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Off Topic / unity game engine
« on: September 17, 2023, 09:48:22 AM »
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2
Modification Help / any resources for planting bricks procedurally?
« on: July 25, 2023, 01:41:49 PM »
i'm interested in making a map generator for blockland using wave function collapse to place chunks of bricks together. in the few years i haven't played i've lost all my code resources for how to place multiple bricks programmatically. i remember there was a way to spawn groups of bricks, but i ran into trouble with brick group trust ownership, global rotation of generated brick structures, and generally serializing the bricks in the game (sometimes the bricks would visually persist even after destruction)
if anyone has any resources for this and can share them, i would greatly appreciate it. i've tried looking at new duplicator's source code but it's a little too complex for my needs. the hopeful end result of this line of research would be a nice lightweight procedural map generator for blockland, time permitted
if anyone has any resources for this and can share them, i would greatly appreciate it. i've tried looking at new duplicator's source code but it's a little too complex for my needs. the hopeful end result of this line of research would be a nice lightweight procedural map generator for blockland, time permitted
3
Off Topic / wagner in open rebellion against russian army
« on: June 23, 2023, 08:20:41 PM »
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/europe/russia-mod-wagner-yevgeny-prigozhin-intl/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66005256
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wagner-mercenary-chief-calls-armed-rebellion-russian-military/story?id=100335756
after 2 years, the russo-ukraine war is culminating in a military coup on russian soil. if you thought the war was history in the making, check out this stuff. wagner, an organization formerly part of the russian army, has shot down at least 1 russian helicopter and evaded roadblocks put in place by russia's national guard.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66005256
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wagner-mercenary-chief-calls-armed-rebellion-russian-military/story?id=100335756
after 2 years, the russo-ukraine war is culminating in a military coup on russian soil. if you thought the war was history in the making, check out this stuff. wagner, an organization formerly part of the russian army, has shot down at least 1 russian helicopter and evaded roadblocks put in place by russia's national guard.
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Off Topic / 2d background parallax combined with planetoid curvature
« on: August 20, 2022, 01:08:33 AM »
this is a really strange general math question im putting here before i post to stack exchange. this doesn't belong in mod discussion because it is not for blockland, it is just a general problem that i've been trying to wrap my head around.
i am trying to combine two different visual effects into one which i can mentally picture but on paper seems physically impossible. the two effects are as follows:
2d parallax
this one is simple. its multiple layers that use coordinates relative to the player but move at different scales to give the illusion of depth. layers that move slower (ie 1/2th the coordinates of the player) appear farther, while those that move faster fit well in a foreground.
2d planetoid with curvature
this one is a little more complicated. it usually involves deforming/texturing a circle/sphere procedurally and it uses a radial coordinate system (coordinates can repeat and are maximum 360 degrees)
the problem: combining the two.
typical parallax uses a 2d cartesian x-y coordinate system, while planetoids/circles use 2d polar r-θ coordinate system. although they can be converted between each other, a polar parallax has several problems. first, all background layers of a planet must be the same or larger in radius in order to be visible to the camera (bigger than the planet). second, they must rotate slower than the camera rotates around the planet. the 'slower rotation' of the background circle is what is stumping me up. this is only for backgrounds, while foregrounds suffer from a similar but opposite spectrum of problems.
a slower circular background will have more data than required to display, as it will take more relative rotations of the planet to fully view all its data. this data (the 'dark side' of the planet) will never actually be viewed or used by the game because it isn't physically sound and is irrelevant. a faster circular background (foreground) will have less data than can be displayed on one rotation, leading to a problem of packing more than one rotation's worth of background into one rotation.
i drew a diagram to help communicate the ideas.
green circle - outer background circle (rotates at 0.5x speed)
red circle - inner planet circle (rotates at 1x speed)
if you superimpose two circles on each other and have the outer one rotate at 0.5 speed the inner one, by the time you traverse half the planet you would've traversed a quarter of the outer circle's background
this works fine until you traverse the whole planet once, after which you've only traversed half of the outer circle. this means, your second run around the red circle, you'd have an entirely different side of the outer circle. one hacky handicapped solution i found was to just cut the outer circle in half. since only half of the outer background can be viewed in one full planetary rotation, there is no need to display/store the other half. this half could be cloned on the opposite side of the planet and the seams connected to give the illusion of one continuous circular parallax background
this solution is far from ideal and i'm still looking for a more sound, mathematical solution. for example, this method is a mind forget on foreground (backgrounds that parallax faster than the planet) because it requires packing two circles' worth of data into one. if anyone has ever encountered a mathematically similar problem in the field of trigonometry and has some insight i'd love to hear it. this problem has been driving me partially insane for the last 5 months and has been a major holdup for one of my game design projects.
i am trying to combine two different visual effects into one which i can mentally picture but on paper seems physically impossible. the two effects are as follows:
2d parallax
this one is simple. its multiple layers that use coordinates relative to the player but move at different scales to give the illusion of depth. layers that move slower (ie 1/2th the coordinates of the player) appear farther, while those that move faster fit well in a foreground.
