Pacman

[Zulu Romeo]

That's actually pretty good work there. Downloaded OK and playing well on VLC.

Hmm... perhaps PacMan could become a gooey substance that absorbs pills and becomes larger and later slower?

Eh, and don't worry about these diversions. Each small side-project is a useful step towards perfection, where you pick up neat tricks and learn from your mistakes and build up your portfolio. Go for it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I love the Lava Lamp. How long did it take to render that?

 

[Jadzia]

It took about an hour running as a background process. Raytracing never happens quick. But also a combination of having a fairly old computer, and the fact that my programs aren't the fastest of things.

The video on youtube looks really jerky to me. I'm thinking it hasn't uploaded well. I might try it again.

The video has around 1500 frames I think it is and at 25fps it should be very smooth.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The upload to YouTube works well, especially in HD.

 

[RJDiogenes]

It runs very smoothly for me.

That seems like a pretty good rendering time for 1500 frames, although I suppose the frames are small. I think it would take my computer longer.

 

[Jadzia]

I discovered why it was playing jerkily - I had about 100 pop under ads behind my browser.

I've revised the ghost animation now. Hopefully it doesn't look like it's swinging a third limb now. I'm pleased how he's turned out. I think he looks a pretty cool ghost.

I've made up a sprite sheet for this ghost, and I'm going to start on the program now, creating the maze definition and hopefully get Pinky wandering the corridors.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

He definitely looks cute. LIke some big pink blancmange you want to hug, instead of eat or play tennis with.

Perhaps you might want to choose the ghosties' appearances to reflect their personalities too? A "vicious" one, a "cowardly" one, a "bored" one, an "amorous" one, etc...

 

[Jadzia]

He definitely looks cute.

Perhaps you might want to choose the ghosties' appearances to reflect their personalities too?

It's all in the eyes Zion. Like the smilies:

I think the ghosts will be different colours to distinguish their targetting behaviours. But I can use different eyes for the speed modes:

normal mode -- slower than player -- cute eyes
cruise (elroy) mode -- same speed as player -- focused eyes
killing mode -- faster than player -- evil eyes

I suppose variations on the eyes are possible for the normal modes.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That's a great animation. I can't wait to see the variations.

 

[Jadzia]

Last night I made a start on the program. I defined the maze and got the ghosts wandering.

This was followed with simple graphics using coloured squares to represent the corridors and walls.

I then adjusted this to draw pacmania style graphics. Also drawing in the pills, using different colours for the ghosts, and having the eyes move more realistically with their movements.

This took me as long again.

Of the pseudo-3d methods available, these are three popular ones:

I'm undecided at this stage which of these (if any) to go with because they all have their disadvantages.

 

[RevDMV]

This is fun to watch, and compare to having watched our main programmer struggle when he did our Pac-Man Apple II knock off in 81.

One tough part was how smart the ghosts are, or are not. Also every once in a while the Pac-Man can run through a a ghost unaffected.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Those ghosts look cute. Interesting to see your Pacmania approach, which looks promising.

Of the pseudo-3d methods available, these are three popular ones:

I'm undecided at this stage which of these (if any) to go with because they all have their disadvantages.

If you've ever played SimCity 4, you'll see that their approach to 3D is semi-isometric, semi-cabinet so that horizontal is still at an angle - this way, while there is a clear difference between horizontal and vertical directions (which can be confusing in true isometric mode) it still looks impressive enough to not have the horizontal plane truly parallel to the video screen. I think you could try that and see how it goes.

 

[Jadzia]

I've never played simcity 4. Do you mean like this?

I think that could work I'll see how it goes. Do you have a preference for the handedness. I'd be tempted to go with right handed because the forward direction is kind of facing inward as the right hand tends to be when operating things?

And trust you to think up something awkward to program. How am I supposed to work out the row/column lengths to draw with this thing!

EDIT
Okay, this is what happens...

There's good visibility behind the walls as well as looking sensibly proportioned and with definite senses of sidewards and forwards. Brill

This is fun to watch, and compare to having watched our main programmer struggle when he did our Pac-Man Apple II knock off in 81.

One tough part was how smart the ghosts are, or are not. Also every once in a while the Pac-Man can run through a a ghost unaffected.

Yeah I think that would have been due to ghost/pacman positions being stored as their grid square coordinates, so if they happen to change grid square at the same time, they can pass through each other and trigger no collision.

I'm handling positions entirely as single precision here, using integer snapping to determine grid position for purposes of their movement logics. By doing this I can detect collisions via a metric on the coordinate space.

And I'm pleased you're enjoying my reports.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Enjoying, but not necessarily understanding. I love those ghosts; I can't wait to see them in action.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I've never played simcity 4. Do you mean like this?

I think that could work I'll see how it goes. Do you have a preference for the handedness. I'd be tempted to go with right handed because the forward direction is kind of facing inward as the right hand tends to be when operating things?

And trust you to think up something awkward to program. How am I supposed to work out the row/column lengths to draw with this thing!

LOL, Ravescene Projection™...

Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing. It seems to provide a more natural 3D effect than the 45-degree isometric view, which seems artificial and, to the uninitiated, hard to tell which way is "up". If rendered in full 3D (i.e. not a 3D perspective of an essentially 2D picture) the oblique-angled projection would look incredible.

And just to be (more) awkward, the angle used in SimCity 4 is the "left-handed" angle. I guess I'm more used to it that way...

Enjoying, but not necessarily understanding.

[BasilExposition]

I suggest you don't worry about this sort of thing, and just enjoy yourself.
[to everyone else] That goes for you all, too.

[/BasilExposition]

 

[RJDiogenes]

Stop worrying and enjoy? Right up my alley.

 

[Jadzia]

I've decided to go back to cabinet projection because I felt that the others looked too steep an angle and a little dizzying. But to compensate for the problems of cabinet, I've stretched the projection a little to make the angle look less shallow, while improving visibility of corridors passing behind walls. I'm pretty happy with the result.

I've also improved the way sprites (ghosts, pills, etc) are drawn too, so they can be partially hidden behind the background as is apparent in my latest screenshot.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Hey, Lego Pacman. That looks pretty cool.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Still going for the Pacmania look again. I wonder if there will be a bouncing PacMan again?

I preferred the dizzying, claustrophobic, sloping look of the previous perspective, personally, but if you're planning a non-fully-rendered maze then the I see how cabinet look would be useful. Go with whatever doesn't cause you motion sickness, I guess.

 

[Jadzia]

A little update from the weekend.

The top two pictures show a new animated character.

The bottom left picture shows some places with pills, and some places without pills. This is the output of my newly made editor, allowing me to put pills where I want them, and layout maps much more easily.

I wanted to make an editor also because of defining the start position and the ghost house and how not all locations have pills, like through the tunnels.

Bottom right picture shows new system of using more than one kind of wall/floor tile.

Not yet playable.