@TinkerSmith Not really a world map, just something the whole map should look lile in general. For example, imagine the map that I posted above, but you zoomed. Its just a sketch or a concept for how the entire map should look. Obviously in game the map will be massive, not small like the concept.
Gotya @“The Kodex” , in that case don’t worry about lag. The whole point of using a PRNG is that you only render the tiles you need to show in the viewpoint. PRNG in a way is actually the whole map, like it is compressed and with the seed you access a part of it. I know, hard to get your head around it, but it is really cool in a way.
@glithctyrus , I could be tempted to participate, it depends on what the theme is. The other factor is time … I work at a hospital and with the upcoming flue season it can get quite busy. As some of my comment show I am already partially brain dead, LOL.
But if you can, participate. Either way it is always a good learning experience if you have to throw something together under time pressure. What you learn and develop can always be of use for later games.
@thebrickccentric , no worries, I will try to answer all of them and if I can try to find examples.
The fake 3D is an effect called ‘sprite layering’. I used a program called Magicavoxel (lost the link, google it) to create a little 3d block model of the car. That editor creates Minecraft style models out of blocks (you should love it, BRICKS, grin). Then it has an export option called ‘slice’ that cuts your model into png sprite layers.
When you open the model of the car you will see those slices in one of the animations I think.
Then I spawn the base ( I think it was the shadow? Can’t open it on my phone, I try to remember). And that one spawns layer on layer on top of each other. BUT each layer is lifted 1 or 2 pixel in Y to give it that fake perspective. That’s all … all fake, LOL.
They other questions, I work on the best way of doing that atm myself. I have done all of it one way or the other in some of my test projects trying to figure out the best way.
Raycasting would be one option, I tried that in my Cellular Map Generator. But it is easier to just ask the tiles, I will show. Actually I am sure I added a ‘my ID’ block to one of the tiles, but it looks like it is gone now 
P.S. you don’t need to filter the random output, you can just feed it straight into the ‘goto’ …
P.S. @thebrickccentric , you will notice in some of my demos that I mostly use a controller block. It is better to do the spawning from there, that one will later on doing the PRNG stuff. Not sure if it is good to let blocks spawn each other, but I have to get my head clear first to think about it
That’s really neat! I’ll have to try it now…I think it would be perfect for bricks.
I’m interested to see how you have blocks communicate.
And thanks for the pointer; I never thought about it, but that’s true, and now it’ll save code.
About controllers, I see what you mean. I’ve sort of tried it before (I have a “player spawner” in my game for example), but not for spawning all the blocks, so that will be fun.
Update:
I moved the spawn into the controller. The Loop I use is only for testing, that’s why it spawns with delay so that I can see what is going on once we implement the ‘wang’ sorting. At the moment it’s just random.
Also, don’t worry about player camera and the map size. This is about getting the basics sorted. Looking at it as it is, I’m nearly tempted to say we should make the basic ground tile even bigger. What do you think folks?
In the end it’s landscape and doesn’t change that often.
To-do:
- make sure the generated tiles match up to each other
- generate tiles towards the edge the player moves
- destroy tiles that are out of view to save memory? With a threshold to allow for camera scrolling.
P.S. just disconnect the timer from the loop block if you wanna try different stuff
I noticed someone is digging up some turf
P.S.S.
Added the Big Wang and quite like it (ok, pixel resolution would need to be changed, I just scaled up the tiles I had).
So please don’t touch my Big Wang and the controller because next I will add the tile alignment. I got it worked out on paper, easy-peasy, just have to convince Flowlab to do it the way I want it, LOL.
OMG, I am so stupid.
Went through my algorithm again and realized that I was thinking with my head in my *censored*
Figured out a way that will allow me to place a tile anywhere, anytime on the map and it will have the right orientation even so the neighborhood might be empty yet.
- that would allow ‘fog of war’ if you feel like uncovering the map like that
- it allows multiplayer where the other player would start at the other end of the map
- it allows teleport
No matter where you start or how you move it WILL always line up correctly! WHOOP WHOOP
Just a question regarding the map size. In theory it could be endless, but regarding Flowlabs number range we have to draw a line somewhere. Is 999x999 (grid cells, NOT pixels) big enough? Not sure yet, but we might have to put a limit somewhere. With the ‘Big Wang’ tile that would be a 999cells*128 = 127872 pixel wide map :bleep_bloop:
Also @“The Kodex” , … this is a public project, right?
P.S. what you guys could do is to sort out the map spawning. Don’t worry about the tile orientation at this stage, I got that covered.
I don’t want to keep 999 or more cells in memory. What we need is to spawn map tiles if needed and destroy them when not.
That could either happen by evaluating the view area of the camera or by distance from the player.
Any of you up to it?
@TinkerSmith Sure!
Just disconnect the controller if need be. THe routine I implement changes it anyway. The random tiles were just there to get a visual feel for the size of them
You have done a lot, wow. This looks amazing, I can’t wait to see what’s next. [Here’s where you say, ‘Then don’t wait! Work on the map spawning!’] Alright, I too will try it.
Ufff, everything is crashing and nuthin works. I wonder if that happens when we accidently work at it the same time. Never had problems like that.
Ok, I know what I need to do. Dinner time for me anyway, I might continue tomorrow morning
As said, spawn what you want, just don’t touch the Big Wang
( I wonder … maybe you were looking at it while I was working? Problem I had, i tried something, it worked. I tried again, it didn’t. I thought it was me, so changed it … worked. Moment later … didn’t)
As in, don’t touch but sure you can spawn him. The test spawny thingy i made can be removed.
I hope you don’t mind; I borrowed your infinite camera following code for my game. (Just tell me if you don’t want me to.)
I’m trying to come up with how to spawn the blocks on the edges of the screen and delete the one behind. Maybe put in the camera x plus some and and the camera y plus some for the new spawn coordinates? I’ll try it.
So I’ve finally joined the team and I am going to get working on the structure bundle for the game.
Also, just so you know, I won’t touch any other games besides this one and the Ultimate Flowlab Crossover (when it is created), since two of my characters will be part of the crossover.
Sorry if I make any unwanted changes by the way…
@Superstargames It is fine! Good to have you onboard!
@thebrickccentric I don’t even know what you are talking about, LOL. Infinite camera? You mean where I feed the player postion into the camera? Common practice, you will find it in many examples PUBLIC DOMAIN
Whatever I openly discus and develop can be used by anyone. Like the endless map generator, I hope it is clear that the routine will be public once running for everyone to use.
If I ever have something that I don’t want to share (mostly because it crashes like hell, lol), I just don’t make the project public.
@Superstargames , welcome aboard
Ok, was able to convince the tiles to line up:
Next I have to tune the generator. I would like to add an option that allows me to force in some areas the probabilities for more grass/land/ or whatever (AT THE MOMENT IT IS JUST RANDOM!)
IMPORTANT: When you work on the tile spawning, make sure the center origin of the first part is at X64/Y64 (that happens automatically when you place the top left corner at 0/0) and from there onwards with a spacing of 128.
I will call it a day until I see some spawning, it might affect how I continue
hey has anyone figured out how to make a basic (singular) randomly generated island?(for a gamemode in sight colletors)
Details please @glithctyrus
Island size, tile size, shape, content? Maybe sample picture?