Homestrife 4⅓ - Development Thread 2 - Tech Demo 2 out now!

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

@Pumpkin: Yea, there will be transitional animations all over the place come the next tech demo, including an aerial "jump start" one. I just did the minimum needed animations for this one, so worry about all that. I'm all over it.

[PumpkinAppearifier]

@Pumpkin: Yea, there will be transitional animations all over the place come the next tech demo, including an aerial "jump start" one. I just did the minimum needed animations for this one, so worry about all that. I'm all over it.

Fantastic!

Sounds cool, I cant wait for the next tech demo! (and the next one...and the next one....and the next one....)

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

This might seem like a somewhat silly questions, but I've discovered that it isn't openGL versions that are the issue:

For everyone who has tested, whether it works or not, what brand graphics card do you have? ATI/AMD or nVidia?

[PumpkinAppearifier]

This might seem like a somewhat silly questions, but I've discovered that it isn't openGL versions that are the issue:

For everyone who has tested, whether it works or not, what brand graphics card do you have? ATI/AMD or nVidia?

nVidia

[Iydak]

ATI/AMD, mine didn't work.

[ArmsAreLoud]

nVidia for a not working computer.

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Alright. Try this version on for size people.

It seems like a big compatibility issue was with ATI/AMD video cards. This is the explanation according to Darlos:

[14:02] CT: so basically the way the code is written (as I was told by an online explanation ages ago) is that if the shader compiling returns any text whatsoever, that its a failure
[14:02] CT: because I was told that if it succeeds, it returns no text
[14:02] CT: this is true under nvidia. not so with ati apparentlly
[14:03] CT: so ati gives back this "success!" text and my program thinks its an error and closes
[14:03] CT: fabulous

It now works on all of my testing computers(the one that failed had an ATI card), so at least one issue is solved. This new version also logs errors, so if things still don't work for you, there's a log.txt file that generates in the same folder as the .EXE. Send the contents of that to Darlos if you still have issues.

[Darlos9D]

Okay we got it working. Wait for an update from fM though. EDIT: He ninja'd me...

frost you'll fucking love this. It was the dumbest problem. So when shaders are compiled, under nvidia it returns some text if there's an error and no text if there isn't. So, I wrote my code to bail out if it got any text back from the shader compiler, since I assumed that would always signify an error.

Big mistake. AMD on the other hand decided that when the compiler succeeds, it would be a great idea to return some text like "HEY THE SHADER COMPILED SUCCESSFULLY YAY!" My code saw this and bailed out like it was an error. That's why it was closing down immediately on everybody.

So dumb...

I'm going to bed.

[Frost]

The thing still fails for me, with a new and exciting error message:

An error occured while running the application. Code: 413612016

Log:

SDL Initialized.
SDL attributes set.
Resolution set.
SDL Video mode set.

Running OpenGL 2.1 on an Intel integrated card.

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Hmm... well it might actually be an openGL version thing in your case. I'm confident we've gotten the main compatibility issue, now it's just a matter of sorting it out for old hardware.

[techTalkative]

This new version worked fine for me . It's a nice demo you got there xD
(stalkers, stalkers everywhere hahahaha)

[Heroguy]

It opens then closes.
Practically immediatly.
No change in previous problem.

[Frost]

It opens then closes.
Practically immediatly.
No change in previous problem.

It might help Darlos if you post the contents of log.txt, from the program's directory. Also, some basic information about your computer: whether it's a laptop or a desktop, and its approximate age.

[Iydak]

It works, but I can't figure out which button is jump.

[Gorski_Song]

J to jump. Check the readme for other stuff.

[DarkMarxSoul]

The demo is very good, you've made excellent progress. Two things maybe you could do to improve the actual mechanics though. For one thing, the window of time allowed between taps of the directional buttons in order to make John dash is very small, so I've found myself trying to dash only to walk in one direction instead. Another thing is that, when I dash and then jump, hitting the ground against reverts John back to walking, when I think it would be better if he stayed dashing instead.

