Chaos Project

ARC Dev Release Build 0.1.0.112 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.1.0.112.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.3.0.134 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.3.0.134.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.4.5.148 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.4.0.148.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.4.6.199 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.4.6.199.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.7.0.208 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.7.0.208.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.7.1.235 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.7.1.235.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.7.5.248 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.7.5.248.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.7.6.259 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.7.6.259.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.0.274 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.0.274.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.1.285 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.1.285.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.1.289 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.1.289.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.2.307 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.2.307.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.3.373 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.3.373.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.613 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.613.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.614 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.614.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.620 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.620.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.6.640 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.6.640.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.6.642 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.6.642.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.7.644 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.7.644.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.652 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.652.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.666 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.666.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.729 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.729.rar)
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.733 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.733.rar)

6.O yes.

ill take 1

Alright, here you go: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/arc_0.1.0.112.rar

Getting an error.
"A referal was returned from the server." What?

only problem i get is it wont close so i have to end task it

I forgot to say. You have to press ESC to close it. ENTER resets the frame counter.

@G_G: When are you getting that error? O_o

@Blizz:
I get the same problem, actually. It seems to only run when I "Start Debugging" in Visual Studio. If I simply try to run the executable, it fails with the above mentioned error.

I thought I'd give you guys a screen shot

Running in ruby :P

@Everyone having errors

with the latest revision by Blizz (113 I think) I don;t have any problems

I can't even get it to run via debugging. By the way, 4000th post!

After building, under the arc project at the top in VS's explorer, right-click, then "Debug" --> "Start New Instance"

Try rebuilding the whole thing locally. You might have to delete the bin folders in the main solution folder and all the external library folders.
Make sure you have stopped the last instance of the debugger before starting a new one.

This is so beyond me it's nuts. Like cashews.

You're not a programmer so you don't know. xD

EDIT: I usually just hit F5 and it works fine for me.

Goddammit. For whatever reason I now have to run VS2010 as admin before I can debug it. And even then it still doesn't run. D: And I'm getting an error

"Unable to start program"
The application manifest has the uiAccess set to true.
Running in accessability requires the following steps in help.

Except when I click help I it takes me to a page not found. Dammit D:

D:

Let me check it out. I know what option I have to change to make you able to run it.
Weird, I thought setting uiAccess to true would actually allow you to run without without having to bother with UAC every time. :/

xP I made a menu a long time ago called Arc one man menu. Except only the A was capitalized so its quite different already. But still http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8ha2NqIU8

Update and compile. I should be working now.

I added a download for 0.3.0.134 in the first post.

EDIT: I added a download for 0.4.0.148 in the first post.
Hehe, ARC is coming along nicely. I implemented a big deal of the nasty viewport features today.

what's the difference looked the same to me ?

The difference is that Viewport works and a lot of the Sprite features have been implemented such as angle, ox, oy, etc. including other systematic things like increased stability, etc. There's won't be much different stuff to see until we implement Window and Tilemap. As soon as I implement the basics of Plane, I will put up another build since this one will be a quite different visual as well.

looking forward to it

There it is. v0.4.6 has the basic Plane features implemented.

*double posts*

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there it is! ARC v0.7.0, a functional RMXP clone. There are obviously still things left to do.

• Due to the fact that the Win32API module is not yet working, Blizz-ABS cannot be run with the custom input module. This version of CoSLAL uses the default scripts and technically you can't really play the game. But all dialogues work fine.


• Currently only .ogg files can be played.


• Due to the fact of a different font rendering system, ARC's font renderer needs additional files right now and it is significantly slower than RMXP's. You will notice a short moment of lag before the text in a message box appears. I have optimized it as much as I could, but until Atres (our font renderer) has been revamped by Cateia (most probably again by me xD), we won't be able to have much better performance than now.


• Autotiles don't work.


• While in the debug build my FPS limiter worked fine for the limitation to 40 FPS, it seems that in this release build the FPS are at 60 regardless.

I'm sure there are other minor things that I have forgotten to mention. Don't worry about them, everything will be fixed and working properly for version 1.0.

Letting people know that they need thte Microsoft C++ 2010 Redist. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=bd512d9e-43c8-4655-81bf-9350143d5867&displaylang=en

If you get the error "MSVCP100.dll" missing thats because the redist needs to be installed.

Right. ._.
It might be a good idea to build the final releases with VS2008. I think that Windows 7 has those redists by default, but I am not sure. Can anybody confirm this?

I installed the Microsoft C++ 2010 Redist provided above, but I'm still getting the MSVCP100.dll missing error. And yes. I've already restarted my machine. Any idea what's causing the problem?

So I'm on granny's computer and now "MSVCR100.dll" is missing. @___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________@

Not sure. I think there is a difference between the 32 bit and the 64 bit redist. Make sure you have the 32 bit because ARC was compiled for 32 bit machines.

That worked. LOLS Menu isn't completely functional. Can't go up and down very well, controls is super sized in the items menu. xD

Though its coming along great anyways.

EDIT: Movement of the player is so smooth. <3 60 FPS is way better then 40.

Yeah, that's something I forgot to mention. I have compiled it so Input.repeat? works like Input.pressed?. I probably should have gone with Input.trigger?. >.<

Yea. xD No worries, repeat will get done eventually.

oh wow, it feels so... SMOOTH! even VX which runs at 60FPS doesn't feel this smooth.  also, while I noticed that the text rendering was a bit messed up I never noticed any lag around it...

