Spring RTS + RenPy (storytelling engine) = better singleplay

[velteyn]

I'm a pro java/C# programmer (for businesses apps blearch) with the passion for game engines , I have Torque 3D game engine (C++) studio full license only for hobby. (Tons of money wasted and zero games made )

[PicassoCT]

You can do almost anything with LUA, so imo someone should code a storytelling API instead.

But there are a couple of things that you probably cannot do at the moment, and one of those would be video cutscenes.

Even, if this seems heresy, that is not.. accurate. We have video, blink player support(knorke said it was there, at least in 84.). And video is secondary anyway, all you need is cameracontroll ingame (zerok) and a controll over what the unit does during the cutscene (unitposer) + sounds (lua) so its the usual spring situation. We are better equiped then most but the tools are allover the place and the documentation is temporary unavailable everytime one of the oldgamedevs goes offline.

[Anarchid]

We have video, blink player support(knorke said it was there, at least in 84.).

If nobody knows how to use it, it doesn't exist.

[PicassoCT]

and therefore a new job specification was founded: Feature Archeology.

Hand me the hat and the whip, i shall bring you the implimentation from sourcefiles long forgotten...

[smoth]

and therefore a new job specification was founded: Feature Archeology.

Hand me the hat and the whip, i shall bring you the implimentation from sourcefiles long forgotten...

That feature belongs in a museum!


Picasso there is no way to document the features like all the stuff you listed in your earlier post to cover say a Warcraft style cutscene manager. Sire someone could document the base lua features but documentation takes a lot of work and often stuff is frequently supplanted. So the author will haves wasted 2x as much time!

Now something like chili, lups, iceui, redui have been fairly completed, yeah, it is getting about time to document.

For example had I written a detailed tutorial/documentation for the map options code I did... I would have wasted time because as I was readying to do that, jk put out an official version which supplanted the map options code! So I would have wasted time doing said documentation.

Spring is not click&create or gamemaker.

You lot should stop demanding documentation attitudes of entitlement piss me off more than anything! Be grateful you have what you do! Don't get me wrong, I fully plan on feeding the wiki to reduce the chili curve but this attitude of people making incesent noise about documentation yet doing none pisses me off! you know things now picasso, do you feed the wiki? Be a part of the solution!

[Anarchid]

For example had I written a detailed tutorial/documentation for the map options code I did... I would have wasted time because as I was readying to do that, jk put out an official version which supplanted the map options code! So I would have wasted time doing said documentation.

Inline documentation. Even lua has it. Luadoc propaganda insertion compete, proceeding with further targets.

[KaiserJ]

video cutscenes.

actually i thought we could have those; i might be totally off the mark but maybe it was lurker making it possible a few years ago, possibly for s44 (but yeah maybe my mind is playing tricks on me)

[PicassoCT]

means, youve gotto render those the pixarway, or do cc-realtime. Panda as Grts-Tanya! :D

Srsly, ingame cutscenes are what is closest to the set of allready acquired devabilitys. Disregard smoth, disliking gamemaker, look on how easy acess has filled whole boards, and how those 300 mappers producing 3000 maps have turned into everything possible.

Its the actuall strength of open source. Cutting that root off (which can easily be done, just recquire java knowledge to make minecrafttexturepacks and moving off blocks).. and you would see it.
Sure the professionals always are louder, hanging around and producing xtimes better results. But they aint the true power source.

Wow, did i just negate my own statements power with that? Paradoxpicasso, i dont like your OPinIon

[smoth]

For example had I written a detailed tutorial/documentation for the map options code I did... I would have wasted time because as I was readying to do that, jk put out an official version which supplanted the map options code! So I would have wasted time doing said documentation.

Inline documentation. Even lua has it. Luadoc propaganda insertion compete, proceeding with further targets.

you think too much like a coder. There is no solution file, the files and copying them to the right directories etc is where people go pants on head retarded. The issue of what to call from where doesn't even begin to cover it. Even if I bothered to comment the tops of each function that doesn't spoonfeed shit enough for people around here. That requires understanding how to get the docs to generate and then them being able to make sense of function calls. Let alone file structures.

