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Author Topic: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)  (Read 10892 times)

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Ixrec

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2013, 01:57:46 am »
That happened to me too.  I tried a lot of things but I'm pretty sure it's just not possible to get through those loops.  Not sure if it was a level design error or a physics error.  I was able to wall climb out of that area (is that ability unique to Knuckles?) so I managed to get farther.

I'm going to have to ignore your zone/area numbers since the game never provides any, but I got through five levels.  Two and four had Eggman fights.  After I finished level five it crashed on the blue screen for me.
I think the terrain for the loops is invisible since it's just a green circle with no grass, some purply stuff and the direction I came out of them (on the levels where they worked) didn't make any sense.
The health system was very confusing, since I've been hit with 0 health without dying (in fact I don't think I ever died) and sometimes failed to lose health even when I had more than 0 health.  Also, during the level 5 double boss battle there was only one health bar, which I'm pretty sure represented my health, one boss' health and the other boss' health at different points in time for no apparent reason.
The physics got significantly worse after level two.  The beginning of level 3 (and I think 5, not sure) had a big lag spike which resulted in me warping around for a few seconds and getting hit by something I couldn't see.  Behavior on curved surfaces and slopes also felt even glitchier than in previous levels, causing so much oscillation I had to do significantly more gliding, jumping and wall jumping than the level intended.
I only recently noticed it always says "Sonic x 3" even when playing as Knuckles.
Some bosses can be jumped on three times for extra damage (which is a good thing) but the third bounce gets you hurt instead of the boss because you fall so far through it before the collision registers (which is clearly a bug).

I'm still hoping a SFML.net expert will show up and explain why your 32-bit build doesn't work on 64-bit machines.  Everything I've ever seen says that's only possible if you (or SFML.net) did something extremely bad.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2013, 02:06:52 am by Ixrec »

Ixrec

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2013, 02:11:58 am »
Oh wow I'm an idiot.  I completely forgot I managed to get a screenshot of an error in your console window before Windows finished killing your program (this was after the crash between levels 5 and 6).



I should also mention that the used memory number did seem to be constantly rising (would you expect that, or does that imply stuff isn't getting freed?).  Since there's no window mode I couldn't use the task manager to confirm I had memory left, but I usually have a gig or two of RAM free so it should be fine.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2013, 02:14:16 am by Ixrec »

Tigre Pablito

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #17 on: September 28, 2013, 01:43:12 am »
Hi, Nice Ladies and Guys
Very very sorry for the delay, I just have been working hard to fix the errors and bugs you detected in my poor Sonic ; Actually I thank your critics very much
Here are the fixed versions

Sonic 64 bit Download (Fixed)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xm54luwk8wehynb/Sonic%2064%20bit%20by%20Pablito.rar

Sonic 32 bit Download (Fixed)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ikj1kbm53oqpp3/Sonic%20the%20Hedgehog%20by%20Pablito.rar

Source Code (Fixed)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tzts0sy3s6hswj4/SOURCE%20CODE.rar

ABOUT CONFLICT 32 - 64 BIT
What I found out, is that the C# Code is the same, but to port my program to a 64 bit system, I just have to compile it with the SFML.NET DLLs that are for 64 bit, those in the x64 subfolder in the SFML.NET pack, then what changes between 32 and 64 bit systems, is the DLLs ; actually I built both a 32 and a 64 bit version of my poor Sonic game

ABOUT THE ERRORS YOU HAVE MARKED
* Now the character name is Ok;
* Now when the Lifebar is 0 you die, when your lives == 0, you are game over
* Now the slopes or gradient terrains effect is correct
* Now the "memory used" messages have gone
* Now the error on Level 6 (Zone 3 Act 2) is fixed, (it was a bad file)
* Now when starting a level, displays a letter "ZONE # ACT #"
* Now you can exit normally with the Esc key

ABOUT THE LOOPS
To gain impulse and pass through the loops and curve ramps, you have to do the SPINDASH,
that is this: You croach (hold down Down arrow key) and then you become an electric round saw, or spinball (press once and again the Space bar); then release the bar, then release down key, and then hold down Right or Left key, depending you re going forward or backward
Though I increased the maximum speed of the SPINDASH (rolling forward), it already worked before

WHAT IS PENDING
* perhaps there are still any bugs, but I m sure now there are less 
* in my system, I run on an OutOfMemoryException when trying to load Zone3Act1 level image, that is thrown by the Image object (maybe I wasn t able to free previous stuff properly?)
* I know very well I have to get better graphics and better level designs
* I forgot to separate the bosses' lifebars from the players' one
* The glitchy movement on the curves

