Free game: Tower (latest version 1.6)

Well, you can add another working config to your list =)

Laptop, Dell Insipiron 8600
1.7 Pentium M
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128 Mb
512 RAM
WinXP Home SP1

Cool game BTW =)

[edited by - Christian R on March 11, 2004 12:16:26 PM]

quote:

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Original post by WitchLord
..., but I would prefer not to have to rely on D3DX in this case.

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I''m just getting started with DX. Why do you prefer to avoid D3DX? Are there pros and cons to using the D3DX calls (speed, etc.? or just not wanting to require the library? ...)
Thanks,

Tadd
- WarbleWare

Working fine here (W2k, GF4 Ti4600). Great game too!

Working good here, XP Pro + Athlon 1400 with geforce 4 ti.

Only complaint would be the mouse speed seems to vary, making it annoying to use the menus. When I've done pointers I've just done deltas of the motion, or mapped the mouse onto the window, it's easier for you since you're fullscreen, so a simple win32 command should get it.

[edited by - ch1pz on March 11, 2004 12:47:25 PM]

Christian R:

Thanks, I'll add it to the list.

reana1:

In this case I wanted to avoid D3DX because I wanted to make graphics engine that would be easy to port to OpenGL and even to a future software renderer, which means that I would need to write my own code for loading and creating textures anyway. Otherwise I see no reason to avoid D3DX, the library is statically linked so there is really no dependency on that, and the library is usually better optimized than you would do yourself. It's just that I like knowing what's going on behind the scenes

Fruny:

Thanks!

ch1pz:

Thanks for the feedback. The mouse speed varies because I implemented acceleration, perhaps I overdid it a little (I already lowered the mouse speed once ). I like it like this (I don't have to move the mouse so much to get the pointer across the screen), but perhaps I could add an option for adjusting the speed.

Mapping the pointer to the windows pointer could be a good idea, especially in windowed mode when it would allow the user to move the mouse outside the window to switch applications. I think I'll try that solution when I get the time. Thanks for the tip.

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[edited by - WitchLord on March 11, 2004 2:04:05 PM]

wow im addicted.

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typedef unsigned long long int me;
typedef signed short char you;

:D

Thanks for letting me know.

In the future I''ll try to make an online highscore list (to make the game even more addictive ), but I don''t know when that would be since I have very little time.

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wow... this one''s great. highly addictive stuff.

no problems on Athlon TB 1400, GeForce-2 GTS, WinXP
[tried, but didn''t work on Linux/Wine (Wine no likey DirectX) :-(]

Wow, i'm dizzy,.. no joke... The rotation of the game space makes me sea sick...

Nice game, works fine on my ancient Athlon 750, 256MB RAM, TNT2.

edit: DON'T LAUGH,....
edit2: at either my system or my intolerance of anything rotating...

[edited by - Crawl on March 11, 2004 7:50:24 PM]

[edited by - Crawl on March 11, 2004 7:51:55 PM]

quote:

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Original post by Crawl
edit2: at either my system or my intolerance of anything rotating...

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Why do you think I didn''t specify my number of megahurtz - you have more than I do.

Sys Config:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (O/C''ed - don''t know if that has an effect)
1GB RAM
Geforce FX5200
WinXP

uNiQue0815:

You actually tried to run the game on Linux?

Thanks for the system info, I''ll add it to the list shortly.

Crawl:

Don''t worry I''ll not laugh. I too get dizzy playing games at times (although mostly FPS, not this little game).

And your system is almost on par with mine (Celeron 800MHz, 256MB, GeForce 256 DDR)

PSWind:

Thanks for the info. O/C doesn''t really matter, only if you were getting strange system crashes, in which case I would suggest removing the O/C

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Wow, I had no idea that I would get so much praise on this little game. Thanks every one

Seems that the game works fine on a wide variety of systems. Although so far I haven''t seen anyone running Win9x/Me, and neither any other chipset than ATI/nVidia. Is there a chance someone has a machine like that lying in a dark closet somewhere? Wouldn''t that someone be interested in trying my game on it? Just for curiuosity? (I know, I might be asking for too much)

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AngelScript - free scripting library

Tried it twice, complete lockup both times.. What you notice is that a number of lines at the top of the screens gets randomly colored (you know what I mean..), and then you have to reboot.

system: win98se, athlon 2200, 512mb ram, gf fx 5200...

sad, 'cos it looks fun.

edit: good news for me: i'm going to my parents place for the weekend, so i can play it there instead

edit 2: i ran the game once more, using the -log option, and it did lockup again... and the last line in the log say "gfx.ResetDevice(640, 480, 24, 0)
"... and, well, 24bpp? my card doesn't support that.. full log at http://jolle.se/bah/tower.log

[edited by - Jolle on March 12, 2004 8:10:09 AM]

Just tried it. Worked perfectly on my system (p4 2.6, radeon 9600 pro, winXP). Some comments:

The resolution only goes up to 1280x960. WHY?!?! I have a 1280x1024 LCD and I want to run in native resolution... *sigh*

The rotation irritated me at first but then I got used to it. Maybe make it faster or slower or.. umm... different somehow? OK after half a game or so anyhow. What would really help is to have a block shadow projected onto the stack so you can see what it''s lined up above without waiting for the tower to catch up with the block; I think the rotation wouldn''t be a problem then.

