About the latest version of the game

[Kor]

Good luck.  It does sound difficult.  The wading thing would likely have to check for the dino's size to see when they are underwater or swimming on the surface instead of wading, and figuring out how much they are slowed by sounds like it would not be easy.

[Flathead770]

Okay I see how it works. If you half-enter the water, it triggers the 'being underwater' check but then if you leave again, it doesn't always disable the 'being underwater' event, resulting in the situation you encountered, Flathead.

Yep, you got it,i can actually pull it off pretty much every time, and for anyone else who wants to try it heres an easy explanation. first get into a position like this:

[EDIT] to easily get into this position, first swim near the shore (about as close as in the pic), then jump twice to sink (if you slide down once under the water, find a a less steep slope). Once your half-submerged and your position is like my pic, strafe towards the shore.

To be under the water without being in the "underwater" state is a bit more difficult. First get into a position like so:

then jump and strafe towards the shore without leaving the water ( i believe), it may take a few tries to do it though. [EDIT] the slope has to be steep enough that you slide. From the postion in the pic above, jump and strafe towards the shore. Make sure that your jump makes your character surface as you hit the slope. Since the slope is to steep to walk one, your character will slide back into the water without being in the underwater state. Its easy to tell if you did it right as it doesn't have the blue blur effect when under the water:

Once done though, theres really not much to fool around with so i would just stick with floating around with the other glitch.

[Kor]

I was able to do that, but could not figure out how to recreate it.  It seemed to me sometimes while underwater I'd have the blur effect and sometimes not.    Regardless of how I got underwater.

I also seemed able to sometimes while underwater jump back to the surface and sometimes not.  

Also sometimes I seemed able to jump on the top of water like it was ground, and sometimes sink like a stone.  I tried to see if there was a certain condition to recreate it, but again it seemed to me to happen at random, or more likely I"m just not smart enough to figure out what the conditions are.

[Flathead770]

Also sometimes I seemed able to jump on the top of water like it was ground, and sometimes sink like a stone. I tried to see if there was a certain condition to recreate it, but again it seemed to me to happen at random, or more likely I"m just not smart enough to figure out what the conditions are.

if you come to the surface from underwater, your able to "walk" on top of the waters surface. You have to jump twice to go back under. It seems to me that its an easy way to swim on the surface of the water without worrying about jumping out of the water and back in.

[Mumbling]

I tried it on my laptop again, good news. It didn't crash and I could actually walk. The framerate 1 wasn't too bad, I guess I could play with it if needed. I changed the resolution to the lowest level first though.

Somehow the walls don't look completely correct. Anyway. If you're ever going to set up minimum requirements. I'd say they must at least have 512mb RAM because my 256mb really is just a bit too laggy.

[action9000]

The game itself eats up around 90MB of RAM while it's running, plus who-knows-how-much video card memory.

Eventually, once we get the view distance more reasonable (say, 10000 instead of 500000 ), it may change a bit because all the view distance is horribly slow!  I can totally believe it for now though, hopefully the system requirements will be reduced as this project gets developed.

[action9000]

Malte, Jason and I have been talking a bit about how the character select screen will look someday so I figured hey, why not get started on it now?

Players choose the type of dino by clicking the buttons on the left side.  From there, every species of dino of that type will start walking around the valley in the middle of the screen. Click on this one to choose your species.  

Eventually, those button graphics will be replaced with our own drawings.  Each button will have a picture of at least one of each available species of that type, ideally.  So if it's the 'longneck' button, it would have a picture of an apatosaurus, brachiosaurus, diplodocus, etc. on the button.

The transparent box on the right side will soon show a description of the dino, as well as its stats and some abilities unique to that dino type.


Anywho, here's what we have so far.  This is a screenshot directly from the game program, so everything you see there is implimented in the code now.  

Also, that background isn't an image.  It's a realtime render of a 3d terrain, meaning we'll be able to pan around it, make it larger and have all sorts of opportunity for prettiness later on.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Woah, you've gotten far. I know, I've been really lagging on that testing biz, but school's back in, so free time has really dissapeared. I'll get back on it first chance I get (Which, with semester finals coming up, isn't the next few weeks)

[Kor]

Sounds like you have done a lot of progress, discussions.

[Sky]

Wow, the 3D terrain looks fantastic. o.O
Looks like there is more space for other dino species.
Are there any planned?

[Malte279]

There will be the six main species:
Longneck
Threehorn
Spike-/Clubtail
Swimmer
Flyer
Fastrunner

Each main species will have several sub-kinds which would have the same abilities but different looks. There has been talk (nothing absolutely settled there) about making at least three sub-kinds per species (e.g. Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus in case of the longneck). In case of some species there are more than three different interesting alternatives.

