Discuss Carps game here

[CARPEDIEM]

For now it must be just a bmp, there's no size limit but the ideal would be 1024x768 and it can have all the colours you want.<br>

[Pelorus]

One more thing: what scale?<br><br>How much area is that to represent?<br><br>

[CARPEDIEM]

scale?<br>i don't know... a map like the one on the screenshot, with small details i guess. since the airship  you see there is supposed to look big.<br>

[Fredrik Malmer]

Why don't you use tiles instead of a bitmap (like warcraft 2 does)? Then you don't limit the level size in the same way, and memory requirements are much less.<br><br>As for that command center...it looks as if the angle of the image is all wrong.<br><br>// Fredrik<br>

[randall]

Tiles tend get really repetitive and you end up with a map looking like WarCraft. Which is okay, but it's a bit dated.<br><br>With a HUGE tile library like Starcraft and Diablo it looks much better. But the file size just for the tiles is massive- much too big for PocketPC.<br><br>So I am still grateful that Carpe decided to use a single large bitmap, especially when he can take advantage of JPEG compression. It will really make the 16-bit screen look good.<br><br>

[Moose or Chuck]

And then we could have a base color replica of the map the is for clipping, buildable area, and resources. Sounds good to me. (That was mentioned before, wasn't it?)

[randall]

About a million years ago I wrote a VB game engine that used two BMP files- one was the background that the players saw onscreen. The second was a 4-bit bitmap that mapped out the obstacles and places where the player could/couldn't go. Internally, the engine would monitor the players position with the 4-bit bitmap and DRAW to the 16-bit bitmap.<br><br>This is kind of how the Commandos engine works.<br><br>Basically it kept the player from walking into BLACK areas (solid obstacle), and killed the player if they stood in the BLUE areas too long (water- he couldn't swim ). There were something like 12 surface flags in all even though it could have supported 16.<br><br>There is alot you can do with the surface flags other than just use them as obstacle data.<br><br>It was very simplistic, but it worked very well with VB. C++ would be even better.<br><br>Last modification: randall - 04/23/01 at 04:05:57

[Paul]

The same system is used with the Indiana Java engine which i happen to like playing

[randall]

The Indiana Java engine? I haven't heard of that. I'll have to look it up.

[Paul]

its at java.indy3d.net i think

[Malmer]

Announcement!<br><br>Just wanted to tell you guys that me and Carpediem has teamed up to develop the RTS (real time strategy) discussed in this thread. <br><br>So why did I join? Well, I have experience with PocketPC development (I've coded the platform game ) and I had a demo of some nice stuff that Carpediem thought would work great in the game. What it is we won't tell you now. *smile*...<br><br>Anyways, we have some pretty nice ideas on how to proceed with the game design, and we are definately moving forward. The game goes under the temporary name "Argentum", but that might change as the game is closing in on the launch date. The launch date, by the way, is not set. We'll get back on this matter when we know more.<br><br>The game's story isn't decided upon yet, but there will be one . We appologize to all you "quakers" who prefer games with less story and the more body parts . Now don't get nervous. We will focus most of our time on the actual game.<br><br>Since all you people love modifying your games we are happy to say that we will do our best to make the game very mod-friendly. No promises though.<br><br>// Fredrik Malmer<br><br>PS. For all you people who complained about the graphics beeing stolen from Starcraft: That was just a test of the engine and Carpediem wanted some kind of map so he used a starcraft map as background. The real game won't use starcraft graphics. DS.

[Pelorus]

I'm keen, write backstories ALL the time, would even try my hand at maps if there was more detail on what was needed (did a few Myth II maps...in the old days...not scripting though...just drawing)<br><br>Can't....wait...<br>

[Moose or Chuck]

well whens a final version of weeboo coming out, i enjoyed that furry rabbit

[Malmer]

About weeboo: I'll try to work on both games. As weeboo is now it actually only remains the level design, and that takes a while. Bear with me. I've spend a lot of time on the graphic routines recently, so that is why I haven't had time to create levels. Either way, weeboo might settle with one big level per zone, instead of 3 per zone as planned.<br><br>Now back to Argentum. It's what this thread is about. We're merging sourcecodes now, and we might be able to actually produce a screenshot somewhere in the near future. Problem is that we havn't design our units yet, so they might look a bit crappy <br><br>// Fredrik<br>

[Malmer]

Addition to previous post:<br>Since Carpediem is the Argentum team leader I will have time to put in some Weeboo time in between.<br>