Game Maker Help Thread (Post your Qs here!)

[Tr00jg]

I had this problem with Roach Toaster 2 too. I eventually figured out how to circumvent it with a nifty program.

I am not sure if this is precisely your problem, but it helped for me. I made a new object (called MouseMask). This object travels on the "bottom/world" plane according to where your mouse "should" be when projected to there. Now how DO you project it to there?

Step Event:

x=Camera.x + (mouse_x-Camera.x)*CameraHeight/MousePlaneHeight;
and vice versa for x.

This will "project" MouseMask to the bottom plane. Thus now your "mouse" isn't still technically there, but this object is. So now you just have to do checks via that object.

Say you want to click on something with your mouse, you do Event Global Left Released and just check if MouseMask is at its position.

I don't know how to "get" the height of the mouse plane, you just have to play around with numbers. I think it is the "height" of the room/view though. That is what mine is.

Here is the program to help you:

>Your mouse travels on the "mouse" plane. If extended from the camera to the "world" plane, that is where you WANT your mouse (ie in this case MouseMask) to be.

Controls:
Up, down - changes height of mouse plane

Left, Right - changes "position" of the mouse.

5kb
http://www.shotbeakgames.za.net/CamTestThing.gm6

Thus, the direction for your mech should point to MouseMask.

Hope that helped!

[Gazza_N]

Thanks Tr00jg, much appreciated. I'll take a look. The only problem that might crop up is that I'm looking at my world from an isometric perspective, not a top-down one. As a result, my view corners and my mouseplane corners probably won't correlate. Still, I'll give your method a shot.

Something else just occurred to me - in Black and White, your mouse cursor existed as an object in 3D space (the "hand of god"). Why can't I use the same idea for a targeting cursor? It's not ideal, and it may take getting used to, but it'll certainly cut out a lot of complexity!

teh_3dit: I've prototyped the 3D object cursor, and it works well. Unless any niggles come up, this is what I'll be using for now. Thanks for the advice, everyone! :D

[dislekcia]

Tr00jg's solution is pretty much a special case: The maths decomposes down to a few easy operations based on screen x and y because the matrix is perpendicular.

I'd suggest re-deriving your projection matrix based on what you're inputting (on paper) and see if you can get a similar decomposition to happen. Chances are that you'll also get it down to a few operations with some magic numbers for sin and cos angles as long as you keep your iso angle constant.

-D

[Tr00jg]

Tr00jg's solution is pretty much a special case: The maths decomposes down to a few easy operations based on screen x and y because the matrix is perpendicular.
-D

True...

Hey, Gazza_N did you use my method?

[Gazza_N]

Heh, no. Sorry. ;) As Dis says, your solution is only applicable to a top-down perspective. Since mine is isometric, the view of the room isn't rectangular, it's trapezoidal. What I've done for now is create a cursor object that exists in 3D space, is controlled by the mouse, but isn't linked at all to the main Windows cursor position except to detect mouse movement. It works surprisingly well, although I'm still working on constraining it properly. I'm also going to try taking Dis up on his suggestion that I derive a special-case alg of my own for cursor placement if I have more problems. Gives me an opportunity to use some long-dormant matrix maths, if nothing else. ;)

[Cyberninja]

Edit: Doh! >.< I uploaded the wrong version. Nevermind.

[01DT!m3r]

a friend and I , are designing an MMO using game maker but we are having a little problem giving each player a unique id so they can write into data that the host can then read .if anyone has some code or ideas please help!

[01DT!m3r]

oh and does anyone know any good applications that i can use to make really awesomerific looking spriter thanks :-)

[edg3]

What my MUD is going to use is a system comprising of 2 databases, and when you register you are given rights to a single line in the database (the communication database) and what you do is put there for my server app to check what you did, and then provide output, all using csv (comma separated values).

I believe the type of access is called user level access, and all the client would do is connect to the database.

