Huge project, few questions

[Nathan4102]

Raknarg @ Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:35 am wrote:

I was busy making this space shooting game, but if I remember correctly 1200 lines are dedicating to all the enemy drawings... I hard coded them so I could manipulate them.

It's also written like garbage haha I've rewritten it a couple times in the past

You wont be able to run it without removing all the picture stuff in the program though.

Wow... xD

And thanks for the suggestions Dread! That's probably actually a good idea, since I'll have 4 or 5 characters per 20x20 tile, the text file could get pretty big if I used binary.

Edit: Now I gotta figure out how to do decimal to hex... :/

[Raknarg]

If you want to use dreadnaughts solution, you just replace the 2's with 16's and it then works in hex

[jr5000pwp]

Nathan4102 @ Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:20 pm wrote:

Jesus, a 2000 line project in grade 10? What on earth were you making? xD My summative was 400 lines, and I got 105%. This game will be around 3-5k lines when I'm done, I'm assuming, so HOPEFULLY I don't run into too many problems. If I do, at least its just a project for fun, and not a final!

My grade 10 project was 5726 lines. My case really highlighted the necessity of well thought out code. I had the idea to make a minecraft 2D clone early in the semester, maybe a month or two in. I started it one way, refactored it to work another way, added features, and refactored some times. My issue was that I would refactor one file down from 800 lines to 150 but became too lazy to do the second file. Another issue was that I was too lazy to refactor my main segments of code to a better design, take for example, a segment of my collision code:

Turing:

% If the character is moving right if chars (rightkey) then         % If the block at the players feet after moving is air, torch, or open door then continue         if getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).blockid = 0                 or getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).blockid = 15                 or ((getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).blockid = 18                 and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).dooropen = 0) = true                 or (getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).blockid = 19                 and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)).dooropen = 0) = true)         then                 % If the block at the players torso after moving is air, torch, or open door then continue                 if getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).blockid = 0                         or getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).blockid = 15                         or ((getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).blockid = 18                         and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).dooropen = 0) = true                         or (getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).blockid = 19                         and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15).dooropen = 0) = true)                 then                         % If the block at the players head after moving is air, torch, or open door then continue                         if getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).blockid = 0                                 or getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).blockid = 15                                 or ((getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).blockid = 18                                 and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).dooropen = 0) = true                                 or (getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).blockid = 19                                 and getblockfloor (round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29).dooropen = 0) = true)                         then

That's obviously not very friendly to change, if I wanted to add additional functionality, change current functionality, or track down a bug I'd be in for a word of pain.
My recommendation would be to think before you program. It's very easy to just hardcode stuff or use tons of if statements etc. but it will bite you in the end. Take a few minutes, think about what you need to do, think about how you can do it, and find the best solution for it. Had I done that when making my game I would have thought of a 1 minute solution to improve the code

Turing:

function CheckCollision(x, y : int) : boolean         if getblockfloor (x, y).blockid = 0                 or getblockfloor (x, y).blockid = 15                 or ((getblockfloor (x, y).blockid = 18                 and getblockfloor (x, y).dooropen = 0) = true                 or (getblockfloor (x, y).blockid = 19                 and getblockfloor (x, y).dooropen = 0) = true)         then                 result false         else                 result true         end end CheckCollision if chars(rightkey)         and CheckCollision(round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony)) = false         and CheckCollision(round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 15) = false         and CheckCollision(round (positionxreal + movespeed * (timeframe / 1000)) + 7, round (positiony) + 29) = false then

This code is no where near perfect either, but it's better.

[Raknarg]

My friend made a program well over 10000 lines because noone had introduced him to arrays.

[Nathan4102]

10 thousand lines... I imagine that was fun to write... and fun to read for the teacher xD

I might end up plannign out all the programming for this thing after all. When I go to work on it, I end up only getting 20-30 lines down, because I spend the whole time trying to figure out the best way to do what I want to do. We'll see how it goes

[Raknarg]

Thinking is half the process.

