War Pong

[ewerybody]

I just explained how to do the effect shown in the bmp.

hehe :] I never knew that there is an effects button! I always just doubleclick since they introduced the layer effects.

[Konedima]

For those interested I am taking ewerybody's advice and including top/bottom caps for the paddles (mainly because I can't make a good neon paddle without them). They will be 20x25 images (because the minimum paddle height is 50), in case any skinners hint hint care. The same applies for the super shot paddle graphics.

[Magnulus]

I guess you'll then have a third mid-section picture for the rest of the paddle as it stretches. I suggest having that one the same height as the other ones so that modders can add a bit of texture to the length of the paddle if they would like.

Cool that it worked out! I hadn't even tested it when I suggested it. I just assumed it'd work. The cool thing about layer effects is that now you can change the parameters at any point to tweak the glow and border effects until they look how you want them to look.

[ewerybody]

I see the paddle/paddle2 images are tiled for the sizeamount of the paddle but larger images in Y-direction are not valid (the image is then stretched to the maximum of the paddle).
You could also offer the skinner to create a 20 x 300(or whatever) image for the paddle wich is then simply cut off for the according size (not stretched!) and capped with the cap images. This way one could bring more depth into it.

[Konedima]

There is a way I can think of for having one giant image for the bat and just cutting it for length. I'm not sure how much of a performance hit it would cause (although it might help the performance since it wouldn't have to redraw the 5 pixel high image over and over).

Basically I would just create a temporary imagebuffer (of the middle section of the bat y-size) and paste the tall image into it (so the overflow goes into nothing) and then draw that on the screen. OR I think in the hidden treasure trove of blitz commands there's one that lets you draw just a section of an image. If that exists, it would probably be a lot quicker than the existing system or the one I explained before.

Since I'm sure at least one of those will work, I pose a question to ye skinners (as in ewerybody): from the big image, should I take the top, bottom or middle of it to use to make the bat when its smaller than the image?

[Hamish]

[Konedima]

[ewerybody]

[Konedima]

I'm taking the center. The next version ( 0.08 ) is almost done. I'm just preparing the graphics for the other skins (neon is done) and the installer. Other than the graphics updates bats should redraw a bit faster but I can't really test since I never had a problem and the AI will also use super shots.

For the existing skins I'm not going to much (or any) effort to make the new graphics, I'm just resizing the existing ones.

It should be out either tonight or tomorrow night.

Edit: just updated it. Grab it from the website, as always: http://warpong.sourceforge.net

[Konedima]

As a (though not necessarily the only) new skin for the next version, we have: Monotone!

It's meant to resemble classic pong, and for 5 minutes work, it is pretty bad . Its just a recolouring of the retro war (original) skin with only a couple of other changes. The scores were originally white but that makes it really hard to see the ball, so they were made gray. The menu graphics can be a bit unreadable in situations, so I may have to change them later. It adds less than 50kb to the installer so does not dramatically increase download size.

[Johnh]

*downloads*

Illegal memory address error!

BB doesn't use pointers, does it? Maybe I need to install a dll or something?


I've never used BB before, but going off of what I know about C++, maybe I'll be able to browse the source code and see if I can understand any of this...

*pours over code for 10-20 minutes*

hmmm...

Oh wait, what was that error I keep getting with my own code? It doesn't load the image properly unless it's right in the same folder as the executable? Let's try that out...

*moves executable to default folder*

It works!

Pretty interesting game you have there, a new twist on an old classic. Good job!

A question, though, do you accept constructive criticism? Or would you rather I not go and act all smart and stuff?

[Konedima]

[Johnh]

Alright, constructive criticism time!

I'll do bad news first, good news last, so we end on a positive note.

The only thing bad that I really have to say is about the cosmetic appearance of your source code. Many coders don't put enough emphasis in their coding time to make the code look pretty. The reason for this is because most coders feel that "time spent commenting could be time spent coding!".

Some cosmetic changes that you might want to consider for the future:

1) Put more space imbetween your functions/subroutines/methods/whatever you want to call them. While I was reading your code, I found myself sometimes missing the return statement, and continuing to read code into your subroutines on the bottom.

2) Choose more descriptive variable names. While it is easy to type out shorter names such as "pl1b" and "bdx". Also, try to avoid making multiple variables with similar names. You have on a single line, the statement: "If bdx=1 Then bx = bx - bxs". That's 3 variables, that are very similar to each other, all start with the letter b, and have the letter x in them. Of course, at the same time, you have to avoid choosing a variable name that is overly verbose and takes forever to read and type. Find the happy medium.

3) Document your variables and functions/subroutines/methods/whatever. Makes it much easier for a stranger to be able to tell what it is that a variable is meant for, and it can help him figure out what a variable/routine name means if you could not/did not give it a descriptive name.

4) Double check that your control structures are properly indented, and that all control structures are closed at the proper location. In C++, forgetting to put in a closing bracket is particularly frustrating. I am certain that it is just as frustrating when you forget to put in an ENDIF statement in the proper location...

5) Gotos.... ugh. Gotos can be very flexible. However, they also drastically reduce the readability of your code. Avoid using goto statements, and when you do use them, document their use, so that a person reading your code knows where your program is going, and why. An important reason why you should avoid gotos, is because goto is one of the few features that most programming languages try to avoid. If you ever move to another language, you may discover that goto is not available to you (Gotos are illegal in Java, for example).

6) Avoid the use of "magic numbers". Your code uses a variety of "magic numbers" that make your code harder to read. Your main menu section of your code is especially thick with magic numbers. Replace these with constants. And if BB doesn't have constants (it should), try to see if you can add some comments somewhere that describes what each of the magic numbers mean. For example:

[Konedima]

Most of your criticisms are valid. The code was written to be read... by me.

It would be a bit of an effort (ok, I'm lazy) to change all the variables but it could be feasible to document all of them.

[Johnh]

Sweet, so it wasn't a bug at all, but a part of the skin.

And if your project isn't meant to be open source, I guess the most important thing is that you can read your own code. So all in all, great job!