Bug Fix

Smoothed out the size fitting algorithm, with the result of much cleaner renders.
Fixed a bug whereby if a sprite was dropped on a page with no valid position so that it went to the inventory in the position of the inventory exit, then it couldn't be picked up!

Incredible time gap...

... but I'm back at my little forge, carving this and that.
I built another test version which you can load from this handy link.
I was dissatisfied with the re-rendering engine in android java, so I built a version that only does a few sizes of playfield. It needs work, but it's viable.

Another Aide Memoire post

I have so many scribbled bits of paper that I keep losing. I'm going to do a list of the scenes with scene numbers and names.

• 200 Hi N (junkhin) (with rocket launcher)
• 201 Hi S (junkhis) (above beach)
• 202 Hi W (junkhiw) (towards rocks)
• 203 Hi E (junkhie) (to distant sea)
• 204 Unlikely to use
• 205 Unlikely to use
• 206 Lo N Parked junk (junklopark)
• 207 Unlikely to use
• 208 Lo SW beach Probably won't use it
• 209 View back up cliff (junkloup) Cliff path painted in.
• 210 Lo South beach (junklosb) Landing place on lo level.
• 211 No use at present
• 212 High, looking down on beach but beach has to be painted in (junkhisx)
• 213 Lo N no junk (junklon)
• 214 Lo W (junklow)
• 215 Lo E Dark cave (junkloe)

That's all for the time being. I'm building another prototype.

Catch-up

What time I've spent on the project since November has been spent on Povray, which doesn't lend itself to blogging. But Christmas, another issue of Mythaxis, and a bit of home improvement took priority at various times. We now have a couple of animated junks, an advance on Rock design, and a cave.

On Jade code, plans are afoot to distinguish between animated and static images for the same sprite. Also, it's now clearer how to restore configurations which are changed as a result of user action. e.g. where zone destinations have been altered, or resources used up, or doors opened.

Ignore this entry - I'm talking to myself.

Things to resolve:

• How to dispense rockets one by one only.
• Caves. Probably start again with new .pov file.
• Candle Illumination - cave dark without candle or with candle in inventory.
• Mirror the junkani pictures for speed.
• Stationary / moving junk - triggered by rocket.
• Rocket ignition without tube - explosion.

Composite Sprites (contd.)

Oh, and I might well have persevered with composite sprites had I not encountered the SAVE / RESTORE implications.

Composite Sprites

I was planning a new Class - a composite sprite - which would enable a number of sprites to be considered as a cluster which always moved together, but might have different schedules - e.g. a static main sprite, such as a boat, with animated bow wave, only when moving, and an animated flag which might wave or droop.

My first draft of this class quickly showed me the error of my ways, as the coordination of the multiple sub-sprites would be extremely difficult, due to scaling and flipping, for example. Especially scaling.

Unless.. the multiple subsprites were co-located - i.e. had the same position (which is a CENTRE position), even if this meant they had a lot of transparent content in them.

Once you do that, however, there's no longer any need for a composite class. You just mirror certain characteristics of the main sprite (position, scale etc.) on the subsprites, eliminating the need for a composite class.

Easier still, make the main sprite and the principal subsprite as a single sprite with all the necessary animations - say, the boat and its wake, and use a separate sub sprite for each of the other animations required.

So, long story short, no composite sprite class.

Another Idle Month

I've done no more on Jade in the last month - Real Life intervened.

I'm now ready to start setting up a more satisfactory demo version with some interesting action, so I'll be working in Povray a lot - a condition that isn't conducive to much reporting from me.

I'd like again to appeal to anyone who wants to collaborate on the Povray side. I'd be delighted to share the load and the credit with you.

Meanwhile, and this is the problem with me, I've seen another possible use of the Jade engine and I keep thinking about that instead of getting on with what I should be doing!

(below) Junk sprite with bluescreening.

Example Game

For the morbidly interested, I have uploaded the current Alpha version of Jade as Jade.apk, available from http://amazonsystems.phpzilla.net.

This is a "game" with just six scenes, and very little to do except pick up a candle and drop it, but the music and sound effects are there, and the options.

Try it if you dare. Actually it is very benign as alpha versions go. Other than its own running space and private data, it only uses the media player, and surrenders or pauses that whenever it loses focus.

It works for me on my Android Xoom, but I'm interested in the behaviour of other platforms.

From left to right the options are Quit, Restore, Save, Music On/Off, Inventory, Pause.

Double tap to pick up and drop the candle.

---

Sparing no expense, the source is also available at the same address.
http://amazonsystems.phpzilla.net

New Touch protocol in place

For once, it took more time to flowchart this than it did to implement it, but I can now reliably detect click, longpress and double click. I've changed to double click for for pick up and drop. It seems to cause less finger trouble.

