compress the whole game to lower screen resolutions?

[Kalladdolf]

I've made some cool games and want to make them for pocket Pc as well.
problem is, I'll have to make the animations smaller and everything, basically, I'll have to remake the whole game!
now, couldn't there be a feature that you could just make everything on the whole smaller to make it fit the ppc screen?
this would be sooooo much help for me!

[kyensoftware]

Use a canvas XD
to avoid confuzion search for draw_from demos
but it would be nize to have an inbuilt "Shrink to (a)x(b)" thingy, but it would take poor makslane awile...

[Game A Gogo]

or, you could leave it as is, and be able to set some sort of property that would affect which pixels are displayed on the screen

[Kalladdolf]

or, you could leave it as is, and be able to set some sort of property that would affect which pixels are displayed on the screen

but this aint possible yet, is it?

[Bee-Ant]

Come'on kall, dont bring your crazy idea here...you just make confused everyone

[makslane]

This kind of reduction of images dimensions is in my task list, but is not easy to solve.

[Bee-Ant]

This kind of reduction of images dimensions is in my task list, but is not easy to solve.

See...your request wont granted

[Kalladdolf]

Come'on kall, dont bring your crazy idea here...you just make confused everyone

it ain't crazy... tell me how you would do it wanting to spare time...

This kind of reduction of images dimensions is in my task list, but is not easy to solve.

understandable, thanks for the comment.

See...your request wont granted

who says?
maybe sometime...

[DST]

I believe I have figured out a way to do this. Of course, first you need to run a batch process with a graphics editor to scale all your images down. For instance, 800 x 600 > 320 x 240 would be 60% reduction so resize all images to 40 % of their original size.

Then, and here's the fun part: in the CreateActor script for each actor, write this:

Code: Select all

x=x*.4;
y=y*.4;

The downside is, you have to insert it for each actor. However, this is only a mosquito bite compared to moving each sprite and tile by hand!

After doing this, you will still have to rewrite your script to accomodate the smaller distances (xvelocities and such) but in my test so far, this recreated a mini version of my level graphics, it looked great!


Now here are the reasons that GE does not do this for you, and IMHO does not need to:

1. GE would basically be resizing your graphics....which should be done in a graphic editor. GE is NOT a graphic editor.

2. GE would be scaling the images upon loading. That's more graphic work that doesn't need to be done while running a game. Plus the excess graphic information makes a 3 mb exe into an 8 mb exe for no reason. We still have to optimize, if our game is "full" as it should be.

3. Even if it could resize it....it couldn't adjust your scripts, velocities, and distances. Only you know how your game is supposed to play. Would GE assume that in your scripts all numbers are shrunk by 40%? No, this would shrink your score, health, and activation variables. Either way you have to rewrite the script!

I do hope this method works for you, I only tested it briefly but every actor was exactly where it was supposed to be.

I think that the GP2X is the perfect platform for GE games; even though I've never played one, the situation seems perfect:
Not many native games; Competing with Sony & Nintendo, and needs good games; Emulation abilities suggest the target consumer is a fan of 2d gaming.

The market is not by itself, GE is not by itself, we are not by ourselves. Together we can make something big out of GE and the developers who use it . No more 'army of one'.

[Kalladdolf]

ok.
I was just considering doing this for smaller games, so there actually
isn't so much to be dragged across the screen.
also, I think I can handle the changing of variables, thanks for the code.

1. GE would basically be resizing your graphics....which should be done in a graphic editor. GE is NOT a graphic editor.

ok.
I'll keep that in mind.

[Game A Gogo]

actually, GE can already resize sprites...
and the easiest method, is keeping the file as is, but modifying the output function that display the whole game. which would need to skip some pixels in order to get what you need

[DST]

it would be nice, but what GE really needs is the ability to draw selections and scale xy positions inside the editor....I guess most of Makslane's energy is focused on compatability though.

Also, it would rock if you could add an extra identifier on a variable (scalable) - that would scale the variable automatically when you resized the game.....xvelocity scales, health doesn't etc.

Redrawing paths....uggh...

[Freddy]

This would be REALLY HELPFUL. I hope someday this will be a GE feature.

[Bee-Ant]

I hope there will an exe emulator also...

[DST]

what do you mean by exe emulator?