Maybe getting you ideas down here might help.

[Nathan4102]

I would put my ideas here, but I kind of wanted to try to do this with as little help as possible. I could do some sort of development progress thread or something, you think I should?

[Raknarg]

Whatever you want, it's your progress. Either you want to tell people what you've accomplished or you want help from outside sources, if you don't care about either, then dont. Otherwise, go crazy.

I don't know if it's against posting rules or whatever, but you can probably post it under submissions, or at least off topic.

[Nathan4102]

Man...

Ignoring your guy's' suggestions to think out my code before I go was a bad idea. Now I'm getting into this, and my code is A MESS. Look at this crap!

Turing:

for i : 1 .. llength         for ii : 1 .. height             case text (ii) (i) of                 label "R" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (1), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "G" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (2), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "B" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (3), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "V" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (4), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "H" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (5), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "1" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (6), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "2" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (7), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "3" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (8), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "4" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (9), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "q" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (14), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "w" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (15), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "e" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (16), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "r" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (17), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "a" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (18), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "s" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (19), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "d" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (20), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)                 label "f" :                     Pic.Draw (pic (21), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)             end case         end for     end for

I think I'm going to end up having to redo some of this, there's no way I'm going to be able to troubleshoot or modify my game with this kind of code.

Next time I'll listen to you guys :p

[Raknarg]

Here, lets fix that for you.

Turing:

const Char : array 1 .. 21 of string := init ("R", "G", "B", "V", "H", "1", "2", "3", "4", " ", " ", " ", " ", "q", "w", "e", "r", "a", "s", "d", "f") fcn indexArray (s : string) : int     for i : 1 .. 21         if Char (i) = s then             result i         end if     end for     result 0 end indexArray for i : 1 .. llength     for ii : 1 .. height         Pic.Draw (pic (indexArray (text (ii)(i)), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)     end for end for

always look for ways to condense.

Also, everyones got to learn at some point. At least now you know fairly early on and you can change it.

[chrisbrown]

One step further?

Turing:

const pic : array char of int := init ( 0 ); pic('R') := Pic.New(...) pic('G') := Pic.New(...) ... for i : 1 .. llength     for ii : 1 .. height         Pic.Draw (pic (text (ii) (i)), i * 40 + 240 - (40 * charx), height * 40 - (ii * 40) - (40 * chary) + 280 - ((height - 15) * 40), picMerge)     end for end for

[Raknarg]

Good call, I forgot you could have an array of chars.

[Nathan4102]

Nathan4102 @ Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:47 pm wrote:

I would put my ideas here, but I kind of wanted to try to do this with as little help as possible. I could do some sort of development progress thread or something, you think I should?

This is why I didn't want to put my code on here xD

Thanks for the help, I'll use your code just this one time, but the rest of it I want to do myself. :p

[Raknarg]

then dont post specifics :p

And you shouldn't get the notion that using others' code = bad programming. A lot of times, programming is just taking stuff that other people have made and figuring out how it goes together. There's lots to be learned on your own, but theres lots you can be taught as well.

In any case, carry on.

[Nathan4102]

Raknarg @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 9:52 pm wrote:

then dont post specifics :p

And you shouldn't get the notion that using others' code = bad programming. A lot of times, programming is just taking stuff that other people have made and figuring out how it goes together. There's lots to be learned on your own, but theres lots you can be taught as well.

In any case, carry on.

The reason I wanted to try to do this all on my own was to see if I could finish a large project like this by myself, but I understand what you mean. Just reading those few code snippets in the last couple posts gave me some ideas on how to improve quite a few parts of my program. And now in the future, I'll be able to solve similar problems using methods I've learned from you guys.

I think I am going to create a project progress thread for this, because of what you said. I enjoy learning by myself, but there's only so much I can learn this way, and I might grow some bad habits along the way.