I just gave it a try, and everything is running very well, aside from the aforementioned bugs. I didn't even notice the slower font rendering until you mentioned it, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem. This is fantastic, everyone. Great job so far!

It's working. The only errors I'm getting are as follows:

• The only time I hear background music is when I'm in the jail. At the titlescreen, and once I leave, there is none.


• The screen goes black whenever a sprite or picture disappears


• Where there should be autotiles, there is simply blackness.

No, it's whenever a transition occurs that the screen goes black. xD I disabled any display and just left a black screen.
And there are some more places where .ogg music is used. Also, all sound effects are .ogg.

I think everyone should stand up and give Blizz a round of applause just for his sheer sexiness.

* stands and claps *

*stand to give an ovation, making this a internet version of a standing ovation*

yes seems to run smoother and i never got the missing dll might be because i have c# visual studios 2010

The C# Redistributable is unrelated. You likely picked up the C++ one in from another program. It's a pretty common dependency.

Has anyone tried any fights using the default battle system to see if they run properly?

Nope. ._.

Wuhuu, i tried it and it is very nice! Running very smoothly! First it was a bit strange and i had first to get used to that smoothness  :D! What a big difference to the 40 FPS XP Performance, guess i will need some time for that haha xD. Great Job!

greetz

I have uploaded v0.7.1.235. This one can handle Win32API and has some other stuff minor fixed as well. That also means that you can actually play CoSLAL (if you ignore that weird bug where sprites aren't drawn for some reason when the bitmap changes).

EDIT: I have implemented autotiles and animated autotiles, but I am not going to make a new build for this one. I still want to optimize the Tilemap, there's a certain degree of lag that can be removed with a little bit of intelligent design.

EDIT: I have added v0.7.5.248. This is the alpha version of the ARC engine.

It'd be more appropriate if you changed the "Main Engine" credit.

EDIT: And not sure if we should keep it this way but it seems the window updates when inactive.

I know. We're not going to keep this.

*deposits my two cents*

Well, so far, it's looking awesome... Wait, no, not awesome.. Dare I say.. Legendary even??

It's not that special. It's just RMXP after all. But the full engine WILL be legendary. >:3

Quote from: Scorpion on May 19, 2011, 11:47:42 am
But the full engine WILL be legendary. >:3

Yesh, and that's what I was referring to lolz..  :^_^':

So if I understand properly, the ARC editor will come out at (hopefully) the end of June, and this will just allow you to convert your RMXP project to your format and continue working.  But the full engine will not be out until later.  When do you expect a full release?

It's hard to say. We need to interface the whole underlying GUI library including lots of additional stuff. We need write all the new scripts and we need to make an example game using all of this stuff to make sure everything works fine. I think the full engine shouldn't be expected before the end of the year. But in the end it's hard to tell, because it depends on how much time each of will have,

would the new encryption system be done cause i would use ARC right off just to convert my project then compile/encrypt it

ARC Dev Release Build 0.7.6.259 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.7.6.259.rar)

It has more stuff fixed and more stuff working (such as transitions). This release can run on virgin installations of Windows (XP Vista and 7 work for sure) without anything else installed. That means that you won't get the same crash problems that you used to.

So it's coming up on the end of the month...  What's the status guys, are we all going to see a release here in a few days?  8)

Yeah, what's the holdup? :V:

Quote from: Eclipse on June 29, 2011, 05:45:17 pm
So it's coming up on the end of the month...  What's the status guys, are we all going to see a release here in a few days?  8)

Don't hold your breath. Due to a few us of slacking big time the editor will be awhile still. I don't know how far along the engine is, that should be ready to be released soon.

g_g you gotta put da team on yo back do.

The engine just needs to have a reworked texture update and the font handling has to be changed in the underlying library. There is some small misc stuff to do, but as long as the editor doesn't get done, this doesn't mean much.

Oh so there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on the editor?  From reading the forum it seems like you guys have a good majority of the core tasks done.  Sorry to hear it's not coming along as swimmingly as you first thought.  What still needs to be done?

You'll have to talk to Ryex about that. I am not sure, but I think at one point he mentioned something about it being 40% done. But I think the editor is now over 60% done. Again, you'd have to talk to Ryex about that.
The engine can be considered 80%-85% done.

Development actually was coming along very well. We just haven't worked much during June. We all pretty much got caught up in some personal stuff. :/

the editor is still fairly close to 45% done. I haven't worked on it in about three months and only a little bit in the last three weeks. I need to spark my desire to create again...

*slaps Ryex* There's money involved! >8U

*cries* I KNOW! WHY DO I HAVE NO DESIRE TO WORK FOR MONEY! *cries some more*

Rah! Rah! A-R-C!
Engine for an RPG!
Go! Go! A-R-C!
You four combined work slower than me!

:V:?

I agree 100% with that cheer.

total 100% correct that cheer is

Damn, he IS right. xD

Winkio, you just gained a level for that.. It was borderline epic, almost legendary..  8)

Not just almost. It IS legendary. <3

If you need some inspiration, think of all the awesome projects that people will be able to create.  With a better scripting system, more functional UI, and faster engine, we will be able to slap all these RMXP "pros" back to the stone age where they belong.  That's just the beginning though, with plugins and libraries, there's no telling what the limits of the software will be.  I've seen a primitive 3D maze done in RMXP, so who knows what your engine will be capable of.  FPS games?  Cockpit space shooter sections?  Real mode7?  Exporting to various platforms?

