New TileMap Engine
Community Forums/Showcase/New TileMap Engine
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| Hi All, This is the TileMap engine I'm making... its interface is currently crude but its coming along. Some of the features so far... Adjustable Tile Size (currently 32x32) Adjustable Map Size Dynamic Drawing / destruction Brush Creation for quicker map generation Can use multiple tilesets at the same time alpha tiles can be merged with others to create new tiles save/load brushes - only to default brush set currently save/load maps - only to default map currently collision and visual layers More to come but if you want to check it out... http://sites.google.com/site/skullyproductions/Home/TileMax.zip Please let me know what kind of FPS you get on the brush edit, map edit, and run game screens. Cheers {updated the link} |
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| I forgot to mention that this will be converted to BMax soon... I'm just waiting for my purchase :) It will be interesting to see the FPS differences between the two. |
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| Can anyone suggest more active game developer web sites? |
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| Can anyone suggest more active game developer web sites? And you wonder why no one has given you feedback yet? :D |
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| Can anyone suggest more active game developer web sites? I don't know any English forums, and certainly none that are more active than this one (forums related to BRL's products). |
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| Terry, When I frequented these forums a couple years ago it was an extremely active and helpful environment... that has definitely declined since (over 9 hours without a single response was unheard of then) and my last inquiry resulted in 2 people testing... but no biggy. I'm not saying I want to jump ship, just that there used to be other related forums (some in North America where I am) as well that some rather excellent and helpful coders frequented... but they don't appear to exist anymore. Just looking for where others might hang out that code at the same time of day as I. And you wonder why no one has given you feedback yet? :D Why? because I'm asking where other active coding websites might be? Don't be so childish. Cheers. |
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| Skully, To answer your question about forums, ones that feature a population of (English-speaking) Blitzers include SoCoder and Syntax Bomb. They may or may not give you a better hit rate for responses, but it can't hurt to spread the love. At this point I'd be commenting on your tilemap engine, but I gotta wait 'til I get home from work... |
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| _Skully, it would surely help to also post some pictures and have a proper website running. People almost don't care, if they have to download something first before they can see anything. |
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| Thanks LineOf7s, Appreciate the response and look forward to seeing how it fairs :) BTW, Nice work on that Juicy Fonts application... I was just going to ask you how to easily load the fonts into B3D but... its all explained and functions supplied... Might just ditch my quicky version for it ;) Cheers |
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| Lo-tekk, http://sites.google.com/site/skullyproductions/  Brush Edit Screen  Map Editor  Game Running BTW: These are placeholder graphics... im not making a Mario game ;) |
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| I'm guessing your not getting any feedback, because it's nothing new and exciting. I have often found if your recreating the wheel, your projects gets less response. Not to say this tilemap engine is rubbish though. TBH, it's one of the basics of creating a 2d game. Essential stuff i say. I'll have a wee shot when i get home. |
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| About 130FPS on the editing screens, and about 600FPS in the Run Game mode. Oh, and I agree that JuicyFonts is an excellent and very handy piece of software. It's been put together (and crazily handed out for free) by the generous big10p though. I was just hosting it for him for a short while until he fixed his own, and once he did, didn't feel a need to stop advertising it. :o) |
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| So, when you say "engine," you really mean a complete suite, including an editor, right? The closest thing I have found to a truly feature-complete tilemap editor is TuDee, from http://www.gojoentertainment.com/tudee.html Instead of reinventing the wheel, as someone else mentioned, maybe you should write a tilemap engine and a plugin for TuDee to export maps in your engine's format. That would save you having to code the editor from scratch, which is a BIG project if you intend it to be flexible and feature-rich. SpaceAce |
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| Skully in this test i got start up screen roughly 93 - 110 edit screen 50 - 55 run game 200-210ish so a little less at the high end but higher at the low end then the last test and still very useable. I'm guessing your not getting any feedback, because it's nothing new and exciting. I have often found if your recreating the wheel, your projects gets less response. Not to say this tilemap engine is rubbish though. ***rant*** that shouldn't matter, Skully is right that this community is not like it used to be. years ago when someone posted something didn't matter what it was there would be lots of comments and suggestions. now it seems like unless your one of the more popular members and/or you've all ready sold some games/apps or in very rare case or you make something thats out of this world cool looking with all sorts of eye candy, then your lucky to get a few comments here and there. personaly if i posted something, then i'd rather get bad crit with good and helpful advice/suggestions then nothing at all. all though there was flames and arguments before, it seems to have increased greatly over the past few years and now not all but quite a few people seem they'd rather argue/flame or put others work/efforts down then be helpful. i sometimes find it sad and discouraging with how things are now as opposed to before. don't get me wrong though i still enjoy this community for the most part for what it is and there is still alot of helpful people some that go out of their way to help, so all in all its still a good place to be just different to some of us that have been here a very long time. but i find myself lately wondering if its worth to post any projects i do or if i'd just be wasting my and others time, and thats not a good way to think. a community should be helpful and support each other, after all we're all trying to accomplish the same thing whether its for fun/hobby or for money. just my oppinion not that it really matters one way or the other for i am but a tiny pebble in a very large lake. ***end of rant*** |