2d planetoid with curvature
this one is a little more complicated. it usually involves deforming/texturing a circle/sphere procedurally and it uses a radial coordinate system (coordinates can repeat and are maximum 360 degrees)
the problem: combining the two.
typical parallax uses a 2d cartesian x-y coordinate system, while planetoids/circles use 2d polar r-θ coordinate system. although they can be converted between each other, a polar parallax has several problems. first, all background layers of a planet must be the same or larger in radius in order to be visible to the camera (bigger than the planet). second, they must rotate slower than the camera rotates around the planet. the 'slower rotation' of the background circle is what is stumping me up. this is only for backgrounds, while foregrounds suffer from a similar but opposite spectrum of problems.
a slower circular background will have more data than required to display, as it will take more relative rotations of the planet to fully view all its data. this data (the 'dark side' of the planet) will never actually be viewed or used by the game because it isn't physically sound and is irrelevant. a faster circular background (foreground) will have less data than can be displayed on one rotation, leading to a problem of packing more than one rotation's worth of background into one rotation.
i drew a diagram to help communicate the ideas.
green circle - outer background circle (rotates at 0.5x speed)
red circle - inner planet circle (rotates at 1x speed)
if you superimpose two circles on each other and have the outer one rotate at 0.5 speed the inner one, by the time you traverse half the planet you would've traversed a quarter of the outer circle's background
this works fine until you traverse the whole planet once, after which you've only traversed half of the outer circle. this means, your second run around the red circle, you'd have an entirely different side of the outer circle. one hacky handicapped solution i found was to just cut the outer circle in half. since only half of the outer background can be viewed in one full planetary rotation, there is no need to display/store the other half. this half could be cloned on the opposite side of the planet and the seams connected to give the illusion of one continuous circular parallax background
this solution is far from ideal and i'm still looking for a more sound, mathematical solution. for example, this method is a mind forget on foreground (backgrounds that parallax faster than the planet) because it requires packing two circles' worth of data into one. if anyone has ever encountered a mathematically similar problem in the field of trigonometry and has some insight i'd love to hear it. this problem has been driving me partially insane for the last 5 months and has been a major holdup for one of my game design projects.
5
Off Topic / are we cursed?
« on: April 14, 2022, 08:55:45 AM »
it feels like humanity is evolutionarily traumatized by millions of years of natural selection. even though we as a species have managed to overcome many great obstacles in science, it still feels like humans (and all life on earth) is biologically hardwired to be selfish and destructive. will we ever evolve out of the selfish genes of our primate ancestors naturally or will we have to genetically modify ourselves to think more wholistically and altruistically? is selfishness even a bad thing in the first place, if it means the selfish individual gets to live longer and have offspring?
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Modification Help / [idea] bloodthirsty bots
« on: March 31, 2021, 07:18:07 PM »
rather than using arbitrary pathfinding nodes that players must place down, why not have injured players automatically leave behind nodes that bots can follow, like a 'blood trail' or 'pheromone trail'
basically bots follow their usual routine of wandering around and attacking players, but on injury, a player will periodically leave behind pools of 'blood' (either real puddles or just invisible nodes) of varying strength based on the injury. bots, with various detection settings and weights, could send out a radius search to seek out and follow the blood trails (which disappear after a while). the expected behavior is bots hunting down injured players relentlessly until they are dead, or until the player heals / the blood trail disappears. with this same idea it would be feasible for bots themselves to leave behind their own trails, which other friendly/enemy bots could use to follow them into battle. if a bot dies too quickly, maybe they can leave behind a 'danger' trail that lets other bots know that they may be walking into a dangerous trap and to avoid it and prioritize a different trail.
it would be very similar to ant pheromones, which help other ants recognize paths that are guaranteed to lead to food. in our case the 'food' is players. the pheromone solution offers a simple ass straightforward pathfinding solution by just following real players as they flee certain death, in real time.
