That's awesome news, congrats

Heh... saw this posted in the SA Game Dev Challenge thread . Hammer Bro's game, too.

I had another thought about the hiccup... it might be the physics. I've noticed when I have many small physics objects colliding, I sometimes get a pause. It could be your lava, or your rocks, or all of it. Hard to say.

Try taking the physics lava out and see if that cures your hiccup. And if you're not doing anything special with the lava (i.e., if it's just going to be for show) then you can create a similar bubbling effect with non-physics sprites. Just create some oblong egg-shaped gradient sprites and set them close to each other. At the start of layout, set their angles to random(360), and then rotate them all from that point. It looks nice and bubbly. I can upload an example later if you like.

Also, if you're making large collision masks for your landmasses then you can still use the tiles method. I have a prototype minigolf game that uses regular sprites to show the boundaries of the level (like tiles) but then there is a single box object with a single custom collision mask that encompasses the whole level. I can PM you the .cap if you want to take a look. It would likely help to increase the performance of your game.

Oh, and good luck with the compo

Hold Enter + left click

That was it!

It doesn't update the Properties bar until you let go the Enter key though, adding request to the tracker.

I thought there was a keypress-click combo that allowes you to select objects below the object you currently selected, but I forgot what it is

Anyway, if they're on a separate layer, you could just hide/lock the decorative layer while you work on the collision layer. Click the eye and lock icons for the layer.

This is a bug report. You should submit it to the tracker.

[quote:35d80yd5]as well as splitting the two large terrain pieces into many small pieces.

I don't know if it's the images that are causing your hiccup. But if it is your images, then it's not just a matter of chopping up large images into small images.

You have to make modular tiles. Create a handful of selected pieces that can snap together to make larger, complex shapes. For instance, you have a lot of large areas that are filled with basically the same empty, black space. You don't need all that blank space, it's just taking up VRAM. You can use a simple 32x32 black Tiled Background and stretch it. Or if you plan on texturing that area, you can use a few simple types of tiles that that layer over each other and repeat them.

And just so I'm clear... no you can't just take the large platform sprite and erase the middle part, because blank space in a sprite takes up just as much memory as colored space.

As for the outer surface of your platforms... it appears that you want to have something that doesn't look like it's repeating. That's fine, too. Just make a small set of raggedy looking tiles (maybe twenty tiles or so) that you can fit together in different configurations so it doesn't look like it's the same tile over and over again. You might get a few similar looking areas, but you can disguise them with decorative stuff.

It's just not a good idea to draw a large area of terrain, ever. It's wasteful. Yes, making tiles and fitting them together like puzzle pieces is more work... but it works. Games use tiles and repeating textures for a reason. One kind of tile with 20 instances is much more efficient than a single sprite of equal area.

[quote:2gh0qr8e]Then theres the blue and red effect, where the left eye can only see one colour, and the right eye can only see the other, but it kinda prevents you seeing colour....also it requires people to be wearing red/blue glasses.

For some reason I have two pairs of Shark Boy and Lava Girl 3D glasses, but I've never seen that movie! I swear it.

I have been playing with making games since the trs80 color(coco) computer's era.

HELL YEAH!

The TRS-80 Color Computer was the first computer I ever used. That's what I learned to program BASIC on. Good times.

Welcome to the forum

Only a handful of people have attempted physics platformers. It's a rather unique feature that the majority of users won't need. Unique circumstances call for unique solutions, not general solutions.

If only a few people are going to use it, then why spend the time to develop a full-fledged feature, when the same thing can be accomplished on the user's end as the need arises?

It's an out of the ordinary request that would cause the developers a headache and it only has a limited use. It's not likely to happen.

Well, I don't think the "best way" is likely to happen, it's been suggested before.

To interact with physics objects, a platform object would basically have to have a physics engine as well. It goes well beyond the scope of what the platform behavior is meant to do. It's too specialized and complex an addition, and it wouldn't benefit the majority of users.

Therefore I suggest you create your own solution to the problem. The means are there, you just have to do it yourself.

It's a neat effect but I can't see playing a game like that. Ouch.

I have some 3D glasses lying around here, maybe I'll tinker around with that and see if I can't get some 3D effect working.