Still though, this is very good and I can't wait to see the next milestone of your progress.

[Elanor Pam]

Yay, it worked! Here are some random notes:

- If you walk against the slightly higher blue platform to the right, it looks like he's pushing against an invisible wall - he doesn't even quite touch the platform. When you dash against it, though, his face overlaps the blue platform like he just magically shoved his head into the bricks. This is probably expected and known for the demo, but I thought I'd put it on the table where it'd be visible.
- I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to jump onto the higher blue platform from the above mentioned position, but pressing D + J didn't seem to work; John just jumped up and down instead of jumping to the right, and in the end I had to air-dash to make it. And then I noticed that he could jump to the right and left just fine, he just wasn't able to on that exact spot. Possibly because of the magical barrier cushion outlined above.
- I went on a jumping spree after the former experiment, just bouncing around and off platforms. It seems that if you keep direction + J pressed, John automatically jumps back up as soon as he hits the floor, for as long as you press J. Is that on purpose? Feels a bit unintuitive to me, but I'm just a casual gamer and have no experience with SSBB and others.
- Air-dash really is kinda difficult to get right. Fails more often than not. The taps need to be a little slower, I think.

[Darlos9D]

The thing still fails for me, with a new and exciting error message:

An error occured while running the application. Code: 413612016

Log:

SDL Initialized.
SDL attributes set.
Resolution set.
SDL Video mode set.

Running OpenGL 2.1 on an Intel integrated card.

Hrm, that looks like it might actually mean that it couldn't get the shader functions set up. Which is weird if you have 2.1. Should work...

Also, if you couldn't already tell, the first 6 digits of the error code are bullshit, lol. I just did that so I could easily tell the difference between codes generated by my own program and codes generated by deeper underlying things.

I think I'm going to completely revamp the logging though, and make it mostly text messages instead of error codes.

[DS Piron]

I got the same error, along with a 7 on the old demo, if that helps.

Speclog

show spoiler

hide spoiler

System:
==Microsoft Windows XP
==Home Edition
==Version 2002
==Service Pack 3

==Dell Latitude LAT2100 (A netbook)
====Intel Atom
==CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
==1.60 GHz, 0.99 GB of RAM
==Physical Address Extension (?)

---------------------------------

DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 1014 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 224 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 8 MB
Processor: x86 family 6 Model 28 Stepping 2
Processor Speed: 1596 MHZ

...Perhaps bit exccesive...
eh.

also, I almost typed Hemo Edition, wut?

[Darlos9D]

What I really need to know is your OpenGL version. Also the make of your graphics card.

[Frost]

Bit of googling says that the LAT 2100 has an Intel GMA 950. You can check out the specs at this incredibly useful website.

[Todd Ingram]

Should John be able to air-dash in the direction he's not facing when in mid-air?

He can't do it in the demo; just wondering if it was left out intentionally.

[Darlos9D]

Should John be able to air-dash in the direction he's not facing when in mid-air?

He can't do it in the demo; just wondering if it was left out intentionally.

I was planning on it, but didn't have the sprites for it.

[frozenMeatpopsicle]

Alright, I've started recording bugs, quirks and "complains" so far. Find that list here. Some stuff has been fixed already, but likely won't be updated in this demo. Definitely next one though.

One thing we're not sure about is the double-tap window. The current window(10 frames, 1/6th of a second) is plenty wide/lenient. It's approximately(give or take a few frames) the same as several fighting games I've tested. Most people, especially fighter enthusiasts, won't need nearly that many frames. We can possibly widen it a little bit(probably no more than 5 additional frames), but it might make things too wide/lenient.

You might also note that you can only, currently, air dash in the direction you are facing. So maybe that's why it's not working too well for some?

[Darlos9D]

So on the list is the notion that there should be a way to turn around in mid-air. I'm wondering exactly how that should work. Here's a couple possibilities:

-You can turn at any time through some kind of button command. Considering all the other things you can do midair though, I'm not sure what that command should be.

-When you air-jump "backwards" you automatically turn around.

Any other ideas? Preferences?