The only way to find out is to have a FINISHED PRODUCT FOR US TO MESS AROUND WITH  :^_^':

lol  8)

I think you are missing the point of the engine.  Mode7, 3D mazes, and FPS games are not what it is being made for.  It is not supposed to be THE BEST ENGINE OF ALL TIME.  It is, however, supposed to be powerful and efficient for creating 2D games.  The first version I think will focus solely on RPGs, perhaps later versions may provide framework for other types of 2D games such as platformers, shooters, etc.

Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to the engine so that it can develop the RMXP community into a slightly more skilled and sophisticated game dev community.  RMXP puts limits on the growth and natural understanding of how a game works, but your engine removes or raises a lot of those limits while still supporting low level introductory interaction, which is a very good thing :)

Yeah I agree.  I know the engine isn't supposed to be the be-all and end-all of game development, but it will be a powerful engine that will be capable of a lot of things.  I know FPS games, etc, aren't what the engine is designed to do, but I don't doubt it will be possible to create space shooter or Doom/Wolfenstein style FPS gameplay.  I've seen primitive versions of these done in RMXP, albeit with major performance issues.  I bet ARC will be able to handle them no problem though.  All I'm saying is that in a few years I'm sure we'll be blown away by the things people have managed to do with the program.

Just because you can make a car out of rubber bands and index cards does not mean that you should.  Make a car with wood, metal, or some other material meant for it.  Games are the same way.  There's nothing stopping you from making something that vastly underperforms, but it's really not a good use of your time.

Quote from: Eclipse on July 03, 2011, 03:58:54 pm
Yeah I agree.  I know the engine isn't supposed to be the be-all and end-all of game development, but it will be a powerful engine that will be capable of a lot of things.  I know FPS games, etc, aren't what the engine is designed to do, but I don't doubt it will be possible to create space shooter or Doom/Wolfenstein style FPS gameplay.  I've seen primitive versions of these done in RMXP, albeit with major performance issues.  I bet ARC will be able to handle them no problem though.  All I'm saying is that in a few years I'm sure we'll be blown away by the things people have managed to do with the program.

No, it won't handle them without problems. RMXP's 3D was done using blit operations which is very slow while the base engine is a 2D engine. ARC is a 2D engine as well. The only way to make ARC work in 3D is also to use blit operations. 3D should be done using proper vertexes and poligons, not blit operations. ARC is NOT a 3D engine and it will never be suited for a 3D engine.

*double post*

ARC 0.9.0.273 should be up in a few minutes. :3

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.0.273 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.0.273.rar)

What has changed from previous versions?
it is always better to specify the changes at each new version ^^

EDIT: Bug, if i launch exe game get an error that says missing MSVCP100.dll

Its always better to read previous posts before reporting bugs ^^

Microsoft C++ 2010 Redist (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=bd512d9e-43c8-4655-81bf-9350143d5867&displaylang=en)

Intro is completely bugged. None of the pictures were disposing as it went through.

In the previous version did not give this error ^^"

P.S: I not have 64 bit, but 32 ^^
Link download for 32 bit?

I forgot to mention that this version is a bit buggy and can crash. I had no idea about the intro problem, though. I'll go take a few looks at what's going on and recompile it.

Give me a few minutes, I'll upload it with the CRT this time as well. I was in a hurry when I posted this so I wasn't able to check some things.

EDIT: Here we go.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.0.274 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.0.274.rar)

Remember! There are still things that aren't working right and there are still bugs around.

the controls picture didn't dispose. and text looks fuzzy and bleh but other than that this is coming alone nicely. I can't wait until we make a release

I did notice that animations play a lot smoother.  :)

o_o I can't stop looking at F0's avatar.

Anyways, Animations are hella awesome!

Quote from: Ryex on August 08, 2011, 07:23:37 pm
the controls picture didn't dispose.

I noticed that already before I made the release.

Quote from: Ryex on August 08, 2011, 07:23:37 pm
and text looks fuzzy and bleh but other than that this is coming alone nicely.

That's because the text is supposed to be drawn with a black shadow. The black text is white so it looks weird. Something's wrong with Font::defaultColor, I have to look further into it to find the problem.

Quote from: ForeverZer0 on August 08, 2011, 08:36:56 pm
I did notice that animations play a lot smoother.  :)

That's because it's running at actual 40 FPS. :) RMXP doesn't do that, it even often runs with 39.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.1.285 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.1.285.rar)

Just downloaded. I'm actually stuck at this screen that asks if I want to go fullscreen or not..figured out how to move up and down but enter doesnt seem to do anything. Im guessing that this is just the game and not the editor that im loading then?

PRobably should be reading more before i jump into this, its just exciting thats all.

Do we have an ETA on the editor?

Maybe I should just start with RMXP and then convert when your editor is out.

