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Horses in scenarios in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Thursday, December 1 2005 19:07 Profile #5
quote:
Originally written by Niemand:

Boats and horses are added to the scenario by certain particular script calls.
Something odd and rather inconsequential:
The .BAS file format does have space for horses/boats, though I'm not sure if its used by the game. The editor itself won't allow people to edit this data and the documentation says to use scripting, so it would seem to be just a remnant of the BoE file format. But if it were, it would've made more sense to just take it out of file format alltogether.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Horses in scenarios in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Thursday, December 1 2005 19:07 Profile #5
quote:
Originally written by Niemand:

Boats and horses are added to the scenario by certain particular script calls.
Something odd and rather inconsequential:
The .BAS file format does have space for horses/boats, though I'm not sure if its used by the game. The editor itself won't allow people to edit this data and the documentation says to use scripting, so it would seem to be just a remnant of the BoE file format. But if it were, it would've made more sense to just take it out of file format alltogether.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Monday, November 21 2005 10:07 Profile #148
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Any progress made lately? Any progress coming soon?
Not really. I've just started working on it again.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Monday, November 21 2005 10:07 Profile #148
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Any progress made lately? Any progress coming soon?
Not really. I've just started working on it again.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Resetting the automap? in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, November 18 2005 20:26 Profile #27
I looked at the Angband code and all the dungeon creation code seems to be in generate.c. The code is basically straight C, the functions are in an ascending order of importance (meaning the very last function generates a random level) and its very well commented, so it shouldn't be too hard to extract a generic algorithm for each function.

EDIT: The code is in generate.c, not dungeon.c.

[ Saturday, November 19, 2005 12:26: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Resetting the automap? in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, November 18 2005 11:56 Profile #23
Angband source: http://www.thangorodrim.net/download.html#source

quote:

besides, walls are no longer separate floor squares unlike in the Exile engine.
This shouldn't stop you from treating a wall as just a floor. If a spot is to designated a wall, put the corresponding terrain and nothing else.

EDIT: typo

[ Friday, November 18, 2005 18:24: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Resetting the automap? in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, November 18 2005 11:56 Profile #23
Angband source: http://www.thangorodrim.net/download.html#source

quote:

besides, walls are no longer separate floor squares unlike in the Exile engine.
This shouldn't stop you from treating a wall as just a floor. If a spot is to designated a wall, put the corresponding terrain and nothing else.

EDIT: typo

[ Friday, November 18, 2005 18:24: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Resetting the automap? in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, November 18 2005 11:06 Profile #21
You could convert the Angband code into Avernumscript. It might be easier.

[ Friday, November 18, 2005 11:07: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Resetting the automap? in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, November 18 2005 11:06 Profile #21
You could convert the Angband code into Avernumscript. It might be easier.

[ Friday, November 18, 2005 11:07: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Tuesday, November 15 2005 09:05 Profile #53
I meant as dynamic (resizeable) arrays, and I was primarily referring to matrices.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Monday, November 14 2005 20:36 Profile #51
You can use lists as arrays and matrices as 2D arrays, though its too much work to be worth it.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Thursday, November 10 2005 15:53 Profile #33
quote:
The project is a compile-to-bytecode-then-interpreter for a scripting language, so if the C++ wasn't garbage collected we'd have to write a garbage collector for the scripting objects.
That reminds me of an idea I had a while ago for a library that allowed a generic way for creating scripting languages. The basic idea was that you could write a class/function and directly translate it into a primitive/function for the scripting language, by looking at the particular class' operators. I can't remember how much I did, if anything, with this, but I do remember I couldn't find a viable, efficient way to manage memory. Garbage collection would fix this.

