Game Maker Help Thread (Post your Qs here!)

[dislekcia]

1.0 and 1000.0, I set it to 1.0 and 10.0 and still had "Z-fighting"

Um. If you could still see everything you were rendering at those distances, then one of two things is happening: Either you're rendering everything on a seriously small scale (in which case I'd expect a near clipping plane of 1 to slice out half your visible space) or somehow your clipping planes are being set somewhere else to completely different values. The second explanation might also help with why on earth your Z-buffer appears not to be doing what it should be doing.

[edg3]

I still get the issue when I have a view distance of 10.0 (16x2 triangles drawn for terrain), I set the clipping distance only once in the entire solution. I modified my scale from 10x per square making it smaller and smaller, using arbitrary increments at times to see how small I would have to go to get rid of this "Z-fighting".

Ive found that when I create the map, if I sort the vertices and select the correct vertices for the direction Im facing I can get rid of the effect, and despite it seeming like I have Z-buffering enabled I dont think it actually is considering my manual sorting can "fix" the problem.

[Nael_Oran]

ok well heres my situation... the post rule is on me cause im new...

Im working - or at least trying to - on a game that has some of the final fantasy aspects to it, but i've hit a bump. I need to find a way to randomly generate rooms similar to how Desktop Dungeons does theirs. Im using the lite versions and im sure i can do what i need with that alone, but i need somehelp. ive got a programmers headache and i cant even write a line of code yet! Honestly, im entirely new to writing code. I want to do it myself, but as of now, i suck... so if someone could e-mail me with some help? (NAPittbull_4_ever@yahoo.com)

Thanks..
Your furry programmer,

Nael

[dislekcia]

ok well heres my situation... the post rule is on me cause im new...

Im working - or at least trying to - on a game that has some of the final fantasy aspects to it, but i've hit a bump. I need to find a way to randomly generate rooms similar to how Desktop Dungeons does theirs. Im using the lite versions and im sure i can do what i need with that alone, but i need somehelp. ive got a programmers headache and i cant even write a line of code yet! Honestly, im entirely new to writing code. I want to do it myself, but as of now, i suck... so if someone could e-mail me with some help? (NAPittbull_4_ever@yahoo.com)

Welcome to the forums :)

Procedural generation can be a lot of fun to get working and it can give games a little something new every time, but it's not just something you drop in and have it work. The first thing you need to do is figure out what sorts of things you want to generate: Are we talking a single screen here? Do you want large rooms that are connected by twisting corridors, ala rogue? Would you rather want a Desktop Dungeons style crisscrossing of straight hallways? Nail down what you're looking for first and then we can start working on the algorithms that will give you that.

The second thing you need to do is figure out how you're going to store your maps. Because you need to do that somehow, you won't get to place tiles in the editor or anything like that, so you're going to have to have some sort of structure that keeps track of everything. DD's GM version has a 2D array that stores a state for each tile in the grid that makes up a level. DD's Unity version is a little more complicated, but makes it easier to create different sorts of levels.

So what sort of stuff do you want to randomly generate?

[Nael_Oran]

Firstly thanks, and im glad to be here.

Now, I'm looking to generate rooms Like DD, but perhaps i should explain the game more...

The object of the game is to defeat all 4 bosses (not counting the final) and collect 4 crystals.

-Key-
Portals(Purple) - transfer a player from one room to another in a forward fashion
Portals(Red) - Like the above, but only to the previous room.
Crystals - Upon acquisition the player is given a boost in stats and abilities. (stats and abilities have yet to be worked out)
Boss - Like the name implies, this character controls the regions that the player must travel through.
Final Boss - Similar to the above, but more powerful and perhaps a little different.

I have multiple rooms in game maker that are connected like stages. Use of a Portal object would transfer a player from one room to another. every 3rd room (excluding the tutorial that i hope to include and is NOT randomly generated) there will be a lock set on the portal that can only be opened after a crystal is obtained. In order to obtain the crystal, one must defeat a boss at an altar. Namely walls, enemies, and the players spawn point are what i am looking to generate. Making the sprites for such is not hard at all (thank Ye Tile Studio). this is only a prototype of my main goal, which i will attempt once i have more experience.

So, the Main goal here is rougelike, single screen, 2d, with rooms that you can transfer to to give the game length.
Having the crisscrossing halls is optional. i don't want to bite off DD too much. Aaand Map storage... Ill have to look into that. I never expected to have this dropped into my lap. I want to work for it so i can say: "Hell yeah. I did that."

Alas, Sleep is needed now, so i shall.

