Pandora Pandora Panic


Busy is right... my brain is mush atm... just too many shifts and too tired when I'm not at work right now.

I will working on the SimpleJoy rewriting as soon as I do have time/energy/pizazz.
We still need to try and get this project compiled for the Pandora itself. (anyone that feels like attempting it, is free to do so. I do believe cpajuste has a script that gets the Pandora SDL libs)

Aside from this I think it may be time to start pulling things together for a first proper release since we are getting closer to estimated dates of note.
 
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[newbie mode]
Well i have installed Debian on a spare pc, installed Code::blocks, PandoraPanic nicely compiles for linux allready (some minor glitches, but those will be fixed).

Now i have downloaded the pandora toolchain by cpasjuste and i don't have a clue what to do to get this thing compiling for pandora :S Since poke is very busy i thought i'd might as well try asking it here.

Can i somehow simply integrate the toolchain in Code blocks and compile straight from there?

I don't need to have a complete explanation, just a clue where to look for clear information would be sufficient. Linux itself is fairly new to me, but toolchain stuff is just a complete blank :S

All help is appreciated!

[/newbie mode]
 
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Finally, some progress on my games! I hope to have an upload for you this weekend.

One curious question: most of my images have alpha backgrounds. That seems to work, generally, except for one. This one is a big, red X (sorry, not convenient to upload it from here: see images/PandoraPanic/bigRedX.png). This image makes a big red "X" framed in the same red. The interior spaces (four of them) are transparent. It always comes up right in Gimp & other image viewers I've tried. Occasionally they come up correct in PandoraPanic -- but usually not. They come up with the red parts transparent and the transparent parts colored (were white; they're blue on the version I made today).

I changed my code to use the "loadImageNoAlpha" and everything seems happy: the non-red background is even transparent! I'm not understanding something, I think.



I would also like to comment on how awesome the toolkit is. Poke, probably I shouldn't credit you alone with the invention of spritesheets. :D But wow! I had two different chores in mind today both of which I thought were going to be difficult and involve a lot of ugly code. Spritesheets made them both trivial. Hooray!

And as a hint for anyone interested, the ImageMagick utility "montage" is quite handy for taking a set of consecutively named files (e.g., pic1.png, pic2.png, pic3.png...) and tacking them together as a spritesheet, all aligned just so. It just takes a single line like so:

CODE

montage pic[0-9].png -tile x1 -geometry 240x128+0+0 -background transparent spritesheet.png



See the manpage to adjust for your needs. But it works fabulously. TheBrainSquid made some very nice icons for me, but they weren't aligned they way I wanted them for my code. I cut them out into individual files and used a few montage commands to put them back together how I wanted. Very nice for the gimp-impaired.

--Todd
 
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'MarkoeZ' said:
[newbie mode]
Well i have installed Debian on a spare pc, installed Code::blocks, PandoraPanic nicely compiles for linux allready (some minor glitches, but those will be fixed).

Now i have downloaded the pandora toolchain by cpasjuste and i don't have a clue what to do to get this thing compiling for pandora :S Since poke is very busy i thought i'd might as well try asking it here.

Can i somehow simply integrate the toolchain in Code blocks and compile straight from there?

I don't need to have a complete explanation, just a clue where to look for clear information would be sufficient. Linux itself is fairly new to me, but toolchain stuff is just a complete blank :S

All help is appreciated!

[/newbie mode]
I'm not sure what is actually included in cpasjuste's script, but you will definitely need the ARM compiler from Codesorcery, obviously the linux versions.
You will have to setup a new compiler in Code::Blocks and then point it to the relevant compiler executables.

Then the Pandora project target will have to be modified to point to this configured compiler and also directed to any Pandora SDL libs ;)

Yes I've been stupidly busy and got some wonga to show for it... but anyways now I have two weeks vacation, which is bad timing in relation to this project, since I may or may not have access to the net.
Long story short, MarkoeZ is kinda "project lead" right now.

'todd' said:
One curious question: most of my images have alpha backgrounds. That seems to work, generally, except for one. This one is a big, red X (sorry, not convenient to upload it from here: see images/PandoraPanic/bigRedX.png). This image makes a big red "X" framed in the same red. The interior spaces (four of them) are transparent. It always comes up right in Gimp & other image viewers I've tried. Occasionally they come up correct in PandoraPanic -- but usually not. They come up with the red parts transparent and the transparent parts colored (were white; they're blue on the version I made today).

