Post screenshots of stuff you're working on!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Post screenshots of stuff you're working on!

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Tres Burritos: Sep 3, 2009

HappyHippo posted:

What are the axes on that graph?

pfffft those aren't important.

Y is seconds taken to solve a puzzle and X is just the number of sudokus solved so far. X just scrolls so you can get an idea of the characteristics of each type of sudoku difficulty.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 01:18

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 11:16

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

How are you actually solving the puzzles? For a homework problem of generating all Latin squares of size n, I once wrote a dancing links based solver that worked pretty well and was a fun exercise to program. Never got to multithreading it though.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 10:30

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

I've been neglecting my posting in this thread for a while (for good reasons, I'm actually just working absolutely flat-out whenever I take a seat in-front of my iMac.)

Here's me testing some slight changes to the "hub area".

Trivia: the white "X1(300" looking things are "path nodes". They're like a list, you give a creature a list like X0 X1 X2 X3 X4 and that's their patrol path, and the number at the end is how many "ticks" they'll stop at that point and look around.
In this screenshot, you're seeing a security camera's path nodes, which tells the camera where to point and how long to stare at that tile for before looking at the next location.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 13:09

Tres Burritos: Sep 3, 2009

mobby_6kl posted:

How are you actually solving the puzzles? For a homework problem of generating all Latin squares of size n, I once wrote a dancing links based solver that worked pretty well and was a fun exercise to program. Never got to multithreading it though.

So this is a Constraint Satisfaction Problem where I use:

1) Backtracking
and
2) Arc Consistency

I'm having trouble doing a quick summarizing sentence / paragraph so have some lovely code!

code:

//do the main work
//main loop for doing the puzzle
while (true)
{
	//pop off of the top of the stack
	SudokuState CurrentState = SudokuStack.Pop();

	//if this is a final state, quit
	if (CurrentState.final)
	{
		//stop the stopwatch
		MainTimer.Stop();
		//set the value
		double time = (MainTimer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds / 1000.00);
		SolveTime = time;
		break;
	}

	//check for dead end
	if (CurrentState.DeadEnd)
	{
		//do nothing, pop off the state
	}
	else
	{
		//get the next state
		SudokuState NextState = CurrentState.GetNextState();
		//not a dead end, push both
		SudokuStack.Push(CurrentState);
		SudokuStack.Push(NextState);
	}
				
}//finished

So, every time you .GetNextState() you choose the cell with the fewest remaining legal values, pick a value for it and then update all of its "neighbors" so that they no longer have that value remaining for it as a valid choice. You keep track of which cell you chose and which value you chose in that state so that you can backtrack to it and try other possible values for the selected cell in that state.

So if you do end up at a dead end, you pop off the state, and then get the previous state in the stack (dur). Then you choose whatever other value was valid for the cell you worked on in that state and push it back on the stack, or if that state is a dead end as well, just pop it off and keep going.

A state is defined as a dead end if there is a cell in the state that is still unassigned and has no valid values for it OR the cell that you're operating on in that state has exhausted all of its choices.

I think that makes sense. Maybe.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 18:52

Nition: Feb 25, 2006; You really want to know?

Finally you can save and load vehicles in Scraps:

Each save file is small � it doesn�t serialise the whole vehicle object, just saves the relevant information. A .scraps vehicle file is only a few kilobytes and is intended to be easy to share.

I also attempted to do a system like Spore or Gimbal use, where the save data is actually embedded into a screenshot of the vehicle. In Spore it�s stored in the RGB values of the transparent pixels, and in Gimbal I believe it�s stored as metadata. It�s such a cool system because not only does it make it easy to see exactly what you�re getting, it also makes it super easy to share anywhere � even on forums that don�t allow uploading files.

Unfortunately it seems pretty hard to do via Unity (or more specifically, Mono). I can take a screenshot fine and save that. I ran up against a wall trying to embed metadata since Mono doesn�t have the .NET System.Windows classes which include all the metadata handling methods, plus Scraps needs to work on Mac or Linux as well anyway. There�s probably some way to do it but it was going to take too long to work out, so unfortunately the same files are just files � for now at least.

