Game Development

Jon

12:20 AM

Kids were playing my game tonight and having a blast

Feelsgoodman

I needed that

Also. Fuck it is amazing on tablets

Sie

I've got a relatively old laptop on my hands and it works fairly well but I notice that any having to deal with accessing the HDD it starts to chug a bit. Would upgrading to a cheap-ish SSD help much? Like I know it will but I'm trying to gauge the amount it will.

In task manager it frequently shows the disk access being maxed out.

@Jon Oh ya you got two big ones coming your way.

There we go. Got it.

Jon

Eh.

Old laptop probably doesn't support ssd

@Sie ohhhh thanks man!

Sie

No problem :). I really liked what I played before. Plus it's nice to see a modern successor to Red Remover anyway.

Jon

Cool man please rate it 5 stars :D

Love you

Sie

Lol. Will do.

Almo

12:30 AM

Typsy tower 2 is hard

Sie

@Jon Well this site claims that it supports SSD's: crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Acer/…

And by the way no way in hell I'm paying them especially at that insane premium.

Jon

@Almo I adjusted the par

Oh sorry no I didn't

You think it's hard? Haha

Sie

Getting that Cookie Clicker urge out of your system Jon? lol.

Jon

12:45 AM

My son lol

Ok almo. I need to fix that level it's too hard. Thx

Jon

1:25 AM

5-3 fix change to circles
3-21 too hard
5-6 too easy lol
3-27 star impossible

Almo

@Jon :D

arda

3:41 AM

This is how you should make your ingame dev console

Slereah

5:07 AM

bloody hell

Damn raycasting

Slereah

5:46 AM

There, all fixed

bornander

6:43 AM

@Jon GORB is cool, my 6-year old likes it as well although she does get through some of the levels entirely using trial and error.

Leggy7

8:18 AM

@ChrisMcFarland some share for Supercore? dafuck?

sn0k3

8:41 AM

Hi

Any opengl gurus here?

Almo

8:56 AM

let it not be said I never have problems with OSX. Just less often. A more tolerable level.

0

Q: Why is OSX telling me I can't open a document from an unidentified developer?

I thought this feature was only for apps, not for documents. This is a C# script file, and I've told it to open it with Visual Studio Code. I can open VS Code with no problem, so it doesn't seem to be the permissions on that.

Chris McFarland

@Leggy7 Eh what?

Leggy7

@ChrisMcFarland is it an axe, right? what would you like its translation to sound like?

Chris McFarland

Oh, that axe name, right. "Supercore..." I think I was dreaming of something that would have come from the core of a mountain

Leggy7

ok, fine :)

Chris McFarland

Looking at the other names (65, 55, 45, 35, 25 for that)

Hillcrush, Bouldering Axe, Rocksplitter, Pinebound
yeah definitely mountain side naming ideas haha

@Almo maybe it assumes some macro stuff is gonna happen, I dunno

Almo

9:01 AM

Seems really weird :(

the icon looks like a shellscript, but I told it to open them with an editor

Chris McFarland

Get a Mac - Vista Vs Mac - Security - New Mac Add

►

Every "Get a Mac" ads (2006-2009)

►

love these ads

Jon

@bornander cool :)

Almo

9:21 AM

:D

bornander

@jon Rated 5 out of 5.

@Jon It feels very polished. Makes me want to do another iteration on the UI of my own current project.

Slereah

One nice thing about Rimworld is that it draws the paths that the characters take

You can see how often theyupdate the pathfinding

Leggy7

9:45 AM

@ChrisMcFarland what are magnight granades?

Chris McFarland

I don't know
A play-on of "midnight" and "magnum" probably

Leggy7

@ChrisMcFarlandrofl you have a fucking huge load of items

Free Internet Points

6

Q: How do I move the camera in full pixel intervals?

Basically I want to stop the camera from moving in subpixels, as I think this leads to sprites visibly changing their dimensions if just ever so slightly. (Is there a better term for that?) Note that this is a pixel-art game where I want to have crisp pixelated graphics. Here's a gif that shows t...

libgdx pixel

Jon

@bornander yay

When betas attack

Kicked Out!

►

Chris McFarland

10:01 AM

@Leggy7 Yep lol

sn0k3

ooooooooooooooooooh

Shaders are sometimes pain

actually annoying

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I DID IT

I found the error, and I FIXED IT

WOHOHOOOOO

Leggy7

10:40 AM

@ChrisMcFarland please you need to help me with these granade names. I have an hard time understanding some of them

druglope, what does it mean?

DH.

