The Dating Pool

[Cloudee1]

So how did you fix it? Are you still using your neat talkers... I have played around a bit without much luck (or much determination either) to switch up a talkers position when using a changestate to try and rearrange it's position between one case and the next.

[Kawa]

So how did you fix it? Are you still using your neat talkers...

Yes, yes I am.

Yesterday's fix, as seen in the screenshot, was this:

Code: [Select]

(class NeatNarrator of Narrator
(properties)
(method (aim target)
(= gWindow gNewSpeakWindow)
(gNewSpeakWindow
xOffset: 0
tailX: (target nsLeft?)
tailY: (- (target nsTop?) 16)
)
(cond
((< (target nsLeft?) 100)
(gNewSpeakWindow
xOffset: 32
tailX: (+ (target nsLeft?) 32)
)
)
((< (target nsLeft?) 50)
(gNewSpeakWindow
xOffset: 64
tailX: (+ (target nsLeft?) 64)
)
)
((> (target nsLeft?) 250)
(gNewSpeakWindow
xOffset: -64
tailX: (- (target nsLeft?) 32)
)
)
((> (target nsLeft?) 200)
(gNewSpeakWindow
xOffset: -16
tailX: (- (target nsLeft?) 16)
)
)
)
; TODO: detect heads and center on those instead where available.
)
(method (dispose)
(= gWindow cdWin)
(super dispose: &rest)
)
)The (cond) block did it.

Today's fix is somewhat neater: if the window would be out of bounds, shift it over until it's not:

Code: [Select]

; Add this to SpeakWindow::open, right below (= type 128) and (= tailTop tailY):
(DebugPrint {SpeakWindow::open -- left %d, right %d} left right)
(if (< left 8)
(while (< left 8)
(= left (+ left 8))
)
(= right (+ left temp2))
(= lsLeft (- left 4))
(= lsRight (+ 4 right))
(= tailX (+ tailX 16)) ; offset the tail so it roughly centers on the tip
(= tailCel (if (not isBottom) 3 else 0))
)
(if (> right 312)
(while (> right 312)
(= right (- right 8))
)
(= left (- right temp2))
(= lsLeft (- left 4))
(= lsRight (+ 4 right))
(= tailX (- tailX 24))
(= tailCel (if (not isBottom) 4 else 1))
)
Anything about the other three posts?

[Kawa]

Should I continue down this path?

[troflip]

It's more distinctive than screenshots from a 3D render (which I think is what it was before?). I dunno if it's quite there yet (hard to tell with only a half-completed image), but it stands out more.

[Kawa]

It's more distinctive than screenshots from a 3D render (which I think is what it was before?). I dunno if it's quite there yet (hard to tell with only a half-completed image), but it stands out more.

Screenshots from Garry's Mod, actually. Could you elaborate on what you mean there, by "more distinctive"?

Shown here: an otherwise unaltered screenshot from the gm_fork map by Blueberry_pie.

[MusicallyInspired]

While hand-made art would be cool, I'd have to see it finished before judging which looks better. And even then it'd be subjective. It's up to you really.

[troflip]

Screenshots from Garry's Mod, actually. Could you elaborate on what you mean there, by "more distinctive"?

Shown here: an otherwise unaltered screenshot from the gm_fork map by Blueberry_pie.

I don't know what Garry's Mod is, but I had assumed it was 3D.

More distinctive, as in the art style stands out. Whereas "screenshots from Garry's Mod" look like any other game.

[MusicallyInspired]

Gary's Mod was a sandbox mod where you can take assets from other games and basically do whatever with them. Now it's a commercial standalone game. It was initially made for Source engine so you could take content from Valve games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, etc and do whatever you want with them. Now it's branched off into other games and people even make their own content. There was (I don't know if there is anymore) a huge machinima short community that made animated videos with it.

[Kawa]

To be honest, I only use shopped GMOD screenshots and Daz renders for my backgrounds because I have one crippling inferiority complex. Especially when I see art like Mu's, for example.

[MusicallyInspired]

Lol that's one big cheat image. That was my first attempt at "tracing" a background. It was made entirely in Photoshop 7 and PSP5, I think. It actually bugs me. I was just developing tricks with filters and effects. The grass I made with a brush in PS shaped like a grass blade. I just did that in a few different colours. Then I threw a drop shadow underneath it so it would cast a shadow on the dirt path. But it looks horrible like the grass is floating off the ground lol. It's very cheaply and terribly made. If I can do that you certainly can! I'm no artist.

[Kawa]

It's no surprise, really, that what I just posted is also traced, technically, from the altered GMod screenshot.

The main issue with the GMod things is that the perspective is off, when you compare it against, say, most Sierra backgrounds?

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, 3D renders will do that.

[Kawa]

It's not like it's impossible to render in two-point perspective or whatever it's called. It's just not possible in Source. Or Daz. Or apparently 3DSMax. Which forces me to manually construct props in PSP, deform others... and do it all in at least 640x400 so the imperfections blur out. And what does it leave me? With insufficient floor space! GAH!

Looking at the games on this site so far, and that post about how the KQ3 scene was made... it fills me with dread, to be honest. Renders don't cut it, I can't adequately draw the backgrounds myself, and I fear it's no use to ask someone else on this board to try. I have zero budget, so I can't just hire someone from... I dunno, /r/indiedev or whatever.

To be honest, I've gotten burned on asking others for content so often that's just another point of fear for me. 

[troflip]

Wouldn't it just be a matter of adjusting the camera position, and how wide an angle it is viewing?

[Kawa]

If you want lines going up to look straight, I don't think so. Assuming I understood the viewing angle bit correctly.