Virus Effect (2D Platformer RPG Shooter)

[h3ckboy]

will the sword count as a weapon slot. causee if so, who would use(besides the fact it would be SO AWESOME).

I am gladd to  here taht a crashing computer cannot stop VE.

keep up the good work.

[Corvinex]

I was planning on the sword being counted as a slot, but i'll see if it can be under some other category. I was thinking melee weapons are more powerful then a single bullet, so having a gun and melee combo would be a good set up for when enemies get too close.
Here is an early screen shot:
http://www.viruseffect.com/Images/swordSS.gif

Thanks.

[h3ckboy]

have oyu already got the collision worked out or jus thte graphics. cause a curved blade will make it a bit harder.

is VE made with a tile map. cause it would seen like it.

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[Corvinex]

Yeah I already started the sword collision, I just have to finish it up.

Yes VE is tile based, if you press "o" in game you will see debug mode.

[h3ckboy]

I cant run your game anymore. the applet freexs before game loades.

[h3ckboy]

was wrong. it works it jsut takes like 10+ minutes for it to start working. It does this every time it loadss a new screen.

[Corvinex]

Its my webhost... they seem to be getting worse. There is also a lot of down time. I might have to transfer everything to someone else.

When the game saves it calls up a file on the server, so if the server is lagging up, then the game will lag up.

[h3ckboy]

ahh. Ok. I am gunna go check if it is fast now.

btw teh debug mode is cool. Do you use it a lot?

[h3ckboy]

nope it is still taking a while.

[Cero]

honestly I think that most of the lags and stuff also comes from the fact that we play it inside an applet. I can understand that some people like applets, but in this case, this game needs kinda performance, so please give me a webstart or downloadable jar or just classes with batch file or something like that

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[h3ckboy]

can applets webstart?

what you oculd do if that is possible is have there be an option. so if the server is slow, you can webstart. otherwise jsut save yourself the hassle and use applet.

just a thought.

i qwas reading your posts ont eh website, is visitng other ppls rooms still possible?

[Corvinex]

Later on we were planning on having a webstart version, but not any time soon. I don't believe that the any of the lag is due to it being in an applet, I'm sure one of these Java experts can vouch for that. It is mainly the Garbage Collection, and if it happens during a map transition then its the webhost slowing down.

Once I get a chance to look into Garbage Collection methods, I'll force garbage collection at the best times. Or I'll figure out what is the main cause of VE's garbage collection, then I can implement a fix.

Visiting user's rooms was on the list when rooms were planned to be editable. This has been put off until we get the multiplayer aspect going. You'll be able to visit people's rooms and meet up with friends in them, and start up multiplayer games.

[h3ckboy]

wait, but if the server glitches at me being alone. then with maby 10+ ppl. you would wait like 3 hours to get on.

[h3ckboy]

YES! I can get back on!!! the dark times are over....

[CommanderKeith]

Hi,

I just gave this game a try on my computer and it now works, whereas before it didn't. Does it still use LWJGL or did you switch back to java2D?

By the way, the physics are cool and so is the mouse-look and view scroll.

[Corvinex]

Thanks a lot. This game is all Java SDK, so it uses only Java 2D.

Thanks I worked hard on the physics engine, and the view scrolling has developed pretty well along the way too.

I finally get to program after class today, so much to do. My list gets longer and longer, but I love it.

[h3ckboy]

do you have a CS(computer science) class? cause if so, you probably are a better programmer than him. hehe.

you didnt use a library!

ooh wow, that is a LOT of code. How did you get the states done (theya re states right?). I know how to do it in slick, vague idea in LWJGL, but no idea in java2D.

[Corvinex]

I don't have a CS semester this semester. I was in a web development class last semester, and she asked the students to present any web game they make, to display at some open house. I presented VE to her and she was surprised, lol, she couldn't say much. I didn't even participate in the class. She asked me to make her a website in exchange for an "A" in the class, since I already knew everything anyways.

Yeah I made the whole game, last time a checked it was 15,000 lines of code.

I don't think there are states in Java 2D.

[h3ckboy]

15000!!!!!!


that is like 10 essays. that is a whole years worth of english class.

wait if there are no states how did you make the game. is there another way to do it.

[martineriksen]

Why do you think garbage collection causes slowdown? I made a similar game and found that GC took less than very few milliseconds. As you are using Java2D my guess is a solid amout of time goes by rendering.

For performance optimization I recommend that you find out exactly what is taking the time before spending time on trails that aren't important. I suggest using HPROF to profile your application; it is really quite simple and gives a very clear idea about which lines of code is taking the most time. 

Here is something about HPROF:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/HPROF.html

[h3ckboy]

I dont know what HPROF is. but you could in the debug mode, draw the amount of time it takes ot do things. jsut take the time at the beginning and the end. and print the difference.

this should tell you what is taking up all of the time.

[Mr. Gol]

jsut take the time at the beginning and the end. and print the difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiler_(computer_science)

[martineriksen]

--- "I dont know what HPROF is"

That is a very good reason to look into it :-)

[h3ckboy]

the wiki link doesnt exist.

so does HBROF jsut monitor CPU usage, and other CPU stats?

[martineriksen]

HPROF can be used for monitoring CPU usage and Memory usage. I have only used to for cpu usage. The basic idea is:

* You start your programme with the hprof command line option
* While the programme is executing as normal hprof will check with regular intervals what your programme is doing at that specific point in time and note this down
* When you terminate your programme hprof dumps a report of what your programme was doing when it checked.
* hprof checks 1000s of times for a short programme execution

So the more frequently a line of code is executed or the more time is spent on that line and the more frequently will it appear in hprofs output. So the top expensive lines of code in hprofs report is what you will look at for optimization.

So it is not really cpu usage. It just reports what your programme does the most.

[Corvinex]

Thanks for the link I'll look into HPROF. I thought it would be caused by Garbage Collection because every once in a while the game freezes up and then unfreezes. It might be that my game's garbage collection takes longer, so i'll have to find out what's causing this.

[h3ckboy]

has lvl 8 come yet? it is taking quite a while. (sry tobe a bug)

[h3ckboy]

hey I have tohought of an awesome idae. a survival match thing.

so basicly youa re ina room iwht obstacles. and then guys come at you, and you see how many you can kill before you die.

[Cero]

the official statement is not to use System.gc() in latest java editions =o

[h3ckboy]

I am guessing you are talking about garbage collection.