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At 10/29/12 06:49 AM, PSvils wrote: Hey guys!

Well, I githubbed my lighting engine, you can check out the source here:
https://github.com/PDeveloper/hxDynaLight

This looks cool. Personally, I always end up getting people to pay more attention when I post a demo and a simple explanation in the README.md of how the API works, maybe a simple example as well. :)

I haven't seen Gust in a long time, but yes I do miss his psuedo code reviews. Also I do agree with Mike that there is something magical about the people that come in this forum as opposed to something like tigsource. Theres less douchiness and more just honest building.

I ended up not participating. Something randomly came up. Maybe next time !

Shoot the stick celebrity Dress up tribute Demo trailer

Yes. Drawing the new frame on top of the existing one should be fine. If the tile is not in the exact same position then you will need to redraw the whole screen. Your second question about "Is this smart to do if I have have a big map" is irrelevant. You should only be drawing what is on the screen anyways. I hope that helps.

Linked Lists? This is flash not C. You won't get any performance benefits out of instantiating a bunch of node objects, besides arrays and vectors in as3 are mutable and fast.

All I was saying was just create a new Vector.<myObject> and push it full of objects for your pool. When an object is no longer needed then you could push it into a different list, or have some flag on the object that indicates it's not in use. I just don't understand the use of the special interface where you then have to typecast the objects you are actually using.

In the first question I just meant lets say you have a BitmapData floating around in memory and you want to have 100 Sprites use this BitmapData. This was your question right ? Here is what I mean by letting the object know how to draw itself.

Class MySprite {
private var _bitmapData:BitmapData;
function MySprite(bitmapData) {
_bitmapData = bitmapData;
draw();
}
private function draw() {
addChild(new Bitmap(bitmapData,bitmapData.width,bitmapData.height));
}
}

This is a Factory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_pattern

At 10/9/12 08:46 PM, Fooliolo wrote: Man it's been a while since I went heavy in learning AS3, and I want to say that I've improved a lot. I went from rendering 1k moving objects at 30 fps to rendering 7k animated moving objects w/ alpha at 60 fps. But I would like someone with more experience to look over what I did wrong, if anything, as well as answer a few questions I have for the now and for the future.

1.) In a previous thread, someone told me to have objects reference the image being used instead of having the images stored in the object itself. This I agree with. However, I'm lost as to how to do this without the blitting technique, as it is apparent to me that a single image that isn't copied can only show up in one place at a time. What do?

I think you're talking about using sprites ? Well if you're using sprites then you can create an object that represents your image that extends sprite. Let this object know how to draw the bitmapData onto itself, or create a Factory that does so.

2.) What's the deal with the underscore in variable names, e.g. "_variable"? From my take, it's mostly to differentiate from the get/set functions of the same name. But it seems like people are doing it for private variables in general?

The underscoring is just a convention that some people use for private and protected variable names. Differentiating from getters and setters is one advantage. It's also just nice to look at a big class and instantly know when something is a private variable. I approve of this convention. It's helpful.

3.) What does defining a class outside of a package do? I'm under the impression that it makes it a "private" class that can't be accessed outside of the .as file it was written in.

Yeah. I think so. I never do this. Messy.

4.) What's the best way to reference the stage width and height from anywhere in the code? Or anything for that matter?

You can use stage.stageWidth and stage.stageHeight, but this will only be accesible if your object has a reference the stage, and if that stage reference has been initialized (I.e. the object has been added to the stage). Some people like to create a global variable. For instance if you create a class like Globals.as and create two static variables representing your game screen width and height. I actually prefer this, because at some point you may want to change the size of your 'viewport' but not necessarily the size of the whole SWF.

5.) Can someone give my code a quick lookover and let me know what I'm doing right/wrong in terms of good practices?

It mostly looks pretty good. Heres some small things in the Main class.

1: Be explicit with null checks. if (stage) init(); Just by looking at this code I know what stage is, but say I didn't. Always be explicit will null checks. if (stage!=null).

2. No need for your event parameter in init method to be set to null. Same with mainLoop.

3. May as well use uints in your iterators. They will never be < 0

Otherwise it looks good. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the object pool and using the IPoolable interface. Maybe this is a performance thing. Is there some reason you couldn't just creator a vector and fill it with any sort of object ?

Is anyone else thinking about doing the newgrounds game jam this coming weekend ? I've been sort of trying to find an artist to partner up with, but I have had no real luck. I may be going solo.

