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Re: [Pingus-Devel] Increasing the maximum fall height


From: Ingo Ruhnke
Subject: Re: [Pingus-Devel] Increasing the maximum fall height
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:33:58 +0200

On 21 September 2011 19:23, Gervase Lam <address@hidden> wrote:
> Pingus answers the need
> "It would be really nice to play a Linux version of Lemmings."  Having
> bombers with no countdown is another step away from the classic
> Lemmings.

My goal isn't really to make an exact Lemmings clone. Pingus is of
course a very heavily Lemmings inspired game, but I don't look at
Lemmings for reference, it's just the original inspiration and since
then Pingus has diverted a bit  a bit from it, making it more puzzle
driven and removing the action and luck elements (i.e. you can pause
and single-step, precisely apply actions, unlock blockers, see walking
directions, etc.).

Also there are quite a few other Lemmings clones around that match the
original much more closely then Pingus ever did. And of course the
original Lemmings is always available via Dosbox, so no need to trying
to replicate that.

In essence, when discussion gameplay, I would like to hear arguments
based on the benefits for Pingus itself, not just "because Lemmings
did it this or that way".

> It's been a long time since I looked at the code, but if I remember
> rightly, there strictly speaking isn't a deadly distance but a deadly
> velocity.

Yes, it's a deadly-velocity, but the height is a direct result of
that, thus I picked a height and then calculated the velocity to fit.
I also tweked the jumper to follow the same path as before.

As for the height itself, the old 191 pixels really are incredible
tiny, it wasn't that big a problem in older versions as diggers left a
little edge at the bottom of the tunnel that Pingus would land on
before falling further, that edge is now gone and thus it is very easy
to accidentally have deadly falls when neither expected by the player
or level designer. I fell that the current 256 pixels feel much more
natural, as it makes safe looking heights safe and makes deadly
heights actually stand out.

> Unless things have changed radically, since then, one of the problems
> with the positioning system is that for an accurate reaction of the
> Pingu to gravity, there really needs to be a sub-pixel positioning
> system.

There already is subpixel positioning.

> However, due to the automatic rounding down to the nearest whole number,
> I think something like the following occurs:
>
> position = 0, velocity = 0
> position = 0, velocity = 0.2 (which is not enough to move it to the next
> whole pixel)
> position = 0, velocity = 0.4 (ditto)
> position = 0, velocity = 0.6 (ditto)
> position = 0, velocity = 0.8 (ditto)
> position = 1, velocity = 1.0 (now it's enough).
>
> This may be the cause of the Issue 66 (Jumper path is uneven).

Don't think that's the issue, as the issue happens on a
larger-then-pixel scale, looks like doing two iterations (thus
skipping a draw) sometimes and one otherwise, but I haven't really
looked into it, might just be a capturing artifact and it's not really
a gameplay problem to begin with, just something odd I noticed.

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