You need to read the Blizz-ABS controls.
http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,75.0.html

And yeah start with RMXP and convert when we're done. We don't even have a usable editor out yet. We're hoping to get the editor done as soon as possible, but to be honest, we don't have an ETA for the engine nor the editor. Maybe if the team stopped procrastinating, well not the team but me. It seems everyone else is doing stuff but me. D:

Hey thats cool. I know all too well about being too busy to do anything...school, work, wife, kids, etc etc.... Ill start with rmxp then and convert when you guys are ready with the editor..again, pretty excited since they kinda flopped on rmvx and who knows when/if a newer one will come out and how they will canabalize that too.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.1.289 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.1.289.rar)

Oooooo INTERESTING! 8)  cant wait for official release  :-*

The 0.92 build doesn't offer much additional stuff. It's basically an update on 0.91 with and update on the underlying libraries (e.g. the audio library has been improved and made more stable). Due to technical reason, I can't upload the build right away, but it should be up in an hour. If you download it and it tells you that the archive is corrupted, relax, wait 10-15 more minutes and try again.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.2.307 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.2.307.rar)

*double posts*

Again, this one doesn't off too much new stuff. One significant thing, though, is that all data has been converted to the ARC format.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.3.373 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.3.373.rar)

What's with the small markers around the windowskin? 
I also noticed a few other odd things as well, such as the movie panels and white screen didn't dispose until after the initial cut scene ended and you are given the "controls", and a strange crash while fighting a few of the first enemies. I believe it was "cannot add key to hash during iteration".

Other than them few little bugs, everything is running good. :)

There is still stuff that hasn't been implemented yet. That includes color flashes.
The movie panels stay until the end of the cut scene.

I know about that hash crash (lol) for a while and it's in my TODO list already for weeks. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. I think that Ruby 1.8.x allowed you to change the hash during an iteration which causes a crash in Ruby 1.9.x.

There two solutions to the problem. One would be to disable that error like I did with the "wrong superclass" error or I could just leave it. Technically it should be left there because a hash shouldn't be allowed to be changed like this during iteration. But I'm not sure about the differences between 1.8.x and 1.9.x. It's possible that the iteration in 1.8.x would actually create a copy for the iteration or at least do it in a safe way that doesn't cause it to get messed up if you change it while in 1.9.x it could be that changing the hash would directly change the iteration so it actually raises an error if you try to. :/ If anybody here is willing to do a bit of research on the subject, be my guest.

I know many other languages don't allow for modification while iterating, but I didn't know Ruby 1.9.x was one of them. It seems like new version of Ruby are trying to move more towards a lower-level language, which I kinda don't like. I would say remove the exception for it and make it more 1.8-ish personally.

As I said, it depends on how it's handled. If it's really being changed during iteration, we are inviting lots of bugs and people won't know what's going on. :/

Actually it's the high level languages that don't allow change during iteration. *points to C# and C++ as comparison*

(http://www.codecommit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/image2.png)

The scale is from low to high. I meant in the aspect of proximity to machine code. I consider C++ and C# "high-level" as well, but that is incorrect. They are actually low-level. Usually the lower the level, the more powerful the language, hence I consider them high-level in my own mind, too.

C# isn't really that low level. It's a strong-typed language yes, and it's being compiled into byte code before execution (just like Python!), but it's not low level. I'd put it on par with Java, except that it's much better. In any case, I know what you mean. But it's usually in higher level languages that you have certain limitations so you don't mess up things. Well, this discussion is more or less irrelevant, we're not really solving the problem at hand. ._. The worst thing is that if I leave that error, lots of scripts will break. The only alternative would be a warning instead of an error. But that's only an option if we know that change during iteration will mess up the current iteration and it's been changed since 1.8.x. If the same problem existed before, but simply didn't cause an error, we'll just remove it as well.

Alright, after looking around a bit, I may be changing my mind and voting to leave the exception in there, and leave it to the scripter to maintain consistency. It appears 1.8.x and earlier versions of Ruby did not have any type of special way of dealing with this as I first thought. I had assumed that 1.8 handled this properly by creating a copy, and iterating that, but I was wrong.  Its all just a roll of the dice if it will cause an error or not. Apparently after this bug was discovered, they obviously fixed it to raise an exception if was attempted. Not modifying is the proper way, and like you said, will eliminate possible bugs.  Of course, now that needs edited in Blizz-ABS so that the script will work with ARC. :P

But I don't think that's much of a big deal. Quickly searching a script for .each, .keys and .values shouldn't be much of a problem.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.513 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.513.rar)

Quote from: Blizzard on November 19, 2011, 08:06:26 am
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.513 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.513.rar)

Error with code converter.

I can't seem to figure out what's happening. It runs fine on a developer machine, but it won't run anywhere else. I'll take a look at that later.

Quote from: Agckuu Coceg on November 23, 2011, 06:06:24 am

Quote from: Blizzard on November 19, 2011, 08:06:26 am
ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.513 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.513.rar)

Error with code converter.

Quote from: Blizzard on November 23, 2011, 08:56:02 am
I can't seem to figure out what's happening. It runs fine on a developer machine, but it won't run anywhere else. I'll take a look at that later.

mine runs fine, my computer is 64bit Windows 7 home premium with a Intel Core i5 3.20 GHZ overclocked to 4.20GHz and last i checked i'm not working on this so my machine isn't a developer machine

might be an OS problem or CPU problem
maybe, and this is a long shot, depending on where you compiled the .exe or .dll, it could be an error made by the assembly, last semester at my uni, we was doing an assignment with OpenGL and was given a .dll used for importing motion capture data, the same .dll used in previous years, however we had problems with it, contently spitting out errors and my lecture found out Visual Studio was making an error when it compiled the .h and .cpp files, in the end we was given these files and it all worked

