Release Pandora Microbes!

[_wb_]

The speech is fun indeed, and it's quite nice that the Pandora has more than enough power to generate the speech on the fly! No prerecorded messages at all - so changing the story is just editing a text file; changing or adding levels and units is just a matter of editing a text file, etc.


It would be great if you could contribute to the game - let's discuss further on IRC

 

[Askarus]

Love the speech

Right, me too.


This update is really a big improvement.


Also this high graphic effects are good (if my LCD cable wouldn't be broken ).


My Path 1 has to be reworked. No bloodstream on enemy's path but bloodstream where you can build on.

 

[_wb_]

Notaz just improved the speed of blitting quite a lot (AGAIN!) in his tweaked SDL by improving the cpu cache behavior of his NEON code; it's not in the firmware yet, but I'll include it in the next Microbes release. It makes the main menu screen on full graphics detail at 500MHz go from ~24 fps to ~44 fps (actually ~48fps now because I also tweaked my own code a bit), so since the game has frameskipping and fps limiting, it goes from dropping ~7 frames per second and using nearly 100% cpu to not dropping any frames and using only ~63% cpu. Using less cpu never hurts, it won't make a huge difference to battery life because the LCD and sound probably eat most of the power anyway, but it's nice. It also means there's room to add extra effects, if I can find the time and inspiration to code them. I want to make sure that the game works perfectly on a 600MHz Pandora.


In the upcoming 0.7 version there will be some minor improvements besides the above performance improvements. The code now supports having multiple spots to defend instead of just one (there are no levels yet that use this feature though - Gadgetoid, do you feel like making some levels?). There is a funny little earthquake effect (wobbly/shaky screen) when you lose lives or units get destroyed - the effect gets stronger if you lose more expensive units and as the number of lives left gets closer to zero. And there's a visual indication of where the next microbe will spawn.


That's it for the feature sneak preview


Another thing: does anyone want to (and/or know how to) make a gameplay video? Screenshots don't really work that well for this game, you have to see it in motion (and with sound). If you're interested, send me a PM and I'll send you a snapshot PND of my working version, so you have the most recent stuff to work with.

 

[sswam]

hey _wb_, can you share any source for microbes? I'd like to have a look to help me learn SDL better.


I want to work on a game, but my idea is not be similar to microbes.


Or, can you suggest another good open-source SDL game using drawing like yours.

 

[_wb_]

The source is right in the PND

 

[gadgetoid]

Currently starting to tinker with the level files and see if I can make anything work.


Any chance you could bung over the 0.7 pnd?


Do files placed in appdata/microbes/levels/X get loaded into the game?

 

[_wb_]

Haven't tried it, but putting stuff in appdata should work - you should modify your savefile to allow you to play those extra levels, unless you play (and win) the last level again. Or you could probably override existing levels by giving them the same name in the appdata dir.


I'll see if I have time tomorrow to throw together a 0.7 pnd for you, otherwise it will be Monday. Anyway it's not needed to design levels unless you need to playtest the multiple defend spots.

 

[gadgetoid]

Looks like the level pack names are hard-coded:

const char lpname[4][10] = {"Tutorial", "Microbes", "Wesnoth", "Sci-fi"};

Might want to fix that so we can independently distribute level packs.

 

[_wb_]

Yes, the hardcoded level packs should be replaced at some point. Shouldn't be too hard.


I made a quick video by saving each frame in /tmp, which is in RAM so it's reasonably fast to do that. Thanks to DREDD for the suggestion. Of course this is without sound, and it is very short because after about 200 frames you run out of RAM.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zOmjw3Agpj8?feature=oembed

Someone with a TV out cable and a way to capture the video and audio could make a better and longer video. Anyone?

 

[Askarus]

You'll aslo get some maps from me when I have time to make some. I'm verry busy with repairing Pandoras next week and then I'm in hollyday for the following week.

 

[_wb_]

Another video, this time in full gfx detail. I saved the frames to SD card (uncompressed 4 bytes per pixel), had only 4 GB free space so the movie abruptly ends when I ran out of space:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xSQ2df5mv2c?feature=oembed

(still uploading, check in 15 mins or so)

 

[gadgetoid]

Awesome videos! Consider my mind blown. How did you record them? Saving the frames directly from your game?

 

[sswam]

Cool, does saving the images slow it down much? I guess writing to the SD would slow it down, but maybe not to RAM.


How about full gfx does it still slow the game down a lot?

 

[_wb_]

Full gfx _does_ slow down the game a lot, but now (thanks to notaz) the slowdown is from ~90 fps to ~45 fps, so since frames are limited to 30 fps, there is no noticeable slowdown anymore.


Saving the frames of course causes a huge slowdown; when saving to SD and in full gfx it becomes a slideshow at 5 fps or so (so that last video I recorded by trying to play in slow motion); when saving to RAM and with normal gfx (as in the first video) it is actually still more or less playable, I got something like 20 fps.

 

[milkshake]

when will we get the updated released with newer notaz sdl?


love this game btw.

 

[_wb_]

Version 0.7 is on the repo!


New stuff:

• wobbly earthquake effect when you lose lives or units
  
• fadeout at game over / level win
  
• general performance improvements, mostly thanks to notaz! The game should now run smoothly at full gfx detail. Normal detail is still the default though, so you probably want to change this
  
• next enemy spawn point is now indicated
  
• rounded tile blitting, makes the levels look less blocky
  
• added some code support for new features (no levels yet that use these features though): multiple defend spots, walls that block attacks
  

Have fun!

 

[fusion_power]

It indeed looks much better with the rounded edges, fits great in the organic setting. I once suggested exactly this and it is great to see that it works ingame. ^^


Now, only some of the square elements could need some more organic look, then the setting semms to be perfect matched.

 

[gadgetoid]

• added some code support for new features (no levels yet that use these features though): multiple defend spots, walls that block attacks
  

Is there any documentation on the new wall types and the characters assigned to them? Might be fun to add them into my levels.


Did you fix the hard-coded level list? I'd like to be able to distribute my levels as a zip for beta testing, I guess they're going to have to over-write an existing set at the moment?

 

[_wb_]

The new wall types: they still have to be added to techtree.dat and tiles have to be designed for them. For testing I added "=" as a wall that blocks tower attacks but not microbe attacks, it uses a black tile from the helpscreen. You can add other kinds of walls by adding them to data/techtree.dat (don't forget to increment the counter on the first line of that file) and by putting appropriate tiles in the appropriate position in data/tiles.png.


The level pack list is still hard-coded, I will change that at some point. Sets 2 and 3 are essentially not used (they are just small proof-of-concepts, not designed for playing), so you can override those. At this point I first want to get more levels in the "main" level pack and improve the existing levels in terms of balance, storyline, etc. Currently most of the levels were made just to test the code; now the code is starting to get mature, it's time to finetune things.

 

[_wb_]

It indeed looks much better with the rounded edges, fits great in the organic setting. I once suggested exactly this and it is great to see that it works ingame. ^^


Now, only some of the square elements could need some more organic look, then the setting seems to be perfect matched.

You mean the square bacteria? I can try to make some nicer graphics for them; however I don't want to switch to (animated) sprites, I want to keep the microbes "hand-drawn" (in code), because it makes it much easier to shrink them as they lose hp (which I like, it's nicer than hp bars) and do those color changing things.