Posts by CrazyMLC

Ah, so there is no simple way to enter an expression during runtime. I don't know of any extensions that allow me to do this, either. That's definitely going to make my life a bit harder, haha.

Yeah dascribe, I'll have to sort through strings using the String Parser object and turn certain ones into values, along with trying to store variable names, emulate certain functions, etc.
Well, I guess it doesn't have to use Fusion's expressions. Maybe I could just use the lua object or something. That might be easier.

Is there a way to treat a string, like one typed into an edit box, and use it as an expression to be evaluated using Fusion's built in functions and arithmetic, without the need for a string interpreter?

For example:
The user enters "2+2", and this string is able to be used to set a numerical value, resulting in 4.
or "variable+2", resulting in the variable +2.
or "random(2)".
etc.

If you could get animations working in a stupid simple way Looki, this extension would pretty much be the answer to my prayers. I'm going to keep close tabs on this.

Any way to animate tiles?

I like how musical the weapon firing is in Super Battle Combat Fighter.

-Warship Battlestation/Arena/S,656,246 S,405,298 S,369,492 S,636,664 S,981,532 S,916,268 B,852,308 B,457,481 B,617,324 B,618,540 S,416,482 S,642,507 S,858,293 S,654,466 B,657,469 B,630,360 B,563,366 B,626,471 S,631,293 S,792,370 S,813,445 S,655,571 S,482,558 S,376,475 S,354,302 S,572,182 S,774,241 S,894,369 S,813,532 S,539,641 S,262,304 S,712,194 S,916,356 S,730,576 S,496,625 S,257,361 S,649,178 S,872,329 S,875,395 S,802,480 S,596,583 S,453,603 S,333,511 S,323,246 S,566,164 S,795,243 S,822,412 S,665,503 S,542,523 S,349,454 S,619,637 S,335,523 S,333,248 S,640,150 B,484,321 B,631,228 S,620,200 B,629,367 S,401,470 B,658,410 B,584,239 B,516,241 S,543,216 S,556,226 S,526,248 S,521,334 S,573,409 S,686,418 S,803,366 S,780,268 S,640,236 S,489,282 S,422,459 S,567,586 S,813,480 S,821,383 S,666,281 S,570,468 B,848,467 S,701,261 S,507,380 S,704,537 S,855,354 S,804,257 S,676,223 S,624,230 S,484,299 S,441,384 S,468,474 S,582,552 S,808,537 S,885,459 S,903,279 S,630,167 S,358,278 S,635,636 S,313,513 S,320,264 S,593,196 B,443,299 S,308,274 B,525,227 S,605,197 S,377,445 B,640,340 B,513,340 B,633,339 B,528,319 B,646,317 S,612,403 S,466,439 S,490,256 S,665,253 S,764,358 S,752,483 S,460,581 S,338,506 S,345,404 S,397,309 S,506,259 S,726,254 S,865,368 S,840,525 S,584,617 S,277,581 S,258,478 S,480,239 S,769,435 S,556,576 S,295,546 B,322,521 S,322,521 S,322,521 S,322,521 S,322,521 S,401,574 S,656,525 S,234,571 S,687,280 S,381,497 S,733,341 S,607,581 S,362,493 S,904,501 S,658,589 S,867,307 S,872,474 S,672,262 S,707,393 B,780,389-

cos(Angle) > 0:
facing right

cos(Angle) < 0:
facing left

Other methods would depend on arithmetic, which can be dependent on whether you're going from -180 to 180 or 0 to 360. Using sine and cosine is pretty foolproof.

If you wanted to, you could do the same thing to find out whether it's facing up or down, just by using sin instead.

I tried my hand at a text adventure in MMF2 using the console object, and I've discovered some bugs that I can't identify the cause of.

Please login to see this link.

Chrome seems to think it's a malicious file when downloading.
When changing frames internally, the console looses focus.
After changing frames for the first time, the clear function of the console appears to stop functioning.
Sometimes the game will crash or stop reacting to input from the user. (As can be seen after deaths)

Does anyone know how to fix these issues? (And is there an optimal way to condense multiple wordings of a command to activate a single action? Like LOOK WATER and EXAMINE WATER, making it case insensitive, etc.)

Wow, thanks MuddyMole! I had no idea that was even possible, and it works perfectly.

What does the "and" do in the expression, though?

Is there a way to have control over the bits within a byte? All the extensions I can find only go down to the byte level.

I'm wanting to make a game with lacewing, and it's crucial that I have an easy, compact format for maps.
Tiles have a lot of options, they can be blank, ground, and have walls on all four sides. Instead of assigning byte values for every different possible variation, it'd be really helpful to be able to have bits within the byte mean whether it has a wall on a certain side or not, etc.
(Helpful not just for the file format, but for the game logic.)