something like this is insanely easy to implement and the trail itself / detection could be really inexpensive. it might be an easier, more realistic alternative to pathfinding/node placing
basically bots follow their usual routine of wandering around and attacking players, but on injury, a player will periodically leave behind pools of 'blood' (either real puddles or just invisible nodes) of varying strength based on the injury. bots, with various detection settings and weights, could send out a radius search to seek out and follow the blood trails (which disappear after a while). the expected behavior is bots hunting down injured players relentlessly until they are dead, or until the player heals / the blood trail disappears. with this same idea it would be feasible for bots themselves to leave behind their own trails, which other friendly/enemy bots could use to follow them into battle. if a bot dies too quickly, maybe they can leave behind a 'danger' trail that lets other bots know that they may be walking into a dangerous trap and to avoid it and prioritize a different trail.
it would be very similar to ant pheromones, which help other ants recognize paths that are guaranteed to lead to food. in our case the 'food' is players. the pheromone solution offers a simple ass straightforward pathfinding solution by just following real players as they flee certain death, in real time.
something like this is insanely easy to implement and the trail itself / detection could be really inexpensive. it might be an easier, more realistic alternative to pathfinding/node placing
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Off Topic / lord tony appreciation thread
« on: August 05, 2020, 09:12:58 PM »
honestly he's been introducing me to so many new cool indie games and i've purchased a few and they were really good choices. i like this new approach he's taking on the forum, it's actually pretty good and unique. thought he deserved a shoutout
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Off Topic / i am typing this in chains
« on: June 27, 2020, 11:05:29 PM »
i am awaiting execution for selling cocaine on rival gang territory. el ruso, aspiring kingpin of the new sinaloan cartel, plans to dismember my legs with a chainsaw in two minutes
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Off Topic / happy juneteenth
« on: June 19, 2020, 01:35:09 PM »
how are you celebrating your freedom as a citizen of the united states (if you are one) on this day?
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Off Topic / loving fireworks
« on: June 18, 2020, 09:20:05 PM »
ok so welcome to new york
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/4593070-nyc-sees-spike-in-number-of-illegal-fireworks-complaints/
basically a bunch of idiots scattered across the five boroughs are just launching endless numbers of fireworks every night for the last week from 7pm-12am. i have no clue why people are doing this and i don't care i just want it to stop because its really annoying. if i find out its one of you forgeters i'll split your sternum open
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/4593070-nyc-sees-spike-in-number-of-illegal-fireworks-complaints/
basically a bunch of idiots scattered across the five boroughs are just launching endless numbers of fireworks every night for the last week from 7pm-12am. i have no clue why people are doing this and i don't care i just want it to stop because its really annoying. if i find out its one of you forgeters i'll split your sternum open
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Off Topic / loveually active thread (promiscuity only)
« on: June 15, 2020, 01:00:52 AM »
you can only post on this topic if you didn't post in the virgin thread for virgins only. now which earlobe do you like to nibble on: the left or right
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Off Topic / coldplay appreciation thread
« on: May 28, 2020, 11:30:36 PM »
i just peeped coldplay for the first time in like 12 years and its bringing back some emotional memories of my childhood. is it me or are they just the most universally liked band since queen
like i could be at the bando and bump some coldplay - clocks and everyone in the room would immediately start vibing
like i could be at the bando and bump some coldplay - clocks and everyone in the room would immediately start vibing
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Off Topic / azula vs ty lee: better girlfriend?
« on: May 22, 2020, 09:36:10 PM »
its an avatar question fellas. who you forgetin: azula or ty lee. the choice is yours, the discussion is here
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Add-Ons / ✚✚✚ EXTREMELY MODERN WARFARE II ✚✚✚
« on: May 19, 2020, 08:54:50 AM »
"The most ambitious sequel ever" - nobody
"Mindblowing... exhilarating... a must-download" - also nobody
"Ignore the below post; use sketchup" - me
Peacekeeper: Fully automatic service rifle with good range and damage output. Marksman: Designated marksman rifle with high damage and range. Antimat: It's a double barreled sniper. Deals triple damage against people named 'Mat'. PDW: Rapid-fire machine pistol with great close quarters capabilities. Machinerifle: The perfect LMG for all your machineguny needs. Takes a while to rev up. Sidearms: Dual-wielded hanguns with balanced range and damage output.
sidearms: peacekeeper: pdw: marksman: machine rifle: antimat:
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Off Topic / why do you have to edit twice for it to say 'edited'
« on: May 11, 2020, 07:21:41 PM »
like if you edit once it'll say nothing but if you edit twice it shows people that it was edited. why? it bothers me