Hooptie - Moving Forward

[Pazolli]

With Hooptie 0.2.4u out the door, now is the time to jump back in to full speed with Hooptie's development. The major change in this last release is that where as 'close encounters' between sprites could sometimes cause graphics to appear strangely in previous versions, the graphics engine has now been significantly change to prevent this from happening. Which makes me feel a lot more happier about Hooptie as a game generally. It's certainly true that we are reasonably close to something fit for a Milestone III release. And as such I'd like to have an update on how a few of our members are going with their projects (no pressure on any of the following, I'd just like to get an idea of where the project is at):
John, how is it going with the map editor?
Mathieu, could you complete the "Discrete Scores" thingy for us?
AndyWan, might you be interested in this task (http://sourceforge.net/pm/task.php?func=detailtask&project_task_id=56518&group_id=31218&group_project_id=13463)?
Kjurtyl, might you be interested in implementing these 3, 2, 1, GO! (http://inkubator.idevgames.com/go_task.sit) graphics as a preamble to levels? This might involve adding a new game state to the GameController header file.
Also we now want to begin looking at additional ennemies for Hooptie. I liked DaFalcon's HoverBot, might we be able to get a full selection of graphics for that?

Thanks for your time everyone. I hope you're all still committed to Hooptie. And while I must confess I'm looking forward to leaving its code behind, I sincerely want to do so in a mature state.

Keep up the good work everyone,
Mark.

[BobbyWatson]

Originally posted by Pazolli


Mathieu, could you complete the "Discrete Scores" thingy for us?



I'm on it, I'll try to implement it this week, but I'm also working on a personal project involving MySQL and Cocoa, so I don't know how long it will take.

Mathieu aka BobbyWatson

[Pazolli]

That's okay. I don't want Hooptie to become some overwhelming burden for any of its developers. Just when you have time and hopefully one day all our efforts and perseverance will result in a really cool game for everyone to play.

:-)

Good night,
Mark.

[flipflop]

John, how is it going with the map editor?


Some not so good news regarding the map editor. First of all we moved to a new apartment and just, last night, got DSL re-connected here. Needless to say I have a bit of email and forums to catch up with... :) The really bad/sad thing is during the move my G4 had a not so good tumble killing the machine. Still not sure what is busted but hope the HD is still working. Stupid me forgot to make a backup of the system before we moved so who knows what the status of the files are on the machine.

Sigh, this is my fault and I feel really stupid for not backing up the system before the move. :( I'm still interested in finishing what was started once I get my G4 repaired and we settle into our new apartment. I figure by the end of this week I can be up and running once again.

Feeling stupid in Seattle,
- John ;)

[Pazolli]

It's good to hear you're still interested in the map editor. I'm sorry about the G4 but I have a feeling the Hard Disk will be okay. There certainly isn't any great urgency to complete the editor, I was just looking for an update on how you were doing.

Mark.

[DaFalcon]

Glad to see Hooptie moving forward once again :-) I look forward to getting home and downloading the Hooptie updater to see the bonus screen in action!

My next task will be to create a full set of hoverbot sprites if everyone's OK with the design. It may take a little while as I'll be gone for the next week, but you can count on them coming eventually :cool:

[Kjurtyl]

Well, I'm still around along with my trusty G3. Recent weeks have been quite busy for me, things have only now gone quiet (and by now I mean right now,7/2/02 3:50 EST). In fact, it's the first time I have the opportunity to write in these forums in a while.

I'd be happy to implement the (1-3 & go) graphics, although I am a bit curious as to where they go exactly. Are they meant to appear on a blank screen before the new level is drawn or are they meant to appear just after the new level is drawn on screen but before the level begins?

I'm assuming the latter, but I'd appreciate confirmation on this.

-Kjurtyl.

[Pazolli]

Originally posted by Kjurtyl
...or are they meant to appear just after the new level is drawn on screen but before the level begins?

That would be best, but either would do.

Good to hear from you again DaFalcon, I thought you might be away from home. :-)

Mark.

[Kjurtyl]

You may consider the 3,2,1, Go! task done. However, there is one slight graphical glitch. Since each number has a different width/height, when I try to center them on-screen, they end up in noticeably different places.

Could it be possible for someone to at least adjust the height of each numeral so that it is the same across the board?

-Kjurtyl

[Pazolli]

Sure thing. I made it so that all of the pictures are 280 by 140. You can download them now at:

http://inkubator.idevgames.com/go_task.sit

Thanks for your work Kjurtyl,
Mark

[Pazolli]

Count down works great!

