16
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: May 14, 2017, 11:12:44 pm »
The first five (well, two) playable minutes of the game:
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
17
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: April 24, 2017, 12:12:42 am »
Horror story time!
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how much video card memory the game was using. So, I found a GPU profiler, ran the game, and found out it was using a shocking 3464 MB.
Was that a lot? I checked out some other games. Overwatch and Guild Wars 2 each used around 800 Mb. It turns out 3 gigs is pretty terrible.
The problem is that I was using a lot of big, redundant RenderTextures for the level art generator. 4096x4096 textures * 6 per room * 2 depths * 4 layers. It's obvious now in hindsight but I had no idea it was using that much memory.
So, I did what I could and eliminated some redundant RenderTextures. Now my system uses about 1505 Mb when running the game. Still pretty bad for a 2D game, but way better than what it was before.
Moral of the story: Be careful of what you're allocating.
Anyhoo, now that that's fixed, I put out a new build that hopefully shouldn't immediately crash for everyone. Windows only, and you'll need a video card with at least 2 GB of memory. I've seen them online for as cheap as $35 if you need one.
Link to build: http://www.myroidtypecomics.com/media/ZeransFolly.zip
There's also a bunch of the new stuff in there like rings, talents, outfits, and prettier environments.
I've been working on NPCs for the past couple of weeks so here are some pics:
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how much video card memory the game was using. So, I found a GPU profiler, ran the game, and found out it was using a shocking 3464 MB.
Was that a lot? I checked out some other games. Overwatch and Guild Wars 2 each used around 800 Mb. It turns out 3 gigs is pretty terrible.
The problem is that I was using a lot of big, redundant RenderTextures for the level art generator. 4096x4096 textures * 6 per room * 2 depths * 4 layers. It's obvious now in hindsight but I had no idea it was using that much memory.
So, I did what I could and eliminated some redundant RenderTextures. Now my system uses about 1505 Mb when running the game. Still pretty bad for a 2D game, but way better than what it was before.
Moral of the story: Be careful of what you're allocating.
Anyhoo, now that that's fixed, I put out a new build that hopefully shouldn't immediately crash for everyone. Windows only, and you'll need a video card with at least 2 GB of memory. I've seen them online for as cheap as $35 if you need one.
Link to build: http://www.myroidtypecomics.com/media/ZeransFolly.zip
There's also a bunch of the new stuff in there like rings, talents, outfits, and prettier environments.
I've been working on NPCs for the past couple of weeks so here are some pics:
18
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: March 22, 2017, 05:53:08 am »
It's been a couple months since the last update. Zeran's Folly was indeed Greenlit--a huge thank-you to everyone who voted or checked it out.
At this point, the engine and features are all mostly in-place--it's that boring part of development where it's like, "alright, now make all the assets". A few boss battles still need some tweaking but aside from that, all that's really left is a bunch of overworld areas. Basically, that means a ton of art assets for backgrounds, NPCs, etc.
I don't have a definite release date but I'd love to release sometime this year. It's still at least a few months out. Once the game's out on Steam I might come back and throw around a few keys or something if there's interest.
Anyhoo, here are a bunch of videos:
I don't know if I ever posted this here but here's a silly little animation from Feb 2014. Can't believe it's been three years already. I made it to flesh out the characters a little more in my mind and get a better idea of who they are. They've changed a lot since then but it was still a helpful exercise... even if it is a little cringe-y in retrospect, ha.
At this point, the engine and features are all mostly in-place--it's that boring part of development where it's like, "alright, now make all the assets". A few boss battles still need some tweaking but aside from that, all that's really left is a bunch of overworld areas. Basically, that means a ton of art assets for backgrounds, NPCs, etc.
I don't have a definite release date but I'd love to release sometime this year. It's still at least a few months out. Once the game's out on Steam I might come back and throw around a few keys or something if there's interest.
Anyhoo, here are a bunch of videos:
I don't know if I ever posted this here but here's a silly little animation from Feb 2014. Can't believe it's been three years already. I made it to flesh out the characters a little more in my mind and get a better idea of who they are. They've changed a lot since then but it was still a helpful exercise... even if it is a little cringe-y in retrospect, ha.
19
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: January 19, 2017, 07:29:55 am »
Zeran's Folly is now on Steam Greenlight if you're into that sort of thing.
20
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: December 30, 2016, 09:54:43 am »
Update, December 30 2016: New Build! Download the Vinegarden Build (Windows only, ~82 MB)
5 of the 6 main story dungeons are available. The two new dungeons, Dorfhole and Vinegarden, are unfinished in places but mostly playable. Load times have been improved a bit, too.
5 of the 6 main story dungeons are available. The two new dungeons, Dorfhole and Vinegarden, are unfinished in places but mostly playable. Load times have been improved a bit, too.
21
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: October 11, 2016, 02:56:42 am »I found one problem:
I minimized the game and then switched to it using Alt-Tab (Windows) and it became "not responsing". I forced it to quit. Also, why it eats so much memory (in my case - 500 MB)?