I know that there can be certain problems, but it used to work normally. :/
I compiled it on a Windows 7 64bit machine and when I test it in a 32 bit Windows XP virtual machine, it doesn't work either. I really have no idea what's happening since I am compiling it for 32 bit architecture. :/

Quote from: Blizzard on December 08, 2011, 05:21:37 am
I know that there can be certain problems, but it used to work normally. :/
I compiled it on a Windows 7 64bit machine and when I test it in a 32 bit Windows XP virtual machine, it doesn't work either. I really have no idea what's happening since I am compiling it for 32 bit architecture. :/

the virtual machine is on the 64 bit machine? if so, that could be the problem, maybe try and compile it on a 32 bit machine and then test it on a 64 bit (not a virtual machine, an actual 32 bit computer), i have heard there can be problems when working on a 64 bit machine when trying to build 32 bit compatible applications, ofcause those problems relate to visual studio because Microsoft want those errors to remain so people all upgrade to 64bit

But it used to work. Nothing significant has changed since the last dev build.
Also, I am not compiling a 64 bit application with 32 bit support, I am compiling an actual 32 bit application.

is the software your using to compile been updated automatically, some of the Unity Demos including the Island demo no longer work with the new version of Unity because when you update the projects, Unity adds another line of code in a script or two which causes the error, maybe a new line of code is added without your knowledge because of an update

also, just read my previous post, wrong choice of words, what i mean is when you got to make a 32 bit app on a 64 bit machine, there may be something that a 64 bit machine does when compiling 32 bit apps, after all, these has to be a reason as to why some programs like iTunes and Switch have 32 bit installers but if you try and install them on a 64 bit machine they reject you telling you that you need to get a 64 bit installer (understandable with iTunes but Switch is a MIDI -> MP3 converter and wasn't made by some big group like Apple)

A 32 bit compiler is the same on a 32 bit machine and a 64 bit machine. There is no difference between them, it's still the same 32 bit compiler and output the same identical .exe and .dll files.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.613 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.613.rar)

I have actually found the problem, but it really doesn't make any sense. This build was built using the "previous method" of building so it works on all machines properly.

:mega facepalm:
I found out why it didn't work. The Microsoft.VC90.CRT was missing the manifest file. I wasted yesterday the whole day and today's morning to figure out a simplistic stupid mistake like this. I think this must be THE stupidest mistake that I took THE longest to figure out in my entire career as a programmer so far. I've even checked the folder multiple times to see if all DLLs were there. And yes, they were there, but I never noticed the missing manifest file.

Also, here is the Legacy configuration build. It uses a few less libraries since the RGSS portion never needed them in the first place.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.614 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.614.rar)

Many errors with disposes of sprites on the start after the intro... But it works. IT WORKS.

I guess I still haven't fixed that part properly. ._.

EDIT: Fixed it.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.4.620 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.4.620.rar)

Also, this version has been compiled with VS 2008 instead of VS 2010. Since there are libraries that have been previously compiled with VS 2008 and we can't recompile them with VS 2010 right now, the first release of ARC will be compiled with VS 2008.

Just tested the new build out.
The maps have been raped xD. Theres something going wrong there. The events and tiles are in the wrong places, and I spawned in a wall and cant move. . . . That's not part of the demo, is it?
And I don't think the fullscreen works either.

Which build did you try? If you tried older builds, obviously those were incomplete. The newest one is 9.4.0.620.
Fullscreen SWITCHING does not work. Fullscreen works just fine. Open the arc.cfg file and change the fullscreen option to true and you'll see.
We are about to refactor the underlying library APRIL at Cateia till the end of the month probably so I will include in the system that you can initialize a window with fullscreen switching capability and then ALT+ENTER and the fullscreen switch script will work.

Blizzard I can account for what he explained. I ran the build on my grandma's computer. The entire intro map is messed up and spawned Sir Lag-a-Lot in a wall. Not sure if its the engine or if the map data got screwed up. Here's a screenshot. And yes I grabbed the latest build.

That's some weird shit going on. O_o
Did any of you change the arc.cfg file or does this happen as soon as you start the game without doing anything? Do the graphics affect gameplay as well? Try taking the map files from the build before (all MapXXX.arc files, MapInfos.arc and Map_Data.abs). Tell me your findings.

The data's just screwed up. I used data files from an older build and it worked just fine.

Yeah, thats what I had.
Just a data thing, I guess

Thanks. I'll make sure to fix that.

EDIT: I have uploaded a version with fixed data. IDK how, but it got corrupted somehow. O_o Even the data directly from the SVN works just fine.

This has been a truly odd occurrence brought to you by your daily dose of Chaos!  ;)

So wait, is this fixed now?

Yes.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.6.640 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.6.640.rar)

When will the editor be out for beta testing? :D

Ryex and F0 are currently busy with some things so they don't have much time left to work on the editor.

Technically this development build doesn't offer anything different than the previous one either. Only the underlying libraries have been changed and improved. e.g. now April properly loads PNG files again that are not using RGB or RGBA colors, Atres has been heavily optimized for text rendering, XAL has been made more thread-safe, hltypes has many components that have been improved for better performance, etc. Since I work with these libraries on a daily basis at Cateia, it's natural that they get better with time. So the longer ARC actually takes, the better the engine will work when it's finally done.

No rush.

Things this epic take time.

