Please, join us here:
https://orx-project.org/discord

See you there!

am new here,
how do I make an visual editor to make it similiar to rpg maker GUI
or at least a rpg game on here?

These are just a few aspects of the problem. ORX's config system is too free for non-trivial games where there could be thousands of sections weaving upon each other. If one mistyped just one word in a complicating config system, it would be a pain in the ass to find it out. More so if commands are abusively used in the config system, but I guess that would be another topic. I wonder if anyone feels the same about this, because I feel that even a tiny improvement can do me a lot of good given the current situation.

The engine and the config system are simple and effective and I think we would all like to keep it that way. So the task would be how to improve the robustness and scalability without introducing too much complicity. In my opinion, given that ORX is a data-driven engine, the responsibility of the config system is to correctly organize the data so that the engine can parse them as the user expected or throw errors if otherwise (while runtime variables and game logics should be kept in the code). To achieve this, we would need to set some rules for the data format.

For now, I've got some simple ideas but they might not be very complete at this moment.

First of all, enhancement of explicity.

1) Typed sections
ORX uses config section of free forms to create objects and structures. The engine does not know what a section represents until it is used to create structures. I think that maybe we can give a hint to the engine so that it can know what a section really is and perform checks. For example, we can write the title of a section like this:

[HeroObject:Object]

So that the engine would know that this section is a definition of an object. This way, the engine can throw a warning when a section name of incorrect type appears in where it shouldn't be. This done, the check of entries become possible. For when the type of a section is determined, the engine can query its type to get a list of internal entry names and restrictions on the values (these infomation should be registered on the init of the config module). This way the engine can throw a warning or an error when a neccessary entry is missing or a value is invalid.

2) Distinguish internal entries from external entries
Let's call the hardcoded entries as "internal entry" and the ones defined in the config files as "external entry". To make the data format even stricter, we can provide a way to explicitly specify an internal entry name for use in both assignment and reference. We might want this because sometimes missing an internal entry is not noticeable. To implement this, we can allow the user to choose to prefix an internal entry name with '~' when an internal entry is wanted, or to set a rule that the first letter must be uppercase for internal entry and lowercase for external entry. Actually I personally prefer the latter one for it doesn't need to define more symbols and can completely divide entries into two types. So it would be like this:

; Explicitly declaring HeroGraphic as a Graphic section
[HeroGraphic:Graphic]
; Assigning an internal entry (start with uppercase letter)
Texture = hero.png

; Inheriting a section makes it has both its original type and the type of the inherited section
; In this case maybe we can allow omitting the type of HeroGraphic1 and default it to parent section's type.
[HeroGraphic1:Graphic@HeroGraphic]
TextureSize = (64, 64)
TextureOrigin = (64, 0)

[HeroObject:Object]
Graphic = HeroGraphic1
; Defining & assigning an external entry (start with lowercase letter)
health = 100

This way, any typo or invalid assignment can be discovered at parsing phase (of course this does not apply when a value is a command string).

3) Redefinition of a section throws a warning
Currently, redefining a section defaults to extending the original one. I think it would be more helpful to have it the other way round. That is to say, the engine should throw a warning and wipe the old entries if a section is defined twice without a '+' prefix.

4) Handle collision flags and groups more safely
Typos in collision flags are hard to find out because collision flags are defined on a object section's instancing. Maybe we can have a special section to register all collision flags before using them. The same applies to group names as well. For now, one can mitigate these problems by using data inheritance. For collision flags there is one more thing to be addressed. Collision event might not be emitted if collision flags are not used in pairs. Collision pairs should also be pre-registered to ensure there's no broken pairs. It will look like this

[Collision]
Flags = hero # monster # wall # bullet
; Define collision pairs. All flags must be pre-defined in 'Flags' entry
; (hero <-> monster) and (hero <-> wall)
hero = monster # wall
; (bullet <-> monster) and (monster <-> wall)
monster = bullet # wall
; If there are flags not included in pairs, throw a warning

5) Settings sections are special
Forbid the definition of new (external) entries for settings sections. Forbid type hinting too. So this

[Console:Object]

and this

[Console]
ScrollSize = 1000
abc = 1

should result in errors. This way it doesn't change anything for using it but ensures nothing unexpected would happen when a special settings section is misused as a normal one.

