Procedural RPG assistant

Community Forums/Showcase/Procedural RPG assistant

Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#1]


A generic RPG assistant app, proceduraly generates a dungeon on 5 levels of a massive scale, used for tabletop or computer aided RPGs, It helps a solo or group players play on a computer, there are encounters and treasure, but its generic allowing you to dice it with your own rules.

I found it hard to play solo, while keeping a world in the background, you use this app to generate rooms doors and locations aswell as treasure items and NPCs and monsters, its generic you wont see any names or titles, its just to help with mapping etc..

https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper

runs on windows or Mac

you cant complain about the graphics there arnt any :)


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#2]
Bloody hell! I said you're concepts were superb, and I'm sticking to it. This is ingenious. the mechanics are unlike anything I've seen before, but with a familiarity to them. so kudos to you.

it's a puzzle, it's a maze and it has a clear goal. and it's a definate rogue-like as well!

What are your plans for it? Would you like help in taking it further (graphics, sound, etc) to see where it goes?


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#3]
I have to sleep because I worked on it non stop, but I will be back, Adam If you would like to , your kind offer to take it further sounds great! I was thinking tiles for the floor and small connecting walled pieces, but they have to be same size as what Ive done, and then stairs going up and down that drop on top of the tiles(quarter size) then a treasure chest, and 3 figures for Neautral NPSs & Friendly NPCs(I want a modern feel like humans and werewolfs) and a monster(I want a vampire if possible) a blood type backdrop.

I was thinking the figures could be on the corners of the tile Head tapering to tiny feet going inward. they need to be easy to distinguish from each other. its a small space to work with that will take real skill to design. even very sparse graphics could work I don't know its your department Adam.

The tile could be completely walled, and the corradors overight them with openings, (one thing the Left and right corradors have to be identicle, and the top and bottom corradors have to be identicle, so really there are only 2 coradors up and right.

I want to leave the right side black still, with the clean menu as is, but Maybe some nice borders etc, the whole screen just needs a single png I think.

also an intro screen, with instructions rarther than my text screen, maybe.

These are just my ideas I was thinking on, but feel free to make the best choices, because I'm not just saying this Adam, your a fantastic artest

PS A GOOD IDEA WOULD BE A TILE MUCH BIGGER WITH BIGGER FIGURES ETC.. TO DISPLAY BOTTOM RIGHT , AN ENLARGED VIEW SORT OF.

ps2, THERE ARE 5 LEVELS SO GRAPHICS CAN HAVE 5 THEMES FROM THE DARKEST PITS UP TO SEWERS .


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#4]
ok. You go have some rest - you've earned it.

I'm going to list a few things, just so they are straight - I'm just jotting stuff down for clarity
- fixed res at 1024x768
- looked at 8x8 - too small. 16x16 feels better as a font size
- grid/cell size (16x16) = 64x48 which sound like a good ascii size and working size

- lets assume that we are working with a square playing area. So play area =48x48 (green), info area in now smaller at 16x48 (blue)
NOTE- the colors are just there to show the different areas. they are not going to be in the game -lol

- the info panel looks a bit small so lets give it an extra 4 cells wide:

play area is now 44x48 info area is 20x48

- next lets add some basic borders of 2 cells:

I've darkened the grids showing the new internal sizes. These are the areas where we will put things. the borders can be drawn at a later time.

Keeping the play area square means we loose some space at the top or bottom. at this stage it doesn't matter we can use it for a title or a timer or whatever. We can even scale the graphics a touch so they aren't quite square-but square enough..

So what are the actual sizes in pixels?
play area starts at 2,2 and goes to 41,45 which is 32,32pixels 640wide (40 characters)
info area starts at 44x2 which is 704pixel 288wide (18 characters)

Sooo. Any info text must be less than 18 characters in total length

looking at the play area we have 40 characters and displaying generally 7-10 rooms width. lets make this 8? 8 is a nice number of rooms to show. and divides into 40 nicely giving 5x5cells per room:


This now gives 5x5cells = 80x80 pixels for each room tile/cell.

ok. I can code this up in monkey2 or you can amend the current blitzmax code to this format. What are your thoughts? There are no graphics yet, just the general grid of 16x16 to adhere to ;)