Not a real issue or complaint, but why are you using that install library instead of nsis? It looks more like the standard installshield one and it doesn''t have the nag screen. (I''m just plugging it because I was learning to use it at work today and I made my first ever real installer... )

I was going to complain about not being able to rotate or swap bits of the bricks, but then I rtfm and, well... nevermind.

Please, please don''t make an online high score table. My tendency to get addicted to these things and not do any work is bad enough as it is.

On second thoughts, hold that last point. I want a two player competitive mode (where you can see the other player''s tower next to yours)!

OK... off to play more now.

Jolle:

bugger, I was getting so sure that everything was fine (except for that strange bug with the Cyberblade).

I can't say why the game locks up. Obviously it is when the game switches to fullscreen. Know, what? I think you can get it to work on your machine. Open the "config.cfg" file that is in the "data" directory, it's just a text file. There you can set the game to run in windowed mode. Hmm, or maybe you will not find the config.cfg file. Since the game doesn't exit normally (you reset the machine) the config.cfg is never created. I'll see if I can send you one (or put it up for download here).

The fact that the screen resolution is 24bpp, just means that the are 24 color bits. The other 8bits in 32bpp mode are not used (reserved for destination alpha channel).

I'll have to do some tests on this.

Do you mind helping me test the game when I have something new? If so, send me your e-mail address so that we can communicate directly.

fractoid:

The resolution aspect ratio is locked to 4:3, this is why it doesn't go up to 1280x1024. Perhaps I should remove this lock.

I'll see what I can do about the tower rotation and/or block shadows.

I chose InstallCreator because I thought it was easier to use than NSIS. I use NSIS on some of my other programs though. Perhaps there is a newer version of NSIS that is better, I'll have to go check that. InstallCreator can also look just like the normal InstallShield, but I chose not to include the graphics for this which is why you get the simple gray version. And I think the nag screen is perfectly ok, after all I use their product for free.

Two player competetive mode? Interesting idea, I'll keep that one for when I get the urge to write a second verions of Tower.

Thanks for the info.


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AngelScript - free scripting library

[edited by - WitchLord on March 12, 2004 1:08:36 PM]

This is bad! It didn't work!!

System:
Athlon XP2000+
512MB
Radeon 8500LE
WinXP Pro (SP1)

Log:

gfx.1 graphics adapter(s) available
====
gfx.Adapter: 0
gfx.Driver: ati2dvag.dll
gfx.Description: RADEON 8500 SERIES
gfx.Version: 6.14.10.6422
gfx.VendorID: 00001002
gfx.DeviceID: 0000514C
gfx.SubSysID: 013A1002
gfx.Revision: 00000000
gfx.SubSysID: 013A1002
gfx.Can render in windowed mode: Yes
gfx.Allow source blending with source alpha: Yes
gfx.Allow destination blending with inverse source alpha: Yes
gfx.Allow alpha channel in textures: Yes
gfx.Max texture size: 2048 x 2048
gfx.Max texture aspect ratio: 2048
gfx.Max primitive count: 65535
gfx.Max vertex index: 16777215
====
gfx.CreateWindowedDevice()
gfx.Failed to create device with hardware vertex processing, trying software (8876086A)
gfx.Failed to create device with software vertex processing (8876086A)
Failed to create a windowed device. Your primary video accelerator may not support windowed rendering.

How can I run it in fullscreen mode?


[edited by - nonpop on March 12, 2004 1:20:20 PM]

Strange, the Radeon 8500 should work. The capabilities even say it can render in windowed mode, and another user already tested the game with this card.

Unfortunately there is currently no way of forcing the game to start in fullscreen mode. I''ll change this. And I will also write a small launcher app where you can make few choices before starting the game (such as logging, which adapter to use, whether or not to use sound, etc).

I''ll see what I can do this weekend. Hopefully I''ll have a new beta version in a few days (it all depends on how much time I have).

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AngelScript - free scripting library

Just an idea...
Does the game save its settings somehow? If it does I could write a config file telling the game to run in fullscreen.

The game does save the settings in a file "data\config.cfg", but it won''t help you because, lazy me didn''t write a generic method for creating the first device. What the game does today is create a windowed device, then switch to fullscreen. It should create the fullscreen device first of course, and that is what I will work on this weekend if time gives.

There are a lot of these TODOs in the code that I never fixed because it seemed to be working, and I wanted to get started on my next project. Maybe this will teach me to not be so lazy next time

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