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16

Technical forum / Re: Frames per second VS milliseconds ?

« on: May 14, 2014, 07:11:53 PM »

Thank you: it sounds wise. I'll work in that way.

17

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: May 03, 2014, 07:23:38 PM »

I've tried on 1600x900 and 1366x768 screens... and on both of them the aliasing effect is totally gone!
The down-scaling is now perfect!
No more screen tearing, oppacity problem & aliasing. You solved all the problems.
It's wonderful!
Many thanks, HCDaniel, for being so responsive and ingenious!

18

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: May 02, 2014, 05:52:36 PM »

Assuming that your game will not be scaled down more than 50% you might try to speed up the anim to at least 2 pixels per step. Maybe the effect is "less ugly" then

This method work perfectly with horizontal of vertical scene scrolling.
When I use this script :

Code: WME Script

1. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 1;

There's a very strong aliasing effect.
But when I write:

Code: WME Script

1. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 2;

No more aliasing. The scrolling looks good!

So I've tried the same method with the boat as you suggested.
But it doesn't work.
The aliasing is still there.

After watching closely to the scene, I've noticed the aliasing effect is visible even before the boat start to move.

Here is a detail of the boat at the original resolution:


And here is the same detail down-scaled (pixel perfect):


I have the feeling that all the oblique lines have that kind of distorsion when down-scaled (pixel-perfect).

I've added two simple squares to the scene so the effect is more obvious.
At the original resolution:


Down-scaled (pixel perfect):


Fortunately, this effect is almost unnoticeable when the objects are motionless because the lines are hand-drawn and irregular in my game.
It only becomes obvious when the boat starts to move.

19

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: May 01, 2014, 05:55:54 PM »

Wow! I'm impressed!
Both the oppacity problem and the screen tearing have totally disapeared!!!
The game is so pleasant to play now! I'm so happy!

Thanks a lot! You've been really helpful!

20

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 30, 2014, 08:04:55 PM »

OK, good luck in your quest!
And thank you for the help!

21

Game announcements / Re: Little Blog Adventure

« on: April 30, 2014, 08:32:26 AM »

Splendid!

I'm happy to see that new scene.
I'm really looking forward to play this game: the characters & backgrounds are so beautiful!
And a game about BD blogs, it's an original and intriguing concept.
Good luck with the game!

22

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 29, 2014, 06:58:17 PM »

Can you send me this one anim that shows the aliasing effect as well so I can test the effect in my PC?

I've sent you the file by MP!

BTW I still have no clue about the strange color with semitransparent graphics 

It is indeed a strange problem... I'm sad I can't help.

23

Technical forum / Re: Frames per second VS milliseconds ?

« on: April 28, 2014, 07:34:34 PM »

It explains a lot of things.
That's for sure something I will keep in mind while making my game.

So, if durations are relative, what's important is to write scripts where the durations can be longer than expected without being noticed by the player.

Thank you for your answer!

24

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 28, 2014, 07:05:43 PM »

The aliasing appears only on the pixelperfect version of wmelite.
Metamorphium's version does not have this problem.
Unfortunately, I don't have a 1920x1080px screen so I can't test it fullscreen at original resolution with wmelite.

Can you check once again please, I uploaded a new .exe with one more thing from the julia branch that I forgot to add.

Unfortunately, the aliasing problem is still there.

No need to excuse It's good that you test and find bugs, we will all benefit from it. It will make also our game better I'm sure

OK, thank you! 

25

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 27, 2014, 04:17:44 PM »

I did not see any font issue when running the project, so I hope that one is resolved

In the same folder as wmelite, I've added a "fonts" folder with the .ttf file inside and it's OK, now!
I'm sorry: I didn't know wmelite was acting differently with fonts.
The good thing is: this problem is now solved!

3 - When an objet moves in a scene, there's an aliasing effect.

I see what you mean, but I have no idea what to do I guess that it does not make a big difference whether pixelperfect is on or off, and that the effect is gone when you run the game at original resolution?

The aliasing appears only on the pixelperfect version of wmelite.
Metamorphium's version does not have this problem.
Unfortunately, I don't have a 1920x1080px screen so I can't test it fullscreen at original resolution with wmelite.

I've also noticed that, both on metamorphium's wmelite and on your pixelperfect version, a very strong screen tearing appears when the scene scroll.
(I see no screen tearing when playing the same scene on Mnemonic's official wmelite)

Yeah, there seems to be some alpha issue in Direct3D mode in fullscreen. I think meta encountered it as well. Switching to OpenGL renderer fixed the problem. So I suppose meta's fork uses OpenGL while your testing executable doesn't.

