Editorial - May 2010

I'm a software developer's worst nightmare. As a technical analyst, it's my job to work out why programs misbehave, how to work around the issues and ultimately what needs to be done to make it behave. When it comes to using new tools, you can guarantee I'll have a substantial list of issues for what was thought to be the perfect deployment.

One of the most important stages of development is testing. Unfortunately we don't all have the luxury of having an army of testers for our creations. What is generally available, however, is friends and family who will be more than happy to be the privileged first players of your game. Along with the game, you'll need to provide them with their mission as testers.

The obvious thing to do is hand over the software and say "tell me what you think". The response will most likely be that it looks goods and plays well, and can you add a few more features please. As flattering as it might be, this is not what you want. Make sure you instruct your testers to break your game. You've spent so long focusing on what makes it work that you will have overlooked what makes it fail. Your team of fresh eyes must find the flaws, essentially by doing anything that they shouldn't. Then - and only then - will you have a stable program ready for deployment.

This month Lee focuses on an important feature of any game to make it work every time in his Tip of the Month. Anyone wanting to dig deeper can check out the Google Code repositories. We have news and results from various competitions, and highlights of games and applications from the community.

Until next time,

contents

(1) Site News (2) iPad Apps (3) DarkBASIC Pro (4) QMidi (5) FPSC News (6) TGC Store (7) FPSC Competition (8) DarkGDK (9) Tip Of The Month (10) 3D Compo (11) Lightning Limbs (12) From the Forums (13) Winner (14) Outro

New Look Website

As announced last month, we now have a new look website. Navigation is simpler, the best deals can be found wherever they are relevant and your personal account details are reorganised for ease of use.

Over a year's worth of work has gone into this ground up redesign. While it will look very similar to what you are used to, you will find it a much more simplified and pleasurable experience. We'd love to hear what you think of the revamp in the forums.

Goals! Ultra on the iPad

The success of Goals! on the iPhone made the decision on whether to port it to the iPad a very simple one to make. In fact, it was such an obvious transition that it was completed before the iPad became available to the public.

Dave Milton has pushed the boundaries of the game yet again by taking advantage of the significantly larger playing area, allowing the full pitch to be viewed. This is scroll-free arcade football at it's very best. Add the enhanced element of two player action on the same iPad and this becomes a new era in gameplay.

You can read an independent review on the Pocket Gamer website, and download from the App Store now.

DarkBASIC Professional News - Upgrade 7.5 Update

Perhaps the longest beta since DBP was launched many years ago, U75 continues to refine its interface to meet the high demands of exacting DBP users who want the best editor for their coding endeavours. A number of fixes have been released as part of BETA11, both in the main interface and the command modules as well. Initially we had planned only to focus on the interface, and members of the community indicated that tackling some of the more prevalent issues in the commands as well would be a prudent step. For the very latest information on what has been fixed, changed and added you can visit the main source code sharing site at http://code.google.com/p/darkbasicpro/ where you will get to read the logs we post each time we make a change to the source. Currently we have about 3-4 outstanding interface issues being looked at, and intend to keep the beta open for as long as there are good reports coming in regarding the interface. U74 is the last update using the legacy interface and it serves many users well, so there is no dire rush to get U75 released to official status, which means we have the time to get it right. To all those who have helped with the beta test so far we extend our gratitude, and if you have not yet checked out the beta, you are welcome to download it and give the new interface a spin. Just remember to back-up your files before getting involved in the underbelly of beta version!

Soup

A small game created by Cowbox. It's a puzzle game where you are left to work out how to make your way through the maze of challenges on your own. It's a nice challenge, frustrating at times, but a good example of how you can quickly create something original in DarkBASIC Professional. The forum thread provides details of some of the technicalities behind the game, along with the latest download.

Dark Game Studio Bonanza

Special offer while stocks last: Dark Game Studio, Dark Physics, Dark Lights, Dark AI and Extends for an incredibly low price of $49.99. Save over $170!

Creating your own PC games is now easier than ever with this special compilation of game making tools:

• DarkBASIC Professional
• DarkBASIC Classic
• DarkGDK 
• Dark Edit
• DarkMATTER
• DarkVOICES
• DarkSHADER
• Game Creator Store
• FPS Creator FREE
• Tree Magik
• Plant Life
• Cartography Shop
• Dark Physics
• Dark Lights
• Dark AI
• Extends
• Demo Games
• Physics Demos

Order Now

Save over $170 on this special deal. Be sure to check out the screen shots and the online videos. You can of course order safely and securely online, for delivery via postal mail.