I changed my code to use the "loadImageNoAlpha" and everything seems happy: the non-red background is even transparent! I'm not understanding something, I think.
I would also like to comment on how awesome the toolkit is. Poke, probably I shouldn't credit you alone with the invention of spritesheets. :D But wow! I had two different chores in mind today both of which I thought were going to be difficult and involve a lot of ugly code. Spritesheets made them both trivial. Hooray!

And as a hint for anyone interested, the ImageMagick utility "montage" is quite handy for taking a set of consecutively named files (e.g., pic1.png, pic2.png, pic3.png...) and tacking them together as a spritesheet, all aligned just so. It just takes a single line like so:

CODE

montage pic[0-9].png -tile x1 -geometry 240x128+0+0 -background transparent spritesheet.png



See the manpage to adjust for your needs. But it works fabulously. TheBrainSquid made some very nice icons for me, but they weren't aligned they way I wanted them for my code. I cut them out into individual files and used a few montage commands to put them back together how I wanted. Very nice for the gimp-impaired.

--Todd

OK try not to use Alpha unless you really need it. In SDL it seems you have to use software surfaces in order to use alpha channel images. Try to use colour keyed sprites since they are handled much more efficiently.
Then you can just set the transparent colour (if it has been incorrectly detected)
CODE

Sprite.setTransparentColour(Vector2di pixel);
Sprite.setTransparentColour(Colour colour);


You may also have to force Software sprites
CODE

Sprite.setUseHardware(true); // hardware sprites (no alpha support but fast)
Sprite.setUseHardware(false); // soft sprites (alpha but can be sLOWWW)



Thanks for the pat on the back. I just read a lot of tutorials, combined the good bits and also what I learned at uni... It certainly means a lot though to find that my code is usable to others.

Thanks for the tips for spritesheets, I must say that any sprite sheets I've made have been manually aligned...
 
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Well i managed to get everything installed on my new debian box, codeblocks and the cross compiler seem to be working, not sure about the output of it though. I also posted this in the beta test section for more general dev attention. Anyway, here is the first testrelease of PandoraPanic! for Pandora


CODE
http://www.pirate-games.co.uk/markoez/pandorapanictestbuild.tar.gz



Please, if anyone with a dev unit has time to test it, that would be much appreciated.


QUOTE
Yes I've been stupidly busy and got some wonga to show for it... but anyways now I have two weeks vacation, which is bad timing in relation to this project, since I may or may not have access to the net.
Long story short, MarkoeZ is kinda "project lead" right now.


Thanks for the confidence! i will try and keep things going forward while you are away.
 
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And while i'm at it, a playable Windows build. keys used are enter for start, z,x,a,s (z,x most) for controls and the arrow keys. L and R are Q and W

Only the fully playable games are included, also some graphics are beta versions.

CODE
http://pirate-games.co.uk/markoez/PandoraPanic_Windows_testbuild.zip


SDL libs may need to be included, those can be found at the link below. just drop the in the same folder.

CODE
http://projectinfinity.org.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php/homebrew:engines:penjin3d:downloads:dll.7z?id=homebrew%3Agames%3Apandorapanic&cache=cache


Please post any bugs or issues here :)

Cheers!
 
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That was bizarre :D, I liked it.

Some stuff I'd like to mention, you can package the DLL files along in the same folder as your .exe, you don't need to do anything else and it will run.

Also, you're not deleting all of your dynamic memory when the program finishes, it's obvious from the crash when you quit.
 
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'Butterman' said:
That was bizarre :D, I liked it.

Some stuff I'd like to mention, you can package the DLL files along in the same folder as your .exe, you don't need to do anything else and it will run.

Also, you're not deleting all of your dynamic memory when the program finishes, it's obvious from the crash when you quit.
PokeParadox is the codewizard here, im more into the minigames and learning the rest as i go. So thanks for the dll tip! i'll update the download and instructions asap.

I'd have to look into the memory thing, i think i know how to fix it, it's mostly in the minigames. If not, poke will have it done very fast when he comes back.

But thanks for the positive feedback!


p.s. More bizarre stuff will be added ;)
 
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I"m sorry to have to inform you that you've got a lot more to be worrying about. After you explained the memory problems were mostly in the minigames, it got me thinking that the root cause was something a lot worse, memory leaks.

So I started up Task Manager while running PandoraPanic and sure enough, after ending a minigame, the RAM usage of PandoraPanic neither stayed still, or went down. It went up by about 5mb every time. Which says to me, that you're not deleting the dynamic data in each mini game as it's finished. This is a real problem.