The next activity is definitely the prototype game. I've got all the elements I need in the engine now, I think. I just have to use these capabilities to write an acceptable mini game.

I've been a little disappointed by the appearance of some of my backgrounds on the Xoom. I'll experiment with less compressed jpg files.

Jade Sound

I have now implemented a JadeSound class that seems to be working very well. There WAS a hitch in the use of MediaPlayer. I kind of assumed that when you called MediaPlayer.release(), the instance of Media Player would be set to null. Not so. Although a failed create set mp to null, if I reset and released the mp, and then didn't create a new one, the next time I entered the method, mp would still have the value of the released mp and a new reset() caused a fault.

package uk.co.amazonsystems.jade;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import android.content.Context;
import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.media.SoundPool;
import android.media.AudioManager;

public class JadeSound 
{
 // This class handles all sounds. There are two sound sources. Use soundpool for short
 // transient sounds. A single soundpool does all the sounds.
 // For background music and ambient sound, Use MediaPlayer. Each sound is a new mediaplayer.
 // Only one sound can be running at a time. All such sounds are looped.
 public static final int OK_SOUND = 0;
 public static final int BAD_SOUND = 1;
 public static final int NOSUCH_SOUND = 2;
 public static final int BAD_PLAY = 3;
 
 private SoundPool soundpool = null;
 private static int CHANNS = 4;  // Sound Channels
 private String soundName; // current ambient sound name
 private int [] SFX = new int[CHANNS];  // Stream IDs
 private int priority = 1;
 private int soundid[];  // Sound IDs
 private Context thiscontext;
 private MediaPlayer mp;
 private ArrayList  soundfiles;
 private int buggins;
 private boolean soundstate = true;
 
 // Initialise
 public JadeSound(Context JadeContext, ArrayList  SFXFiles)
 {
  thiscontext = JadeContext;
  soundfiles = SFXFiles;
  if (soundpool != null) soundpool.release();
  soundpool = new SoundPool(4, AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 0);
  int temp = soundfiles.size();
  soundid = new int [temp]; 
  for (int ii = 0; ii < temp; ii++)
  {
   int resid = getRaw(thiscontext, soundfiles.get(ii)); 
   if (resid == 0) 
    {
    soundid[ii] = 0;
    }
   else
    {
    soundid[ii] = soundpool.load(thiscontext, resid, priority);
    }
  }
  for (int ii = 0; ii < CHANNS; ii++)
  {
   SFX[ii] = -1;
  }
  buggins = 0;
 }
 public int playSFX(String name)
 {
  return playSFX(name, 0);
 }
 public int playSFX(String name, int Loop)
 {
  int index = soundfiles.indexOf(name);
  if (index == -1)
  {
   return NOSUCH_SOUND;
  }
  else
  {
   soundpool.stop(SFX[buggins]);
   if (soundid[index] != 0)
   {
    int reply = soundpool.play(soundid[index], 1, 1, priority, Loop, 1);
    if (reply == 0) return BAD_PLAY;
    SFX[buggins] = reply; 
    buggins++;
    if (buggins >= CHANNS)
    {
     buggins = 0;
    }
   }
   else return BAD_SOUND;
  }
  return OK_SOUND;
 }
 public int playAmbient(String name)
 {
  // if the same sound name, just exit immediately
  // we use the same mp we used last time, and keep playing the same song
  if (soundName != null)
  {
   if (soundName.equals(name))
   {
    return OK_SOUND;
   }
  }
  // if the media player still in use, reset it, release it and null it
        if (mp != null) 
        {
            mp.reset();
            mp.release();
            mp = null;
        }
        // remember the new sound name for next call
        soundName = name;
        // find the sound file in raw
        int resid = getRaw(thiscontext, name);
        // if it's not there, return
        if (resid == 0) 
         {
         return BAD_SOUND;
         }
        // Finally, create a media player
        mp = MediaPlayer.create(thiscontext, resid);
        // if it doesn't work, return
        if (mp == null) return BAD_SOUND;
        // Ambient always loops
        mp.setLooping(true);
        // start the playback
        mp.start();
        // if the song flag is false, pause it
        // we may have to start it later
        if (!getSoundState())
         pauseAmbient();
        return OK_SOUND;
 }
 public void pauseAmbient()
 {
  if (mp != null)
  {
   mp.pause();
  }
 }
 public void resumeAmbient()
 {
  if (getSoundState())
  {
   if (mp != null)
   {
    mp.start();
   }
  }
 }
 public void pauseAll()
 {
  if (soundpool != null) soundpool.autoPause();
  pauseAmbient();
 }
 public void resumeAll()
 {
  if (soundpool != null) soundpool.autoResume();
  resumeAmbient();
 }
 public void closeSound()
 {
  if (soundpool != null)
  {
   soundpool.release();
   soundpool = null;
  }
        if (mp != null) 
        {
            mp.reset();
            mp.release();
            mp = null;
        }
 }
 public void setSoundState(boolean state)
 {
  soundstate = state;
 }
 public boolean getSoundState()
 {
  return soundstate;
 }
 // Helper method that translates a filename in res/raw to a resource id
 public static int getRaw(Context context, String name)
 {

     return context.getResources().getIdentifier(name,
             "raw", context.getPackageName());
 }

}

I'm horrified...

