XFTW – Independent Study Project for Richard Jones

I finished the program to test all of the animations. I was quite pleased that I was able to optimize the code so that it takes up far less space than the other animation test used for only the one tank. It requires a massive two dimensional array of BITMAPS (20×104) but seems to work fine and with no slowing down at all. Seeing as how the logic is only affecting two tiles at a time, I feel that the game is going to be able to run smoothly when the screen is filled with units and other such things. The only problem I might have is with units with alternate fire animations. I think that I will have to make those units occupy the lower array values and create a second array of only the alternate fire bitmaps. The minority of the units have alternate fire modes so it would not make sense to add 64 extra frames to each sprite sheet on behalf of three units.

Lemon Lime Test Part 2

*Working like a Thai hooker    Its working.

As for the schedule of events, now that the test program is working, I need to get some sprites in there to test. I plan on having automated movements and attack destination (explosions) at some point to aid in integrating the combat logic. But, the main goal is to get all 20 units into the test program. So far I have 8 which means I need to finish 12 before the end of the semester. If I do 2 a week I will finish before the 12th of December but most likely I will be doing 3 week. If I do 2 a week, I will be using thanksgiving break to work on extras to just get them out of the way. Also it would give me time to work out any animation bugs I find that annoy me.

So far I have only shown units from one army in my game, the “human army of generic description”. Now I would like to show two infantry units, thats right, infantry units for the biogen army. Creatures once human, now genetically enhanced to equal a score of men on the battlefield. They pilot advanced robotic suits which augment their incredible power and reflexes. Can wave after wave of human sacrifice and armored columns stop these inhuman warriors?

Biogen Battlesuit:

carries a heavy machine gun equipped with armor piercing rounds for dealing with enemy infantry and incorporates a high powered railgun, effective against light vehicles.

Biogen Annihilator

equipped with shoulder mounted rocket launchers carrying high density warheads capable of punching through any amount of armor at the sacrifice of explosive power. Highly effective against vehicles.

Artillery Tank!!!

Infantry ready to go!

Siege Tank!!!!

And a weak little auto turret…

Also, currently in progress… The Commander!

Own some face with the Siege Tank!  If you treat everything to scale (compared to the infantry), the size of the barrel’s diameter is about 3 feet!

So, for our little meeting on Oct17th, I plan on having 2 more units done/ finished/completed/ created/ dinner/ finite/ error-less/ perfect/saucy. If all goes according to plan however, I will try for four more unis as opposed to 2. Also, I will be entering more units into the Lemon Lime test program (which apparently wasn’t working for everyone)

Get it? Anyway, I made a program to test the animations for all of the sprites. I tried to optimize it so that it will be easier for me to add sprite pages to it but right now I haven’t determined how I lay out my sprites and potential problems with certain (infantry) units requiring more animations/space.

Here is the zip file

I don’t think it uses anything other than allegro so getting the allegro libraries should be the only thing one would have to update on DevC++. It just shows the Assault Tank right now. Arrows to move, ‘A’ and ‘D’ to rotate, space to fire. I might make the program more complex later, a testing ground for movement algorithms perhaps.

It is a nightmare.  Pixels don’t handle all of the nuances of the human body very accurately and it bothers me to some degree.  Luckily I know when to draw the line and not flip out and break everything in arm’s reach when this immovable wall is met with my not so unstoppable force of will.

Despite this, I have all of the infantry sprites drawn, just not in formation.  That is a whole situation all on its own though now that the drawing of the individual infantrymen (no women in this game, sorry folks) is complete.  They take 8 frames of animation to move but with my super patented (not really) method of performing unit animations, I don’t see this being a problem compared to the tank’s 6 or the units I plan to do with even less (teleporting!!!1!!!1).

*note that teleporting is not in Mozilla’s dictionary.  Some nerd somewhere just killed himself.