[ Thursday, November 10, 2005 21:38: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Thursday, November 10 2005 08:29 Profile #28
quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

C++ doesn't have built-in garbage collection, but you can add one. It's not perfect, but our project is one where manual memory management would be very difficult.
If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is your project about?

quote:

I don't like references because you can't tell whether calling foo(i) will modify i without going and digging into the definition of foo. With foo(&i) it's much clearer.
Careful use of the const keyword can fix this, but is only useful in very high-level programming. I use references mainly to separate single objects that are to be modified, with pointers that are to be themselves modified through pointer arithmetic. In the end it's really just a matter of preference.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Wednesday, November 9 2005 15:39 Profile #18
quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

I've had to learn C++ because of work. Our project doesn't use the features I like least (references and operator overloading) though, and we use a garbage collector.
You don't like references? That's one of my favorite features. Of course, I mainly use pointers as iterators.

C++ allows garbage collection? I didn't know that.

quote:

The Haskell is not because I want something, anything, that is functional. It's because Darcs is written in Haskell and blah blah. It looks like quite a nice language though.
I take it you like terse syntax. Personally, I'd get lost if programming in Haskell.

Is Darcs any good? CVS can be extremely annoying at times.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Wednesday, November 9 2005 10:00 Profile #14
If you're not too concerned with speed (I'm not exactly sure how much of a loss there is), there are a few C++ libraries that support functional programming, such as Functional C++.

Oh, and I thought you said you stayed away from C++.

[ Wednesday, November 09, 2005 10:01: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Can you code? in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Wednesday, November 9 2005 09:44 Profile #12
BASIC is a good place to start as it will give you a good understanding of procedural programming, but it is a comparatively weak language, and rather cumbersome for most practical uses. C++ is probably the most powerful and flexible language there is at the moment, but it has a rather odd learning curve. If you don't plan on using your programming skills that much in the future, you might want to learn Python or Ruby. Python is very flexible, for a interpreted language, but Ruby is built for the programmer, so it may be a bit easier to learn.

EDIT: Eagle, you forgot a '<<' and two semicolons in your C++ example.

[ Wednesday, November 09, 2005 09:46: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Saturday, October 15 2005 17:53 Profile #146
quote:
Originally written by Thralni, emperor of Riverrod:

I experienced this too, but not only in outdoors. Also in towns I experience this. I can't show a screenshot, because I don't have website, but what the editor does, is that it sometimes doesn't draw walls. This giving a blank spot which you can't see through. Its not something majot, but it really can get me irritated if it happens on a really important spot. What you mentioned, kelandon, happens when you have a cliff or walls in outdoors at the border of two outdoor sections. Still it shouldn't happen, but the reason for this, is simply that when you work on one outdoor section, you don't work on the other, meaning that the editor will just draw the other section as if you simply are not working in it. This also means it will draw the walls in the mode of very low, like you showed in the screenshots.
Finding the causes to these bugs may take a while due to the way the 3D code is written. Unfortunately, it was written that way because the rest of the editor was written that way. Until serious modularization of code, and separation of concepts, so-to-speak, is done, smaller bugs like this will be somewhat hard to trace.

[quote]
Something I also noticed, is that the editor ussually makes places much darker than they are in the game. Mainly walls are sometimes totally black in the editor, but in the game I can still see textures on the same walls.[/quote]This doesn't make too much sense. The editor is supposed to show places fully lit. Ah well, something else to look into, I guess.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Saturday, October 15 2005 17:53 Profile #146
quote:
Originally written by Thralni, emperor of Riverrod:

I experienced this too, but not only in outdoors. Also in towns I experience this. I can't show a screenshot, because I don't have website, but what the editor does, is that it sometimes doesn't draw walls. This giving a blank spot which you can't see through. Its not something majot, but it really can get me irritated if it happens on a really important spot. What you mentioned, kelandon, happens when you have a cliff or walls in outdoors at the border of two outdoor sections. Still it shouldn't happen, but the reason for this, is simply that when you work on one outdoor section, you don't work on the other, meaning that the editor will just draw the other section as if you simply are not working in it. This also means it will draw the walls in the mode of very low, like you showed in the screenshots.
Finding the causes to these bugs may take a while due to the way the 3D code is written. Unfortunately, it was written that way because the rest of the editor was written that way. Until serious modularization of code, and separation of concepts, so-to-speak, is done, smaller bugs like this will be somewhat hard to trace.