Thing is that it could have been done much, much earlier. We all just have other things to do as well. e.g. now I'm busy with that side project of mine. But this shouldn't take more than 2 months until Gold Master, maybe even one month, depending on how quickly the graphics guy will have the basic GUI elements for me. I might even be able to squeeze in a few days to work on ARC to finished some stuff that I've been putting off for ages.

Just checking status, are you still planning on releasing the engine and the editor concurrently?

Actually, now that you say it... O_o I guess the engine could be pre-released earlier. If nothing else, at least for some beta testing.

It's not like the project converter doesn't work. we could release it and do some beta testing by letting people run their games under the engine

Yeah, I'd just have to finish and implement the last few things (e.g. MIDI). And obviously there would be no proper game encryption yet.

I think that would be a great idea!  I'd most definitely be interested in beta testing the engine.

I could play through a few RMXP games that I've been meaning to finish, as well as test my own game.  It's more of a tech demo at the moment, with the basic systems mostly implemented: CBS, CMS, and a map system with platforming elements that dynamically spawns tons of events.  Needless to say the RMXP interpreter gets destroyed by it and frequently locks up or crashes, and the VX interpreter doesn't fare too much better.  I'm interested to see how ARC will handle it.

That should be easy enough to check. All you need is the development build and the project converter. If I remember right, Ryex already finished it and you just need to ask him. Other than that you will need the Graphics/Fonts folder and the files Data/RMXP.rb and Data/System.rb. If Ryex's converter doesn't take care of that already that is.

EDIT: ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.6.642 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.6.642.rar)

I fixed some input related things. While Blizz-ABS/Tons' Input module still works like before, ARC's RGSS Input module now works much more like RMXP's RGSS Input module (when Blizz-ABS/Tons have been removed that is).

EDIT: ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.7.644 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.7.644.rar)

Finished all things related to font handling. Now ARC can be used just like RMXP in that manner and doesn't require local fonts of fonts definitions (even though I will add optional usage of local only fonts that don't have to be installed).
That also means that the Graphics/Fonts folder is not necessary anymore.

EDIT: ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.652 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.652.rar)

This CoSLAL version will be available as download along with the ARC Legacy Edition Beta. Also, sorry about the loud converted MIDIs. I didn't readjust the volumes in the game afterwards.

is it just me or does the text in the message window look....weird, like what happened 4 - 6 years ago when you tried to display a partial transparent image in IE (I was testing in both IE and Firefox like a good web designer.....shut up!) and the parts that should be partially transparent either show up without the transparency or not show up at all, my guess is maybe the shaded text addon in Tons, quite sure there was a shadow under the text in CoSLA

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Can you make a screenshot?

EDIT: ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.666 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.666.rar)

This is the unofficial beta dev build. I am going to proper topic though.

Could you add also editor test builds? I don't care if they'll be useless or not, I just want to play around with editor, even if it'll crash every 5 minutes. Also more testers==faster bug hunt.

You can ask Ryex about that. He's in charge of the editor.

EDIT: He's in IRC right now, I'll let him know.

I tried to convert my XP project, but the converter froze several times for me  :<_<:

Ryex will have to check that.

interesting... anthing special about your project? how many scripts does it have. what is the last message in the log before it freezes?

Quote from: Ryex on September 25, 2012, 10:17:41 pm
interesting... anthing special about your project? how many scripts does it have. what is the last message in the log before it freezes?

Whoops! Seems like it works; it just took very long time which is awkward considering the powerful rig I have :D
Sorry Ryex!  :^_^':

But I can't start the project - I click on the Game.exe, the window opens, and then closes after 1-2 seconds

I use the following scripts

- TitleSkip
- Change Tileset
- Keyboard script
- Flat Events
- Event Clone machine

As you can see, nothing really crazy, mhm.

Another thing: I admire your work guys, seriously. When I read about the feature list of the ARC editor I couldn't stop smiling since there are so many things that I miss when using RMXP! Cross-platform release and the huge perfomance boost will be reason enough for me to pay you guys and release my game under the ARC flag. I hope you guys make good progress, this will be pretty big when finished :)

Kudos!

the processes that would take the longest are the conversion of the animations file (especially if you added a lot of animations), the processing of all the maps (takes about 10 minutes with all of the map in Chaos project) and the transfer of the graphics and other resources (if you have a large amount of that stuff if might be faster to disable that check box and copy it yourself)

There are a few more things you need to do right now before it will work. You can find out more here: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,11882.0.html

Quote from: Blizzard on September 26, 2012, 07:48:50 pm
There are a few more things you need to do right now before it will work. You can find out more here: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,11882.0.html

Ah, thanks Blizz! Will look into it later :)

So I could finally start the game! Problem was the game used a sound effect from the RTP which I used as a placeholder.

And well, seems like there is much of adjustments to do. Battle animations are displayed wrong, Events which are copied from another map via script don't work correctly and the framerate isn't as good as on XP. Plus some moves like dashing don't work. But oh well, it's still an early dev build and I'm just very happy to make it work!

BTW, which is the best anti-lag/perfomance boosting script out there? Since I use the event copy script, a lot of events are getting copied onto one medium-sized map. Thanks for your help :)

could you show us an example of animation being displayed wrong? (and ins a screen shot of right and wrong). we need to know this sort to thing to fix it. also, how exactly do these events copied from another map fail? there is no reason that a script that worked in rmxp would not work in ARC.

as for the frame rate that's really weird. ARC naturally runs at 60 FPS with is far faster than RMXP and has far more power than RMXP so it would take a lot more to slow it down.