@Jon 330 stars so far, only thing I want to report is that 7-13 is acting a bit weird at the start, some hexagons are already moving, making the level easier to complete you take advantage of that to remove some shapes

Jon

11:00 AM

Ah cool

Chris McFarland

@Leggy7 urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=loped

Honestly I was just putting two nouns together to create a silly name haha

Leggy7

rofl

quite lol name for granades

Chris McFarland

Yeah I was stretching for ideas

Leggy7

11:19 AM

you were probably high

Chris McFarland

Pretty sure I came up with all the weapon names in one sitting

was quite the flow

Wouldn't surprise me if I was slightly drunk at the time too

Leggy7

@ChrisMcFarland don't you think Emerald Dagger of something is a bit too redundant?

I mean dagger is emerald and also something else

Chris McFarland

Well, they aren't normal daggers
they're *emerald* daggers ;)

If you think it's too redundant, go ahead and take out Emerald for some of them

DH.

Didn't you played the game to know why the all the daggers are emerald Leggy?

Ali.S

11:53 AM

they all are?

DH.

In Tallowmere, yeah

Ali.S

well the "emerald" part actually makes sense but I had a feeling there was normal daggers in the game too.

DH.

There's no lore, but all the daggers after some time out of combat makes you invisible, something that remembers me the Emerald Dream of WoW

Ali.S

yeah... invisibility was the reason I said emerald part makes sense

Leggy7

12:20 PM

I don't own a copy of the game. I saw that all daggers are emerald loooking the sheet Chris gave

Ali.S

12:53 PM

this game looks good:

store.steampowered.com/app/435530?snr=1_41_4__42

Jon

Fuck that's a good idea

DH.

Now I'm curious but I can't see it because I'm at work

Jon

Trains. You shoot people inside and outside of driving trains

You operate a train and have to help people on board. Your goal is to reach the station. How are they going to make that portion of the game interesting

user92578

I decided that it was about time I add a Super Meat Boy reference level to the game

user92578

1:07 PM

The level also works as a nice introduction to the spinning blades

user92578

Dude decided to do the traditional one-sprite-per-frame animation, but in 3D: gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/129295/…. Ouch

DH.

I like how I'm going to die there a few times

user92578

I died too, so no problem!

user92578

It's actually a really easy level

user92578

Just don't drop to those lower platforms, there's no way up

user92578

1:10 PM

Incase you don't remember all SMB levels:

user92578

Jon

Cool shit man

Reported! Holy fuck blatant rip

user92578

:)

arda

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Oh wow... phantasmagoria is available in a humble bundle..!

Almo

1:22 PM

@Jon hey gonna work on gorb now

you got more changes to send to me?

Yes

ok

Some level tweaks

do you want an "App Preview" sent? that's a video

developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/…

ok

Jon

That link doesn't work on mobile

Almo

1:25 PM

oh you on mobile

Jon

Yeah at work

Almo

ok it describes the bitrates and sizes of the app rpeviews they like

so do I wait for you to send changesd?

or you want the version I have up?

as of tonight, I'm in Maine until monday

Jon

I'll send you something now hold on

Almo

ok

shop keywords?

Ali.S

@Tyyppi_77 you could get back up in case of SMB

man I'm not sure but I think I could only (safely) pass that level if I directly jumped from one side to the other without getting help from those platforms

I'm not sure how I'm going to pass them in you game (with out ridiculous jump time!)

Jon

1:30 PM

Physics puzzle cartoon fun challenge gravity best

Almo

ok

Jon

Tablet

I want to emphasize designed for tablets

I am gonna update my store listing.

A guy I know said he would make a trailer around the 8 of September

Almo

ok

I can add that later

Jon

I don't want to say designed for tablets 5hough since phone users might say fuck that

1 min eta

Almo

store.steampowered.com/app/400450

this game looks cool

arda

1:40 PM

@Almo +1 for 60fps trailer

Almo

i get 5 screenshots on iOS

you know which one you want?

Jon

the ones I have on the play store are fine

if you have to make new ones, try to get some action shots, not a big deal

Almo

ok

Jon

code update sent -- version 1.04

user92578

@Ali.S I know

Ali.S

1:42 PM

I love if you can add more references to other games as well

maybe I could help with that?

or every body else in this room

user92578

Also, it's easier to land on small platforms in GH than in SMB, so the level is pretty easy. You can get past two of the blades on one rotation, and then just wait one rotation, and jump to the exit.

user92578

Well basically I would want to add references to games that mean something to me personally.

user92578

It would be pretty awesome to add a reference here and there.

arda

@Tyyppi_77 I have a cool idae

you have people you can talk, hire etc?

name them with our names (of the people who wants ofc)!

user92578

Umm, currently there is not really any story in the game, and I don't plan to have a lot

arda

1:45 PM

@Tyyppi_77 any plans for hiring people etc, or the people you save helping you?

user92578

I have a very vague idea of what I want to add to the game story wise, but in general I want to keep it quite minimal, as my cutscene system is really basic and I didn't really set out to make a story game

user92578

@arda not really

user92578

But who knows what'll happen once I start bringing the campaign together

Almo

fuk never finished TIS-100. two levels to go. really do NOT feel like asm programming at the moment though

user92578

lol

Jon

1:48 PM

@Almo thanks man.