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| I also coded a very nice tile engine, particle engine, sprite engine, yada, yada, yada. Did some sampling of interested parties over a period of months and unfortunately the commercial market is not there. Even GA's framework (which is nice) didn't really sell alot either. Reason? Most Blitzmax'rs are do it yourself coders and don't really want to buy canned solutions. The commercial development market is very, very small as well. |
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| Brush edit was about 270, map edit 150 and running it gave about 450. Couldn't figure out how to draw onto the map with the tiles at first but got there in the end. I had a go at tile engine a while ago, I've got a lot of respect for the Bitmap Brothers and their Chaos Engine game where the tiles were so seamless and intricate. Definitely a fine art! |
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| Thanks for the feedback! Those numbers are looking good. MGE, I'm the same way... I like to code it myself because I feel it gives me more creative freedom, I'm not looking to sell anything really.. just making a game for my kids.. I might attempt to sell it but i am not expecting to make anything. The Tile Engine itself will be shared with whatever artist ends up helping me with graphics... its a win-win because I find most artists are not complex coders and I'm not an artist... not fooling myself into thinking so anyway ;) |
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| Oh, SpaceAce... I've looked over TuDee and I don't see many things that I intend to have in this one.. the editor would not be able to create levels for what I have in mind, other than the features it supports of course. The GUI for this one will change quite a bit once I convert it to Max with MaxGUI (I do hate writing GUI's other than the simple ones used in-game) and I am in no hurry to create this.. big project? perhaps... but I have time since its not intended to be a source of income... I have a day job for that. This is entirely hobby for me. If... and I do say IF, I make money on this project it will be from the games I produce with it and not from the "engine". Part of that income will be directed to contributing artists as I did the last time I a game. Also, I've always appreciated games that allowed the game purchaser to make their own levels (ever since Unreal) and I intend to allow it with the games I make... so if it takes a little longer to create ... so be it 8) Cheers |
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| Man I really need to get my BlitzMax... Ive already got 2100+ lines of code to convert and i'm just getting into looking at game actors! Just waiting for my Paypal transfer! Tap tap tap... I'm not a doctor so I have no "patients" |
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| I think level editors are cool for games, too, although I like them to be custom-suited to the specific game, and drawing upon the style of the game in their appearance and use. |
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| Some games lend themselves to that more than others... the problem is that the more power under the hood of the game "engine" the more detail that needs to be managed and thats when the drawing upon the style of the game in their appearance and use. falls apart.I'll definitely agree with you that they should be custom-suited to the game itself though. I've never been fond of generic editors. |
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| OK, Here is the first stage of conversion to BlitzMax Its using a very different method, recursive draw and no array, and its been recoded from the ground up for Max. This will allow me to generate all sorts of shaped maps. I'm curious as to the FPS you get when it runs. The arrow keys cause the map to scroll (but for some reason the EVENT_KEYUP is not working so once the map moves it doesn't stop lol... but it will move in perpetuity since the border tiles are all set to move the focus to the opposite side of the map. I've disabled timing code in this so it re-draws every pass instead of at a specific interval. After you select "New" from the file menu you will need to click into the tile area to use the arrows.. I assume there is a focus function I can use for that but its yet undiscovered ;) Love some feedback for the FPS please :) |
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| Cool, get about 450fps here, AMD x2 2.7ghz 8800gts |
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| So your getting about the same which is cool because I haven't really optimized this yet :) Sweet |
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| 46fps. Intel 82845G, Celeron 2.93ghz |
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| 46fps! Ouch! that hurts |
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| Not meaning to ignore the threads topic, but the decline in posting users seemed to start happening after they banned a "general" forum. For example, imagine youtube if all that could be posted was videos related to youtube. You wouldn't keep your users posting for very long! |