Thanks for playing! Yeah, I noticed it has problems with losing focus--I'm not totally sure what's causing it. Maybe something with threads? During loading screens it does a lot of stuff with RenderTextures in another thread to draw the levels.
Once the game is more or less done, I'm going to go back in and revise and how the levels are loaded and kept in memory. Right now, it draws textures for three layers (collision mask, midground, foreground) for each room in the zone. That way, room transitions are instant since the level art is already drawn and ready to go. The downside is it takes a lot of memory (like you said) and the load times can be a little egregious (sometimes as much as 40 seconds for a big area like the Manastery).
I'm going to look into seeing if drawing rooms on demand can be fast enough to feasible--that would cut loading times and memory usage dramatically. It all depends on if I can do it or not. A lot of time is spent create()ing the renderTextures for each room to make them the exact size of it, and create() tends to be expensive. So, I'm thinking of making them a static, large size and just re-using them over and over by clearing them instead of creating them.
But, that's for later. I want to have a game to optimize first.
22
General / Allocating the entire game on the heap
« on: August 12, 2016, 06:13:18 am »
I have an Engine class that holds the SFML loop and everything else the game needs to run. In the main() function, I declare the Engine with a unique_ptr and run it like so:
Can anyone explain if/why this is a horrible idea?
int WinMain()
{
std::unique_ptr<Engine> engine = std::unique_ptr<Engine>(new Engine());
engine->run();
return 0;
}
{
std::unique_ptr<Engine> engine = std::unique_ptr<Engine>(new Engine());
engine->run();
return 0;
}
Can anyone explain if/why this is a horrible idea?
23
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: July 31, 2016, 07:40:58 am »
Update, July 31 2016: New Build! Download the Pukamake Grotto Build (Windows only, ~50 MB)
There's a whole new dungeon available! Pukamake Grotto is the third dungeon of the game. Lisa faces her right of passage to become a Sea Dragon knight while Lone and Lydia look for the Seer's Staff supposedly buried within.
Here's a video of Da Kula Hula, a new minigame:
There's a whole new dungeon available! Pukamake Grotto is the third dungeon of the game. Lisa faces her right of passage to become a Sea Dragon knight while Lone and Lydia look for the Seer's Staff supposedly buried within.
Here's a video of Da Kula Hula, a new minigame:
24
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: June 02, 2016, 08:48:54 am »
Update, May 31 2016: New Build! Download the Manastery Build (Windows only, ~46 MB)
There's a huge new dungeon available! The Manastery is the second dungeon of the game--a mysterious structure teeming with magic and crawling with baddies.
Here's a gameplay video of the fight with Miracle Juno, the dungeon's boss:
There's a huge new dungeon available! The Manastery is the second dungeon of the game--a mysterious structure teeming with magic and crawling with baddies.
Here's a gameplay video of the fight with Miracle Juno, the dungeon's boss:
25
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: May 12, 2016, 01:22:44 am »Did you switch to SDL?
Just for the controller rumble. Everything else is still and will be SFML!
26
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: March 30, 2016, 07:40:02 am »
Update, March 29 2016: New Build! Download the Tomb of Kings COMPLETE Build (Windows only, ~39 MB)
Here's a gameplay video of the dungeon's boss:
Give it a gander and let me know what you think! The Tomb of Kings is the first dungeon in the game so I'm trying to gauge its difficulty.
Here's a gameplay video of the dungeon's boss:
Give it a gander and let me know what you think! The Tomb of Kings is the first dungeon in the game so I'm trying to gauge its difficulty.
27
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: February 16, 2016, 05:34:49 am »
New Build: Download the Tomb of Kings Build (Windows only, ~39 MB)
I recently finished a Level Art Generator and made a new level editor in Flash. Now that I've got those two things in the can, making new levels is a lot faster and easier.
In the new build linked above, there's a preview for the Tomb of Kings East, the first half of the first dungeon of the game. To play it, select "Dungeon Run" on the main menu. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.
I recently finished a Level Art Generator and made a new level editor in Flash. Now that I've got those two things in the can, making new levels is a lot faster and easier.
In the new build linked above, there's a preview for the Tomb of Kings East, the first half of the first dungeon of the game. To play it, select "Dungeon Run" on the main menu. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.
28
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: July 30, 2015, 03:22:56 am »Still no download available?
Here's a recent-ish build: Download (103 MB)
Make sure to read the README, there's no in-game documentation of controls or anything yet.
TL;DR:
- Move: WASD, J+Space.
- Holding up or down changes your attack.
- Hold the attack button to charge your attack.
- Open the debug menu with K (or Y on the XBO controller) to open the Debug Menu to switch characters and levels.
- 3 stages, 4 characters
Also, here's a video of some guy playing it:
29
SFML projects / Re: Zeran's Folly
« on: July 29, 2015, 10:03:24 pm »
Oh wow, I had no idea I posted this over a year ago. Time flies.
