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[Outcast Orange]

Qwerty, you are amazing.
 
Hopefully that little mix-up correction will take this thing in a new less buggy direction.
You are all getting itchy, so I will feed you some interesting news:

The maps are huge. Freaking huge. Really freaking huge.

If you sit at one end, and hold down the increase draw distance button,
 it takes like two minutes of super lag to draw all the way to the other side.
And cliffs can be very high within a single map tile,
 as in, you could be four tiles off the ground level and still be able to see it.

I will be very happy when I have the ability to add the secret features,
 which will add some more variation to those long endless stretches of round forest.

BTW, said features are basically complete,
 but I will probably add more when the game is in a playable state again.
Right now, it's sort of soupy.

[Outcast Orange]

Lots of good stuff to say today!

I have found out that my grades are all fine.
My mind has settled, finally.

Also, much more importantly,
 I have made some progress on the save/load issues,
 and things are moving along with much more certainty.

I can hope to have something playable released today or tomorrow.
Depending a lot on what I do with my time.

It has been a while since I have been at ease,
 and I may take the opportunity to explore the internet for funs.

Hopefully, I will get tired of that soon though.

Whatever the case, I have two weeks free,
 during which I can program at my leisure.

Things will get done.

[timmeh]

Sounds good, looking forward to a playable release!

[Outcast Orange]

I declare today programming day!
Give me a few hours, and maybe I'll have this thing in a releasable order.

Muahahaha!

Edit: All programmers are encouraged to participate.
Just fine some small addition you can make to your game, and get it posted.

Begin the festivities!

Edit: One of the major save/load issues is resolved, I'm a few modifications short of a finalized system.
Give it an hour or so, I'd guess.

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, the maps are almost working.

Everything goes as planned, expect for when you enter a tile which has been explored before.
It should be loading the tile out of memory, but instead, you end up with a blank space.

Here's the logic, if somebody wants to check it out:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First off, you need to know that I have a save class called "myaway".
When a file is saved, the height map is first copied into myaway.heightmap, like this:

Code: [Select]

myaway.heightmap[x][z] = heighty[x][z];

It is part of a function that loops trough all the values of the map.
Next, that class, "myaway" is saved to a binary file:

Code: [Select]

ofstream myFile;
stringstream awayfile;
awayfile << "Away" << " " << worldx << " " << worldy << " " << worldz << ".bin";
myFile.open(awayfile.str().c_str(), ios::trunc | ios::binary);
myFile.write((char*)&myaway, sizeof(AwayData));
myFile.close();

So I'm pretty sure this part works, because I can dissect the code and get it to work.
So here is the bit that loads that file out of memory:

Code: [Select]

struct stat fileinfo; bool isfile; stringstream awayfile;
    awayfile << "Away" << " " << worldx << " " << worldy << " " << worldz << ".bin";
    ifstream myFile;
    int intstat = stat(awayfile.str().c_str(),&fileinfo);
    if(intstat==0){
        myFile.open(awayfile.str().c_str(), ios::binary);
        myFile.read((char*)&myaway, sizeof (AwayData));
        myFile.close();
    }

That should be working just fine, since I can confirm that it detects the file properly.
I have also tried every combo of ios::in and ios::binary, so that can't be the problem.

So now the data is back in myaway, where it is needed.
Here is the code which copies it back to the height array:

Code: [Select]

heighty[x][z] = myaway.heightmap[x][z];

Anyone spot any issues with that?

I can't figure out why it doesn't work.

[Outcast Orange]

Here's the latest and weirdest bug ever.
I have an array that only goes to [200][200],
yet calling it at [300][300] isn't causing a crash.

[qwertyuiopas]

That is normal.

Sometimes, violating array bounds crashes, but sometimes it doesn't.

If you overwrite a pointer, something WILL break, but if the only thing you hit is unused memory(at least unused for now) or an integer that simply stores the version number before it is converted to a string, then nothing will happen.

Reading from outside an array will generally work, unless it segfaults (By trying to read the code or other forbidden memory), but writing to it can damage essential data. On the other hand, if you write over the red value of a single pixel, no problem there, since it isn't going to mess up anything except the appearance of that pixel, hopefully.