[Friar Tuck]

This question is not game maker associated, but it is related to game currently in production by me. When I can create my own thread I shall post details off the game as when input is needed.

Now onto my question:
Say for instance you have created an engine with simple movement mechanics is it possible to import object files into it, or should I write the whole thing from scratch.

How would one do that?
I am currently an engineering student and I am proficient in c++ and pascal languages.

[dislekcia]

Now onto my question:
Say for instance you have created an engine with simple movement mechanics is it possible to import object files into it, or should I write the whole thing from scratch.

How would one do that?
I am currently an engineering student and I am proficient in c++ and pascal languages.

No. Once you've written the movement system in a game engine, you can never go back and write anything that would read data files and/or display meshes. Looks like you did it in the wrong order and now it's ruined. Probably a good idea to start from scratch and hope you don't mess it up this time...

Seriously, why are you writing a game engine from scratch? If you're planning to learn how game engines work, you need to study some existing ones first to find out how they solve the particular problems they needed to. If you're planning to actually build a game, writing an engine "first" is the worst possible thing you could do. Either way, get some existing engines and poke them. That'll help.

[edg3]

I have to disagree with dis here, you can always layer the graphics on top of your current code (though it wont be great and chances are you will find that you would rather start from scratch at some later stage). The way I see it we have someone here who wants to make game X but doesn't know where to start for graphics, and has already thought about some of the game play.

I would recommend you look at SDL if you are looking to work in 2D, or Unity if you want to work in 3D. (Unity might require some modifications to your movement system).

Just for clarity, I think there is a mix up with the use of "engine" here, the movement code I write for my game I call part of my game's "engine" but I use it in conjunction with a graphics engine to show things to the player. You dont have to build them as a single unit.

[Friar Tuck]

No. Once you've written the movement system in a game engine, you can never go back and write anything that would read data files and/or display meshes. Looks like you did it in the wrong order and now it's ruined. Probably a good idea to start from scratch and hope you don't mess it up this time...

Seriously, why are you writing a game engine from scratch? If you're planning to learn how game engines work, you need to study some existing ones first to find out how they solve the particular problems they needed to. If you're planning to actually build a game, writing an engine "first" is the worst possible thing you could do. Either way, get some existing engines and poke them. That'll help.

I have to disagree with dis here, you can always layer the graphics on top of your current code (though it wont be great and chances are you will find that you would rather start from scratch at some later stage). The way I see it we have someone here who wants to make game X but doesn't know where to start for graphics, and has already thought about some of the game play.

I would recommend you look at SDL if you are looking to work in 2D, or Unity if you want to work in 3D. (Unity might require some modifications to your movement system).

Just for clarity, I think there is a mix up with the use of "engine" here, the movement code I write for my game I call part of my game's "engine" but I use it in conjunction with a graphics engine to show things to the player. You dont have to build them as a single unit.

One must never say one cannot learn out of one mistakes.
Where would one start with the game?
The game planning is complete like what would the player do and how everything will fit into each other. The story is complete as well. The game type is a 3D role playing game.
Now what to do next, I thought to sort out the movement and how objects would react with the player in the world and then to add the graphics. (As this is wrong I shall start fresh, which I don’t mind)

I looked at other game engines like the CryEngine 3, Unreal Engine, Unity 3D. Unity has no download link (I could not found one).


Thanks for your help

[edg3]

Unity download link is on the top right of the page.

[Friar Tuck]

Unity download link is on the top right of the page.

It goes to this page where there is no link.

[Friar Tuck]

It goes to this page where there is no link.

I was using Google Chrome with Kaspersky and it had certificate errors, so thanks, is shall have a working beta in a few months.

[dislekcia]

I have to disagree with dis here, you can always layer the graphics on top of your current code (though it wont be great and chances are you will find that you would rather start from scratch at some later stage). The way I see it we have someone here who wants to make game X but doesn't know where to start for graphics, and has already thought about some of the game play.

Really? Are you going to force me to use sarcasm tags in future?

One must never say one cannot learn out of one mistakes.
Where would one start with the game?

The typical progression path is as follows:
Try to build a really large game with little experience, focus on story and paper design, never finish game.
Try again with a smaller game, fail at that too.
Try again with an even smaller game, get reasonably close to something playable.
Try again with an even tinier game, get something playable, learn what quick iteration and prototyping give you access to, start building on your understanding of games.
Try slightly bigger games, build skills, get a job :)

This whole thing only works if you don't give up at step 1. Unity is a good choice, but I recommend you do as many Unity tutorials as you can find right now, even ones that don't produce RPGs, just to learn the engine's ins and outs properly. It will not be time poorly spent.