Quote from: Ryex on October 02, 2012, 01:14:08 pm
could you show us an example of animation being displayed wrong? (and ins a screen shot of right and wrong). we need to know this sort to thing to fix it. also, how exactly do these events copied from another map fail? there is no reason that a script that worked in rmxp would not work in ARC.

as for the frame rate that's really weird. ARC naturally runs at 60 FPS with is far faster than RMXP and has far more power than RMXP so it would take a lot more to slow it down.

Alright, I'll try my best to explain my problems :)

This is how it's supposed to look
(http://i.minus.com/ibhbvBR4FxvXid.png)

The player uses dash and a small dust animation is being shown on a event which is spawned at the hero's position before using dash.
Unfortunately I couldn't make a screenshot of the ARC version of the game because all I get after using the print button is a blackscreen. But the dust graphic is being shown on the player's character. And then some other battle animations get stacked on him as well which looks really weird.

The events from the other maps don't work like they should. It works flawlessly in the XP version. In the ARC version, a enemy gets spawned on the map and is dead after one hit. It seems like it doesn't carry over the variables like HP or switches. I don't know why this is the case. Maybe there is a flaw in the script itself? You can take a look at it (it's a German script btw):



The FPS is not 60 FPS. This got me wondering as well. The game runs better in XP than in ARC. I didn't use a anti-lag script in the ARC version to keep it as clean as possible and I didn't play around with anything else. None of the scripts I use are "technical", they mostly are for graphical things like changing the chipset or making events flat so that the player can walk over.

Hope that this description helped a bit better :)

hmm, the events things should like it could be caused buy the changes in ruby 1.9 from 1.8, I'd wait for Blizz he could likely figure that out. the animation are probably a bug in ARC itself as for screen shots in ARC, I was fairly sure that F12 could take a screen shot, was fairly certain that was built into the engine. the black box is because winds print screen screen shot functionality does not work with DierctX windows

ARC runs on DirectX9 so using Print Screen (or ALT + Print Screen) should work if you run the game in windowed mode.

I'm not sure what is wrong with the animations. I was not able to notice anything like that in ARC.

I'm not sure why the events aren't working. The only thing that might make sense is the difference between Ruby 1.9 and Ruby 1.8, though, it still doesn't make sense that such a substantial feature doesn't work.

I'm not sure why it runs slower. Are your drivers up to date? Is the DirectX version installed on your system up to date? Note that ARC uses hardware 3D acceleration to make as much use of the GPU as possible so it's not impossible that ARC games run slower on old GFX cards.

All in all, we can only further analyze these problems if you put an XP demo and an ARC demo of your project. Then we could start analyzing the problem directly as we were not able to reproduce any of these problems.

if you want you can Just PM a Team member the project that demo the problems, we will not to share the data out side of the team and only use it for debugging purposes.

Quote from: Ryex on October 02, 2012, 07:58:05 pm
if you want you can Just PM a Team member the project that demo the problems, we will not to share the data out side of the team and only use it for debugging purposes.

Appreciated! I can definetely do this and trust you guys with my baby :) Who of you has time for it?
I will send the person the XP + the Arc project I made. What I noticed is that all the battle animations seem to.. stack? If I hit an enemy, a sword animation is being shown. If this enemy explodes in a fountain of green blood (another animation), this animation has the sword animation on it - it really looks weird. And if you use another battle animation, it gets stack on top of those two and so on; it really is crazy.

I try to prepare the project as far as I can :)

Quote from: VanillaSky on October 03, 2012, 11:09:57 am
What I noticed is that all the battle animations seem to.. stack? If I hit an enemy, a sword animation is being shown. If this enemy explodes in a fountain of green blood (another animation), this animation has the sword animation on it - it really looks weird. And if you use another battle animation, it gets stack on top of those two and so on; it really is crazy.

i think that's normal, in the default battle system i'm sure it waits until the battle animation is finished before playing the next and people when they use events to play animations, will normally use Wait

• to make the game wait until the animation is done, if your using an Active Battle System (eg. Blizz-ABS), the animation stacking would be expected, it would break the flow of the system if you waited until an animation stopped playing, though from personal experience it does look they stack but i only really use 5 - 10 frame long animations in those situations

Yes, this would only be a problem if the behavior is different on RMXP than it is in ARC.

You can PM the demos to both me and Ryex. Ryex will take a look at the animations and events while I take a look at the FPS.

Alright, I took at look at the game. While in arc.cfg the frame rate was not set to 60 (it was 40, as is RMXP's default), the game was running smoothly on my PC and a lot better than with RMXP's engine. So it must be your PC. Make sure that your drivers are up to date and that you have the newest DirectX installed. Let's see what Ryex found out about the animations and events.

Quote from: Lord Blizzaja on October 12, 2012, 10:42:41 am
Alright, I took at look at the game. While in arc.cfg the frame rate was not set to 60 (it was 40, as is RMXP's default), the game was running smoothly on my PC and a lot better than with RMXP's engine. So it must be your PC. Make sure that your drivers are up to date and that you have the newest DirectX installed. Let's see what Ryex found out about the animations and events.

Okay, so what kind of drivers I need to update besides DX? At least it runs great on your system :)

Besides, how is it going with ARC? Any big news to be expected?

