Gigas Engine 0.7.5

[Spartan III]

"Well, DOOM for the GP32 can play the MIDI music, and that's just a 300 or so kilobyte FXE."

the music isn't stored in the fxe, the music is ion the doom .WAD

​

I never mentioned that. I said that there seems to be something in the FXE that plays the midi music.

On another note, Pirotic, you should include MOD music support too!

 

[toxibunny]

midi support is loudly mentioned by gamepark, but the fact is that it's simply part of the SDK, and not supported hardware-wise...

if the GP32 had some sort of basic MIDI chip sorta thing, then I'd be the first to suggest an idea.

but the GP32 has no such chip

.MID is a very efficient file format *for storage* but it depends on what sort of playback the target platform has.

SNES midi-type-files kick ass, because the SNES had a kick-ass sound-chip. same with C64... it's own format (SID) tunes sounded amazing ---because they both had a unique sound chip---

the GP32's strength is that it has a powerful CPU at the expense of special chips... proper .MID file support would take up too much memory, and just as much processor time... better off just have .MOD file support, which is better-known, more flexible, and uses only as much (or less) as GP32 midi...

it's a good idea, spartan. and it'd be a blessing for us MIDI composers, but the GP32's hardware just means it's better to try another format...


... I think

conclusion... if GP32 had a proper sound chip, you'd be right... but seeing as it doesn't... :S

 

[Spartan III]

Yes, but, at the end of the day. GPDoom could play the .MUS files (which are exactly the same as .MID, really) by "synthesising" it.

Gigas Engine could do the same...

 

[Pirotic]

im thinking about attaching the royal british orchestra to the back of my GP32, 200 realistic instruments with no extra CPU work.

nobody go nicking my ideas now

 

[toxibunny]

some sort of FM softsynth would go nicely in the SDK (and in gigas) though... spartan's right...

DAMN YOU GAMEPARK AND YOUR NON-CHIPPERY! GRAAARGH!!!

edit: you'll still get more flexibility from composing the songs on your computer, and having them as .OGG or .MOD...

it'd increase SMC usage a LOT though... It's a tradeoff, I reckon...

 

[tekt5]

it'd increase SMC usage a LOT though... It's a tradeoff, I reckon...

...if it really became a problem then people could create versions of their games
both with and with out music/sound

 

[wildo2ne]

Any chance for a windows editor?

think games would be created much easier and faster with a mouse and keyboard then a joypad and buttons

B) Wildo2ne

 

[wildo2ne]

Please add support for bigger maps

something in the 300x300 range

B) Wildo2ne

 

[wildo2ne]

any chance of making the graphics layout compatiable with Rm2k?

we could get alot of graphics available very quickly that way and it will make creating games much much faster

B) Wildo2ne

 

[Blah]

Any chance for a windows editor?

think games would be created much easier and faster with a mouse and keyboard then a joypad and buttons

B)  Wildo2ne

​

Pirotic said he'd make one once he's done with the GP32 version of Gigas.
Otherwise he'd have to update it every time he updates Gigas.

Please add support for bigger maps

something in the 300x300 range

B)  Wildo2ne

​

A quick and cheap solution is to split the map into smaller maps, and use teleports.

any chance of making the graphics layout compatiable with Rm2k?

we could get alot of graphics available very quickly that way and it will make creating games much much faster

B)  Wildo2ne

​

It is pretty easy to convert the graphics over. I use The Gimp (free, multiplatform)
with the grid on and set to 16 by 16, snap to grid. You'll want to use different grid
sizes for different thingys, but tiles are 16 by 16.

 

[Pirotic]

Happy Christmas? (what, that was yesterday? - well, excuse the lateness).

I'm happy to announce that having taken a good break, and chilled a bit by working on other projects - but now back working on Gigas Engine, having recently upgrading my webhosting i can now see how many people are downloading Gigas every day, and its 100x more than i ever expected so i feel i owe it to them and myself to get it finished, and make it as good as i possibly can.

The great thing about having a break is, you can come back to it and instantly see what areas need improving, and in the first 10 minutes i managed to fix the cutscene 'show image' bug which i couldn't solve despite hours and hours of searching before, i hope to now plough through the code fixing all the bugs, and swapping some of the engine source code with some of the newer stuff i've written for other projects which is much quicker (hopefully i can clock it upto a solid 60fps for final release, compared to the current 40fps).

