Nocturne2D

[Fox]

Here we go, this is the current engine. Feel free to download, but if you use any part in your project please put me in the credits

Btw: I'd be thankfull if anyone gave me some graphics/sounds! I need a player animation set (attack/walk/fight animations) and tiles as you can see in the current engine...

[/\/\isanThr0p]

what about the tileset they offered at vbexplorer.com? since you are just using it for demonstration that should work...
(talking about the tiles not the character set)
I'll send it to you if you don't have it/know it..
also this was posted a few days ago in some other thread
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=981539
it's mady by progeix
you might wanna ask him...

[/\/\isanThr0p]

the DDraw mode runs incredibly slow on my machine!
I changed the blitting to asynchron blit and it still was really slow!
I think something's wrong since my machine is moderatly fast.

[Fox]

Nope. Try increasing the tile size, this is the major problem when using DDraw (and why I prefer BitBlt for such small games)

Try increasing the tile size; will give you much performance. Or switch to Fullscreen and use much bigger tiles will help, too.

[/\/\isanThr0p]

hm well I do not want to use a predone engine anyways I was just ran your sample. So what's the problem with DD in windowed mode?? Is there any reason to use it when using windowed mode?

[Fox]

Well I could switch to fullscreen but I prefer this pocket engine in a window. Like GameBoy you know ^^" Of course it's just my personal love to these pocket games... And as you said It's still just an example but I'm sure people can learn from it better when it's not just fullscreen (and it's easier to debug )

[/\/\isanThr0p]

you are right
the only thing I keep on wondering about is why DD is slower than bitblt...

[Fox]

Well 2 things: The project isn't originally made for DDraw so there's a lack of performance because I just converted it from BitBlt to DDraw (eg. the rects that are created in each frame for each tile). Second is (what I suppose) that DDraw just isn't made to draw this kind of graphics (small but many) ... don't know for sure though..

[nXt]

hey fox this is looking great!

i have to say that on my pc, the game runs a tad slow. I got a high end pc and all, its just it starts up slow and theres a lag between my first movement and stuff. Is this just my machine ?

[/\/\isanThr0p]

try the bitblt one it runs flawless on my machine... I had the same trouble with the Dx one.

[nXt]

the Dx engine runs fine, but the character moves really slow!

also i get a small black area around the bottom and too the right, where the tiles blur (im not sure what the technical term is for when it does that)

the dx one appears to run a bit better, however

[PsyVision]

Hello Fox,

I downloaded your little engine. It runs fine on my computer. Everything ran fine and nice and smooth. I noticed your little demo similar to this you did ages ago with bit blt. That was pretty cool and so is this.

Nice Code, Good Work, Good Job !

P.s - The sound is a bit odd, i wasnt sure if it was when your walking or when something hits something so iremoved the enemies and found it does it when you move, tho it was outta sync a bit.

Still Kewl Tho !

[Fox]

Yes I didn't take the time to do the clipping in DDraw .. won't continue on this one though.

Well about the sound (and graphics): I'm a programmier, not a designer Jim!

[FireSlash518]

i might help a little. im doing a 2D platform shooter engine actually...

if you need help with direct sound, external form creation from text files, reading ini files, or particle systems... (still working on the particles, keep having to start over because of poorly written slop of code )

and i still need to find a stable way of limiting the FPS, as 250+ fps is a bit excessive. windows timers are clunky...

[/\/\isanThr0p]

FireSlash use gettickcout to limit your FPS, but don't you think opening a new thread would be better for own questions...?

[Janus]

Fox: Don't use Video memory for your backbuffer, unless you use video memory for your tilesets too. Copying from video memory to system memory, and vice versa, is VERY slow. Mixing and matching doesn't work well at all.

Try changing all your surfaces to video ram, and your engine will scream. (I'll download it and try it. )

Edit: I altered all your surface creation routines to use this flag:

Or DDSCAPS_VIDEOMEMORY

It ran very, very fast afterward. Oh, one tip - never, ever, EVER create a DDSCAPS_PRIMARYSURFACE surface without specifying DDSCAPS_VIDEOMEMORY - it creates it in software mode, which makes it much, much, much slower. Only create the primary surface in software mode if creating it in hardware mode fails.

Looking good though, keep up the great work!

Edit #2: Oh, Misanthrop - the tileset and sprites they offered on vbexplorer.com are horrible. The grid is misaligned, the mask color is almost completely random, and some of the tiles are the wrong size. It's a pain in the ass to use that tileset.

Edit #3: Hehe, I need to think longer before posting. Fox, you really should use GPL or LGPL or something on your code, so that you'll at least get credit for your work.

[Jotaf98]

Did someone say particle systems?

Heh... missed me?
Sorry for being away for so long. I huh hmm well basically I started doing other stuff when I was on the net (mIRC and e-mails mainly ) and completely forgot about the forums. Of course I didn't stop programming, but I had a lot more to think about so all I did was advance a bit on my game, create some other minor programs and demos (unreleased ) and learn C++, a bit of ASM, hmm... I also made a small mIRC script (sorry I just had to try it ). Anyway. I'll get back at the G&G programming forum as soon as I can. I still have some exams left though. I'll see if I can come back later today and after that I think I'll have some time until the hardest exams, that should be in a week or so. Then I'll have the whole vacations to come here hehe

[Sastraxi]

You never miss your monthly brag do you Jotaf

Nice to have you back!

[Jotaf98]

Heh thanks
Well hmm I had a look at the G&G forum and there doesn't seem to be any really cool thread like we usually had. Oh well... back to answering questions

[Sastraxi]

Yeah, its kinda boring.

OK Fox, we'll stop vandalising your thread

[Jotaf98]

Yeah. Sure dude. We're really really sorry. We'll stop vandalizing your thread don't worry.

[Fox]

My poor thread *cries*

Janus: Thanks, hard to judge if a program runs slow if it just flows here -.-" And btw: Since we're using DX8, didn't you mean the D3DPOOL_MANAGED flag?

[Janus]

Uh, the Nocturne2D I downloaded was DirectDraw. :P

[Zaei]

If its DX8, use D3DPOOL_DEFAULT.

Z.