TURBU

The update should be ready tomorrow. After that, I’ll work on adding RM2K3 support so the users of that fine engine can see what the fuss is all about. But once that’s finished, work on the Map Viewer in its current form will cease.

I’ve had a minor revelation, an epiphany of sorts. For as much as working on TURBU has been an exhilarating experience and a source of a great deal of personal growth to me as a programmer, the end product has been somewhat less than what I’d hoped for. I started writing it when I barely knew what I was doing, and as I hacked my way through the project from the ground up, the code grew into a big tangled mess. (more…)

I’ve gotten it to the point where you can switch from one map to another.  Trying to switch back to a map you’ve already been to, on the other hand, tends to cause trouble.  Still trying to work that out.  Plus there are problems with the transitions.

And it really doesn’t help that I’ve been horribly sick and doing my level best to hack up one or both lungs ever since mid-Saturday.  But it’ll get done, and soon.  I just don’t know exactly when.

This has been going a lot faster than I thought it would.  I’ve gotten the map data decoupled from the game engine and set up in its own data structure.  I’ve gotten a preloader set up, to load other maps quietly in the background so they’ll be ready when you enter them.  I’ve fixed several dozen bugs that my hasty attempts to do these first two things ended up creating.

Now all I really have to do is actually make multiple maps work.  I’ll work on that tomorrow.  Maybe, if we’re very lucky, I’ll have a release tomorrow, though it’s doubtful because a good bit of my day will be spent celebrating Easter with the family.  But it should be ready very soon.

I fixed a problem with the script converter that was breaking a lot of common events, and made characters walk properly (I hope). Thanks to Fatty for finding these bugs! The update’s in the Downloads page.

The site looks different again.  I’m experimenting with different things, and I’ll probably keep changing it, and maybe settle on something definite… eventually.  Not sure when.

Also, a big thanks to Kira for the new banner.  It looks great!

This was supposed to be up yesterday, but Common Events kept giving me trouble.  Each event runs on its own thread, (technical term for multiple things happening at once within the same program,) and the multiple threads kept tying themselves in knots (non-technical term for various thread-related problems).  It’s taken me until now to debug, but I think I’ve got it working.  *knocks on wood*

I also added support for events that  activate on touch, the “call event” command, and the “countertop” tile attribute, along with fixing a few bugs. Now I  can FINALLY start on multi-map support.  The next update might be a while, but when it comes, it’ll be good.   In the meantime, enjoy this, and if you find any bugs, please report them on the Forum.

I just got an email from my webhost about a system upgrade that they’re installing:

Your “turbu-rpg” account is scheduled to be moved to the new StartLogic platform on 3/21/2008,12:00:00AM EDT.

I don’t think anyone will notice anything changing, but it’s possible that the site may be down for a bit when this happens. If so, it’ll be back up soon.

The next update should be this evening, BTW.

I got a lot less done on TURBU than I thought I would. I blame discovering two new games, which have been eating a lot of my time: Disgaea II and Travian. That and discovering that RPG Maker’s “common events,” which I’d planned to code support for this week, are stored in the database in a different way from ordinary events. This release is mostly bugfixes (the new input system broke a few things,) plus support for a few more event commands.

Common events will come next week, along with putting the finishing touches on event activation, and then I’ll be free to start working on multiple maps. (I will do multimap support sooner or later! I swear I will!)

Also, this release is built with a new, upgraded version of the PascalScript engine that powers the RPG Script system. As with any new release, it’s possible that there could be new bugs in it, and that events that worked before won’t now. I’ve checked any obvious cases I could think of, but just in case there’s something I missed, please keep your eyes peeled and report anything that doesn’t work right on the forum.

The input rewrite broke the console window.  That’s been fixed, along with the problem with the Memorize Location event command.  You can get the updated version from the download page.

Fixing the Memorize Location problem left things a little bit unstable.  It’s not anything you’ll notice if you’re running events that work right in RPG Maker, but it could introduce problems later on.  I’ll have a more complete fix in this week’s release.