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| at launch -2######## - 925+ although i assume its not affecting anything, because the title pic scales in/out fast and smoothley. after hitting file/new aprox. 230-260 |
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| Honestly the only reason I was scaling the title pic was to test how it worked LOL.. I just never turned it off Thanks for running it up.. working on the TileSet's now... had to code a file requestor since MaxGUI doesn't have one built in but I've got one working now. Cheers. |
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| gamedev.net is fairly active, or at least it was the last time I checked, which is many months ago...not blitz for the most part though but still useful. |
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| "46fps! Ouch! that hurts" Actually, that's not bad for my system. And you're rendering to a rather large area by default as well. I'd like to see a demo soon with 3 layers of tiles, at 800x600 full screen mode. That would be a more realistic test. ;) |
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| It already supports multi-layer... a collision layer that can be visible or invisible, a background layer, and of course a foreground layer. so I could probably put that together fairly soon... but first I want to get the brush editor working so that rather than just showing a repeated tileset, I can put together something with a bit more style. I'm going camping this weekend so i should get a bunch of work done in the evenings (after kids are crashed). I wont be distracted by the internet, and my wife has to study so it should be all good. LOL |
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| Tilemax has stopped working... Vista Buisness |
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| Snixx, How so? I'm creating it on Vista Are you getting an error... I haven't updated the download yet since I am now working on the brush save and load, and map editing/saving and loading functions. |
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| 60-62 FPS on this system, but it is hogging the processor. I am guessing you haven't implemented the event system fully? It won't run on my main system, but I am guessing that is because you are using the DX7 driver? The only BMax stuff I can run on that system are games/apps that use the OpenGL driver (dunno about the DX9 driver), so this is "normal" behavior for this system. |
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| Oh crap.. I dont know why but I thought it defaulted to the OpenGL driver. D'oh! Event is implemented but disabled in that demo so that I could see exactly how many times per second the screen was updating rather than limiting it by the timer. Looks like I have some changes to make anyway. |
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| Ok now... switched to OpenGL driver and I'm seeing gains of 100fps on my laptop. I added a short 1ms pause in there just to ease up on the processor usage as well... dropped mine to 46-54% http://sites.google.com/site/skullyproductions/Home/TileMax.zip |
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| Oh crap.. I dont know why but I thought it defaulted to the OpenGL driver. I wasn't around back then, but I think the Windows version only had OpenGL at first. DX was added at a later date. Ok now... switched to OpenGL driver and I'm seeing gains of 100fps on my laptop. Keep in mind Vista does NOT support DX7. Running a DX7 game on Vista, the API calls are translated at runtime to DX9 API calls and it can cause a performance hit. I get 560-580 FPS on my main system with the OpenGL version. I added a short 1ms pause in there just to ease up on the processor usage as well You shouldn't have to do that when using MaxGUI once you enable the event system, but as is in the latest version my processor usage is 00% on my main system.So are you loving BlitzMax yet? |
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| Completely loving it... I couldn't imagine going back to B3D now.. I look at the code examples of B3D and think, that could be done better this way... oh wait.. no it can't because of... {fill in the blank} It was definitely worth the little $ that it is. My biggest problem right now is staying focused on my project.. I keep getting ideas for other games (3D)... so I've started jotting them down so I don't loose them and keep telling myself to stay on this 2D game until its done. It's going to take me a bit to decide what direction to go with 3D anyway so thats helpful in a way. |
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| I'm going to be needing a 2d-physics system and a scripting solution.. any suggestions? I need to be able to modify the physics system to interact with my tilemap |
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| Most developers default to DX7 on Vista. Do some research, OpenGL is more buggy than DX7 on Vista by a long shot. |
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| OpenGL is more buggy than DX7 on Vista by a long shot. Other than the OpenGLsucksforums where would you research it? |
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| New version has parallax scrolling going... Are there any weirdnesses? Right mouse button grabs the map for movement or left click on the map and use arrows... http://sites.google.com/site/skullyproductions/Home/TileMax.zip Cheers. |
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| It works fine for me, except for one thing. When starting, if I right click on the logo and hold the button down while moving the mouse, it crashes. However if I load the map all is well and if I clear the map, I can right click on the logo and hold the button down and move the mouse with no crash. Hopefully that makes sense :D |
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| Perfect sense and pointed me right to the bug... thanks a bunch Finally getting close to the point I can start having fun with this :) Cheers |
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| Updated the hosted file.. bug gone and added scrollers as well as the parallax effects. On to paint/save/load functions then its finally time for actors! |
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