next »

[JobLeonard]

One alpha buffer later (Still not for public consumption yet )

• I could add proper floor texturing but that seems a little overkill for what is essentially a glorified menu

• Proof it's just text, and it works on Linux just as well

• Things are gradually coming together on this but I don't want to release anything til it's an actual feature (I've still got more interactions to code for the new bridge stuff, so I guess the next update will be a biggie)

Awesome!

[Rogod]

Update v0.67
Emergency version release!
Woops - I noticed the intro sequence has not been working properly since v0.55 and kinda had to release a fix for that as it's the first thing anyone sees when playing Startron (my bad)

Nevertheless, this update can serve to split what was originally coming in v0.67 into more manageable chunks so that's fine (the rest can come in v0.68)

• Added random space worms and space whales to find (they understandably don't do much yet )

• All planets, moons, space entities and anything encountered in the space overview screen now all show up when viewed from the bridge (along with some preliminary functions to interact with them - more on that in the next update)

• Fixed being able to spam yourself with transmissions by holding the "I" key down on space junk

• Allowed you to return to the overview perspective when pressing the key for the room you're in a second time (just nicer than having to always find the "V" key when navigating around inside the ship)

• Updated the credits for 2021 and one of the musician's preferences

• Fixed the intro animation not showing any of the pictures

Don't press Z on the main menu

[vdapps]

Wow, my hat off for 3D rendering.

[Rogod]

It's getting there!

• Give it a second to load

[JobLeonard]

Niiiiice

(The signpost needs to persist a few frames longer once partially off-screen)

[Rogod]

By signpost are you referring to the little blue text prompts that come up? (Because yea, you're probably right)

[JobLeonard]

Yeah, those.

The way the ground and some ceilings seem to "dither" is interesting too, or is that a lack of mip-mapping?

[Rogod]

It is actually a full dither effect, but it's kinda wasted here as the walls don't dither with them (although I have some ideas for that).

The 3D effects may be upgraded iteratively in future updates but I think this is fine for the space station menus for now.

(In case it seems super slow to navigate: it'll have a quick-zoom option where it takes you straight to somewhere if you press the key for it - and of course the secret pirate shop won't show up as before)

[JobLeonard]

Like error diffusion dithering? Maybe ordered dithering would work better?

[Rogod]

I may have given a slightly more advanced impression of the effect here lol

The effect being used on the horizontal surfaces is literally just a 32x32 map of booleans, for whether to use colour1 or colour2, that is being looked up as it draws each vertical ceiling and floor shard from the tops and bottoms of the wall shards

But there may be cleverer things I can get it to do than this:

Code:

public static readonly bool[,] DITHER_PATTERN = new bool[,]
{
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T},
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T},
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,T,T},
	{T,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T},
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F},
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T},
	{T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T},
	{T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T},
	{T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T},
	{F,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T},
	{T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,T,T,F,T,F,T},
	{F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T},
	{F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T},
	{F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F},
	{F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T},
	{F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,T,F},
	{T,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,T,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
	{F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F,F},
};

we'll see what future versions hold.

Although, as I say, I am still reluctant to do an actual floor texture mapper because the last time I did this successfully, it just seemed like such overkill as an algorithm that it's just not worth it for a 16 colour game.


Contrary to my popularisation of Sin, Cos and Tan throughout this project, I am actually not all that good at maths

My strengths are algebra and trigonometry; my weaknesses are matrices, calculus and mental-arithmetic

[JobLeonard]

But... dithering is more valuable if you have fewer colors? 

Plus, it's just fun to learn about! 

This is a really good article on the topic:

https://surma.dev/things/ditherpunk/

... and here's one of my own experiments with the topic:

https://observablehq.com/@jobleonard/ordered-error-diffusion-dithering

[Rogod]

Oh I don't doubt the validity of dithering - it's just whether I can actually pull off something worthwhile with it here.

I think it kinda needs it on the walls too (which'll require some clever use of the ░, ▒ & ▓ characters to achieve) but I can investigate that as time goes on.

The trouble I've got really is that this is all being done at 1:1 scale - it's not downsampling a larger 3D scene, so there isn't anything to interpolate - I'm having to just invent places and rules for dithering in this engine.

[JobLeonard]

Well, do you have the graphics in some kind of RGB buffer before turning them into characters, or is it direct character rendering?