... to see that it's taken a whole month to get a new Mythaxis out. However, here we are today, ready to roll.

• First up, a new sound class. Sound was giving a lot of trouble.
• Next, a better long press implementation.
• I've been giving consideration to the concept of never displaying a background bigger that the original, to avoid jpg artefacts.

A Hesitation

I must get on with a new edition of Mythaxis, so I'm pausing a while.

I still have to sort out Music/Sound Effects. I'm also uncomfortable with the feel of long press as I've implemented it, so I'll have another go at that when I return.

Music Design Unsuccessful

Well, my sound implementation was not a great success. Some of it worked, some didn't, despite close monitoring on debug that the right things were being called with the right parameters. Specifically, setLoop didn't seem to work, nor did pause nor autopause. Most of the problems were with the background music and ambience sounds. The simple sound effects were fine.

I note a lot of such mysterious problems on Stackoverflow, and I may change policy here.

Also, I think it should have been a class rather than a method, and I'll re-write it like that. I may also have to use the MediaPlayer for longer music and the Soundpool just for immediate sound effects. We'll see. MediaPlayer is facility-rich, but seems rather complex to use.

Music Design Revised

There was no need for a separate thread to do the music. Once the sounds are loaded, it's a low usage thing, and I'll call it with the ticks.

Some Progress and a Design for Music and SFX

The Progress:
I realised I hadn't accounted for save and restore of holdable items. If it's already held, then all we need remember is the sprite that's being held. This can be achieved at the top level, where the player's current location is remembered. If, however, the sprite has been picked up and dropped away from its home screen, then the scene and x y have to be remembered. Code to do this is in test.

Design for Music and SFX:
It's currently my plan to use the SoundPool facility. This allows you to store a number of sound files with the application and also allows several channels to play at once. In this case, I would use one channel for the theme music or soundscape (e.g. birdsong, waves, wind etc.) of each scene, and another two for individual sound effects.
I think I can put this in a thread, which first loads the sounds, then is wakened up every 200 ms, say, which checks a variable in JadeView for each of the sound channels. Once it has started the channel, it sets the variable to "done". It can then see the next sound request when "done" is replaced. If the soundscape is unaltered, it just continues to play.

More on Cursors and Pick up & Drop

Cursors still have a few glitches. They tend to linger longer than they should. I shall try to make them only appear on screen when a touch is taking place - i.e. between ACTION_DOWN and ACTION_UP.

I implemented  Pick up & Drop using (as recommended by Android Developers) Long Press, rather than Double Click, which I had planned. So far, the Long Press seems too short at 384ms. It will be tuned.

I went for the complicated option - a gettable sprite that is also animated and scaled. That bit works fine

Cursor Implemented

I've now done the cursor. It's a Sprite, but with special characteristics. It only appears while you are touching the screen (ie between a down and an up event). It is invisible unless there is a zone or an active sprite under it. Actually, it was a little inconvenient as an entity. It might have been more "architectural" to have it as a separate class, but it had so much in common with a sprite that it was convenient, despite all the exceptions I had to introduce to its behaviour. There are currently 7 cursor shapes :

• Default - blank
• The four direction pointers
• The crosshairs
• The Hand - indicating something that can be operated or picked up. 

It's just over three months since I started the project. It feels good progress so far.

Still TODO:

• Picking up and dropping items
• Music and sounds. Probably using SoundPool.
• Putting a Beta version together

Useful Stage Reached

I've now done all the Menu items as follows:
Quit : finishes the game
Music On/Off : tweaks the music flag, though no music is currently implemented
Inventory: enters the Inventory scene (which cannot be saved)
User Save/Restore : uses 4 possible local files to save/restore any position
 also:
Android Save/Restore :  to deal with situations where Android OS does something outside the game's control - e.g. Change orientation; Pull a different Activity into foreground; Destroy game for lack of resources.
In this case,  the game saves its current position with the Android's own memory of the game, and restores it when the game is restarted.

All tested on both the PC-based emulator and on a Xoom device.

Save and Restore

I think I've done all the necessary stuff for life-cycle save and restore. Tests so far are encouraging, but there are a number of life-cycle incidents I'm not able readily to reproduce on the emulator. It'll take a test on real hardware to make me comfortable.

Next task is doing the user save / restore options. Then I'll implement the QUIT function.