FPS Creator   -   DarkBASIC   -   2000 Store Points

Qmidi 3 Music Composer

SMD_3D Interactive has released the latest beta of Qmidi 3 Music Composer, soon to be followed by the full version. Written in DarkBASIC Professional, this application lets you load and save Midi files, and edit them in a host of different ways. It is adequately featured to create game music loops using pasting and dragging of notes around the canvas, along with full track editing and more. The video demonstrates the creation of a music loop using the application, which is fully detailed in the forums, where you will also find download links.

FPS Creator Updates

FPS Creator X9

You may remember that last month we revealed the V117 internal version of FPSC has BLOOM and DEPTH OF FIELD. Shortly after that article, we deleted the depth of field due to the fact we would have had to rewrite all our shaders and impose complicated rules on any shaders written by third parties. Then - seeing that we missed depth of field so much - we put it back. The second time around however, we had the rather cunning idea of using the fixed function pipeline fog feature to artificially create a way to detect the distance of a pixel from the camera. To cut a long and highly technical story short, we have created a depth of field post-process effect which allows all the shaders to remain unchanged, just like bloom. However, it will not only blur parts of the scene that are outside of the focal position of the camera, but provide a second unexpected feature as a by-product of having only used a quarter of the available bandwidth at our disposal. We found that our depth of field effect could also act as a distortion effect by passing in displacement offset data in the form of rendered textures into the depth frame that held our distance information.

This sounds extremely complex and quite frankly bewildering. What exactly does this array of technical terms mean to you as an FPSC game designer? We are not yet at the stage where we can create media or workable in-game features, but the technology now exists to pass in custom distortion patterns that affect the final scene rendering. In real terms this could mean:

• Heat hazes
• Distorted window glass
• Invisible cloaked enemies
• Explosion ripples

and anything else that would cause the final output pixel to be deliberately shifted. We already have one very excited artist thinking about the media for this, and although we are some way from something we can demonstrate, you are welcome to take sneak peaks in the V117 Google code site as we continue to work with what is turning out to be the biggest update we have ever produced.  In other migration news, you will be pleased to learn we have dropped the less than perfect debug screen you see when you hit TAB in test game and replaced it with the nice snazzy resource meter from X10, meaning you can see FPS, physics, entity and other metrics via a cool looking status bar instead of tiny yellow text. Perhaps the biggest change has been the continued work on the DarkAI elements of the update, bringing over more goodies from X10 combined with the fresh take on scripting AI behaviour thanks to Hockeykid. The engine does a pretty good job of creating optimised obstacles for the AI to work around, and the next task on our considerable plate is to implement cross-container gateways. In short, this means that characters will soon have the ability to use the AI to navigate up stairs, through complex multi-level layouts and even target and shoot from multiple layers as well.  When we're done, you'll find the AI well worth the wait.  

FPS Creator X10

For those of you who missed the details in the last newsletter, we launched V110 and soon after V111 into the world along with a special kit which allows modders to take the X10 source code and change it with their own ideas. Well no sooner had the X10 modders kit been released to the Google Code Site than modders appeared to fill the void, and post their experiences on the forum. The first of the mods include updating the timer system to remove the FPS cap and allow your game to run as fast as the host machine will allow. Another new improvement introduced by Daniel Wright and Budokaiman is the double-sized development grid, allowing for much larger levels.

If you are interested in learning what else the modding community have planned, you can visit the forum now and check out the X10 threads. We're going to let V111 settle now and collect feedback on the successes and failures of the new built-in store. Currently you have to select the X9 filter in the store to view all the items available for download. We plan to activate the items for X10 in the coming months, but with over 3000 game assets to test you can imagine it's a lot of work.  If you do experience a problem with an item, you can email the store administrator directly at janet@thegamecreators.com who will set the compatibility flag accordingly.

FPSC - No need to be Square

We're featuring this image for no other reason than it found it's way into the TGC mailbox, and is simply beautiful. We look forward to seeing the project come to fruition and revealing the full depths of the levels and gameplay.

Special Offer while Stocks Last - $22.99, Save Over $150.00!

