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From: stbenge
Subject: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 12 Dec 2008 11:38:07
Message: <4942936f@news.povray.org>
Hi everyone,

Months ago I updated my NearInfinity demo, but never got around to 
posting it. It can be found here:
http://www.caltel.com/~abenge/NearInfinity.zip

It should look like this:
http://www.caltel.com/~abenge/NIscreen.jpg

There is no goal to the game. You just fly around in a near-infinite 
landscape. I would call it infinite, but even the best random number 
generators don't go on forever. The landscape is not different every 
time you start the program up. You can change the landscape's seed 
within an .ini file. To make it a little more interesting, there are six 
Easter eggs to find. They occur very rarely, and you get no reward for 
finding them; they are simply there. Look at ee.png for spoilers :) Keys 
are left, right, up and/or z. It has bouncy and smooth, but solid 
collision-detection.

If you are running Windows, have DirextX 8.0 or above, and have some 
free time, could you download it and tell me what you think? With the 
default settings it should run at 60 FPS regardless on your monitor's 
refresh rate. I kept the logic separate from the frame rate, so it 
should work on your computer exactly as it does mine, as long as your 
computer isn't really old. It will skip frames to compensate if your 
computer is slow.

I would like some feedback on a few things. What is your operating 
system? Does it work on Vista? What FPS are you getting? Do the default 
settings of 1280x960 fullscreen mode give you ultra-smooth scrolling? 
What about lower resolutions? You can change these and other settings 
within the NI.ini text file. If you decide to run in windowed mode, 
change dynamicFrameRate to method 2. You won't get the benefits of 
VSYNC, and it really shows.

If for some reason I didn't upload the program with the default 1280x960 
resolution and VSYNC settings, change the values found in NI.ini to these:
windowed=0
screenMode=2
dynamicFrameRate=3


Thanks in advance!

Sam


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From: stbenge
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 12 Dec 2008 16:38:25
Message: <4942d9d1$1@news.povray.org>
stbenge wrote:
> it should run at 60 FPS regardless on your monitor's refresh rate.

Actually, it should run at whatever your monitor's refresh rate is and 
it should do it smoothly with VSYNC, without affecting the game logic.

I just caught a few bugs and uploaded a new version (with a green 
landscape). For some reason, I had forgotten to free a texture, which 
isn't good! There is now a delete for every new, and all textures and 
entities are freed up like they should be.

There is an issue that's bugging me though. Can anyone tell me why I get 
a warning when I try to delete an array of sprite objects like so:

delete [] tile;

The compiler does not complain when I delete them like this:

v=0;
for(y=0;y<8;y++){
  for(x=0;x<8;x++){
   delete tile[int(v)];
   v++;
  }
}

I don't know why. I initialized the array like this:

hgeSprite *tile[8*8]

and filled it like this:

v=0;
for(y=0;y<8;y++){
  for(x=0;x<8;x++){
   tile[int(v)]=new hgeSprite(tiles,x*132+1,y*132+1,128,128);
   v++;
  }
}

v is a float, by the way. I'm not calling int() for no reason. Should I 
have structured my "new" differently?

Sam


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From: Fredrik Eriksson
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 12 Dec 2008 16:44:46
Message: <op.ul2j0wie7bxctx@e6600>
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:38:26 +0100, stbenge  
<THI### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> There is an issue that's bugging me though. Can anyone tell me why I get  
> a warning when I try to delete an array of sprite objects like so:
>
> delete [] tile;

Because it is the wrong thing to do?



> I initialized the array like this:
>
> hgeSprite *tile[8*8]

'tile' itself is not dynamically allocated. The elements contained in  
'tile' however are pointers to dynamically allocated objects, and  
therefore need to be deallocated individually.



-- 
FE


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From: stbenge
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 12 Dec 2008 17:41:13
Message: <4942e889@news.povray.org>
Fredrik Eriksson wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:38:26 stbenge wrote:
>> I initialized the array like this:
>>
>> hgeSprite *tile[8*8]
> 
> 'tile' itself is not dynamically allocated. The elements contained in 
> 'tile' however are pointers to dynamically allocated objects, and 
> therefore need to be deallocated individually.