You should download the newest DirectX for your OS from Microsoft's site and the newest drivers from the website of your graphics card manufacturer (nVidia, ATI or Intel in some cases). After installing DX and the newest drivers, things should work. Which graphics card do you have anyway?

We're currently trying to get F0 to finish the editor so ARC LE Beta can be released. http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,12485.0 Feel free to join in.

Quote from: Lord Blizzaja on October 22, 2012, 08:22:54 am
You should download the newest DirectX for your OS from Microsoft's site and the newest drivers from the website of your graphics card manufacturer (nVidia, ATI or Intel in some cases). After installing DX and the newest drivers, things should work. Which graphics card do you have anyway?

We're currently trying to get F0 to finish the editor so ARC LE Beta can be released. http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,12485.0 Feel free to join in.

I have a Geforce GTX 570, 16 GB of DDR3 RAM and a i5-2500K @ 3.30GHZ - actually it should have no problem with my system and most of my drivers are always upt to date since I play modern PC games.

Okay, good to know. I'll join you guys :)

interesting. I too have a GTX 570 with latest drivers ect.  I did notice that there was an animation stacking error but I cant seem to find a cause of it in the engine. basicly every animation that get played no matter the location gets stacked on every animation that is played after.

the ARC version seems to have multiple problems however priorities arn't drawn correctly (the tree in the bottom left corner spears above the player in RMXP but below in ARC) I do notice that RMXP seems to run a bit faster by what appears to be 5-6 frames (I don't have a frame counter available so that's my best guess)

in the ARC version the Night passes instantly but in RMXP the "Day survived" never comes up after the night.

also, in ARC the zombies never re-spawn

frankly I'm stunned at the number of bugs that riddle this with seemingly no explanation.

ARC Dev Release Build 0.9.8.733 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20224394/ARC/arc_0.9.8.733.rar)

Whenever there are events that transfer you, there is a weird rendering bug. Also, some of the enemy arrows managed to change to different colors. Such as purple, dark red, bright red. And the intro is still bugged.


The "Chronicles of Sir Lag-a-Lot" title image doesn't seem to be disposing. Once the intro credits are done, it shows back up and doesn't go away until you take control of the player. Also, the title text gets blurred after the first initial display of the title image.

I have no idea what is going on. What the shit? Seriously. ._.

(The blurred text is also an image so the sliding animation looks better.)

Mhm that doesn't sound so good..

I hope that I can make the game run on ARC somehow and get rid of these bugs.. :/

The worst thing is that I have no idea how these problems are even possible. I have no problems on my PC whatsoever.

do you have an nvidia or AMD graphics card, because we all have nvidia.

Were you asking me or Blizzard?

Regardless, I have an nVidia at the moment with the most recent drivers.

Quote from: Blizzard on November 03, 2012, 02:11:53 pm
The worst thing is that I have no idea how these problems are even possible. I have no problems on my PC whatsoever.

Does the Zombie re-spawn with your version? And do the battle animations stack? I just don't understand why it works perfectly for you while it works shitty for us despite having very good rigs..

Also, I fixed the "Day survived" bug, so that's not a thing anymore.

As I said, everything works just fine. :/

This is awkward :D

On the one hand, I'm happy that it works for you - but I don't understand why it doesn't for Ryex or me. Are our GTX570 cards cursed? This is really weird..
Well, I still have much to do and hope that in the end it will work flawlessly with ARC since I want to release it with 60 FPS + across Linux/Windows/Mac..

I tried the Sir-Lag-a-Lot as well and I have the same problem. The text is blurred and there are some graphical bugs. I think i remember the windowskin being gone as well.

Quote from: MarkHest on November 12, 2012, 02:37:45 am
I think i remember the windowskin being gone as well.

That actually started to make a whole lot of sense to me. I think I might know what the problem is: Your graphic cards have trouble with render-to-texture. I have to use render-to-texture because of text rendering, other methods are far too slow. Because of that, I have simply changed all stuff in ARC to use render-to-texture. Though, it does not explain why anything is working at all. If render-to-texture does not work with text, it shouldn't be working at all. What are the other graphical bugs that you are experiencing?

Sorry to disapoint you but I was wrong about the windowskin problem. They are displaying fine for me, however some of them have weird rendered corners.
Anyway, I made this example video (no sound) of playing around the game with the ARC Engine. You can see for yourself just how things change as I keep playing. Some of the problems are rather interesting... like when you save the game and go back to the map.

Download .RAR file (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29306744/MarkHest%20Sir%20Lag-A-Lot%20ARC%20Test.zip) (MP4) (70MB)

So, any progress about that Nvidia problem guys? :)

Nope. At least I wasn't able to do or reproduce anything.

frankly I cant even find the code where animations are handled...

Hello,

I did try the latest build 0.9.8.733 today, but the only thing I see are serious grafic errors ;) :





Edit:
My System:
Win XP
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS

This is really weird. Are you using the latest graphics drivers? To me this looks like your graphics card doesn't support basic ARGB textures through DirectX9 properly.

It is an old PC from our company. The graphics drivers are up to date because the PC was freshly installed a few weeks ago.

I don't know the technical differences betwenn ARC and rpg maker vx ace. But the later one runs smoothly on this machine.

The credits from your demo runs fine and the splash screen right before the credits start is shown correctly as well.

It could be possible that too much VRAM is used.