Take advantage of this whopping special offer! Get FPS Creator and 9 Model Packs for an incredibly low price of $29.99 USD (€22.00 EUR, £19.99 GBP). This deal includes:

• FPS Creator
• Model Pack 1
• Model Pack 3
• Model Pack 7
• Model Pack 11
• Model Pack 12
• Model Pack 13
• Model Pack 14
• Model Pack 15
• Model Pack 25

Click here to purchase the Bonanza pack, including FPS Creator
for just $29.99 / €22.00 / £19.99

The Game Creator Store - Updates and New Additions

Game Creator Store Update

A minor update to the store has been released. This corrects an issue that has arisen as a result of there now being over 100 artists contributing to the store. You can download the update here, you simply need to replace the executable file with the one you'll find in the zip file. Users of the Game Creator Store via FPS Creator and the DarkBASIC Professional editor can expect the update shortly.

Pick up free Store Points

The Game Creators have teamed up with the leading providers of virtual currency; perform a few simple tasks and top up your Store points. As well as being able to take up exciting offers and receiving potentially thousands of points, there are a host of other tasks to earn rewards. Watch a movie trailer, rate search results, answer questions, tag photos or choose from a host of activities that will ultimately earn you any of the high quality models and resources to make your game shine.

Open the Store, through FPS Creator , DBPro or the standalone version. Log in to your account and select the Buy Points option. Below the regular payment options you'll find links to gWallet, Offerpal, DoubleDing and TrialPay. You'll immediately find yourself in amongst the tasks and offers available, and can start earning immediately by watching a movie trailer or two!

Upload Your Assets to The Game Creator Store

Did you know you can sell your models, segments, music and sky boxes in the Game Creator Store? We already have dozens of artists selling their media, and we welcome anyone with the talent to provide our community with quality assets to do the same. If you are interested in becoming a store seller, please contact Janet, our Store Administrator directly.

New Store Additions

Anka

It breathes fire, attacks and flies. Hear the beat of its wings overhead. When it lands on the player, it will burn fiercely and becomes a firebird. You have to shoot this creature from a long distance to kill it, eventually falling from the sky screaming. 

Heavy Load Action

High-quality, seamlessly loopable track full of guitar-shredding goodness! This is for all developers who think their games should have more than just real guitars - they need awesome guitars, great riffs, and killer leads! Perfect for any production focused on action.

APC

This is a sci-fi variation of the Armored Personal Carrier (APC) by Insomnia. It includes a 1024x1024 texture, normal and specular maps. Very useful battlefield element!

Pirhana

These underwater enemies will follow and attack when close enough. The download includes underwater sounds.

All of the above models are available to purchase and download through the inbuilt Game Creator Store in FPS Creator and DBPro, and also using the standalone store for other game-making tools.

The FPSC Photographer

Gunn3r, one of our FPSC Best Of The Best Developers, has created a mini competition in the forums. Here are the details, as outlined in the forum thread:

Create a map in FPS Creator based on the theme of this competition. Then, walk around in your environment and take several screenshots; capturing the atmosphere of your scene. Out of those pictures, pick your best 5, crop them to 800x600, and then upload them to this thread to show off your photography talent! The most professionally captured scene and presented album will win!

This Month's Theme
Horror/Indoors

Deadline
May 14th, 2010

Guidelines

• Participants may only submit one album into the competition. That album must contain exactly 5 images, cropped at 800x600 pixels in size, and posted in proper format. (See the second post at MBD for an example of proper album formatting, and a valid entry submission)
• Weapons, NPCS, or any other dynamic entities or events are not allowed to be featured in your photo album. You're photographing the still environment; not an unfolding battle scene.
• Photo manipulation effects are allowed, and encouraged.
• FPSC X10 will be allowed, and mods are also allowed.
• Commentary under each photograph is also acceptable.
• All valid entries must be submitted on the Molten Byte Design Forums. Click HERE for the link to the thread.

Prizes

The Best Photo Album (The Winner)

• $15 Amazon Gift Card
• Choice of 2 Models from Kravenwolf's GCS Account
• An Exclusive Music Pack from Gunn3r
  
  All Entrants
• Tape Recorder Entity by Kravenwolf
• An Exclusive Song from Molten Byte Design

Please note that this competition is being run by Gunn3r, who is providing all of the prizes and administration of the competition. Good luck, and we hope to see this competition continue into the future.