I see. The array itself was not dynamic, so there was no reason to 
delete it. Despite my limited knowledge of the subject, I managed to do 
the right thing by deleting them individually... They were deleted in 
the same manner as they were created. There's more to this issue I need 
to explore, and I'm not ashamed to admit it ;)

Who's going to trust my programs, now that my ignorance is known? I 
could always provide the source...

Sam


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 10:43:22
Message: <4943d819@news.povray.org>
stbenge <THI### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> hgeSprite *tile[8*8]

> and filled it like this:

> v=0;
> for(y=0;y<8;y++){
>   for(x=0;x<8;x++){
>    tile[int(v)]=new hgeSprite(tiles,x*132+1,y*132+1,128,128);
>    v++;
>   }
> }

  Does the HGE library force you to write code like that? If so, then it
really sucks.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: stbenge
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 14:38:54
Message: <49440f4e@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
> stbenge <THI### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> hgeSprite *tile[8*8]
> 
>> and filled it like this:
> 
>> v=0;
>> for(y=0;y<8;y++){
>>   for(x=0;x<8;x++){
>>    tile[int(v)]=new hgeSprite(tiles,x*132+1,y*132+1,128,128);
>>    v++;
>>   }
>> }
> 
>   Does the HGE library force you to write code like that? If so, then it
> really sucks.

Don't use HGE to insult me... if that's what you are doing. I could have 
written my loop a different way and used less code, but I feel 
comfortable typing it out that way. I come from a 
QBASIC/Euphoria/POV-Ray background, so I code the l_o_n_g way. Or do you 
mean the way each sprite has to be made new? There might be better ways 
to do it, for all I know.

I think a good programmer would be able make a large, clean program 
using libraries that may have problems. I would like to be that 
programmer, and I'm humble enough to admit that I'm not there. When it 
comes down to it, all libraries and all languages are going to have 
problems.

Sam


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 15:24:14
Message: <494419ee@news.povray.org>
stbenge wrote:
> There is no goal to the game. You just fly around in a near-infinite 
> landscape. 

That's very Zen.  With the fading trails, that's sort of like one of those 
rice-paper pads you write on with water.

> If you are running Windows, have DirextX 8.0 or above, and have some 
> free time, could you download it and tell me what you think? With the 
> default settings it should run at 60 FPS regardless on your monitor's 
> refresh rate. 

I think mine is saying 75FPS or so. I'm on Vista x64, and it runs flawlessly.

> I would like some feedback on a few things. What is your operating 
> system? Does it work on Vista? What FPS are you getting? Do the default 
> settings of 1280x960 fullscreen mode give you ultra-smooth scrolling? 

Yes.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
   see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 16:43:17
Message: <49442c75@news.povray.org>
stbenge <^@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > stbenge <THI### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> >> hgeSprite *tile[8*8]
> > 
> >> and filled it like this:
> > 
> >> v=0;
> >> for(y=0;y<8;y++){
> >>   for(x=0;x<8;x++){
> >>    tile[int(v)]=new hgeSprite(tiles,x*132+1,y*132+1,128,128);
> >>    v++;
> >>   }
> >> }
> > 
> >   Does the HGE library force you to write code like that? If so, then it
> > really sucks.

> Don't use HGE to insult me...

  I was not insulting you. I was asking if that's the only way of using
HGE (because if it is, then HGE really sucks as a C++ library).

> I could have 
> written my loop a different way and used less code, but I feel 
> comfortable typing it out that way.

  The problem is not the loop. The problem is the 'news' and 'deletes'.
While there are situations where their use is completely ok and in fact
the best thing to do, those situations are usually rare.