[Rogod]

The pixels are buffered in a 16-colour 2D array of size [screenWidthInCharacters, screenHeightInCharacters * 2]. This is transformed into the subcharacters █ & ▀ with the appropriate foreground & background in the last step of the render cycle.


As a proof-of-concept, I've just made it replace more of the texture shards with black the further they are from the camera but this looks pretty ugly in practice. (It's even worse if I use the dark-grey colour because then it just looks like rendering artifacts rather than shadow.)


Alternatively, another proof-of-concept I've tried is to have the pattern replace distant █ characters with ▒ characters to hint at some shadowing (this could possibly be made to look quite nice with ░ & ▓s) however it does leave all the single-pixel ones unshaded which looks a bit derp.

[JobLeonard]

Mmmmyeah no, that doesn't really work. Worth a try though!

[bram_dingelstad]

This looks super cool! Perhaps not the game I'd be playing myself, although I do love most of the games listed as your inspiration. I looked through some of the videos and images and it looks pretty comprehensive. I really like limiting yourself on the art/aesthetic to make sure you get the project to a level that you're satisfied with, the part where you talk about projects that didn't go through because of burnout related to making the assets hit me straight in the feels.

Whether Startron works on OSX or not remains to be seen - have to find somebody who actually owns a Mac first

I am (although with some feelings of shame) a Mac user (don't worry used to be a to-the-bone linux enthusiast and user). So if you're close to having a release and you need someone to compile on a Mac, let me know 

[Rogod]

@JobLeonard
I went one further with the ░, ▒ & ▓ characters and even had it blot out the single-pixel artifacts but man it just looked ugly. I could possibly do another dither between the different distance-bands but it's just getting messy at that point.

I've settled on the first of the 2 screenshots but with the effect toned down quite a way so it doesn't affect the scene too much, just only the very most distant parts a little.


@bram_dingelstad
Hey thanks man :D - Always nice to find some aspect of Startron appeals to somebody (I know it's pretty niche lol)

if you're close to having a release

I kinda chose not to have an endgame for the Startron project so I can just keep adding to it (like Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft) as a labour-of-love exercise of sorts.

As far as compiling for Mac goes, I'm still recovering from porting to Linux - but I do accept it would be a less painful process to go one further to Mac now as they're similar for the kinds of things Startron needs them to do.

I could attempt to compile for Mac purely for the purposes of testing it if you'd like:

- If it works on Mac: great, I'll round off the edges and add a Mac build to the pipeline.

- If it doesn't work on Mac: I'm afraid I don't have the brainspace to handle another port just yet so it'll probably have to stay incompatible until I have time to tackle it or someone wants to work on the port themselves (however, sharing the Startron source code is not something I'd do lightly)

[Rogod]

Update v0.68
Virtually real but controlled by real you!

• Navigating space stations is now done in virtual reality (The key for your destination can be pressed to run straight there to save you having to amble along looking for it)

• Improved the interactions with various space entities from the bridge (This will continue being added to in future updates)
  Note: Beaming in/out or zapping things does not do anything at all and a few other functions are relatively minimal right now

• Added an in-game prompt if Startron's having difficulties getting at the res/ folder
  (The game still works completely fine, you just can't see most of the artwork and won't have any music )

• Added some easter-eggs (let's face it, the game's stuffed full of them, this is just par for the course now )

• Now showing ships from the outside until you interact with them (artwork subject to improvement some day)

• Made it store the shield state when saving (so you don't come back in later & find you're vulnerable)

• Fixed a key clash on repairing from engineering

Coming up:
 - Making the bridge interactions more meaningful (all the groundwork's there, I just didn't want to commit to anything game-changing in v0.68)
 - More structures (and possibly super-structures) for entities (I feel like the building aspect of the game is becoming a little lost)
 - Half-an-idea to re-use the 3D engine for a dungeon-crawler minigame (probably locking to orthogonal directions just for simplicity of the controls) but we'll see

[JobLeonard]

Very nice!

Half-an-idea to re-use the 3D engine for a dungeon-crawler minigame (probably locking to orthogonal directions just for simplicity of the controls) but we'll see

Beaming down a planet or over to another star-ship?

[vdapps]

Yes! This 3D rendering in ASCII is brutal thing. Using it more (minigames like abandoned stations on planets? etc..) has lot of potential IMO.

Hmm, if you make also some shooting. That would be wooow.