[Need Artist]

[slicer4ever]

Hello everyone, i'm currently looking for an 2D artist whom can create isometric drawing of a single object from 8 different views, i do not wish to get into the specific's here, however i want all my drawings to be original, which is causing me a great amount of time to create, and causing me to lose alot of time in actually creating the game.

I do have a very small portion of the game to show any interested artist that i'm more than an competent coder

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6zvioy

The above is only runnable on the PC, their is no PSP version atm as i plan to port this over to the psp when the game is 100% done(allowing development time to go up since i don't have to run it on the psp)

if you'd like to play around with the above map it works like so:

To modify the map:
Create a map(or modify the one i already built)

Create a tilesheet(maximum of 229 tiles(don't even know how well the game would run at that many anyway, but it should be fine)) the tiles go from left to right starting at 0 on the very top left, note that each tile should have 1 border pixel going around it(i.e. a 32x32 tile should be a 34x34 final tile with 1 border pixel)


open up the config file, how this works:
first line is the Width and Height of each tile(i did 32, so i'm not 100% certain if it'll work fine with other than 32 but it should),
the rest of the lines are as followed:
R G B values of the pixel in the main map
# that the pixel in the main map relates to in the tilesheet
optional 231 value to designate that the tile can not be passed through

that's for messing with the map, don't worry about the player(PM if you want to make a new player as well)

this is pretty much a walking around as i don't have the images to do the battle's yet, and to anyone who says create placeholders it's hard to do that with animated images, as the final product may require significant changes to the engine depending on how the placeholder graphics are done

Spoiler for images:

as you can see, i'm a horrible artist, also if anyone tries this can you post your fps(and if it ran smooth, the delta should take care of it but just want to make sure), for some reason, even without drawing anything, my pc only runs at 500fps, so i want to see what others are getting

anyone whom's interested please im or pm me, my aim screenname is in my profile

[kronicali]

Am getting 800 and up..I CAN DRAW BUT AM NOT AVAILABLE ATM.

[slicer4ever]

Well thats alright, im working on the battle mechanics atm, hopefully when thats done itll generate more interest from artists

[_df_]

1454 fps.

[slicer4ever]

thanks df, did it seem to run smooth as well?, that's mostly what i'm looking for high fps with smooth movement

[slasher101]

well, i only get around 350

[_df_]

it was smooth but unusable you need to cap the frames per second at say max 60 or even 25/30

at 1400fps i was on the other side of the map in the blink of an eye, there was no precision.

read here from my buddy gaffer
Fix Your Timestep! Gaffer on Games

[kronicali]

yea it was also smooth for me.with 800fps

[cmbeke]

i only got ~190 with no picture (on a netbook though that may be why)

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by _df_

it was smooth but unusable you need to cap the frames per second at say max 60 or even 25/30

at 1400fps i was on the other side of the map in the blink of an eye, there was no precision.

read here from my buddy gaffer
Fix Your Timestep! Gaffer on Games

hmm thats interesting its odd that kronicali runs smooth yet yours runs extremly fast, perhaps a float is too small for a delta at that speed, i'll have to test this on a faster computer i'll check that link also

[SG57]

Do not cap the framerate!

Use framerate independent motion instead.

[Zack_PSP]

I wish you look finding an artist man

There like gold-dust nowadays

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by SG57

Do not cap the framerate!

Use framerate independent motion instead.

that's why i'm using a delta, but it's interesting that it doesn't work properly on his, their is one thing i can think of that's doing this as it might be causing issues but i'll have to check it

[_df_]

since my lcd is wired to 60hz drawing more than 60 fps isnt much good to me. I dont know what the psp screen Hz rate is. my workstation lcd runs at 5ms, again not sure on the psp ms rate.

if you were using a delta, there was no noticeable delay between frames, the mere breathing on a key and I was on the other side of the map more or less instantly.

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by _df_

since my lcd is wired to 60hz drawing more than 60 fps isnt much good to me. I dont know what the psp screen Hz rate is. my workstation lcd runs at 5ms, again not sure on the psp ms rate.

if you were using a delta, there was no noticeable delay between frames, the mere breathing on a key and I was on the other side of the map more or less instantly.

yes, but their's no vsync so the 60hz doesn't cap it to 60fps, nor do i want it to cap their, i've an idea why it might be doing that, let me upload a new version i think i might have fixed the problem, but i'm not certain, as at 300fps you'd think i'd be seeing the same thing as you are(not as severe but in the ballpark at the very least)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/l9ega8

it's hard wired into the battle system, but the mechanics are the same, their is one control to add, k which shoots your attack, however it can't damage the enemy atm

i've also added the delta output

[Zack_PSP]

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

yes, but their's no vsync so the 60hz doesn't cap it to 60fps, nor do i want it to cap their, i've an idea why it might be doing that, let me upload a new version i think i might have fixed the problem, but i'm not certain, as at 300fps you'd think i'd be seeing the same thing as you are(not as severe but in the ballpark at the very least)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/l9ega8

it's hard wired into the battle system, but the mechanics are the same, their is one control to add, k which shoots your attack, however it can't damage the enemy atm

i've also added the delta output

Out of interest.... Why don't you want to cap the framerate?

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by Zack_PSP

Out of interest.... Why don't you want to cap the framerate?

because if the framerate ever falls below 60fps than i'd have issues trying to make the game continue to look smooth at even 30fps if it's designed for 60fps, with the delta you don't have to worry about capping the fps, it'll only look choppy if the fps get's rly rly low(like below 20)

[_df_]

if your using a delta for fps you can use the same thing if your framerate is too low. did you even bother to read gaffers article? it talks about too little and too much frame rate and deltas and time slicing.

ideally you have two frame rates, one your doing your screen renders, the other is your game time the ticks you do your other stuff in.

you should still use vsync to keep display updates smooth. if your pumping our more data to than the screen can keep up with it looks like ass (I'm guessing your not old enough to recall monitor 'snow' with old cga/ega cards).

