Bug and Features

[thesentinel]

HI

OK so I just started a sample test.

If any of this is covered in the manual, sorry for asking, maybe you can point me in the right direction.

BUG:

I mistakenly made one of the "enemy" sprites as sprite 0 but I guess I could change it later, not that it probably matters?

OK so when I tested the game there was a gun on the screen that I didn't place there. Guess it's there by default as an example. Anyway I used the sprite to pick it up and then realized I could shoot bubbles. I was shooting them crazy. I would jump on the very top platform and shoot a bunch of bubbles (which reappeared at the bottom of the screen, probably because I didn't place wall objects at the top - also, the character sprite wraps when I get to, not the edge of the screen but at about the fourth 1/4 of the screen. Not sure what's happening there, maybe something set at default that I need to change), jump down again and just go crazy shooting this bubbles. After a bit the game gets garbled graphics and flashing colours in certain spots. Pressing Enter to go back crashes AGD. Running AGD in ZXSPin in version 0.666 (yikes maybe I should upgrade. J/k)

FEATURE REQUESTS:

1. Make Paper and Ink colours in graphics (Sprites/Objects) any two colours within any 8x8 area of the objects and sprites, in any frame.

2. Make it so that while some sprites can be 16x24 some can be 16x16 and not just have one option or the other. I guess I could make the smaller characters only in the bottom part of the 16x24 area but how would this affect collision? Does collision only get triggered when pixel touches pixel?

3. Make it so that the colour of Sprite0 (or any other sprite) isn't dictated by whatever the colour happens to be of Object0 (I say this according to what is said in the AGD tutorials at randomkak.blogspot.co.uk

4. Scrolling

DOWNLOAD WHAT I JUST WORKED ON HERE IF YOU WANT TO CHECK IT OUT:

www.dropbox.com/sh/b9shjnamh8bsse2/Q2reaGpPxI

It's Krusty00001.z80

Thanks.

[Jonathan Cauldwell]

The gun is an object in a demonstration game. Pick it up and you can fire bubbles. The code to do all of that is in the player sprite event so it's easy enough to delete. Likewise, the code to test when you've reached the edge of the screen and wrap to the other side is in the same event. Take a look at the bits which test the sprite Y coordinate.

It will be possible to colour sprites individually using SPRITEINK n where n is the ink colour. Again, that's something you'll have to do in the sprite events.

I've looked into different sprite sizes and it's just not possible to implement them in AGD. The choice of all 16x16 or 16x24 in version 4 will be a compromise which gives the game designer another option. Collision detection is still coordinate based, however.

Games which scroll need custom engines on the Spectrum. It would require a different game designer, with many of AGD's features removed to make way for the scrolling.

[thesentinel]

Thanks very much for the reply Jonathan. It's sounding even better.

When you say "It will be possible to colour sprites individually using SPRITEINK n where n is the ink colour. Again, that's something you'll have to do in the sprite events."

I think that's great. It's something. But I'm not exactly clear on what you mean. Do you mean that:

a) SPRITEINK will allow me to make different sprites different colours from other sprites
b) SPRITEINK will let me make individual frames of a sprite different colours (so that when animated there is a flash of colours)
c) SPRITEINK will allow me to use four different colours in a sprite frame (if I were using 16x16 for example, one colour for each 1/4 of the sprite area, for example)

If it's not (a) would it be possible to plot pixels at x,y coordinates over a particular 8x8 portion of a graphic so that the colour changes? Example if I wanted the lower part of a sprite one colour and the top another colour?

You can see an example here of what I mean:

www.dropbox.com/sh/b9shjnamh8bsse2/Q2reaGpPxI

DRINK.GIF It looks like a cup with foam on top. Magenta and white.

What about the paper background of sprites?

It would also be cool to add an ink colour to a row or column in the background (with no actual pixels) and then when a Sprite moves into that area it takes on the INK attribute of what's there as if using an OVER 1 command.

Another things would be to assign some of the backgrounds to the foreground so that the player could hide behind a wall or something.

I guess this all won't be possible but there it is. It'd be awesome if this were a PC app so as not to use any memory for AGD running on the Spectrum taking up extra space.

