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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / - DBPro Coding Challenges -

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Dr Tank
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Posted: 21st May 2009 06:08 Edited at: 21st May 2009 06:11
OK. Finally i've got around to judging. Sorry for tardiness.

Basically it's between the two finished entries. I am also looking forward to what DB PROgrammer and arrowh might come up with in future though.

The games had in common that they were nice and intuitive to control, and were nice and smooth with no slowdown or bugs.

BMacZero :

Things i thought were sweet:
* It's a proper rail shooter with moving around, a sequence of events and stuff!
* The difficulty level is about bang on - if you snooze, you lose!
* nice effects

Things i thought could have been even sweeter:
* the camera movement was a little jerky
* there was quite a while from the last enemy to the level end


Monk :

Things i thought were sweet:
* Nice aesthetic. Gun, targets look right. Even the colour of the sand.
* Cool zoom feature.
* Cool bullet physics
* Offers a challenge in trying to beat your own high score

Things i thought could have been even sweeter:
* Hard to see how much your missed shots missed by, or how close to the target centre you got
* a graphical wind strength indicator would be nice.

I'm being overly critical here- both games were totally sweet, especially given the short dev time. I'd like to see both games developed further if you have the time and the inclination.

After much deliberation, douze points go to...



DB PROgrammer
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Posted: 21st May 2009 11:01
@BMacZero
Very nice game. I can't think of much to comment on other then there seemed to be too much time where you were doing nothing. Also, I think you could have worked on the gun a little more, lol!

@Monk
Well... I beat your score! 46 seconds with physics. I found it a little too easy, maybe it's just me though. Also, what is up with those bullets, lol! I'm I supposed to be shooting bb's? Maybe I'm wrong but they seemed to be affected too much. One last thing, the gun seemed to get in the way sometimes. The first time I played it it took me a while to realize that there was some targets I wasn't seeing and that was why it was still going. Don't take all these crit's as your game being really bad or me putting you down they're just some things I noticed.

I've been busy lately but I'm still going to try and finish my rail shooter and upload it here.


DBPro, limited by the programmer.
Monk
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Posted: 21st May 2009 14:45
Congrats Bmaczero, I think that win was well deserved, and i would have voted for yours as well =)

The crits good DB PROgrammer, and accurate as well. I had noticed the gun got in the way of one or two of the targets, but couldnt be bothered to put in proper positioning code for a simple target range.
The wind probably does have a too big effect, but the distances are misleading. The really far away target was supposed to be about 1km, but it obviously wasnt =) The closer ones were supposed to be about 3/400 metres, but looked closer to 30. ;P Something to learn from for my game....

BMacZero
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Posted: 21st May 2009 16:22 Edited at: 21st May 2009 16:25
Yay! Thanks all. I might have to make this into an actual game with media like I did with Fields . It definitely was fun.

I have two ideas for the next challenge. I'll see what you guys think would be more interesting:

1.) A Battleship AI competition. Everyone makes a Battleship AI, and we pit them against each other to see which one is the best.

2.) An Inverse Kinematics demo, 2D or 3D.

I can't decide . The Battleship AIs were my original idea, but I recently read about inverse kinematics somewhere, and that sounded interesting as well.



acelepage
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Posted: 21st May 2009 16:38
I did a battleship game in QuickBasic years ago which played against other programs. It would be difficult to develop the interface to have the programs play against each other. You would have to come up with a standard and supply that standard to all entrants. I think it would be great fun, but might not fit within this type of challenge.

Inverse Kinematics sounds awesome. You could do a person, or a crane, or some type of robot thing.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
BMacZero
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Posted: 21st May 2009 16:48
Quote: "It would be difficult to develop the interface to have the programs play against each other."

I've got that done already, I started tweaking some old battleship code I had a while ago when I first thought of the idea.

Quote: "I think it would be great fun, but might not fit within this type of challenge."

That was my main concern.

Thanks for your thoughts .



