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ZXodus][Engine
#46
boriel Wrote:
cheveron Wrote:I'll be adding more details to the notes section of the page over the coming week. So far I've covered character classes and spells. Next up, weapons.
One thing, the official ZXodus][Engine page is the FB one?
Yes, that's the official page.
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#47
I've put a tech doc describing the memory allocation up at the site (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://facebook.com/zxodus">http://facebook.com/zxodus</a><!-- m -->). I've also put up a couple of links that may be of interest.
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#48
Just a small update to say that I've got the secondary rainbow processor that displays the overhead map coded. It only changes the attributes every four rows which means it can use loops and thus comes in at under 100 bytes. Hoping to have a demo of fully explorable world with towns some time this year.
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#49
Working on the scaler code to display the monster tiles in the dungeon now.
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#50
Finished the scaler. It takes a single ColorTILE format tile and magnifies the bitmap and attributes by a factor of three to create nine tiles. The whole code is 550 bytes which is less than the space required to store a single 3x3 tile sprite. Also, doing magnification by a factor that is not divisible by 2 is non-trivial so I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. Smile Pics on the facebook page as usual.
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#51
Damn it!! You're blazing fast :!: Big Grin
BTW, just a notice: ZXBASIC 1.4.x is done finally (still testing it). But it seems we'll have a new version the next month. 8)
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#52
boriel Wrote:Damn it!! You're blazing fast :!: Big Grin
BTW, just a notice: ZXBASIC 1.4.x is done finally (still testing it). But it seems we'll have a new version the next month. 8)

I'll hold off doing any coding in ZXBASIC until it's released. I'm working on the 3D dungeon views next. Which means I've finalized the dungeon format. You get four dungeons, each with 8 levels. Each level is on an 8x8 map, but the map loops at the edges so your rooms don't have to be square. That's 2K of data for the maps, but there will need to be other information stored. It may be that there's actually room for more dungeons, but memory is already starting to get tight so I want to leave myself some breathing room.
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#53
For most purposes, ZX Basic 1.4 (yes, 1.4, not 2.x) can be used exactly as current ZX Basic 1.3 (it maintains the compatibility).
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#54
boriel Wrote:For most purposes, ZX Basic 1.4 (yes, 1.4, not 2.x) can be used exactly as current ZX Basic 1.3 (it maintains the compatibility).

What do I need to be careful about for the 2.0 release? I'm mainly relying on the IF ... THEN functionality to script the game engine. Also on the dungeon front I've decided to limit the number of tiles to 16 which will cut the memory overhead in half as it will be possible to store two tiles in a byte.
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#55
cheveron Wrote:
boriel Wrote:For most purposes, ZX Basic 1.4 (yes, 1.4, not 2.x) can be used exactly as current ZX Basic 1.3 (it maintains the compatibility).

What do I need to be careful about for the 2.0 release? I'm mainly relying on the IF ... THEN functionality to script the game engine. Also on the dungeon front I've decided to limit the number of tiles to 16 which will cut the memory overhead in half as it will be possible to store two tiles in a byte.
Nothing: 2.x is the same as 1.4. I prefer to use 1.4 numbering scheme yet. I will change it's scheme to 2.x when *External* changes (like the IF) were added. But we all (you included) must discuss such changes first Wink
For example, I see that IF could be more Sinclair BASIC (and FreeBASIC) Compatible if doing this way:
Code:
IF (condition) THEN <several sentences> : REM END IF not needed here.

IF (condition) THEN ' This is a multilne if. No instructions after THEN, but REM or ' comments allowed
  <sentences here>
END IF ' Closes IF
I think I could implement the 1st one (the previous one is already done, we know).
Another things I think should be removed:
Forbid goto/gosub to jump into/out from functions (this crashes the compiler and this problem also exist in FREE Basic)
Also warning silence is almost available now (finally), and etc. etc.
I will release a pre-pre-alpha this evening. It needs more testing before retiring 1.3.x
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#56
The dungeon engine is almost ready. Because it's going to be a long time before ZXodus is complete I've teamed up with another coder to attempt to make Dungeon Crawler Construction Kit available for 48K machines this year. This will be a commercial release and we have a publisher lined up. It will include a level editor that runs on the Spectrum and outputs a game file that can be used with the engine. As well as the level maps you'll be able to edit the monster sprites. There will also be an example game file. You'll be able to distribute your game files, but a copy of the original will be required to play them (legally). Think of it as a simpler version of Bard's Tale Construction Set. My share of any profits will go towards the development of the game I'm writing for ZXodus.
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#57
Video now up of the 3D engine in action: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=664489770258919&set=vb.646456712062225&type=3&video_source=pages_video_set">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=66 ... _video_set</a><!-- m -->
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#58
cheveron Wrote:Video now up of the 3D engine in action: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=664489770258919&set=vb.646456712062225&type=3&video_source=pages_video_set">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=66 ... _video_set</a><!-- m -->

That looks really impressive.
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#59
This is really awesome!
I guess designing a different dungeon is not that hard if one is good at graphics!

PS: Just settled in Barcelona :roll: :wink:
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#60
britlion Wrote:That looks really impressive.
boriel Wrote:This is really awesome!

Thanks. There was a lot of hard work involved.

Quote:I guess designing a different dungeon is not that hard if one is good at graphics!
Just being good at graphics is not enough. You also need to be able to take account of how the tiles fit together, because many of the tiles are used for more than one purpose. And then you have to decided if you prefer a lot of shading, or more multi-color.

Quote:PS: Just settled in Barcelona :roll: :wink:
Hope that works out for you. I hear it's a nice city.
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