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#5]
ok taking all the above, what we need is a background base.
So in the render method/function I'm calling it OnRender()

we clear the screen to black
then we display the background. which is s single bitmap with a hole it it to let the black show through.
Here is the png, with suitable castle wall texture and shading


You can see the borders, the hole (where the tiles live) and a greyed out (so the text will not fight with it) info panel

As an aside, if we were looking at mobile then we could use the same graphics but rotate it 90 degrees clockwise


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#6]
quick google for general dungeon layout of ui kept coming back to dungeon master - particularly the movement buttons which seem to be prevalent amongst others. so lets nick them along with the display of name/health and holding.

NOTE: this is just photoshop, but gives us a better feel for what is going on. the button can light up fade out showing the available directions. Also lets add keyboard controls U=up, d=down arrow keys for movement. We could use the area underneath the main widow as help/hint text area now...



The general look and feel will now be familiar to anyone who likes this sort of game. we can tweak everything ;)


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#7]
What i'm going to do is do a quick code with blitzmax, that way I can send you any graphics code you might need, and you won't have to worry about any of that sort of thing ;) I'll try to keep any code to a minimum and nice and simple


Derron(Posted 2016) [#8]
Just a side note (not at hkme now...so no graphics).

As the info panel will get a drop shadow for an more intense "depth" effect... I would do the same for the "hole. This gives it a more god-like view to thr game (and you as player-god steer your hero through the adventures yet to come).

Ok these shadows should be done with extra images ("layers") and are drawn after tiles texts etc are rendered. Right before a custom mouse cursor or tooltips.

This then avoids trouble with information text being drawn over shadowed areas. Using above's approach nicely shadows text in a "deeper" part of the screen.


PS: I assume you (Adam) should give Mainsworthy some placeholder graphics to ease doing what you suggested.




Bye
Ron


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#9]
Yep, the initial 'background' png is supplied, the rest is about the grids, sizes, etc, so no other graphics exist at the moment.
The above image with the button, etc, is just a photoshop test.

I accept what you are saying about the shadows, but I don't want to overwhelm Mainsworthy at the moment. What he has done is come up with the concept and basic gameplay. I want to first introduce the grid and then move one step a time ;)


Derron(Posted 2016) [#10]
I fully understand that... Just was a side nite before I forget it again. Think of it as a todo list.


Bye
Ron


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#11]
ok. After doing a quick room sizing. I thought it would be better to double them in scale. So there would be 4x4 rooms shown on screen at any one time.

This means we can use bigger graphics with a bit more detail. After doing a search I thought that keeping with the 2d style would be a nice approach. With the background (those cells you haven't visited yet) being dirt. Mainsworthy mentioned vampires and blood style background, but dirt gives a more harmonious feel with vampires living in the dirt.

So here is a quick mock-up with the enlarged cells and characters - hero and werewolf...



It has a cute but friendly style to it. I particularly like the breakout of the characters over the edge frame.
It would be good to try and animate the character from individual parts - something I've not done, but I do know the concept and process.
Thoughts?

The main key difference from Mainsworthy's original concept would be to lessen the floor up/down routes, so there are much less of them. So you are dealing with a floor with entries and exits rather than each cell virtual having an up and down. Of course, there could be cave ins, cases, floors that give way, etc...


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#12]
I JUST PEEKED AT THIS, STILL TIRED, BUT A FEW THOUGHTS YOU MAY NEED, FIRST OFF in each square you need space for 3 Types of NPC and a chest and 2 stairs all in same tile, I know the bigger graphics are nicer but it wont work gameplay wise. the smaller the better, there can be a larger enlarged dispay of each cell as you travel through it bottom right, the size of the grid I want to keep as is, you need to work within the bounderies of what exists not what you are doing here. the skill comes from getting the graphics looking good for the game, not making the game to fit the graphics. I'ts very very important that 2 stairs icons and 3 icons for figures and a chest all fit in one tile, the size of the grid also effects gameplay if you increase the tile size the puzzle maze becones much to difficult its a 1000x1000 in size, you need to work with what exists Adam.

the buttons and background look nice.

