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Work in Progress / Untitled Sandbox/mine game

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tiffer
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Location: Scotland
Posted: 26th Mar 2014 18:48 Edited at: 2nd Apr 2014 09:07
So I seen a lot of these Minecrafty sandbox type games and I had an idea to put more of a musical spin on it but still allowing the player to mine and build. So far the biggest challenge has been creating a system that allows the map to be loaded into efficient chunks and allowing the map to be dug out by the player in a way that is efficient (trying to build the whole map in one using blocks doesn't work!). So my game actually just models the surfaces out using textured plains in realtime.

The reason I decided to start a Wip now because I think this would be a good discussion point for all.

One of the limitations I'm trying to find a solution for is a lack of concurrency compared to Java. Trying to carry out big map tasks like loading in a new chunk or deleting out un needed chunks does cause a slight jitter in the gameplay. Perhaps there's a plugin out there that would help?

Anyway a few things I've done so far

Dynanic Map loading/debriefing (lack of concurrency causes a fraction of a second jitter)
Inventory system
Gravity and ground collision (collision needs tweeking to avoid clipping)
Map clearing (digging)
Day/Night

In progress:
Different blocks

Bugs:
Intermittent initial map file open failure

To come:
Watch this space

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tiffer
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Posted: 2nd Apr 2014 09:08 Edited at: 2nd Apr 2014 09:09
Grass

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JamesWalker101
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Location: England
Posted: 7th Apr 2014 23:10 Edited at: 7th Apr 2014 23:10
Well done for getting some of those things sorted. I will assume the graphics are work-in-progress too and are just placeholders.

What do you mean by a "musical spin"?

And what language is this in? DBPro? There are no plugins to help directly, but have you tried the collisions plugins? My game that I am working on (http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=210671&b=8) has some blocks (5-200 per level) and I found that changing small things such as optimising the collision code made huge differences. The sliding collision was a big problem for me performance-wise.

The other performance problem (assuming you are using DBPRO) is that CPU is limited to single core. Mincraft is similar, and will perform no faster on a 64 core CPU compared to a dual core.

I also saw a nice Minecraft mod - or was it part of a mod - that rotated textures differently for each block to make it more varied.

Anyway, good luck with the game. And make it different to Minecraft
tiffer
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Posted: 9th Apr 2014 21:49
Yes the graphics are placehplders. I was trying to get handle on how the map would load and manifest into 3d without overloading the graphics card with millions of faces. Unlike another 'minecraft clone' I seen on here that was limited in size of the map I was aiming for much larger maps. So far 1000x100x1000 blocks is what I'm at. The map isn't actually blocks but it has to be shaped out dynamically using planes. That was the tricky part. The map is also broken into chunks that can be loaded dynamically.

Where I need to improve is a more efficient way of generating and storing the map. But that's a huge obstacle!

Once I've figured out the technical I can start looking at some creative Ideas I have.
tiffer
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Posted: 13th May 2014 00:30 Edited at: 13th May 2014 00:30
building with stone

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tiffer
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Posted: 22nd May 2014 01:57 Edited at: 22nd May 2014 01:58

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wattywatts
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Posted: 22nd May 2014 06:46
Is that halo around the flowers intentional? I remember transparency's were giving you trouble before.
Van B
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Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 22nd May 2014 11:09
Looks like some good progress on this, I think making sandbox games like this is as much fun as playing them

The transparency issue on the flowers... heck, why not just 1-bit alpha transparency?, I think that's mode 4 (set object transparency obj,4) - then your plants etc will have a smooth edge that doesn't even pixelate when you zoom in - it's very good for foliage and get's around a lot of transparency layering problems.

I am the one who knocks...
Chris Tate
DBPro Master
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Posted: 22nd May 2014 17:23
I am not sure the mip-mapping mode you are using is good for this type of art. It reduces the scale of the textures applied to distant geometry, but with pixel art this will make things look very blurry very quickly, spoiling the look of the scene.

You can either enforce anisotropic based filtering or load the images without mip-mapping by using mode 1.

tiffer
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Posted: 23rd May 2014 16:17
Thanks for the technical tips folks.

I've been struggling a bit with 3d appearance stuff if I'm honest so any help in that area is much as appreciated. I've just managed to fix a camera clipping problem I was having by completely changing whole scale.
tiffer
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Posted: 23rd May 2014 16:47
Managed to fix the the graphical glitch. I've got lots work planned for over te weekend.

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tiffer
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Posted: 23rd May 2014 16:48
tiffer
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Posted: 24th May 2014 18:34 Edited at: 24th May 2014 18:36
Doing lots of work today to smooth the map data management routines to try and give a more free exploration experience.

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tiffer
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Posted: 25th May 2014 02:04 Edited at: 25th May 2014 02:05
so reading and writing to file has become a bit of a problem unfortunately. I'm not sure if there are any plugins that can speed it up?

The write byte to file is is causing a causing a considerable pause in the gameplay.
tiffer
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Posted: 25th May 2014 02:49 Edited at: 25th May 2014 17:04
A valuable lesson has been learned today. Some tests have proven I can save an array of 15x100x15 (203 kb of data) in with a fraction of the delay caused by writing a byte to an existing file... This is likely going to change the entire game.

Edit: The good news is that the troubles I suffered last night have forced me to take a second look at the file structure and in doing so have brought about a Eureka moment.
tiffer
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Posted: 25th May 2014 22:50 Edited at: 25th May 2014 22:51
This is me down a deep hole with the sun passing over

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tiffer
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Posted: 26th May 2014 17:40
Bug fixed: Intermittent Map Failure
tiffer
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Posted: 27th May 2014 00:38 Edited at: 27th May 2014 00:38
The beginnings of seed based vector mapping

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Burning Feet Man
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Posted: 27th May 2014 13:08
Nicely done! Could you post a little about the structure of your code?

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tiffer
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Posted: 30th May 2014 01:35 Edited at: 30th May 2014 01:36
I will do in due course. There's alot of intertwining working parts though.

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tiffer
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Posted: 30th May 2014 13:51 Edited at: 30th May 2014 13:51
I'm working on the sky now.

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tiffer
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Posted: 8th Jun 2014 20:48 Edited at: 8th Jun 2014 20:49
As part of the seed map system this will be an automatically generated for the players spawnpoint. It contains 2 cabins and a little wooden shelter for the shopkeeper.

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