I'll download tonight and check it out and see if its smooth.
-=Double Post Merge =-

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

it's hard wired into the battle system, but the mechanics are the same, their is one control to add, k which shoots your attack, however it can't damage the enemy atm

i've also added the delta output

1400 fps, delta of 0.020000, still redlines my cpu at 100% (bad bad, you REALLY need to give some cycles back to the system) and still moves at a ridiculous speed.

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by _df_

if your using a delta for fps you can use the same thing if your framerate is too low. did you even bother to read gaffers article? it talks about too little and too much frame rate and deltas and time slicing.

ideally you have two frame rates, one your doing your screen renders, the other is your game time the ticks you do your other stuff in.

you should still use vsync to keep display updates smooth. if your pumping our more data to than the screen can keep up with it looks like ass (I'm guessing your not old enough to recall monitor 'snow' with old cga/ega cards).

I'll download tonight and check it out and see if its smooth.
-=Double Post Merge =-


1400 fps, delta of 0.020000, still redlines my cpu at 100% (bad bad, you REALLY need to give some cycles back to the system) and still moves at a ridiculous speed.

lol, i see why, haha, well for one thing i haven't a clue why it's redlining your cpu, unless it's not interfacing with the gfx card on your machine and is all software drawn(still wouldn't shouldn't red line and have that much fps)



now than, for an unknown reason, your fps at 1400 fps is only producing a delta of 0.02, now than, my fps is at 200-300 fps, and is producing a delta of 0.004, which is smaller than your much much faster computer, i'll have to re-examine how my delta is generated, perhaps your systems CLOCKS_PER_SECOND is different than mine, or your system is simply going too fast for my current method to create an accurate delta, i'm going to have to re-examine my current method of delta generation, this is why i hate creating things on the PC, too many variables to try and account for when you only have 1, or at most 2 computers to work with

edit: and yes, i did read the article, however it's implementation is not the method i'd like to use

[Mraellis]

50% cpu, 1315 Fps with odd drop to around 1000 when walking diagonally :S, ran smooth though. Just for the record..

[_df_]

wait wait wait.. CLOCKS_PER_SECOND... omg. your using the basic C construct.
you need to switch to a proper hires timer.

your using GL right? you can use SDL + GL so you can use SDL_GetTicks (which is probably a medium res timer its like +/- 10ms iirc... but still you get 1000 ticks a second, and it works cross platform. CLOCKS_PER_SECOND gives you no garuntee, since its compiler implementation dependant etc etc etc)


dont rely on whats in time.h and CLOCKS_PER_SECOND

CLOCKS_PER_SECOND has the same define, its a set define, its not calibrated per cpu speed.

since your on windows you gotta watch out for speedstep and other things

[slicer4ever]

_df_, i don't use SDL, this is my own engine, yes, i agree CLOCKS_PER_SECOND is a cheap one to use, however at the time, everything was running smoothly, i'll re-define the way i generate the CLOCKS_PER_SECOND and make it realtime calculated rather than defined calculated like it is atm, however as for the cpu issue, i'm not certain why it's taking up so much cpu, it's not a very intensive program, and if it's running smoothly for mraellis, than i can only assume that it is the CLOCKS_PER_SECOND that's causing the issue on your machine,

ok, _df_, try this version: http://www.sendspace.com/file/epvjhn

it should run fast the first couple of seconds, than it should normalize and run smoothly

edit: ok, try this version, you can see where i'm going with the combat system, right now the health is reset when either you or your enemy hit 0,

http://www.sendspace.com/file/epvjhn

the ai is not too intelligent, but it does provide a challange

[_df_]

1300fps and the enemy sprite was ghosting itself all over the screen it was moving so fast.
it still redlines one core of my quad core cpu at 100%

my vid card is a nvidia 9800GT on a q9550 cpu

[slicer4ever]

ok, _df_, no more testing from you(no jk), i've no idea why it's doing this to your system, other people are running it just fine, is yours a 32 bit, or 64 bit system?

[Xteaph-N]

Just tried both versions. I get 60 fps from both.

I'm running a quad core. My graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce GT 120. 64-bit Windows Vista.

[_df_]

its 64bit, 8gb ram. OK, I wont bother testing anymore, its a waste of my time apparently.

[slicer4ever]

Originally Posted by _df_

its 64bit, 8gb ram. OK, I wont bother testing anymore, its a waste of my time apparently.

no, i'm jk, i'd love to have you test it, but i simply don't understand why it acts this way on your pc, i guess you'll have to wait for the final product on the psp

as for you Xteph-N, i have a friend with similar cards, they force vsync on, i'm not certain why it does that, but their should be an option to shut that off

i apologize that it's been a couple of days since my last post, i've had to do some things

[Xteaph-N]

Originally Posted by slicer4ever

no, i'm jk, i'd love to have you test it, but i simply don't understand why it acts this way on your pc, i guess you'll have to wait for the final product on the psp

as for you Xteph-N, i have a friend with similar cards, they force vsync on, i'm not certain why it does that, but their should be an option to shut that off

i apologize that it's been a couple of days since my last post, i've had to do some things

Are you sure my card forces Vsync on? Whenever I play any PC games (fallout 3) or a game where there is no vsync it's always defaulted to off.

[slicer4ever]

i understand that, my friend had the same problem, other games would run at a higher fps, but for some reason mine would be forced to 60, he found an option to in the graphics control panel to force vsync off, and than my game ran at the proper speed, i'm not certain if theirs an function in opengl to tell video cards to not have vsync on(or directx), which could explain why other games run at a higher fps than vsync allows