Rocks'n'Diamonds with GDash game engine

[artsoft]

As another (and hopefully last) release candidate for the final version of Rocks'n'Diamonds with GDash game engine, the 6th pre-release of the upcoming new version of Rocks’n’Diamonds is available for testing.

• added support for crumbled sand when playing with R'n'D graphics
• added sound for opening exit (outbox) when playing with R'n'D sounds
• added the classic BD level set using the native BD game engine
• removed editing the unused BD screen border color in level editor
• fixed playing BD engine levels if preferred network player was changed
• fixed playing sounds at wrap-around BD cave positions
• fixed problem causing strange garbage on screen when it is snowing
• fixed graphical bug with covering screen when loading next level
• fixed playing loop sounds when using native BD game engine

This should be the last pre-release version before releasing the final new version 4.4.0.0 with native BD game engine!

As always, I have updated the download links in the first post of this thread accordingly. (There is also a new version of the GDash level collection (version 0.9.6) available, but it only contains a few cosmetic changes, so it is technically not required to install this update.)

I hope to get the final version out before christmas! And I wish you all a nice 3rd advent Sunday, with lots of snow!

[igormakovsky]

This pre-release teasing is like waiting for the xmas present.

I just thought, that if we speak on playing Boulder Dash without any limits, then why'll we stick to max 128x128 playfield, rather than allow much more space for the level just because, why not?

I can notice that it might look inconvinient to move across the borders in such large caverns, but rather than that, it would be great to move in a long vertical seemingly endless shaft, just for some crazy expert caverns.

[CWS]

Some observations:
Scanlines are still not available in the graphics settings? Or even better shader support like in GDash.

It's really nice to have the dirt with animation like in Emerald Mine but how to use regular dirt from the C64 graphics set?
Is it possible to use or import graphics sets from GDash?
And I didn't find out how to use the cave colors in each cave.

Sounds for the elements can not be configured like in GDash. Would be nice to be able to do so and maybe even import the sets from GDash.
The dying sound of the player is weird in Boulder Dash engine, should be possible to switch that off.

I had a crash when selecting VSync Adaptive. Screen froze.

[artsoft]

This pre-release teasing is like waiting for the xmas present.

I just thought, that if we speak on playing Boulder Dash without any limits, then why'll we stick to max 128x128 playfield, rather than allow much more space for the level just because, why not?

I can notice that it might look inconvinient to move across the borders in such large caverns, but rather than that, it would be great to move in a long vertical seemingly endless shaft, just for some crazy expert caverns.

Well, I hope to be able to deliver the final xmas present in time!

The current playfield limit of 128 x 128 tiles could easily be increased, of course. But at the moment I don't think that it would make that much sense, or would really be needed for caves that are really fun to play (besides that one or two "endless" caves just for the fun of it). So I would stick with the current limit for now, unless more people ask for it (especially those who have actually released cave sets that show that they would benefit from such an enhancement).

[artsoft]

Some observations:
Scanlines are still not available in the graphics settings? Or even better shader support like in GDash.

Scanlines or shader support is currently not available in R'n'D, and won't be available with the coming version 4.4.0.0.

Regarding scanlines, this feature could be added with one of the next minor releases following version 4.4.0.0. And I think it would be a cool addition not only for the new BD engine, but also for the other classic game engines, which all have level collections of classic games that were played on CRT monitors back then.

About shader support like in GDash, I am not really sure if it is worth the effort, although I must admit that it really looks cool in GDash having the "monitor" slightly bend like a CRT monitor, and having some CRT flickering effects. But adding OpenGL to R'n'D would add another dependency to the project, which currently has to be maintained on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android and web browsers. However, it may be possible with reasonable effort if provided via the SDL libraries, which are already used. After the 4.4.0.0 release, I will check if this is possible and still maintainable for all currently supported platforms.

It's really nice to have the dirt with animation like in Emerald Mine but how to use regular dirt from the C64 graphics set?
Is it possible to use or import graphics sets from GDash?

Do you mean using C64 graphics with newly created level sets? This is easily possible by just using one of the three graphics set provided with the GDash cave collection for R'n'D (see announcement post) from the setup menu, using "custom graphics", selecting the desired GDash / C64 graphics set and use "override: yes" (the last step only required if the level set already uses its own graphics set).