Almo

oh shit gotta do the contract still

will get that to you today I hope

Jon

if not no worries

i don't expect you to fuck me too hard

Almo

hahah :)

Jon

How long for approval process again?

arda

@Jon up to a few weeks

Almo

1:58 PM

it's a couple days now

they changed it

DH.

They still charge 99$/y?

Jon

Almo

hahah :D

@DH. yes

DH.

Fuck Apple

Almo

i've worked with android enough now to say, no. fuck google.

android is the worst to develop for

we spend weeks fucking around with android-specific problems on our gma

Ali.S

2:04 PM

@Jon you actually sold more than $500 copies of picross

Almo

and a couple days with iOS

Ali.S

why are you upset?

Almo

there's just no comparison

Just look up the problems you get with Adreno GPUs on specific devices.

what a hassle

DH.

Ah yeah, Android is really bad to deal with, but all the prices with Apple, it's just like paying to get fucked

Almo

shaders don't work, other horrible shit

you pay to get tools that WORK

hardware that's homogeneous, so you test on 6 devices, not thousands.

like, the Asus ZenPhone 2 has a problem with our game at work

DH.

2:06 PM

And a fucking Mac costs half of my yearly income, because reasons

Almo

wtf man are we supposed to have one of each type of device?

DH.

ZenPhone was the worst idea

Almo

android was the worst idea

Let's make phones have the same hardware/driver issues that PCs do! GREAT IDEA

@Jon you got a cheat to unlock all these levels?

DH.

Isn't that the Guru one?

Almo

oh yeah, I think so

hmm didn't work

maybe there's a certain order

Jon

2:08 PM

There is a order

Almo

ok

Jon

What do you mean 500$? On Android?

Almo

can you tell me what it is? :)

Jon

Look at my twitter @coderjon

Ali.S

@Jon well your game has price tag of 1$ and you sold more than 500 copies on google play

it has 500-1000 installations

Jon

2:10 PM

Check out @coderjon's Tweet: twitter.com/coderjon/status/770262303388340224?s=09

Almo

@jon nothing happens when i do that

forget it

didn't stop to see the about part :)

user92578

You'll never guess who's doing some debugging :)

user92578

(It shows the calculated bounding boxes for all sprites, which I use for queuing stuff from the rendering QuadTrees)

Almo

:D

user92578

2:20 PM

The arms of the spinners are the trouble makers, as you can perhaps see

user92578

I was noticing that the bottom spinners didn't show their arms, and this is why

user92578

(I hacked this code in, but I probably should add it to my regular debugging toolkit)

DH.

@Tyyppi_77 If I had to see this in fullscreen, my eyes would be bleeding

user92578

:)

Almo

@Jon you have mail, screenshots on 12.9 inch tablet res look weird going to check in the editro

ok forget it, it's just the screenshot tool not quite working

user92578

2:30 PM

Fix'd

user92578

Or... is it?

DH.

It's just me or your sawblades have gigantic bounding boxes?

user92578

If you read above, you'll find out that those are not the bounding boxes

user92578

Hmm, the arms are still not rendered, however all the sprite boundings seem valid now

user92578

2:35 PM

Ohh... this is not a QuadTree culling issue

user92578

The renderer discard the arms, because their positions are offscreen

user92578

But because their rotation turns them...

user92578

So, the solutions are A) Add more padding to the culling that happens in the renderer, or B) calculate more stuff in the Render() function, which would be cleaner, but might impact performance more

Almo

@Jon when you want picross to go free?

Jon

Not now

Around Christmas time.

Alexandre Vaillancourt

2:45 PM

Is this on topic?

1

Q: Backup virtual goods to survive game reinstalls

I'm developing a game using Unity3D (for Android and iOS). I would like to save all user's virtual goods, so they are available even if the user remove and reinstall the app, or even if the user install it on a new device. AFAIK an approach would be to authenticate the user, and save all the dat...

unity

Almo

@Jon ok

@AlexandreVaillancourt i say too broad

there are a lot of ways to do this

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I voted to close because not specific to game dev..

user92578

const CBoundingBox* GetBoundingBox();
const CBoundingBox* GetBoundingBox() const;

user92578

Is that acceptable in C++? Or should I just name the second method to something like GetBoundingBoxConst()?

