10 minutes ago, MarcusAseth said:

So how would bigger projects handle the rendering of a text that change shade in the specific?

I'm not sure how flexible SDL is to do this, but I if I could access the OpenGL context via SDL, I would create a grayscale texture with every text I need, then a shader that do one of the two things:

1. Take the vertex data + a uniform variable indicating the color, then the shader would use the grayscale as brightness value to plot the color
2. Take the vertex data that includes the color for each vertex, then do the same as above (brightness + color) 

The fragment shader (responsible for selecting the output color) would be something simple like:

"gl_FragColor = vec4(grayscale * r, grayscale * g, grayscale * b, alpha);"

9 minutes ago, ferreiradaselva said:

I'm not sure how flexible SDL is to do this, but I if I could access the OpenGL context via SDL, I would create a grayscale texture with every text I need, then a shader that do one of the two things:

1. Take the vertex data + a uniform variable indicating the color, then the shader would use the grayscale as brightness value to plot the color
2. Take the vertex data that includes the color for each vertex, then do the same as above (brightness + color) 

The fragment shader (responsible for selecting the output color) would be something simple like:

"gl_FragColor = vec4(grayscale * r, grayscale * g, grayscale * b, alpha);"

I see, thanks!

Ok, i've deceided i've met my 48 hour deadline(+/- a bit, as i wasn't keeping exact track, but several hours were lost to playing games with friends, so i think it evens out).

I'm happy with my progress, it's not quite as much as i wanted, but it both meets the requirements of this challenge, and mechanically the idea's i wanted to play out.  overall i find it decently fun, I think if i dedicated more time to ai variety and wave tuning it could be more fun.  Ultimately i'm happy with what i was able to do in my self imposed limits.  Thank you @ferreiradaselva for creating the challenge, and I hope my work can be a learning experiance for others some day.

Link to github codebase:  https://github.com/slicer4ever/TriColor-Wars 

This is a video of gameplay:

1 hour ago, ferreiradaselva said:

Content loading. I automated my build system to convert the PNG (texture atlas) to a c header containing the PNG in RGBA format. That way, I don't need to ship the executable with a *.dat or *.zip or even the PNG loose. I will do the same for sound effects.

That's an interesting approach to data packaging, personally i'm not a fan of embedding content into the binarys when possible as it means a generally longer pipeline if some of your assets are in heavy modification.

35 minutes ago, MarcusAseth said:

So how would bigger projects handle the rendering of a text that change shade at every draw, in the specific?

Do you mean like allocating a sequence of pre-rendered images of all the shades for a given piece of text?

The way i handle it is through bitmap fonts.  basically you load a texture with all the characters you need, and a supplimentary file which tells you where in the texture each glyph is, and supplimentary information.  

then for dynamic text strings, each frame you reconstruct a mesh buffer of the glyphs for your text, and upload them for drawing.

for static text, you can use framebuffers or manually building of a texture that encompases the static text you want on screen, this is ideally more performant, but honestly all my text rendering is done as i described above, and i've yet to find a modern platform where their was any noticable performance impact due to it.

what is a mesh buffer?!  

This by the way is where I am right now:

Font.cpp

#include "Utility.h"
#include "Font.h"


Font::Font(std::string path, uint8_t size) :
	Path{ path }, Size{ size }, TTFFont{ nullptr }
{
	if (TTF_WasInit()) {
		OpenFont(Path.c_str(), Size);
	}
}

Font::~Font()
{
	if (TTFFont) {
		if (!TTF_WasInit()){ Util::LogConsole("fuck!!"); }
		CloseFont();
	}
}

TTF_Font* Font::GetFont()const
{
	return TTFFont;
}

Font& Font::Resize(uint8_t size)
{
	Size = size;
	if (TTFFont) { 
		CloseFont(); 
	}
	OpenFont(Path.c_str(), Size);
	return *this;
}

void Font::OpenFont(std::string path, uint8_t size)
{
	TTFFont = TTF_OpenFont(Path.c_str(), Size);
	if (!TTFFont)
	{
		Util::LogConsole(TTF_GetError());
	}
}

void Font::CloseFont()
{
	TTF_CloseFont(TTFFont);
	TTFFont = nullptr;
}

Button.cpp

#include "Button.h"



Button::Button(SDL_Window* window, std::string text, int x, int y, Font& font, SDL_Color* buttonColor) :
	Window{ window }, Text{ text }, ButtonFont{ font }, ButtonColor{ buttonColor }, Shape{x,y,0,0}
{
	ReCalculateSize();
	CenterOnPosition();
}

Button::~Button()
{
}

void Button::ReCalculateSize() 
{
	TTF_SizeText(ButtonFont.GetFont(), Text.c_str(), &Shape.w, &Shape.h);
}

void Button::CenterOnPosition()
{
	Shape.x -= Shape.w / 2;
	Shape.y -= Shape.h / 2;
}

const char* Button::GetText() const
{
	return Text.c_str();
}

const SDL_Rect & Button::GetShape() const
{
	return Shape;
}

bool Button::IsHovered() const
{
	int MouseX{}, MouseY{};
	SDL_GetMouseState(&MouseX, &MouseY);

	if (MouseX < Shape.x + Shape.w &&
		MouseX > Shape.x &&
		MouseY < Shape.y + Shape.h &&
		MouseY > Shape.y)
	{
		return true;
	}
	return false;
}

bool Button::IsPressed() const
{
	if (SDL_GetMouseState(0, 0) & SDL_BUTTON(SDL_BUTTON_LEFT))
	{
		return true;
	}
	return false;
}