I'm not sure you doing this is a good idea, its not fitting with the game, if you want to fit whats in the game its ok, but changing the size of tiles etc isn't going to work, In a perfect world it would be fine to have the best graphics, but to sacrifice gameplay wont work, Adam I don't really like what your doing here, but I know you can do a good job, jusy you need some hard bounderies


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#13]
ok after the initial shock, I can shrink the playing area from 1000x1000 to say a 50x50 to allow big tiles, and I can reduce whats in a tile to one thing a chest or an NPC , the tiles though have!!! to be an enclosed square with walls all round then the corridors get pasted onto the edges to give the effect of an exit.the tiles have to allow space for the coradors between the tiles!!!! The game would look nice your right but Its not what I envisioned.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#14]
the rooms are not multi tiles its one tile per room, The coradors have to be interchangeable from left to right(identicle) and up down.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#15]
to be honest its looking like a cute game, rather than a serious RPG, it would have cuteness and look nice. and it may even play good thinking about a small area, you stretched my mind here, I'm not sure its going to be more than 1000s of other games.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#16]
Also the grid moves around the player, so you need an odd number of cells like 5x5 or 7x5 etc... the active cell is the centre, you don't move the player around you move the grid.

the tiles can be put together with no space inbetween, but the must be enclosed by walls, then the corridor graphic gets pasted on to open up the exit. I don't want you to code anything Adam,

I'm struggling as I'm not as experienced as you with making a game look good, but its sinking in it could look good.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#17]
Ojk Adam, I am going to put this on hold, as we are going in different directions, this is what I'm going to do if you want to do this that would be great, if not we will work on your version in a few weeks.

first I want to work with the dimentions I already have, but the tiles can be as big as the tile and corradors. so the screen will fill with square tiles with doors pasted on. I want to make a set of tiles maybe 50 for different tiles like a space station maybe or a sewer system, or even an urbun area.

I want small tiles to be placed ontop of the tile like stairs and trapdoors.

I need 3 different NPCs and a chest to fit on a tile with the stairs, one NPC just wont work gameplay wise.

I'm looking at an export PNG to use in a real RPG, I don't know yet never done this.

I want backgrounds and menu buttons like you already posted.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#18]
ok I will post dimentions as I go

the grid is 9 tiles by 7 tiles


tiles 55 pixels width
75 pixels height

tiles have a border all round 5 pixels(this is the wall)

I want a lot of tiles maybe 50, of a theme. like underground , or a space station etc...

left right door doors 5 width 16 height
up down door 16 width 5 height

the doors fit together to and double in width so a left and a right door would butupto eachother and form a door 10 width and 16 hieght


forgive my rigid requirements Adam your a gfx guy, I'm into gameplay, I know you do gameplay too, I know what I want from this game


Derron(Posted 2016) [#19]
Also the grid moves around the player, so you need an odd number of cells like 5x5 or 7x5 etc... the active cell is the centre, you don't move the player around you move the grid.


NO ... I assume you mean: the camera stays centered on the player.

So once you reach the left/top/right/bottom end of your labyrinth/maze the camera can stop following you (or at least does no longer _center_ to you). Because if you do not do that, you will never reach the outer limits of the maze, as you have to stay in the center of the screen. means on 5x5 you will never reach the last 2 rooms/cells/whatever.



@ RPG
Just thought of something in the likes of "Space Quest" (Hero Quest - if you know that board game). Might do well here too. And SciFi is less "worn out" than fantasy but also an "always cool"-attitude (androids, rusty dark corridors, hightech-upgrades, medikits...).
At least sci-fi eases the pain when it comes to 3d modelling (at least I think robotics are easier than organic modelling).


@ tile size
the smaller, the more "abstract" your indicators for the various items on a tile/map-cell have to be. so with 16x16 you would end up with small rectangles for each. With bigger ones, you can go graphical.

In your games history the next step does not need to be "fully polished", but to get somewhere, where your last projects did not end. A.k.a "advance a bit".

Of course Adam needs a bit more advanced (read more complex graphics) work to get interested - and to keep interested.

It is a good thing that you (mainsworthy) already started to accept a bit of what Adam offered - do not accept everything, discuss pros and cons. So all have to take, all have to give.