Thanks for the hint, I just double-checked that. Unfortunately it doesn't help. Both d3d and opengl work fine, unless I enable the option to render the scene to a separate SDL texture first (in game resolution) and then render that texture to the screen. Alpha is ok, but the color itself looks like it was merged with another one (maybe black) and thus turned to grey. I think I can exclude other bugs, because I added some code that dynamically switches this feature on and off every second just for testing, and only if I render to that extra texture the color has changed. Hmpf

It sounds like the problem is more complicated than expected... I'm sorry!
I hope looking at my problem doesn't take too much of your time and that it will help you in some way with your own game.

26

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 25, 2014, 04:35:41 PM »

This reflection is a png whose opacity has been reduced in photoshop.
But the same problem occurs when I set the opacity through wme scripts.

Hmm, can I ask you again to provide me with an example scene? Is this a difference between regular wme and wmelite, or is it a problem that is only visible with "pixel perfect rendering"?

In WME, official wmelite and "wmelite julia branch", semitransparent entities looks good.
This problem only appeared today when I tried the "pixel perfect rendering" wme.exe you uploaded yesterday.

(By the way, I wasn't sure how to use your "wme.exe" so I pasted it in the "wmelite - julia branch" folder and I click on it to launch the game.)

I'm going to send you an example scene. I'll send it by PM soon.

I'm also going to check the font files and I'll come back if I don't find the answer.

Thank you for your help!

27

Technical forum / Frames per second VS milliseconds ?

« on: April 25, 2014, 04:14:47 PM »

Because I know nothing about programming, I've made some mistakes in my scripts.
Thanks to HCDaniel's help on this topic, I'm starting to understand that I should pay more attention to FPS.

I used to script scrolling scenes this way:

Code: WME Script

1. // set the horizontal scrolling speed
2. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 1;
3. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 1;

Most of the time the scrolling speed was OK but sometime it was incredibly faster!

HCDaniel explained:

What makes me sceptical are the settings you use. You want the engine to scroll one pixel at a time, every 1ms. That would in theory result in 1000 pixels/second. Maybe with regular WME you use full screen, and it could be that the frames per second are limited (maybe to 100 or 60 I'm not sure), so there you'll get only 60 pixels per second at max.

I was thinking that, every 1ms, the scene would move by 1px.
But if I understand well, it all depends on FPS.
So if the game is played in 60FPS, my scene will scroll by 1px every 16ms. Am I right?

I've changed the script and wrote:

Code: WME Script

1. // set the horizontal scrolling speed
2. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 16;
3. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 4;

And I have no problem with scrolling speed anymore.

After this revelation, I started to search for more infos on the WME Forums.

On this topic, I've read this comment from metamorphium:

it's quite usually bound to bad scripting. Constructions like Sleep(1); and the likes. You should always count with some FPS to boot and adjust wait cycles accordingly. Then you don't have this problem.

And on this topic, this other comment from metamorphium:

It's quite easy to set the Delays or Sleeps to desired framerate. If you are targeting for example your desired animation for 30fps, you know that every frame would take 1/30s so Delay or Sleep would be 33.

WME (unlike some other engines) doesn't limit you to certain fps, it rather lets you choose what suits you the best.

So if the game is played is 60FPS, when I write:

Code: WME Script

1. Sleep (10);

Or

Code: WME Script

1. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 5;

it won't be OK because the screen is only refreshed every 16ms.

So I should write instead

Code: WME Script

1. Sleep (16);

Or

Code: WME Script

1. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 16;

Am I right?
Or do I misunderstand something?

So here are my questions:

1- Should I design my game with a frame rate in mind?
Per exemple by using only multiples of 16 (16ms, 32ms, 48ms, 64ms,...)

If yes, what is the best value to use for having an homogeneous results on most of the computers?


2- When I write a Sleep(); command in ms, will this exact duration be used in all computers?
Or may it vary because of the computer frame rate, or any other factor?

Per example, let's imagine I want an animation to start during a dialogue when a character say one specific word.
I listen the dialogue and measure the length: the word is said 1400ms after the beginning.
So I write this script:

Code: WME Script

1. actor.TalkAsync ("subtitle text", "filename.ogg", 3000);
2. Sleep (1400);
3. // the following node contains the animation sprite
4. var animation = Scene.GetNode("animation");
5. animation.Active = true;
6. // then the game wait for the dialogue to end
7. Sleep (1600);

Is there a risk for the animation to start too late or too early?
Is there a risk for the 2nd Sleep command to end before the end of the dialogue or too long after?
Should I trust the milliseconds?

I am sorry for asking so many questions those days.
Wintermute is very simple to understand and to use. And it's a real pleasure for a beginner like me to create a game with this tool.
Most of my problems come from the fact I know little about computers and how they work.

Thank you for reading me!

28

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 25, 2014, 09:35:19 AM »

Can you check again with the "wme.exe" I uploaded here (the relevant changes from the julia branch are in):

https://bitbucket.org/MnemonicWME/wmelite/downloads

The settings.xml file should be fine. If you make a mistake there, it will typically be ignored. As you noticed a difference, it was all fine, even if it was not the result you wished for

Thank you! The down-scaling is now pixel perfect!
What a relief! Many thanks for your help!

