pipmak-users — Content creation for the Pipmak Game Engine

Re: Image Sequences-why not suitable?

[Aidan G. <wgs...@no...>]

James Wilson wrote:
> I wonder, why are still image sequences, such as JPEGs, not suitable for real world use? I want video support as much as anyone, but for now, aren't JPEG sequences fine? Is the problem with the fact that audio can't be streamed directly with it? It's standard practice to stream the audio from a seperate file in games, anyway...Or is it becouse JPEG sequences are somewhat larger then Ogg Theora? That's not much of an issue when you've got DVD-ROMs to work with....

To answer your question simply, because decompression time is crippling.  To 
give a little more detail, video codecs are designed for moving pictures, so 
they can take into consideration similarities between consecutive frames when 
encoding, which JPEG can not do, as it only deals with still images.

That said, still-image sequences are fine for short, low-res animations like 
the spinning wheel in the Pipmak demo.

  --Aidan

My code is crashing pipmak, but why?

[syxified <syx...@ya...>]

The answer to this will probably be very simple, since I am no coding pro and
mostly have just fumbled my way through this, but if anyone could help me
out, it would be much appreciated.  I'm working on a game, and at the moment
I'm focused on implementing an inventory overlay node that can be called
globally/toggled with the "i" key.  Of course, all the individual item names
are going to have to be little patches that I will lay handles on to make
them selectable, etc.  So I'm trying to get it so it arranges those patches
(items in inventory) on the overlay node sequentially based on if they are
in the players possession or not.  I just introduced a 'for' loop into the
onkeydown handler to check the array of patches, and those which are found
to be true in the inventory get moved so they are in a decending order
visually on the page.  However, that for loop keeps crashing pipmak the
moment I hit the "i" button.  Any help would be much appreciated.  So, here
is the code i have, first is Main, second is node 99, which is the inventory
overlay node:

version (0.27)

title "Dark Heart Test"
startnode (2)

state.invenOpen = false
state.Abacus = true
state.Bone = true
state.Corpse = true
readState = false

onkeydown(
	function(key)
		if key == string.byte("i")
		then
			if state.invenOpen == false
			then
				pipmak.overlaynode(99, dontsave)
				state.invenOpen = true
				itemDepth = 90
				itemOffset = 20
				
				for i=1, 3 do --change that 3 to the item table size
						currentItem = itemObjectTable[i]
						currentItem:move{y = itemDepth}
						itemDepth = itemDepth + itemOffset
					
				end
				
				return true
			else
				inventoryNode:closeoverlay()
				state.invenOpen = false
				return false
			end
        end
    end
    )




 --this is the inventory node 99

 scrollObject = pipmak.getimage("../99/justScroll.bmp")
 scrollWidth, scrollHeight = scrollObject:size()
 itemObject = pipmak.getimage("../99/justItem.bmp")
 itemWidth, itemHeight = itemObject:size()
 

 itemAbacus = pipmak.getimage("../99/itemAbacus.bmp")
 itemBone = pipmak.getimage("../99/itemBone.bmp")
 itemCorpse = pipmak.getimage("../99/itemCorpse.bmp")
 
 
 itemAllTable = { 
 itemAbacus, 
 itemBone, 
 itemCorpse 
 }



 
panel
 {
	scrollObject,
	relx = .5,
	rely = .5,
	absx = -(.5 * scrollWidth),
	absy = -(.5 * scrollHeight)
	 
 }
 

 inventoryNode = pipmak.thisnode()
itemDepth = 40 
itemOffset = 20

itemLocationTable = {
itemDepthAbacus,
itemDepthBone,
itemDepthCorpse
}

itemObjectAbacus = patch {
 	x = (.5 * scrollWidth) - (.5 * itemWidth),
 	y = itemDepth,
 	w = itemWidth,
 	h = itemHeight,
 	visible = state.Abacus,
 	image = itemAllTable[iter],
 }
 

iter = iter + 1
 
 itemObjectBone = patch {
 	x = (.5 * scrollWidth) - (.5 * itemWidth),
 	y = itemDepth,
 	w = itemWidth,
 	h = itemHeight,
 	visible = state.Bone,
 	image = itemAllTable[iter],
 }
 
iter = iter + 1
 
 itemObjectCorpse = patch {
 	x = (.5 * scrollWidth) - (.5 * itemWidth),
 	y = itemDepth,
 	w = itemWidth,
 	h = itemHeight,
 	visible = state.Corpse,
 	image = itemAllTable[iter],
 }
 

iter = iter + 1
 
 
itemObjectTable = {
itemObjectAbacus,
itemObjectBone,
itemObjectCorpse
}

itemStateTable = {
state.Abacus,
state.Bone,
state.Corpse
}

--THAT'S IT!

