NEW POST: GDIdotNETgames XML Format

IrishBouzouki — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:27:20 GMT

For those who wish to edit the XML file and do not want to tackle figuring out the serialization code.

All the attributes are the required items for any map or sprite (or the game overall).
Generally, all the child nodes are optional, although some nodes will not really work properly without without particular child nodes (ie a game with no map) or not really make sense without others (ie a game with no sprites).
All the supported child node types and format are shown in the example.

More here if needed as time permits.

NEW POST: First release

IrishBouzouki — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:17:50 GMT

Thanks to Nick Gravelyn for his Tile Engine tutorial series which provided me the insiration to do this. Nick will probably be disappointed I am working down a GDI path and not XNA but I need to see what the limits are of this approach first - and Vista now uses DirectX for GDI graphics so it may improve over time. But anyway when you see tile stuff added to this code it will be thanks to Nick that I saw I could really do it.

I also got the "Last Guardian" sprites and the grass texture from his tutorial. He got them from somewhere else, I forget where, but you could find out on his website.

I have never used a system like codeplex before, my experience is limited to single-programmer projects with all the source code local to me even if I distribute it over a network. SO forgive me if I mess up and leave off needed files or include extra stuff. If you drop a note and let me know that would be a big help.

Right now there is a test container project something like "WindowsApplicationGDIdotNETgames" which has the main form and a library project something like "WindowsControlLibraryGDIdotNETgames" which has a user control for the map and two custom controls - a map and a sprite.

It runs on my machine fine, no crashes/hangs and the graphics are smooth, except for some acceptable roughness when changing zoom levels.

There are two sprites which appear on a map and you can move them around, the mouse cursor canges to a hand when you are over them and they are highlited in red instead of black. Or if you are over a "front corner" you get a different cursor for each corner. When over a front corner you can drag the sprite and it will wheel about the opposite front corner. When over the sprite but not at a front corner (so the hand cursor) you simply drag the sprite without changing its rotation.

You can scroll about the map using the inner pair of scroll bars. You can also use the outer vertical scroll bar to zoom in and out. Zooms and scrolls handle each other and keep you within the map surface.

There are tool tips with the names of each sprite. And each sprite has a context menu you can get to by right-clicking on it.

The File menu works, new gives you the default start, exit exits(!) - but why would you want to do that, save(as) saves the current state to an XML file anywhere you like, and open opens a save file (or the default) you pick. If you feel like editing XML you can do a little more with it, but at the moment that is all there is.

Items I see right now off the bat...
1. Sprite transparency drills thru any overlapping sprites to the map. I might just live with this and call it a feature. It is my intention at some point that sprite overlaps will be inhibited anyhow. But if some contributor comes along and has an idea for how to fix this then the tools would be more flexible.
2. The map does not pan when dragging a sprite near to the edge. In fact you can drop a sprite right over the edge even if it puts it into off-map territory and it is lost to the user, though still in memory. This needs to be fixed by adding a map pan on drag near an edge. Need to think some on this though because there is actually some functionality in dragging a sprite off the map into another as-yet-uncreated box somewhere on the form.
3. Mouse wheel support to operate the zoom bar, and make this work during drag operations as well as normal fiddling about.
4. Artwork... not a priority yet, except the cursors are not real good. I could use a pair of better cursors for the sprite wheeling, and to a lesser degree a better one for sprite moving. Then that would also free up the cursors I am using now for the map pan functions where they are better suited.
5. Need to load up with a whole bunch of sprites, maybe 100, and see if it still works or if it comes to a screetching halt. COuld actually do that with the code as-is by editing a save game file.

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