Version 1.8 (not released yet)

All discussion about the Commander Genius project (a Keen interpreter + more).
gerstrong
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Version 1.8 (not released yet)

Post by gerstrong »

As promised we delivered another awesome release...

Now it's time for the next version. This time I have tight plans for that release:

  • - SDL 2.0 support, maybe only, not sure yet. Plans is to unify SDL and OpenGL a bit more use third dimension in this interpreter. Of course the original feeling has to remain.
    - Improved Android experience. I will try to change some settings for that build the way the user experience is better, also a new control-overlay for the screen is planned.
    - More mods to support. I lately have seen a lot more mods especially galaxy mods which show great work. Support more of them is also planned.
So far so good. What do you think?
Last edited by gerstrong on Tue Apr 15, 2014 16:44, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Roobar »

More than good! That would be the ultimate version I've been waiting for!
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Post by Nospike »

What exactly do you mean by improved Android experience? I have the game on Android, and while my Desire S is no longer one of the high-end beasts it used to be, the FPS are rather bad. Also locking the phone and then unlocking it again makes the game go freakin' ballistic.
Other than that it's really cool to play Keen on the go. :)
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Post by Roobar »

On S3 mini is unplayable as well, even though S3 mini is somewhat decent for the majority of google play market games. But that's not a problem since I'm gonna buy S4 or S4 mini.
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Post by gerstrong »

I have the Galaxy S I and it plays very smoothly. That's strange because S 3 mini is somewhat newer abd more powerful, isn't it.

The latest versions got a bit faster, about that I'm pretty sure, beacause I measure performances when I try to make things faster, so it's strange that it doesn't work well...

I will try to get opengl es working, because it's not used yet. What I don't like is the button layout so there will some improvements. Probably I will create an own control scheme to make it more playable on touch screen. Also touch devices should take more advantage of it.

I have to see yet what can achived, but I will try my best. The six episodes are done, now it's about polishing here and there...
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Post by gerstrong »

Hello,

as you might have seen, I'm still working on it. By porting SDL2 which is mostly complete I though it would be a good idea to refresh the way stuff is drawn and add a new feature. Watch this!

Image

Image

Image

It still has a lot of bugs but I'm working on it. So what do you think?
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Post by gerstrong »

Here goes another from Keen 9:

Image
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Post by Roobar »

How did you do that? That will be very interesting to play. Especially will come in handy when in multiplayer deathmatch.
But with higher visible area, while keen stays the same in size, how's the scrolling handled?
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Post by gerstrong »

wiivn wrote:How did you do that? That will be very interesting to play. Especially will come in handy when in multiplayer deathmatch.
But with higher visible area, while keen stays the same in size, how's the scrolling handled?
Well, as I told, I made CG in managing the scrollsurface and its underlying methods more flexible.

If it really is interesting for many of you I will support 320x200, 320x240, 640x200 and 64x480 for the start as visible areas. This would affect all the supported games and mods. I'm talking about internal game resolution only. The other known resolutions for your screen will still be available such as scale, stretch and anything else as you know of it.

It scrolls the same as you know with more stripes to draw. It works very fluently. I think live zooming will be implemented later, but having a visible area of 640x480 is something I might add as feature in this upcoming version.

What do you think?

Now, I'm not sure if I really should support it. For multiplayer I'm sure it is worth to add, so I think I will put it as option. For normal gameplay, well, it is another experience, right?

For a much better experience I also would like to make it possible to zoom as needed, but for now I can't do that. I would need to play more with textures, OpenGL and 3D Stuff on which I'm unsure if all devices which use CG which really use that correctly.

On a side note, Commander Keen 4-6 support is pretty much done, so now I'm again back since two years for new and awesome features. I want to improve the gameplay experience overall...
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Post by Levellass »

I take it you adjusted when sprites stay active when using the bigger screen?
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Post by gerstrong »

Levellass wrote:I take it you adjusted when sprites stay active when using the bigger screen?
You can count on it and this is another reason that will change the gameplay experience even more. So here I'm not sure, if it is better to only activate the sprites within the 320x200 area or the area that really is visible.
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Post by Levack »

Great! :)
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Post by tulip »

Interesting news. Reminds me of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, which had a huge area of visibility too. Or Monuments of Mars where you saw the whole level all the time.
People will easily find our well hidden secret areas easily now though.
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Post by Nospike »

The new Android version has a greatly improved framerate but the stability issues are still pretty serious. The game tends to crash randomly and locking/unlocking the screen while playing is still a no-no.
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Post by gerstrong »

I play it all the time on the Galaxy, you need to tell me where it happens because I cannot reproduce those issues
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