Secondly, enhancement of section prototype design.
1) Section entries should be carefully designed so that coupling between the effects of different entries is diminished to an extreme extent. I propose this because I once encoutered confliction between different entries (although I can't recall exactly which section type and which entries).
2) If confliction can't be avoided, then the engine should check the potentially conflicting entries and their values and throw a warning if neccessary.

Thirdly, data scope.
Currently all sections are referenced by one linked list which allows no means to separate them. Maybe it would nice to have scopes in config systems just as in common programming languages. I'm not quite sure yet.

So, this is it. I would love to hear from the developers and other users. I haven't touch the code yet but would be happy to if this proposal sounds acceptable.

While you are at it, can you also point me to the list of supported image formats?

Thank you

While I am tinkering with Orx, and formulating some ideas, I thought I would get to know a little about every one, and also share a little about myself.

So, just a quick post about when you started, your first language, and why you program.

I'll start:

I first thought about designing games back in '02 when some of my friends told me they would absolutely play my stories if they were made into games. So, in summer of '03, I bought Game Maker(which was pretty new at the time), and tinkered around with it for a couple of years. I hated it. I then bought DarkBASIC in '08(my first real programming language) after a 3 year hiatus. The language later went defunct in lieu of their App Game Kit.

I messed around with a number of langauges from 2010 to 2016 including Java, Javascript, HTML/CSS, Python, C#, F#, J#(pretty much every #), C, C++, FreeBASIC, QuickBASIC, QB64(a 64-bit QuickBASIC dialect), before returning to C++.
The reason I program is to push my limits, force my brain into different thought processes, and turn my ideas into functioning toys that people can play with.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to hear from everyone,
-Wolf

[Edited for ease of reading issues]

1. All orx compiled programs accept the following parameters:

-c --config
-v --version
-h --help

If I wanted to re-purpose the -c parameter for something else, how could I do that? The tutorial here https://orx-project.org/wiki/en/tutorials/system/commandline_parameters only works for everything except the above default parameters.

2. If I wanted to test for other optional arguments passed, but not create handlers for them? How would I go about this. I assume all params are set using orxParam_SetArgs(argc, argv), but how could I access them? For example, if I wanted to test if the user specified an -x argument but I have no handler set up for it, how is that done? Standard c args tests perhaps?

3. Last case, if I have a handler for a parameter, and the argument is passed, the handler will execute. That much is good. But how did I test if the user did not pass the argument. Standard c testing code here as well?

It's very likely all my use cases above are intertwined. I can work around them but it would be cleaner if I can understand how to access anything collected by the orxParam module.

Thanks in advance.

Then anyone can download and have them printed and drop them around at game or developer conferences.

So here's the shader code, it may or may not work as is in a game but it can be useful anyways. Basically it's like the color balance filter in Photoshop, Krita, the Gimp... You put more or less red, green, blue on the dark or light parts of the image. In image editing software the brightness is divided in 3, dark, mid and light, while in my shader I divided it in 2.

A basic setting that works well with this kind of shader is to put more blue in the dark parts and more orange in the light parts. You have to change correcdark and correclight parameters for that, they represent colors.

The final shader had a transition between 2 color corrections but I couldn't find the source code on my computer. The goal was for the color correction to change when the player moved to different parts of the level.

It works by putting the shader on all objects. The energy vector is to even the brightness or each color.
Some things are commented out, I don't remember why but if the shader doesn't work as is try to uncomment things.

In the scene
[Character@ColorGrading]

at the end of the scene
[ColorGrading]
ShaderList = ColorGradingShader

[ColorGradingShader]
Code = "
#define energy vec3(0.7, 0.41, 0.89)
#define correcdark vec3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
#define correclight vec3(1.0, 0.0, 0.0)

void main()
{
    gl_FragColor = texture2D(Texture,gl_TexCoord[0]);
    gl_FragColor.rgb += mix( correcdark * energy, correclight * energy,  dot(vec3(0.3, 0.59, 0.11), texture2D(Texture,gl_TexCoord[0]).rgb));
}
"
ParamList = Texture ; # correcdark # correclight
;correcdark = (0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
;correclight = (1.0, 0.0, 0.0)

So... ORX + Qt Creator + C++

Thanks in advance.