What was your initial reason to say no to bigger tiles? What gameplay reason is there, to have a need to see more than x tiles at the same time?


@ Cuteness
I am not sure, but I think the vampire and the werewolf are stripped from somewhere - at least they look different to the low-res-icons on the top right. Am not sure about the tiles either.
If they are "rapid prototypes" of Adam, then "wow, good job" - please more.

Do not forget (@mainsworthy) that cuteness attracts also other players. And behind cuteness a real "easy to play but hard to master" game gem could be hidden. I would prefer having a game looking good (maybe a bit cute) than hardcore-programmer-art which just stops others from even trying it out.
Making games is not just for oneself - because then you would not "showcase" them. You want to get "praised" for your game ("thanks", "thanks a lot", "good game"). So fetch as much potential audience as possible: with some good looking graphics.
If a character is too cute at the end, hey, a bit blood here, a bit brightness-degration there, and voila: the blood-thirsty and gore hunting wolf is ready to rip apart that androgyn looking vampyre with only one long teeth left - bringing home the spines of his victims.


bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#20]
https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper

Ive added a windows exe to the downloads, its the new graphic version. I want to add more tiles to the tiles.png there are 3 at the moment

Ive added alphablend to show unexplored tiles.

the gameplay needs a big viewable area, to allow you to see more areas to plan moves, small grids would be to hard to see where is a good place to go up or down a level and pop back up, I tried its not good with a small grid. BUT an enlarged View of the current tile bottom right is what adam would like I think.

you would never get to x-5 and y-5 if your coordinates are set right and grid starts at -5

I also think it is skillfull to make smaller graphics look good, its much harder, and more talented


Derron(Posted 2016) [#21]
In a 16x16 tile there are only 256 pixels. If you add walls (identifyable as differently looking walls with doors, torch holders etc) you need at least 2 pixels - making it a 12x12 tile for the rest. 144pixels for items, and other things? Nope, that won't work unless you sacrifice "look".

Another thing to consider: showing more tiles at the same time increases danger of "repeated patterns". Which is why you need multiple tile-graphics of the same "base tile" - just to make them look more variating.


@ x-5 and y-5
Of course you would need - your "grid starts as -5" is just a patch to the problem. If your grid started at 0,0 (which it should, eases the calculations) and your figure is at 2,2 you could easily center on the player. Now the player wants to move to the left (2,2 -> 1,2). In that case the camera must stop centering the player.
This is easily done by having limits for the camera, in this case the limit is , that the most left tile could not be smaller than 0, same for top. For the bottom and right sides it is tilesXMax, tilesYMax.

That way the camera would always center to the player but allows for reaching the outer parts.


Of course you surely do this already, it was just your phrase in that post above, which sounded odd ("the grid moves around the player").


@ big viewable area
This is a gameplay decision. What I would do is something different: having a normal "view" (with my old brain, I can only remember up to 2-3 tiles in all directions ;-)) but then something like a "map-view" which shows in an overlay the already explored dungeon. This overlay then could use these very small tiles with very small indicators - colored rectangles for chests, ladders, ...).
Gameplay wise you could even have this map get outdated (you only know what you have seen and annotated on that old piece of 'paper' you have found in that room with the skinned bodies). So if eg. rooms move (dark magic) then your map is outdated while the "live view" (5x5 tiles) corresponds to the current situation (if you call it "view" or "sense").


bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#22]
https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper

ok done a Mac & a windows version, added all the graphic place holders and info for adam to use when editing them, I made a big area display that adam will like I think.

I made all the graphics same size so they just paste ontop of others.

I made a 50 area tile selection, for things like torches, and items can be drawn in, you could put a chest on the main cell, but the big cell could show items in that chest, and the info above tells how many etc.. you could put all sorts of things on the big area display, I may make it more, maybe 100 or 200, I don't know yet, I'm going to work on the buttons for movement now.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#23]
derron, you have some good ideas,


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#24]
ok done the buttons, and added Adams backdrop, I also increased the area tiles to 150 , I think the program can cope with a png that's 45000x250 pixels, seems to the big png is 150 tiles of 300x250pixels, that correspond to the small tiles. I had to do some graphic stretching of the backdrop, perhaps adam want to correct it as its not perfect but will do.

https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#25]
ok fixed a display error, It was not showing NPCs if above 1, I needed to say > 0 and I put = 1 deh!

https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper

woo its getting good, graphics make a big impact.


