Artificial Additives.

I've been having some problems lately. The area I live in does not get high-speed internet, and I couldn't afford it anyway. Therefore I either go to a local coffee shop or library to access the internet. The coffee shop is noisy, crowded, and I lack money to get a coffee most days. My heart can't really handle much caffeine, so I get decaf.

While the library is quite, it employs a web filter. Nothing wrong with that, keep people from accessing things they shouldn't. The problem is they block anything to do with games, and their filter recently re-classified numerous websites lately. Did I mention that this library has Minecraft and Roblox installed on their own computers? And they block game websites. Gambling is another category and I'm not sure if they block those.

For the past two weeks I've tried to find a solution, even asking for websites to be unblocked; nothing. Even proxy websites are blocked and I'd rather not use tor. Of course I use firefox, and add-ons are not blocked. I searched for a proxy add-on and installed one with a good rating (not the first in the list). Now I can access open game art, itch, anything. My browser just ignores the filter.

Some will argue the philosophical and criminal merits of this action. I'll be able to update my projects without frustration.

Texture Material

Used my phone to take some pictures and turn them into textures. I've used Gimp's cubism filter to make them look a bit better and keep the art style semi-uniform.This prompted me to get the textures finished for Little One's maps. They are mostly done, Just need the caves and matchstick maze.

I'll upload the textures to open game art when I can, and post the map images when they are done. Most of the textures are not tile-mapped, but most can be. Once the map is done I'll do a quick run and see how everything looks and edit anything that needs it.

Finishing the map seems like the best course, then I'll be able to add the mechanics as they are polished. The plant growth mechanic is mostly done. Dialog mechanic will be repurposed from Adventures' EDGE. Critters are just starting to be programmed, and need some tweaks. Beasts, rain, and water pools need to be stated on. The vacuum mechanics need some tweaking, as does the music system.

Soon I'll have Little One mostly done and I'll tweak Adventures' EDGE and work on that some more.

Have a nice day and stay hydrated!

Blocky Pixels

I rather enjoy the library. It's quiet, has internet, and doesn't block any websites I need for my projects. Until they decided to block open game art and any website I would upload my game updates to. I live in an area where I cannot get high-speed internet, even if I had the money. Over the course of a weekend half the websites I used got blocked, but the library still has minecraft and roblox on their computers. Good luck updating them when you block anything to do with games.

Their security system, Fortiguard, is "great". It categorizes derpibooru as pornographic and gurochan as  arts and culture. With derpibooru you have to set the filters to view anything adult but with gurochan it's just a click away, a click away. Because gore is so artistic and cultured. Pixiv is marked as Entertainment, but has similar content as dirpibooru, just in broader categories. And don't get me stated on furaffinity being arts and culture. I guess nobody was logged in when that site was classified.

Fortiguard won't update a website's category, even if you ask nicely with evidence that the category is incorrect.

I know, I'm complaining, but I think I should do that more often.

The local coffee shop doesn't block games. I may not like the music or chairs, but I'll be hanging around there more often. Mainly to avoid The People's Library.

Maybe they'll block blogger next.

Maps for Days, Little One

There have been a few good comments for Little One, a farming game that uses vacuum mechanics. Currently I'll be getting a flat version of the map together to explore and make sure there are not any major problems with it. Later I'll add obstructions, ramps, and gameplay elements. The modeling program I'm using is Blender 2.8. After a slight learning curve, I've begun to enjoy the changes. Still have the hotkeys set to 2.7x and right-click for selection.

Controls will go through a small revision, making them more like an FPS and I'm hoping to have health/energy actually play a part in the game. The dialog system will be taken from Adventures' EDGE, along with a couple other things. Farm setup will still have to be done and I might give the player a few resources to make a few plots and other things to start off.

Critters and their products are still in an alpha stage, so that may take a bit of work. Open resources are in a collection, ready to be used when the base map is done. I'll setup chunks of the map so I can have better control of them. The skybox still has to be done, and I'll have a few plans to make it better in Little One.

The map is rather big and might be bigger in-game. Some sections subject to change.

Blender 2.80h no it's something different

Installed blender 2.80 on Thursday August 1, 2019. It looks nice, but over two dozen hotkeys have been changed. The entire program looks and feels like an entirely different program. Yes, I'd like to learn another new program. Fortunately, there are some things you can do.

Upon starting Blender from a shortcut (not a file) for the first time, you can choose the keymap mode.You can use right-click instead of left for selection, and use the old 2.79 keymap. If you'd like to change back later, the preferences have a keymap tab with a dropdown in the top center. Another option (windows) is to go to %APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender  find the userpref and delete it, then re-open blender. The preferences are now found under the edit tab.

There are layout tabs at the top. You can find one that works for you, or right-click one to duplicate it. Modify the duplicated layout to something you like, then double-click the tab to rename it. Remember to save your startup file to keep the layout changes. This can be done under File >> Defaults.

Altogether, it looks nice, but there are new features and changed to old features to learn.

You can fine more detailed information on the Blender Fundamentals 2.8 playlist.

Engine Driven Mechanics.

Tried adding critters to Little One. The critters were supposed to use rigid bodies and get sucked up by the vacuum. Unfortunately, rigid bodies are hard to control. Most functions that move them ignore rotations, and the ones that allow rotations ignore collisions. So the critters; like the enemies, NPCs, and player; will use kinematic bodies. You'll gather eggs and incubate them to hatch the critters. Then the critters will produce resources and ammo for the player.

Why not just use kinematics for everything?

Kinematics need their physics programmed and tend to act like static objects when not moving. Their scripts would also have to run constantly, while rigid objects could be controlled by the vacuum when collected/shot. Having hundreds of scripts running all the time isn't such a big deal, but I'd have to re-do the mechanics already present. So I've chosen to just alter how the characters are used instead.

Can't have lag from adding objects if you don't add objects.

There are many sources of lag in games. Most notable is skeletal animations. Loops, print statements, and loops with print statements can also add up. One thing most new developers don't notice, is that adding and removing objects can get heavy for lots of objects. Sometimes you have to add objects, like critters and bombs.

Of course, some objects warrant particle effects or sound effects when they hit. Objects, like bombs, don't usually stick around to play audio or particles.Removing objects early can truncate these effects, and programming a wait timer is something I'm too lazy to do.

You could always add the effect or sound objects and remove them after, but let's keep them in the scene. Better yet, add about 5-10 of these setups to the scene; inactive. Make a global variable in a pre-load script to keep track of which FX setup you are going to use. Before the attack/grenade/ammo is removed, move the current FX setup to the current object and activate it. Leave it there and update the current FX variable for the next FX setup.

By the time you loop through the setups, the first one should be done and inactive. Keep moving and using the setups as needed. Shuffling objects or setups can help for anything and reduces load since you don't keep adding these objects. You could even shuffle raindrops around the player for the illusion of rain if particle effects are unavailable or unusable for rain (some don't handle collisions and rain could clip indoors).

This option works for any kind of visual effect, from gunshots to bullet holes. Keep several in the scene and move them around / make them visible/active as needed.