Thanks in advance!
~Matt
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Image Sequences-why not suitable?

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Hi all,
 
I wonder, why are still image sequences, such as JPEGs, not suitable for real world use? I want video support as much as anyone, but for now, aren't JPEG sequences fine? Is the problem with the fact that audio can't be streamed directly with it? It's standard practice to stream the audio from a seperate file in games, anyway...Or is it becouse JPEG sequences are somewhat larger then Ogg Theora? That's not much of an issue when you've got DVD-ROMs to work with....


      

Re: Distributing Pipmak with a commercial game?

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Thanks a lot, not only for answering quickly, but for creating Pipmak and allowing this sort of use. 
 
Thanks again,
   James
 
--- On Tue, 9/8/09, Christian Walther <cwa...@gm...> wrote:


From: Christian Walther <cwa...@gm...>
Subject: Re: Distributing Pipmak with a commercial game?
To: pip...@li...
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 4:38 PM


James Wilson wrote:
> Just wanted to get something clear; is it possible to distribute Pipmak 
> with a commercial project, to make it standalone? And please don't refer 
> me to the GNU license. I can't make heads nor tails of it. Please just 
> say yes or no and why, if that's possible.

Yes. Because I say so. ;)

Your project is not a "work based on" Pipmak (in the same way that an 
interpreted program is not based on the interpreter, see 
<http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL>), 
and shipping Pipmak together with your project constitutes a "mere 
aggregation", so you are not required to license your project under the 
GPL. You can license it under any terms you want. At least that's my 
understanding of the GPL, and it's the way I want Pipmak to be licensed. 
I want Pipmak to be used as widely as possible, so I encourage its use 
in commercial projects.

On the other hand, if you modify Pipmak itself, you have to license the 
modified Pipmak under the GPL, i.e. make its source available so that 
everyone can benefit from your improvements. I don't want anyone to make 
some small improvements to Pipmak and then sell it, making money from 
what is mainly my work.

If some lawyer disagrees with my interpretation of the GPL, let me know 
and I'll add an exception, but I currently believe that none is necessary.

  -Christian


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Re: Adding numbers in game states

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Ah. Thanks a lot.
 
Thanks
  James

--- On Tue, 9/8/09, Christian Walther <cwa...@gm...> wrote:


From: Christian Walther <cwa...@gm...>
Subject: Re: Adding numbers in game states
To: pip...@li...
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 4:22 PM


James Wilson wrote:
> How does one add a number to a variable?
> For example, here's a state, as defined in Main.lua:
> state.blahhumblah=1
>  
> Now, in a node.lua, I want to do something to this effect:
>  
> state.blahhumblah=+1
>  
> So that whenever a function is run it'll increase the state's value by 
> 1. Or subtract it, etc.

state.blahhumblah = state.blahhumblah + 1

  -Christian


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Re: Adding numbers in game states

[Aidan G. <wgs...@no...>]

Christian Walther wrote:
> James Wilson wrote:
>> How does one add a number to a variable?
>> For example, here's a state, as defined in Main.lua:
>> state.blahhumblah=1
>>  
>> Now, in a node.lua, I want to do something to this effect:
>>  
>> state.blahhumblah=+1
>>  
>> So that whenever a function is run it'll increase the state's value by 
>> 1. Or subtract it, etc.
> 
> state.blahhumblah = state.blahhumblah + 1
> 
>   -Christian

For issues such as these, the Lua reference manual is your friend: 
<http://www.lua.org/manual/> (Pipmak still uses Lua 5.0, not 5.1; this is 
supposed to change at Pimak 0.3.0).  In my opinion, Lua is one of the weirder 
languages--perhaps because it is not a general purpose language?--so keep it 
on hand whenever using Lua ;).  (I still prefer it as a game engine's 
interface, though.)

  --Aidan

Re: Distributing Pipmak with a commercial game?

