TURBU

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.

I decided that the old page was ugly, so I moved the devblog in to take its place. I hope it works!

Also, there’s a new update available, and this one’s a big one: Event movement! Characters will now walk around on the screen, and the Move Events command has been implemented, along with the two other movement-related commands. I also fixed a couple of bugs relating to the menu system and XYZ graphics. (XYZ graphics still aren’t perfect, and won’t be until I rewrite the whole system in SDL. But they should work in most cases. See the helpfile for more details.)

I’m going to add a few more event commands for the next release–things like Call Event and Delete Event–and make sure all events activate when they’re supposed to, including “common events.” Then I’ll start in on multiple map support, and when that’s done, it should be possible to play most games from start to end, all except the battles.

I finally got event movement working well. There are still a few minor loose ends to tie up, though. Expect to see the update sometime tomorrow.

I’ve got the basics of event movement working, but getting the hero to move smoothly requires me to redo the keyboard input code.  That, plus finals at school, means it’ll take a few more days before the next update.  Expect something by Saturday at the very latest, though.

All music, sound and image formats supported by RPG Maker 2000 are in place, as are 70 of the 90 script commands.  The map engine itself is about 80% finished.  Next week’s project will be worth about another 10%:  Event movement.  Making all events move and react properly, from their definitions as well as from scripts, is a pretty huge task, which I can only hope I’ll be able to get done in one week!

Event movement is the last major hurdle remaining in the event commands.  Most of the rest of them are “fluff” commands that can be set up very easily, and also most of them relate to major sections of the program that haven’t been implemented yet, like the battle system, the save system or multiple maps.  So after event movement is done, I’ll switch gears and set up multiple map support.  Just another few weeks, and the TURBU engine  will be able to play games from start to finish, not counting battles.  (Those will probably be next.)

I’ve thrown all sorts of things into this update, and it’s almost ready. I was hoping to have it tonight, but debugging the timing on image movement took a long time.

Expect to see:

1. Create, move, and erase image commands fully implemented.
2. The BGM-related event commands implemented. (Although SDL_Mixer still doesn’t like MIDIs all that much…)
3. The Wait event command.
4. Parallel and auto-start events working.
5. A real title at the top of the Map Viewer screen.

This is going to be an exciting update. With parallel events, delays, and image management, a lot of the most popular event commands will now be working. This is finally starting to feel like a real RPG engine!

There was a bug in the Map Viewer’s music handler that made MIDI music only come out the left speaker.  Unfortunately, the trouble was in the SDL library, not my own code.  Well, I just got an updated version of SDL, and that’s been fixed.  Background music will play right now.  But there still seems to be a problem with switching between one MIDI and another.  I’ll report that to the SDL developers’ list and see what happens.