DarkGDK in Education

Did you know that DarkGDK is used by over 90 Campuses in the US from Miami to Florida, to teach C++ and games programming? It's taught in conjunction with a book entitled Starting Out with Games & Graphics in C++, authored by Tony Gaddis. Here are just two of the comments from the teaching staff in these institutions.

Buy the book at Amazon

"I have taught C++ programming for several years at a community college, and we have tried several textbooks and programming environments. Tony Gaddis' "Starting Out with Games & Graphics in C++" has been by far our best experience, and we plan to keep using it indefinitely. Students really enjoy programming graphics and audio. It is so easy and educational with the Dark GDK and Tony's book. They learn not only C++ basics, but also the fundamentals of pixel-pushing and wav/mp3/midi. We keep more students interested and excelling through this graphics approach. And the book is written so clearly, in a step-by-step tutorial fashion, that individuals could use it standalone to teach themselves C++ and the Dark GDK."
Mark Atkins, Assistant Professor, Ivy Tech

"I wanted a simple way to bring game programming into my entry level course, Computer Science 1. Tony Gaddis' book "Starting Out with Games and Graphics in C++" and the Dark GDK, are the ideal solutions. The up-to-date and engaging applications can be written on a level even beginning programmers can grasp. The students have responded favorably and we're having a lot of fun with this new approach."
Anastasia Tircuit, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Seton Hill University

Tony Gaddis is the author of many technical titles, spanning various languages including Visual Basic, Java and C++. Alongside the array of languages are a wealth of topics from the languages themselves to their implementation, application design and programming techniques. This title takes an innovative approach to learning C++, by using the DarkGDK library from the outset.

There are many ways to learn new skills, and the approach taken here is to start small and build up the full skillset over the course of the book. As the author puts it, start by getting your feet wet rather than diving straight in and hoping you swim rather than sink. It is this approach which makes it easy to pick up the book and start at your current level of experience.

With so many books on the market teaching the language, a unique approach is required to stand out from the rest. In this case, it is the ability to learn C++, Dark GDK, programming techniques and design approaches all side-by-side. Being game and graphics oriented, it's a more informal and fun way to get started with what can be an otherwise arduous task.

What is DarkGDK?

For those of you unfamiliar with DarkGDK, it is a free professional game development environment. The Game Creators' flagship C++ game development package is now included free of charge with Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express, part of the Microsoft Visual Studio Express range.

• Harness the power and performance of C++
• Royalty-free license (for personal use)
• Full IntelliSense support in Visual C++ 2008 Express

The download provides beginner and advanced tutorials including:

• Shaders - Beginner and Advanced Tutorials on adding Shaders to your games
• Game Level - Walkthru for the process of loading and moving around a game level
• 3D Objects - learn how to load and animate 3D objects within a game
• Dark Invaders - Advanced and comprehensive game tutorial
• and more ...

Check out the full details of DarkGDK on the website, including everything you need to know to download, install and get started with your first game.

Face Tracking Technology

This video on YouTube illustrates fantastic use of camera tracking technology using a full head and the position in 3D space. The prototype application is created using Visual C++ and DarkGDK.

Lee's Tip of the Month - The Power of Appname$()

In the fast paced cut and thrust world of application development, it is often the case that you are so focused on the code you are writing that you fail to appreciate the bigger picture. You would think then that as soon as the parts are assembled, you would dedicate a huge proportion of catch-up time to testing your application for the widest compatibility. My recent experiences demonstrated that even the most seasoned developers (me) can still make classic mistakes, and so my tip this month is to share the problem and the solution.

The Problem: Launch Failure

When a number of applications failed to launch under the new AppUp store - run by Intel - confusion arose as all local tests were fine. It transpires that AppUp, alongside many other methods of execution, does not change the working folder (current directory) to the same place as all the application media. It had been assumed that the application could function irrespective of where the current directory is situated. Normally this is true for a simple program, but when you are loading media you need to know where you are before you know what you can load. Get it wrong and your end user is left with a runtime error message that you never saw during your tests.