As always i'll be posting on here every few days with a list of what i've added, but seeing as the GP32 version is about 70% complete at the moment, i'm well over the half way mark.

Please note, that by complete i mean all the features will be in it - i'll then probably go back and redesign the interface, add improvements and port it over to other formats - so it's a longterm project.

Thanks for your support, keep an eye out for new additions soon - no idea when i'll have a next public beta out.

right, now im off to find that bloody teleport wizard bug people reported.

cya! and happy new-year all


UPDATE: Couldn't find a bug with the Teleport Wizard, all i can guess is that people didnt realise you had to 'select' a hotspot with the cursor before using it, so i've put in some warnings, so if you try to delete/edit when you dont have one selected, it'll just tell you to select one first etc.

 

[Pirotic]

Here is what i've coded since 0.7.1 (for 0.7.5) so far...

+ Fixed 'Show Image' command during cutscenes
+ Hotspot editing has fail safes (checks one is selected)
+ Map Setting 'Special Effect' now cycles properly
+ NPC's now face player when spoken to
+ 'Screen Effects' are no longer drawn twice during cutscenes (was causing the slowdown).
+ 'Special Effects' will now be shown correctly during cutscenes
+ SMC access display more accurate
+ Players death now results in being taken back to title screen (except when in 'play test' mode)

thats only two days work, once i tidy up loose ends i'll be adding in some new features/functions - maybe audio, i'll keep you updated.

 

[TelcoLou]

Hooooray!!!

Thanks for the update man! You rock!

 

[Octavious]

glad to here, ya know, the group project should be gettin around to doing something sometime, Im already working on tile sets, and others are working, and we are all glad to know your still working on this

~Octavious

 

[Splinter]

Hey Pirotic
I was just wondering, theres alot on yuor to do list, what are you planning to impliment in the near future. Is there anything you feel you dont want to takle for a while?

Thanks for your work on the GP32

 

[Pirotic]

well, the most daunting features (other than learning how to code for the GP32) would be the cutscenes and dialog, which are both implemented now - so it should be plain sailing from here on.

im not looking forward to totally re-doing the interface when it reachs version 1.0, because its going to be a hell of a lot of work because of the sheer number of menus and options etc, but it really needs a better layout and design, and also if i can load the text from an external file i can support different languages - so it's gotta be done.

the stuff im currently working on is just tweaking up the existing features, added a new page's worth of options into HOTSPOTS so you can do all sorts with them now with a little imagination (Entity Swapping, only activating if a trigger is a certain value, etc etc).

Then i probably should get the EXP growth chart done, so you can adjust how much EXP you need to level up, and how each level increases your base stats.. and then probably shops/items and equipment.

 

[Splinter]

One thing i was worrying about though, with say equiptment, it would be good to have implimented but wouldnt you need a new charset for each peice of equipment on each char?

 

[Octavious]

no
it would be nice, but no
Final fantasy for examlpe, you can never tell what your wearing till you go in the menu, and its still a good game

~Octavious

 

[Pirotic]

Indeed, unless its a multi-player game i dont really see the need in showing what armour is worn or what weapon is equipped.

weapons may be linked to a certain attack animation, so if you wanted to you have a different attack depending on what weapon is equiped - but the look of your character wont change when you wear armour, i suppose you could make it appear that way using character swapping but its not something which will be supported - it's difficult enough making one set of graphics, let alone 10

 

[Blah]

I have questions:

Will there be Isometric tileset support? I like the diamond type rather than the staggered.

Sound support: Which formats will be supported? MOD,OGG,MP3,WAV...
I'm guessing OGG and MOD, maybe WAV for SFX in situations where CPU usage is high.

How will event commands work? Scripting or GUI for writing them?
I'm hoping all the basic commands will be there eventually, like where the player
chooses their name, class, etc. And all the other normal stuff. Of course, I hope there will be some advanced stuff in there as well.

I'd like to know some of this stuff, because I want to make a prototype game in some other engine, and I'd need to now how powerful Gigas will be so I don't get carried away

I'm off to re-read the posts in here, to see if any of this has already been answered. Sorry if it has.