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Program Announcements / 3D Mahjong

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AsylumHunter
21
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 15th Aug 2003 22:23
3d Mahjong has now gone Live. You can download the trial and full versions at [href]www.3dmahjong.com[/href]



AsylumHunter
still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
Codger
21
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Joined: 23rd Nov 2002
Location:
Posted: 15th Aug 2003 23:03 Edited at: 16th Aug 2003 03:29
Great Game!! was it creted in Dark Basic of DBP?

There does appear to be a few bugs though as when I asked for a hint it highlighted a 3 & 2 and then allowed me to remove them as a pair. (are thier rules I don't know about?)

Also the amount of time the message box came up was some what excessive

If it is made in DB are the tiles simply textures models ? It runs very smoothly for so many object.

System
PIII 650 MZ H.P. Pavillion
394 Mem GeForce 4 400MX
AsylumHunter
21
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Location: United States
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 00:46
Thanks,

Yes, it was made in DB Pro

The Tiles you are refering to was not a bug. They are either the "flower" or "season" tiles and you can pair any of each set with each other (this is a special case in mahjong). There is a full helpfile you can read in the help menu of the game that explains how all the tiles are paired and the other features of the game.

The Nag screen is because I have a full commercial release up for sale, but it doesn't stop you from playing the game or losing your bonus. The screen comes up every 90 seconds.

Thanks again

AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
MrTAToad
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 01:17
Very impressive - do you use RobK blue plug-in ?


Logo design by Indi
Its better than a poke in the eye...
AsylumHunter
21
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 01:50
Thanks MrToad,

I used his earlier menu plugin for some of the menu stuff but also found that most of the window calls and menu calls can be accessed directly through native Windows dll's and used this also. The whole program is run through a functionmapper with an extensive list of constants and UDT's.

I also bypassed many of dark basic's functions this way, which also gave me better control over the dialogs, especially when handling multiple windows such as the help file and score tables Once you have the handle to each window, almost anything is possible.

I may have used some of your commands in there somewhere also, and I'll sift through the code to see what I used and give you some feedback. I know I have a fair few of your user-plugins installed, but I don't think I actually used any of your calls, apart from at one point I used your email dll for the "Send to a friend" feature, but resisted in favor of doing an html style call and just passed in all the parameters as one long string for formating the content. It seems to work fairly well but lacks the attachment feature which in your plugin was a bonus, but it seemed to fail after a screen res change (Which I was doing a lot of at the time) so I dropped it, which was a pity because now that I come to think of it, It would work now - Oh well!

Thanks


- Asylum Hunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
Codger
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Joined: 23rd Nov 2002
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Posted: 16th Aug 2003 03:33 Edited at: 16th Aug 2003 03:34
AsylumHunter

I modified my post ( the 2nd in the thread )so the image would show. Are you telling me the 3 & 1 are a pair? I have played Mahjong before and the flowers and seasons were pretty obvious.

Are they are more authentic version? You may consider modifying image (add flowers or names) for the masses

System
PIII 650 MZ H.P. Pavillion
394 Mem GeForce 4 400MX
AsylumHunter
21
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 04:01
Read the help when playing the game - That IS a legal pair. This special pair is explained in the helpfile. it is not a bug!

The flowers and seasons can be a little confusing, I agree, but that is the whole point of the game! This is why I also put in the kids tileset

The textures are scans of the actual tiles from my 15 year old Mahjong Tileset which my best friend bought me as a gift when I was his Best Man at his wedding. The set was purchased in China.

Thanks for the screenshot tho, it helped clarify it all.


AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
indi
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 06:34
Hi mate, it looks freakin awesome!, I play one called GameOfWinds on my mac. Its a mahjong clone but this looks brilliant!.

AsylumHunter
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Location: United States
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 07:06
Thanks Indi,

Glad you like it. I took a close look at all the other PC mahjong games, both 2D and 3D and most played really well. Not having a Mac, I can't compare, but the game seems to hold up with the best of them IMHO

I wanted to add something to the traditional gameplay, hence the additional eleveated layouts, and to create a version of this hugely popular game that looked different. I think I managed to do what I set out to achieve and although this isn't a huge game (e.g. rpg etc), it was another step forward towards creating a project from start to finish, rather than the dozen or so unfinished projects I have scattered all over my hard drive. Anyway, I've always been a big fan of the game and it was still quite a challenge, but I'm glad I can get on with another project - The next one should be a blast .

AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
indi
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 11:12
its not a true 3d mahjong but it has an editor to make your own which keeps its like for me and has a few tile plates.

heres a webby http://members.aol.com/cordsmeier/

MrTAToad
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 14:52
If you have used some of my plug-ins - let me know how well they worked - it'll be the first real use for them.


