FEATURE ADDED: Ace Of Spades Maps (VXL) import

[Dany0]

It would be really nice to do crazy things, but I'm no where near the level of programming ability to do that! :/

You seriously don't wanna try out lua? Not even for scripting scenes, animation and such? You'd wanna do that if you want to keep the comic style.

So for now the game's scope and mechanics shall reflect that the art style, "simple" and "effective".

I like effective. It sounds destructive. I like destructive. It's effective

I should be able to find other clever ways to push the envelope besides making it technically advanced, but my programming ability will increase as I progress as well

Yeah don't count on that. Also, read some game development papers. Progammable design, main loop, OOP and such.

[artisbigshirts]

I'm no where close to implementing scripted elements of the game at this time, LUA is an option but I'd look into that when the time comes.
If you don't believe you can push the envelope without being the A+++++ master programmer extraordinaire then you're not thinking outside of the box.
That said I'm no stranger to game development, programming, design, etc.
I'm starting small with this project and building up.

[Tim Wesoly]

i personally think it's a very good idea to have a look at the artistic side of your game first if that's your strength. I have only seen a single piece but i think you are on a good way.

And dany how about setting up a knowledge base for voxel coding? That would be great

[Dany0]

@artisbigshirts:
I'm just saying Voxlap is quite old. There is no need to try and keep up the 'oldness'. You will learn bad habits for 2011 C code from it you know? Could you please just try not follow the old Voxlap code, you know, if not using a different, embedded, language. No matter how fast the extremely optimized code is, a non-fully OOP game is unstable and hard to debug. Not counting that OO programming is much more well suited for designing games. Listen, I'm just trying to drive you from bad habits. So that you don't end up with tons of nice art and cliché unstable code.


Oh hey and first thing you should have done is mail Ken Silverman himself. He is the greatest help you can get.
@Tim:
Well I wanted to start a whole Voxel standards organization but I need underlying material and such. Yeah, I wanted record all the countless videos, but I have time and space for it only on Mondays(fuck mondays) and Fridays(friday friday friday oh), and it takes more then one day to set up a video. Also I'm afraid that if I don't make the 'series' as short as possible, no one will listen. And if I make only five 5 minute long "episodes" it still won't cover even the beginnings.

[artisbigshirts]

Ahh, it seems we're approaching this discussion from two different perspectives.
I thought you were implying me to implement massive world streaming, crazy lighting models, voxel transparency, or other advanced things of that sort haha.
I truly live by OOP, I want the code for my projects to be easily moved to newer projects and expanded easily.
When I was first learning C++ in 2006, I spent the majority of the next 3 years playing around and getting my grips on the language not only through personal projects but also messing with the Half-Life 2 source code.

Having a centralized repository for voxel-based programming would be wonderful, I was finding hard to get even basic information on Voxlap (Setting it up for use with VS2008/2010, needed libraries like DX7 or MASM, etc.).

[Dany0]

I truly live by OOP

Don't get too excited though! Or you can end up like this guy:
http://www.bonkersworld.net/images/2011 ... _a_swe.png

Ahh, it seems we're approaching this discussion from two different perspectives.
I thought you were implying me to implement massive world streaming, crazy lighting models, voxel transparency, or other advanced things of that sort haha.
I truly live by OOP, I want the code for my projects to be easily moved to newer projects and expanded easily.
When I was first learning C++ in 2006, I spent the majority of the next 3 years playing around and getting my grips on the language not only through personal projects but also messing with the Half-Life 2 source code.

What are you talking about? There is nothing massive in a world streaming? Have 27 levels, you get just as much data as a whole world. And with all the easter egg levels and stuff around it, you will get to a point where you could have just taken a hollow sphere and put stuff on it. Wait I'll try.

EDIT:
So here is my "plan", you want a 1024^3 world. You create a 512 sphere in qubicle, hollow it, then leave only quarter of it, then stretch from 128^3 to 256^3. Now you have all the data you need for your world. In the game the sphere will be done programatically/procedurally, and the only data saved would be the difference.

EDIT2:
Okay, 85162 voxels. Stretched, 16777216. Including the added noise, Qubicle handles it rather well.

EDIT3:
Here is the source file:
http://www.mediafire.com/?c6acp7xttpeg1ba

It maybe a little overkill, but it's damn smooth. I'd probably just go with 256^3. You can always scale the 'procedural' terrain. You know how I suggested you'd have a voxel side big as a 4x4 pixel in minecraft but all objects would be always twice as thick? You could have the terrain two or four times as big, and the differences would be translated to that.

Though, yes this world idea does sound like a total overkill now. It confronts the idea of K.I.S.S. But hey, you could still have just a big flat map, and a spinning world on the start screen. That would give the same immersion, if the game world would be open. (I don't think if you'd follow the comic style it should be linear, but since it's eastern asia styled, I'd expect large twists and such, what is that comic that inspired you in the first place?)

Having a centralized repository for voxel-based programming would be wonderful, I was finding hard to get even basic information on Voxlap (Setting it up for use with VS2008/2010, needed libraries like DX7 or MASM, etc.).

Please, just email this guy:

Can I just get any more descritpive?

[Tim Wesoly]

Dany, about the knowledge base: forget about the videos. I think a solid list of links would be a great start.
I know Ken is the man to ask. He knows obviously the most about voxlap. But he is a busy man. Would be great to collect some links and don't need to bother him all the time and only at times when noting can be found one the webz.

And by knowledge base I don't only mean voxlap but all other topics concerning voxels as well.
I could set up a page on my website, you send me links and I try to sort them.
How does that sound?

[Dany0]

I'm just saying, if he needs Voxlap help he should contact Ken. And there is a small problem with the links however, I never note where do I get information from. It's just my rebellion from when I was forced to list all the references in school. And yes I wanted to make a general Voxel knowledge base, Voxlap is present, not the future.

[Rod]

Maybe this is useful: http://silverspaceship.com/aosmap/aos_file_format.html

[Dany0]

Oh man, I was on that FTP many times and never saw this Nice find.