Rocks'n'Diamonds with GDash game engine

[Agetian]

Ah, no worries, I kept it disabled to avoid possible bugs and issues as I realized it's an early release Great to know, thanks! I can keep it enabled then
Great that my scores can be kept, too

Regarding the flickering issue - could it be that it could have also somehow indirectly been related to the variables tracking the score? :/ I don't have a good enough idea as to why it seems to have stopped happening. That said, I'll be on the outlook for it, maybe I've just been lucky and haven't seen it in the new version yet

- Agetian

[artsoft]

You forgot adding the dig key to continue playing in the BD engine

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten it.

But sorry for not having commented on it yet -- I thought that it partially already works that way (at least regarding the joystick button, but probably not for the snap/drop keys yet), but did not have a chance to test it yet (with a joystick) or to check it in the code.

But I agree that this is a good idea, and that it should be implemented as you have described it.

[artsoft]

Regarding the flickering issue - could it be that it could have also somehow indirectly been related to the variables tracking the score? :/ I don't have a good enough idea as to why it seems to have stopped happening. That said, I'll be on the outlook for it, maybe I've just been lucky and haven't seen it in the new version yet

As you have seen it with 4.4.0.1, but haven't with 4.4.0.2, it seems plausible (or even likely) that it has something to do with the change in score handling (even if I wasn't able to reproduce this in 4.4.0.1).

I will extra check if I can find anything related with the score handling when fixing it as described...

[Agetian]

Ok, so I went back to 4.4.0.1 and I can consistently reproduce the final score flickering issue there (in the old version), but I can't reproduce it even once so far in 4.4.0.2. Thus, I'm 99.9% confident that it is indeed fixed (or at least substantially more rare - so much that I can't even trigger it yet) in the latest version. Most likely, then, it had to do with the score variables somehow, since it did not receive any specific treatment in order to get fixed ^^;

- Agetian

[artsoft]

Regarding short flickering after finishing counting down scores in the BD engine, I was able to reproduce it now, and it was indeed related to the different score handling required for getting enough score for extra lives, just as you have suspected.

Fixing it was a bit more complex than expected (as counting down the remaining time and increasing score is part of the BD game engine, but not part of the other game engines, so this is a special case in R'n'D, which indeed caused displaying the wrong score for one frame when the cave score is different from the global score over multiple caves), but score it's finally displayed correctly and without one-frame flickering now.

[Agetian]

Awesome, glad you were able to track it down and fix it for real!

- Agetian

[artsoft]

if you complete several caves in a row, you get incrementally higher high score for each cave (say, you beat 6 caves in a row, your high score for the 6th cave will be the total sum of scores you obtained in caves 1 through 6). I think I liked the previous approach more, where you accumulated the score correctly, but the high score was still separate for each cave.

You are perfectly right, and the current behavior is not as it should be. In fact, there is already a separate variable for the single cave score (in addition to the multi-cave score).

For anybody who don't want to wait for the next release and want this fixed, here's the one-line patch:

Code: Select all

commit 78ca14ba2913e6816fe06ffdcc3fe184dc3e9c56
Author: Holger Schemel <info@artsoft.org>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 19:03:09 2025 +0100

    fixed cave score (tape score) when playing BD games with multiple lives

diff --git a/src/game_bd/main_bd.c b/src/game_bd/main_bd.c
index 3ef71561..290b6cb5 100644
--- a/src/game_bd/main_bd.c
+++ b/src/game_bd/main_bd.c
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ static void UpdateGameDoorValues_BD(void)

   game_bd.time_left = time_left;
   game_bd.gems_still_needed = gems_still_needed;
-  game_bd.score = game_bd.game->player_score;                  // use cave score here
+  game_bd.score = game_bd.game->cave_score;                    // use cave score here

   if (game.no_level_time_limit)
     game_bd.time_left = getTimePlayed_BD();

Should hopefully be available soon with the next patch release.

[artsoft]

It would be cool if playing could be continued by pressing the snap key or joystick button after losing a live.

I have checked this now. When using a joystick or game pad or game controller, pressing any button will continue the game after losing a life. When using the keyboard, pressing the "space" key (or alternatively the "return"/"enter" key) will continue the game.

I have now also added support for pressing any player's configured snap or drop key instead.

[Agetian]

Nice, thanks a lot for the patch! I'll recompile with it applied and enable saving high scores to the server now

- Agetian

[Agetian]

Added the patch, that indeed fixes the per-cave high score tracking but also makes the final score flicker again I guess this confirms the initial findings related to it - you most likely already have it addressed separately in the way you described above, right?

- Agetian

[artsoft]

Added the patch, that indeed fixes the per-cave high score tracking but also makes the final score flicker again I guess this confirms the initial findings related to it - you most likely already have it addressed separately in the way you described above, right?

Yep, right. The short flickering of the final score is fixed, but it's a series of patches, as things that caused this were a bit more complex, so I had to do some more changes. But it's gone now, and the fixed version will be released soon.

[Agetian]

Alrighty, awesome! Glad to hear it!

- Agetian

[artsoft]

A new patch release version 4.4.0.3 is available which fixes a few bugs and adds some polishing here and there:

• fixed cave score (tape score) when playing BD games with multiple lives
• fixed flickering panel score when playing BD games with multiple lives
• fixed fast-forwarding BD game engine when skipping player hatching
• fixed pressing Ctrl/Cmd/Meta keys with 0/-/+ keys to change window size
• fixed pressing right Alt key with Return/Enter key to toggle fullscreen
• added continuing at game end by pressing configured snap or drop key
• added support for custom window sizes for most relevant screens
• changed positions of “colors” and “engine” tabs in level editor

The new version is available from the download page!

Please also update the GDash level package for R'n'D, which has been improved as follows:

• level editor now shows the full BD cave without scrolling
• title screens better fill the screen when using fullscreen

Have fun!

[Agetian]

A really nice update, thanks a lot! Updating immediately

- Agetian

[CWS]

In the editor it would be cool if the actual position is shown somehow. Maybe a blinking tile or a border around the tile when moving the cursor/mouse (GDash uses this method).

And somehow it is unusual that there is no select tool (as far as I can tell it's similar to the pick up tool in RnD) as default selection tool. The way it it now it's very likely that objects are drawn by accident when clicking somewhere. I know that pressing CTRL + Pickup tool represents more or less the same. The selection tool should be the standard tool by default in my opinion like in GDash to prevent any actions by accident...