simple machines forum

New Release (SVN Update or Download)

I've bumped the version up to 1.2.5.4 and uploaded new files. New features are much better frame rate, I now run at 120hz, and I've worked on the BSP system for my project, but it requires do_bsp and it requires using a new "pin" system in SOM_MAP where tiles disappear when they shouldn't. Pins are placed by right-clicking on the checkpoints screen. I've added preliminary animations for guarding and heavy attacks/counters with weapons. This is a nice addition to complement shields.

Note, using the bsp system can improve frame rates, and is good if you want to put a lot of monsters and things inside interior spaces. But the main boos for the frame rate comes from using a newer compiler, and Windows XP is no longer supported.

Woops! I just found a killer bug in the KF1 demo with do_fix_damage_calculus=no.

KING'S FIELD

[Bugfix]

do_fix_damage_calculus = no

What was going on is the Strength and Magic bonuses aren't added so hits are 1 damage! I feel like crap about this.
I've fixed the SomEx.dll file if anyone wants it (http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.2.5.2.zip)
I've also updated the demo to include shields. And I think there may have been a problem with the MPX files. They now have to be built with SOM_MAP before playing, and I've added an Instructions.txt file to explain how to do it (http://svn.swordofmoonlight.net/Sword-of-Moonlight/Library/KING'S-FIELD/Instructions.txt)

For the record, I've now disabled the "BSP" system that hides chambers that shouldn't be visible by default. It can be turned on with a do_bsp [Option] but it has some problems because I've worked on making it work for layers.

There's a new feature in SOM_MAP on the "checkpoints" screen that lets you right-click to add a "pin" which will make a tile remain visible always.

This is helpful in some places where there are exterior/outdoor tiles, but it's also being used to patch over problem areas in the new BSP system.

The new system automatically fills all empty cells with the equivalent of a dummy tile. This is needed with layers. Unfortunately it sometimes malfunctions. I've turned it on in my KF2 demo and I've just used the "pin" system to fix problem areas.

BSP is off by default for backward compatibility and to not make new developers figure out how to use the new pinning system. The reason for all of this is to improve frame rates. And if you use the BSP system wisely you can cram a lot more monsters into interior/indoor areas. The reason you can is anything that's hidden by the BSP system won't count against the frame rate, i.e. performance.

Edited: There's also an Alt+Alt+B hotkey to enable/disable the BSP system when do_bsp is in use.

Yesterday I uploaded some shield models that I mistakenly left out of the recent shield feature update. This makes shields either unusable or invisible without adding these models back. I found I neglected to SVN Add them.

Attachments

 SOM shadows.png 

Here's an early look at custom generated shadows. I'm thinking this is a big improvement. It's taken a lot of time to work out the details, and I'm only about 1/3rd the way through probably. I think I'll take a break and leave them as "static" images for right now.

Attachments

 shadow preview.png 

I'm trying to generate shadow textures in x2mdl. I'm planning on packing these into ico (icon) files and putting one image in each RGBA channel. To draw them I think R and A images will need to be identical on subsequent frames. I don't know if they'll be doubled in the ICO file or not, but they'd need to be unpacked that way if not.

The idea is to blend between 4 frames in the shader. Only 2 frames will be needed but the others will still be calculated since they're in the same textures. They're just color channels after all. It'll probably slow down model conversion because the blurring effect has to pull in a bunch of pixels for each pixel, and there will be one of these for each animation frame.

I hope it will be worth it. For the Viper monster a round circle really doesn't make sense.

EDITED: Note, this image is a kraken's from KF2. I got this by doing 2 passes. The first pass just blurs everything by a 4 pixel radius. (It looks like more than 4 pixels because the white pixel 4 pixels from the edge is darkened and the dark pixel 4 pixels inside the edge is also lightened.) It needs to be that big to not look aliased. Antialiasing (multisample) isn't used because a height map is generated to produce some effects like you get if you are directly underneath a light. Unfortunately it's a little strange to be directly under a light all the time, but it's a little better than the fully abstract circle I think.

Patch (SVN Update)

http://svn.swordofmoonlight.net/Sword-of-Moonlight/Library/KING'S-FIELD/DATA/movie/

Here are new King's Field I movies AI upscaled to 960x720 with subtitles. The sample project now defaults to these movies for both Japanese and English.

Patch

I've uploaded a patch for fixing some bugs and it adds a new way to rearrange SOM_MAP's palette area, and rotate icons in the palette area. And a way to change the view angle for tiles in the tile preview area.

The latter is saved in the PRT file and can be edited with the View menu in an updated PrtsEdit, but also if your keyboard has numpad keys, they can be pressed with Ctrl in SOM_MAP as a faster way to do this. The Ctrl Lock button works too.

To rearrange it's necessary to select with Shift or use Ctrl to drag, and the Ctrl Lock button works here too. Ctrl with Right click rotates the tile(s). The arrangement and rotations are stored in a my.plt file in the MAP folders. There is one in the install MAP folder, but if you modify things in SOM_MAP it will save to your own project MAP folder, which replaces the installation my.plt file.

The preview/view angle is not saved in my.plt. Again it's saved in the PRT file.

I had fun working on this with my schizophrenia. It came up with most of the ideas for this. And held my feet to the fire. Sometimes it's a drag though. I think I want to work on subtitles for the King's Field movies next, or scan the materials that come with SOM to make an instruction manual. Or work on my KF2 project more. I can't tell if my schizophrenia is going to be cooperative in this or not. These are some of its ideas. I do have ideas of my own along the way, but lately I'm not sure what to do, and I'm coping with schizophrenia, and so giving it some space to influence my activities. For better or worse.

Repository reset (repost)

FYI I've re-reset the new repo back to Revision 2. I'd accidentally included a bunch of shortcut (LNK) files from the art system, and the Moonlight.zip language pack wasn't updated. I've also updated the EXE files in TOOL.

Repository reset

FYI I've re-reset the new repo back to Revision 2. I'd accidentally included a bunch of shortcut (LNK) files from the art system, and the Moonlight.zip language pack wasn't updated. I've also updated the EXE files in TOOL.