Certainly it�s possible to go the hide-the-data-in-the-image method (sort of steganography), using the alpha channel, least significant bits etc. But I�m not that keen on it because I�ll have to have lots of checks to make sure the vehicle data always fits. Eventually, if your vehicle was super complex, corruption in the image would become unavoidably visible. I�d much rather go the metadata route where I can just throw all the code in as actual text.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 22:57

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

Cracking open age-old file formats for fun ~~and misery~~. :v:

Still some mystery bytes to work out.

# ? Mar 26, 2013 01:45

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

Nition posted:

Unfortunately it seems pretty hard to do via Unity (or more specifically, Mono). I can take a screenshot fine and save that. I ran up against a wall trying to embed metadata since Mono doesn�t have the .NET System.Windows classes which include all the metadata handling methods, plus Scraps needs to work on Mac or Linux as well anyway. There�s probably some way to do it but it was going to take too long to work out, so unfortunately the same files are just files � for now at least.

You could write your own file parser, and grab out the buffer data / encode the PNG or whatever yourself (or find an existing C# PNG save/loader). That should give you all the access you need, to throw in some metadata.

EDIT: Oh, right, and this is what I've been working on. Smooth camera transitions between side-scrolling regions, for sexy warped plane side scrolling. I'm pretty happy with the results. Ignore the (awesome) music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39sNTG9kEGs

EDIT: VV Wow, you're right, now I recognize that UI. Man, I miss Master of Magic - great game, that.

Shalinor fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Mar 26, 2013

# ? Mar 26, 2013 04:36

SavageMessiah: Jan 28, 2009; Emotionally drained and spookified; Toilet Rascal

SupSuper posted:

Cracking open age-old file formats for fun ~~and misery~~.

Still some mystery bytes to work out.

Planning on tackling Master of Magic after XCOM?

# ? Mar 26, 2013 15:34

poemdexter: Feb 18, 2005; Hooray Indie Games!; College Slice

SupSuper posted:

Cracking open age-old file formats for fun ~~and misery~~.

Still some mystery bytes to work out.

That's a whole lot of butts.

# ? Mar 26, 2013 19:03

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

SavageMessiah posted:

Planning on tackling Master of Magic after XCOM?

Keeping my options open.

Sadly the task of reverse-engineering custom 90s file formats basically comes down to "staring at hex values until somehow someway patterns start emerging":

...yeah. Still nice job spotting the game. It also seems to work on another one...

poemdexter posted:

That's a whole lot of butts.

I'm naming all my button variables like that from now on.

# ? Mar 26, 2013 22:37

prsearle: Feb 14, 2003; Fun Shoe

SupSuper posted:

Keeping my options open. Sadly the task of reverse-engineering custom 90s file formats basically comes down to "staring at hex values until somehow someway patterns start emerging":

That's some nice work -- staring at hexdumps until your eyes bleed seems to be how most file format reverse engineering goes

The top-to-bottom/left-to-right pixel order can sometimes be explained by the rendering system used, particularly for software renderers. Doom stored all it's wall textures rotated 90 degrees because the BSP/raycaster rendering system meant it was easier to build up the framebuffer a column at a time.

I'm currently figuring out the level format for Microsoft Hover! which uses a similar system: it's a BSP-based raycaster with column-major textures. Interestingly the UI is entirely written in MFC, which may explain the poor performance.

Right now I can confidently say this is the first ever custom level for Hover:

(the debug menu is from editing the executable resources. Left-over development code lets you edit the physics for the human and AI vehicles, plus enable AI debug visualizations). If anyone's interested in the code it's all C# and hosted on github, although slightly out of date.

Long term plans are to write a plugin for Doom Builder to make developing maps easier. The level formats are similar enough that it's easier to convert from Doom to Hover formats instead of writing a whole new editor.

# ? Mar 28, 2013 00:48

Orzo: Sep 3, 2004; IT! IT is confusing! Say your goddamn pronouns!

I made an enemy! This is literally my first time programming enemy AI in a game (my previous game was a puzzle game). It was pretty fun, despite this being a very simple enemy.

