Topic: Super Castlevania 3 Project--Progress Report

[darkmanx_429]

Even though the flashes are awesome, just but them in your background and light the background up, that'll work...

[kaonstantine]

Mmm i think the flashes are OK, what  you need is to adjust is their lenght. They last too much on screen. I guess they could look better if you reduce the "frames per flash", making the effect more subtle

[Las]

Yeah for now it's not super important. I mean yeah i'm sure i can adjust that code. It came from caveman effect particle engine. I'd have to mess around with it. I think my overall concern with a level like this isn't as much rain effects and flashes as it is not having certain rooms have slow downs but that Room 4 and 5 for some reason have a slight slowdown. I'm not sure why. I use all tiles for this level exept for the backgrounds. Still it shouldnt have been an issue. I've had slowdowns in levels with just alot of black tiles(like atlantis...fixed now). But i'm not sure why it happens. Coudl be obreck's coding??? Either way at some point when all the levels are finished+externalized and the engine is back to running normal i will mess with effects like that. I'll really have to get my hands dirty with coding and primitives too. Atm i'm trying to clean up the engine and have it running as effeciently as possible. Loading time included.

[TheouAegis]

Don't let tiles get drawn. Convert them to single backgrounds. Although that shouldn't be the cause of so much noticeable slowdown. Still, it might help things. Unless you're applying effects to the tiles themselves, in which case that might not help you much. I dunno, i'm too busy eating rice that I thought would have picked up more flavor after cooking it in a pan that had burnt barbecue sauce in it (the rice still tastes like just plain old rice).

[Las]

Hey theo thanks for the suggestions. I don't draw tiles. If you mean by code or even image_xcale=   no i don't do that either. Only with the objects like obj_solidblock or obj_solidtop. They are for the player to walk on one has a ceiling cap the other not. Either way i think it's the size of the sprites or backgrounds. I think i need to cut them down. Then again someone said it's the smxs.dll that's causign the problem. Another person said GMFMODSimple.dll. All i know from what i hear is that obreck didnt need to use these. Especially smxs.dll. It's a sound system library file. I think it's for like 3d or hd sound maybe. I dunno actually. Just know that i've gotten external error alot. And it has to go through like 40 or 50 ignores before the game is runnable. I do know when i cut down sprites,or delete enough(even pullling out full level backgrounds at times) eventually i can get the game to run perfectly. But i have to be careful what i pluck out. I cant not have levels..ya know. Plus i got more i'm still doing. I can't exactly delete all objects i'm using too. Their are many,many objects. Some i need for certain...like clocktower and warakiya. I may go through and slash out some extra uneeded objects in dungeon like the 160 frame prisoner in a cell ala sotn. I mean i can cut him down. Plus i use 2 or 3 versions . I think that would help eliminate stuff. Even the hod clouds in mountain range, or 3d scrolling castle keep clouds. If i got them coded in..it would save mega space i'm sure. They are sprites/objecst atm and use many sprites in a strip. I'm thinking elminating some things woudl be good. I just can't leave the game naked. I wonder if externalizing objects as well as backgrounds would solve anything. I've just beeen stumped for a while. I keep hearing that GMFMODSimple.dll has issues. When you abort the game and exit(not from it being coded tha way ingame but use gm's esc to exit), it will cause this error to happen. I'm not sure either way. But damn....it seems no one has a viable solution to it. I guess it's just time to cut out uncessary stuff. I can eliminate unused backgrounds too. Maybe it want's to load from a folder and sees these backgrounds but has issues skipping over them. Yeah i will do that. Probably is one of many possible solutions. If you find anythign out more on this Theo please let me know. I know you are pretty solid in gm. Ok ttys!Enjoy the rice!

[kaonstantine]

In the rooms with slow downs, check the instance count, in the bottom of the debugger.

In the taskbar manager, check if the memory/cpu usage doesn't grow up in the problematic rooms

[TheouAegis]

No, by "draw tiles" I mean don't let GM draw them at all, period. Mark (and I thinK Studio's programmers too) messed up tile functionality and it is horrifically slow during the GM's drawing phase. You can use tile_layer_hide() to disable drawing of the tiles but leave them in the room, or use tile_layer_delete(), but in a Castlevania game I'd stick with just hiding the layers.