To permanently use certain custom graphics for a given level set, just add a line "graphics_set: gfx_gdash_boulder_dash_1" (or any other graphics set) to the file "levelinfo.conf" of your level set, and it will always use this graphics set (which has to be installed for that purpose).

I will add such an option to the level editor, so it won't be required to manually edit config files then.

And I didn't find out how to use the cave colors in each cave.

If you have a graphics set from GDash activated (which uses C64 colors), you can select individual colors for each level by going to "CONF -> Engine -> Colors" in the level editor.

Sounds for the elements can not be configured like in GDash. Would be nice to be able to do so and maybe even import the sets from GDash.

Same as with graphics here -- just use the GDash cave collection and select the GDash sound set.

You can easily change the sound set or create your own by simply editing the "*.conf" files in the sound set. Let me know if you need any help here, or if I misunderstood what you mean by "configuring sounds like in GDash".

The dying sound of the player is weird in Boulder Dash engine, should be possible to switch that off.

You will only hear this sound when playing with original R'n'D custom sounds, so it is consistent with other R'n'D levels.

When playing with the original GDash / C64 sound set, you won't hear this sound.

But yes, I can add an option to turn it off even when using R'n'D style sounds.

I had a crash when selecting VSync Adaptive. Screen froze.

Are you able to reproduce this error? Which operating system are you using? In fact, this is a sort of experimental feature which is offered by SDL and which may or may not work. But it should not crash the program, I think. At least on my own systems (Linux and Mac) it simply does nothing. :-/

[igormakovsky]

So I would stick with the current limit for now, unless more people ask for it

I got the point, thank you!

Anyway, if you try to play 128x128 cave and make a border run (which will take rockford from top to bottom, for example), that will make the screen scroll forever until making it to the other side of the cave, even when playing small scaled graphics.

Won't it be more handy to switch somehow immediately to the other part of the cave in such extreme cases? It might happen only when players are playing large caves to avoid that long-time annoying screen scrolling? Or might it be a toggle option in the menu? What do you think?

[CWS]

I didn't realize that RnD only uses SDL. I understand why scanlines or shaders won't work the way it does in GDash. I learned that SDL3 is available for just a while - maybe it would be easier with that version?

Because of the dirt from Emerald Mine: I set "Boulder Dash" as Custom Graphics and also switched Override Level Graphics: yes. But there is still the dirt of Emerald Mine. Don't get me wrong - the dirt of Emerald Mine looks somewhat really nice in regular Boulder Dash caves, especially because it's a bit animated digging through it. But what if I want to use the original Boulder Dash dirt? The Custom Artwork setting does not do anything. At least not here.

Same with the colors. In original Boulder Dash each level has its own color scheme like red, blue, yellow, etc. dirt. You suggested to check menu Game Engines. But there is no option like "Use cave colors". Only choosing color palette and random colors - but no option to use the cave colors or not. Nevertheless I tried a lot and was not able to use cave colors. But maybe this is that way because I was not able to set the custom graphics set?

Same with sound. In my opinion the menu system is not fully clear. There is a Sound & Music menu but with no option to use other sound sets - why isn't this in this menu? In Custom Artwork there is a menu for Custom Sounds but no other sound in there but Classics Sounds (but installed the Boulder Dash level set).

[artsoft]

Scanlines should be relatively easy also with plain SDL (although maybe not as nice as with OpenGL shaders).

Yes, maybe SDL3 will make things easier here in the future. It's out there for some time now, but still in alpha state. But one day R'n'D will switch to SDL3.

Regarding your problems with graphics and sound sets: That's really strange! If you have installed the latest R'n'D pre-release (test-6) and the latest GDash level package (gdash-levels-0.9.6.zip), selecting any of the many GDash cave sets via the "levelset" menu should immediately and automatically switch to the native BD graphics, sounds and music -- as long as all three "override" options from the "setup -> custom artwork" are set to either "auto" or "no" (with "auto" being the default for a freshly installed R'n'D).

If you see and hear "Emerald Mine style" graphics and sounds (well, I assume you're referring to the native R'n'D graphics), it should only happen if you have actively selected them in the "custom artwork" menu and have set the corresponding "override" option to "yes" -- else the native BD artwork defined for the selected GDash cave set should be used.

If all else fails, you could try to temporarily rename the file "setup.conf" in ~/.rocksndiamonds (Linux) or "Documents/Rocks'n'Diamonds (Mac/Windows), which should set everything back to default settings.