-----
Yes, Knuckes is the only who can glide and wall climb, Tails can fly and attack with her helix (the 2nd not yet implemented), and Sonic can do different movements at jumping if he has a bubble shield

I ask you about how to solve the memory crash, and also, if you see more errors and bugs, it will be apreciated
Meanwhile I ll continue working, but think the memory crash is the most important thing ... I don t know if it could be a bug on my system ...
Thanks

Pablo

Ixrec

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #18 on: September 28, 2013, 02:05:37 am »
Looks like everything you said is fixed is indeed fixed.  Here's the stuff that still jumps out to me:

(playing Tails this time)
The purple junk around most of the images is still around.
The main menu isn't solid white now but it's still flickering. It sort of seems intentional but it also hurts my eyes so not sure what to say about that.
   Edit: Okay, this time it wasn't flickering.  No idea what's going on there.
The spindash thing makes sense now.  Before I was just hitting down while running, which made me accelerate and roll.  But standing perfectly still, then hitting space and releasing it does seem to go much faster and get me through those loops.  However, it feels unintuitive and finicky, especially since pressing right or left while holding space prevents the move, but you say I should be using left and right to acclerate after the move starts.
The loops and other curved terrain still feels very glitchy.  I'm still getting the occasional oscillating warps, when doing loops my energy shield (?) sprite disconnects with my character, and I still see no terrain/grass/whatever inside loops.
There should really be a way to make Tails stop hovering.  Sometimes I have to wait forever for her (really? Tails is female?) to fall all the way down.  Actually her movement in general just feels inconsistent and annoying.
I didn't get around to complaining about it before, but the Zone 2 Act 1 boss is the most tedious thing ever.  I don't feel like doing that again right now.

Oh hey screenshots work now.  Here's that purple stuff I was talking about:

Tigre Pablito

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #19 on: September 28, 2013, 05:18:52 am »
Well,  :)
(*) I'll try to reprogram the Zone2Act1 boss, so that it's easier and quicklier to defeat, ... cos I'd like to know why (in my PC at least) my app crashes out of memory(on 3-1), and if this occurs on other PC's  :(

(*) The level images were drawn (or can be redrawn by modifying code) in runtime by the same program, then saved to .bmp files with Image.SaveToFile() function ; I can swith weather it redraws and save the image or if it loads the existing one from the file (the versions I posted load the images from files, that is faster)

as the bmp's where extremely big, I saved them as .jpg files ... I don't know why that purple stuff remained at the ground and trees contour  :o
Is it possible that converting .bmp to .jpg has distorted the image? I used Paint ... I guess you won't agree with that ... well, I'll try some things and as a last resource I'll try using GIMP

Please some advise for fixing the images files?  ;D

(*) About the oscillation, two things:
* - that part of Zone 2 Act 1, which is like a cavity where join 2 curved ramps, if it is the place you mention, the error (or imprecission) there, is that when you walk on the ramp (all the quarter ellipse line), the hero is controlled most by inertia and a preset trajectory than by the user input, ... that is quite sophisticated, but I will try to improve its physic  8)
* - the error (or imprecission) in the level design is that both curved ramps are too close each other

/////
(what you didn't reach to see is the slopes, in 2-2, they are very well now, not glitchy and also the hedgehog inclinates normal to the terrain ... definitively trigonometry, curves, etc, are more tedious than 2-1 boss ... but result is nice  ;)

I'm going to do the list of things that need to be corrected, work on that, try to improve the level design, check out some words' meaning in the online dictionary, and then post again with all bugs(listed up to now) fixed  :P

Ixrec

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Re: My Sonic the Hedgehog game (goes fine, but need help)
« Reply #20 on: September 28, 2013, 05:33:21 am »
Regarding images, just use .png.  If you think you need to use a lossy format like .jpg for performance reasons, then you're better off just making a lower-rez image in a non-lossy format like .png so you at least have control over how it looks (instead of letting .jpg compression just add artifacts randomly).  And .png is a better lossless format than .bmp partly because it has an alpha channel/transparency, but also because .png's are compressible (without loss).  The only real disadvantage to .png's is that they take longer to load, but I've yet to see that cause any noticable lag in my program, despite using very high-rez .png's, so I don't think that's much of a problem on modern computers.

For the record, using MS Paint to convert .bmp to .jpg is probably fine.  The problem with MS Paint is that it's incapable of operating on formats like .png that have alpha channels.  The artifacts you're seeing ought to be a result of using the .jpg format and its lossy compression, rather than a massive bug in MS Paint.  And personally, I'd recommend trying Paint.net before GIMP because GIMP is extremely unintuitive, while Paint.net shouldn't even require a tutorial for anyone familiar with regular MS Paint.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 05:39:04 am by Ixrec »