SDL_Color& Button::GetColor() const
{
	return *ButtonColor;
}

void Button::SetColor(SDL_Color & color)
{
	ButtonColor = &color;
}

MenuState.cpp

#include "MenuState.h"
#include "Paths.h"
#include "Button.h"
#include "GameMode.h"
#include "SDL2\SDL.h"

MenuState::MenuState(GameMode* game, Util::WindowInfo windowInfo) :
	GameState(game, windowInfo), BubbleFont(Paths::Fonts::BUBBLEBATH, 35),
	BaseTextColor{ 165,161,141,255 }, HighlightColor{ 222,210,181,255 }
{
	PlayButton = std::make_unique<Button>(WindowInfo.Window, "Play",
										  WindowInfo.Width / 2, WindowInfo.Height / 3,
										  BubbleFont, &BaseTextColor);
}

MenuState::~MenuState()
{
}

void MenuState::Update(float deltaTime)
{
	if (PlayButton->IsHovered()) {
		//pressed
		if (PlayButton->IsPressed())		{
			Game->SetCurrentState(GameMode::EGameState::PLAY);
		}

		//hovered
		if (&PlayButton->GetColor() != &HighlightColor) {
			PlayButton->SetColor(HighlightColor);
		}													  
	}
	else {//not hovered
		if (&PlayButton->GetColor() != &BaseTextColor) {
			PlayButton->SetColor(BaseTextColor);
		}
	}

}

void MenuState::Draw(float interpolation)
{

	SDL_Surface* TempText = TTF_RenderText_Blended(BubbleFont.GetFont(), PlayButton->GetText(), PlayButton->GetColor());
	SDL_Texture* TextTexture = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(WindowInfo.Renderer, TempText);

	//Draw
	SDL_SetRenderDrawColor(WindowInfo.Renderer, 40, 34, 50, 255);
	SDL_RenderClear(WindowInfo.Renderer);
	SDL_RenderCopy(WindowInfo.Renderer, TextTexture, NULL, &PlayButton->GetShape());
	SDL_RenderPresent(WindowInfo.Renderer);

	//cleanup
	SDL_FreeSurface(TempText);
	SDL_DestroyTexture(TextTexture);
}

Next I think I'll jump into the playState. What's the first logic task? Maybe an Entity class and then derive a Tile class from Entity?  (because tile have collision too, like other entities)

Though, Should I store tiles in a separate vector<Entity*>, since they don't require updates?

Hi guys, I have my texture loading and entity mostly done, here in the image below my tiles entities neatly packed.

Now the next step should be to load a level, I guess. I am not yet sure how to handle that, never done. Should Level be a class object that I call with the path on disk of the level data? What is that data? a .txt? How do I parse the data to make it create the appropiate entity type inside the game?  

Can anyone link some good tutorials (possible C++) about the correct way to do this? I don't think I will proceed until I have it figure it out, I would only end up making a mess I'm sure.  Help!

On 8.10.2017 at 4:49 AM, MarcusAseth said:

what is a mesh buffer?!  

This by the way is where I am right now:

Though, Should I store tiles in a separate vector<Entity*>, since they don't require updates?

The best tip i can give you or anybody else when you dont know what do to or dont know how get it working:

Write down your actual code for loading and rendering fonts into the main loop directly until it actually does something: Until your text is on the screen, or your mesh renders and rotates, or your player moves and kills enemies, whatever.... For any kind of problem.

Then start making a nice api / classes with no implementation and comment out your entire your code from before and put in your api/class and use it instead. If you satisfied with your api then move the actual working code you have written so far into the api/classes. Dont go any further than that. If you are advanced you can plan a little bit for the future, but only a little bit.

You can always abstract it away later! Do not abstract it right away, even when it looks obvious.

To give an real world example:

On 10/9/2017 at 7:31 AM, MarcusAseth said:

Now the next step should be to load a level, I guess. I am not yet sure how to handle that, never done. Should Level be a class object that I call with the path on disk of the level data? What is that data? a .txt? How do I parse the data to make it create the appropiate entity type inside the game?

There are many options possible here.

• Make levels on Tiled, export to *.JSON and interpret using a JSON parser (which there are many online). Or export to *.CSV, which is very easy to parse without 3rd libraries.
• Make the levels in the source code itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that's what I'm doing, since the levels are small.
• Procedural generation. 

On 10.10.2017 at 11:57 PM, ferreiradaselva said:

There are many options possible here.

• Make levels on Tiled, export to *.JSON and interpret using a JSON parser (which there are many online). Or export to *.CSV, which is very easy to parse without 3rd libraries.
• Make the levels in the source code itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that's what I'm doing, since the levels are small.
• Procedural generation. 

 

Another option is to store the level in a uncompressed PNG/BMP image.

Making levels would just require a image creation programm, like paint.net, paint, photoshop, etc. Each pixel would represent a tile. Colors or components define the index into a tilesheet.

You can even have multiple layers - just make each pixel component a layer, for example: Red are solid tiles, Green are background tiles, Blue are entities etc.

I personally store my levels in binary files, so i can load it without doing any parsing at all.

Of course this requires you to make a plugin for an existing editor or write your own level editor - which is not that hard.

I recommend when you just want to define a simple level, just use a constant array in the code to get started.

I'm probably in too. I'm using my home made Xtreme engine, which I've already used for WoA entries (and most other games on my home page).

I'm going for a second part of a Bubble Bobble clone I wrote back in DOS ages with Turbo Pascal. 

The levels are storied binary as well. If I ever see I'm going to do lots of stages I usually implement a simple editor in the game itself. A real editor helps a lot if you want to quickly test out different things.

Making progress after a few evenings (Yeah i know it looks really devy, but it works great and has a stable system behind):

Taking little baby-steps to finish a game - hopefully in time.