Blog post is here

Screenshot which doesn't really show much:

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Te7DhJ2Vw

The real meat of this update is in the blog post rather than the video, since the thing I've actually accomplished is setting up a system for easily and cleanly programming enemies (and other types of entities that have complex behavior), and I've made an effort to explain how it works in detail on the blog. I actually could have made an enemy this simple with existing infrastructure, but it would have been a total mess of switch statements and stuff.

# ? Mar 29, 2013 21:26

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

prsearle posted:

I'm currently figuring out the level format for Microsoft Hover! which uses a similar system: it's a BSP-based raycaster with column-major textures. Interestingly the UI is entirely written in MFC, which may explain the poor performance.

Right now I can confidently say this is the first ever custom level for Hover:

Ohhhh nice work, haven't seen Microsoft Hover! in ages, terrific game.

prsearle posted:

That's some nice work -- staring at hexdumps until your eyes bleed seems to be how most file format reverse engineering goes

The top-to-bottom/left-to-right pixel order can sometimes be explained by the rendering system used, particularly for software renderers. Doom stored all it's wall textures rotated 90 degrees because the BSP/raycaster rendering system meant it was easier to build up the framebuffer a column at a time.

Well it was just a wild guess since their other games with 640x480 graphics do use left-to-right order.

Anyways after fighting with flags that didn't actually mean anything, completely baffling bytes and palettes on top of palettes, I finally got most of the graphics working. Look, animations!

# ? Mar 30, 2013 18:02

Xerol: Jan 13, 2007

Mocking up stuff for the tower project.

# ? Mar 31, 2013 07:19

pokeyman: Nov 26, 2006; That elephant ate my entire platoon.

What's the tower project?

# ? Mar 31, 2013 12:04

SupSuper: Apr 8, 2009; At the Heart of the city is an Alien horror, so vile and so powerful that not even death can claim it.

pokeyman posted:

What's the tower project?

Looks like SimCity and SimTower had a baby.

# ? Mar 31, 2013 16:24

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

Whoops, forgot to put this in here. It's still Saturday in my heart, I guess. This is a WIP shot of Revolver, the prototype that'll become Hot Tin Roof.

# ? Mar 31, 2013 16:33

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

I'm just gonna straight-up crosspost this from the Making Games Megathread because I know some people in here have been paying attention to what I've been working on as well.

I just want to show you guys something that I've poured my heart and soul into for the past year exactly.

I hope you enjoy this video I made to introduce you to something I hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

# ? Apr 2, 2013 08:26

Azazel: Jun 6, 2001; I bitch slap for a living - you want some?

Mug posted:

I'm just gonna straight-up crosspost this from the Making Games Megathread because I know some people in here have been paying attention to what I've been working on as well.

I just want to show you guys something that I've poured my heart and soul into for the past year exactly.

I hope you enjoy this video I made to introduce you to something I hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

Absolutely brilliant. Keep up the great work, I'm sure a lot of us would love to give it a try.

# ? Apr 2, 2013 09:38

Workaday Wizard: Oct 23, 2009; by Pragmatica

Mug posted:

I'm just gonna straight-up crosspost this from the Making Games Megathread because I know some people in here have been paying attention to what I've been working on as well.

I just want to show you guys something that I've poured my heart and soul into for the past year exactly.

I hope you enjoy this video I made to introduce you to something I hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

Looks lovely.

I suggest you promote the game in 4chan's videogames board since it's popular and people there will probably like it. Also, try reddit since they love retro stuff.

Wish you luck.

E: Don't forget to brag about the stealth elements you posted earlier in this thread. Oh and post GIFs. Always post GIFs.

Workaday Wizard fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Apr 2, 2013

# ? Apr 2, 2013 11:07

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

Shinku ABOOKEN posted:

Looks lovely.

I suggest you promote the game in 4chan's videogames board since it's popular and people there will probably like it. Also, try reddit since they love retro stuff.

Wish you luck.

