A bit about my game, and what I may need help with

[nightm4re94]

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Posted: 2020-01-08 19:21:12
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
I need to know what options I have for best using Litiengine's Enviroment and Gameworld features in my game. What is possible, and what is not.
Now, my game project is set in space. It's a game where you are managing the ship and crew of a generational spaceship lost in deep deep space.
So, with that said, the screen is mainly showing one of three things.
1: A cutout (XCOM 2012 / Fallout shelter / anthive style) view of the ship, with parts folded out for a proper view.
2: A view of a procedurally generated star system, with some elements (sometimes NPC spaceships) moving around in a top-down view.
3: A starmap, showing hyperlane connections you can use for travel.
A 4'th thing, a space combat scene, is still in early planning, but we are gonna wait with battle mechanics until more core features are done. We will probably make use of tiled maps there once we start on that.
Of all, the first one is likely to be the most complex by far. So here's some details:
I got some screenshots from a early technical mockup, but I don't know how to post pictures here. Let me know how, and I can show you.
Untill then, I guess I have to describe it.
The cutout view of the spaceship has the 'head' of it on the left. This contains the bridge and such. And the 'tail' with the engines at the back.
Between the two, there is a long 'spine'. On here, there are attached modules ('buildings', if you want) wrapping around the spine.
The modules houses storage, workplaces, living space etc. Everything a small community of, hopefully not too inbred*, desperate space people need to survive for generations.
*(and yes, that's a planned feature)
The modules are split in sections, where each section has different number of modules around the spine, depending on how much space a section's framework take.
Yeah, easier to explain with pictures.
Fundamentally, all modules have approximately the same volume size, but a framework that needs machinery for artificial gravity results in less height, thus the modules wrap around more.
In my vision, I see my spacecrew moving around in the different modules, doing their thing. Some modules have them walk upside-down (from player's perspective), some right-way-up, and some floating in weightlessness.
I can imagine how the spritework and animation could be done (and how it would be A LOT of work), but I can't yet imagine how such a system could work with your engine.
I suppose I will find out, sooner or later. But any help is welcome.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-08 23:27:02
User: steffen [Admin 👑, Mod 🔧] (age: 1568 days 🔥; posts: 100)}
Thanks for providing all the details on your project. As you mentioned, some screenshots might probably be very helpful :)
You can attach image by using the "Attach" button when commenting.
[upl-image-preview url=https://forum.litiengine.com/assets/files/2020-01-08/1578525840-817477-attachfiles.png]
I would very much like to see some mockup screenshots before attempting to provide you with how I would implement your requirements in the engine.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-09 05:36:03
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
I see. Well, there is one problem with that.
That "Attach" button do not exist on my screen.
Not sure if bug or feature, you may want to check the standard user privileges on this forum system.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-09 07:37:48
User: nightm4re [Admin 👑, Mod 🔧] (age: 1567 days 🔥; posts: 185)}
I've adjusted the permissions so that members can now upload files.
Drag-and-drop is another option, by the way.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-09 07:49:59
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
[upl-image-preview url=https://forum.litiengine.com/assets/files/2020-01-09/1578555870-612216-ship-layout.png]
This is a screenshot from an early technical test, but it brings bringing up my point.
Imagine each of these colored boxes and half-spheres are 'buildings' that you can see into, I suppose each module could use a tiled map as its graphics, if your engine support that.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-09 19:53:00
User: steffen [Admin 👑, Mod 🔧] (age: 1568 days 🔥; posts: 100)}
> ### ### On environments in the LITIENGINE (from a tutorial)
Every game engine needs a container that holds all the visual and non-visual things that will, in the end, make up the game world. This container is called Environment in the LITIengine. Only one Environment is loaded at a time and the Game holds the currently active Environment. Every time you want to position something within the two-dimensional space of your game, you can do so by adding it to the Environment. When the active Screen calls the Environment.render(Graphics2D) method, it’s internal Rendering Pipeline is executed which will render everything that was previously added/loaded to the environment. There are different render types (BACKGROUND, OVERLAY, …) that define in which order the objects will be rendered, but more on that topic in a later tutorial.
It’s important to point out, that the Environment is related to exactly one Map and that the LITIengine provides an interface to load MapObjects to the environment. The implementations that take care of this task are called MapObjectLoaders. They basically translate the information form the .tmx map format to objects that can be managed by the LITIengine.
A few thoughts on this (and I hope I understood the concept correctly):
I think a concept as displayed in your screenshot is definitely something the engine can provide.
In general, the engine handles exactly one ~~~~Environment at a time which is related to exactly one ~~~~Map.