I don't remember which version of GM you use, but here's a GM8 quickie I used to test out the difference between letting tiles be drawn and just converting the image to a background to be drawn instead. http://www.mediafire.com/download/61g4o8or7m36ccs/smb3_angry_sun.gmk If I uploaded the correct file, when you run it, press SPACE to toggle tiles on and off. If you're using Studio, you'll need to Import the project. All the code is in object0.

Also, the prisoner probably only takes up 10 or so frames of animation and they just did a better job of coding it than you.  But that would be a RAM issue, not a CPU performance issue. They go hand-in-hand sometimes, but that shouldn't be affecting you too much. ... Although cutting out 15/16th of a sprite might not be bad.

[Las]

Thanks man! I'll look into that. Yeah i never heard of tile_layer_hide() or delete for that matter. I dunno if it's a studio or 8 term. But yeah i still haven't tapped into much coding as of yet. I'm still focusing on getting solid levels. Then i will sit down with code and see what i can tweak. And yeah cutting down some sprites does seems to help. I deleted the prisoner(all160) frames and used a 32 frame one(not all of his sprites but doable) and yeah it worked much better. That and the fact i deleted alot of objects and sprites i didn't use and backgrounds too. I think i will just be careful when building levels to not use too many tiles from tileset or on the opposite side of the spectrum,not use too big a tiles. That seemed to give the error before. Too many tiles and yeah like you guys had....i got areas with mega slowdown. I had to do almost all of sunken city over because of the dark tiles. They slowed the engine down big time. Ok i'll check out that file too. Thanks for the example!

[reiko26]

 Super Castlevania 3 project is still going strong. levels are all being externalized. all levels are complete but some will get reworked just a bit. Las and I had a slow down period at first but things are getting back to where they need to be. still not sure when we will have a release date. stil need some small things coded here and there, so if anyone is interested, i'd be glad to have you

[darkmanx_429]

Super Castlevania 3 project is still going strong. levels are all being externalized. all levels are complete but some will get reworked just a bit. Las and I had a slow down period at first but things are getting back to where they need to be. still not sure when we will have a release date. stil need some small things coded here and there, so if anyone is interested, i'd be glad to have you

So out of all the levels how many do you have left to complete?

[reiko26]

well, there all complete levels. we just need to add the weapon power ups in there respective places, and add some different props and back grounds to maybe 2 or 3 more levels being that we want something better in place than what we have. now the aquaduct level, we need to get the rising water coded in. then that will be all for the levels so far to my knowledge unless Laslunder wants to add something extra

[TheRetroArtist]

Hey if you need any help in terms of coding I'd be willing to help as best as I can.

[Las]

@TheRetroArtist, hey man that would awesome if you could! Yeah the one area which we need the most help is coding. Yeah i've been trying to push ahead in some areas involving coding/special effects/bosses/etc but because i dont' know code well enought i can't exactly do things i'd like to. We still have many things we'd like to do. I still havne't gotten CV3 alucard in game yet. Mainly what i've been doing is levels and whatever art i can get done. Most of game is finished, for the most part...just need code help and lot's of it. Well ok man...cool....i'll hit up your pm box!Ttys!

[Las]

Hey guys figured i'd show you the latest 4 vids i posted. Still got some stuff to work on with the crossroads....like open doors that allow player to move through them without shifting screen. Plus i have to make it so each path voids other paths not chosen. Can't be replaying levels you shortcuted.Right?Also got a start to a WIP levels...enjoy!!!

Here are the vids:

crossroads1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVB1cgKiK3Y

Crossroads2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX5bQhJFoC8

Crossroads3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzrNBLqKIvo

Baljhet Mountains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCfmDgB81T0

?? what happedn with linking to the videos. I did it the same as ever..just posted it...doesnt seem to be opening up the video player...did something change?. Curious

* update ok thanks'. I don't remember ever having that happen. Hmmm...

[VladCT]

You're supposed to hotlink to http:// instead of https://.