Derron(Posted 2016) [#26]
> I think the program can cope with a png that's 45000x250 pixels

Ouch. You know that you could use multiple rows and columns?
10 × 100x50 could be 1000x50 or 500x100 or 200x250.

Also these tiles mustn't come from the same pixmap/image.

I would not go bigger than 4k*4k if it should run on older hardware.


Bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#27]
what do you mean Also these tiles mustn't come from the same pixmap/image. ?

It seem to run ok, I'm not to bothered about old hardware these days, even my cheap tablet is windows 8 .


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#28]
This is a World Of Darkness RPG assistant app

This is a World Of Darkness RPG assistant app, it procedualy maps the city, it has 5 levels tall buildings catacombs and deep pits and tunnels. you will find humans and werewolves and enemy vampires aswell as treasure. you use you own rules to dice out the encounter. this is for solo or a group tabletop RPG or computer aided rpg.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A DIFFERRENT LINK THAN THE ABOVE POSTS.

https://numbergamer8.itch.io/wod-rpg-assistant

adam its had a lot of improvements, the high levels only allow up or down to simulate tall buildings, same with the underground level but the very bottom requires pathways to move. ground level is free movement to simulate open movement in a city. there are humans werewolves and enemy vamps, I did all this to play world of darkness RPG solo, its less of a puzzle but I left the other version online to, this WoD theme is really needed for my own gaming requirements.

Ive done all the programming , just art needed so if you can fit the art to suit whats done that's great, I gave you credit in the txt file to, The big tiles2.png and the other ???2.pngs is where you will find room for artistic work


Derron(Posted 2016) [#29]
The tiles could be stored in multiple images instead of a single big one.


If you do not care about "old" hardware you might stop publishing software for use by others. A 45k wide texture is imho not supported everywhere. Will check that once I am on my computer.


Bye
Ron


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#30]
@Mainsworthy PLAESE immediately remove the buttons. They were lifted directly from a screenshot of dungeon master (copied) They still have cursor attached and I did say so.
You can get into all sorts of trouble for directly nicking stuff.

ok, crashes immediately on a mac - looks like there is a stream error - possibly trying to load something that isn't there?

Now... the only things i'm going to say about the above posts is to do with the graphics. You are wanting lots of different things at once. E.G. 5 different levels, multiple rooms per level, etc.
SIMPLIFY - at this stage
Get the operation right along with the look. That means 1 room (to begin with until everything if finalised)

the background graphics has been resized and cut at the bottom (the highlight is missing) of the info panel.

You also decided to ignore the (suggestion) to square off the rooms shapes.


no problem ;)

I'm going to end with a little story.
I worked on a magazine with an editor who that that an advert was just a some text and an image. so he bashed them out himself. I came in and tried to teach him - Less is more. use one font and NEVER use comic sans for anything.
later (after some more not so good ads and complaints) I had to sit him down and explain that comic sans is not viewed by people as a serious looking font "but I like it" he said, yada, yada yada.
The only way to stop comic sans in multiple sizes was to make sure others did the ads.

it seems we are getting things done, but are at the stage of:
heres an idea
heres a solution to said idea.
Heres my idea
you're not looking at the solution
yep I am, heres an idea - look i've changed the font


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#31]
actually. ignore everything and take one thing away with you. THE GRID

Have an 8x8 grid and fit everything to it. Why 8 - because thats what computer use (generally)

Here's a quick ascii mock up - see the grid in the background



Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#32]
Adam, I know you know whats required to look good, but gameplay strongly needs to be able to see lots of tiles to navigate the vast complex area. There is no way the game will work on a grid so small, and definatly not one room at at time( I know its a mockup but)

Adam I'm happy with the program now, so changing it dosnt make sence to me, It just needs the graphics replacing, I made all the pngs ready to edit. I know all your art and apps all run in a snap to grid, sorry about that, you thinking artistcaly and I'm thinking practicalities. ofcourse it would look better with bigger icons and such all games would but that's ok if your playing a simple game that requires less knowledge about the wider surroundings.

