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1
General ENIGMA / Re: Roadmap?
« on: June 10, 2019, 10:02:46 pm »
Can't really speak to the others, but Poly and I have taken an interest in RGM and plan to adopt a more agile workflow around it.
Right now, RGM does practically nothing. It can sort of load projects, but cannot run them. And if that's an RGM or emake bug I haven't figured out yet.
Most of the editors in RGM are very partially implemented. It's not possible to make a game in RGM in its current state.
That said, I think roadmaps are pretty hard. Pretty much everyone here's got a full time job. And we don't know who will contribute for a week and or a single commit before leaving. I've done it myself, many times.
But if it looks like we're making some solid progress I might start doing some RGM progress report posts or binary builds for people to test. On the whole I'm very interested in investing in RGM to finally get rid of Java, and to be overall more efficient. There's nothing quite like trying to open a script in LGM and it taking more than a second to load on an overclocked multicore CPU...
I think the whole point behind emake was to make it easier to separate out the bits surrounding the actual build process for games. I think it's probably been a bit of wasted effort, given that nobody else aside from the core IDE developers on the ENIGMA project would bother with it.
The "core" of ENIGMA (the runner) is getting pretty regular updates. There's a lot of backlog there, and it seems like it requires a lot more experience to jump in there. But I've had some inconsistencies across graphics cards (that I personally don't own), and things like Mac OS have been in a broken state for a bit that others are looking into. But it works pretty well as it is, I think.
Right now, RGM does practically nothing. It can sort of load projects, but cannot run them. And if that's an RGM or emake bug I haven't figured out yet.
Most of the editors in RGM are very partially implemented. It's not possible to make a game in RGM in its current state.
That said, I think roadmaps are pretty hard. Pretty much everyone here's got a full time job. And we don't know who will contribute for a week and or a single commit before leaving. I've done it myself, many times.
But if it looks like we're making some solid progress I might start doing some RGM progress report posts or binary builds for people to test. On the whole I'm very interested in investing in RGM to finally get rid of Java, and to be overall more efficient. There's nothing quite like trying to open a script in LGM and it taking more than a second to load on an overclocked multicore CPU...
I think the whole point behind emake was to make it easier to separate out the bits surrounding the actual build process for games. I think it's probably been a bit of wasted effort, given that nobody else aside from the core IDE developers on the ENIGMA project would bother with it.
The "core" of ENIGMA (the runner) is getting pretty regular updates. There's a lot of backlog there, and it seems like it requires a lot more experience to jump in there. But I've had some inconsistencies across graphics cards (that I personally don't own), and things like Mac OS have been in a broken state for a bit that others are looking into. But it works pretty well as it is, I think.
2
Function Peer Review / Re: Lua Extension
« on: May 01, 2015, 02:59:59 am »
Hi. This is a very interesting project. Can you perhaps provide an example of how to use this? It's not immediately clear to me how this works... e.g. for events that only happen once, or events that happen periodically (draw / step).
Also what file formats work with it? Any as it uses simple GML commands?
Also what file formats work with it? Any as it uses simple GML commands?
3
Off-Topic / UE4 is now free
« on: March 02, 2015, 09:50:56 pm »
https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free
No more monthly subscription cost. You do still have to pay royalties as before (5% after making $3000 in a quarter). But hey, release your game as free/open source and you never pay a dime. Likewise if your game is a commercial flop, never pay a dime.
I've been a big fan of UE4 myself for making 3d games. Power and speed of C++ as well as a vastly superior editor, especially with that shader editor. It's not great for mobile games, mainly on older devices, as it uses deferred rendering on mobile as well instead of something simpler like forward rendering which Unity uses.
But hey you get access to the full engine source code on github. I've never attempted to modify that source myself, but I have implemented other people's patches into my version of the editor to save some headache before Epic got around to releasing a hotfix or point release.
And now because the UE4 is free, you can also poke around with the new Unreal Tournament for free.
Also UE4 supports 2d... but it's worse than Unity's offering (which I already thought was overkill) and certainly not as easy as something like ENIGMA.
No more monthly subscription cost. You do still have to pay royalties as before (5% after making $3000 in a quarter). But hey, release your game as free/open source and you never pay a dime. Likewise if your game is a commercial flop, never pay a dime.
