Gdash

[LogicDeLuxe]

is it some amiga version? can it be downloaded from somewhere maybe?

No One loved to mix C64 BD graphics into Emerald Mine on the Amiga.
All those No One games should be there: http://www.emeraldmines.net/
The screenshot is probably this one: http://www.emeraldmines.net/default.asp ... oads&id=39
Most of those games use an Emerald Mine engine with No One modifications. Obviously, converted BD caves don't always work as intended due to engine differences.

[CWS]

It was indeed an Emerald Mine game. I remember playing it in the old days. But Emerald Mine was never as good as Boulder Dash, more like a bad clone...

[paul_nicholls]

try this:
http://www.dazeland.com/Amiga_Games/Bou ... glish.html

[LogicDeLuxe]

Of course, there is also a native BD engine on the Amiga: http://www.emeraldmines.net/default.asp ... oads&id=37
It is even worse than those "Emerald Mine wannabe BD games", though. Unlike the DOS PC version, which at least has the physics accurately ported, the Amiga version seems to be poorly rewritten from scratch. There are some unofficial clones far better than this, although not even close to GDash.

[cirix]

thank you, i found it.
i wanted to snatch the graphics of rockford running upwards and downwards, and also pushing the stone. but after copying the cells i noticed that this is not the same rockford in this amiga version he wears a t-shirt and he also wears pants, so it's completely different. now i have drawn my own version of stone pushing.

[benjamind2011]

All this talk of new animations sounds very exciting and would be a great upgrade to an already great game.

How's the OpenGL drawing engine progressing now?

I've been running some OpenGL 2D/3D demos on my PC at home. It is really the perfect system for 2D drawing, fonts, tile maps etc. OpenGL has much better scrolling as it directly talks to the video card for the refresh and offers full hardware graphics acceleration, it even accelerates 2D drawing operations which is perfect for GDash

I'm looking very forward to any news!

[cirix]

Hi

I uploaded the current (alpha ) version of the engine. It supports OpenGL.

Here are some of the changes since the last version:


This new version supports OpenGL accelerated graphics, and also supports shaders which enable certain fullscreen graphical effects like advanced TV emulation.

Other changes:
- All the graphics engines supported (GTK+, SDL, OpenGL) can be switched from inside the game. The OpenGL shader can be selected in the Options menu. If the GDash TV emulation shader is selected, that one can also be configured there.
- The OpenGL engine supports synchronizing to the monitor refresh rate.
- Native looks (widgets) on Windows for the editor and the GTK+ engine.
- Cave play statistics. You can check how many times you have played a cave, and how many times you were successful. Also your best time and most number of diamonds collected. Press T in the main menu.
- Bugfixes for & and <> characters in element and cave names. Translation fixes (singular & plural nouns support), bugs reported by CWS.
- BD1 amoeba + magic wall behavior implemented (but not the timing).
- Don Pedro BD7 Cave M amoeba fixed, Masters Boulder Dash Cave B fixed, as reported by Marto.
- Joystick threshold fixed, as requested by subotai.
- HTML documentation and enhanced help in the game
- Restarting the cave with esc bug fixed. Holding the fire while cave is uncovering - bug fixed.
- Editor cave statistics (counts number of stones, diamonds etc.), as requested by Moon. When testing the cave, F8 will show cave internals.
- Other small bugfixes and improvements.
and last but not least:
- "Rockford pushing a stone" animation.

The OpenGL stuff might not work on a Windows8, because (at least the version I tried) does not support OpenGL in 32bit mode. At least that's what everybody says in forums. On WinXP, it works, and it should also work on Win7. If in trouble, you can use the GDash/default settings icon in the start menu to reset the gfx engine.

[subotai]

On WinXP, it works, and it should also work on Win7.

... and it also works fine on WinVista.

Great update, thanks a lot
It really was worth the time that you've spent for the new version.

The OpenGL stuff might not work on a Windows8, because (at least the version I tried) does not support OpenGL in 32bit mode.

Do you mean 64 bit?

[cirix]

The OpenGL stuff might not work on a Windows8, because (at least the version I tried) does not support OpenGL in 32bit mode.

Do you mean 64 bit?

no, win8 64bit version's backward compatibility 32bit dlls. but i do not know much about that, i only tried it on one computer and it didn't work. and a lot of forums on the net say that this happens (for example, minecraft also has problems on win8)

[benjamind2011]

Wow!!! The scrolling is super smooth even with my ordinary 60Hz LCD monitor. The scrolling is so smooth that I do not notice any real difference between my LCD monitor and my 85Hz CRT Sony monitor.

Now GDash scrolling in OpenGL mode is only limited by the video hardware which makes it buttery smooth.

I wonder what it would be like on a Samsung S23A950 120Hz monitor?

The TV mode is amazing. I really enjoy that retro effect. This would be a great feature in any classic game emulation

The rock pushing animation is a really nice feature that adds to the enjoyment.

There was only one thing I would change, the flash would simply switch the background color to RGB(255,255,255) for one animation frame and then switch back to the cave background color, which would create that super bright flash effect when enough diamonds are collected. I'm not sure how this would be done.

As it is GDash is perfect! I'm so happy with the new graphics engine. It really made a difference! Keep up the excellent work!

[CWS]

I can only endorse your statement...

[cirix]

There was only one thing I would change, the flash would simply switch the background color to RGB(255,255,255) for one animation frame and then switch back to the cave background color, which would create that super bright flash effect when enough diamonds are collected. I'm not sure how this would be done.

i don't think it is possible with the current setup. as gdash supports themes with their own colors (and not c64 colors - like the boulder rush theme), it cannot recolor them. or at least it can only recolor them like this. maybe i can make it whiter - currently the same cells are used as those for objects in the editor. normal color, but 50% added white.

[subotai]

The GTK+ Version is also very smooth now. Playing with an analog joystick works fine now

I have a minor problem on my WinVista in GTK-Mode:
When I use the main menu to select a levelset (File - Open shipped), the filelist ist not shown in the dialog (the filelist seems to be empty). I have to drag the vertical scrollbar to update the filelist. Same problem when I doubleclick on the list to enter a subfolder.

Seems to be a problem with the update of filelist drawing routine on Vista. "File - Open" doesn't work at all (no graphic update).

This problem doesn't occure at all, if I press "C" on the keyboard to enter the dialogs or when using the editor in GTK mode!

[cirix]

hi

i uploaded a new version to http://code.google.com/p/gdash/, which fixes some bugs, and has a new scrolling algorithm.

- Sound handling fixes: small sounds restart more like on the C64.
- PAL emulation fix: the GDash-TV shader did not work on ATI graphics cards.
- Translation fixes.
- Windows xp/vista file open dialog fix (the bug subotai discovered)
- Cave loading and editor thumbnail generation speedup.
- And the new scrolling algorithm (GUFST = GDash Ultra Fine Scrolling Technology (TM)), which adapts the cave scrolling to the monitor refresh rate, to the cave speed, while still avoids jerkiness of scrolling as much as it is possible.

cirix

[CWS]

I always want to have GUFST. GUFST is just great! Let's all have some GUFST!

Great new release! Thanx!