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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / Community Projects

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David Gervais
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 10:58 Edited at: 21st Jan 2007 18:40
btw I noticed some people are not familliar with the term "Doodad", here is the basic idea..

Doodad = Doohicky = Thing-A-Ma-Jig = Whatchamacallit. or aka Captain Dunzel placeholder.

Are you clear on the term now?

./back to lurk mode waiting for the next community project...

Cheers!

EDIT: Ric, in the song Camp town ladies it's Doodaa Doodaa.. not Doodad.
Ric
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 12:24 Edited at: 21st Jan 2007 13:28
Aah - you mean Oojamaflip! All clear now. Must be an American/Canadian thing - as in 'Camp town ladies sing this song, doodad, doodad ....'

New updte:



Yellow bullets are now fired in the general direction of your ship, and red bullets which are fired more occasionally, are heatseeking, so are guided straight towards your ship. Added bullet collision with ship, so we actually have a challenging game now. All bullets now have a life span, and fade as their life span diminishes. Speeded up the ship and the ships firing rate, to give it more of a fighting chance. Will probably need to adjust difficulty later.

RiiDii
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 21:22 Edited at: 21st Jan 2007 21:36
Awesome work everyone! It is really a game now. Those guided missiles might need to get toned down just smidge. Either that or I'm a total wuss at this game.

Also, just to test it, I copied the level about 18 times and it worked just fine, so this can be quite a long game.


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Ric
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 22:49
Yeah - the guided missiles don't leave you much room for escape, especially when there are a few of them coming at you at the same time! Easy to reduce their evilness by either reducing the number of them, the lifespan they have, or their speed.

You duplicated the current level into one level 18 times as long? Wow - I'll have to see what fps I get on my machine when I do that - I'm not overly optimistic!

RiiDii
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 00:08
If you kept some of the mods made to your level code, then we are only storing integers instead of strings. I saw no impact to my FPS.


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Ric
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 00:32
You're right - no drop in fps here either ... very good news!

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 04:58
I have noticed a problem or two with the parralax effect of the tiles.

1) Shadows from the doodads look weird if near the edge of a tile and overlapping the background.

2) If the tiles are above the background they need to cast some shadows.

3) For ground units we will either need to restrict them to walking on the tiles only, or for the tiles to pass over them. For the tiles to pass over we will either have to paste the ground units and write a special collision routine with them, or make the tiles back into sprites and no longer paste them.

Not sure which way you guys want to go with that, unless we move to all air units and ground units only being buildings on top of tiles.

Ric
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 10:01
Added a runway ....

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Ric
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 10:11 Edited at: 22nd Jan 2007 10:15
... and shadows for the level tiles. It costs about 15 fps on my pc adding shadows for the level, but I've added in a timer system for all moving objects, so things should all move at a constant speed regardless of changes in frame rate.

As for the doodads casting shadows over the edges of tiles, I'm afraid my simple solution for that is to keep them all to the same, lower height. I know this counters some of the work already done, but as I mentioned before, it also solves the problem of having to change height to kill the doodads. From a top down perspective, I think it's too difficult to gauge the height, besides the fact that with one hand on the arrow keys and one on the fire button, there is no spare hand for adjusting height anyway! I'd suggest if we want to have just two different heights, like one for doodads and ground patrols, and another for enemy aircraft, we have a 'toggle height' key, as they did in Xenon, which makes it easy to switch between the two heights.

For 'ground' units, I'd suggest adding some more larger areas of tiles for them to patrol, and keeping the background as a background. Getting sprites to move underneath the level tiles would mean converting all pasted sprites back to active sprites, which would kill the frame rate again.

I've toned down the enemy fire somewhat, and think it's probably now close to the right difficulty.

Here's the new code:



and the new level:



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David Gervais
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 17:50
Ok, as this project gets close to it's end, I have been throwing some ideas through my head. It's no surprise that I'm a fan of 'Retro' so I had this Idea to Flip the upcoming Community Breakout game on it's head and instead of bouncing the ball up, the idea is in reverse. The paddle would be at the top of the screen. THis then got me thinking, how could I make this new twist feel more 'retro'.. I brainstormmed and came up with the idea of 'Break-In' (as opposed to Break-Out) and who better the break in than a thief,.. if you look at the attached mock-up screen you'll see how I made this have a retro feel. LoL.

