Messages

Yes, there's only the option to change the font size. But there might be alternative fonts to use, that suit your eyes better? We're getting old, eh? I need new glasses every two years, myself.

Thank you for this!! I bought two new 3840x2160 monitors at the back end of last year and have been hugely struggling with the IDE text. After all these years I'd not realised I could change the font size. I've been messing round with monitor resolutions and blurry upscaled outputs - should've checked the forum earlier!  

This Forum has been quiet for over 6 months, I doubt Kitty Hello is working on improvements. I would love to see an update.

Just out of interest is anyone using GLbasic on a weekly basis? I've not had the time or motivation since new year.

I'm still using GLBasic - got over 700 hours in on Steam and a lot (LOT!) more than that on the standalone version but I'm also dabbling with Python and C# (Unity and Monogame).

I still come back to GLB as my go-to, to quickly trial out ideas as its so easy to use, and I've also got a couple of GLB projects that I'm about 80% through (so only another 60% left to go!  ).

Thanks All for the comments,

Its a game im newer actuelly have played the original and has very annoying beeper music and all. Even its might have a history behind it.

Yes spacefractal, you're right! It's apparently the first time a Spectrum game used in-game music and wasn't thought possible until this. The processor has to constantly switch between the game updates and music updates to make it work - hence the stuttering and bitty tune. I like your AY version! I love it on Jet Set Willy as well, where it plays 'If I was A Rich Man". 

Hi All,

I've finished my GLB version of Manic Miner, linked below.(I say finished, it's probably a raw beta in real terms!)

Hadn't really intended to write it in the first place, it just grew from an article on crumbling platforms in Wireframe magazine. I've never coded a platformer before and it looked interesting.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXmOZF-c5W4]

I've attached a zip with the playable .exe and all the media but also put a copy of the GBAS file in the media folder if anyone is interested in looking through the code, pulling it apart, reusing, updating, correcting, laughing at it, etc.    (note its not refactored, so isn't efficient or streamlined!!)

Works for me without noticeable bugs but its not been extensively play-tested. Hope it works for you.

There's a readme in the folder which give a bit more detail, if you're interested.

Cheers,

Steve.

Thanks for the reply Qedo,

I was thinking about BOXCOLL but didn't think I'd be able to check its collision with a sprite or anim.

I think I've sorted it! Keep using the box sprite for the collision, but not actually drawing it to the screen seems to work!

Hi,

I've drafted out a retro platformer (basically manic miner) and have an animated player but I'm finding that the pixel perfect collision is causing problems when my character walks off a wall. As he gets to the end of the wall he falls down as expected. However, as his arm extends back beyond his feet, the arm collides with the wall and the character sticks.

If I place a rectangular box under the sprite and use that for the collision then I don't get this problem as the edges of the collision check are always uniform (i.e. nothing sticking out past the edge to catch the wall).

Is there a way to replace the pixel perfect collision with a bounding collision instead? Or to make my rectangular box invisible so that it can't be seen but still detects collision.

Hopefully I've explained this clearly!!

Many thanks,

Steve.

I'd definitely be interested in some 3d tutorials. It's the old retro style 3d that interests me most so basic graphics and shading is no problem providing the speed is there.

One of the projects on my list is to remake the old Zarch / Virus game that David Braben wrote for the Archimedes. I'd made a start on this in DarkBasic before I moved across to GLBasic. Plan has always been able to see if I could get it up and running in GLB.

Thank you!

That is much better - doesn't need to separately worry about the length of the text.

Code (glbasic) Select Expand


c$="A random line of text!"
WRITELINE 1,c$ //to write the text line to the file
READLINE 1,c$ //to read the text from the file back into the variable


Many thanks.

Hi,

I'm trying to understand the best way to save and load data for my current game project which so far has just over 15600 variables in vars, dims and string$.

I think I'm ok with dims and the standard variables but am after a bit of advice for strings.

I've gone through the GLBasic help example but for some reason this comments out the key bit I'm after (// READSTR 1, x2$, LEN(xx$)).

I've managed to get it to work by saving the length of the string into the save file before saving the actual $tring as I can't otherwise see how it knows how long it has to be if its not already loaded it. I'm wondering if this is the best way to do it or whether there is a better solution. With this way every string in the save file is going to need its length saved before it so it can load the length into a variable then use that variable in the READSTR command to set the length for the text to follow it.