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

James Wilson wrote:
> Just wanted to get something clear; is it possible to distribute Pipmak 
> with a commercial project, to make it standalone? And please don't refer 
> me to the GNU license. I can't make heads nor tails of it. Please just 
> say yes or no and why, if that's possible.

Yes. Because I say so. ;)

Your project is not a "work based on" Pipmak (in the same way that an 
interpreted program is not based on the interpreter, see 
<http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL>), 
and shipping Pipmak together with your project constitutes a "mere 
aggregation", so you are not required to license your project under the 
GPL. You can license it under any terms you want. At least that's my 
understanding of the GPL, and it's the way I want Pipmak to be licensed. 
I want Pipmak to be used as widely as possible, so I encourage its use 
in commercial projects.

On the other hand, if you modify Pipmak itself, you have to license the 
modified Pipmak under the GPL, i.e. make its source available so that 
everyone can benefit from your improvements. I don't want anyone to make 
some small improvements to Pipmak and then sell it, making money from 
what is mainly my work.

If some lawyer disagrees with my interpretation of the GPL, let me know 
and I'll add an exception, but I currently believe that none is necessary.

  -Christian

Re: Adding numbers in game states

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

James Wilson wrote:
> How does one add a number to a variable?
> For example, here's a state, as defined in Main.lua:
> state.blahhumblah=1
>  
> Now, in a node.lua, I want to do something to this effect:
>  
> state.blahhumblah=+1
>  
> So that whenever a function is run it'll increase the state's value by 
> 1. Or subtract it, etc.

state.blahhumblah = state.blahhumblah + 1

  -Christian

Distributing Pipmak with a commercial game?

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Hi all,
 
Just wanted to get something clear; is it possible to distribute Pipmak with a commercial project, to make it standalone? And please don't refer me to the GNU license. I can't make heads nor tails of it. Please just say yes or no and why, if that's possible.
 
Thanks,
  James 


      

Adding numbers in game states

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Hi all,
 
How does one add a number to a variable? 
For example, here's a state, as defined in Main.lua:
state.blahhumblah=1
 
Now, in a node.lua, I want to do something to this effect:
 
state.blahhumblah=+1
 
So that whenever a function is run it'll increase the state's value by 1. Or subtract it, etc.
 
Anyone know how to do this? It's quite common in other systems, Python, TADS, Inform...
 
Thanks,
  James


      

Re: Error handling with pipmak.getimage/pipmak.newimage

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

Andrea Viarengo wrote:
> is there a reason why standard lua error handling functions doesn't work with
> pipmak.getimage/pipmak.newimage?

I don't think there is a particular reason, except that it has historically
evolved that way.

> I.e. in the code:
> 
> local success,errcode = pcall(function() pipmak.getimage("test.png") end)
> 
> variable success is always true both is test.png exists or not, 
> and an error message is printed out!!
> 
> I would like to have a behaviour like this (in pseudo-code):
> 
>     if image1 exists then
>       load image1
>     else
>       load image2
>     end
> 
> and, off course, without any error message printing!

I agree that this could be useful.

What's important is that when you write

patch { image = "test.png" }

and test.png doesn't exist, that shouldn't cause the whole node loading
operation to fail, but load the "question mark" image instead and print a
warning. It seems to me that this could still be achieved with a getimage()
that uses standard Lua error handling, so I currently see no reason not to
change it.

 -Christian

Error handling with pipmak.getimage/pipmak.newimage

[Andrea V. <and...@gm...>]

Hi Chriss,

is there a reason why standard lua error handling functions doesn't work with
pipmak.getimage/pipmak.newimage?

I.e. in the code:

local success,errcode = pcall(function() pipmak.getimage("test.png") end)

variable success is always true both is test.png exists or not, 
and an error message is printed out!!

I would like to have a behaviour like this (in pseudo-code):

    if image1 exists then
      load image1
    else
      load image2
    end

and, off course, without any error message printing!

Should be possible change this in future?

Thank you!

-Andrea

Re: Pipmak on Freenode

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

Details on how to access the channel are now on
<http://pipmak.sourceforge.net/maillists.php> (which has been renamed to
"Community").

For those who don't want to or can't use an IRC client, access over the web
is available at <http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=pipmak>.