Logo design by Indi
Its better than a poke in the eye...
lcfcfan
21
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Joined: 19th Feb 2003
Location: North East, UK
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 15:43
Cool game i was playing it earlier for ages it's a real brain teaser, quality stuff can't wait to see what else you can do as it's nice to see what the pros can do with DBP!

AsylumHunter
21
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 22:27
Hey Mr TaToad,

I think your plugins are brilliant, by far the best collection available and I am already using many of them in other Work_In_Progress projects so will see much more use out of them. Keep up the brilliant work, this makes the language that much more special - Thanks.

As for 3D Mahjong the only function I ended up using was getDirectXVersion(). This proved very useful in the system setup and compatibility launcher.

IcfcFan - I'm glad you like it. You can also download an earlier game of mine if you like - VIRTUAL INSANITY at http://www.farfromearthcorp.com. I'll be changing the website over soon, but this link will still be active for another 2 weeks.

- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
Codger
21
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Joined: 23rd Nov 2002
Location:
Posted: 16th Aug 2003 23:53
Really enjoying the Game 2 Comments

I had 2 tiles left one on top of the other after shuffleing 4 times they were still on top of each other and I ran out of shuffles. Is this a technical issue or game rules?

Could you add optional shadows to increase the perspective ? I like to play in a near 2D mode and it is a little hard to see which tiles are playable

System
PIII 650 MZ H.P. Pavillion
394 Mem GeForce 4 400MX
AsylumHunter
21
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 17th Aug 2003 00:14
Hey Codger,

Glad you are enjoying the game. And your comments are valid

Sorry, there is no way to get around the 2 tile stack problem, that is inherent with the design - It's intentional . You have to be aware of this as part of the game mechanic or you'll end up at the end of the layout with no chance of winning. As you are clearing the layout, be ware that you may need to shuffle ahead of time to avoid getting "stuck", thats why you have shuffles that can be used at any time. Saving up your shuffles on each level can really open up the game, especially for later levels. Knowing this makes for a far better game. Over time, you'll discover you can guess what is under blocked tiles and eventually work out huge chunks of removable tiles in advance. Thats mahjong Solitaire for you . Thats why I love it.

I hope that helps.

As for the shadows, well it really has to be ray cast to work properly, especially since many of the layouts have elevated tiles - It is possible, but would require a lot of time and thought to make it fast enough to be playable on low spec machines and have the shadows still fall correctly (even simple fake poly shadows would need to cast down to the floor or onto other tiles). The amount of objects already is a little CPU consuming, but with further optimizations it can be achieved I think. I did put a lighting effect to each layer to help eleviate this somewhat - Its not perfect, but it does help.

If the game is received well then I will spend the time and add some more features, shadows being a top priority, so thanks for the comments

- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
MrTAToad
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th Aug 2003 02:35
Noticed the hint option sometimes finds non-matching tiles.


Logo design by Indi
Its better than a poke in the eye...
AsylumHunter
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 17th Aug 2003 04:01
That surprises me. I don't think it ever does (or possibly can). If you could send me a screenshot, that would be great, but the game has been thoroughly tested for over 1 month using 5 beta testers and this has never come up.

I think that what you might experience is that the higher tiles are illuminated more and that can somtimes make the hint a little harder to see. Also, remember "Season" and "Flower" tiles are special cases and can be mixed up a little more.

- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
MrTAToad
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 17th Aug 2003 14:12 Edited at: 17th Aug 2003 15:22
Its okay - they're the special tiles...


Logo design by Indi
Its better than a poke in the eye...
AsylumHunter
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Location: United States
Posted: 19th Aug 2003 08:40
Glad to hear that Mr Tatoad. I was begining to worry!!!

I'm *almost* certain there are no errors in the hint system, but you just never know. Thanks for confirming that it was just special tile pairings.

- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
Red general
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Joined: 19th Nov 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 19th Aug 2003 13:48
You said you use window DLLs to get what you required. What are they and how do you call them. Also are there one on stuff like edit boxes etc. If so how do you use them.


RED GENERAL

My computer melts regulary - perhaps it likes being fondue
MrTAToad
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 19th Aug 2003 19:01
Yes, it was my Mums fault...