[action9000]

And I have even more good news for everyone: I have a new release ready!
The Land Before Time Online, v0.12

Changes from the previous version:
-Fixed the swimming bugs that were pointed out to me (thanks everyone!).  If you continue to find swimming bugs, please let me know. I play tested these changes quite a bit and couldn't reproduce any of the previous bugs.  A few minor cosmetic problems still exist (such as the cube jumping a tiny bit when you leave the water) but it should be fully playable now. Please let me know of anything that's still broken.

-New Character Select screen.
The way it works is very simple: Put your mouse over a portrait and it will light up.  Click on the portrait to select that as your character.  The character has absolutely no purpose in the game yet but this menu is fully functional, the character you pick does assign different values to the stat variables and this will lead the way to having a choice of characters in the near future.
You won't be able to start the game until you choose a character.  You'll see what happens if you try.

-Arrow keys can now be used to control your character.        Only thing is, swimming does almost require use of the mouse so using the arrow keys may be a bit awkward.  I'm willing to look into a way to control the camera with the keyboard if anyone is interested.

-Removed the opportunity to change the resolution in the options menu.  This is because DirectX doesn't actually allow the changing of resolution without reloading all of the media.  I was experiencing serious stability problems when trying to do so after any 3d data was loaded so I just removed the feature.  Soon, I will create a way to set the resolution before you start the game.  It's set to 800x600 right now and there is no way to change it aside from editting the source code and remaking the .exe file.

Known issues:
-Multiplayer bugs from before still aren't fixed.

-The framerate may be a few FPS lower than the previous version.  I hope to improve performance a lot with a significant update in the near future, however it will take quite a bit of work (redoing my sky code completely) so I've been putting it off.

[action9000]

Groan, okay apparently it isn't completely fixed.   I was able to reproduce the bug of swimming in the air after enough attempts at swimming up a slope.  It rarely happens so it requires a pretty exact set of circumstances, which I'm still trying to figure out what those are.  Grrrr.

[Kor]

Sounds like something that is very frustrating to find.  I'll try to remember to download it tomorrow, if it lets me download.  Says I've used my download limit for today, but I never visit the place but to download your game.

[action9000]

Okay I've done some more tweaking to the code and I *think* I've basically hammered the bugs out this time.  I'm still doing more playtesting but if anyone wants to give this a go, feel free.  Thanks to everyone for their time!

Land Before Time RPG, v0.121

Sorry this is being such a pain, everyone.  Here's the code just for checking/setting whether the player is wading, swimming on the surface or underwater, to see why it's being such a pain.
Yea, it's long.

I'm not usually a fan of releasing source code publically so this is gonna be all you get.

Code:  on  

void checkIfUnderwater()
   {
  SC_UpdateObject(player);

  //if the player is touching the surface of the water AND the ground at the same time...
  if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==1)&&(SC_ObjectCollision(player,map)==1))
  {
     if (wading==true)
     {
  dbText(0,250,dbStr(playerYWhileWading));
  dbText(0,260,dbStr(oldPlayerY));
  if (playerYWhileWading-oldPlayerY<-.001)
  {
     disableGoingUnderwater=true;
  }

  else if (playerYWhileWading-oldPlayerY>.001)
  {
     disableGoingUnderwater=false;
  }
     }

     wading=true;
     playerYWhileWading=oldPlayerY;
  }


  else if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==0)||(SC_ObjectCollision(player,map)==0))
  {
     if (wading==true)
     {
  if (playerYWhileWading-oldPlayerY>.001)
  {
     wadedIntoWater=true;
  }
     }
     wading=false;
     dbText(400,350,"Not wading");
 
     outOfWaterTimer++;
     if (outOfWaterTimer>=2)
     {
  disableGoingUnderwater=false;
  outOfWaterTimer=0;
     }
  }

  if (wading==false)
  {
     //disableGoingUnderwater=false;
  }

  dbText(300,400,dbStr(wading));
  dbText(300,410,dbStr(disableGoingUnderwater));


  //If the player is jumping into/out of the water for the first frame of a new collision with the surface...
  if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==1)&& (collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready==false) && ((yVelocity < -30) || (yVelocity > 0)))
  {

     //If you're jumping into the water..
     //if the falling speed exceeds this value..
     if (yVelocity < -30)
     {
  swimmingOnSurface=false;
  fallingIntoWater=true;
  collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready=true;
  dbText(400,400,"FALLING INTO WATER");
     }
     
     //If you're jumping out of the water
     else if (yVelocity > 50)
     {
  underwater=false;
  slowDownFallDueToWater=false;


  swimmingOnSurface=false;
  jumpingOutOfWater=true;
  collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready=true;
  dbText(400,410,"JUMPING OUT OF WATER");