[quote]
Something I also noticed, is that the editor ussually makes places much darker than they are in the game. Mainly walls are sometimes totally black in the editor, but in the game I can still see textures on the same walls.[/quote]This doesn't make too much sense. The editor is supposed to show places fully lit. Ah well, something else to look into, I guess.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, October 14 2005 17:58 Profile #144
I haven't worked on this in a few weeks, and I probably won't for a while longer due to a broken laptop, college applications, AP, etc.

As for the current status of the effort,

- the BoALib CVS module works and should allow for much easier development in creating any tool for editing. It parses scenario data scripts, and can load/save .BAS files, using a few calls. If anyone wants to use it, ask and I can give a few technical details regarding its use.

- the current 3D Editor code in the CVS module (NOT the source files in the file releases) uses BoALib, and essentially works just the same as the original 3D editor, without import features. The plan is to alter the API dependent features to use wxWidgets and OpenGL, and then release the resulting program as the official, non-beta 3D Editor.

All other questions/comments/suggestions are welcome.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
BoA Editor Remake in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, October 14 2005 17:58 Profile #144
I haven't worked on this in a few weeks, and I probably won't for a while longer due to a broken laptop, college applications, AP, etc.

As for the current status of the effort,

- the BoALib CVS module works and should allow for much easier development in creating any tool for editing. It parses scenario data scripts, and can load/save .BAS files, using a few calls. If anyone wants to use it, ask and I can give a few technical details regarding its use.

- the current 3D Editor code in the CVS module (NOT the source files in the file releases) uses BoALib, and essentially works just the same as the original 3D editor, without import features. The plan is to alter the API dependent features to use wxWidgets and OpenGL, and then release the resulting program as the official, non-beta 3D Editor.

All other questions/comments/suggestions are welcome.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Politics and Beliefs in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, October 14 2005 06:17 Profile #155
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

My point is that even though public schooling might be flawed, private schools are just as flawed, if not moreso.
Forget about private schools; I have no real first hand experience with them so I don't want to draw any conclusions about them. If I did in my other posts, I did not mean to.

quote:

What benefits over public schools do they have, and how can those benefits be given to all students?
The lacking in public schools, and perhaps in other places, is the lack of teaching that encourages a continuation of the educational process after high school. While this is effectively overturned in most colleges, it decreases the value of public schooling as a whole. Schools should not primarily explain what students need to know, but how they may learn it. In english classes, literary analysis is considered uniform. Students are goaded and lured into "learning" the interpretations dictated by the curriculum. In science classes, the scientific process is considered unimportant, and inhibiting to high school minds. Labs dole out specific steps, and require no development of experimental design; fundamental scientific principles are ignored. Originality as a whole is lost in the vast amounts of bureaucratic paper shuffling.

quote:

The answer has to either be in modifying public schools or in drastically cutting taxes. What is your solution to the problem?
Taxes have very little to do with this. If more/less money is distributed, more/less money will end up in areas of superfluous nature. Modifying the system is out of the question as well. Public schooling is too administrative and is ruled by the tax payers; "those who recieved education are those who give it." (From Body and Mind, by John Dewey) Change in this manner is too slow, and has a tendency to swing to one extreme and stagnate.

The only way to alleviate this problem, is through some external force powerful enough to create certain opportunities. Of course, this does not mean that certain forces should create private schools, or institutions that teach in their own fasion, as this creates the concern of indoctrination. In the end the only way to escape this concern is to emphasize the individualism inherent in the process of learning.