I like the idea of giving the game a 'visual' reference to Old Classics without actually doing a remake. Anyways, this is just an appitizer for what we can have fun with on the next project. Perhaps make the bricks look like Space invaders on a different level? I think this will be a nice twist, use the breakout mechanics but pay homage to many of the classics within the game.

Anyways, comments are welcome. I want to make this next community project worthy of a place in the DBP Showcase. If enough interest and support is found, we could commit to finishing the game, even if it is not complete after the (2 weeks) of the project life.

Nuf said, Cheers!

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 18:24
I like it Dave, looks like a combo of Breakout and Kaboom

As a note I remember reading a study on this years ago where the paddle down affect is harder for most people then paddle up.

Scraggle
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 18:54
I'd love to get involved but I can't whilst the Nvidia compo is running. Just thought I would voice my interest for a later project.



RUCCUS
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 23:45
Sorry I completely forgot about this, not sure of the progress (seems like its done, I see votes for the next project...) but heres all of the models, contains:

- 11 alien models
- 2 bullet models
- ufo model
- ship model

Both .3ds and .x versions included.

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Ric
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 00:09
As today is the last day on the current vertical shoot'em up challenge, I've zipped up the project into one file and posted it as a WIP here: http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=98706&b=8.

Onto the next one, then?

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 00:47
Sounds good, Hope we get a little more input on this one. I believe the next choice was breakout/in.

David Gervais
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 01:16
OK, if this means the breakout type game is next in the queue, please post any graphics requests here. one of the first decisions is, will this be 3D or 2D? I could make texture maps for the various blocks etc, could even make the .x models.

Cheers!
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 02:21
I would rather do 2d personally.

RiiDii
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 06:24
2D is good. I also like David's suggestion for a "Break In" game.


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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 06:49
Hopefully I can do some work on this one, I am taking 6 classes this semester and currently I am working on some Battleship AI for a class(man what a pain).

David Gervais
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 11:46 Edited at: 28th Jan 2007 11:55


..Let the fun begin...

Ok, here is a Starter pack to get everyone on the same foot..

Clean UI Background,
Paddle Sprite Top (for placing the paddle at the top of the screen)
Paddle Sprite Bottom (for placing the paddle at the bottom if we decide to go that route.)
3 Ball sprites, sizes 12x12, 16x16 and 24x24 anticipating the game might have a ball size change based on 'special' bricks.

I'd like to try the top down first, reason being, I knew about the study done saying that having the paddle on the top was more difficult,.. but I believe that 'perception' can be changed by having the 'thief/bandit' holding the paddle.

If you have any ideas for 'special' bricks let me know.

Note: I see this 'Break-In' idea as having 'specials' that make it harder not easier to get through the bricks. (kind of like representing security systems you encounter)

Nuf said, Cheers!

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Blobby 101
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 11:59
how bout a special brick where if you hit it all the bricks turn to concrete and can't be smashed unil like 10 secs later?


Projects: jungle extreme 10%
mental snowboarding 3%
RiiDii
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 15:42
Hmmm... with two paddles (up and down), we might be able to do a two-player co-op mode, or a two player pong-type mode (still with bricks, but if the ball leaves on your side, you lose a life or a 100 points or something).

As far as specials that make it difficult, I was thinking about a brick that activates an alarms, and a seach light moves up the board. Of course if the player is "seen" in the spotlight, the paddle freezes for a moment (so as not to be seen) until the spotlight passes.


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RiiDii
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Posted: 28th Jan 2007 15:45
Another idea (maybe why it is called break-in) is to play from the bottom first in break-out mode. Then when our hero breaks out, he needs to free his buddies by breaking in (they know where the loot is hidden, so he has to break them out).


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David Gervais
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 15:08
If someone wants to handle the High Scores function.. here is a dialogue window you can use.



Cheers!
David Gervais
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 18:07
For those interested, I gave the scrolling shooter community project a minor facelift..



The zip with the files and instructions can be found in the WIP thread.

Cheers!
RiiDii
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 18:21 Edited at: 29th Jan 2007 18:22
Okay, let's get this one started then!