The step to solve it, would be to have a function that each Minigame specifically has, like Finish(), that's run when it finishes, so it can delete all of the data it's created.

Don't let these memory leaks get out of hand, they're a real problem!

Also, are you guys just drawing with SDL, why don't use just draw textured quads with OpenGL? You will be able to boost the total number of stuff you can draw at once by a power of ten! I'm actually half way through a tutorial that explains how to accomplish this on the Pandora, it's here:

CODE

http://www.pandorawiki.org/OpenGL_ES_1.1_Tutorial



OpenGL would be a very good edition to your framework!
 
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How long are you going to be accepting games? I forgot about not only PandoraPanic but learning C++... will you still be updating it after pandoras finished?
 
'Butterman' said:
The step to solve it, would be to have a function that each Minigame specifically has, like Finish(), that's run when it finishes, so it can delete all of the data it's created.
Thanks for the input! Most of the minigames allready have the function, just not used yet. Should not be hard to implement.

@PoisonedV: We will keep updating, so even if it's not there for the first release, it will be added afterwards. Ofcourse we will try and keep the official release as complete as possible but it's still an ongoing effort :)
 
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Well. I don't think I have any useful feedback yet, but I've got a whole lot of love to give. :D Every minigame made me laugh, and it's all tied together beautifully. Really great work guys. I'm all excited here.
 
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'Gruso' said:
Well. I don't think I have any useful feedback yet, but I've got a whole lot of love to give. :D Every minigame made me laugh, and it's all tied together beautifully. Really great work guys. I'm all excited here.
Ahh... I think the best expression of love is a contribution. Thanks to Gruso, both my games now have fabulous soundtracks. Thanks to TheBrainSquid, I have some snazzy colorful buttons for PanicAttack. And thanks to Chip (thanks, Chip!) I have some awesomely distracting background material for PanicAttack as well!

Current (dare I say, with much hope, final?!?) versions of BadVista and PanicAttack are ready. I can't wait to play them on the console!

--Todd
 
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Current (dare I say, with much hope, final?!?) versions of BadVista and PanicAttack are ready. I can't wait to play them on the console!

--Todd



Whahahaha, that backgroundsound (music? : ) of Panic attack is hilariously irritating :lol: looking much nicer as well, Thumbs up to you and Gruso!!

Updated the games in the SVN


Edit: i just read what's actually on the site, i fell off my chair :D
 
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I apologize in advance for the off-topicness but I need to share this with you all:
CODE
http://www.retrojunk.com/img/art-images/gotpanic_large44.jpg

Check out this Sega CD Panic advertisement and keep up the good work.

(taken from the excellent retro game ad list at)
CODE
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/4436/
 
Hey everyone,

Im one of the gentoo.pandora.devs and I would like to thank a many of you for your support of the Gentoo Pandora Project.

Im a huge fan of this project and I intend to play with it as soon as I can. I cant get my Pandora any quicker then you guys, but I can test your software on the Gentoo Pandora images on the beagleboard and tell you what happens.

I dont know if I will be maintaining all of the Pandora portage ebuilds myself, but I can put one together for this project and merge it with the normal Gentoo package tree so hopefully anyone that want to use your software will only need to do a;

emerge pandorapanic

If anyone here is interested in getting this to work with the Gentoo Pandora project please send me a IM or just come join us in FreeNode#gentoo-pandora

Very Respectfully,
Viridior
 
'viridior' said:
Hey everyone,

Im one of the gentoo.pandora.devs and I would like to thank a many of you for your support of the Gentoo Pandora Project.

Im a huge fan of this project and I intend to play with it as soon as I can. I cant get my Pandora any quicker then you guys, but I can test your software on the Gentoo Pandora images on the beagleboard and tell you what happens.

I dont know if I will be maintaining all of the Pandora portage ebuilds myself, but I can put one together for this project and merge it with the normal Gentoo package tree so hopefully anyone that want to use your software will only need to do a;

emerge pandorapanic

If anyone here is interested in getting this to work with the Gentoo Pandora project please send me a IM or just come join us in FreeNode#gentoo-pandora

Very Respectfully,
Viridior
Hello,

I've been following the Gentoo Pandora project a bit, and you guys are really going fast. Also, PandoraPanic can use all the testing it can get before release, so help is welcome :) PM sent.

Although i can provide testbuilds and source files, im quite new to linux. So you will need to talk to PokeParadox about the ebuilds and that sort of stuff, he's the main developer here.

But good to see interest from the Gentoo camp!

