Gdash

[LogicDeLuxe]

Nice, global CaveScheduling now works.

There should be a falling Megaboulder in the effect element list.

When a game is loaded within the editor, the title of the main Window is not updated, ie. it still shows the name of the previously loaded game.

gdash has that global cave internally, but that one cannot be seen in the editor. it wouldn't be very intuitive...

That's fine. I don't think, there is a need to have that editable in the map editor. Though, you might add another tap to the "Cave set properties" dialog and allow setting those parameters which are usually the same for an entire cave set, as CaveScheduling, PALTiming, IntermissionProperties etc. While it sure make little sense to have ALL options here, the BDCFF parser should be able to interpret them correctly here nevertheless. You never know what BDCFF files others might come up with, and global settings are perfectly valid.

one does not think "ok, let's design a bd1 caveset".

I woundn't assume that. There are many fans of classic BD.

anyway, in gdash, i think i will put "set bd1 defaults", "set bd2 defaults"... menu items in the editor for caves.

That is a good thing for sure. Especially CrLi, since it can be exported as such, and in the future, XDC likely will also be able to accept the BD1, BD2, PLCK and 1stB defaults.

Btw. how much work would it be to not only have those as "set engine x defaults", but also as "enforce engine x compatibility", ie. having all options and elements not supported by a specific engine grayed out in all those menus. This really would help people designing for a specific engine not to accidentally use a feature not supported by the target engine. At least "enforce CrLi compatibility" makes sense, as there is that export feature. And in the future, also a "enforce XDC compatibility" would make sense.

maybe if we want pretty 2x c64-look-alike graphics, it really must be done by hand.

Probably. The problem is, that those double width pixel graphics are just not what those scalers are made for.
Scale2x is best for true 1x1-pixel graphics with few colors.
HQ2x is best suited for graphics with many colors.
I noticed long time ago in ScummVM when playing C64 Maniac Mansion or Zak McKraken (or the none enhanced PC versions with the same graphics). They just look terribly ugly with them. For all the other games, I really like the HQ2x scaler.
I think, a PAL emulation would make more sense than those scalers.

[RTADash]

The hatching delay adaptions are really nice!
One issue though: I opened a BDCFF, changed the scheduling of one cave from 'Construction Kit' to 'BD1' and tried to save - and the application crashed, that having been the only change I made. Did I do something wrong?
(no error report received)

By the way, I really love SDash, once I manage to get the BDCFF right - the emulation is virtually perfect! There's two options I think would be good to have though (both concerning extra lives):
-The option to turn off the non-classic sound effect.
-The option to limit extra lives to 9; a lot of BD games have this limit.

[LogicDeLuxe]

-The option to limit extra lives to 9; a lot of BD games have this limit.

This should be the default per BDCFF specs anyways.

Code: Select all

Lives

Initial number of lives [maximum number of lives] (numbers, default = 3 9). Available only in [game] section

[LogicDeLuxe]

Deluxe Caves 1: Those "Growing Walls" shouldn't grow. Actually, they are non slippery, explodable brickwalls.

[LogicDeLuxe]

I noticed, you have even Frusti Dash in GDash's game collection. Are you going to implement all its crazy features? You did notice, that this game is missing quite a lot features in GDash, so most caves are unplayable currently?

Just in case you missed it, Frust apparently is better known as Peiselulli, and he even released the source code for this game as part of Boulder Dash DTV, which should be helpful figuring out how all those new features work exactly.

[cirix]

I noticed, you have even Frusti Dash in GDash's game collection. Are you going to implement all its crazy features? You did notice, that this game is missing quite a lot features in GDash, so most caves are unplayable currently?

hi

not really. haven't ever played it... is it worth checking? which effect should i look for and in which caves?

bye

[cirix]

i think i am removing the paltiming flag.
paltiming is true for all schedulings except milliseconds, and vice versa.
why would i keep it?...

[LogicDeLuxe]

not really. haven't ever played it... is it worth checking? which effect should i look for and in which caves?

From cave J on, all have some effects. Some are covered with the existing settings, but others are rather exotic. You should check them out.

i think i am removing the paltiming flag.
paltiming is true for all schedulings except milliseconds, and vice versa.
why would i keep it?...

BD1, BD2, PLCK and 1stB games can be made for NTSC systems, so having that flag perfectly makes sense. Eventhough, I don't know such a game, I heard that people are doing that nevertheless. I don't think that removing it would a good idea. At least the original BD1 and BD2 should be NTSC.

[CWS]

I noticed, you have even Frusti Dash in GDash's game collection. Are you going to implement all its crazy features? You did notice, that this game is missing quite a lot features in GDash, so most caves are unplayable currently?

Just in case you missed it, Frust apparently is better known as Peiselulli, and he even released the source code for this game as part of Boulder Dash DTV, which should be helpful figuring out how all those new features work exactly.

Frusti Dash and Boulder Dash DTV seems to be different games. Or did I miss something?

[LogicDeLuxe]

Frusti Dash and Boulder Dash DTV seems to be different games. Or did I miss something?

Boulder Dash DTV is no game on its own, but a DTV enhanced version of several BD1 engine games. One of those games (the last in the list) is Frusti Dash.
You can easily try it for yourself as it runs on a regular C64 as well. The only difference is, that you can't select the enhanced graphics then.

[LogicDeLuxe]

The Add object does not draw the first column. This cripples many Profiboulder Caves and renders Profiboulder 100 Cave M unplayable for instance.

All drawing objects should wraparound, at least when lineshifted borders are activated. It's the way, the C64 works.

[cirix]

hi

new version, 0924, has:
- remembers editor windows size
- megaboulder in editor
- window title updating
- pal emulation
- more sounds, also reworked their handling
- option to play only classic sounds
- deluxe caves 1 walls not growing
- new effect: snap any element, not just space or explosion (will be used for frust dash)
- 9 lives limit, initial lives can also be set
- maximum time (999) limit
- corrected add object bug (profi boulder 100 cave m)
- some cavesets added
- enhanced bd1 intermission timing
- others

bye

[LogicDeLuxe]

The PAL emulation seems to have several issues:

- Looks like interlacing properties are ignored. Color averaging should not be done with the previous line, but with the line before that, since that is actually the previous line which belongs to the same field.
Since Boulder Dash doesn't rely on interlacing, you could just do the PAL emulation before the scaling.

- The colors on the brighter scan lines look wrong. Like a terribly misaligned circuit (or heavy interferences, which can be an issue with terrestrial transmissions, but not from a local HF modulator).

- Chroma should be filtered lower than luma as it has lower bandwidth. Typically at about 1 Mhz. In emulators, this is usually done by averaging the color to the next pixel, which is close enough on lowres graphics and takes much less CPU time than implementing the actual filtering.

- It would be very nice if scanline emulation and PAL emulation could be independent settings, like in VICE. Maybe, you could make the scanline intensity adjustable as well.

For comparison, here are some magnified screenshots from a boulder (left and above was dirt):
Gdash 2x, PAL:


VICE double size, double scan, PAL:


VICE double size, scan lines, PAL:

[CWS]

Please do not automatically open the cave properties when creating a new cave.

And for the new sounds tab in cave properties: I would recommend to list all objects with sound there so it would be possible to turn on/off sound also for e.g. the sweet or boulders.

[RTADash]

I really like the how the BD2 engine scheduling now is independent from BD1, very nice job on that.