Most of the projectiles spawned by the ships' spawners are to be completely detached from their respective spawners upon spawning, but one in particular is meant to be parented by its spawner, and move along with it (this behavior might seem a little odd, but I'm wishing to implement it this way so as to leverage the base Ship class' behaviors for all of its descendents). Unfortunately, when parenting the spawned projectile to its spawner, the projectile doesn't move along with it at a 1:1 ratio, but rather follows it incredibly slowly, in effect not being attached to its parent in any meaningful way at all. I've found that the forum threads, Creating a Laser and UseSelfAsParent Makes Spawner Move Twice as Fast seem to address the same problem, and removing the projectile's Body attribute does "resolve" the issue, but the fact remains that this projectile must have a Body in order to collide with its necessary colliders. I attempted to circumvent the issue by following the Passing Items from one Object to Another tutorial, and explicitly setting the parent of spawned objects, but this results in the same behavior.

Is there some trick to parenting objects with Body attributes that I'm unaware of, or do I really need to dispense with my universal spawner behavior and incorporate these projectiles as body parts of their associated ships? Thanks in advance.

I can easily pull user desktop res with the windows API, but I have tried multiple ways to change Orx display size to no avail.

I was able to change display size by modifying a display_video_mode object manually, but this lead to all manner of problems with the viewport and frustum either distorting or just leaving a huge amount of black space with a tiny viewport.

The problem with using the push/pop method seems to be that the display section of the config is processed before any code can be called. Or, at least before code can be called by Orx to modify its config keys.

My question is quite simple: Can code be called IN the config file to act on a key, or can code modify the display size keys BEFORE the display is created?

Thanks in advance,
-Wolf

With exit(), I understand its reason, but not its function. Is it auto-managed? Are there optional parameters? Does it have any internal modules? Do I have to make calls to help clean anything up?

I understand orxSTATUS(error checking), but not orxFASTCALL.

Is there any documentation on the master functions, or am I missing them in the html documents? All I see in the html docs are the sub functions.

Thank you, again,
-Wolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Tf4aDwXKk

How to synchronize animations on a hierarchy of objects (parent/children) using the Orx Portable Game Engine.

Imagine 100 objects floating around the screen. When they intersect, the colour is intensified. Not overly interested in how to achieve the actual effect, but rather the setup.

Would a seperate shader be applied to each object? Would that be completely inefficient? Or would a shader be applied to a single background object that would render the final result?

How would the presence of many objects be able to contribute to the overall result in a shader on a single large object?

Really having trouble thinking this particular scenario through.

It has to be Fullscreen = true I am sure.

Is it possible to have a RefreshRate of say... 2 on a 60hz screen refresh?

But you can also specify one or more literals to create lifetime situations that are a little richer.

Read how to use it here in the Learning Wiki: http://orx-project.org/wiki/en/tutorials/lifetime

This episode shows how move characters seamlessly from one side of the screen to the other. Learn how to achieve seamless edge screen teleportation by modifying orx's render pipeline, all in data.

I’ve begun creating 2D game art that you are welcome to freely use in your projects. Some is pixel art, some is derived from 3D objects that I created, and others are backgrounds that might be useful in visual novels and interactive fiction. You’ll find them on my new “ART” pages on my website:

http://soundimage.org

The art pages are located at the bottom of the menu list on the right side of the screen.

At this point I’m experimenting with different styles and methods so hopefully I will be able to offer a good variety of things. Please feel free to modify / edit as needed. If you happen to find any of these images helpful and decide to use them, please attribute me in the “game art” section of your credits area.

Enjoy!

git pull -X theirs origin master

I'm but a newcomer here as in coding and game dev as a whole, but i'm willing to learn. Searching for a 2d engine able to concretize my rpg/adventure game, i've been impressed by Orx. But, least i could say, is that it's not so user friendly: haven't been able just to start the machine...