Anyway I thing the program is great. The weekend is here and now I can play around more.

Sorry if I'm not making much sense. It's been another day of insomnia. Thanks again for your reply.

Sincerely.

[Jonathan Cauldwell]

Because you colour sprites manually with SPRITEINK, you can change colours from one frame to the next. They can glow or flash, change colour according to status or whatever you like. The sprite will take its paper from the background.

If you don't use SPRITEINK a sprite will take its attributes from whatever is on the screen at its current position.

There are no plans to set different parts of a sprite different colours as AGD doesn't restrict sprites to character positions.

Oh, and there is a PC AGD tool already, check out the TommyGun with AGD topic over at the WoS forums.

[doc314]

Jonathan,

I have just come across this piece of software. Its fantastic. You would have been a millionaire if you had brough this out in 1982!!

Couple of small questions. Not sure if I am posting these in the correct place.

a) Where is it possible to obtain version 4 from?

b) Also I am having trouble locating the PC editor you refer to?

c) You know in manic miner (original) there was platforms that vanished...is that possible in AGD?

d) Also if you have an ememy sprite that moves left to right and then right to left...can there be a different sprite for left movement and then right movement?

e) Finally I have been using 3.0...but have found a bug in that the character set regularly disappears. Is it possible to use 3.5 but somehow load in my data from 3.0??

Sorry for a lot of questions. I have been using AGD for about a week now. It really is amazing

John Felton

[Jonathan Cauldwell]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I'd probably have made a bit of money had this been released in the 1980s. If only I had a time machine...

Version 4 will be released in a week or two.

The TommyGun/AGD version can be found on this thread: www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=42654 if you go to the last page and work your way back you'll find a link to the latest version. Tony updates the tool regularly so I won't post a direct link as it's likely to change.

Off the top of my head I can't think of a way to implement vanishing platforms as they appear in Manic Miner, although DIGDOWN will remove fodder blocks under a sprite.

You can certainly have different images for different directions. In the code which moves the sprite in each direction you'll need something like this:

SPRITELEFT
LET IMAGE = (left sprite number)
ANIMATE
and

SPRITERIGHT
LET IMAGE = (right sprite number)
ANIMATE
You should be able to load a version 3.0 file into version 3.5. Use the save option from the menu to create a virtual tape, "eject" that tape, load version 3.5, then insert your saved game and use the load option from the menu.

[doc314]

Thanks for the advice. I have a strange bug and am I not sure whether its AGD or something else. The character set I have gets corrupted every day I play the game on the AGD. Even when I load in a new one it gets corrupted every single time I play the game. I thought it might be a bug in 3.0 but I now have the same but with 3.5. I wonder whether you have come across this. I am using spin.

Also is it possible to have different coloured sprites in the game for enemies?

Thanks again for the best piece of software I have ever seen for the spectrum!

John

[Jonathan Cauldwell]

I haven't seen this myself. How much of the character set is corrupted? Is it the whole set, or does it only corrupt up to a certain character? Does the corruption take the form of apparently random garbage, or is it all filled or blank pixels?

[doc314]

Its the whole character set..usually filled with a mixture of blanks of random garbage (though it doesn't look totally random). I will upload a picture to show you.

John

Attachments:

[nra]

Jonathan, you are busy, but perhaps still have a few spare seconds to explain if I got it right that one cannot shift stars both vertically and horizontally, yep? Alas, it seems they use different buffer and I hoped to have diagonal or even ratio-controlled angle via REPEAT loops...

Anyway, have a rest and keep up)

[Jonathan Cauldwell]

Particles have their own buffer located at the end of the game data. The miscellaneous menu shows the first unused memory location available for external routines and you may have noticed that changing the engine specialisation between particles and effects gives a difference of 300 bytes. That's for the particle buffer.

To be as efficient as possible, particles are restricted to a few predefined types and it isn't practical to give the user control over them in the way sprites can be manipulated. So in answer to your question, no it's not possible to move a star horizontally and vertically at the same time.

[gabriele1969]

Hey Jonathan
I noticed taht in 4.1 (for the zx) if you try to horizontally flip a sprite it only flips the top part (in 16X24 mode, don't know in the 16x16)