I've been a big fan of UE4 myself for making 3d games. Power and speed of C++ as well as a vastly superior editor, especially with that shader editor. It's not great for mobile games, mainly on older devices, as it uses deferred rendering on mobile as well instead of something simpler like forward rendering which Unity uses.
But hey you get access to the full engine source code on github. I've never attempted to modify that source myself, but I have implemented other people's patches into my version of the editor to save some headache before Epic got around to releasing a hotfix or point release.
And now because the UE4 is free, you can also poke around with the new Unreal Tournament for free.
Also UE4 supports 2d... but it's worse than Unity's offering (which I already thought was overkill) and certainly not as easy as something like ENIGMA.
4
Announcements / Re: Google Summer of Code
« on: February 18, 2015, 04:25:44 pm »
Just something else I discovered today while toying with the idea of working on the EDC: it uses Rackspace cloud for storing the files and screenshots for added games. Great, except that to attempt to develop any of that code further (e.g. multiple download link support), I'd need to sign up for Rackspace cloud. And their plans start at $50/mo...
DaSpirit there is no harm in putting it on GitHub. I wasn't even aware that anyone was still working on IDE projects any more.
Also Josh, I'm sure you have a good bit of money now, why not hire a lawyer to create a custom license for ENIGMA?
DaSpirit there is no harm in putting it on GitHub. I wasn't even aware that anyone was still working on IDE projects any more.
Also Josh, I'm sure you have a good bit of money now, why not hire a lawyer to create a custom license for ENIGMA?
5
Announcements / Re: Google Summer of Code
« on: February 09, 2015, 04:02:45 pm »
I think if the community could come together and agree on an IDE to work on, that would be fantastic. As much as I think the idea of LGM is great, we need a better solution. Java isn't too bad as a language in my opinion, but it is just damn slow. I have 6 idle cores overclocked to 4ghz and an SSD, and it still takes LGM 2 seconds to open an interface window for the first time. Good lord. I am definitely willing to contribute to an IDE project (as I have done for LGM in the past), however I am not a) a great programmer, b) good at program design. I'm best at working on smaller details and functionality once the majority of it is up and working. So, we would definitely need a body or two knowledgeable with program design and ENIGMA -> IDE communications to start up a good bit of the work.
Anyway. In regards to my list: as I said, some of those are 2+ years old. I have not in fact used ENIGMA for over a year, I tried to start a project and switched to GM instead because the views system was working inconsistently. So I will have to go through my list and see if anything's fixed, broken, etc.
I would really love to see ENIGMA thrive.
Also in regards to the EDC, I would be willing to look at that as well, however last I checked there were really no instructions in regards to setting up a development environment for it. So if Josh or someone else would be willing to setup a guide for that and had a wishlist and buglist available, I'll dive right in. Last I checked, it was not a simple "install extension and get going", however if it works now out of the box without any other changes necessary then great I don't need instructions. Plus you know, you never even mention on the EDC's github page what version of SMF is minimum, and whether it's designed for 1.x only 2.x only, both, whatever.
At any rate, I do have more free time now than I've had in the past, but the majority of ENIGMA's missing features are way too complex for a newbie, and at this point I don't want to invest any more time into LGM.
Anyway. In regards to my list: as I said, some of those are 2+ years old. I have not in fact used ENIGMA for over a year, I tried to start a project and switched to GM instead because the views system was working inconsistently. So I will have to go through my list and see if anything's fixed, broken, etc.
I would really love to see ENIGMA thrive.
Also in regards to the EDC, I would be willing to look at that as well, however last I checked there were really no instructions in regards to setting up a development environment for it. So if Josh or someone else would be willing to setup a guide for that and had a wishlist and buglist available, I'll dive right in. Last I checked, it was not a simple "install extension and get going", however if it works now out of the box without any other changes necessary then great I don't need instructions. Plus you know, you never even mention on the EDC's github page what version of SMF is minimum, and whether it's designed for 1.x only 2.x only, both, whatever.
At any rate, I do have more free time now than I've had in the past, but the majority of ENIGMA's missing features are way too complex for a newbie, and at this point I don't want to invest any more time into LGM.
6
Announcements / Re: Google Summer of Code
« on: February 07, 2015, 04:27:32 pm »
I'm going to just list a bunch of random things that might have already been completed or might be an insane amount of work. I have had a wishlist, and some of these might be up to 2 years old.