The Solution: Simple Checking

As simple as this solution is, it is worth sharing the full details and describe what the code does:

app$=appname$()
for n=len(app$) to 1 step -1
  if mid$(app$,n)="\" or mid$(app$,n)="/"
    apppath$=left$(app$,n)
    appfile$=right$(app$,len(app$)-n)
    exit
  endif
next n
set dir apppath$

As you can see, the first line holds the magic, discovering the full absolute path of the application that is running. So if you run it from your program files folder, you might see something like this returned:

app$="C:\Program Files\My Program\MyApp.exe"

The rest of the code is a reversed loop which detects the last occurrence of the \ or / symbol. This determines where the absolute path ends and the filename begins. You then separate the path from the filename, and use the path to set the new current directory. The LEFT$() and RIGHT$() commands are perfect for this task and although we do not use the filename part of the extraction, it can be useful to know what the application you are running is called.

If you are looking to publish in the AppUp store, you will need to add this code to the very top of your program as all applications are launched remotely. Similarly if the existing working folder is important to you, simply include the APPPATH$ string to your media calls (i.e. LOAD BITMAP APPPATH$+"\title.jpg") which loads the media without changing the working folder. Using either of these techniques will ensure your application will run from anywhere, and when you send your application into the world it's that kind of functionality you want to have on your side.

May 3D Modeling Competition

By BiggAdd, MikeS and David Gervais

April Winners

The Back To Basics competition brought a lot of talent to the forefront yet again. Here are the winners and other worthy entrants.

  

  

May Competition

No more Poly counts, no more primitive restrictions, we're letting you loose again to be as creative as you can possibly be. The rules are simple..

Chisel, Carve, Scratch, Grind and Build something out of Stone!

Contest runs up to and including May 26 2010
Full details will be posted in the 3D Chat forum.

How the 3D Modeling Competitions Work 

The accolades for the winners are retained until the next competition winners, and are as follows:

3DMaster - Champion awarded to the overall winner in the competition, an entry which displays both modeling and texturing excellence.

3DMaster - Best Model awarded to the runner up who demonstrates the finest modeling skills in the competition.

3DMaster - Best Texture awarded to the runner up who demonstrates texturing wizardry in the competition.

The awards will cling to your Avatar until the results of the following competition are announced. So to keep your award, you must defend your honour in battle once again!

Lightning Limbs, a DarkBASIC Classic Application

A recent thread in the DarkBASIC Classic board has brought this little gem of a program up to the surface. It allows you to load models, create and save animation sequences. Robert the Robot released the original version over two years ago, and is now revisiting it to make and hopefully release improvements. The original release went through various stages of improvement after user feedback, including the ability to load a background video as a reference for your animations.

Here are the features you can find in the original version:

• Load any .x or .3ds object with any number of limbs (only first 1,000 limbs can be edited)
• Select limbs by clicking on-screen 'nodes' or through the browser
• Set up limb cross-links (gives access to more versatile limb rotation)
• Offset and rotate limbs
• Set up to 1,000 keyframes
• Create animations up to 100,000 frames long
• Delete individual or all keyframes
• Preview animation sequences
• Versatile camera allows objects to be viewed from any angle
• Load up to 250 .x or .3ds objects as Props
• Select props through the browser
• Position, rotate and scale props
• Set prop properties (Ghosting, Wireframe, Transparency, Cull, Filter, Light, Fog, Ambient)
• Loop prop animation as part of main animation sequence
• Delete props
• Glue props to limbs at keyframes (makes prop an extension of the limb)
• Load .avi video files to use as a guide when creating 3d animations
• Advance .avi video files one frame at a time for greater precision
• Save projects to the native .Lim file format for later editing
• Customise the 3d environment with your own Skybox object and ground texture
• Export object animation to .xof file format or to a .x file containing both the object's geometry and the animation data

You can download Lightning Limbs from the Mythrada Software website, this is a freeware product. You can also keep up with discussions on the updated version on the forums.

From the Forums

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Monthly Newsletter Winner - $100 voucher up for grabs every month!

Join us on Facebook for the chance to win a $100 gift voucher each month. Simply add yourself as a TGC Fan and you will be automatically entered into the draw each month. The voucher can be spent on any of the products on our site. Sign up now, and good luck!

Last months winner of the $100 TGC voucher is Patrick Valdez.

Outro

Share your news with over 23,500 active games developers!

If you have something you'd like featured in a future issue then please get in touch and include as much information as possible (including where applicable: screen shots, URLs and zip files).

Issue 89 deadline - May 27th 2010.

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."

Benjamin Franklin

The Game Creators in no way endorse or support products mentioned in this newsletter that are not specifically published by them. Always check first before parting with your money. © The Game Creators Limited 2010.