Learning is a process whose primary purpose is to create growth in the individual. It is "the continuous reconstruction of experience," (From Reconstruction in Philosophy, John Dewey) and is completely subjective. As such, teachers cannot create learning, they can only attempt to induce it. Learning is the sole responsibility of the individual, and whether they want to or not, they will have to learn. So it falls to society to create enough "experience" for its students to draw upon.

External forces (whoever they may be), must create places, from without or within, in which learning can be sought independently. Perhaps laboratories where valid, thought-provoking, lab work is given. Or perhaps free, valid online sites with a collection of primary documents and interpretations of them, for those immersed in history. In the case of the second, it has already started to come to reality through services such as the Wikimedia Foundation, and Project Gutenburg. Unfortunately most of these projects, not the ones mentioned, have their own interests and/or are underfunded to some degree. The government must take a more active role for this approach to flourish, but this will not happen for some time, and it allows for the danger that the government will take an administrative role in this approach as well.

[ Friday, October 14, 2005 19:03: Message edited by: KernelKnowledge12 ]
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Converting from PC to Mac? in Blades of Avernum Editor
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, October 14 2005 04:29 Profile #10
PICT files are very well supported in Carbon, and are to Macs what BMPs are to Windows.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Converting from PC to Mac? in Blades of Avernum
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Friday, October 14 2005 04:29 Profile #10
PICT files are very well supported in Carbon, and are to Macs what BMPs are to Windows.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Politics and Beliefs in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Thursday, October 13 2005 10:17 Profile #137
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

Kernel, your public school experience was remarkably different from my own.
Actually, I am in school in Maryland, and if you look anything like the picture you gave in one of the photo threads, then we may have gone to the same Middle School (Takoma Park Middle School), at least for a year. If it was you, then I don't believe we knew each other very well.

quote:

Also, in both states where I attended public school, tax money from all over the county was distributed to various schools all over the county. In New Jersey, poorer districts did not necessarily have worse schools - they got a lot of money from richer districts' tax dollars. In Maryland, the whole county was one large district, and the money was assigned where it was needed.

The quality of the public school education was very good - many public schools had higher average SAT scores and more AP classes (more of every class, really) offered than private schools. My high school had its own TV station and a forensic science class.
You seem to be missing my point. My point is that public schooling is flawed at an ideological level, that cannot be fixed with tax dollars or extracurricular activities. Also, my highschool has a TV station, and it may have had some sort of forensic club or something; I remember hearing something about it, but I can't remember what it was.

Kelandon: Sorry if I was a bit over-zealous. I get a little erratic around 2:30 in the morning.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00
Politics and Beliefs in General
KernelKnowledge12
Shock Trooper
Member # 4557
 written Wednesday, October 12 2005 21:56 Profile #129
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

The trouble is that society consists of an awful lot of individuals, most of whom don't take responsibility for their own learning, and there is no effective way to encourage them to do so.
Correction, currently there is no effective way to encourage them to do so. Also, you must keep in mind that public schools in America have not significantly changed in educational philosophy in nearly a century. The arguments of John Dewey and Neil Postman (of which the latter I haven't read) have yet to be integrated to any real effect.

quote:

I haven't always been this pessimistic; experience has made me this way. The simple fact is that there is very little that anyone can do to change the world for good or ill.
I am well aware of this fact, and it is most undoubtably a fact. I used to think this way, and by some means I am not currently aware of, I turned into what you might call and optimistic pessimist. While there is no hope of affecting all of humanity, there is hope of affecting some of it. In actuality, this is the only real sort of power a mere human can hope to have; the power and reality of choice. And so the question becomes, not "Why do anything?", rather "Why choose to do nothing?". Disregarding semantics, answering the second question differs greatly from answering the first. The first question regards doing nothing as mere stagnating inactivity, while the second regards it as a conscious choice. The second question gives meaning to choice. Before I comment any further, is this how you look at the situation?

Also, if you haven't read it already, you might find "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil very interesting. Although he does start to space out by the end.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Wednesday, June 16 2004 07:00

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