Some strange things occur. I don't know if they are know problems.

1 - All semitransparent entities become grey.
On this screenshot, the reflection in the water (on the top-right corner) is looking grey:

while it should look light-blue, like this:

This reflection is a png whose opacity has been reduced in photoshop.
But the same problem occurs when I set the opacity through wme scripts.

2 - The subtitles now use wme default font.

3 - When an objet moves in a scene, there's an aliasing effect.
Here is a video of this effect:
http://youtu.be/4Bpe7-_YvC4
(You'll have to watch it in HD fullscreen to see the "aliasing" on the boat (mostly on its left side)).
Here is the script I use to move the boat:

Code: WME Script

1. while(true)
2.   {
3.    if(boat.X <= 610 * Game.GlobalScale)
4.         {
5.         break;
6.         }
7.   boat.X = boat.X - 1;
8.   boat.Y = boat.Y - 1;
9.  
10.   Sleep(60);
11.   }

I'll check the scrolling project in the next days (I have downloaded it already). What makes me sceptical are the settings you use. You want the engine to scroll one pixel at a time, every 1ms. That would in theory result in 1000 pixels/second. Maybe with regular WME you use full screen, and it could be that the frames per second are limited (maybe to 100 or 60 I'm not sure), so there you'll get only 60 pixels per second at max. Can you re-check in windowed mode whether the scrolling is too fast there as well?

When I'm working in windowed, the scrolling is OK. And now, with the new version of wmelite you just uploaded, it's OK in fulllscreen too.

Thank you for your explanations about fps.
I think that most of my problems are because I don't quite understand how to deal with fps...
I'm going to make researchs about it in the wme forums. I have to learn how to create a game that will work on every computers!

EDIT:
I've made a scrolling test with this code:

Code: WME Script

1. // set the horizontal scrolling speed
2. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 16;
3. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 4;

The result is good and the scene don't scroll too fast anymore.

Once again, many thanks for your very helpful answers.
It's so relieving to see everything becoming clear, little by little.

29

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 23, 2014, 03:37:28 PM »

Hello HCDaniel!
Many thanks for your help!

1- ENTITIES

Using SciTE, I've created a file called settings.xml in the same folder as wme lite (julia branch) and I've pasted your code in it.

Now, when I run the game on a smaller screen, the interactive regions and the subtitles are down-scaled but the images appear in their original size.
Per example, my first scene looks like this:

while it should look like this:

(you can click on the images to see them fullsize)

Maybe I forgot to do something to enable the option you're talking about?

2- SCROLLING

In my scene_init.script I've set the scrolling like this:

Code: WME Script

1. // set the horizontal scrolling speed
2. Scene.ScrollSpeedX = 1;
3. Scene.ScrollPixelsX = 1;

In WME, the scrolling is smooth and follow the character just fast enough.
But in wme-lite, it's very very fast.
I send you a scrolling scene by PM so you can test it!

3- SUBTITLES

Thank you for the tip! I didn't know that!
The subtitles still look odd... but it will be OK when settings.xml is enable, I suppose.

Again, many thanks for your help.

30

WME sources discussion / Re: Screen resolution scale down

« on: April 22, 2014, 06:03:45 PM »

I've tested my game on several computers using metamorphium's version of wme lite and it's a pleasure to see it down-scaled on every screen (even on a small netbook).

In another hand, some small graphical glitches appear when the game is down-scaled.

1 - ENTITIES

I have the feeling that, instead of scaling the whole window to fit the screen, wme lite scales all the entities separatly.
Per exemple, let's take an entity which is 100x100px at the original resolution (1920x1080).
On a 1600x900 screen, it's going to be resized to 83,3333 x 83,3333 -> 83x83
So the resized entity will be slightly smaller as expected.

When the game is down-scaled, during animations or when you hide/show an entity, it creates a "vibration" as you can see it on the following gif:

(during this animation, every image is jpg so on every frame, the character have a small part of background all around her; instead of a transparent void)

Of course, it can be easily fixed by using transparent png instead of jpg.
So it's not a big problem.

2 - SCROLLING

When scrolling scenes are down-scaled, the scrolling becomes very fast.
I don't why or how to fix it.
My theory is maybe Scene.ScrollPixelsX uses the pixels of the screen (1600x900) instead of the pixels of the original resolution (1920x1080).
Is it possible?

3 - SUBTITLES

At their original resolution (1920x1080), my subtitles look like this:


But when downscaled to 1600x900, they look like this:

which is a little bit odd.

CONCLUSION
If I took the time to report all those things, it's because I'm wondering if they are known problems or if they come from me (scripting errors, per example).

I'm learning WME but programming is still an esoteric language to me...
Thank you for reading me!