Zeran's Folly is still in development. Here are some updates from last time:
In game, you can switch between the four different characters at save points or by using a special item. You can see it here as sort of a proof of concept:
To switch the textures, I mark the player object as invisible, replace all the textures in a separate thread, then make the object visible again. It's not the most efficient if you want to swap characters a lot but it works. It'd be better to use a pointer and keep the textures around instead of reloading them all the time whenever you switch characters.
However, I'll have to update this approach as I've been using Spine to replace my sprite sheet characters with dynamic models. Here's a demonstration between the two types (the smoother one is the Spine model):
Code-wise, Spine is kind of a pain in the ass to use with SFML because Spine's API uses C structuring instead of C++ so there are no classes. Instead, it's a bunch of spClass_Function(args) calls which all return pointers. But, once I got it figured out, it worked well. Visual Studio's Intellisense/autocomplete is a godsend for APIs.
One reason I switched to Spine from sprite sheets was the ability to have custom skins without having to generate an entire new set of sheets. It's not a big thing but I love having alternate outfits for my characters! Here are some examples:
Lone:
Lydia:
Abby's new model with an alternate outfit:
The different skins all use the same underlying structure so there's no need to make new animations or anything. Pretty sweet!
Finally, here's a concept for the Tomb of Kings, a new area in the works:
I've been putting together a Level Art Generator that uses sfVertex shapes and custom shaders to draw the background art. This particular scheme isn't done yet--the concept serves as the guide to what steps will be needed to make it happen. For example, these would be the steps for this scene:
- Draw the stepping stones for the walkable path
- Draw the base rock texture on a different renderTexture
- Outline the rock texture using a shader that draws and antialiases a black outline
- Draw the reddish-orange highlight around the rock edges using a shader to find the edges
- "Light" the rock texture using a shader that determines the pixel's distance from a zero-alpha pixel. The further away, the darker it is.
Zeran's Folly is still in development. Here are some updates from last time:
In game, you can switch between the four different characters at save points or by using a special item. You can see it here as sort of a proof of concept:
To switch the textures, I mark the player object as invisible, replace all the textures in a separate thread, then make the object visible again. It's not the most efficient if you want to swap characters a lot but it works. It'd be better to use a pointer and keep the textures around instead of reloading them all the time whenever you switch characters.
However, I'll have to update this approach as I've been using Spine to replace my sprite sheet characters with dynamic models. Here's a demonstration between the two types (the smoother one is the Spine model):
Code-wise, Spine is kind of a pain in the ass to use with SFML because Spine's API uses C structuring instead of C++ so there are no classes. Instead, it's a bunch of spClass_Function(args) calls which all return pointers. But, once I got it figured out, it worked well. Visual Studio's Intellisense/autocomplete is a godsend for APIs.
One reason I switched to Spine from sprite sheets was the ability to have custom skins without having to generate an entire new set of sheets. It's not a big thing but I love having alternate outfits for my characters! Here are some examples:
Lone:
Lydia:
Abby's new model with an alternate outfit:
The different skins all use the same underlying structure so there's no need to make new animations or anything. Pretty sweet!
Finally, here's a concept for the Tomb of Kings, a new area in the works:
I've been putting together a Level Art Generator that uses sfVertex shapes and custom shaders to draw the background art. This particular scheme isn't done yet--the concept serves as the guide to what steps will be needed to make it happen. For example, these would be the steps for this scene:
- Draw the stepping stones for the walkable path
- Draw the base rock texture on a different renderTexture
- Outline the rock texture using a shader that draws and antialiases a black outline
- Draw the reddish-orange highlight around the rock edges using a shader to find the edges
- "Light" the rock texture using a shader that determines the pixel's distance from a zero-alpha pixel. The further away, the darker it is.
30
Audio / sf::Sound and sf::SoundBuffer declaration order crash
« on: December 18, 2014, 04:31:57 am »
I'm not sure if this is on my end or not. I'm using static-linked SFML 2.2, VC 2012, 64-bit Windows.
This works:
But this doesn't:
Specifically, declaring the sf::Sound before the sf::SoundBuffer it uses causes a crash and references XTree and some iterator error. The crash happens during the SoundBuffer destructor. This is new to me in 2.2 and wasn't the case in 2.1 stable.
Is this intended behavior?
This works:
Code: [Select]
int main() {
sf::SoundBuffer buffer;
sf::Sound sound;
buffer.loadFromFile("foo.wav");
sound.setBuffer(buffer);
sound.play();
return 0;
}
But this doesn't:
Code: [Select]
int main() {
sf::Sound sound;
sf::SoundBuffer buffer;
buffer.loadFromFile("foo.wav");
sound.setBuffer(buffer);
sound.play();
return 0;
}
Specifically, declaring the sf::Sound before the sf::SoundBuffer it uses causes a crash and references XTree and some iterator error. The crash happens during the SoundBuffer destructor. This is new to me in 2.2 and wasn't the case in 2.1 stable.
Is this intended behavior?