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/nggamejam8

I keep telling myself I want to learn C++, but I have no real good excuse to use it right now. I've been doing a lot of ruby, ActionScript, Java, and Javascript over the last year. Also headers files and why? Also "->" and "*" and "::" and "~" and memory management, oh my. It would be fun, though.

I'm working on an actionscript source code obfuscator written in Java; it is already functional and I've been testing it on various open source actionscript projects. Now I just need to fix some minor things, add some more features and options; and maybe create a GUI for people who fear the terminal.

Cool actually you should share this with us when you're done. I have tried other obfuscators. Even paid for them. I can never find a good one. I've always wanted something simple that will just rename my class, variable, and method names. As far as I know, theres nothing that exists that can do that free and easily.

nothing flash-related at the moment. Working on a general-use API (basic DB connection, basic security, etc.) in PHP so I can finally finish my website layout. After that i'll probably get back to work on my last Flash project, Tactics.

PHP is OK. I personally am not a huge fan, though. What is Tactics ?

Losing momentum with my zombie game...though I always switch between making music and programming in phases of a few months.

I agree. I read Tyler's post about his version of A* and it is very cool. I would love to know exactly how it works, though. How do you assign initial values to the nodes? It seems that every time the player makes a move then each node. 1: Decreases it's 'scent' value. 2: Sets the node at the players current position to 100% scent. Am I missing anything else ?

Still trying to keep a steady flow of updates rolling out for The Drawing Grounds while also whipping up a concept for another game that can use the NG API as a sketchy multiplayer platform.

Thats awesome. I agree w/ 4urentertainment. Ulitizing these NG APIs is probably good. I mean thats why they made them right?

I'm still working hard on Concerned Joe the downloadable version. It's coming along pretty solid, we're trying to make it as awesome as possible, and we're trying to slowly build a following since I'm told marketing is very very very important in the downloadable market.

Wow! That looks amazing. I really need to catch up your dev blog. Do you have a twitter that I can follow ? I am really impressed w/ your progress. Hope to be playing a full length concerned joe within the next year. :)

Even if the game is garbage, people will usually let a .swf load and hit play, rather than downloading a potentially dangerous and unknown .exe and running it.

Flash player still has 99% web browser penetration. There is value in that, regardless of what web technology hipsters tell you. :P

Hey guys. So what's everybody building at the moment ?

At 7/2/12 09:45 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: var mc:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
var ho:MovieClip = mc
ho.x = 100

You should get in the habit of using semicolons to end your statements mang.

Team Handclaps is now:
Programmer: Prettymuchbryce
Artist: AustinBreed:
Music: NimbleKidX
Wildcard: Flowers10
Artist2: idiot-monarch

I don't think theres much room for anyone else at this point! It is already a little hectic trying to get everybody set up. I will post here if anything changes.

At 6/28/12 07:02 PM, AustinBreed wrote:

At 6/28/12 07:01 PM, egg82 wrote: I keep seeing that name pop up... You sure he hasn't been picked/is on the list?

Tyler got him back on the old thread.

Team handclaps will take idiot monarch as a 2nd artist.

Okay so I didn't realize that I meant Flowers10 not Flowerscheers (Which is not a wildcard.) I hope I don't mess it up this time.

Full team:
Art: AustinBreed
Wild: Flowers10
Music: nimblekidx
Team name: team handclaps

Actually two of mine were taken :{
Lets try again. Full team:

Art: AustinBreed
Wild: FlowersCheers
Music: nimblekidx

Team name: team handclaps

Artist: Austin Breed
Music: PSvils
Wildcard ReNaeNae

woop?

Sounds good Austin. Thanks for clarifying!

It would be nice to know exactly how the kickball system will work. It seems like it could potentially just curtail into chaos if it's not setup right. Maybe this will be a more chaotic jam =P

At 6/27/12 03:40 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: Also it will be made in just Lua. No flash version this time.

What framework are you using ?

At 6/27/12 03:40 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: At first I thought that, since flash games get millions of views the flash version could act as a free ad. Most flash gamers aren't the ones that pay for stuff.

I have always thought of this as a really smart thing to do. I wouldn't totally rule it out. Do you have any concrete examples of when it didn't work ?

At 6/25/12 04:36 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: So I'd like to know what you guys think, maybe if you think the devblog is interesting etc..

I like the website with the scrolling footer. The devblog is great. I liked the post about making the box2d body for Joe. I think that kind of stuff is inherently interesting. Good work!

Lets at least try the kickball thing. Its only 3 days, so if it's totally lame then we just never do it again?