Alexandre Vaillancourt

const CBoundingBox* GetBoundingBox() const;
      CBoundingBox* GetBoundingBox();

user92578

2:49 PM

Hmm, on the other hand, I could also just make a member mutable

user92578

The method uses a dirty flag, so if it is set, the CBoundingBox is recalculated and the flag is reset

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Why do you need a non-const then?

user92578

Because the flag is modified, so the method can't be marked const

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Ok, so yeah, const CBoundingBox* GetBoundingBox() const; with the mutable flag!

user92578

That's the way to go here?

Kevin van der Velden

2:51 PM

@Tyyppi_77 if neither one modifies anything why have 2?

@Tyyppi_77 oh that's why

Yeah just do mutable

Alexandre Vaillancourt

@Tyyppi_77 Yeah

The contract to the users is 'don't modify this shit, and it's not going to affect internal state, at least to you'..

user92578

Aight. I'm always a bit vary on using the mutable, but I guess it was put there for a reason

Kevin van der Velden

> as often used for mutexes, memo caches, lazy evaluation, and access instrumentation

This is lazy evaluation (pretty much)

user92578

Yeah

user92578

I think I've only used it once so far, which was for a random generator

user92578

2:54 PM

It modifies it's state, but I felt like GetRandomNumber() should look const to the user

Kevin van der Velden

No :|

It changes externally visible state

Having a random number generator that is useless while const is perfectly fine

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Yeah, in this case if you call the method many times, it will not always return the same value..

user92578

It just seemed idiotic to me that I couldn't access my random number generator from const methods

user92578

Josh didn't seem to have a problem with that back in the day when I was wondering about this

Alexandre Vaillancourt

I'd say that in this case it's up to you :P

user92578

2:57 PM

Yeah I was just about to say that while I understand where you guys are coming from and with what experience, this is how I like it :)

Kevin van der Velden

@Tyyppi_77 have a GetLastNumber?

user92578

But that's not random

Kevin van der Velden

It's constant, it's supposed to be the same thing every time =p

(And if you need a sequence, seed a RNG with GetLastNumber)

user92578

string NameGenerator::GetRandomName() const { return "Name" + std::to_string(random.next()) + std::to_string(random.next()); }

user92578

Now that wouldn't be valid, if random::next() wasn't const, while to me, it seems reasonable that GetRandomName() is const.

user92578

2:59 PM

But this might just be me overusing const.

Kevin van der Velden

Sounds like it, after all it's incorrectly named. The full name would be GetNewRandomName

user92578

Possibly. All though to me already the NameGenerator::GetRandomName() part indicates heavily that the name returned is random, and generated, so very possibly a new thing.

Almo

3:40 PM

@Jon getting the launch image and splash set up

will send back project once it's done

conditionally compiles for iOS, so shouldn't affect android

user4704

@Tyyppi_77 mutable?

user92578

I'll try to find the conversation

user4704

I don't remember it and I'm not sure what's going on now, but if you really need to generate a random number from a const method just make the generator mutable (if it's a member).

user4704

Or pass the generator as a parameter. This might be better depending on the context.

user92578

Right, that seems like the solution now. I actually often times (in my entity logic) inherit the random generator from a base class.

user92578

3:45 PM

Mar 31 at 15:51, by Josh Petrie

mutable std::default_random_engine m_engine;

user92578

Actually, you just said that.

user4704

:D

user4704

I try to avoid mutable where possible, since I feel like it detracts from the purity of a const instance.

user92578

I asked if there was way to use my random generator in const methods.

user4704

However, if I need one, what I would do is:

user92578

3:46 PM

This might be a slight question about what one considers const.

user4704

"Is this member involved in any way in the comparison of two objects?"

user4704

Two const instances should always compare equal if they ever compare equal.

user4704

Similarly they should always hash equal.

user92578

Hmm, sounds like a good question to ask. However it seems troublesome in situations where comparing the type to another seems... weird.

user4704

So as long as you don't involve the value of m_engine or whatever other mutable values in the implementation of your operator== or any hashing functions for that type, I think it's okay to make something mutable.

user4704

3:47 PM

If you have to.

user92578

So I assume that in the real life, GetRandomInt(from, to) isn't const?

user4704

Any kind of pseudo-random generator in a computer has to involve mutating state, so they can't truly be const, no.

