GP2X Any Developers Interested In A Game Project?

[icurafu]

Here's some further research (I hope this link works):
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:jxWTtT...=3&client=opera

It may be a good idea to follow GBA specs for this project as it will be a great indicator of performance.

Some interesting Specs:
* Tiles on the GBA: 8 pixels by 8 pixels
* GBA Screen resolution: 240x160 (30 tiles x 20 tiles)
* If you were to create a side scrolling game with a level that was 10 screens long and 5 screens tall:
- 2400x800 = 300 tiles x 100 tiles = 30,000 tiles in the level 1 tile = 64 bytes
- 30,000 tiles x 64 bytes = 1920000 bytes = approximately 2 Megs for one level!


So, I'm going to go back to the drawing board with these specs in mind. The good news is that the majority of the doc confirms what i've already suspected. It's nice to have some confirmation of these details, tho.

If anyone has experience with isometric systems I'd love to ask some questions here.

​

Here's some advice I can offer since you are at the beginning, maybe it might be a little helpful.

You have to remember that like onions, these sort of games have layers. On my zelda clone, I used 5 layers. So each tile would be 5 layers x (8 hight x 8 width) x 32 bits of colors = 5120 bits = 1280 bytes.

the memory buffer should have about ((30+2)x(20+2))x2 tiles at once when using double buffering. Thats +2 for the tiles at are written outside the viewing area. Also I think ther is an extra one for diag, but that depends on how you do it. So 1408 tiles.

so 1280 x 1408 is 1802,240 bytes, or less then 2 megs. So you should not restrict the size of your levels because of your fear of the size of the maps.

 

[bigtrouble77]

Here's some advice I can offer since you are at the beginning, maybe it might be a little helpful.

You have to remember that like onions, these sort of games have layers. On my zelda clone, I used 5 layers. So each tile would be 5 layers x (8 hight x 8 width) x 32 bits of colors = 5120 bits = 1280 bytes.

the memory buffer should have about ((30+2)x(20+2))x2 tiles at once when using double buffering. Thats +2 for the tiles at are written outside the viewing area. Also I think ther is an extra one for diag, but that depends on how you do it. So 1408 tiles.

so 1280 x 1408 is 1802,240 bytes, or less then 2 megs. So you should not restrict the size of your levels because of your fear of the size of the maps.

​

Thank you very much for the input. One thing I should have made more clear is that I pulled those specs directly from the link I posted, so the "approximately 2 Megs for one level!" was not my language. It was the author commenting in relation to the GBA. Honestly, in the beginning I figured levels that were around 7mb would be acceptable. I'm not limited to 2-4mb cartriges, fortunately.

I do have a question about the tile layers.... And I may be completey confused here just to warn you... I assume the first layer would be a background layer. The second may contain the characters, the third would contain building structures, etc. Is that a good indicator of how the layering works? Or is it more involved than that?

Finally, does the gp2x require that I palletize all my graphics to a 256 color pallet like the GBA games?

 

[icurafu]

Here's some advice I can offer since you are at the beginning, maybe it might be a little helpful.

You have to remember that like onions, these sort of games have layers. On my zelda clone, I used 5 layers. So each tile would be 5 layers x (8 hight x 8 width) x 32 bits of colors = 5120 bits = 1280 bytes.

the memory buffer should have about ((30+2)x(20+2))x2 tiles at once when using double buffering. Thats +2 for the tiles at are written outside the viewing area. Also I think ther is an extra one for diag, but that depends on how you do it. So 1408 tiles.

so 1280 x 1408 is 1802,240 bytes, or less then 2 megs. So you should not restrict the size of your levels because of your fear of the size of the maps.

​

Thank you very much for the input. One thing I should have made more clear is that I pulled those specs directly from the link I posted, so the "approximately 2 Megs for one level!" was not my language. It was the author commenting in relation to the GBA. Honestly, in the beginning I figured levels that were around 7mb would be acceptable. I'm not limited to 2-4mb cartriges, fortunately.

I do have a question about the tile layers.... And I may be completey confused here just to warn you... I assume the first layer would be a background layer. The second may contain the characters, the third would contain building structures, etc. Is that a good indicator of how the layering works? Or is it more involved than that?

Finally, does the gp2x require that I palletize all my graphics to a 256 color pallet like the GBA games?

​

SDL is much more open then that. You can do a lot of things. Choose the ammount of colors, or the amount of layers.

For my case, I had the unchangables as the first layer. (dirt, walls).

The 2nd layer was the changeables, or things you could use. like doors.

3rd layer was the things controlled by AI, or item that could be picked up and thrown.

4th layer was arches, windows, the top half or a tree, or anything that is drawn over the top of layer 3 objects.

Layer 5 was environmental stuff. Birds, rain, snow or 2D effects like lamps being used in a cave.

 

[bigtrouble77]

SDL is much more open then that. You can do a lot of things. Choose the ammount of colors, or the amount of layers.

For my case, I had the unchangables as the first layer. (dirt, walls).

The 2nd layer was the changeables, or things you could use. like doors.

3rd layer was the things controlled by AI, or item that could be picked up and thrown.

4th layer was arches, windows, the top half or a tree, or anything that is drawn over the top of layer 3 objects.

Layer 5 was environmental stuff. Birds, rain, snow or 2D effects like lamps being used in a cave.

Ah, I think i'll follow your example for the time being, if you don't mind. It sounds perfect for what I would like to accomplish.

Is your game for the GP2X? Any way I can check it out?

 

[icurafu]

My game was a java application that only worked with java1.3.