Dr Tank
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Posted: 21st May 2009 18:34
The "inverse kinematics" challenge sounds good. Interesting and worth learning about.

The battleships thing is also cool, but, like someone else said, it's more something where you want to provide a base game, and get "players" to provide AI functions that have access to a limited set of data. Would be fun to do, but writing the base is a big job in itself.

Monk
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Posted: 22nd May 2009 20:39
Both could be fairly complicated, but Id be willing to try... =)

BMacZero
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Posted: 23rd May 2009 02:04
New Challenge!

Well, then, the next challenge will be to produce an Inverse Kinematics demo, in which an organism or machine consisting of multiple limbs rotates these limbs to reach a point or object.

Bonuses will be awarded for routines that find the most "comfortable" and realistic ways to reach the goal, clear code organization, and/or user interactivity.

You have until Monday, June 8th to complete your entries. Have fun!



Oolite
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Posted: 25th May 2009 00:05
IK in DBPro?
Way out of my league but i'll be watching this out of pure interest.


I'll finish them whenever i can be bothered.
BMacZero
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Posted: 25th May 2009 00:33 Edited at: 25th May 2009 00:34
This might be helpful for those who are having trouble getting started:

http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_ik.htm
http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_ik2.htm



acelepage
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Posted: 28th May 2009 22:26 Edited at: 28th May 2009 22:27
Here is the first entry to get things started.



( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
BMacZero
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Posted: 29th May 2009 00:34 Edited at: 6th Jun 2009 01:36
Edit: Double Post!



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
BMacZero
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Posted: 29th May 2009 00:35
Looking nice, acelepage! . I did encounter one bug - there was a box very close to the center, and the arm glitched a bit trying to reach it. It took the long way around on the y axis, stopped briefly over the box, and then repeated this. I can't reproduce the glitch now though.



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
acelepage
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Posted: 29th May 2009 04:36
I think there will be a few bugs. I think you could reproduce the bug by clicking on a second block before the arm has reached the first block. I noticed that one.
But, the challenge is young. I would like to refine the code, and perhaps have the arm pick up and stack the blocks in the order you select. Hey! Maybe I could make it into s spelling game!

I had just worked on this during my breaks. I think I need to re-think the arm movement. Right now, I am treating each fulcrum of the arm individually. The shoulder and elbow should probably work together. Collision avoidance would be good too.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
Monk
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Posted: 4th Jun 2009 11:10
Im sorry guys but I havent been able to put anything together for this challenge, and with the time left, I doubt I could put anything together thats any good, let alone good enough to beat Acelepage.

Sorry

BMacZero
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Posted: 8th Jun 2009 16:34
Well, I'll be judging in 24 hours, so anyone who has anything in the works should hurry it up .



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
Jimmy
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 03:16
I think you'll find this case of Inverse Kinematics particularly ground-breaking and revolutionary.



NaGaFailMo.
BMacZero
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 04:00
You might just have something there, if you can figure out how to display the results on the screen .

I foresee several Youtube videos of people screaming and clutching their left eyes...



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
BMacZero
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 17:22
Okay, the results are in...

acelepage
An excellent demonstration, exactly what I think of when I think of inverse kinematics. This has the potential to do great things in DB, and also to be a great game in and of itself.

Jimmy
Funny

And the next challenge-setter:




Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
acelepage
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 17:41 Edited at: 10th Jun 2009 05:58
Thanks BMacZero.

When I started with DBPro, I had a bit of difficulty with keyboard input. It is not like you can use the old Basic input a$ command to prompt the user for an answer.
So, I wrote my own input routine. With this I could specify the location on the screen for the prompt, the look and feel of the cursor, limit which characters are allowed to be typed. But then I needed to have an input prompt without halting the animations on the screen. So I had to re-write it to be more like an interrupt call.

