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Anyone out there familiar with programming want to colloborate?
Tyler Wrobel
Member #16,594
November 2016

Do you know if allegro would support developing a simple program to overlay simple text onto my display ontop of everything? I want to program a project that will allocate a small area in the top left corner of my screen to a transparent layer that will display the time in h:mm:ss:ms (ms for milliseconds to the hundredths place. I will use to keep time in animation across multiple platforms and programs. It needs to stay on top all the time and preferable all white space would be transparent. So, a little exploring into animate cc and it would appear that adobe has discontinued support for action script 2.0. This was a incredibly heart breaking discovery, but apparently the subscription allows you to download older versions in addition to later release and thankfully it comes with CS6 so I can program in actionscript 2.0. I really don't know how I would have felt else wise. Probably, not too at ease.

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
avatar

Allegro by itself doesn't support transparent overlay windows. You need to create a compatible OpenGL context window to allow for transparent drawing. There are tutorials out there. I think Allegro can now use the OpenGL context you create to draw with (A5).

What you need is to create a window with a color key for transparency, or an OpenGL context that allows for translucency.

Tyler Wrobel
Member #16,594
November 2016

I posted here http://www.tylerwrobel.com/sof_man_gun.html a .swf file with an idea of the type of graphics I would like to make for my game. I am considering building my own API for implementing graphics but have not yet decided if I want to go that route or when and how and where I will do that if or if I am not to use flash. Ideally if, I use flash the API will utilize some kind of external loading mechanism that loads .jpegs into the game, thus making it open source so outside parties can collaborate and share sprite images. I do not think flash alone would be powerfull enough to utilize complete sprite sheets in that sense. But, if I could devise a spread sheet that entailed sizing for the individual sprites that would make a consistent format I could run server code inbetween that allowed for individuals to host their own .jpegs from anywhere on the internet and have a medium inbetween breaking down sprite sheets into .jpegs and dynamically loading them into flash. I am kinda steering away from .threejs because i think its API is so ugly and in addition I know enough to program my own graphics engine so that would be kinda pointless as it already inteprets 3d graphics and I want to have full access to the development of the code inbetween the xy and xz planes to build my own guidances. I could definetly use help with some ui for my other program I am making. It is complete for beta and I want to move it to production level with a gui. I am still installing allegro but I am going to make a portable version of it in javascript and possibly ncapi/C++. I want to make a native browser version and a half/javascript/c++ model aswell but I am willing to do one with allegro and c++ which I will also be looking for someone who owns a mac to help me make a port to mac. The fact that allegro is portable keeps me interested in learning how to do so. To be clear when I talk about all this cross platform stuff I am referring to the virtual flash cards game I am programming, but below I discuss the link to the file above. If you have some ui work you can show me I would definetly love to check it out and see if I want use it for the allegro and javascript/c++ independent(browser side) versions.

I did that example above in literally like 2 minutes. I do not anticipate doing the holy grail of graphics engines with this one but more or less just enough. I anticipate compensating for mediocre quality with decent gameplay, but if you are into designing graphics for characters/terrain/vehicles/etc and they are excellent I will adapt to that. I drew those with my touch pad. I am going to buy a wireless mouse today (they are the only things I like to draw on the pc with), and start pushing out more graphics/code. I really don't anticipate spending long on this game. But, I am willing to adapt to any graphics styles. If you want to contribute any graphics I will work around you style(i.e. sprite sheets or raster graphics) to accommodate the coding end so you do not have to change the way you work to produce them. I used to be into drawing individual segments for all the parts of the body then using geometry and code and position them in relative position to the human body but I will not be going that route this time. I feel like it is to much work after porting it from animator to development anymore, not worth it when you think about the amount the quality of gameplay would actually go up. Since it is 2d I will keep the graphics in 2d(with the exception of vehicles if I can find people motivated to help, I may even start them on my own but will not be fielding them in this version if I have to design them myself as I would like to debug for longer than this). I am going to make this game a short story. This will simplify things. Then I will develop a portable library of the scripting and decide what to build next. I am open to changing the story if anyone participating had any idea. Like I said I would be totally cool working with sprite sheets too. Also do you know of any good site to find people who enjoy that kind of work(designing characters, scenes/and animation)? I want to put the word out I would love to see how large of a support group I could find, an armada would be excellent, I enjoy coding ambiguous scipt so literally the more graphics the better. The more credit to give other artists and the more diverse the end result.

Felix-The-Ghost
Member #9,729
April 2008
avatar

TL;DR ::)

Just kidding, but I will have to read this later, so I will post to bump the thread and keep it from locking ;)

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<--- The ghost with the most!
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[Website] [Youtube]

Tyler Wrobel
Member #16,594
November 2016

;D. I am going to learn how to program in pascal today.

I like it. I am going to start using sprites with this.

Felix-The-Ghost
Member #9,729
April 2008
avatar

Whew. Just read all that text.

You could probably find more collaborators at GDR.

Please don't use JPEG. Lossy compression, doesn't support transparency. Try PNG instead. JPEG could be acceptable for maybe large textures but not items where detail is more important like icons/sprites. If you were using vector graphics I'd suggest SVG but you mentioned you weren't interested in that route.

When you say "wireless mouse" are you referring to a drawing tablet?

You mentioned a flash card game, I'm still not sure what type of game you are seeking collaborators on.

==========================
<--- The ghost with the most!
---------------------------
[Website] [Youtube]

Tyler Wrobel
Member #16,594
November 2016

I will definitely check out GDR. I may use some vector graphics, probably not. I though .jpgs would have higher file size. I may do some of the texture work with vector graphics. I am not feeling SVG, maybe you know some good sources to read up on its capabilities? I looked it up and it seems rather limited. The three.js and two.js libraries (supersets), seem expanded upon and way better. I actually mean a wireless mouse, I get annoyed using the cord. I was at an international mall the other day and seen an alternative "drawing pad", as you were speaking of to some of the typical American brands, but I actually was just talking about a mouse. It looked nice, and reasonably priced. My biggest problem is being lazy and wanting to sit or lay down in bed when working on the computer, or to sort of sit upright with my back against the wall while I work. I need to find some way of not doing this.

As far as the flash game goes, even YouTube just moved to Html5, Flash is dieing, if not completely dead. I would say that it is dead but I believe it can still be used successfully if to deliver content in restricted settings but that is sad.

I am not going to make a game in Flash, persea that is not my intent right now. I am already building a cross platform c++/javascript engine, that uses c++ for the calculation intensive stuff but a front end/graphics of Three.js running locally. I am calling this game "Bank Job". I want to use it to demonstrate the potential of 2D games with a vast display of weapons and mayhem. In retro-spec I could still do this game in Flash.

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