Game.world().environment().map()

A map can be loaded from an existing .tmx map or constructed dynamically in code as TmxMap object. The map in your case would be the entire spaceship.
We also have the concept of MapArea entities which are essentially a region MapObject on the .tmx map. This could be used to track information about the sections of the spaceship. Out of the box, there is no custom gravity per MapArea and I think you need some kind of game manager class to keep track of these areas and switch properties of the contained entities (or EntityControllers) accordingly.
If a section is switched out or removed, I guess you could just modify the underlying map. Using map Layers (e.g. separate layers for separate rooms) could also be useful in a potential solution, so it could just work by offsetting the layers.
If I had to implement this:
I would probably create predefined templates for rooms in separate .tmx maps and dynamically add their contents to the current map of the Environment into dedicated layers per room. Initially, the game might have only a few rooms (??) so you could predefine a starting-map .tmx which could then be exended over time. And parts of the map (i.e. Tiles or MapObjects like Props) would need to be moved according to the position of the room in the spaceship map.
Hope this helps.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-09 22:33:08
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
I think this helps. Thank you.
I won't know for sure before I begin, but at least I have this as a good refrence.
Got some more backend stuff to work on before I get started on this though, but I might start on attampting something rudementary soon-ish.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-17 10:06:59
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
Well, I have tried, but my lack of familiarity of the system and the lack of documentation made this difficult.
Let's run though what I have tried:
While I am not very familiar with Tiled, I did manage to make a single large map with a large background picture (a field of stars), and no tileset. I saved it as ~~~~Spaceship.tmx.
I also made a tileset, and built a second map in Tiled, this to act as a section of the spaceship's spine. ~~~~Spinesection.tmx
I made a new project with utiLITI, loaded the two maps, and saved it as ~~~~spaceship.litidata.
I managed to load the starfield, but the top-left corner of the map ended up in the middle of the screen. I leaned I could use the camera to work on the offset.
~~~~URL spaceshipURL = TestShipView.class.getResource("spaceship.litidata"); Resources.load(spaceshipURL); Game.world().loadEnvironment("Spaceship"); Game.world().camera().setFocus(150, 100);
I looked into the ~~~~MapObject class, and I don't see how to use it, or what it is for.
This is a bit of a learning excersize, but I'm stuck now.
Once I learn how to place instances of Spinesection at arbitrary places on the map, I should be able to go from there, at least for a while.
I'm sure I have done some things wrong. Could you help me on the right track?

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-17 13:31:00
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
What if I wrote my own ~~~~IEntety set it to render in the background layer, and have it render an image of a spaceship part?
As in
~~~~abstract class SpaceshipUIPart implements IEntety, IRenderable
~~~~class SpaceshipUISpine extends SpaceshipUIPart

• renders a cutout picture view of a corridor
  ~~~~class SpaceshipUIModule extends SpaceshipUIPart
• renders a cutout picture view of a room/module connected to the spine of the spaceship.
  How well do you think that will work in the engine?
  The big downside I see, if that I can't use tiles, then.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-20 08:15:53
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
Well, I am digging deeper into your source codes.
I am gaining an increasingly better understanding of how your engine works.
Initially I was puzzled why ~~~~Entity did not implement ~~~~IRenderable, then I found out how it is rendered from the ~~~~RenderEngine#renderEntity by the ~~~~Entity#animationControllerproperty.
So, currently my thinking is to make the parts of the ship special Entities, and render the parts of the ship by setting the sprite image.
If I succeed in drawing some test-sprites to act as the modules of the ship, I could look into using animation controls to display different types of modules.

[nightm4re94]

^{This post has been migrated automatically from the old LITIENGINE forum (2018 - 2022).
Posted: 2020-01-20 12:00:38
User: KvaGram [] (age: 1068 days 🔥; posts: 52)}
I think I am way over my head right now.
Your engine does not seem to be flexible enough to allow for the kind of hack I have in mind.
I think I'm just gonna draw all the modules with basic AWT for now.
I'll see if I can get it to draw on one of the back layers of the map, and follow the coordinate system of the ~~~~Environment.
I think the biggest hurdle, is that even your most basic entity is way WAY overcomplicated, requiring a code system for animations and animation-rules even for displaying a single image.
If ~~~~RenderEngine requested a sprite directly from the ~~~~IEntity instead of requesting the ~~~~animations controller, I might had been able to implement my own system.
Uh well. End of rant. Time to get to work.