Spline4k

chaosdeathfish · February 3, 2006, 2:00am

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Spline4K
Aka: DeathBySuperUberSplinedBeachBallAttackPartOne4k

This is my first 4k entry, so I’m looking forward to some feedback

An attack of rogue sentient killer beach balls is threatening life as we know it, and only YOU can save us! Kill as many as you can to get the highest score. Watch out - they drop bombs!

Controls:

Cursors: move
Space: fire
Enter: smart bomb (if you have any!)

If you wipe out an entire wave, you may get a powerup… collect it to get one of:

Smart bomb: Gain a smart bomb!
Multi-fire: Get double shot, upgrade to triple - but you lose it when you lose a life!
Timewarp: The beachballs slow down for 10 seconds

Other features include:
[list]

21 unique waves! (wraps around if you complete them all).
Pause mode when the window loses focus.
Gain an extra life every 25000 points!
Gradually increasing enemy and bomb speed
Score higher for staying further up the screen
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Play the game:
http://www.chaosdeathfish.com/4k/spline4k.jnlp

After lots of optimisation I’m down to 4083 bytes, so I’ll see what else I can fit into those 13 bytes. Current ideas are shields, different enemies, boss (unlikey!) and lasers. We’ll see

-ChaosDeathFish

reardonj · February 3, 2006, 2:17am

I tried running the game on my Linux machine, and it didn’t go too well. The beachballs jumped around instead of a smooth animation and the controls responded very slowly to the point where the game is unplayable. The same thing happened on both JDK1.5 and 1.6.

chaosdeathfish · February 3, 2006, 11:37am

What spec machine have you got? It runs bearably when my laptop’s running on battery at 800MHz. Other people have played it on Linux without problems, so I don’t think it’s a linux issue.

Was it slow whenever beachballs were on screen? Or only when they were exploding?

CaptainJester · February 3, 2006, 11:50am

I runs way too fast on my machine.

2.6GHz
768MB
Intel graphics controller

DonaldEKnuth · February 3, 2006, 11:51am

It’s waaaay to fast on my machine, you need time based updating.

woogley · February 3, 2006, 1:59pm

fast/choppy here also, see if you can fit in the timing code at http://www.java-gaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=11640.msg93602#msg93602

that code helped my game out alot

swpalmer · February 3, 2006, 2:08pm

Wasn’t too bad on the Mac (10.4.4, Java 1.5.0_06)

Made it to wave 23, with 60200 points… should have used my smartbomb

reardonj · February 3, 2006, 2:12pm

Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz
512MB of RAM
Radeon 9200(no OpenGL acceleration but that hasn’t stopped the other games)

The whole game was slow. The start screen came up fine, and after hitting enter, I wait a few seconds, then the game starts and it takes a couple seconds for each frame to change.

chaosdeathfish · February 3, 2006, 2:43pm

This is just wierd! The code currently uses time-based updating, so it shouldn’t be too fast or too slow on any machine. I wish I understood what was going on! Most people who have tried it before I posted here had no problems

I’ll put that timing code in (thanks Woogley) and see if it helps - but not until tonight, I have other stuff to do today

arne · February 3, 2006, 3:34pm

runs fine on my linux box

1,8 Mhz
Radeon 9000 (hardware acceleration enabled)
512mb ram

maybe it’s a tiny little bit fast, because I don’t think I will be able to make it to wave 23 (only made it to wave 7), but this could also be the unskillful me

chaosdeathfish · February 3, 2006, 4:05pm

The first wave should take about 6 seconds from the first ball appearing to the last ball disappearing. The machine I’m on at the moment runs fine, but with short jerks every 3 seconds or so (I assume GC? I’ll have to look into that):

Duron 800
GeForce 2 MX
384mb ram

So it looks like it’s some kind of wierd timing problem, maybe - and maybe only on faster machines? Also, has anyone who’s had problems been using Java 1.4? I’ve only tested on 1.5 (I know, my bad, not thorough enough), I’ll try 1.4 when I get back tonight.