[The Dash]

Whoo! Working on a prototype again after more than a year! So I need some help with the logic here, maybe its just late, but i cant figure out why this isnt working:


neighbours is a map that stores nearby nodes where the key = distance, value = node_id
connections is a list of nodes that this node is connected to

            ind = ds_map_find_first(neighbours); // Get the nearest neighbour
            val = ds_map_find_value(neighbours, ind); // Get its ID
            ds_map_delete(neighbours, ind); // Its been processed, so it is no longer a neighbour
            
            if (((val.owner == 0) or (val.owner == 1)) and //if there is no owner or it is owned by the player
                        (ds_list_find_index(connections, val) < 0) {  // if we're not already connected,  /**** this line doesnt seem to work correctly ****/
                    
                    ds_list_add(connections, val) // connect to it
                    numConnections += 1
                    
                    ds_list_add(val.connections, self) // add this node to the new node
                    val.numConnections += 1
                    val.owner = 1 // affirm that we now own it
            }

So if I have two nodes: Bob and Andy.
Bob connects to Andy fine
Andy then connects to Bob, even though they're already connected

[SkinkLizzard]

I can't see any problems other than it seems you're missing one bracket on the end of the if evaluation part, that and I have no idea how
gamemaker handles multiline evaluations, Imo stick it all on one line as well.

[dislekcia]

Clean up your logic a bit, make the things you're evaluating be individual terms so that you can test them in debug in case one is failing for some reason:

I don't understand the owner line, that doesn't seem like it'd be different? Why is it 1 or 0?

[dislekcia]

Clean up your logic a bit, make the things you're evaluating be individual terms so that you can test them in debug in case one is failing for some reason:

 if ((not owned) and (not connected)) ...

I'm pretty sure it's breaking because you multiple lined it with the incorrect number of brackets.

I don't understand the owner line, that doesn't seem like it'd be different? Why is it 1 or 0?

[charly]

Hey guys, I'm interested in learning to program games. I am confused whether I should go straight to C++ our if I should start if on something basic. Could you guys please point me in the direction of a book for complete beginners on amazon.co.uk thanks in advance

[edg3]

Hey guys, I'm interested in learning to program games. I am confused whether I should go straight to C++ our if I should start if on something basic. Could you guys please point me in the direction of a book for complete beginners on amazon.co.uk thanks in advance

Luckily I was browsing the forum to get some info so I saw this post! :)

The general rule is always start somewhere simple. If you know a programming language you can find a game development library that will work with that language, and they usually have a few decent tutorials to get you up and running. If you cannot find a game library that seems within your scope, or you are not yet confident enough in your own ability I would recommend you use a tool like Game Maker (Lite version is free) or Unity 3D, both of which allow you to do a lot with the least amount of programming, and then you can supplement your work with custom code and learn (or improve) your programming skills through their built in scripting systems.

It is often a lot more work getting things working when using a language with a specific library, but you will learn a lot getting your game done that way, you might just need more patience for that though. For instance even though I had used python and pygame, as well as delphi, quite extensively before getting into game development I found it a lot easier to learn to make games using Game Maker, which is actually worth every $1 you would spend on the full version when you need the "Pro" version features, but that gives you so much in the "Lite" version that you can finish many complex games in it.

TL;DR: Make some games in Game Maker, then you can move to a language and library that you like.

[charly]

Luckily I was browsing the forum to get some info so I saw this post! :)

The general rule is always start somewhere simple. If you know a programming language you can find a game development library that will work with that language, and they usually have a few decent tutorials to get you up and running. If you cannot find a game library that seems within your scope, or you are not yet confident enough in your own ability I would recommend you use a tool like Game Maker (Lite version is free) or Unity 3D, both of which allow you to do a lot with the least amount of programming, and then you can supplement your work with custom code and learn (or improve) your programming skills through their built in scripting systems.

It is often a lot more work getting things working when using a language with a specific library, but you will learn a lot getting your game done that way, you might just need more patience for that though. For instance even though I had used python and pygame, as well as delphi, quite extensively before getting into game development I found it a lot easier to learn to make games using Game Maker, which is actually worth every $1 you would spend on the full version when you need the "Pro" version features, but that gives you so much in the "Lite" version that you can finish many complex games in it.

TL;DR: Make some games in Game Maker, then you can move to a language and library that you like.

Thanks man. I am a very computer literate person and I am very persevering. Would you still recommend trying something like game maker first?

EDIT: I'm busy reading through this thread from the beginning and it sounds as if you can do a lot in GM. I'm just worried that C++ might not be anything like GM. Is it?