Articles You'd Like To See

General Discussions
#21

i would like to c some more theoretical stuff like:

how to make a demo mode

recording inputs and playback 'em doesnt do the trick. how should the main loop look alike if u wanna implement this feature in the future?

we all know that this is a feature wich a real game has to show :>

networking (realtime)

-login
-challenging (how to avoid being abused for dos attacks or taken down by simple attacks)
-timeouts
-why upd and not tcp?
-centralized vs distributed
-effective message encoding
-a bit cheat protection
-how to handle lag
-client sided prediction
[…]

in addition i would like to c all that fancy lwjgl stuff mentioned by cfmdobbie :wink:

#22

It seems articles can be broken down into three major categories: Theory and Design (self-describing), Application (Java specific design, some pseudo-code), Specifics and Tech (API/IDE specific, actual code examples).

Here is a brief summary, as well as my suggestions for each:
[]Theory and Design
[list][]OOP Theory, Polymorphism, Terminology (such as Refactoring) (perhaps just links to other good sites/tutorials)
[]Game (general) design (again, links to gamedev or something)
[]Game code design (states, gameloops, entity/world structure, creating/organising world events)

[]Application
[]Game stucture in Java (what kind of code to use for what)
[]Networking, File saving, Security
[]Java language syntax/formating guidelines

[]Specfics/Tech
[]Using LWJGL, Using Java2D, APIs (OpenGL, OpenAL)
[]IDE Tutorials, IDE Comparisons
[]Using Collections, Using Regular expressions
[*]Code examples, How to… (…make JARs, distribute with WebStart, serialize Objects for QuickSaving games)
[/list]
It’s a pretty ambitious list, and I don’t know if anyone would be willing to write (and proof-read; later update) it all. It may be useful just to write a brief article and supplement it with a bunch of useful links (especially with Theory and Design, most of which is already covered elsewhere).

That’s my 2 cents.

#23

many was said already :slight_smile:
So I just going to vote for:

  • terrain rendering
  • multi-texturing
  • animation
  • some basic intro to AI

just my 1.2 cents :wink:

#24

hmm… quite a comprehensive list - so who’s willing and able to submit articles? If theres a demand I could sort out setting up a site to host them and such, perhaps a few other features (image of the week perhaps?)…

#25

IOTD/IOTW is very popular over at flipcode (that’s the only reason i go there every day), but a new image every day is probably too much to ask for, so yes, one each week is enough

#26

Recreating a game based on copyrighted graphics and storyline looks a little bit difficult/costly to me.

We’re not re-creating FFT, we’re just using it as an example to describe the style of gameplay that we’re pursuing - much like one would use Warcraft and Total Annihilation as examples of the RTS genre. The difference, perhaps, is that no term has yet been coined for the FFT style of gameplay. Perhaps we should use TBS-RPG (Turn-based strategy, RPG)? That doesn’t describe its extreme chess-like nature, though, which is pretty critical to the gameplay. RPG-Chess is probably the most accurate terminology.

The game description sounds like those trading card games where unique characters loaded with special items fight each other.

No, it’s not like that at all. I still think the best description is RPG-Chess. If you play it, I think you’ll have to agree.

I think, I’m more in favor of strategic and not tactial level games.

Humm… The words strategic and tactical are synonyms. What do you mean, exactly?

Still, the graphics on the web page mentioned in that other thread look great.

FFT graphics are pretty good. Much better even than what the homepage shows.

As for Tactxs, we’ll be aiming for some really nice graphics, as the style of gameplay allows us to spend most of our gpu time on complex 3d models as opposed to the higher framerates, etc… that are required for real-time games.

God bless,
-Toby Reyelts

#27

[quote]We’re not re-creating FFT, we’re just using it as an example to describe the style of gameplay [ … ] RPG-Chess is probably the most accurate terminology.
[/quote]
I see. I’ve still problems with that term though. Role playing to me means to dive into a character, feel him/her, live him/her. It’s not about the most clever/most advantageous/opportune behavior. Something that doesn’t work with most of the CPRG available unfortunately. Chess is quite a different type of game, very abstract and I’ve a large distance to the chess pieces. I don’t care whether a pawn or even the queen “dies”. They’ve no character :wink: They’re not even (stereo)types, they’re just pieces.