(BTW: Which operating system are you using?)

(A little hint for selecting artwork sets: It may look like there's only "classic" artwork available on first view, because it is stored in its own virtual folder -- select ".. (parent directory) -> artwork for certain level sets -> Boulder Dash" to get to the BD style artwork included with the GDash cave collection. But as mentioned, this should not be needed to play GDash levels with GDash graphics, sound and music.)

Regarding menu structure: Yes, maybe I should move "custom graphics" from "custom artwork" to "graphics" and "custom sounds" and "custom music" from "custom artwork" to "sounds & music".

Same with the colors. In original Boulder Dash each level has its own color scheme like red, blue, yellow, etc. dirt. You suggested to check menu Game Engines. But there is no option like "Use cave colors". Only choosing color palette and random colors - but no option to use the cave colors or not. Nevertheless I tried a lot and was not able to use cave colors. But maybe this is that way because I was not able to set the custom graphics set?

If you see the tab "engine -> colors" on the "CONF" screen in the level editor (with cave colors and "set random colors" button), you should also have the C64 graphics with cave specific colors enabled for that level set. And it should then use exactly those graphics for dirt, wall, amoeba etc. that you have defined there for the current level / cave.

I really wonder what's going on there!

Has anybody else encountered similar problems regarding GDash graphics, sounds or cave colors?

[CWS]

I'm on MacOS.

I deleted RnD and downloaded it again. Also downloaded GDash levelset again and put it on the main window. Now everything seems to be ok!

In the Game Engine settings - what's the difference between old and new game graphics style? Can't see a difference.

In Editor: Why isn't the whole cave displayed? I don't like to scroll to see the whole cave.

The adaptive VSync still does not work. No crash again but error message "Setting VSync Failed".

By the way: Please fix the place where the RnD settings are saved. On MacOS it's always ~/Library/Application Support and not ~/Documents.

[igormakovsky]

Btw, if to speak about new BD style graphics. Am I right, that its main "feature" is constant coloring?

[artsoft]

Btw, if to speak about new BD style graphics. Am I right, that its main "feature" is constant coloring?

When selecting "Setup -> Game Engines -> Game Graphics Style" between "old" and " new" (when using any level set from the GDash level collection), you are effectively choosing between original BD, C64 style graphics ("old") with colors per cave limited to some eight C64 colors, and the original Boulder Rush graphics ("new"), which on the one hand are enhanced regarding colors (more colorful VGA graphics), but on the other hand are limited regarding level specific colors (which are not supported in Boulder Rush graphics).

There is also another (quite recent) graphics set, "Boulder Rush graphics by CWS", which is a highly improved version of the Boulder Rush graphics set. I will also add this graphics set to the GDash cave collection, as a custom graphics set which can be selected as an alternative to the two already provided graphics sets. (To be precise, the C64 style graphics set used when selecting "old game graphics style" is also different for BD1, BD2 and BD3, just as these games had different original graphics.)

Some time after the release of R'n'D 4.4.0.0 I will also add another graphics set, which will be the classic R'n'D graphics set, but with level specific colors just as used by the "old" BD graphics, but which will be improved regarding the number of colors that can be used.

[artsoft]

I'm on MacOS.

Ah, yes, I think you already mentioned this. Anyway, thanks for this information!

I deleted RnD and downloaded it again. Also downloaded GDash levelset again and put it on the main window. Now everything seems to be ok!

Very good to know! I'm happy that it works for you now!

In the Game Engine settings - what's the difference between old and new game graphics style? Can't see a difference.

You have to select any of the GDash level sets, then you will immediately see the difference: "old" is C64 graphics with level specific colors, "new" is the classic Boulder Rush graphics set (with more colors, but the same for each level).

In Editor: Why isn't the whole cave displayed? I don't like to scroll to see the whole cave.

That's because the R'n'D window is to small to show the complete level with tile sizes 32x32 and 16x16.

Maybe a future version might support resizing the window (with more content to see, not just scaling the window), but this would open a whole lot of other problems, especially with already existing custom artwork, which would be broken by resizing the window dynamically horizontally and/or vertically to show more content, but also for playing the game (as the visible playfield would change, which is not always desired, or, alternatively, the window size would have to be changed before and after playing, and so on).