That would be a good start anyway.
edit--
Someone would need to go through the code and check what functions have been implemented and what haven't, from GM. Some of those might be easy to implement, but the wiki is often not updated when a function is implemented, or whether it is still a stub or completely missing.
- User events. God fucking damn it I use these all the times, and these were never working when I was using ENIGMA
- Sound system improvements. I don't know if the new audio engine from GM has been implemented or not, but last I checked even sound_volume did not work for the basic system. Sound position.
- Particle systems with advanced features: attractors etc
- Views system is extremely inconsistent when compared to GM
- Pixel perfect collisions
- Polygonal collisions with collision editor
- Full box 2d integration, complete with editors and other IDE integration
- Working HTML5 export via emscripten or equivalent
- Android because god knows we failed. Most basic would be getting it to compile and open an application. More advanced might include writing a GLES2 renderer, sound wrappers, and services integration (Google Play)
- I swear to Christ it's been 3 or 4 years since you promised that new compiler. I've run into a lot of dumb things the compiler couldn't parse that was perfectly valid GML
- Force the parser to prepend identifiers to various resources like scripts, objects, rooms, and variables in code and so on so you don't get "reserved word" or worse yet, the variable already exists somewhere in the engine code base
- Game debugging.
- Game profiling
- The last time I checked, room speed was not consistent between platforms (Linux and Windows). I'm not sure if this was fixed by the changes that happened to implement a more precise timer on Windows or not. Needs to be double checked and/or fixed.
- Proper way to export games instead of having to go to temp files and copying the executable
- Async events from GM
- Configurations like GM. Allow for exporting included files for certain platforms, and allowing for easy platform switching IFDEF equivalents in code
- Texture groups support like GM
That would be a good start anyway.
edit--
Someone would need to go through the code and check what functions have been implemented and what haven't, from GM. Some of those might be easy to implement, but the wiki is often not updated when a function is implemented, or whether it is still a stub or completely missing.
7
Announcements / Re: Google Summer of Code
« on: February 07, 2015, 03:30:27 pm »
Frankly, I don't think anyone else around here is knowledgeable enough to be a mentor other than you, Josh. Hell even the last time I tried to do something big to Enigma (Android), that was 99% you. And I just had to give up, because there was no starting point for "hey yeah this is how these systems work together and connect to the engine core", plus my C++ is hilariously weak to begin with [and when you weren't around, which was most of the time I just couldn't progress which made it too frustrating to continue]. Hell all of that work is now lost to the ether after I moved to an SSD, the only remnants are some vague instructions I left on the wiki which assumes the user has a copy of an Android fork. Maybe I should have used Github for some poor unfortunate soul of the future. I'd say there needs to be a lot of documentation done if you want someone to ever get up to the system or platform level. This project is a relatively undocumented mess that is pretty hard to jump into. And yes, LGM is a huge pain point as well. I'd be in favor of putting another IDE for GSoC instead, because I would like that option.
About networking: last I tried, Berkley sockets worked. What networking are you even looking to get done?
As for feature requests and what not, those are a dime a dozen. Enigma is missing an assload from GM still for starters.
About networking: last I tried, Berkley sockets worked. What networking are you even looking to get done?
As for feature requests and what not, those are a dime a dozen. Enigma is missing an assload from GM still for starters.
8
Programming Help / Re: 3D Performance
« on: November 27, 2014, 01:55:45 am »
d3d_set_hidden only needs to be set once. This function sounds suspiciously like occlusion culling. This is usually a good thing to enable if you have many models that would overlap others from a distance, however this does per pixel calculations on a depth buffer, which might bog down the Ouya. Honestly, can't hurt to enable it and see if performance increases or decreases.
9
Programming Help / Re: 3D Performance
« on: November 24, 2014, 03:01:45 pm »
I really doubt GM has any sort of draw batching, so drawing the same model 100 times would probably still result in 100 draw calls... unless the GPU was smart enough to realize it still had the model in memory, but it's likely GM will still be pushing the same model through. I don't think Enigma is any better in this regard either. But yes draw calls is a good one, forgot about that.
GM doesn't really have any good profiling though, especially for 3d.
GM doesn't really have any good profiling though, especially for 3d.
10
Programming Help / Re: 3D Performance
« on: November 23, 2014, 08:38:10 pm »
Ouya was never a very powerful device to begin with. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it at this point, with the Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV (Nexus Player) now coming out.