I don't have copies of the game anymore thanks to being careless and not keeping backups (HDD), and not checking wether my games homepage was still alive.

You can check out the screenshots. I put a link to a thread back abit in this thread.

 

[Dimacus]

Well i have been tinkering with a kind of SDL based tile engine,
and may i suggest that we make our first goal a one/two layer(ed) game that fully works and so on.
And then, if there is still interesst, we make "Adventure GP2X II" with improved grapics and whatever,
just so that this dosn't turn into a Duke nukem forever project.

 

[digitaljez]

If anyone has experience with isometric systems I'd love to ask some questions here.

I messed around with isometric views. I uploaded a little isometric pacman type game for the GP32 to the archives a couple of months ago. Sadly I lost the source (same story as with icurafu) but it is fairly simple. If I can help let me know.

Ghosts on Toast
​

 

[bigtrouble77]

Well i have been tinkering with a kind of SDL based tile engine,
and may i suggest that we make our first goal a one/two layer(ed) game that fully works and so on.
And then, if there is still interesst, we make "Adventure GP2X II" with improved grapics and whatever,
just so that this dosn't turn into a Duke nukem forever project.

I agree that we shouldn't bite off more than we can chew (I've definately been guilty of that in the past...). So, I think the best way is to do things in phases- Start simple and build upon a solid foundation. I just want to see how things progress before imposing any restrictions with the graphical engine.

 

[Radek]

Well i have been tinkering with a kind of SDL based tile engine,
and may i suggest that we make our first goal a one/two layer(ed) game that fully works and so on.
And then, if there is still interesst, we make "Adventure GP2X II" with improved grapics and whatever,
just so that this dosn't turn into a Duke nukem forever project.

I agree that we shouldn't bite off more than we can chew (I've definately been guilty of that in the past...). So, I think the best way is to do things in phases- Start simple and build upon a solid foundation. I just want to see how things progress before imposing any restrictions with the graphical engine.

I'm very impressed by your effort.

Yes - start simple and preferably with tiled based graphics.

I hope to motivate myself soon enough to finish one of my ongoing projects. It should make many dilemmas to dimish.

 

[PokeParadox]

Well i have been tinkering with a kind of SDL based tile engine,
and may i suggest that we make our first goal a one/two layer(ed) game that fully works and so on.
And then, if there is still interesst, we make "Adventure GP2X II" with improved grapics and whatever,
just so that this dosn't turn into a Duke nukem forever project.

Sorry I am not finding enough time to work on this currently. I have lots of coursework projects I need to work on, which obviously have priority. Feel free to get in touch or whatever.

It will not turn into Duke Nukem forever Even if someone rewrites what I have coded already, I'll either continue where I left off or join in with whatever's happening.

Sorry I'm busy >.<

PS didn't realise the board was back up >_>

 

[Dimacus]

I need to figure out how to put stuff on the svn server (also need to remember my password <_< )
well until then, here is my take on some kind of SDL based tile engine:
source and binary included for the game and a very simple map builder.

ftp://gp2x@luminare.no-ip.com:800/Adventu...enture-gp2x.rar
password is gp2x

so, is it worth anything?

/Dimacus

 

[PokeParadox]

Hmm... :unsure: seems somone forgot to give you permissions for the SVN... sorry! Hopefully it will work now...

I'll say again... if you are having trouble with the SVN system please email me and I'll see if I can sort it.

 

[Dimacus]

Yup seems to work now
ok, now the source and binary is on the SVN under source/AdventureGP2X-SDL
Use thatone instead of the ftp.

 

[bigtrouble77]

I thouht I'd just post an update here. I've had to pause my end of the project until early may (haven't stoppped completely, just slow considerably). I'm launching a huge webproject at work on may 1st and am in crunch time to meet that deadline. Once that project goal is met I'll have a significant amount of time freed up for this project.

 

[Dimacus]

So, how advance should this first game be?
i belivet that we should make it rather simple (since this is our first game), and skip combat systems, advance inventory and sutch.

But i really belive that we should decide on the basic story, and story setting. So that we can give any artist's or storywriters to have something to go on.

 

[PokeParadox]

I believe BT does have at least some of the story sorted. (There was a post he made a couple of pages back about the intitial story.)

Btw, I had trouble getting your demo to work (yes I have only just got around to trying it >_> sorry!) Is there anything special I need to do?

 

[Dimacus]

Well i was kind of lazy and used absolut path's (this is changed in the new version that i intend to post today or tomorrow):
every thing except adv.gpe should be located under "/adv/*".
adv.gpe should be located in the root

 

[PokeParadox]

Ah ok, I'll give it another go.

 

[Dimacus]

Seems like gp2xforge is down.
So, the it's my ftp again for the latest version...

I think we really should try to get more people active in this project.
I'll write more later, for now:
latest version adds
an object layer (no interaction yet).
all files needed should be in a folder called data.

I need help with the bug that causes the objects to "jump" a little bit when your moving around.


Binary:
ftp://gp2x@luminare.no-ip.com:800/ftp/bin-adv-gp2x.rar
source:
ftp://gp2x@luminare.no-ip.com:800/ftp/src-adv-gp2x.rar

Password is 'gp2x'

 

[deadlychicken22]

Could someone please sum up this project for me? Including who is working on what, what the goals are, what the deadlines are, what the needed positions are, etc. . . I was actually the first to post a reply to this thread when it started, but I forgot about it, and recently found it again from a link from the other community game thread. I'm still interested in helping.

Thanks,
-ben