Access through <http://mibbit.com/>, another popular web IRC client, is
currently not possible due to abuse issues. Let's see if they can work out
a solution.
<http://blog.freenode.net/2009/06/new-freenode-webchat-and-why-to-use-it/>,
<http://blog.mibbit.com/?p=306>.

See you there!

 -Christian

Re: Pipmak on Freenode

[James W. <jfc...@ya...>]

Defiantly!

--- On Sat, 7/4/09, Aidan Gauland <wgs...@no...> wrote:


From: Aidan Gauland <wgs...@no...>
Subject: Pipmak on Freenode
To: "Content creation for the Pipmak Game Engine" <pip...@li...>
Date: Saturday, July 4, 2009, 4:07 AM


Hello fellow Pipmak users and developers,

Would anyone be interested in having an IRC channel for Pipmak on Freenode?  I 
registered #pipmak with ChanServ on freenode, so it's there if anyone wants to 
use it.  I don't know if anyone here uses IRC; if you do, please come to this 
channel!

  -Aidan

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Pipmak on Freenode

[Aidan G. <wgs...@no...>]

Hello fellow Pipmak users and developers,

Would anyone be interested in having an IRC channel for Pipmak on Freenode?  I 
registered #pipmak with ChanServ on freenode, so it's there if anyone wants to 
use it.  I don't know if anyone here uses IRC; if you do, please come to this 
channel!

  -Aidan

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Fabian H. <ma...@co...>]

Hi Aidan
> Interesting.  I'm glad to see it worked OK for you.  Did you have another 
> version installed before?  I want to know, because I need to make sure that 
> the next release of Pipmak will be able to find it's libraries.
No, first time on my cute little HP Mini :-)

coCoKNIght

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Aidan G. <wgs...@no...>]

Fabian Hernandez wrote:
> This is what I get:
> error while loading shared libraries: libphysfs-1.0.so.0: cannot open 
> shared object file: No such file or directory
> I then installed libphysfs-1.0-0 and Pipmak started up fine without the 
> libopenal.so.0 symlink.

Interesting.  I'm glad to see it worked OK for you.  Did you have another 
version installed before?  I want to know, because I need to make sure that 
the next release of Pipmak will be able to find it's libraries.

Thanks,
Aidan

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Fabian H. <ma...@co...>]

Hi Aidan
> I've put a Linux build of r221 up on the Internet:
> <http://sine.cluenet.org/~wgsilkie/pipmak-r221-linux-i686.tar.bz2>.  Try that
> and, see if it works out-of-the-box (so reverse anything you did to make the
> official release (0.2.7) work, otherwise we won't know if it works without
> making a symlink to an openal .so file).
>   
This is what I get:
error while loading shared libraries: libphysfs-1.0.so.0: cannot open 
shared object file: No such file or directory
I then installed libphysfs-1.0-0 and Pipmak started up fine without the 
libopenal.so.0 symlink.

Cheers
coCoKNIght

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Aidan G. <wgs...@no...>]

Christian Walther wrote:
>> Hi, I just tried to start pipmak on my Linux Jauny and got the following 
>> error:
>> error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0: cannot open shared 
>> object file: No such file or directory
>> I checked and I have libopenal1 and libopenal-dev installed. Maybe 
>> Pipmak expects libopenal0? Should it not work with both?
> 
> It does expect libopenal0 because that was what was current when it was 
> built on Debian 4. Have a look at this thread: 
> <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/549>. Apparently 
> it's sufficient to symlink libopenal.so.1 to libopenal.so.0. If you 
> can't get it to work, hopefully Aidan will be able to help you, he's our 
> Linux guru.

Linux *guru*?  I just fake it most of the time. ;)

I've put a Linux build of r221 up on the Internet:
<http://sine.cluenet.org/~wgsilkie/pipmak-r221-linux-i686.tar.bz2>.  Try that
and, see if it works out-of-the-box (so reverse anything you did to make the
official release (0.2.7) work, otherwise we won't know if it works without
making a symlink to an openal .so file).