Lights are the most likely culprit. If it's using per-pixel shading, you'd need to see if there was a way to switch to vertex based for performance. Dynamic lights in general are pretty heavy, which is why popular game engines now have static and dynamic lighting. Not something I see GM ever doing though, honestly.
If you have any shaders... drop those immediately.
The resolution is another big factor. Bump your game down to 720p and you'll get a lot more done. Only the very basics of 3d games can be run on the Ouya, which is why you see so many 2d ones. Try to lower your poly count across the board, and you could try lowering the resolution too. Keep in mind GM doesn't have any sort of occlusion culling built in, so if you have any sort of large 3d scene, you'll have to do that yourself.
Lights are the most likely culprit. If it's using per-pixel shading, you'd need to see if there was a way to switch to vertex based for performance. Dynamic lights in general are pretty heavy, which is why popular game engines now have static and dynamic lighting. Not something I see GM ever doing though, honestly.
If you have any shaders... drop those immediately.
The resolution is another big factor. Bump your game down to 720p and you'll get a lot more done. Only the very basics of 3d games can be run on the Ouya, which is why you see so many 2d ones. Try to lower your poly count across the board, and you could try lowering the resolution too. Keep in mind GM doesn't have any sort of occlusion culling built in, so if you have any sort of large 3d scene, you'll have to do that yourself.
11
Off-Topic / Re: Windows 8 Virtual Desktops
« on: October 21, 2014, 05:04:08 pm »
I've just been using this handy little program: http://dexpot.de/ which is free and much more user friendly. I didn't know it was a semi built-in feature of Windows until my dad showed me it... (he was a big fan of sysinternals before Microsoft ate them up.)
12
Issues Help Desk / Re: I have a problem!
« on: October 09, 2014, 12:40:33 pm »
Hello, did you use the self-extracting executable for Windows? It seems that the plugin (compileEGMf.dll) was never compiled. If you do not have MinGW installed (the self-extracting executable comes with it), it of course will not be able to compile it.
13
Off-Topic / Re: My Windows 10 test results here
« on: October 07, 2014, 07:26:15 pm »
Windows loves to failsafe. If you have fast boot enabled, it will use the hibernation file and create one if it does not exist. And even if you have pagefile disabled, Windows seems to create one if you run out of memory.
And you may not think you need a pagefile, but it's good to have it (although I can understand the desire to kill it when you're on an SSD). For instance I've found a memory leak in the AMD driver that appears when playing Battlefield 4, and it will use every drop of memory it can get its hands on, using up to 7 of my 8 gigs. At that point, it hit the 99% memory used mark and the game dropped to like 2-3 FPS as Windows started ramming the pagefile. Ahhh... by the way it's not easy to discover your driver has a memory leak. You have to download the whole Windows SDK to use a couple hundred kb tool to tell you a 4 char code and then you gotta look it up!
And you may not think you need a pagefile, but it's good to have it (although I can understand the desire to kill it when you're on an SSD). For instance I've found a memory leak in the AMD driver that appears when playing Battlefield 4, and it will use every drop of memory it can get its hands on, using up to 7 of my 8 gigs. At that point, it hit the 99% memory used mark and the game dropped to like 2-3 FPS as Windows started ramming the pagefile. Ahhh... by the way it's not easy to discover your driver has a memory leak. You have to download the whole Windows SDK to use a couple hundred kb tool to tell you a 4 char code and then you gotta look it up!
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Issues Help Desk / Re: Chrome reports the Enigma Windows download as malware
« on: October 05, 2014, 12:45:30 pm »If we really wanted to fool the system, we'd just password-protect the zip's file list. It's inconvenient for users either way. I figured that as a society, we were past "OMG EXE VIRUS VIRUS VIRUS VIRUS VIRUS," but apparently, we never will be.You always have the least common denominator... for example I watched my roommate download a virus while trying to get iTunes. I repeatedly told him along the way not to do what he was about to do, but to no avail. Then he paid some guy $50 to clean his computer.
15
Off-Topic / Re: My Windows 10 test results here
« on: October 05, 2014, 12:34:38 pm »
I am curious as to how my tablet will work with Windows 10... it has a keyboard/mouse dock. If I undock it will the start button go back to the modern UI? Personally I think this version of Windows should have been 8.2.