So, the challenge shall be:

Make a keyboard input function, which prompts the user for some information from the keyboard, while allowing the program to continue. You can create any simple animation to show that the program continues to run, like a rotating cube. Points awarded for extra functionality, like defining the range of characters allowed, cursor control (editing your entry), and whatever else you want to add.

Deadline: June 21/09

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
flashing snall
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 22:00
so like... A typing game?

acelepage
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Posted: 9th Jun 2009 22:09
Could be a game. But not just single character keyboard input. For example, at the beginning of a game, prompt the user for their name, while animation plays in the background.
The idea is that it will be a function that you can call in any program to prompt the user for any kind of keyboard input (name, address, phone, text message).

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
BMacZero
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 00:08
Great challenge! I'm in. That's a darn short deadline, though, isn't it?



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 01:39
Yeah and unless somebody does something fantastically creative it could be really difficult to judge. Oh well, I'll give it a shot, if I have time, there'r other things I have to do but I haven't entered a challenge in such a long time I don't even know if I can code anymore... :S goodluck everyone!

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
CYMRU AM BYTH!
acelepage
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 06:00
@BMacZero,
Yes, that is a short deadline! I really meant 2 weeks. Had my eyes crossed when I looked at the calendar I guess. I have edited the post. Deadline is June 21.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
BMacZero
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 06:07
Ah, got it!



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 12:56
Yay awesome!

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
CYMRU AM BYTH!
Aurum Knight
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Posted: 10th Jun 2009 18:23 Edited at: 10th Jun 2009 18:29
I had a cool idea for this. I'm guessing what you want is basically any program that takes input while doing other stuff?

I haven't coded in a while, but I'll enter this if I can get my entry finished in time
flashing snall
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Posted: 11th Jun 2009 05:10
... so a really GOOD typing game? Hehe. Actually, a typing game woudl require a list of words to be typed, and since you cant use media or outside txt files, you would have to hard code all the words in the game, which would be... unfun. Maybe something else will have to be arranged.

Xlaydos
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Posted: 13th Jun 2009 18:27
You could search the users hard drive and construct words from folder names
flashing snall
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Posted: 14th Jun 2009 06:22
that would be cool actually Although, youd have to avoid getting the folder names that dont make sense. Like, what if some one names a folder
"catz_rcute"
...
I dont think its reliable enough.

Image All
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Posted: 14th Jun 2009 07:10 Edited at: 15th Jun 2009 06:07
This is the easiest challenge I've ever seen here...




Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....
BMacZero
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 02:29
@Image All

The cube spinning seems to lag in your example, which unfortunately was what this challenge was supposed to avoid. Other than that, it's looking good! I'll post mine later...



Diggsey: I have a spine and memory, but one memorable guy says he hates me. What am I?
Image All
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 06:05 Edited at: 15th Jun 2009 06:08
this lag is due to sync rate 0 with the combination of timer-based movement. a simple program like this can be rendered multiple thousands of times per second, which means some frames are rendered in less than one millisecond. since my timer based movement uses milliseconds (with timer()) and it is done with integers, some times the program thinks that no time has passed since last loop and current (since the computer thinks 0.25 = 0). the lack of accuracy in determining the amount of time passed with timer() causes the cube to think it's not supposed to move at all when it is. i set sync rate 60 now and it works great.


Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....
acelepage
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 17:55 Edited at: 15th Jun 2009 17:55
@Image All, your entry does provide keyboard entry while continuing animation.
There are additional features you can add to an entry function to make it user friendly. I have written a bit of sample code here (which doesn't allow the program to continue while inside the function, but this is just for demonstration). This provides a cursor, and allows editing of the entry (cursor keys, backspace/delete), and limits the characters that the user can type (upper/lower ascii values).


( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
Image All
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 21:48 Edited at: 16th Jun 2009 01:43
fine. here is the updated version with more text editing capabilities.




Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....
Phaelax
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 22:21
I thought 2 weeks sounded excessively too long for this challenge.

[url="http://dbcc.zimnox.com"][/url]
acelepage
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 23:06
@Image All,
Looks good.