It seems like the bit mask object might be able to do it? But I can't figure out how to use the blasted thing.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish this.

I'd think you'd just have an array of chunks, with the chunks stored in arrays. If you don't have many tiles (256 tops) you might want to store each tile in a byte.

I'm pretty sure 3EE's binary array extension can handle this - it comes in one of the bonus packs on the Clickteam website.

Is there a way to accurately profile MMF2 programs? I'm trying to test out a proof of concept, but using the timer isn't a fine enough measurement to see which is faster.

Is activating/deactivating groups a quick process though? How far can you go in optimization by abusing groups?

Quick question: Say you have a few events that have the same conditions, but each has an extra one that differs between them. Is it faster to have those checks on each one, or is it faster to enable/disable a group containing them?

e.g.:

if A = 1
if B = 0
-- do a thing

if A = 1
if B = 1
-- do a thing

if A = 1
if B = 2
-- do a thing

as opposed to

if A = 1
-- activate group A=1

A=1
- if B = 0
--- do a thing

- if B = 1
--- do a thing

- if B = 2
--- do a thing

- always
--- deactivate group A=1

Quote from Nifflas

maybe you shouldn't compare a maximum quality vorbis to a low bitrate opus.

Yeah that was a bit stupid, but I edited in an addendum later when I did a more comprehensive listing.

Quote from CrazyMLC

I don't know how to include Ogg files in this. Audacity's settings for the encoder don't use bit rates, just quality numbers. The lowest quality is about 1.5 MB and sounds pretty much the same as the original, so on-par with 64 kbps.

But yeah. I would edit out my stupidity, but whatever. If people read the entire post they'll see that I was just derping anyway.

That aside, I don't think you should shoot down the idea of implementing the file format just because it isn't the absolute best thing since sliced bread. Opus may yet still improve - and it may see wider usage. It's hard to tell at this point. At least it's always good to have more options.

I think we should at least find some way to gain support for it, at least eventually.

(Sorry about the double-post, I can't seem to edit my previous post for the hundredth time.)

Quote from CrazyMLC

The size of whole songs for games is nothing to shake a stick at, in some cases it can easily double the size of your game.

As a quick example, even Battle Combat Fighters can be fixed up a bit. The size of the exe is 4,482 KB - 3,367 KB of that being the background music.

I did a quick encoding of it to opus in 96 kbps, and it's only 592 KB.
Please login to see this link.
That would make the exe's size about 1,607 Kb if it were using the opus version.

That's even LESS than half, and it would affect download and loading times for the user. Although the end effect is small, it's worth the effort, and in larger games this effect can scale up drastically.

I really like the game, the music and sound effects really complete it. Nice job!

I took one of the songs that comes with Windows, Sleep Away, and used the encoder to make it an Opus file.

Please login to see this picture.
(disclaimer: not all the same bitrate, fixing that in just a sec)

It's half the size, and honestly, I can't discern any difference in quality.

The size of whole songs for games is nothing to shake a stick at, in some cases it can easily double the size of your game.
Personally, I think it's pretty important to have more choices if you're wanting to make your game's filesize smaller.

edit: I also tried making an Ogg file for the song, and it's 4,046 KB. Still much more than the Opus file. And Opus didn't take over twenty seconds to encode the song.

edit again:

I did some real testing.

Please login to see this picture.

Opus and MP3 are pretty neck-and-neck on the higher bit rates, but once you hit 48 kbps, there's a pretty significant difference. The Opus file for 48 kbps is actually still enjoyable, and features little distortion. MP3, however, sounds muted. In the beginning of sleep away, there are cymbals clashing together, which make a pretty nice benchmark for quality.

At 32 kbps, the MP3 file becomes barely listenable. However, the Opus file for 32kbps sounds about as good as MP3's 48 kbps file.

I think this isn't a small difference we're talking about here, especially if Opus gets optimized in the future. (This is a very new release)

I don't know how to include Ogg files in this. Audacity's settings for the encoder don't use bit rates, just quality numbers. The lowest quality is about 1.5 MB and sounds pretty much the same as the original, so on-par with 64 kbps.

(Keep in mind this song is about three minutes long, and getting it down to a megabyte or two and retaining quality isn't too shabby.)

There's a new codec out recently called Opus.

Please login to see this link.

Please login to see this picture.

Is there a way we could get support via Onu or some other extension?

But shouldn't pasting it into the background get around that? Or am I mistaken?

Do I need to use the surface object?

I'm trying to make a map editor for a friend, and I am dumbfounded by this. I'm trying to paste the map via backdrops using a single active object but IT ISN'T WORKING.

Only the last tile that has its picture loaded into the active object gets pasted into the background - seemingly. You can see this by messing with the included map.txt and replacing the last entry with Null.png.

I've been trying different ideas for a while now and I'm seriously just pulling my hair out over this. Help? Please?