Quote: "I guess 1.3 didn't make the weekend cut..."
Unfortunately, no, but I did get a lot of work done over that weekend. I've been working on voxel terrain plugin for DBPro most recently, but I suppose I should finish that latest PEP update. You've given me the kick in the butt I needed. Thanks
Quote: "I am actually planning on using this to convert my currently being developed game in GM:studio to AppGameKit, as I'm tired of some problems I am having with GM:studio"
A similar thing happened to me a few months ago. I was working on a fun project in Multimedia Fusion 2 (MMF2 is a lot like GM:Studio, which I also own) and decided it wasn't working well enough and easily enough in MMF2, so I decided to create it in AGK. I went to create the levels in PEP and instantly realised I needed several new features, so I quickly added view zooming (for pixel-perfect sprite placement...don't worry, it also zooms out
) and then....well, the project died because I never got around to finishing the update for PEP
Quote: "Also, is there any simple one room examples showing level loading, object moving, w/ physics done for PEP?"
Yup, it's the one and only example. It just shows some physics balls rolling down some ramps. If you want a demo showing how to set up and use a character placed in PEP and controlled by physics, I'll add one to 1.3. I think AppGameKit will work well for the kind of game you described.
Quote: "Which made me have to create 2 prismatic joints with motors just to move a single spike down and then up again, deleting one and creating the other on collision with sensor boxes, a total pain if you have to do this for every spike type enemy in the 24 levels of the game"
Oh what a
pain! AppGameKit will definitely simplify this for you, particularly if you use PEP with it....and even more likely once I get 1.3 out
Quote: "I'm glad your using the latest betas for development"
I think it's important because it will (hopefully) ensure the levels will look identical when loaded into your AppGameKit game.
Quote: "and is the example code and loader only for Tier 1 or Tier 2 support also?"
The example and loader are both Tier 1; it didn't occur to me to write a Tier 2 copy of both. Since I also know C++ I'll add a Tier 2 loader and example in 1.3. Yet more things to do....
Quote: "Sorry to hit you with so much at once:"
No problem, I needed that jolt to get me back into PEP-coding mode. I hope to convince TGC to include PEP in the official build of AppGameKit to replace their old placement editor. I can't ask them to do that until 1.3 is finished because there's still a couple of bugs in 1.2.1.
In case you're even vaguely interested, I've stopped working on CubeScape (which probably wouldn't sell well because it's "just another Minecraft clone") in favour of a new game which will take full advantage of the voxel terrain plugin that I'm writing for DBPro. It'll be a sort of 3D
Clonk, but with no Clonk IP for legal reasons. If you hadn't noticed, Clonk is where I got my nickname. It was my overall favourite game for a long time and is still one of favourites.
EDIT: I thought it might be interesting to have a look at my TODO list. Here you go, the unchanged, uncensored TODO list
current:
find a way to make sprites save into the files in the order they were created, so they loaded in the same order so shared depths are not incorrect
remove code made redundant by new depth system
multiselect using arrays and SHIFT and pressing up with all selected moves all up if snap is on then 32 etc
after multiselect, ctrl+a to select all, i to invert selection
add select-copy-paste-click (like blender's duplicate) copy-paste system (may be more useful with multiselect)
make the toolbar buttons smaller to fit more buttons in (about half size should be good)
add setting to settings.txt to disable autosave of settings.txt
change all "command$=ufp_getsplitword$(1)" to "command$=ufp_removeall$(ufp_getsplitword$(1)," ")"
allow for = in sprite properties text files
search for and remove all tryend as soon as end inside subroutines works again
fix requesttext() statusbar text to be the same as the properties window text
fix bug where requesttext ok button (and possibly cancel) only works when textbox is focused
add support for sprite sheets, possibly via checking for subimages.txt and loading accordingly
decide what to do with the multiple "keyboard shortcuts" listings in Notable Improvements
create new example that shows typical platformer with physics character and squishy spikes (that go up and down) and spawn point placement
create tier 2 examples and loader
update docs with all new features: magnetic snap, view zooming, fading info text, easy depth levels, depth in sprite property files, multiselect, blender's duplicate,
setting-save setting in settings.txt, allowance of = in sprite property files, clicking centre to reset zoom, requirement to use setsortcreated() for accurate
recreation of sprite order
OBTAIN A LICENSE THAT GENUINELY RESTRICTS SELLING PEP
always:
make sure to put Changes.txt in Description.txt
make sure to put Noteable Improvements.txt in Description.txt
check for FIXMEs
info:
button order:
new-load-save-sep1-paint-paintpixels-delete-properties-sep2-about-quit
grid-snap-borders-newlock-uvlock-lockx-locky-autocopy-magneticsnap-sep3-width-height
all buttons and editboxes should be 30 high and be spaced apart from all other buttons and editboxes by 10 (but not 10 each, 10 total)
future:
visual rotation snapping, requires polygon drawing with adjustable point counts
level preview on loading (requires more AGK features [not anymore])
buttons that only act when the mouse is released so the click can be canceled by dragging the mouse off the button
make centering on sprites relative to the size of the playfield so they APPEAR centered
correct selection box alignment?
when dragging new sprites from the spritearea that have resized use resizevalue to get the correct offset on new sprite
add textured sprite area
add reset-settings-to-default settings window button
write tutorial files
add save/save-as
visual page-by-page saving/loading
add autosave
add rotation snapping
seperate rmb-dragging code from bar-scrolling code and add gosubs to seperated code in requestx and anything with custom loop to allow playfield scrolling genuinely at
any time
add "divided magnetic snap", where each triangle of selection position (where the mouse needs to be to snap to a sprite) is divided into three parts, at the middle,
the sprite is set to the same height as the snap-to sprite, at the top, the sprites' tops are aligned, and at the bottom, the sprites' bottoms are aligned
add "sliding magnetic snap", where sprites simply cannot overlap
if possible, make requesttext() automatically focus on the textbox and select all the text immediately on opening (requires textboxes to support text highlighting)
add minecraft-style instant tooltips for buttons (just names, not descriptions, leave descriptions to the status bar)
maybe:
add tiny little delete sprite button at the top-right of the sprite like the lock button
All the stuff in
current is what has to be completed before I can release 1.3. Now you see why it takes so long. And I usually add more little fiddly things that have to be fixed as I go.
Clonkex