My simplified test code is below:

Code (glbasic) Select Expand


SETSCREEN 1024, 768, 1
SETFONT 0

//Set up some random variables
GLOBAL test$
GLOBAL var1
GLOBAL var2
GLOBAL var3
GLOBAL b$
GLOBAL var4
GLOBAL test[]
DIM test[5]

//populate the variables
test$ = "savefile.txt"
var1=57
var2=103
var3=999
b$="This Text String Could Be Any Length!!!!"
var4=345
test[0]=501;test[1]=602;test[2]=703;test[3]=804;test[4]=905

//create the save file
OPENFILE(1, test$, FALSE) //false=write mode
WRITEIEEE 1,var1
WRITEIEEE 1,var2
WRITEIEEE 1,var3
WRITEIEEE 1,LEN (b$) //saving the $tring length - is this required??
WRITESTR  1,b$
WRITEIEEE 1,var4
FOR f=0 TO 4; WRITEIEEE 1,test[f]; NEXT
CLOSEFILE 1

//Clear variables
var1=0
var2=0
var3=0
b$=""
var4=0
FOR f=0 TO 4; test[f]=0;NEXT

//See if they reload
//open the save file and populate the variables from it
LOCAL textlength
OPENFILE(1, test$, TRUE) //true=read mode
READIEEE 1, var1
READIEEE 1, var2
READIEEE 1, var3
READIEEE 1,textlength //load the length of the following text string
READSTR 1,b$,textlength //load the text string
READIEEE 1, var4
FOR f=0 TO 4; READIEEE 1,test[f]; NEXT
CLOSEFILE 1

//print the loaded variables to the screen
PRINT var1,0,0
PRINT var2,0,20
PRINT var3,0,40
PRINT b$,0,80
PRINT var4,0,120
FOR f=0 TO 4; PRINT test[f],0,140+f*20; NEXT

SHOWSCREEN

MOUSEWAIT


Any help would be appreciated. 

Hi there,

I've used Anim8or for 3d. It's free and I found it really easy to pick up and use for basic 3d models and 3d levels. Also has its own forum and community.

https://www.anim8or.com/

Working for me now too!

I've still got the error after the steam update as well. Still falling through the ground when leaving the boat on level .

Looks good. Love the vibe and atmosphere. Can tell there's a lot of work gone into it. Well done!

I've got through to Level 3 'Tower Tunnel Jump' but can't progress when I get off the Viking ship. Moving right I fall through the ground and drown.
I found that if I jump when on the ship I can walk along through the air for a while but then fall off after a short while and fall through the floor again. If I walk off the ship and jump its like I'm hitting an invisible ceiling.

Looks like maybe the platform collision is out of sync with the level?

I've posted a short vid below to show you:

Vid removed as it's now fixed.

Can't get past this point in the game.

Let me know when you've seen it and I'll delete.

Cheers,

Steve.

Looks awesome!

Very well done. That's a lot of hard work and dedication.

How much development time do you think you put into it?

I'll check it out on Steam.

Hi, generally as You can download GLBasic source (it's >2GB with all stuff) so there are no secrets in any function :-)
GLB is using ISSAC method and 'rand.c' implementation (or whatever it should be called properly) by Bob Jenkins. You can found original code here: https://burtleburtle.net/bob/c/rand.c
It was little modified to work as GLB part, but core is same.

Thanks for that Dreamerman, that's awesome. Wiki reckons of the ISAAC PRNG that 'Only a few other generators of such high quality and speed exist in usage'.

I was looking into methods for procedural generation and quite a few examples of other systems that I found on the 'tinternet using 'inbuilt' rand functions start developing patterns when graphically representing very large numbers of results, and as such coders were manually implementing the Lehmer or other algorithm. I was wondering whether I'd be getting a similar issue with GLB but it looks really solid, no problems, and I guess that's why!

Designed for speed and security, ISAAC (Indirection, Shift, Accumulate, Add, and Count) generates 32-bit random numbers. On average, cycles are 2^8295 values long, and are guaranteed to be at least 2^40 values long. The results are uniformly distributed, unbiased, and unpredictable unless you know the seed.

[Note: reading this back before posting makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about!!  Just to be clear - I really don't, but do find it fascinating!]