Greetings
 
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'MarkoeZ' said:
'viridior' said:
Hey everyone,

Im one of the gentoo.pandora.devs and I would like to thank a many of you for your support of the Gentoo Pandora Project.

Im a huge fan of this project and I intend to play with it as soon as I can. I cant get my Pandora any quicker then you guys, but I can test your software on the Gentoo Pandora images on the beagleboard and tell you what happens.

I dont know if I will be maintaining all of the Pandora portage ebuilds myself, but I can put one together for this project and merge it with the normal Gentoo package tree so hopefully anyone that want to use your software will only need to do a;

emerge pandorapanic

If anyone here is interested in getting this to work with the Gentoo Pandora project please send me a IM or just come join us in FreeNode#gentoo-pandora

Very Respectfully,
Viridior
Hello,

I've been following the Gentoo Pandora project a bit, and you guys are really going fast. Also, PandoraPanic can use all the testing it can get before release, so help is welcome :) PM sent.

Although i can provide testbuilds and source files, im quite new to linux. So you will need to talk to PokeParadox about the ebuilds and that sort of stuff, he's the main developer here.

But good to see interest from the Gentoo camp!

Greetings

I will help out in any way I can, but I'm by no means a linux compiling guru.
As MarkoeZ said, we would appreciate any help in getting a Pandora binary compiled and running. We currently have problems with tslib being missing.
 
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'PokeParadox' said:
'MarkoeZ' said:
'viridior' said:
Hey everyone,

Im one of the gentoo.pandora.devs and I would like to thank a many of you for your support of the Gentoo Pandora Project.

Im a huge fan of this project and I intend to play with it as soon as I can. I cant get my Pandora any quicker then you guys, but I can test your software on the Gentoo Pandora images on the beagleboard and tell you what happens.

I dont know if I will be maintaining all of the Pandora portage ebuilds myself, but I can put one together for this project and merge it with the normal Gentoo package tree so hopefully anyone that want to use your software will only need to do a;

emerge pandorapanic

If anyone here is interested in getting this to work with the Gentoo Pandora project please send me a IM or just come join us in FreeNode#gentoo-pandora

Very Respectfully,
Viridior
Hello,

I've been following the Gentoo Pandora project a bit, and you guys are really going fast. Also, PandoraPanic can use all the testing it can get before release, so help is welcome :) PM sent.

Although i can provide testbuilds and source files, im quite new to linux. So you will need to talk to PokeParadox about the ebuilds and that sort of stuff, he's the main developer here.

But good to see interest from the Gentoo camp!

Greetings

I will help out in any way I can, but I'm by no means a linux compiling guru.
As MarkoeZ said, we would appreciate any help in getting a Pandora binary compiled and running. We currently have problems with tslib being missing.


No worries, Ive found my way around compilers lately! I guess what I will need once I get x.org up again is just some guidance of how the system works and its dependancies. The subsequent ebuilds (think .deb or rpm, but configurable) should automatically grab the tarballs/binaries from your http/ftp sites and I just need to tell it how to configure itself properly.

I don't assume that any of you are Gentoo users, but the portage tree can be locally supplemented (called overlays) for custom ebuilds. We have started our own Gentoo Pandora overlay, and I want to include as many of the homebrew projects into it as possible. So if you using Gentoo Pandora all you should need to do is connect to the internet and execute a command like "emerge pandorapanic" and a couple of minutes later it is installed and working.

My understanding of PandoraPanic! is that it is a framework, so individual games may also need to be installed individually and therefore usually requires another ebuild for each. Not a problem, the ebuilds are fairly easy to make, and I'll compile the programs myself so everyone can just install the binaries.

Thanks for all of the great work, and I look forward to working with anyone interested. The gentoo.pandora.devs are redoing the wiki to make it easier for new users. This will be done prior to kicking off with the Gentoo Pandora 0.0.3 series of images some of which will include X.org and some window managers to choose from. Im excited to try out this software and I promise to make some good screenshots.
I will help out in any way I can, but I'm by no means a linux compiling guru.
As MarkoeZ said, we would appreciate any help in getting a Pandora binary compiled and running. We currently have problems with tslib being missing.

I was able to get tslib installed in one of our older images without any problems. Unfortunately I don't have a touchscreen for my test platform (beagleboard), but the libraries should work. Ill do what I can to fix any problems once we have an x.org image that we can install on.
 
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I finally got around to updating the wiki with the Vista x64 fix in case anyone has had problems getting the project to compile with this OS.
 
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