Game = Break In
GDD


Time: Two Weeks. End Date = Monday, February 12th.

Please feel free to make suggestions for the GDD. I just threw it together to get it up.

Edit: Thanks for the facelift David. Looks great!


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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 20:01
I was thinking of a few things for this. How about having some of the bricks be "alarm boxes" if the player breaks in to the far side without first destroying all the alarm box bricks it triggers some kind of security system (spotlight that zooms around the outside and if it hits the players sprite he is caught perhaps).

Another thought is a type of bonus. We make an item, say a candlestick or something, and have some pieces of it that fall(rise) like powerups. As the player collects them it fills in an image of the item and if he collects them all we give some sort of treasure bonus.

looks like the bricks need to be 38 wide to be properly scaled for the 570 across in the window. I think I will first work on an editor to make/save levels and a function to import them.

Blobby 101
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 20:21
what will be the size of the bricks because i want to contribute to this one.


Projects: jungle extreme 10%
mental snowboarding 3%
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 20:41 Edited at: 29th Jan 2007 20:41
I went with 38x16, I scaled one of daves brick to the 38 wide and it gave me 16 as depth so I assume thats right

here is an image of the beginning of the editor and the current source, I will be working on the editor but I thought the info in the source could be useful if someone wanted to get started on the game proper.





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David Gervais
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 21:13 Edited at: 29th Jan 2007 21:22
Note about the grid area for placing the bricks, please leave space at the bottom. so the ball can break-in. Similar spacing to what you have on the top.

that's all I see to adjust with the editor.

Cheers!

P.S. Why 'scale' the bricks I made? just change the width/height in the make routine. (it's posted back in this thread.) along with the artwork, the brick routine/function is my contribution to this project.

EDIT:...




EDIT v2.0.. note the makebrick routine needs some adjusting. I have it place the sprites randomly across the screen. but I'm sure you can figure it out.
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 22:05 Edited at: 29th Jan 2007 22:19
Dave, I have not worked in that code yet just for the fact that it needs to be adjusted to create an image number that can be passed for the editor to the main file. It will be done, as for the scaling I did that just to keep the brick proportions right (from your image in the 2d graphic buffet). Currently there is a "test" image that the bricks are being loaded from till we work the above code in. I think we will still need a few extra bricks for "rock" "steel" or whatever.

We need to seperate the thief from the paddle I think so that the ball does not collide with his head or something once it passes the paddle section, or we just make a rectangular sprite to put under his body at the paddles location.

EDIT: about the area for the break-in, I brought the grid down that far so people can make some funky designs and all (ala bricks of egypt) but there is no need to go to the bottom on a level if you don't want to.

EDIT AGAIN: Here is a current sample from the editor, again I am using a set of placeholder bricks, the grid is turned off.



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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 29th Jan 2007 22:21 Edited at: 29th Jan 2007 22:23
Current editor source and the testbrick file



"1" turns the grid off
"2" turns it on
"e" exports the level (no option to change the filename yet, or import the level)

clicking on a brick to the right changes the brick being added to that type.

right clicking on a brick deletes it

left clicking adds the brick

Thats all for now, still working

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David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:11 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 02:53
Here are some 'Special' bricks.. nothing specific yet, I'll get to it.



In the attached zip is the above sprites in individual .png images.

Note The bricks in my original sample are 36x14 the reason being,.. I wanted to have some 'space' between the bricks so that the background can show through,.. this will make them look more like the are 'floating' and imho this has a nicer visual appeal.

Cheers!

Keep up the good work Hobgoblin.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:20 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 00:22
could i suggest then using PNG with a small drop shadow?


[rant]grrr, i cant stop myself from putting in curly brackets for my functions[/rant]

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:22
Shadow is not a bad idea but it should be a seperate pasted sprite or sprite in general, otherwise it may cause bricks to be collided with that are not.

Phaelax
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:48
I dont see how, unless you plan on using sprite collision, which I would suggest not using. I'll have a collision routine done shortly.

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:53
Sounds good, I was thinking we use memblock comparisons with the sprites, however other pixels (even shadow) in the memblock may collide also.

