Bits and bobs about the development of the free and open source game inspired by RollerCoaster Tycoon
Monday, 28 May 2012
Guests! (Take 2)
After some code shuffling and re-organising of the animation data, FreeRCT now has moving guests.
I did not change the renderer yet, so they are still grey, but it seemed big enough news to let you know anyway!
Great to see a video of a build in action. Maybe you can post more videos in future to highlight the capabilities to draw attention to help find more contributors.
A few suggestions: The first guest appears to make a path movement decision too early, which sees him treat the path as not extending any further (0:14). The yellow directional cursor should pulse on/off a bit faster, and should reset to being 'on' upon a new piece being built to make it clear where the next piece will be applied.
Always spying on the progress, your a dedicated worker.
This is pretty much the first time where it made sense to me to make a video, "walking guests" as a single image does not make a lot of sense :p As the game progresses, video will start to be useful more often, so yeah, I'll make more of them in the future :)
You're right about guest behavior, the path at a tile is decided when entering a new tile. Not sure how to change that. I agree with your observations about the cursor too, but I have bigger problems to handle first. I'll make a bug report about it, so it is not forgotten.
i really love how this is looking so far.. im surprised that an open version of rct hasn't been made yet.
i would love to make some of the graphics for this game, i loved the original game and its style and it might be a nice challenge to try and make something similar if not better. Im guessing there is going to be a forum eventually?
All the graphics will be rendered in Blender and converted to the 8-bit palette, if you are keen on helping with this I can get you set up with some Blender templates...
I've never really used blender properly before but I'm a quick learner so I'll see what I can do otherwise though I'm mainly skilled in Photoshop creating stuff like banners, icons and tilesets. In fact I've already made some cursors (with transparency) for path placement in Photoshop.
I'm very interested in contributing something to this project in some form or another though so count me in XD
I've watched the vid about 20 times since its come out Alberth! I'm getting urges to continue coding IsoMatrix ;)
I got stuck on the map rendering, but Im constantly thinking about approaches that allow for dynamic movement, minimal updating (via dirty rects), rotation, zoom. Maybe in a month or two I'll post an update to IsoMatrix with all the other changes. I got the GUI completed and the renderer is significantly faster since my last release.
Oh how I love being a coder, dreaming about algorithms. lol
Hmm, the video is that dangerous eh? Sorry if I messed up any other plans you had :p
I render the map with a simple sort alrgorithm that sorts the sprites from back to front. With coasters, that will need refining probably, but we'll see :)
I do have dirty rectangles, but I don't use them currently. Rotation you have to add immediately, it's going to be a bitch to add later, and zoom is just switching to another set of sprites (and changing some values denoting screen size of a tile).
Nice that you have a complete gui, FreeRCT currently has 1 toolbar and 2 windows, it is going to be a lot of work to add the other ones. I am very interested in what you have and what your further plans are.
If I remember correctly, a guest already has a 'name', except there is no way to display it, nor can you change it. It will be a long while before you can access it indeed, there are bigger things to do first :)
The project definitely needs a lot of sounds, but it may be a some time before they can be actually added to the game. Currently the guests are just wandering aimlessly on paths, and that's it :)
I am currently working towards giving them something to be joyful about, so they have a reason to make sounds in the first place :) Note that the current code also has no sound support *at* *all*, but it is on the list (along with another zillion other things that should be added, so plenty of work :) ).
Just one word: beautiful!
ReplyDelete;)
Looks fantastic, good job!
ReplyDeleteLooking great Alberth!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a video of a build in action. Maybe you can post more videos in future to highlight the capabilities to draw attention to help find more contributors.
A few suggestions: The first guest appears to make a path movement decision too early, which sees him treat the path as not extending any further (0:14). The yellow directional cursor should pulse on/off a bit faster, and should reset to being 'on' upon a new piece being built to make it clear where the next piece will be applied.
Always spying on the progress, your a dedicated worker.
This is pretty much the first time where it made sense to me to make a video, "walking guests" as a single image does not make a lot of sense :p
ReplyDeleteAs the game progresses, video will start to be useful more often, so yeah, I'll make more of them in the future :)
You're right about guest behavior, the path at a tile is decided when entering a new tile. Not sure how to change that. I agree with your observations about the cursor too, but I have bigger problems to handle first. I'll make a bug report about it, so it is not forgotten.
i really love how this is looking so far.. im surprised that an open version of rct hasn't been made yet.
ReplyDeletei would love to make some of the graphics for this game, i loved the original game and its style and it might be a nice challenge to try and make something similar if not better. Im guessing there is going to be a forum eventually?
Hopefully there will be a forum at some point :)
DeleteAll the graphics will be rendered in Blender and converted to the 8-bit palette, if you are keen on helping with this I can get you set up with some Blender templates...
I would love to help as well (graphics-wise). Not sure if you'd have too many people helping, but if I'm needed I would love to help!
DeleteOh great, Im looking forward to it then. ^^
ReplyDeleteI've never really used blender properly before but I'm a quick learner so I'll see what I can do otherwise though I'm mainly skilled in Photoshop creating stuff like banners, icons and tilesets. In fact I've already made some cursors (with transparency) for path placement in Photoshop.
I'm very interested in contributing something to this project in some form or another though so count me in XD
I've watched the vid about 20 times since its come out Alberth! I'm getting urges to continue coding IsoMatrix ;)
ReplyDeleteI got stuck on the map rendering, but Im constantly thinking about approaches that allow for dynamic movement, minimal updating (via dirty rects), rotation, zoom. Maybe in a month or two I'll post an update to IsoMatrix with all the other changes. I got the GUI completed and the renderer is significantly faster since my last release.
Oh how I love being a coder, dreaming about algorithms. lol
Hmm, the video is that dangerous eh? Sorry if I messed up any other plans you had :p
ReplyDeleteI render the map with a simple sort alrgorithm that sorts the sprites from back to front. With coasters, that will need refining probably, but we'll see :)
I do have dirty rectangles, but I don't use them currently. Rotation you have to add immediately, it's going to be a bitch to add later, and zoom is just switching to another set of sprites (and changing some values denoting screen size of a tile).
Nice that you have a complete gui, FreeRCT currently has 1 toolbar and 2 windows, it is going to be a lot of work to add the other ones.
I am very interested in what you have and what your further plans are.
Awesome and challenging project! Keep working on it!
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
I know it's a long way off but how about being able to name and design a guest after yourself, maybe in return for a small donation.
ReplyDelete:D
DeleteIf I remember correctly, a guest already has a 'name', except there is no way to display it, nor can you change it.
It will be a long while before you can access it indeed, there are bigger things to do first :)
I'm in love with this project! I would be glad to help out with sound. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteGreat!
DeleteThe project definitely needs a lot of sounds, but it may be a some time before they can be actually added to the game. Currently the guests are just wandering aimlessly on paths, and that's it :)
I am currently working towards giving them something to be joyful about, so they have a reason to make sounds in the first place :)
Note that the current code also has no sound support *at* *all*, but it is on the list (along with another zillion other things that should be added, so plenty of work :) ).