I had the same problem at one point few years back and after figuring them out I cannot stop using them. 

"Rise from your grave~~"  

Another site that follows the "figure out what to do approach and solve it!" is this:
http://www.pythonchallenge.com/

Don't let the name fool you, it's mainly aimed for python guys but there is NOTHING stopping you from doing the tasks with what ever you want. Starts off stupidly easy, the later ones you need to read in certain pixels from image and figure out what they mean and after that they just rocketed into "stupidly hard" for me and I got stuck. Too bad I don't remember where I got stuck to Meh. I guess I'll work through them again at some point and try to finish it this time!

So basically any language goes for solving. Reading in images, reading pixels, shifting chars and doing basic calculations + few other things.

Random jazz radio station from Spotify 

Nice point nitram. I didn't even think of loading them in as needed and then keeping them in there. 

EDIT #1: I was full of shit, the site contained ZERO useful information.

Readability and if possible after that speed I'd say, with few comments.

But I usually use one line if-statements where ever I can, I just love them. And after using them way too much I cannot stop using them anymore... Gah!

Lousy example follows (c/c++/java and so on):

Code:

int tryChangingThisMagicValue(int magicalSecretValue ) {
   return magicalSecretValue > 0 ? 0 : 1;  // if statement ? true condition : false condition
}

They do have a specific name too but I cannot remember it from the top of my head, might have been mentioned in this thread already.

Obviously for most small games the loading "should" (not written in stone) be done during startup and then just use that data to roll around. But at times if the game is HJUUUUGGE on demand loading is more or less the way to go.

As long as it works and doesn't bother the player then it should be all good.

I have no idea how old this thread is because I found it via search... but with the words of the old guy from the first level of Altered Beast:

"Rise from your grave!" ~tack tack tack~ (

)

http://twitter.com/mikaturunen


Do follow and I'm sure to follow right behind you. Already following few of you.
A measly programmer, looking for collabs every now and then and going around the forums helping where I can.

EDIT #1: added punch of people through the thread. Might have missed few here and there.

I'm definitely skipping the extreme ones already, cannot be arsed to start write anything completely in ASM. I've had my fair share of that when I've been programming micro controllers... Just.. no more... My brain just cannot handle it.

But the C bits, yum. Looking forward. 

One way of doing it:

Code:

on level load
  load data required for that level into memory (unless running 3D worlds or insane amount of stuff).
  use the data

on level end
  unload all the data specific for that level and save all what you might need in the next level

But since metroidvania style game, I'm guessing your world is node/grid(rooms) based ?

What you could do, is to figure out what node/grid you are on and load in fex extra rooms when changing room. Like x3 to every direction (testing required anyway). And once you get out of the loaded areas, you would then again load in the new room + good chunk of "possible" rooms to follow.

This way you would have to spend few milliseconds loading in new room data every now and then and would minimise the "need to load rooms all the time" by having as many of the possible following rooms in memory as possible.

So possibly using some sort of tree based room sorting system that allows you to prune out unecessary rooms based on your current location and allows you to easily define how many possible rooms to load in.

I'm _IN_. I've been intending to start on some random bits of homebrew ages age. Currently already working on GP2X, all though that will be completed to the stage it should be pretty soon so need new challenges.

But yeah, definitely looking forward to what's happening on this thread.
 

It might get even more interest if the actual tool chain is fairly easy to setup and use. Because usually that's where the homebrew stuff lacks a lot. And please, if you are a hardcore linux nerd, please dont say they are "piss easy" to get working. It basically means that unless you are born with a keyboard in your hand and know _EVERYTHING_ there is to know about computers and use your linux only via command line, there is pretty much 0.005% of change of you getting the devchain working properly. Yes, I'm slightly bitter. 

Another addition to my toys to tinker with when programming is a piece of paper. I doodle a lot. No drawing no nothing, I just tend to draw lot of circles grouped together, spirals and rectangles. No specific reason. Seems to happen when ever I'm thinking a problem and a solution to it in front of my desk. 

Hats off to this project. _GREAT_ work. I haven't tried the demo yet, but I definitely will.
Nice to hear someone sticking to something for two years. Win.
 

My honest suggestion is http://www.panda3d.org/ . Personally I've enjoyed working with it a lot, it's free and is packed with mucho mucho awesome features.

You can look at the lists of featuers of the engine here:
http://www.panda3d.org/features.php

Yum, yum, I like Panda3d.

Is a PictureBox one of the winforms controls?

Yup, it's one of the controls. Personally I'm a big OpenGL slave, if I can, I try avoiding XNA/directX and all that sort. I just personally perform better with OpenGL. But definitely cool stuff you got there.

Haha, yeah, the actual GDI+ really dies easily. When you start racking up the draw calls it just starts begging for mercy. 

What are you using to render the 3D world? Programming ppl get curious instantly. I've done few implementations of C# win forms + XNA "renderer" in a PictureBox and C# win forms + OpenGL in a PictureBox . "Obviously" the later one was much more SEXIER and gave me thrills and made me overly excited. Currently got a tile editor for a personal project going on which uses the exact XNA rendering to a PictureBox. The normal GDI+/GDI is just TOO SLOW to handle vast amount of pixel changes on the screen at once (not that my tile editor shoots lasers or anything.. but I'd say it comes pretty close anyway ).

Going to post a picture a bit later, need to move to a computer with bigger desktop resolution to take advantage of magic of not having to use scrollbars.

But definitely Ishi, great job! As usual.  :  


EDIT #1: scratch all that talk of the editor using XNA for rendering. Now uses OpenGL, so much more flexible and I didn't even remember how awesomely EASY it was to get up and running. Five minutes and done.

I'm getting goose bumbs. Makes me want to play Sunset Riders so badly!

one yummy jello 

OH MY GOD! My eyes, they see Secret of Mana written all over this. Make me babies so I can command them to draw for me 

Duke Nukem Forever, definitely.