In your case Im assuming you would rather want it so they dont have direct access to any database, so then you could have a table and use it to store onlne players details (IP, username, password) that they're connected with, and using that you could have unique ID's automatically made for you, or create your own primary key for more customised Logon/User ID's.

I hope I have helped a little bit.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, depending on what language you use you could use linked lists, and therefore not need a database! I didnt think about it before because I still know hardly anything about them, and havent looked at them enough to know what theyre all about.

If you are using C++:
cprogramming

[dislekcia]

a friend and I , are designing an MMO using game maker but we are having a little problem giving each player a unique id so they can write into data that the host can then read .if anyone has some code or ideas please help!

The easiest way to ensure the each connected player has a unique ID is to have the server give them that ID. The logic flow is rather simple, assuming the server is running:

• Player starts game on their machine, henceforth called the client.
• Client connects to server, client joins the correct session.
• Client sends a special message to the server, asking for a unique ID. You can't use GM's data write/read for this because you have no "safe" slot to put it in (what if multiple clients ask at the same time?), so you need to use messages. Read up on them in the GM help.
• Server generates a unique ID for the client, sets up storage for that client and links that ID to the client's address (the mplay commands can get player connection IDs too).
• Server sends unique ID back to only that client, not broadcast data.
• Client receives ID, tags all future messages with it.
• Now your client can do actual message passing, like logging on, playing, etc.

Personally I recommend starting your exploration of network programming with a simpler game than an MMO, but it's your call. I think you'll find that networking is a lot more complicated than it sounds... That doesn't mean that you can't do it, just that you need to work your way up to doing it on such a large scale.

-D

[01DT!m3r]

thanks guys for all your support . . . i will definetly be asking more or ( and helping as much as possible) i have made some simple death match type games with GM but no more than two players . . . THANKS AGAIN . . ps if anyone uses mxit please notify me and we can keep in touch . . . thanks:-)

[01DT!m3r]

i am almost done with a few games of mine but have no where to upload them so that i can get feedback from the community . . . any suggestions?

[cairnswm]

http://www.gamedev.za.net/filecloset/

[01DT!m3r]

thanks alot . . . i will be posting i game i was working on for the game.dev contest 15 . . . but didnt meet the deadline cause of school :-( . . thanks again . . . oh and i have heard you that there are sometimes game.dev LANs . . . . please someone post when the next one will be thanks

[ShadowMaster]

thanks alot . . . i will be posting i game i was working on for the game.dev contest 15 . . . but didnt meet the deadline cause of school :-( . . thanks again . . . oh and i have heard you that there are sometimes game.dev LANs . . . . please someone post when the next one will be thanks

[Rant]
Please, I beg you, use capital letters and please note ellipses(3 fullstops) are only used when you want to show an incomplete idea or want to get someone to think. In all other cases use just one fullstop.

For smilies leave out the hyphens and they become way cooler. ;)

[/Rant]

Anyway congrats on finding us and I hope you enjoy your stay. Sorry for sounding rough, but I had to strain my eyes to read your post and in any case good langauge never hurt anyone. ;)

[01DT!m3r]

No problem Shadow master .Sorry about that but those last few posts were done with my phone and i find it easier to type like that on my phone .SORRY guys for any icnovenience(I hope that is spelt right.)i will definetly enjoy the forums thanks guys!

[SkinkLizzard]

hey just as a question about lans kinda need to know what area you're in :)

[ShadowMaster]

No problem Shadow master .Sorry about that but those last few posts were done with my phone and i find it easier to type like that on my phone .SORRY guys for any icnovenience(I hope that is spelt right.)i will definetly enjoy the forums thanks guys!

No, it's fine, I understand typing on a cellphone is difficult and constantly switching between upper and lowercase doesn't make it any better. And good luck with your MMO.

[01DT!m3r]

thanks.oh um skinklizzard i am in weltevreden , west of Johannesburg I think , i am about 5km from from allen glen high school if that helps in the Roodepoort area

[SkinkLizzard]

ah ok joburg regionish then that would be fengol or dislekcia who arrange the lans I think