Phaelax
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 00:57 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 02:08
Define the size of a brick and defining offsets, we can just use simple math collision.

I'm doing a swept collision function, which uses the ball's old position and new position to form a line segment. Checking that line segment for intersections is safer than using sprite collision. The reason is because the ball's speed could be larger than the size of a brick, thus passing right over it without ever actually touching it.


This USED to work, but now it doesn't. What did that dumb 6.3 upgrade fix?

dim balls(1) as Ball
b = balls(1)
print b.x

David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 02:55
Just letting you know I added the missing zip download to my earlier post with the new 'special' bricks.

Cheers!
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 03:02 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 03:12
OK just got a chance to work on this some more. added in Daves brick making code so no longer need to load the bricks in. Almost complete, it loads a default set of bricks when you start the editor but the bricks can be edited with the edit button next to them (convient huh) at the moment only the colors can be edited. exit editing a brick by right clicking. the file format now saves the bricks data so every level can have a unique set of bricks to fit its theme. I think I will have some more time later to work on this some more.



Phaelax
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 03:46
I'll finish the brick collision and response properly later tonight, I need to eat something before I die.



Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 06:51
Here is the editor, if you have any suggestions let me know. when editing a brick click on the +/- to increase or decrese the values. for specials click on the word special to cycle through the options (more can be added).



David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 12:03 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 23:00
Nice work so far Hobgoblin. While in the editor I noticed a 'Hits' #, I expect this will be the number of times a brick needs to be hit before it breaks. So with that in mind a made a set of 'cracked' brick overlays....



these are designed so that you simple need to overlay them on the bricks. (in succession as each hit count goes up.) I only made 4 and think this is a reasonable limit to how many times a brick needs to be hit on max difficulty.

attached is a zip with the individual .png images.

Cheers!

Edit: Oh, and for picking colors,.. here is something I whipped up...



I could make a dialogue window for the edit bricks function if you want.

Cheers! v2.0

EDIT v2.. made a brick edit dialogue..


later gators.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 19:16 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 19:27
OK here is the editor with Dave's dialog box added in. You can also now change which level you are working on and when you save it will save as "levelx". just need to put the loading levels in and probably a few buttons to replace the 1-2 and E keystrokes.




Here is a pic from the editor. As you can see I set this level with a theme of progressively lighter blue blocks. I think with the code set this way, and using simple ovelays like above we can achieve a very unique feel to every level.



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RiiDii
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 19:42
Great work HL! I will start on a level loader tonight/tomorrow morning. Maybe also a "Clear Level" is in order to fast erase the level to start over?


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David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 21:43 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 22:14
Here's an idea,.. If we chop the UI in to the main frame and the 570x570 play area (separate bitmaps) I could introduce 'themes'/'skins' as 'expansion packs' to add even more variety as time permits after the project is over.

Change the Bandit to a spaceship, add a stellar background to the paly area and call the expansion Stellar Invasion, or some such. etc etc etc.

I think this is going to have lots of variety. Having the editor is gonna get some people making interesting levels.

This is comming along nicely, Keep up the great work. I'm betting this will win a spot in TGC showcase.

Cheers!

Edit: Oh and here is a blank brick.. it's a .png with alpha chanel so it can be overlayed on any texture to make a brick.



Cheers v2.0
Phaelax
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 22:11
ooo, purty bricks!

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 22:34
Quote: "I think this is going to have lots of variety. Having the editor is gonna get some people making interesting levels."


Hopefully some people who may not normally contribute will feel they can by making levels for the project.

as for extra backgrounds that sounds good, can even pop it into the editor to choose a background for the level to help with that level's theme.

David Gervais
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 22:58 Edited at: 30th Jan 2007 23:03
Made a slight mod to the Edit Dialogue,.. mainly spacing and including the grayscale select in the top portion.. the original bitmap (Brick_Dlg1.png) in above post has been changed. (refresh your browser if you still see the old pic.)

Here is the modified edit_brick function. All I changed was the x/y coords for the various wigets.



Cheers!
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 30th Jan 2007 23:17
made a few more changes to the function since some things did not seem to line up right. I also noticed that the RGB values were inverted on the scale so now far left is 255 to match values with the right point on the scale.



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