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Devlog KAG Kicking and Screaming into May

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Geti, May 1, 2017.

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Transparent Minimaps in the API or not?

Poll closed May 8, 2017.
  1. Heck Yes! Transparency Rocks!

    25 vote(s)
    83.3%
  2. No Way! I Like Background Colours!

    5 vote(s)
    16.7%
  1. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Hey folks,

    This month I'm hoping to get a KAG build out (finally!) with the texture data stuff. I'm putting current solo projects on hold in hope of getting a better run up at it - there's still 3 days a week contract stuff so I can pay the bills, but hopefully it'll be 2 days per week on KAG instead of per fortnight til this build is out.

    The main barriers to release at this point are "dumb bugs" caused by the interaction of the new texture stuff with the old texture stuff. Things like team colour not working reliably for all objects on net, server-side issues, image layer offsets being wrong in some cases but not others, that sort of thing.

    It'll be a matter of going through, diagnosing and fixing each of them, and unfortunately giving a good estimate of how long that'll take can be tricky. Could be a few days for each one, and could turn up new, exciting bugs.

    I really wish this hadn't happened and the feature was still in a nice separate branch of the repo, but failing some git magic and manual reconfiguring of all the build nodes and every dev machine, I think we're stuck with it for this release...

    Today I (ironically?) actually took a slight detour away from the texture stuff and worked on getting minimaps in the API updated more regularly, as well as getting that done in the background - there should be less stutter at the start of the map as a result.

    The maps currently look like this in the API (i'm linking imgur so it's a snapshot instead of hitting the API where it might change) - note the alpha and that it's exactly the same as the in-game minimap (albeit without any entities drawn).
    [​IMG]
    And at 3x for a closer look:
    [​IMG]
    This actually uses the in-game minimap code! Which means it ~should~ use the new scripted minimap stuff too, if you're into that.

    I'm currently tossing up whether to keep the alpha or not or to put some background colour behind it. Your opinions there are welcome!
    Should be handy having up-to-date minimaps in the browser either way.

    I'll keep you in the loop with how the texture stuff goes, have fun in the meantime!
    Max
     
  2. jimmyzoudcba

    jimmyzoudcba Haxor Tester

    Messages:
    274
    new build hype :G
    Also, on the scripted minimap, would it change in any way for us non-codable plebs?
     
  3. Asu

    Asu THD Team THD Team Forum Moderator

    Messages:
    1,580
    If it isn't obvious, for mods, yes. Transparent minimaps might also be a thing since the poll is fairly in favor.
     
    jimmyzoudcba likes this.
  4. 8x

    8x Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité Forum Moderator Staff Alumni Tester
    1. The Young Blood Collective - [YB]

    Messages:
    1,325
    Leaving here my comment of "when we gon' get the different skins ingame?". Also, it could be perhaps a good time for somebody to ask, "what about adding a couple of new heads to the game?".
    :shad:
     
  5. epsilon

    epsilon Assonist THD Team Forum Moderator Donator Tester
    1. Gather Oceania
    2. KAG World Cup 2018

    Messages:
    506
    I thought there isn't enough space for more heads without extending/making a new menu. I'm just eager for anything new at this point considering the current state of THD.
     
  6. l3afysamz

    l3afysamz Ballista Bolt Thrower

    Messages:
    63
    Yay, finally! New things and fixes on the way 25252525
     
    an_obamanation and Geti like this.
  7. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    As said above, the scripted minimap stuff can be used for mods that modify the tilemap, to make their new tiles show up properly on the minimap (or to implement totally new minimap behaviour)

    Some time after we get the texture functions working and compatible in-game and the performance gotchas therein worked out :shad:

    I literally have an entire "head pack DLC" of heads waiting for MM to implement them at this point. https://twitter.com/1bardesign/status/847686002038652928 These are "game ready" (ie fully animated across both genders)
     
  8. l3afysamz

    l3afysamz Ballista Bolt Thrower

    Messages:
    63
    Love the heads! Also, what is MM, sorry if that's something really obvious.
     
    an_obamanation likes this.
  9. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    MM is the other "main" KAG dev, he's been doing very little direct work on the game in the past few years though.
     