Logo design by Indi
Its better than a poke in the eye...
AsylumHunter
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Location: United States
Posted: 20th Aug 2003 12:20
Hey RedGeneral,

I used the following windows dll's

load dll "Shell32.dll" ,_DLL_SHELL32
load dll "User32.dll" ,_DLL_USER32
load dll "Gdi32.dll" ,_DLL_GDI32
load dll "Kernel32.dll" ,_DLL_KERNEL32

Shell32:
launching webbrowser links
CALL DLL _DLL_SHELL32,"ShellExecuteA",0,"Open",Url$,"","",1

CALL DLL _DLL_SHELL32,"ShellExecuteA",0,"Open","mailto:" + FriendsEmail$ + "?Subject=" + Message$(_MSG_EM4) +"&body=" + BodyText$,"","",1

Used for preparing a form email and then calling the default email client



User_32:
Dialog Boxes (with extended messages and various button configs) - see attached source, I've included the dialog box function

Used for Quit, HiScores, Nag Screen, About, Level results, Shuffle Options and every other dialog in the game

call dll(_DLL_USER32,"GetSystemMetrics",0)
Used for returning the desktop res

call dll _DLL_USER32,"SetForegroundWindow",hWnd
Used to force dialogs to the foreground to prevent them being hidden before they are returned

hWnd = call dll(_DLL_USER32,"FindWindowA",0,Message$(_MSG_EM4) + " - Message - Microsoft Word")
Return the handle of a specific app that is also running.

call dll _DLL_USER32,"SetWindowPos",App_hWnd,Z_Order,0,0,0,0,SWP_NOSIZE + SWP_NOMOVE

Used to set the window position on screen (I used it to auto centre the game regardless of game res or desktop res)


GDI32:
call dll(_DLL_GDI32, "GetDeviceCaps", hdc, 12)
used for returning the desktop display depth

Kernel32:

LangId = Call Dll(_DLL_KERNEL32,"GetUserDefaultLangID")

Used to return the language ID that the user has set in windows. I use a lookup table with all the LCID codes to determine which language file to launch. The game is fully localized with all game text refering to language files(including the helpfile) It defaults to English if it can't find the other language files. All of these messages ahave hooks in the game since I intend to release spanish and french version as soon as I can.

I have a stack of other functions and calls for doing all sorts of other stuff - Too much to list here, and much of this is for use in the shell which is a stand alone app for pluging my games in to so i don't have to do all this every time i make a new game. hoepfully it will make for a more rapid development.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree most evenings (hicup!)
OSX Using Happy Dude
20
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Location: At home
Posted: 21st Aug 2003 15:51
No idea if you read the last post (before it got lost), but you might find it worth looking at my URLDownload system for upgrading programs.

Ermes
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Location: ITALIA
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 16:09
it isn't free...

Free Download for a Free World
OSX Using Happy Dude
20
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Joined: 21st Aug 2003
Location: At home
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 18:20
What isn't ? My URLDownload ? Yes that is...


Ermes
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Location: ITALIA
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 18:27
no no... the game of the topic.

Free Download for a Free World
Preston C
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Location: Penn State University Park
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 19:08
I dont think it should be free. From the looks of the screenshots, it seems to be of high quality, and high quality products shouldnt be free.



Hell Begins September 2nd at 7:30 AM. Yep, schools starting soon.
Ermes
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Location: ITALIA
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 19:49 Edited at: 25th Aug 2003 19:58
great answer....

i don't know if i can explain:

Where this game has a large piece of market? Here, in this forum, the visitors of this site.So this game will gain $$ from us.
This is a community, our community, it is not the wallet of someone.
Maybe it's better to share our creation.
Publish your game if you like of if you want to do it, but don't try to make $$ with us.Let your game be avaiable in the game stores sites, but... in those sites, the game will be not published as good as in dbpro site.

do you have understand???

Free Download for a Free World
lcfcfan
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Joined: 19th Feb 2003
Location: North East, UK
Posted: 25th Aug 2003 21:40
I don't blame him for selling it like NWC said it's good quality and why not use the forums to get exposure i would!

AsylumHunter
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Joined: 3rd Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 26th Aug 2003 09:26
Hi,

My employer has the same problem. They always want more work out of me for free

I've been making games in DB since classic V1.02 and spent huge amounts of money and time making my games - some of which are:

3D Solitaire (free$ with over 135,000 download - 65,000 on CNET alone, linked direct to my website)

Virtual Insanity - 45,000 downloads, $12 for the full version - Sales (hmmm, well, lets just say I'm not buying a new Video Card)

...and now 3D Mahjong.

If I did this for the money, I'd have given up a long time ago, but every little bit helps pay for some webspace and keep me going - Hence the full price charge. It's not uncommon to charge for software - if you like it, buy it I guess, but free to try.

Anyway, If your webhost allows 170,000 * 10Mb downloads for free then I want to know who they are

How else can I pay for my coke habit(cola of course)


- AsylumHunter

still falling out of my binary tree (hicup!)

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