I don't really see the point of this kickstarter campaign. We have so much talent here on newgrounds and I've never heard of any of these guys. It seems like kind of a sham to be honest. I would love to see kickstarters made by TRUE newgrounders to make a huge game or a big collaborative project that actually significantly benefits the site or the community. This seems way forced. I still donated, though because I love this site and Tom seems to feel strongly about it.

At 6/10/12 11:23 AM, webufs wrote: Heyoz, I've been kicking around the Flash forums for a while, so I figured I'd say hi!

Hey! Welcome.

At 6/7/12 08:23 AM, 4urentertainment wrote: I was going to make my own A* API eventually, but since you're already making one, here's what I was going to do.

I've just always noticed the amount of art based games being larger than the amount of tile based games, and most tutorials and beginners start with art based games.

I agree with you. Most beginners to flash are getting started in CS5 the tool, and working their way up through that. I think you're completely right, however; I think a pathfinding library in that vein would probably be a separate effort, and a separate codebase. I like the idea.

If anyone ever wants to contribute to EasyStar, just check out the code and do a pull request. Diagonal movement is some pretty low hanging fruit of a feature that anyone could tackle. Then you would be a true open source contributor! Wow! I'm pretty sure ladies would instantly flock to you.

p.s. Anyone doing the AustinBreed gamejam ? I want to do it, but I will be on an airplane / on vacation during the jam. I feel lame that something comes up every time I want to do one of these. Maybe I can try for a solo entry -- that way I don't let anybody down if I can't finish.

At 6/7/12 07:24 AM, TomFulp wrote: AustinBreed has announced Game Jam 7, set for the weekend of June 29th! Read his post for more info and to sign up.

Best of May coming up next.

These things are never timed well for me. I am going to be on vacation that weekend. :( bummer

I updated the example file on my EasyStarAS3 API.
https://github.com/prettymuchbryce/EasyStarAS3

I have a few features I want to implement next.
- Diagonal movement
- Ability to process multiple paths at once
- Revamping the way I handle avoiding additional tiles

I also want to fix up the tutorial in the markdown. I don't know. I'm very open to ideas on how to make this easier to use. Someone suggested that requiring vector.<vector.<uint>>'s might be confusing to some people. I'm not sure how to avoid that. Knowing how to set up a 2D tilemap might be a prerequisite for using the API.

I hear a lot about haxe for a few years now, but why is it I've never seen anyone use it? Are there any real commercial examples of successful haxe games?

At 6/3/12 04:10 PM, fixplz wrote: According to the internet,
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/sckwj/why_i_dont_rea lly_mind_when_super_meat_boy_crashes/
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nov42/super_meat_boy _level_database_access_left_open_to/?limit=500

C++ and Lua are languages, you can pick what graphical/game environment to attach to them. (Now you can sort of pick which part of Flash graphics output to use with your AS3 too.)

This is pretty inherently false. I wouldn't use reddit as a source for any credible information. Flash runs through a virtual machine, and it's performance limitations are very well known. You could never reach anything like native speed in flash, let's just be honest about that. It's main advantage is it's penetration in the browser. LUA is a scripting language and the context in which it is used does depend on the framework. I know less about LUA, so I won't comment there.

C++ is compiled to machine code. There is so much you get with native development. Outside of performance, there really is just far more control.

I'm not arguing against trying other things. I think if you have the right type of game, and it saves you time, then you should absolutely do it. Just be aware of your limitations. There is good reason why almost every successful game on consoles and smartphones is written in native code.

He's right in a sense. C++ is great. It's low-level. It's performant. It's cross-platform. I think it's safe to say that SMB in it's current form would be impossible to make with flash. The performance would be horrible. I realize theres a flash version, but it's not as fancy as the retail version.

Using a framework like love (LUA), or some other framework is fine in some cases. A game like SMB needs to be developed with total control. It's a very fast paced game, which means performance is very important. Controls are very important too. A game like to the moon is mostly story-driven. Controls and performance are less important.

SMB could not have been ported to the Xbox either if it was written in one of these languages.

I think his response was pretty rude, but either way -- thats my take on it.

At 5/20/12 06:19 PM, Archawn wrote: That's a pretty good idea. Do you plan on expanding the API to handle other search algorithms as well?

I was thinking about it. If so I would probably do Dijkstra next.

I am developing this priorityQueue to be APIish too. So it can take any type of object and you can give it the variable that you want to sort on. The thing is... I wonder if the build in sortOn method in array will be faster no matter what, because it is native. I was reading about someone who made a quicksort method that ended up being faster than the native sortOn.. so I don't think it's impossible. I will probably do some tests to find out, but theres no way to know what kind of sorting algorithm is going on under the hood of sortOn.