Hey cool! You are now obligated to write about your boat physics in detail.

I didn't dig into your code, but my 2nd and 3rd phases look more different than yours. IIRC, the logic needs to invert between the two. Before phase 3, I invert the actual buffer, then start filling tightest clusters instead of largest voids.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give your description some thought, although it sounds exactly like what Ulichney described. I don't yet see the difference between a void and inverted cluster. They seem like exactly the same thing to me, at least as far as the way I'm measuring them goes. I'll do some seeded tests with both methods and see if the results are actually different. I'm quite happy with the results I already have so this isn't a pressing issue, it's just an odd observation.

dukope, I have a question about implementing Ulichney's void-and-cluster dither. My implementation seems wrong but it also seems to work. I posted about this in my forums but I wanted to run it by you as well.

Something that has bugged me about my implementation of the dither array generator are the second two phases. It is pretty easy to see that they are basically identical and could be combined into a single phase. So where have I screwed up? I'm putting faith in the notion that Ulichney's algorithm is correct, so I must have screwed up somewhere. But the actual results seem correct.

Part of the problem is the paper's vague explanation of voids and clusters. Part of the problem is my interpretation of how to find voids and clusters. There is a big equation in this part of the paper that I'm not adequate to fully understand. What I took from it, however, is that a Gaussian convolution was at its core.

In my implementation of the second two phases, for each successive rank, I convolve the binary pattern into a new grid of filtered data. I define a void as whichever "zero" in the binary pattern has the lowest corresponding value in the filtered data. I define a cluster as whichever "one" in the binary pattern has the highest corresponding value in the filtered data. All I'm doing in the second two phases is iteratively filling the greatest voids (making zeros into ones) until the binary pattern is completely full. This seems to work and I don't really know how else to think about it. Is it the same thing as the paper prescribes, just arrived at differently? I don't know.

Any insight you may have would be appreciated.

I understand. As a web dev, IE support has always been a thorn in my side.

One more question. Is it true that an active internet connection is required for a complete/initial installation? It seems that the installer doesn't include the actual client, just a mechanism for retreiving the client online.

Ahhh, thank you for the instructions. I'll give it a go when I get home.

I tried to create an account with the form at craftstud.io, but get a Javascript error on submit. I'm running IE8 on WinXP here. Maybe one of the IE6 machines here will fare better.

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.2; WWTClient2; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E)
Timestamp: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 18:51:54 UTC


Message: Object doesn't support this property or method
Line: 39
Char: 9
Code: 0
URI: http://craftstud.io/javascripts/main.js

If I understand things correctly, this can not be used without an active internet connection?

MP3 of the new show (#27) is up.

http://www.mediafire.com/tigradio

Great show, guys. It's been too long. Good to have Tommy back on, too. He's my favorite curmudgeon under the age of 30.

The July 11th show with David Sirlin at EVO was halted about 17 minutes into it because of technical difficulties. At the time TIGRadio said it would be uploaded later. Last week Matthew Wegner seemed to suggest this wasn't going to happen. You can download the audio of the broadcast portion of the lost episode from the link below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?aguulbxdd5ez4ri

This game used to piss me off so much.

This is a really nice remake, one of the nicer GM games I played. I like the stuff you've added and thank God you removed the deadly walls. It's a lot more fun now. The only thing I miss are the cheats. 

I think the original was written by Robert Presley (which is the cheat code you type on the title screen), but I've been unable to confirm that. Cheat gives infinite lives and 'L' advances the level.

Hot damn! Two very smart-looking game blogs to get sucked into. Cheers, guys, and welcome.

I'm about 200 miles from Miami, but I'd be interested in attending if I can swing it.

Hello!

My name is David Galindo ...

Always nice to see a familiar face here! Welcome aboard, David.

This is a great idea. Hope I can find the time to join in! Good luck, everbuzzles. 

I think the word you're looking for is "satire".

It's still real to me, dammit!  

Yes, still ongoing.

Episode #21 was broadcast last night with future indie starlet Gorby Timpson. Some in the chat seemed to think TIGRadio had hit rock-bottom with the admittedly unusual episode but I found the guest to be very interesting. People were quick to doubt Gorby's sincerity -- one even accused him of being Steve Swink in disguise! -- I know this can't be true because I've seen Steve and Gorby in a photo together.

I just started playing SkullPogo and I absolutely love the music.

Go with your instinct, 3 levels would be perfect. Or more. Or longer. Spacing out the introduction of new elements would improve things I think. Also, since jumping is so prominent, how about some jumping challenges? The game just seems too horizontal for such a vertical element. Also, the time element and the status display meant nothing to me. That needs fleshing out.

Very, very neat so far.

In case you are wondering, TIGRadio was cancelled this week because Mike made it to his car's kill screen. Something about eggs being in a one basket goes here.

That's a good point, GZ. I intend to make a real game fairly typical of 1991, but now I'm thinking about scaling back some.

Last night for a goof and to confirm what I'd read, I finally played all 19/20 levels of Spread Fire. So tedious! It's really unplayable after level 6 or 7. I had to cheat by hacking the NES memory to move the player sprite almost completely off the bottom of the screen. I say 19/20 levels because after level 19 it loops back to level 1, but that "level 1" plays more like level 20, and after you beat it, the next level is also called level 1, which actually plays like the true first level. Ah, good ol' Action 52.

Really liked Mashman, by the way.

Nothing to show just quite yet but progress is being made everyday. Unfortunately, I'm getting the feeling that I'm making a shmup that shmup-lovers are going to hate because it's accessible and old school. Tough luck, kids. Galaga and Robotron for life!