Project Ninja Star - help wanted - ported to windows on 26th

CuteAlien · Post by **CuteAlien** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:07 pm

I like binary Linux releases ;-).

Not too happy about having to install a lib for it (libhighgui), but unfortunately common on linux :-(.

Also not nice - the zip does not use a subfolder. You should always use that.

But couldn't get the demo working ( PNS-demo-23-7-09.zip ).
First some problem - you should avoid special characters like a space in your gamepathes. Unzipped the "Game Data" is named here "Game%20Data" which means nothing works.

Afterwards tried to load shaders from a folder ./shaders which did not exist. So everything black and I didn't see anything beside titlescreen :-(

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:43 am

could you please post the command line output for the shader problem (while in meantime I will investigate)

Eigen : I am not focusing on water that much, but I simply had to do it since the water caustics were to test if I can recover screen position properly. So the improved water is a by-product

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:42 am

fixed you can download now and it works

CuteAlien · Post by **CuteAlien** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:10 pm

Hm, zip still not using a subfolder. Game data was this time with space (though I still recommend not using a space in paths).

Game did load this time, but then only had 3 FPS, switched a few times between blue and red and then crashed :-(

Did try options next - a little bit confusing but nice effect ;-). But failed to get the "return" to work - and when I hit it finally at the right place (probably) it seemed to freeze. Changed settings then didn't seem to be used on next start (I wanted lower resolution, hoping for better FPS).

So some improvement to last time... but still no game :-(
Can I maybe set the settings in some config-file? Then I'd try it again with lower resolution.

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:06 pm

60k-80k (the damn house_ it is there for testing only) polygons are being drawn so i would be vary about the effects.

3FPS - I would be rather worried... works at 40 to 180 on max settings on my PC. What are your specs?

get Bless Hex binary editor and edit Menu.pns (dont forget to tick little endian encoding)
This is how stuff gets saved

Code: Select all

int savemenu() {
   bool BOOLS[9] = { vsync_enabled, fullscreen, stencilbuffer, DOF_enabled, HDR_enabled, Bloom_enabled, AA, MOT_BLUR_enabled, SSAO_enabled};
   int INTS[5] = { track_count, resx, resy, joy_dead, trig_dead };
   float FLOATS [4] = { Music_Volume, Master_Volume, mouse_sensi, joy_sensi };
   FILE *pFile = fopen ( "Menu.pns" , "wb" );
   if (pFile==NULL) {
#ifdef DEBUG
      std::cout << "Error 11: Could not open file for writing in binary mode " << pFile << std::endl;
#endif
      return 0;
   }
   bool success[7];
   success[0] = fwrite (signature_menu, sizeof(char) , 4, pFile);
   success[1] = fwrite (FLOATS , sizeof(float) , 4, pFile );
   success[2] = fwrite (INTS , sizeof(int), 5, pFile );
   success[3] = fwrite (BOOLS, sizeof(bool) , 9, pFile);
   success[4] = fwrite (keymap2, sizeof(irr::s32) , 18, pFile);
   success[5] = fwrite (axis_Triggers, sizeof(bool) , 20, pFile);
   success[6] = fwrite (invert_axis, sizeof(irr::s16) , 20, pFile);
   fclose (pFile);
   if (success[0]&&success[1]&&success[2]&&success[3]&&success[4]&&success[5]&&success[6])
      return 1;
   else {
#ifdef DEBUG
      std::cout << "Error 8: Encountered a problem writing one or more arrays to the save file." << std::endl;
#endif
      return 0;
   }
}

But anyway thanks for your time and testing... now I know what i need to improove... just for your information... in the options menu there are quick shot switchers.. if you hit 1 you go to general. if you hit 2 video, 3 is audio, and 4 is empty. ofc as you would imagine apart from using return on the ninjastar, you can hit ESCape as well.

thanks again CuteAlien for wasting your time on this pointless game.

EDIT: here is the new file.. clear the old one out with BlessHex (can be found in add remove in ubuntu- I dont know what distro you are using but you are likely to get a package nice and easy)

switch the entrails to this

Code: Select all

4D 53 46 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 3F 00 00 C0 40 00 00 80 3F 19 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 58 02 00 00 4E 16 00 00 1F 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 57 00 00 00 53 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 44 00 00 00 FF 00 00 00 FF 00 00 00 1B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 15 01 00 00 15 01 00 00 14 01 00 00 14 01 00 00 18 01 00 00 17 01 00 00 0B 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 01 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 01 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

P.S. and ofcourse I take it cuteAlien that the splitscreen function works ok (does it tell you to get lost because you dont have a joystick)?

EDIT2: Well thanks to CuteAlien I have finally found out the minimum reqs:

Processor = as slow as you like (I think even a pentium 3 could manage)
RAM = 512mb (and that is just to keep your system running)
GFX CARD = nvidia 6 series and above. Minimum 128mb of VRAM (would do with 64)

randomMesh · Post by **randomMesh** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:24 pm

devsh wrote:get Bless Hex binary editor and edit Menu.pns (dont forget to tick little endian encoding)
This is how stuff gets saved
<snip>

Why don't you use plain text configuration files? Irrlicht has such a nice XMLreader and -writer.
It really would help people to edit settings. Binary files are sooo last century.

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:26 pm

it was easy to make like 5 months ago and i kept it that way

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:43 pm

I hope you have the endianess specified and cope with that in your code

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:58 pm

and here are my Deffered Shadow Maps!!!

working at up to 5kx5k

but I think I will need to introduce CSM or PSSM to produce sharper shadows and kill z fighting. There are z fighting issues (minor).

BlindSide · Post by **BlindSide** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:38 am

I recommend VSM now that Irrlicht supports FP render targets. It's easy to implement and gets rid of a lot of the artifacts/aliasing.

Nadro · Post by **Nadro** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:34 pm

BlindSide wrote:I recommend VSM now that Irrlicht supports FP render targets. It's easy to implement and gets rid of a lot of the artifacts/aliasing.

Hmmm... VSM maps aren't cheap technique, so if You think about low end cards as target, You shouldn't use this technique, for other cards this technique is ok

BTW. For OpenGL You should apply this patch:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=33796
It usage official ARB extension.

BlindSide · Post by **BlindSide** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:51 am

It can be faster than PCF blur depending on the resolution etc.

I applied the patch, see the topic for notes.

Nadro · Post by **Nadro** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 11:51 am

It can be faster than PCF blur depending on the resolution etc.

Yes, thats true, I thinked about leave standart algorithm for low end cards, so without VSM/PCF/etc.

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:12 am

I implemented PCF and haven't bothered with VSM because the work vs. effect does not pay off. I need to make PSSM or CSM with VSM in them so I get high quality shadows over a large area.

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:39 am

ok so I have added support for hardware lights gl_LightSource in my deffered shader and it runs at whooping 37FPS but it still gets to 50 sometimes (down from 50 with no lights) when 100 lights are in the scene.

But there is a catch... only 8 lights at a time in OGL is it??? Obviously I need more... how to do that?

But the bad news is that somehow I get errors like

GL_INVALID_FRAME_BUFFER_OPERATION
could not bind texture

I think my programming syntax is bad. What shall I avoid doing with textures?? or more specific render targets?

2) what is a proper way of passing of lets say 4 textures to a shader??? How do I set the stPixelShaderCosntant()? I feel I have been doing it all wrong?