Re: [Help-liquidwar6] Happy new year! ( and more levels)

[Christian Mauduit]

Hi,

Kasper Hviid wrote:
> Thanks for trying to get some Windows executables ready. I just tried to 
> get some Ubundu up and running, but ran into some problems. I give it 
> another try later on. So it is possible that I get to try LW6 even 
> before the Windows version comes around!
Another possibility I considered is make a Liquid War 6 bootable CD 
based on Knoppix or something like this. Just plug the CD in your tray, 
reboot, and play. Could also be done on an USB key. But... this kind of 
packaging requires time.

> About posting screenshots, it is just really needed when LW6 is working 
> enough to go public. At that time, it would be good if we have enough 
> marketing to convince people that LW6 is something really big - before 
> they have tried it.
Yep.

> What if it just loaded the background and the sprites from the level 
> folder, without any behavior stuff? It is just that it is a bit limiting 
> that the appearence of the background already has been designed. Some 
> kinda artist thing ... most people won't care. ;-)
>
> Speaking of the background, would you be interested in having me fresh 
> up the sprites and textures a bit? I could also create some alternative 
> ones.
>
> About the GUI, do you want some texture to wrap around the cylinders in 
> the menu? (If yes, what should the proportions be?)
OK, I lately made a new move in GUI / parameters / config files. The 
idea follows: considering levels are created by people who know better 
about what color fits for them (that's exactly your case) I decided to 
let the level itself decide of the menu colors. By default, colors will 
be picked from the level (I'm just coded a quick-hacked algorithm do to 
that), but of course you can define them explicitely. Same for hud and 
cursor colors. All in all, I identified 20 colors which can possibly be 
defined in a level (that's already a lot, I think). Documentation coming 
soon.

The major side effect is that, except for texture.jpeg, the rest should 
be purely vectorial stuff. As for the current water/bubble theme, a 
bubble can be generated by a program, same for background texture. This 
corresponds to my conception of the background: make it moving just to 
fancy things a little bit, but don't try to do heavy 3D realistic 
rendering in it. This is good for this way, you might have purple, 
green, blue or white bubbles at almost no cost at all, just give the 
color. It's a disk-space saver.

For very complex background rendering, there's always a solution: write 
a dedicated chunk of code for it!

> According to the road map, I should starting creating levels right now! 
> I will try to create some levels with a bit more space. And at least one 
> anaglyph level. And some widescreen. I think I will now aim at some less 
> abstract levels, with some more variations in them.
Well, the real start for level will be when the game is fully runnable 
in solo mode. Coming soon I hope. At least I'll release something in 
January.

> (even more) IDEAS:
Cool!

> 1) It would be nice if it was possible to resize the play area to the 
> size of the logical map, so that 1 logical pixel in the game = 1 pixel 
> on screen.
Actually what is done now is that the master is the texture/aspect of 
the game and the slave is the logical map. Sounds weird at first but I 
think it's the choice I prefer. This way, if you have a wide screen, the 
logical map will be streched so that is has 1800/1050 ratio. This 
feature is not fully implemented but a wide texture will do the job in 
beta2. Beta3 will simply pass the resolution of your screen/window to 
the map constructor.

> 2) It could be possible to define the size of the logical map in options.xml
This is done already (actually you specify min&max but specifying 
min==max does the job).

> 3) A file called liquid-alpha.jpeg could define the opacity for the 
> liquid. It would be used for places on the map where the liquid is 
> invisible, because it is moving under an object.
> It could also be texture.jpeg which was displayed on top of the liquid, 
> cropped by liquid-alpha.jpeg.
OK, now the *BIG* change, which will probably occur *after* beta3, so 
after January, will be to use layers. I first thought of using a "depth" 
information, but it's too timid as a way to go multilayers. What I plan 
is "map.png + layer2.png + layer3.png + layer4.png + layer5.png", or 
something approaching. Layers are stacked (layer5 at the bottom, map 
(AKA layer1) on top. Then it's easy to know where to hide liquid: if 
there's a wall on map.png -> do not show, it's hidden under! As a side 
effect, this solves the "fighters disappears here and reappears 
somewhere else" problem. Just dig a tunnel in layer3, and that's it!

> 4) So far, all my texture.jpeg are variations on the same flat, top down 
> view, since this is the way the warrior layer is being rendered.
> If the warrior layer  was wrapped on some 3D object instead, it would be 
> possible to design some texture.jpeg with more perspective in them.
> Possible workflow: Some 3D artist create a 3D world containing a 
> slightly tilted square. He takes a screenshot of the scene, and sends it 
> to me. I paste the screenshot into Photoshop, and paint a texture.jpeg 
> based on it.
> The 3D world would need to be static, since my texture.jpeg would be 
> static.
> I don't know much about 3D, so I don't have much idea how impossible it 
> would be.
3D fancy stuff is surely planned. The only point I think is important 
is: wether your computer can handle or not the fancy 3D rendering, level 
must be playable anywhere. This is important from a network point of 
view. I don't want some players to be excluded because they don't have a 
given rendering capability.

Apart from that, anything is feasible.

My initial plan was to have a given default 3D shape for every 
combination of "polarity-[xy]" values.

But other things can be imaginated, even represent fighters as little 3D 
tanks.

The advantage of the current implementation is that logic/calculus is 
absolutely totally independant from rendering (which is the weakness of 
LW5). In the current beta2 you can (useless, but it's a good proof of 
concept) shut down the graphic renderer, close the window, uninitialize 
SDL then reinitialize SDL and continue your game as if nothing happened.
Theorically you could switch from/to any graphical backend at any time.

> 5) Dual Monitor support could be cool. Maybe an extremely wide level 
> would be enough for this?
Certainly 8-) I used to have a very wide screen using a laptop and a 
desktop monitor to "complete" it with xinerama.

> Now, back to creating levels. Good luck with the network and tech stuff!
Thanks, and good luck too ;-)

Have a nice day,

Christian.

--
Christian Mauduit <address@hidden> - http://www.ufoot.org/ ___ __/\__
Liquid War 6 - http://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/     / _")\~ \~/
"Les amis de la vérité sont ceux qui la cherchent et non _/ /   /_ o_\
ceux qui se vantent de l'avoir trouvée" - Condorcet     (__/      \/