 
     }

     else if ((yVelocity <=50) && (yVelocity>=0))
     {
  underwater=false;
  slowDownFallDueToWater=false;

  swimmingOnSurface=true;
  jumpingOutOfWater=false;
  collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready=true;
  dbText(400,410,"SWIMMING OUT OF WATER");
     }
 

  } //END jumping into/out of water


  //If the player is swimming onto the surface from underwater (as opposed to jumping out)...
  else if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==1) && (yVelocity > 0) && (yVelocity <= currentSwimmingForce))
  {
     underwater=false;
     swimmingOnSurface=true;
     
  }

  else if (((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==0) && (fallingIntoWater==true))||(SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==0) && (wadedIntoWater==true))
  {
     if (disableGoingUnderwater==false)
     {
  wadedIntoWater=false;
  underwater=true;
  dbText(300,240,"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA");
  fallingIntoWater=false;
     }
  }


  //If the player is WALKING into the water for the first frame...
  else if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==1) && (yVelocity> -50) && (yVelocity <0)&& (collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready==false))
  {
     //if ((yVelocity >= -100) && (yVelocity <=0))
     //{
  swimmingOnSurface=true;
  underwater=false;
  slowDownFallDueToWater=false;
  dbText(0,250,"ENTERING WATER SLOWLY");
     //}
  }


 
  //Lets you walk out of the water when swimming on surface
  else if (((SC_ObjectCollision(player,map)==1)) && ((swimmingOnSurface==true)||(wading==true)))
  {
     if ((yVelocity >= -100) && (yVelocity <=0))
     {
  dbText(0,220,"LEAVING WATER");
  swimmingOnSurface=false;
  underwater=false;
  slowDownFallDueToWater=false;
  fallingIntoWater=false;
     }
  }


   
  //If not touching the surface of the water
  else if ((SC_ObjectCollision(player,mapWater)==0))
  {
     //reset this variable
     collidedWithWaterSurfaceAlready=false;
  }
     
  if ((underwater==true)&& (goUnderwaterTimer>0))
  {
     goUnderwaterTimer--;
  }

  else if (underwater==false)
  {
     goUnderwaterTimer=90;
  }

 
   }

[Kor]

Thanks.  I'll download it and tomorrow or sometime after when it's sorta half way warm here I'll swap out hdd's and try the game for a while.  I'd rather not handle icy cold computer components today, especially when it's hard for me to keep my hands half way warm instead of cold.  .

[Kor]

Everything seems good, except I've noticed if you are on the little island that is in the river and partially underwater or a little bit under water and jump sometimes you can land on top of water and stay there.  It may take more then 1 time but eventually I was able to land on top of water and walk on water all over the river.  it seems to only work at the island, maybe cause of the slope.  When I tried it on any other shore or land that lead to the water, though I only tired it a few times, I wasn't able to get it to work.  Not sure if it is a bug, or just swimming on the surface, but when I tried to enter the water anywhere the char would walk along the bottom even deep under water.  

If I jump while on the water I'd always sink straight to the bottom.  Unlike before in an earlier version.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Kor, I think that's just wading. When you're on the surface, the "1" lights up under On Surface, which means Tim put that in there on purpose. Maybe in the future the avatar will bob up and down or something, like it's in the water.

Just wondering, are we supposed to be able to get onto that steep rocky island thing? Beause the only way I could get up there was traveling NE counterclockwise and repeatedly jumping to my left.

[Kor]

If it were wading why could I only get and wade on the surface from the island in the river.  Anywhere else, along the banks of the river, I could not jump and stay on the surface.  Only on the island banks, and then you have to jump while at least slightly in the water, enough so you get above the water and eventually you'll land on the water and stay there, as long as you don't jump.  

[action9000]

Okay I'm trying to fumble with these bugs but this is proving to be a royal pain.
I have another attempt here, I know this one still has a bug with the spacebar, that if you press it to swim straight up to the surface, you will sometimes jump out of the water, fall back in and bob straight back up to the surface again.

If you ignore that, I'm curious how this version runs for everyone. I've made quite a few changes, including:

1) Reduced view distance which will help improve peformance on machines with slow video cards.  It won't do much now (you probably won't even notice a difference) but this will mean a difference between the game being playable and unplayable later in development.

2) Made the cube larger and with a higher movement speed.

3) Some tweaks to the water detection.

I know this isn't a complete fix to everything but I am curious if people find this works better for detecting underwater/not.
Anyone who wants to give it a shot, please do so.

http://search3.idrive.com/driveway/jsp/dwa...p?id=w4g0a7s1r6

Sorry about this, everyone. Like I said: amateur programmer.