  10. epsilon

    epsilon Assonist THD Team Forum Moderator Donator Tester
    1. Gather Oceania
    2. KAG World Cup 2018

    Messages:
    506
    Amazing. I love how Japan has a headband rather than facepaint and a bandana.
     
    l3afysamz and SirDangalang like this.
  11. Pirate-Rob

    Pirate-Rob Haxor Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    270
    If I understand this post correctly, we'll be able to change the server mini-map preview in our mods?
     
  12. Fuzzle

    Fuzzle Grand Grumbler

    Messages:
    297
    I think that's already possible with `CalculateMinimapColour`.
    Also, the minimap will be used as a preview in the server browser.
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2017
    Asu likes this.
  13. Pirate-Rob

    Pirate-Rob Haxor Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    270
    Ah ye, I meant in the server browser, awesome :D
     
  14. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    As fuzzle says, yep but with an additional caveat - the function isn't continuously queried for every tile as thatd be very expensive, it only happens once on map load and then when tiles change - which means it's fine for tilemap stuff or for a static image, but you'll need to be careful if doing anything particularly tricky/dynamic.
     
  15. Pirate-Rob

    Pirate-Rob Haxor Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    270
    Awesome, the static image thing is what I was going for.
     
  16. AgentHightower

    AgentHightower Ballista Bolt Thrower Tester Official Server Admin
    1. Aphelion's Roleplay

    Messages:
    84
    Very nice, And about the heads, They look pretty dope, And very groovy :u
     
    Geti likes this.
  17. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    It's also limited to being exactly the size of the map, fwiw, so you'll want to at least have a similar aspect ratio to your static image or else manually centre the image within the map bounds. Glad it'll get some use, hope it won't get too much abuse :P
     
    Pirate-Rob likes this.
  18. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Update on the situation:
    • There are a few performance issues and yet-to-be tested bugs holding back the texture stuff from getting released.
    • Most (known) bugs have been sorted out, a few remaining are yet to be tested. There's an emulation layer to make the script textures work where there's not a graphics device available/initialised (think: serverside).
    • I'm waiting on MM for code either fully-implementing or temporarily-disabling the head pack stuff. It's half-done now and hasn't been done in a branch, so if it's not done it'll block release :/ I'm chasing him up about it and hopefully this means there'll be more heads available next build.
    • The skin colour stuff is unfortunately being put on the backburner while we figure the particulars out - adding another set of texture combinations to the mix doesn't seem sensible in the face of these performance issues. That said, the functionality is there for modders to play with.
     
  19. Geti

    Geti Please avoid PMing me (poke a mod instead) THD Team Administrator Global Moderator

    Messages:
    3,730
    Update on the DLC stuff - hilariously even for a head pack we have to do a whole steam storefront thing, so for the next few days I'll be just making tens of images in very specific sizes and hating valve. I'm kind of wondering if it would be better to move it to workshop or something but we'll try it this way first I guess, and I'll try to make templates to ease future packs if they're popular.

    Update on the texture stuff - it seems mostly good. I've thrown a precache in front of the most commonly used textures and operations so that theres no micro-lag when someone first swaps to eg a red female archer.

    There are a few optimisations that could be done as well (searching for all pixel offsets in one pass would be a good one) but it extends the "join time" by less than a second, so I think it should be ok in the short term anyway.

    I'd really like to get a build out asap to relieve the pressure of not being able to do smaller patches. We really need to move to a more flexible development procedure to prevent this kind of thing dragging out. Something something #blamefurai #repopocalypse
     
    Pirate-Rob, Noburu, 8x and 2 others like this.