  Usually the "correct" way of, for example, creating a certain amount
of objects like that is:

std::vector<hgeSprite> tile;

tile.reserve(8*8);
for(...)
  for(...)
    tile.push_back(hgeSprite(...));

  (The word "correct" is deliberately in quotation marks because it's,
quite naturally, not *always* the best way to do it. However, in most
cases this - or something similar - is.)

  However, depending on how hgeSprite has been designed, that might not
be possible. For example, if it doesn't have a properly working copy
constructor (or it has been disabled), then that method cannot be used.
If that's the case, then you indeed have to either allocate things with
'new', or use other dirty tricks to get it working. And it would also be
a sign of sloppy design in the HGE library.

  The problem with using 'new' and 'delete' like that is that it's very
error-prone. C++ has its quirks with memory allocation, and you just have
to learn to live with them if you want to use it. Encapsulation is the key.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: stbenge
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 19:26:30
Message: <494452b6@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
> stbenge <^@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Don't use HGE to insult me...
> 
>   I was not insulting you. I was asking if that's the only way of using
> HGE (because if it is, then HGE really sucks as a C++ library).

Then please accept my apology :)

>> I could have 
>> written my loop a different way and used less code, but I feel 
>> comfortable typing it out that way.
> 
>   The problem is not the loop. The problem is the 'news' and 'deletes'.
> While there are situations where their use is completely ok and in fact
> the best thing to do, those situations are usually rare.

In the HGE tutorials, sprites are created in this manner, so I adapted 
the method to work with arrays.

>   Usually the "correct" way of, for example, creating a certain amount
> of objects like that is:
> 
> std::vector<hgeSprite> tile;
> 
> tile.reserve(8*8);
> for(...)
>   for(...)
>     tile.push_back(hgeSprite(...));
> 
>   (The word "correct" is deliberately in quotation marks because it's,
> quite naturally, not *always* the best way to do it. However, in most
> cases this - or something similar - is.)
> 
>   However, depending on how hgeSprite has been designed, that might not
> be possible. For example, if it doesn't have a properly working copy
> constructor (or it has been disabled), then that method cannot be used.
> If that's the case, then you indeed have to either allocate things with
> 'new', or use other dirty tricks to get it working. And it would also be
> a sign of sloppy design in the HGE library.

Thank you very much for this tip. I seem to remember that hgeSprite does 
have a functioning copy constructor, so I should give the vector method 
a go. Before I get there, I have to gain a better understanding of OOP 
programming so I don't find myself hacking and experimenting with the 
std::vector functions. Too much of my time is spent doing this, I'm 
ashamed to admit :(

>   The problem with using 'new' and 'delete' like that is that it's very
> error-prone. C++ has its quirks with memory allocation, and you just have
> to learn to live with them if you want to use it. Encapsulation is the key.

Another reason to get myself familiarized with all that C++ has to 
offer. Thank you for your feedback!

Sam


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From: stbenge
Subject: Re: New NearInfinity demo up
Date: 13 Dec 2008 19:34:17
Message: <49445489@news.povray.org>
Darren New wrote:
> stbenge wrote:
>> There is no goal to the game. You just fly around in a near-infinite 
>> landscape. 
> 
> That's very Zen.  With the fading trails, that's sort of like one of 
> those rice-paper pads you write on with water.

I have no idea what you're talking about :)

>> If you are running Windows, have DirextX 8.0 or above, and have some 
>> free time, could you download it and tell me what you think? With the 
>> default settings it should run at 60 FPS regardless on your monitor's 
>> refresh rate. 
> 
> I think mine is saying 75FPS or so. I'm on Vista x64, and it runs 
> flawlessly.
> 
>> I would like some feedback on a few things. What is your operating 
>> system? Does it work on Vista? What FPS are you getting? Do the 
>> default settings of 1280x960 fullscreen mode give you ultra-smooth 
>> scrolling? 
> 
> Yes.

Thank you for trying it! You're input is valuable, considering my 
girlfriend could not get it working on her Vista x64 laptop. It may be a 
screen/video driver problem though. One of these days I'll have to make 
a new MetroidVania :) (and finish it)

Sam


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