You don't really want to let your code make such errors, since adding an unused global variable can change all of the memory, and it may vary by OS, or even program instance. It just doesn't guarentee a crash, especially if you are only reading, not writing.

[Outcast Orange]

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that before.

More importantly, with Alfie's help, we have tracked down the remaining issues, and everything is good now.
I suspect to have a working version posted in the next hour.

On with programming day!

[Outcast Orange]

It is that special time once again!

Here's the download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zkmjtzzkyq3

You can't save the game yet, but the maps will be saved.
I highly recommend you dump the save files every now and then,
even though they are pretty small in size.
Otherwise the game world will start being weird, since it doesn't expect to find files.
I'll add saving soon enough, though, so no worries.

The maps take 15 seconds to generate on my slow computer, and 5-6 seconds to load.
So new map boundaries will need to be generated,
while pre-explored areas will only display huge lag.
Sorry, it will be further revised as I think of ways to revise it.

For the happy explorer, there are hidden features in the world,
 which you might find on any map where trees grow.
I've done some exploring, and have been able to come across a few of these,
 so I'm sure they are working.

There are a ton of bugs right now, but I will fix them as I go.
Here's the list of issues:

- Maps below other plates are distorted, and stretched.
- Map boundaries need reconciled
- Below the blue layer, there is no more land.
- Strange black and white tiles may appear sometimes
- Special tiles, such as plate material and water plates don't work right
- Secret feature A needs supports added when on non-flat terrain.
- Secret feature B needs some tweaks to make slightly more sense. (VERY RARE)

That should be everything.
If you find any other problem, please mention it here.

Once again, I hope you enjoy it.

EDIT:

Oops, I forgot to take out the invisible walls.
I'll fix and re-upload.

EDIT:

Also, the maps are too large to support full physics.
I'll localize the gravity before I re-upload, which should boost performance a ton.

[Outcast Orange]

This should be much more fun to play:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ukmtwmycid5

I've also fixed a couple of minor bugs I spotted.

This might run TOO fast, so if you want a slowed down version,
 I can add a function to regulate the intensity of physics,
 allowing you to slow the game down with added calculations.

EDIT: Actually, if it is running too fast,
 just increase the draw distance with F until it is slowed to your liking.

EDIT: New bugs found:
- Orange is acting weird around map edges
- Some people may have trouble with saving and loading maps (investigating)

[qwertyuiopas]

Possibly look into Sleep() and clock()(or any other timing function)?

Without Sleep(), my programs would idle most of the time so that each update took at least 10 ms, but during that time, still consumed massive ammounds of CPU, but after adding Sleep(), they can run at full speed, sometimes using 0% CPU (or task manager doesn't see them when they are working, either way though...)

[Outcast Orange]

So it turns out that most of my problems were caused when I removed the gravity tag.
I'll have Orange carrying around some things in no time.

Also, many other bugs, but I'm going to break from them for now, and only attempt them casually.
Instead, I will add more explorable features, and make maps generally more exotic.

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, so Programming Day has been over for a few hours, but I'm still happy with what I've accomplished.
I was having trouble sleeping, so I thought I'd program.
I fixed a bunch of bugs, concerning Orange's movement between maps.

Now carrying works correctly again, and the new super awesome fix:
- You can jump all the way to the ceiling, and still have a full turn to move before falling.

That ought to make exploring and digging easier.

Tomorrow I will wake up early and start work on the map edge reconcile issues.
Should be a quick fix, which I will probably follow up with work on the ability to save the universe.

Here's a new list of map issues to be tackled:
- Map edge reconcile
- Multi-layer Average Curve (No more map distortion under plates)
- Special Tile Overwrite
- More Underground Layers

Once I get that done, I'll probably move onto the Sky.

[Jack_Bread]

:O!

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to download this for a bit.
I can't find my flash drive, and even if I had have it, I wasn't going to use it for a while.

[Outcast Orange]

I'm going to fix the map edges, then I'll upload the latest.

Don't worry Jack,
 there will be tons of time to explore the world when this becomes an actual game.