To play a game at strategic level, I see the big picture. Armies represented by simple counter which will fight and eventually die for the greater goal. At tactical level, you’ll see individuals, it’s smaller scope and perhaps more personal. You’ve individual tanks or warriors who get vaporised or loose a leg. So for me, strategic is more abstract and that is probably what I originally meant.

[quote]As for Tactxs, we’ll be aiming for some really nice graphics
[/quote]
So is this a kind of game where you’ve individual heroes who battle each other? Let’s say the basilisk will attack with her special “turn-to-stone” glance. However, if the barbarian warrior happens to be equipped with a mirror shield he’ll be able to turn the attack against her.

#28

sma: Even though FFT was released in late 1997/early 1998 it continues to be the fourth most active playstation 1 game on gamefaqs. It’s a game the a certian set of people keep coming back to and just don’t get tired of it. We hope to create something that earns that kind of following even when a majority of players won’t give a turn based game the time of day.

The gameplay is hard to describe in terms people understand and can predict that they will enjoy, that is why I asked “Have you played and enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics?” Since you haven’t, you won’t be invited to join our team until you have put a good number of hours into it. Yea, thats kind of a weird requirement for a volunteer project but if you didn’t enjoy FFT then we know you won’t be happy with where the project is heading.

It is a RPG in that there is a main character who “you” are and you follow this hero’s story though history. You also control about 5 other charcters who, unlike a chess pawn or RTS grunt/peon/etc, you get emotionally attached to. Like chess the battle is somewhat predictable and you spend a lot of time planning in advance how ever many turns you can keep in your head. Battle plans like “can I get these three characters to attack this one character from a position in which they aren’t so close together that the opponent’s mage won’t be able to cast ‘mega fire storm’ and do serious damage to half my team at once.” are very common.

If you’re still curious about the game, hit google and find some reviews. A proper review will describe the game better than I can.

#29

i can probably help write some articles…

i am a pretty good writer…

i got 86 in grade 9 english… and my teacher might be able to proof read ones i make.

so rememeber me when u start putting stuff together…

i will most likely be writing about begining java, and beginning games (applets, fullscreen bufferstrategy basics)

#30

I have my “Java 3d from start to having a little animated purple dude wandering about what could vaguely be called a landscape” tutorial roughly 3/4 done (and currently clocking in at a little over 20 pages ) - as soon as it’s complete I’ll let everyone here know so the people who actually understand the whole j3d thing can tell me what I’m doing wrong and I can change the tutorial accordingly…

#31

Hehe… cant wait to see this program/article.

Also… nice little quote thing. “CGI on a Java board…” thats awesome…

#32

I can write articles on the following:

  • Anything to do with networking (from IP to ATM)
  • Computer Science programming theory (including compilers etc)
  • Evolutionary Programming (genetic algorithms and all related stuff)
  • Project management
  • MMOG development
  • ...and quite a few others, but nothing else unusual

And would like to see:

  • A regularly updated article on JVM-performance improvements. This is an evil problem: Because the JVM compilers keep getting much better, last week’s “optimization” is this week’s “waste of time that also makes the code less maintainable”. It’s just too hard to keep up with what has changed (note: Sun are not generous enough to be specific about what low-level compiler optimizations have changed/appeared/disappeared. Sometimes, they let us know. Other times, you can guess if you read enough articles). For instance, the relative speeds of double-add, double-mul, Math.sqrt, object-deref, object-create, static-vs-instance methods (and variables!) all keep changing. Performance tips that used to be worthwhile (e.g., declaring your two most frequently-accessed variables first within the block - because there are special bytecodes for faster access to the first two 32-bit variables IIRC), and which can still be found on websites offering tips on performance, are now just pointless.

  • A comprehensive round-up of game-programming resources. CFXweb’s one is massively out-of-date, and most other such collections are just self-promotional rubbish. We all know Gama, Flipcode, and a few others, but theres lots of hugely useful ones that keep slipping through the net.

#33

I finished the tutorial - there is a link to it and brief explanation off the Java3D board- I’d post it again here, but there were several words involved and cutting and pasting is so much hard work so I’ll just give you a link: http://www.newview.co.uk/javatutorial

#34

Could we please see an article on how to display various panels/components/whatevers from the main game loop if that are all in the same frame?

E.G. a frame that displays a splash screen, then a game screen, then a battle screen, then back to the game screen (e.g. ANY game with random encounters).