FlameThrower: Proposed Modification

TechnoTone · Post by **TechnoTone** » 05 Sep 2006, 11:45

Argh wrote:I am apparantly too much of a C++ newbie to understand what an "overloaded function" is, or why it won't take "7 arguments".

An overloaded function is one that has multiple definitions, each with different parameters. So, you could have a function with 2 different definitions, one that accepts just a single string parameter and a second variant that accepts a string and an int parameter, for example.

The error you're getting means you are calling a function and providing 7 parameters to it but there is no definition for that function that accepts 7 parameters. Without knowing exactly what you've changed I can't help any more - plus I'm a c# delevoper not a C++ developer so I don't fully undersand the code anyway.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 05 Sep 2006, 12:06

Ah... so maybe the functions have the number of arguments that they support defined in the main WeaponDefHandler code, or something. It's gotta be something like that- and I have to call the variables color and color2, which are originally created by WeaponDefHandler... hmmm. Thank you for the explanation, that was a lot more useful, in two paragraphs, than anything I read online

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 05 Sep 2006, 12:24

Uhh, what line is the error on?

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 05 Sep 2006, 13:06

Wooooot!

I got it to compile. It turns out... I'm just stupid, and can't read. The problem was with FlameThrower.cpp, not FlameProjectile, which is what I was butting my head against

Sooooo... now to figure out if I can make this, ah... un-buggy... right now, I have a bright-red flame... it's not transitioning right, yet, and while it's taking a color, it's not taking my custom colors... more work needed...

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 05 Sep 2006, 14:33

Early days. Not quite where I want it... yet. But it's working

Sheekel · Post by **Sheekel** » 05 Sep 2006, 19:09

It looks good. But it doesnt look like a flamethrower. Could be a new weapon type though

AF · Post by AF » 05 Sep 2006, 19:32

It looks like something a wizard or mage would use as a magic weapon....

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 05 Sep 2006, 19:37

Needs some random color deviation if that's possible.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 05 Sep 2006, 19:49

Sparkles!

Call it a light magic tower and you're done

.

Post by **ILMTitan** » 06 Sep 2006, 06:09

Looks good, Argh. One note about C++ style. It is generally a good idea to put a space after commas in an argument list for much greater legibility.

Code: Select all

CFlameProjectile(const float3& pos,const float3& speed,const float3& spread,CUnit* owner,const DamageArray& damages,const float3& color,const float3& color2,WeaponDef *weaponDef,int ttl=50);

is easier to read as

Code: Select all

CFlameProjectile(const float3& pos, const float3& speed, const float3& spread, CUnit* owner, const DamageArray& damages, const float3& color, const float3& color2, WeaponDef *weaponDef, int ttl=50);

That said, you're doing good things.

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 06 Sep 2006, 06:24

Or even

Code: Select all

CFlameProjectile(const float3& pos,
                         const float3& speed,
                         const float3& spread, 
                         CUnit* owner,
                         const DamageArray& damages, 
                         const float3& color,
                         const float3& color2,
                         WeaponDef *weaponDef,
                         int ttl=50);

For uber readability.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:13

Almost there. A lot of pureblind stupidity on my part, but hey, who said that jumping into C++ without a manual and then trying to pull of a sophisticated visual effect in Spring would be easy?

Basically, I ran into several stumbling blocks. First was figuring out how variables are getting read into Spring by TDFParser.cpp. Second was figuring out how they get read by WeaponDefHandler.cpp, and then passed to a given Weapon ID. Lastly, I had to figure out how to make an elegant color-shifting algorithm.

What I have here is very elegant, and involves very few steps. I dunno if there's a more efficient way of achieving this goal, but I don't think so. While I was doing things, I also coded into the current WeaponDefHandler.cpp code a pair of default values... to preserve current FlameThrowers and keep backwards compatibility! This really wasn't very hard, once I knew what I was doing, but first I had to achieve a lot've hard-knocks experience with dead ends and various other bits of stupidity.

The final patch, therefore, modifies five files in the current source. I'll be releasing them as soon as I get done with my tweaking- mainly, I'm getting speed tweaked out to work well.

Here's a current sample of where this is at, though- as you can see, it's doing a shift from Green to Red, but not fast enough for the typical distances a FlameThrower uses:

So... it's almost done. Just need to make sure it shifts a little faster. It uses very little code, and the code it is using is very fast, so I think it'll be accepted by the Spring devs.

Machiosabre · Post by **Machiosabre** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:25

not much of a flamethrower but it looks like great fireworks

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:39

Looking good. What variables can we controll? All of them I hope.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:40

Don't worry. The defaults will look like a flamethrower. I just needed to get the final changes done so that it sorts the colors right. Right now, it's averaging them, and I need it to actually do a declining average. Almost got that problem solved, just need to proof it for divide-by-zero.

And you will be able to control the following(for now):

Texture1, RGBcolor, RGBcolor2, Size (this is the starting size), SizeGrowth, plus all of the variables used in common by all Weapons.

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 06 Sep 2006, 12:56

Just two colours?

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 06 Sep 2006, 13:03

Yes, but it will do a reducing average between them, which is better than the current version, which does three colors at static time intervals. IOW, it'll do a very smooth transition between two RGB values. Which is a lot better than what the current code does.

To add more colors, I'd have to add new categories to TDFParser, WeaponDefHandler, and other sections, and the chances of this getting rejected simply on the grounds that I'm a newbie and am probably screwing something up somewhere are pretty high

Keep in mind that no weapon in Spring has more than two control color values, currently. Adding new ones is fairly trivial, if you know what you're doing, but I'm proceeding very, very carefully here, after my initial mistakes. The code involved references a lot've other code that's pretty darn complicated- there are multiple layers involved.

Think of this as my baby-steps towards being able to do more complex things here.

TechnoTone · Post by **TechnoTone** » 06 Sep 2006, 13:19

Out of curiosity - what dev environment are you using? Was it easy to set up?

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 06 Sep 2006, 13:22

TechnoTone wrote:Out of curiosity - what dev environment are you using? Was it easy to set up?

Can't say on the first one, but the second is a resounding no.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 06 Sep 2006, 13:24

VC++ Express Edition. And no, it wasn't easy to set up. Probably easy for coders, yes... for me, it was, as JC warned me, a "long road".

Spring RTS Engine

FlameThrower: Proposed Modification