  -Aidan

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Fabian H. <ma...@co...>]

Christian Walther wrote:
> Hello coCoKNIght, nice to hear from you again!
>   
gliichfalls, it's been a while. I was travelling and stuff...
> It does expect libopenal0 because that was what was current when it was 
> built on Debian 4. Have a look at this thread: 
> <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/549>. Apparently 
> it's sufficient to symlink libopenal.so.1 to libopenal.so.0. If you 
> can't get it to work, hopefully Aidan will be able to help you, he's our 
> Linux guru.
>   
Thanks! Yeah, you're right. I used the command "locate libopenal.so.1" 
to see where it lives and then noticed that it's actually just a symlik, 
so I copied it and renamed the copy to "libopenal.so.0". Pipmak works 
fine now.
> Thanks, that has also been reported before. Because we will soon move 
> away from this wiki due to spam and maintenance reasons I haven't 
> bothered trying to fix it. See 
> <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/560/focus=568>.
>   
Yeah, I kinda figured this would be known but wantend to mention it 
anyway, just in case.

Cheers
coCoKNIght

Re: libopenal and wiki bug

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

Hello coCoKNIght, nice to hear from you again!

> Hi, I just tried to start pipmak on my Linux Jauny and got the following 
> error:
> error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0: cannot open shared 
> object file: No such file or directory
> I checked and I have libopenal1 and libopenal-dev installed. Maybe 
> Pipmak expects libopenal0? Should it not work with both?

It does expect libopenal0 because that was what was current when it was 
built on Debian 4. Have a look at this thread: 
<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/549>. Apparently 
it's sufficient to symlink libopenal.so.1 to libopenal.so.0. If you 
can't get it to work, hopefully Aidan will be able to help you, he's our 
Linux guru.

> Also I noticed that in the Pipmak Wiki the Navigation is not displayed 
> correctly on Firefox on all platforms and IE7+ on windoze.

Thanks, that has also been reported before. Because we will soon move 
away from this wiki due to spam and maintenance reasons I haven't 
bothered trying to fix it. See 
<http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.user/560/focus=568>.

  -Christian

libopenal and wiki bug

[Fabian H. <ma...@co...>]

Hi, I just tried to start pipmak on my Linux Jauny and got the following 
error:
error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0: cannot open shared 
object file: No such file or directory
I checked and I have libopenal1 and libopenal-dev installed. Maybe 
Pipmak expects libopenal0? Should it not work with both?

Also I noticed that in the Pipmak Wiki the Navigation is not displayed 
correctly on Firefox on all platforms and IE7+ on windoze.

Cheers
coCoKNIght

Re: Spammer on the wiki!!

[NigeC <nig...@gm...>]

It does seem a tad slower, but way quicker than Nabble is, I do have a
Sourceforge account, at some point I was intending a tut around my demo, I
enjoy writing them.. I wrapped up Beta testing various apps at the moment
along with things I SHOULD be doing lol

The side menu; people would expect that anyway with a wiki

Fingers crossed to move goes smoothly :)





-----
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-- 
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Re: Spammer on the wiki!!

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

I wrote:
> I wonder whether it would be a good idea to switch to the  
> SourceForge-provided MediaWiki now

I have now tentatively migrated the main page over to <http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/pipmak/index.php?title=Main_Page 
 > and my impression is that it doesn't look too bad. The SourceForge  
bar at the top isn't as disturbing anymore as it was in earlier  
revisions and the lack of Pipmak-specific appearance, primarily in the  
sidebar, is unfortunate but no serious obstacle. Importing pages with  
full history seems to work fine, and I can even (manually) filter out  
spam revisions. The server seemed a bit slow at times, but I hope that  
was a temporary condition. One big advantage, apart from the newer  
version and centralized maintenance, is that this wiki can send e- 
mail, e.g. for watched pages.

Before I can do the real full import, I now need to know the  
SourceForge user names of all past contributors so that I can match  
them up with the names stored in the dump. I will contact everyone  
concerned separately.

Do not make any edits in the new wiki yet, they would be lost when I  
move things over for real - I will announce the time of the cutover  
later.

   -Christian

Re: Spammer on the wiki!!

[Andrea V. <and...@gm...>]

> Pipmak wiki does not render properly for me: it is placed after the rest of 
> the content on the page, but still on the left side.

Yes, it's the same for me, And this is the same with Firefox and IE7 (but I
remeber that with IE6 render was correct)

I think that the loss of the customization of the sidebar is not something so
serious, we could change a little the main page of the Wiki, including the link
that now are on the left side. (but this is only my opinion).

Bye, 

Andrea