Thanks Kjurtyl! :-)

[Kjurtyl]

Over the next few days I'll be taking a look at the AI code to see if I may be of assistance in that area. I'm especially interested in implementing the "super-alien" concept, but I need to familiarize myself with the sprite handling code before I can even say if I can do it. Believe it or not, I haven't yet taken a look at that section of Hooptie.

I also want to push discussion on the Hooptie golden letters task since we've got the graphics for it. Yet, I think we still have to resolve the issue of where the picked up letters end up. It is my belief that putting them on the skyline will just crowd up the screen. Any ideas for alternative placement would be welcome.

John: We're all in high tension here about the hard drive.. did it turn out ok?

Listening to Achenar's new music offerings I had this funny idea: if we make fast-paced music play while the bonus screen is up, won't that make the screen "appear" faster? Note: don't take this comment too seriously.

- Kjurtyl.

[flipflop]

First, the bad news:
The G4 was DOA and not much was salvageable including the poor HD. I guess it fell "just right". :rolleyes:

More bad news:
Damn, cheap Verizon can't seem to get our DSL line up and running reliably. Of course this wont stop me from doing some development but it sucks just the same.

Good news:
New G4 - 933mhz machine has replaced the dead one. Pretty much the same machine as the old one with the major exception being that the new one actually works. ;)

More good news:
I got a job at a company called Qpass out of Seattle (www.qpass.com for those interested). It only took 7 months to find a job! Sheesh!

Semi-good news:
My iBook has 2 of the new classes I was working on for the editor still intact. These classes are for loading and creating level packages and levels within a package. Finally the source for the original level editor should still be on my iDisk.

I'm still interested in finishing the level editor and dedicate the finished product to my dead machine. RIP.

- John

[Kjurtyl]

I remember having to fight with my DSL provider until January of this year when they decided to take charge of their operations instead of outsourcing them to other less reliable companies.

As for you're ex-G4, I'll drop a flower on it's grave.
I hope you didn't have to pay for the new one!

Glad to hear you're back on board. The Hooptie levels are starting to feel tedious, we need fresh material and thus a better greater level editor.

-Kjurtyl.

[flipflop]

All right! Some good news to report for a change. We finally got our DSL line back up and running about 10 minutes ago! Woo-hoo! You said it right, Kjurtyl, what a pain in the ass! I'm currently getting all the software updates for OS X and should be back to "normal" by later this evening.

I will resume, uh, start over the level editor this week. Sigh! But thank goodness for Cocoa and interface builder! :)

Quick question, which is kind of off topic though:

I have a couple CD-RW disks I would like to use for backing up my system (what a concept!). The only way I have found to use a CD-RW disk is to format it, write to it and repeat. Is it possible NOT to re-format the CD-RW disk and just write to it as if it was another hard-drive? It seems kind of silly to re-format the whole disk when only 2 or 3 files out of a 100 files that are on the disk have been changed.

Thanks for your help!
- John

[Pazolli]

Originally posted by jnikolai
I have a couple CD-RW disks I would like to use for backing up my system (what a concept!). The only way I have found to use a CD-RW disk is to format it, write to it and repeat. Is it possible NOT to re-format the CD-RW disk and just write to it as if it was another hard-drive? It seems kind of silly to re-format the whole disk when only 2 or 3 files out of a 100 files that are on the disk have been changed.

A while ago Yamaha (http://www.yamaha.com/) developed a piece of hardware that didn't require the disk to be reformated, but no it's generally not possible to avoid reformating regardless of whether you're using a Mac or PC.

Mark.

[flipflop]

- OFF TOPIC -

FYI - from the Roxio CD-RW faq (http://www.roxio.com/en/interest/burning/cdrw.recording.faq.mac.html)




What is the difference between recording a CD-RW within Toast on an Apple computer and use on a Windows-based system?

CD-RW discs were designed to be erasable: to burn a disc, but then have the opportunity to erase and reuse the same disc again. Toast and Roxio's Easy CD Creator for Windows support that use. In Windows, Roxio's DirectCD (a UDF formatting utility included within Easy CD Creator), can format CD-RW discs as UDF volumes which appear in the Windows Explorer as if they were a floppy or hard disk drive, supporting drag-and-drop functionality and the ability to delete individual files. At this time there is no DirectCD for the Mac OS, but Roxio is always is always working to improve Toast to meet customers' CD and DVD burning needs.


Wonder if Roxio will ever have this functionality for the mac.
- John