I posted a thing on reddit but I never even considered 4chan... is that really a thing I should do?
If you're a reddit dude, here's a thing you can click on to show love: http://redd.it/1bi3pw

# ? Apr 2, 2013 11:12

Workaday Wizard: Oct 23, 2009; by Pragmatica

Mug posted:

I posted a thing on reddit but I never even considered 4chan... is that really a thing I should do?
If you're a reddit dude, here's a thing you can click on to show love: http://redd.it/1bi3pw

I don't visit either site but their popularity is undeniable. Heck, 4chan basically funded Minecraft.

4chan is still a cesspool though :ssh:

# ? Apr 2, 2013 11:23

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

I looked at 4chan, I literally don't understand what the gently caress I'm looking at or what format I would post in at all. No one else seems to post anything even on the same level. Its just like "A video game BOOB" *400 replies*

# ? Apr 2, 2013 11:37

pokeyman: Nov 26, 2006; That elephant ate my entire platoon.

Mug posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

This just keeps looking more awesome. And your blog is still awesome too.

# ? Apr 2, 2013 12:29

The Gripper: Sep 14, 2004; i am winner

Mug posted:

I'm just gonna straight-up crosspost this from the Making Games Megathread because I know some people in here have been paying attention to what I've been working on as well.

I just want to show you guys something that I've poured my heart and soul into for the past year exactly.

I hope you enjoy this video I made to introduce you to something I hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

I'm really impressed by how well everything has come together with your game, it ticks so many "things that are interesting" boxes that I doubt a lot of people could have planned ahead and created anything like it.

I mean you've got the nostalgia audience from the style of game, the developer audience from the development blog and use of QB64 (reddit tells me I'm not the only person that finds that fascinating), a soundtrack that bridges between that retro game-music feel and something much more modern, and on top of it all a game that genuinely looks fun to play and has looked fun to play all throughout it's development.

Good luck with the rest of the project, I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it.

# ? Apr 2, 2013 12:34

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

Mug posted:

I looked at 4chan, I literally don't understand what the gently caress I'm looking at or what format I would post in at all. No one else seems to post anything even on the same level. Its just like "A video game BOOB" *400 replies*

Seconding this. I finally figured out Reddit enough to where I'm not scared to post over there, but 4chan... what?

# ? Apr 2, 2013 14:58

Xerophyte: Mar 17, 2008; This space intentionally left blank

Mug posted:

I'm just gonna straight-up crosspost this from the Making Games Megathread because I know some people in here have been paying attention to what I've been working on as well.

I just want to show you guys something that I've poured my heart and soul into for the past year exactly.

I hope you enjoy this video I made to introduce you to something I hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

That thing just looks niftier every time I see it. Also, the trailer seems to have worked.

# ? Apr 2, 2013 20:13

Cowcatcher: Dec 23, 2005; OUR PEOPLE WERE BORN OF THE SKY

Mug posted:

You're also featured on RPS, congrats!

# ? Apr 2, 2013 20:41

Tres Burritos: Sep 3, 2009

Cowcatcher posted:

You're also featured on RPS, congrats!

One above you, buddy. I know, it's subtle.

# ? Apr 2, 2013 20:50

zeekner: Jul 14, 2007

I guess I should post my project since we just released it on the Android market.

It's the official Android app for Slickdeals.net, working with the guys who made the iOS app.

It's a mobile interface for that site, it handles their deals, forums and deal alerts. It uses the SlidingMenu library for navigation, along with the usual ActionBarSherlock, pull-to-refresh, ect.

More screenshots: Navigation, Sharing, Listings with floating headers.

# ? Apr 3, 2013 02:17

Thermopyle: Jul 1, 2003; ...the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. �Bertrand Russell

Salvador Dalvik posted:

I guess I should post my project since we just released it on the Android market.

It's the official Android app for Slickdeals.net, working with the guys who made the iOS app.

It's a mobile interface for that site, it handles their deals, forums and deal alerts. It uses the SlidingMenu library for navigation, along with the usual ActionBarSherlock, pull-to-refresh, ect.

More screenshots: Navigation, Sharing, Listings with floating headers.

Nice. I'm glad to see you doing work you get paid for in addition of all the free work you do on Awful.

# ? Apr 3, 2013 02:35

zeekner: Jul 14, 2007

Thermopyle posted:

Nice. I'm glad to see you doing work you get paid for in addition of all the free work you do on Awful.