we need to agree to disagree, I know you think I'm not doing whats best, but I put a lot into creating a large window with about 7 pngs all overlaying ontop of a big tile, and its real time, so as you move the big window does too. I put backdrops and a final overlay in for you, I put an introscreen in waiting to be created, I made 150 floor tiles, and 150 big tiles, believe me if you want to make this game look good you have to room to do it. Ive also added a dice roller its not great located but it will do.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#33]
ok Ive finalised the position of the dice rollers, and cut the screen up. the bottom right window looks bright because no graphics are in the tiles2.png Its a big orange file

I'm not using a square, because the grid needs a centre, if you look at the game the grid moves and the player remains in the middle, so a square grid would make it look odd.


Derron(Posted 2016) [#34]
$ glxinfo -l | grep -i texture | grep -i max
    GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE = 16384
    GL_MAX_3D_TEXTURE_SIZE = 2048
    GL_MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE_ARB = 16384


So this means my GPU cannot handle images bigger than 16384 x 16384 pixels. If you really created a 45k-wide image, than it will fail to "LoadImage()" on my computer.


bye
ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#35]
thx Derron, I shall look into it, it says texture size, is that kbs or pixels, it looks like its a limit on the size of the entire texture not the width, and its looks like its a very low limit. the file is 11MB in pixels 48kb file not a lot for todays world it seems

Adam I know why were not agreeing , I'm creating an RPG tool that requires a lot of things a cute simple game would not, in any event Ive done my tool now so I'm happy, but your pushing does give me a great feeling of satisfaction when something is better than It would of normally been thankyou.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#36]
I think I can see why your into size and area uniformity, easy placements of items and buttons, and its reusable code. the problem with a centre is its not square but I see what you mean.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#37]
the screen and menus have got very busy, good job nothing was firmed up, Ive got 10 views and a dice roller, aswell as a graphic showing if area has already been visited.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#38]
I did some of the art for the new addition Space version, I added some tiles and cards that really spiceup the game, it shows what can be done

https://numbergamer8.itch.io/wod-rpg-assistant


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#39]
On MacOS:
proceduralRPG runs. click save - it crashes Error WriteINT

Wow and Space both crash on start with error ReadLine

so looks like you have errors with your loading/saving. possibly folders?


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#40]
Ok Adam I will check but it compiled ok,


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#41]
I just ran the both of them on my Mac just fine, and its the exact same files and folders for windows, did not alter any code just compiled it. There is one thing you should think on , you will get a crash if you try to load before you've made a save.

I don't know if my graphics card is better than yours, but its a few years old. and all versions work on everything I try.

I have to watch out that you could of brought a problem to light, maybe I could take out the read files for setup. have you run it from a hard drive or a slower USB or something? No one else has said anything but that dosnt mean its not happening. thankyou for telling me. I cant fix something that's working for me .


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#42]
ok, downloaded, unpacked - to Downloads
opened folder Downloads/WodProRGHelper26
double click WodProced......app - instant crash

Maybe you should try downloading and trying the same?


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#43]
insidently its WodProRGHelper26B it has a B are you running an old build, I also added a folder \view to the new version.

I have done what you said and downloaded and it ran fine on my Mac, I cant imagine whats happening, do you have a reliable internet connection, I'm not trying to daft It just works no problem here.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#44]
I downloaded both downloads from https://numbergamer8.itch.io/prorpghelper and https://numbergamer8.itch.io/wod-rpg-assistant and they both ran on my mac fine, thankyou adam for letting me know I know your having a problem, can you run it on windows because there identicle compiles to the Mac?


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#45]
maybe I should check the version of the blitz compiler,


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#46]
There's no reason for me to check the windows compile.

Thought for you - they are NOT the same compile. They are the same blitzmax code, but each are compiled into completely different code. windows and mac have a very different file system and using the same file location references can give very different results. E.G. working directory are not the same.

the actual file location of the mac executable is not codefile.app, but code.app/Contents/MacOS/codefile

Also bear in mind that MacOS is very case sensitive windows couldn't give a monkeys.

So myApp.app, Myapp.app and myapp.app are three different files in macOS but the same in windows!