But I have to admit that it would be nice to be able to edit larger parts of the playfield without changing the tile size that is too small.

The adaptive VSync still does not work. No crash again but error message "Setting VSync Failed".

Then it is not supported on your system. In fact, I know that SDL2 offers this, but as far as I know, it only works with specific graphics card drivers and specific monitors. (Would love to see such a combination playing R'n'D with original 50 Hz and smooth scrolling! )

By the way: Please fix the place where the RnD settings are saved. On MacOS it's always ~/Library/Application Support and not ~/Documents.

Yes, I know. Same on Windows (with a different system folder). Unfortunately, this folder is not easily accessible for the normal Mac (or Windows) user, as this is a hidden folder on both systems. And R'n'D does not only has to store its settings (which could well go into this folder), but also a lot of user data: Additional level sets, recorded tapes, scores, and especially self-created level sets. All these data has to be easily accessible also for the ordinary user who is not fluent with the shell. (ITechnically, a solution could be to load and save all user data using a standard file requester, but this would also make it a lot more complicated for many users to load and save the right data from/to the right places. For example, most new GDash user would not know which cave set file to load if there is a ".bd" and a ".gds" version of the same cave set available.)

But I would be happy for any practical solution that would solve this problem of "not using the right folder for R'n'D data".

And when speaking of it: I am happy to hear comments from first-time users of R'n'D, as I have used it too long to see certain problems that are immediately apparent to somebody starting and using R'n'D for the very first time! Then, many things have changed in the last nearly 30 years! A good example is the "save & exit" menu for the game settings, which was common back then (at least I think so), but is unusual nowadays (where every changed setting is saved immediately, regardless of this being good or bad).

So please keep on commenting, and I will keep trying to improve R'n'D where it should be improved.

[CWS]

Btw, if to speak about new BD style graphics. Am I right, that its main "feature" is constant coloring?

There is also another (quite recent) graphics set, "Boulder Rush graphics by CWS", which is a highly improved version of the Boulder Rush graphics set. I will also add this graphics set to the GDash cave collection, as a custom graphics set which can be selected as an alternative to the two already provided graphics sets. (To be precise, the C64 style graphics set used when selecting "old game graphics style" is also different for BD1, BD2 and BD3, just as these games had different original graphics.)

I know, I've done that graphics set...

[CWS]

In Editor: Why isn't the whole cave displayed? I don't like to scroll to see the whole cave.

That's because the R'n'D window is to small to show the complete level with tile sizes 32x32 and 16x16.

Maybe a future version might support resizing the window (with more content to see, not just scaling the window), but this would open a whole lot of other problems, especially with already existing custom artwork, which would be broken by resizing the window dynamically horizontally and/or vertically to show more content, but also for playing the game (as the visible playfield would change, which is not always desired, or, alternatively, the window size would have to be changed before and after playing, and so on).

But I have to admit that it would be nice to be able to edit larger parts of the playfield without changing the tile size that is too small.

Can't you just use a different window size for the editor only? At least as large that regular Boulder Dash caves can be displayed as a whole.

Yes, I know. Same on Windows (with a different system folder). Unfortunately, this folder is not easily accessible for the normal Mac (or Windows) user, as this is a hidden folder on both systems. And R'n'D does not only has to store its settings (which could well go into this folder), but also a lot of user data: Additional level sets, recorded tapes, scores, and especially self-created level sets. All these data has to be easily accessible also for the ordinary user who is not fluent with the shell. (ITechnically, a solution could be to load and save all user data using a standard file requester, but this would also make it a lot more complicated for many users to load and save the right data from/to the right places. For example, most new GDash user would not know which cave set file to load if there is a ".bd" and a ".gds" version of the same cave set available.)

But I would be happy for any practical solution that would solve this problem of "not using the right folder for R'n'D data".

I think it should be in ~/Library/Application Support - no matter if there is user data or not. For example the emulator PCSX2 also uses user data like texture packs which could be manually copied there but it's still in ~/Library/Application Support.
Moreover you can always use the menu "go to - Library" in the Finder menu bar, even if the Library folder is hidden.

[artsoft]

Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.4.0.0 finally released, and just in time for xmas!

As always, I have updated the download links in the first post of this thread accordingly. There is also a new version of the GDash level collection (version 1.0.0) available.

Here's the official announcement: https://www.artsoft.org/

I wish you all happy christmas holidays!