user4704

Now, an alternative would be to provide the generator to the random name generation function: std::string GetRandomName(Generator g);

user4704

This might be desirable if, for example, you have different streams of random numbers and you want to make sure you're always playing them back the same way.

user92578

I've tried to accomplish that with having the objects own their own random generators, so that in case I need to some day insert a system that replicates values, I could save the seed while serializing the object.

user92578

3:50 PM

(That was what I thought when I coded that part of the framework. Now, having less random generators seems like a slightly better idea.)

user4704

One per object seems a bit much. It's usually more like one per system.

user4704

Like you might have one for gameplay and one for rendering.

user4704

Maybe a few more if you have both deterministic and non-deterministic aspects of gameplay.

user92578

Yeah exactly, but the noobish programmer that I was a while back realized that it's easier to access if everyone owns their own random generators just as a simple member

user4704

That's true.

user92578

3:56 PM

Looking at the code now though, it seems that almost all logic portions have an access to the owner CLevel, which could own a random generator for entities to use, for an example.

Alexandre Vaillancourt

4:18 PM

anyone knows what represents _Myhead in an std::map?

mine seems to be pointing at the wrong location :/

user92578

ouch

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Oh god, I hop I don't have something that writes at the wrong place... eek!

user92578

blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ambrosew/2013/01/15/…

user92578

There seems to be something about _Myhead

user4704

It's a head pointer into the tree.

user4704

4:21 PM

The thing that contains that map is likely bad.

user4704

Garbage or deleted, that kinda thing

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Yeah, either that, or I could be writing to an array outside its boundaries?

user4704

Or that.

user4704

Bad memory stuff.

Alexandre Vaillancourt

The head is correct when I initialize the object, but it's not (points to 0x00000005) when I'm about to use it...

user4704

4:23 PM

0x00000005 is an interesting value.

user4704

Set a memory breakpoint on &_Myhead.

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Err... is there a way to do that in the code (VS2013)? I found this to add data breakpoints, but I'm not sure yet how to get the address when debugging..

user92578

Umm, break somewhere in your code where you have access to the map, then open the breakpoint view, click New, and create a data breakpoint

user92578

Something like that, atleast in VS2015

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Ah I think I found a way..

Yeah, I did that to add the breakpoint, but I need to get the address of the _Myhead var

Ok, it's complicated but it worked for me: in the ctor of the containing class, I put a breakpoint, when the breakpoint is triggered, I expand the map variable down to the _Myhead value; then I drag this line to the Watch tab; I change the watched value and add an & to get the address.. copy-paste to a text file, extract the value and add a breakpoint to it.

@JoshPetrie thanks for that tip!

Honeybunch

4:45 PM

In the data breakpoint for the address you can really just put &_Myhead

so long as the debugger has broken at a scope where _Myhead is a variable

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Ok, I'll try that!

Oh, and of course, I fucked up by writing outside the boundaries of an array...

@Honeybunch Ok, I had to use the whole variable name, which is about 2k characters wide, but it works!

user4704

Yeah, you do generally get the best results if you use the fully-qualified name and let the debugger tell you that name (in a watch window, drag the field in question into its own watch slot and it will produce a gross expression that the debugger will generally always understand.

user4704

Unless it's on the stack and you leave that frame.

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Yeah, that's what I did! Fixing the error now!

(you don't want to type that by hand, a sure way to not get what you want :P)

Uri Popov

sup guys o/

Alexandre Vaillancourt

5:00 PM

Hello!

Uri Popov

how are things

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Wonderful! I'm about to eat :)

Uri Popov

hah I'm about to head to a bbq myself

well after I finish watching this new anime I found. Cant let social life get in the way of weebness :D

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Ah anime! Haven't been there for a while.. No time for that :P

Uri Popov

well I took a vacation day today cause I felt like it and why not watch some anime am I right :D

Alexandre Vaillancourt

5:04 PM

It's your vacation day, you can do whatever you want :D As long as it doesn't hurt others!

Uri Popov

true true. Well except hard drugs maybe :D

Alexandre Vaillancourt

Well doing hard drugs will generally end up affecting (hurting) those around you. So it's best avoided ;)

exactly

5:23 PM

nice world names

I adjusted the saturation in that bonus world text

Uri Popov

I think the other background colors should be moving as well but in their respecter color spectrums. Like a orange gradient going from left to right. Might look cool

Jon

Yeah maybe

Sie

5:40 PM

I forget who and which game it was but I remember reading some interview where the developer admitted to smoking pot and doing some lcd (maybe?) while developing the title.

Uri Popov

lsd dream simulator :D

DH.

> Doing some lcd

"Yo man, fuck Hitachi, let's make our own lcd"

Jon