Beta Bubbman 2

[Tempel]

I didn't edit the level files since they don't include any transparency (except level 3, which has a transparent row along the top for some reason; still, I didn't change it). I did realize that, in the level files, water is represented by magic pink (255, 0, 255), which is the colour used for colourkeying in other images. I could imagine this causing problems, except that it doesn't cause problems on my computer, and water seems to appear just fine on Pandoras. The Surface.get_at method, used to parse level files, probably returns the colour of the surface, even if that colour is specified as the colourkey.

Speaking of Surface.get_at, I noticed that it was changed as of Pygame 1.9.0. At home, I'm running Python 2.7 and Pygame 1.9.1; I believe the Pandora is running Python 2.6, but I'm not sure what version of Pygame. I see that version 1.9.1 is in the Pandora openembedded source tree, but I don't know if that's made it into the current firmware, or is waiting for a future hotfix. Could someone please run "sudo opkg list_installed python-pygame" in a terminal and tell me what version it's at? That could relate to the source of the problems. Out of curiosity, on what version did you develop this, pymike?

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi Tempel

Thanks Magic Sam. What do you mean by "Enemies bump on the background"? As for water, if you stand on it you're supposed to sink (and you die if you touch the bottom of the screen), but you can jump off freely. I think it's a valid strategy, not game-breaking.

But no fish? Change in level architecture? I've never seen that here! What's going on?!

I didn't know about the water trick, but the bodies of water are larger in this version.
The levels are very different, I can't complete the first one because at the end one has to do a wall jump, but there's only one wall, nothing to bounce against...
And I think you're right, I'm sure it has something to do with your dev environment and the Pandora using different python/pygame versions.
Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Tempel]

With no other clues forthcoming, I decided to implement pymike's suggestion. Take a look at version 1.1.1 and see if that changes anything.

 

[pymike]

I think I developed BM2 a couple years ago. I kind of think I was using Python 2.5 and PyGame 1.8, but I'm not really sure about that. Like I said, it's been awhile.

I don't think the updated get_at function is the problem, or the glitches probably would've popped up before you made any changes. I'm pretty darn sure the colorkeys are the issue since none of these problems were reported before the change.

 

[Tempel]

Well, if get_at was inherently a problem, then I would have seen it on my computer even before porting. But I feel like get_at might be related to the fact that the Pandora has problems while my computer does not. Maybe I should make a virtualenv or something to test against 1.8.1. Or I'll just wait for my Pandora.

 

[Magic Sam]

@ Tempel: no changes with the last version, sorry
Thanks for all your efforts !
Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Tempel]

Bah! Okay, last try. If I can't get level loading to work again, I may just have to revert to version 1.0.3.1 and wait until later to optimize it properly.

EDIT: I tried installing Pygame 1.8.1 in place of 1.9.1, and yet the game continued to run perfectly on my computer. If Pygame is not the problem, then it's either Python 2.6 vs. 2.7, or something lower-level, like SDL. I hope it's the Python version, because anything lower is beyond my knowledge level.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

Good news, the levels are back to normal again

So is the speed, which means the game is too slow, even @ 800MHz...

Just an idea, did you give Notaz's improved SDL a go ?

Maybe we also need a NEON optimized build of Python / Pygame, we could also use GLES with Python for 3D acceleration...

Bye and thanks, Magic Sam

 

[Tempel]

Well! I continue to be baffled, but I'm glad it works again. At least this means we can get back to trying to optimize it. Just don't expect anything from me soon, I've got papers to write.