Please bear with me while I sort it out! :-\

chaosdeathfish · February 4, 2006, 12:36am

OK, I think I’ve fixed some of the problems (or at least I hope so!). There are now two versions available:

http://www.chaosdeathfish.com/4k/spline4k.jnlp - The main version. Should now be faster.
http://www.chaosdeathfish.com/4k/spline4k-debug.jnlp - The debug version. Not proguarded, compressed with JDK’s jar tool, has an FPS counter.

If anyone has problems still, could you post with your FPS in the debug version, your machine specs, OS and JDK please? I really want to get any bugs left ironed out…

-CDF

edit: fixed the links…

f.l.x · February 4, 2006, 12:41am

:-\

JNLPException[category: Error de descarga : Exception: java.util.zip.ZipException: invalid END header (bad central directory offset) : LaunchDesc: null ]
	at com.sun.javaws.cache.DownloadProtocol.doDownload(DownloadProtocol.java:611)
	at com.sun.javaws.cache.DownloadProtocol.getResource(DownloadProtocol.java:761)
	at com.sun.javaws.LaunchDownload.downloadJarFiles(LaunchDownload.java:715)
	at com.sun.javaws.LaunchDownload.downloadEagerorAll(LaunchDownload.java:638)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.downloadResources(Launcher.java:969)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Launcher.java:335)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Launcher.java:217)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:164)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

java.util.zip.ZipException: invalid END header (bad central directory offset)
	at java.util.zip.ZipFile.open(Native Method)
	at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(ZipFile.java:203)
	at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(JarFile.java:132)
	at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(JarFile.java:97)
	at com.sun.javaws.cache.DownloadProtocol$RetrieveAction.actionDownload(DownloadProtocol.java:450)
	at com.sun.javaws.cache.DownloadProtocol.doDownload(DownloadProtocol.java:608)
	at com.sun.javaws.cache.DownloadProtocol.getResource(DownloadProtocol.java:761)
	at com.sun.javaws.LaunchDownload.downloadJarFiles(LaunchDownload.java:715)
	at com.sun.javaws.LaunchDownload.downloadEagerorAll(LaunchDownload.java:638)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.downloadResources(Launcher.java:969)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Launcher.java:335)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Launcher.java:217)
	at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:164)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

the debug version ran fine, quite fast but still enyoiable

reardonj · February 4, 2006, 12:47am

I’m getting the same error as f.l.x on the main version. The debug version is flying though, ~120fps. Plays a little fast for me, but otherwize good

DonaldEKnuth · February 4, 2006, 12:57am

Your JAR-file is damaged (at least it’s what the error message tells me.

chaosdeathfish · February 4, 2006, 1:55am

Sorry, my bad - I’ve fixed the main jar file now, it should work properly.

I’ve turned the speed down, since I’ve had many complaints Hopefully the new version should be easier to play.

In other news, I’ve done lots more optimising and got the jar down to 3772 bytes! :o So hopefully more features to come. Current plans are bosses, multi-directional bombs and maybe more!

-CDF

darkprophet · February 5, 2006, 1:47am

Woooo, beachballs galour! All you now need is suntan lotion

Nice fun, worked fine, just add the Voley ball (as the boss) and you’ll have me hooked!

DP

jojoh · February 20, 2006, 3:40pm

Nice that you have added it to Java Unlimited, but why did change name to Balls4k, especially since there already is a game in the compo called Balls4K ??? A bit confusing

chaosdeathfish · February 20, 2006, 9:36pm

Doh! I was a half-asleep when I was adding it. I thought Balls4k described it more accurately - I’ll go see if I can change it back…

Anyway, I actually prefer Spline4k as a name. I don’t know what I was thinking ???

My bad

chaosdeathfish · February 20, 2006, 9:42pm

OK, it’s been changed. Phew!