@Phaelax,
The last competition only had one entry, so I wanted to try and attract more entrants. So, a simple challenge, with enough time for many different skill levels to complete.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2009 02:45
It says the challenge ends on the 21st and I know it's the 22nd right now but can you postpone the judging by 1 day please? I'm typing this message on my phone because the computer with the internet (and the DarkBASIC) has stopped working, a guy is gonna come round and fix it later. My entry might not be super or even worth waiting for, but a chance would be nice.

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
CYMRU AM BYTH!
acelepage
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2009 04:00
@sinisterstuff,
It's still the 21st where I am, so you have at least 12 hours to submit, since I will not be judging tonight. I'll be judging in the morning my time.
I would like to wait and see your entry.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
qwe
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2009 09:43
i have a good idea for a challenge. time to attempt to win again hopefully the next challenge is fun
acelepage
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2009 16:26
OK, deadline has passed. Challenge is over.
Unfortunately, we did not get many takers.

So, Image All, although your entry was the only one for this challenge, I would still judge it to be a good example of text entry.

Winner: Image All

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
Image All
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2009 18:16
you little chuckleheads were just too afraid to have your entries blown away by mine. can't lose if you don't try...?

since we're on the topic of text and input...
the next challenge will be...

make a demonstration of text output; there should be some form of text output presented in a gamelike fashion, such as characters speaking or the player reading signs. things to remember are:
- make the text type itself out
- either make it scroll by lines or do like zelda and erase it each paragraph and start a new one
- you could add simple buttons for input, like to answer yes/no to questions
- have multiple characters that say different things; you could even add a shop

deadline is July 7 giving you a nice round two weeks for this competition.

go!!


Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....
Mummy Killer
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Posted: 4th Jul 2009 19:16
i will try make something

bobbel
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Posted: 5th Jul 2009 11:31 Edited at: 5th Jul 2009 11:33
Hello everybody, this is my first entry here! Enjoy!



U need Cloggy's D3D plugin to use it, cause i needed filled circles. And by changing the String$ variable on top of the code, u can change what happens don't make it too long, the standard is near maximum now.

BillR
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Posted: 5th Jul 2009 14:38 Edited at: 5th Jul 2009 14:40
@bobbel - good job with your entry....but...
You can't use any plugins in your code entry, it MUST use ONLY native DBPro commands.

Also, you should set a default screen resolution in your code,
only the 'Bobbels Entry is Awe' fits on the DBPro low res default screen.

You will need to update your code so it doesn't use Cloggy's D3D plugin.
bobbel
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Posted: 5th Jul 2009 15:07
Whoops! Sorry, here is the updated code:



BillR
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Posted: 5th Jul 2009 15:14
bobbel, better!
Good Luck!
Image All
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Posted: 6th Jul 2009 05:36 Edited at: 6th Jul 2009 23:38
well i am grateful that this challenge wasn't completely ignored, and while i must admit that i'm not entirely fond of either entry, i have to point out that Mummy Killer is in the lead, since his entry is marked by visual clarity and an adequate level of simplicity.

bobbel: while your efforts are "noted" i have to say it's rather strange to see a bunch of balls fly off of text; something very distracting when you're trying to read a character's words -- and you have to wait for the horizontal ones to get out of the way

seeing as this challenge wasn't picked up on until late in the period i've decided to extend the deadline to July 11, which is one week from the time the first entry was submitted.


just as a reminder of what this challenge was supposed to focus on:

i was looking for an entry that could demonstrate character speech, primarily. this means that the things that make a good entry include flexibility to output whatever you want--even entire speeches , structured memory allocation, and clean and clear visibility of the output text.

if you want to try to suck up to me then make something that has multiple simple-object characters that say different things when you walk up to them and/or press a button to engage them.


Remember those old guys? They made epic renders, I think one of them was called DaVinci, and all they used was MS Paint. Sometimes it's just skill....

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