Chaos Garden » PC Games

Secret Project 2, Nethack

JohnEvans — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:31:52 +0000

So…more work on, er, Secret Project 2. Yep.

Today I had a thought. Dwarf Fortress is kind of a roguelike, isn’t it? I like its emphasis on construction. And Nethack is basically open source. Hmmm…

Lua, PNGs

JohnEvans — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:30:36 +0000

I’ve learned the final piece of the puzzle with regards to Lua; C functions that return values to Lua. Now I can do anything with Lua. However…I need to work on the main C++ program a bit more. I want to have an object that represents a “map”, and that map will use Lua code to randomly generate itself. However, it will be a C++ object so that the game will be able to access its data quickly.

I’ve also learned to use libpng. This library allows me to read and write PNG image files. (Well, reading is handled by DirectX, so it’s the output/writing that’s the useful part.)

Compiling and running DirectX: Some pitfalls

JohnEvans — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:16:53 +0000

I’ve sometimes had problems running the DirectX programs I make on other computers. I usually compile under a Debug configuration (using Visual Studio 2005). I can use the Debug option in Visual Studio to run the programs, and they work fine; I can even use Explorer to find the binaries and run them directly. However, when I give the binaries to someone else, they invariably get the oh-so-helpful “This application is configured incorrectly, reinstalling it may fix the problem”.

I believe I’ve figured out the real problem, and it’s actually pretty simple. I can run these binaries because I have the developer version of DirectX installed. The developer version has debug versions of all the libraries and DLLs. Therefore, I can run things compiled in a debug configuration…But most people only have the regular end-user version, and thus they can’t run my binaries. I have to compile a Release version in a Release configuration to get a binary someone else can run.

And today the problem extended even further. I was linking in a library (a Lua library, actually) that had been compiled in a debug configuration. Even though Lua had nothing to do with DirectX, I was still having the same error. However, when I compiled a release version of the Lua library and linked that, I was able to get the program to run on other computers.

So, if you’ve ever had this problem, try compiling in a Release configuration.

In other news, Secret Project 1 is going well…

Stuff 2, PNGs

JohnEvans — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:03:53 +0000

More work on Secret Project 1.

Also, in order to really do justice to the procedural generation idea I had, I have to master creating PNGs programmatically. I started on that today.

Lua

JohnEvans — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:38:22 +0000

I’ve finally figured out the basic framework to get Lua files to load, run and work well with C++ objects. Now, instead of reading in a text file that defines, say, a room, I can read in a Lua program that builds a room when it executes. This is a definite improvement.

Platforming with Lua

JohnEvans — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:32:33 +0000

Today I spent a while working with Lua. It took me a while to figure out how to get it to interface with C. It took even longer to get it to work with C++ objects! I feel like there should be a way to pass an object’s member function as a function pointer to be registered with Lua…I couldn’t quite figure it out, though. I had to bricole something up to register an object with a global variable so a global function could access it…Maybe I should write a tutorial on that subject, because there seemed to be a lack of good documentation. (There was some sample code on the Lua Users Wiki, but it was never explained…I always feel a bit uncomfortable just plopping in code that I don’t really understand.)

Now, if I can start writing room-generation scripts in Lua, that will really be something.

Platforming part 2

JohnEvans — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:18:23 +0000

I’ve gotten the platforming engine working so you can define various “rooms” for the protagonist to wander around in. The rooms also have “doors” that lead to different rooms. Now I just have to start randomly generating these rooms. (And, well, adding enemies and such things.)

Platforming

JohnEvans — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:30:32 +0000

I now have a nearly-complete platforming engine, written in DirectX. The only real problem is the unintended wall jump.

Short Story: Acquire; Procedural Generation Competition

JohnEvans — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:32:39 +0000

Today I wrote a short piece called Acquire for DeviantArt. I think putting a Creative Commons license on this piece just makes it funnier.

Now I’m going to work on stuff for the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition. My life has been so busy recently I haven’t had as much time to work on this as I would have liked…I don’t know if I’ll even be able to produce something showable. But we’ll see.