Derron(Posted 2016) [#47]
>So myApp.app, Myapp.app and myapp.app are three different files in macOS but the same in windows!

Like said, this depends on the format you choose for your hard disc. I think newer ones are no longer case-sensitive.


@ mainsworthy
You could easily build in some checks:

local img:Timage = LoadImage(uri...)
if not img then print "Failed to load: ~q"+uri+"~q."

So if your app is run from the console the users see what might not load properly.


bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#48]
yes I as being lazy not putting inn those checks.


Derron(Posted 2016) [#49]
You could even wrap your "LoadImage()" into a "MyLoadImage()"


Within this "MyLoadImage()"-Function you could check first, if the file exists - and if not, inform the end user via some text on the application, a log entry, a notify-call ...


Lazyness is only allowed for the players, not for the creators :-)

bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#50]
Adam I will put all the files to lowercase next build.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#51]
one thing that's just occurred to me, is the program is compiled for an intel Mac, I know its probably not the problem. but our chatting here has shown the case sensitive issue so that's good to findout thankyou


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#52]
Ok I changed all the internal references to lower case png, your right I had some PNG

Ive cut the tiles into 3 because as Derron said the file was too big

Ive added pngs to the different vies so you can add a graphic like a character sheet

Ive made the last tile have a 1 in 4 chance of being selected, because you don't want every location to have a tile with something in it

Ive added new graphic for buildings and cellers in the WoD version


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#53]
I think I know why were differing with the graphics, I'm doing it all on a wide screen so it looks square to me, but Ive put a setting in the app to stretch to full screen, that may look better for you adam, I think my mac cuts the edges and does not fully stretch to the edges it may be better on yours, windows stretches full screen ok


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#54]
@mainsworthy out of interest. is your mac a real one (intel osx) or hackintosh?

Running macOS Sierra here on Mac mini with windscreen 1920x1200 display here, can also run on other macs and MacBook if need be.

Never assume the setup of users


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#55]
real intel, its a few years old about 4 or 5 I think. The screen is ok on my windows PC looks square as I'm stretching 1024x768 to fit a widscreen but on my mac it shows the true res and I see my app, it is rectangle, so I know what you are saying about the look of it. Id put it in fullscreen or run on windows

I just updated all versions space and WoD, I renamed the PNG to png and I checked everything works for me, but I don't know if it will be any good for you.


AdamStrange(Posted 2016) [#56]
no joy this end V40B?

OK. Lets get to the bottom of this. Can you let me see the code? That way I can debug it for you ;)


Derron(Posted 2016) [#57]
Do not rely on OS/Monitor-stretching.

-> use a fixed resolution you design your app for, and use a "real" resolution for fullscreen. If the aspect-ratios differ, you use letterboxes.

There is code flying around here on the forums (virtual resolution).

One of the common used ones is this:
https://github.com/GWRon/Dig/blob/master/base.util.virtualgraphics.bmx


bye
Ron


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#58]
thankyou for the offer Adam, but I would rather debug, and it works on my mac, so maybe its not for everyone, I may even not carry on with mac versions if I get others not working.

Derron that's great, I will peruse that code.


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#59]
I like tabletop RPGs and apps that help, and this is an app I would want and pay for, its become one of my treasured possesions, it may not seem to you but for what I want it for there is nothing better. Ive programed just what I want , I'm happy :)


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#60]
Ive just updated the WoD version to correct the oblong effect, instead of 55x75 its 85x75 so should look better, I left the space version for now its no my main aim . https://numbergamer8.itch.io/wod-rpg-assistant


Mainsworthy(Posted 2016) [#61]
I have to admit Derren found the graphics file was to big, and Adams graphic Pushes has made me find out I was stretching my screen and didn't realise what other people was seeing, thankyou Adam for your repeated Patience to keep telling me it was wrong, I use a big TV as a monitor on 1024x768 because its very old, so the screen looked totally different to a normal users setup, So I just increased the width of the Map tiles to look better , THey look stretched on my seup now LOL


Derron(Posted 2016) [#62]
Maybe you should set the screen aspect ratio of your tv from ewide/smart to 4:3... Or use a widescreen res.


Bye
Ron