With git installed, i comanded the git clone for the expected output and a checked conectivity. But then, there are two setup in my root folder, wich i had to find with cortana, and when clicked, i got what seems to be the output expected, though only for a few seconds, without bein able to read the final part, and noth... Don't know what's an $ORX variable, or where's that orx/code folder. Don't know if i have the Orx source, dependencies, and newly created build project, don't know if i can compile Orx with your favourite IDE to get a working orx.dll and .lib, .dylib or .so (depending on platform), and how...

So maybe orx is too much for my meagre knowledge and skill, or maybe it's just a dificult first step?

• Multiple monitors
• Clipboard copy/paste
• File drag & drop
• Hardware cursors
• Icon lists
• 16 joysticks / gamepads
• 8 mouse buttons
• Borderless fullscreen

Get it at https://github.com/orx/orx or pull down the latest.

All the new features have been documented on the wiki at: http://orx-project.org/wiki/en/tutorials/main#display and http://orx-project.org/wiki/en/tutorials/main#system

An object at (0, 0) plays in both left and right equally, but you only have to stray a few pixels to the left and right for the sounds to be either one side or the other.

Perhaps I'm not understanding the role of config properties Attenuation and RefDistance. We have little information on this topic except for the config property explanations which are very brief.

Of course I can use the technique of having an generic empty object sit in the centre of the screen to play sounds, but I lose the benefit of functions like orxObject_SetPitch which would affect all sounds playing on it. Perhaps I need to look at buses for this.

If you notice any issues, post in the Website section, or drop a note on gitter.

This does work, but I have made a mess of my dependencies in the past.

Wondering what a clean way would be and what others use.

This post indicates using -m32 on a 64bit GCC compiler to force 32-bit builds: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1272357/how-to-compile-a-32-bit-binary-on-a-64-bit-linux-machine-with-gcc-cmake and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1673389/how-to-compile-a-32-bit-binary-on-a-64-bit-linux-machines-without-touching-the-c

http://forum.orx-project.org/discussion/916/a-window-cant-be-killed/p1#Comment_926

And that the correct way is:

http://forum.orx-project.org/discussion/4034/orx-console/p1#Comment_4035

A fair bit of documentation mentions the old way and I want to fix that up. I'm pretty sure it was stated in gitter that WInMain is no longer used for anything.

I am regression testing all premake configs for both Orx (setup.sh) and Projects (init.sh). You can see the in-progress test progress here: https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/open/7awuhe228cc0369c24b399d41114a0deac910

But it's slow an and labourious.

I think for next time, is there anyone who can be available for periodical checks of the configs? For example if you have a Mac/Linux/Windows with all/some supported IDEs and could help test from time to time?

Need to address Android and iOS testing as well at some point.

orxOBJECT * createImageObject (char * filename, float pos_x,
                float pos_y, float scale_x, float scale_y)
{
    orxOBJECT * obj = orxObject_Create ();

    orxFRAME * frame = orxFrame_Create (orxFRAME_KU32_FLAG_NONE);
    orxObject_LinkStructure (obj, (orxSTRUCTURE*) frame);

    orxTEXTURE * tex = orxTexture_CreateFromFile (filename, orxTRUE);
    orxFLOAT image_x;
    orxFLOAT image_y;
    orxTexture_GetSize (tex, &image_x, &image_y);

    orxGRAPHIC * gfx = orxGraphic_Create ();
    orxGraphic_SetData (gfx, (orxSTRUCTURE*) tex);
    orxObject_LinkStructure (obj, (orxSTRUCTURE*)gfx);

    orxVECTOR v;

    v.fX = image_x;
    v.fY = image_y;
    v.fZ = 1.0;
    orxObject_SetSize (obj, &v);

    v.fX = pos_x;
    v.fY = pos_y;
    v.fZ = 0.0;
    orxObject_SetPosition (obj, &v);

    v.fX = scale_x;
    v.fY = scale_y;
    v.fZ = 1.0;
    orxObject_SetScale (obj, &v);

    return obj;
}

[JellyAnimationSet]
Texture			= jelly.png
FrameSize		= (32, 32, 0)
JellyWobbleAnim		= -1
StartAnim		= JellyWobbleAnim
JellyWobbleAnim->	= JellyWobbleAnim
Pivot			= center