I feel kinda bad because I haven't put any serious work into Awful in the last few months. I want to apply a bunch of the techniques I picked up doing this project back to Awful, but I'm sure to be back in the middle of a new contract within a few weeks.

Awful really needs a good cleanup and update release, there are a lot of bugs and annoyances that have been left to simmer for too long. I'm going to tackle a few of the major issues while I have time.

# ? Apr 3, 2013 03:08

seiken: Feb 7, 2005; hah ha ha

Salvador Dalvik posted:

I feel kinda bad because I haven't put any serious work into Awful in the last few months. I want to apply a bunch of the techniques I picked up doing this project back to Awful, but I'm sure to be back in the middle of a new contract within a few weeks.

Awful really needs a good cleanup and update release, there are a lot of bugs and annoyances that have been left to simmer for too long. I'm going to tackle a few of the major issues while I have time.

You probably already have thought about this but if it could do caching of your bookmarked threads for when you're offline (like Currents does) that would be fantastic.

# ? Apr 3, 2013 12:37

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

Cowcatcher posted:

You're also featured on RPS, congrats!

Xerophyte posted:

That thing just looks niftier every time I see it. Also, the trailer seems to have worked.

Man, it's been a crazy 24 hours. People are emailing me... a lot of really interesting people.

# ? Apr 3, 2013 13:36

Doctor w-rw-rw-: Jun 24, 2008

Mug posted:

Man, it's been a crazy 24 hours. People are emailing me... a lot of really interesting people.

Do tell.

# ? Apr 4, 2013 10:50

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:

Do tell.

Digital distributors actually approaching me, instead of me emailing them 5 times to get any response at all.

edit: Well, I put it on Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112030991
I'm really in over my head at this point, I can't stand that fact that I have to go to work tomorrow - I have so much poo poo to take care of and maintain now.

Mug fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Apr 4, 2013

# ? Apr 4, 2013 10:53

Maluco Marinero: Jan 18, 2001; Damn that's a
fine elephant.

Mug posted:

Digital distributors actually approaching me, instead of me emailing them 5 times to get any response at all.

edit: Well, I put it on Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112030991
I'm really in over my head at this point, I can't stand that fact that I have to go to work tomorrow - I have so much poo poo to take care of and maintain now.

Good on you mate. And yeah, going to work will be a killer now, there's all this momentum you'll want to capitalise on now.

# ? Apr 4, 2013 11:58

concise: Aug 31, 2004; Ain't much to do
'round here.

Mug posted:

Digital distributors actually approaching me, instead of me emailing them 5 times to get any response at all.

edit: Well, I put it on Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=112030991
I'm really in over my head at this point, I can't stand that fact that I have to go to work tomorrow - I have so much poo poo to take care of and maintain now.

If you have any vacation and sick time, come Monday you could send an email to your boss saying there has been a family emergency and you have to go away for a while. Or just put in your two weeks. You have an awful lot to gain by focusing all of your attention on the release (and monitization) of your game, and nothing to lose. Good luck!

Edit: derp, just saw that you're a father... maybe you could do a kickstarter to pay your bills while you keep working on the game?

concise fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Apr 4, 2013

# ? Apr 4, 2013 12:18

Mug: Apr 26, 2005

concise posted:

If you have any vacation and sick time, come Monday you could send an email to your boss saying there has been a family emergency and you have to go away for a while. Or just put in your two weeks. You have an awful lot to gain by focusing all of your attention on the release (and monitization) of your game, and nothing to lose. Good luck!

Edit: derp, just saw that you're a father... maybe you could do a kickstarter to pay your bills while you keep working on the game?

No kickstarter in Australia. I'm taking two weeks unpaid leave before PAXAus. I don't have holiday pay / sick leave where I work. Just doing what I can

# ? Apr 4, 2013 12:29

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# ? Jun 1, 2024 11:16

concise: Aug 31, 2004; Ain't much to do
'round here.

That sucks, but you rock. Got a PayPal?

# ? Apr 4, 2013 12:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Post screenshots of stuff you're working on!

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