[Anarchid]

That requires understanding how to get the docs to generate and then them being able to make sense of function calls. Let alone file structures.

Nothing really preventing you from making docblocks for files,too. Like, describing where it should be.

That requires understanding how to get the docs to generate and then them being able to make sense of function calls

Typically you'd just add another click ('generate docs') into your build process, and then all those spoonfeed-requiring ppl you seem to abhor so would get at least something better than just RTFS, without any actual effort.

On the other side, wriitng a full-blown, noob-friendly, human-readable manual as a side-project will usually be done by someone who has no initial idea on how the thing works, and thus will have to RTFS it for the noobs. Was this guy to have some at least dry and technical documentation on hand, the process would be significantly easier.

(the other candidate for writing documenation is, of course, the original developer who made the thing. but we can see where this got us: RTFS.)

[smoth]

there is no build process for spring projects, we just zip them in an archive.

[PicassoCT]

but then.. what does the spring compiler do, in that hour i have to give it to 7zip my mod?

[PicassoCT]

knorkes tutorial game was great. It was what really got me started. Nothing overcomplicated. Simple Stuff. Only could have been better, if it came with a function autocompleting lua-ide.

It looks like you try to write a mod: Other user who have tried to do this have:
+phailed miserably.
+did not attract a crowd (because RTS is not in anymore, they didnt have the marketing budget, limited there scope on competition-multiplayer only)
+are still building on it: If I add this and that feature, im surely going to beat any other competition based rts.
+are developing big Ilusions about what one man can complish and are building skycastles(spring-ide has this made your default-presettings)

Sorry if it annoys you smoth, but if the prophets dont come, we got to move that mountain towards them...

[smoth]

Sorry if it annoys you smoth, but if the prophets dont come, we got to move that mountain towards them...

?

[PicassoCT]

Sorry if it annoys you smoth, but if the prophets dont come, we got to move that mountain towards them...

?

We will never beat the competition companys games, like dota2 or sc2. So all we got, is to produce storys, soap opera with game... its .. wait wtf have i written up there.. sorry.. im tired, and a little depressed, and man..

[Anarchid]

there is no build process for spring projects, we just zip them in an archive.

That, from someone with a mile-long chart for making just maps?

Not sure if srs. Maybe there is no dedicated buildtool and no makefile, but running a doubleclick on some doc.sh won't slow you down much.

[Neddie]

I am honestly entertained by the idea, any level of storytelling is useful and although most RenPy titles are rubbish, short dialogue interludes are in themselves a good tool. I do think it would be better implemented through Lua, particularly through Chili.

You can do almost anything with LUA, so imo someone should code a storytelling API instead.

But there are a couple of things that you probably cannot do at the moment, and one of those would be video cutscenes.

I think lurker put together the rudiments; playing individual frames and music simultaneously.

[KingRaptor]

This turned out to be considerably easier than expected. (The easy part anyway; the hard part is presently beyond my "it's totally like Lua, right?" Python skills.)



Combined with Mission Editor, we should now have all the necessary tools for building a combined RTS/VN.

Yes, yes, a single-executable solution would be vastly superior, but you know what they say about horses and wishes...

[gajop]

So far you are just launching spring with python, correct?
If you want to connect the two, you would need some sort of a communication mechanism, probably through luasockets.. that's going to be hard :)

[KingRaptor]

If you want to connect the two, you would need some sort of a communication mechanism, probably through luasockets.. that's going to be hard :)

Nothing so complex, hopefully. My plan is this:

• Ren'Py modifies a mission startscript (made by Mission Editor, for instance), putting in everything Spring needs to know in modoptions.
• When Spring is done, a gadget/widget writes a Python file for Ren'Py to read.

This won't enable realtime communication between the two programs, but it does what I expect to need for my purposes.