs, supported OpenGL extensions and driver vendor.

That's printed in "View video information" dialog. I also made long time ago a separate program for doing just that http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/glcaps.php. Contents of "View video information" dialog should be "dumpable" to the stdout (and to the clipboard), that was intended to be done since a long time (and it still is ). Once again: I'm not against implementing a log file, it will be done at some point, and then probably will include everything printed by "View video information" and "View sound information" and by yellow messages printed on game screen, and probably some more... You know, it's probably easier to implement it instead of talking OK, it will be done for 0.6.4 version (hopefully around next weekend).

[WILL]

So any luck with a Radeon fix yet? I still haven't been able to play this game yet and it's been 4 months since the end of the competiton.

Are you going to continue 'The Castle' now that the competition is behind you?

[michalis]

Sure it's continued. Engine was in quite development this summer, which allowed me to implement VRML 97 support. 0.7.0 release of "The Castle" is planned very, very soon --- quoting myself from http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~mich...hanges_log.php, it will have

1. a small joke/experiment level (it's already partially done — you'll see what is this and

2. finally fix these Radeon issues.

Also demo level designed in VRML 97 will be added. It's planned around the middle of the next month. It will be announced in this thread.

For now you can enjoy my master's thesis about my VRML engine on http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~mich...engine_doc.php. This is what I was working on this month.

[tanffn]

Nice thesis work!
Congrads on its completion, must be a nice feeling..

[michalis]

Nice thesis work!
Congrads on its completion, must be a nice feeling..

Thanks, it sure is a nice feeling. Just got it finalized today, all corrections etc. are applied. It was fun writing a thesis that basically describes my game engine