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#CPCtelera 1.4.2. release

Started by ronaldo, 11:59, 11 May 15

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ronaldo



Main project page: CPCtelera: Astonishing fast Amstrad CPC game engine

Hi guys,

   I am very excited to finally announce the official release of #CPCtelera 1.0. game development library for Amstrad CPC. #CPCtelera is mainly for C programmers (and also for assembly programmers), and comes with a complete development framework (build system and tools for content authoring). Here is everything that CPCtelera gives to you,

Low-level programming API functionalities:

       
  • Draw normal and masked sprites
  • Draw solid colour boxes and speed up sprite trail erasing!
  • Reproduce audio and sound effects
  • Create fade-in / fade-out effects with your sound FX and music!
  • Mix-up sound effects with music, using the 3 audio channels for both at the same time!
  • Draw strings and characters using ROM characters without using firmware.
  • Change the complete hardware palette and individual palette colours
  • Draw very fast tiles aligned with character lines in the screen.
  • Change default screen video memory location (do hardware double buffering!)
  • Synchronize with VSYNC
  • Change Video Modes (0, 1, 2 and undocumented mode 3!)
  • Measure performance of your game loop (and know how many free CPU cycles you still have for doing more things in your routines!)
  • Scan the keyboard for pressed keys with the fastest keyboard scanning routine available!
  • Disable and re-enable firmware operation at will
  • Enable and disable lower and higher ROM access
  • Optimize array storage using bitarrays (arrays of 1-bit, 2-bit and 4-bit elements available!)
Project creation, management and integrated build system with tools:

       
  • Integrated set of compiling and generation tools (SDCC 3.4.3, iDSK 0.13, Hex2Bin 2.0, 2cdt)
  • Easy and automated project creation and management
  • Automatic generation of CDT and DSK files
  • Program completely in C, completely in Assembler or mix both languages at will.  You won't even have to touch a line of the build system!
  • Automatic generation of obj/ folder with all the intermediate object files (Never mess up your src/ directory!)
  • Automatic generation of binaries, assembler output, symbol files and everything you need for debugging your program.
  • Automatic identification of your project source files in C and ASM (.c and .s).  Add new source files to your src/ directory and they will be automatically recognized an compiled!
  • Automatic detection of src/ directory structure up to 1 level of subfolders without any modification!
Authoring tools and command line tools for format conversions:

       
  • Create your musics with Arkos Tracker
  • Create your sprites, tiles and maps with Retro Game Asset Studio 0.97!  (And export them directly to CPCtelera C Array!)
  • Convert any binary file to C Array and include it in your project with cpct_bin2c
  • Convert a big sprite in a C Array into tiles of your desired size with cpct_sp2tiles!
  • Convert old sprites in assembler CPCRSLib format into C Arrays with cpct_rgas2c!
Everything in one complete product and with a fully detailed reference manual, and complete documented source code under GPL v3 License.
Although this is just the first release, we are very happy to be able to give you a complete product for easy game production. We hope to evolve this game library over time to boost CPC game production. We really want to see much more games being released every year for our beloved CPCs! It is time to start now! :D

Enjoy! :D
P.S.: News published on spanish RetroManiac Magazine.
Some screenshots and a video running on a real Amstrad CPC:







seanb

Now someone can finally make a decent outrun game for the amstrad
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Gryzor

Niiice! Indeed I hope it helps people create more! I'll be watching this :)

Trebmint

This is great stuff. I will definitely have a look even though I'm doing a competing game tool.

ronaldo

Quote from: Trebmint on 15:57, 11 May 15This is great stuff. I will definitely have a look even though I'm doing a competing game tool.
Wow! Didn't know there where other people creating similar tools. That's always nice :D. The more sugar for Alan, the sweeter  8) .

Any way to know more about what you are doing? We may help each other :D

TFM

Very interesting project, you put a lot of effort in. Thumbs up!  :) :) :)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

andycadley

Interesting. Shame about the cygwin requirement, as that pretty much makes it a no go, but always interesting to see new development tools. Hopefully some cool stuff will arise from this.

Ygdrazil


Heh!


Why is Cygwin a no go?


/Ygdrazil

Quote from: andycadley on 18:58, 11 May 15
Interesting. Shame about the cygwin requirement, as that pretty much makes it a no go, but always interesting to see new development tools. Hopefully some cool stuff will arise from this.

andycadley

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 19:05, 11 May 15Why is Cygwin a no go?
Among the gazillion problems it has, primarily it's the enormous security holes it creates by butchering ACLs so they aren't in the correct order (a massive fudge to try and mimic Unix's 'everyone else' permission) that puts it right near the top of my "never install" list.

Ygdrazil


Okay! Was not aware of that  :o


/Ygdrazil

Quote from: andycadley on 19:20, 11 May 15
Among the gazillion problems it has, primarily it's the enormous security holes it creates by butchering ACLs so they aren't in the correct order (a massive fudge to try and mimic Unix's 'everyone else' permission) that puts it right near the top of my "never install" list.

Ygdrazil


I don't think competing is quite the right term!


CPCtelera is for 'native' CPC!


Yours is for SymbOS exclusive  :D


But nice development anyway, can't wait to see what comes out of it!


/Ygdrazil

Quote from: Trebmint on 15:57, 11 May 15
This is great stuff. I will definitely have a look even though I'm doing a competing game tool.

ronaldo

Quote from: andycadley on 19:20, 11 May 15
Among the gazillion problems it has, primarily it's the enormous security holes it creates by butchering ACLs so they aren't in the correct order (a massive fudge to try and mimic Unix's 'everyone else' permission) that puts it right near the top of my "never install" list.

Well, then you should use something like BSD as your main OS, as Windows is itself a big security hole ;)

We have not tryied it, but CPCtelera should work on BSD, like it does on Linux and OSX. Someone willing to make the test?  8)

You have plenty of options if you don't want to use Cygwin. One of them is using a virtual machine with Linux. You also may use an OSX or even a Raspberry Pi (it works flawlessly on Raspbian and ARM machines). ;)

We cannot give you more options. If that is not enough for you, I can only say sorry, but we cannot cope with more platform work in less time.


Prodatron

@ronaldo: I am very impressed! A complete framework for CPC games, that's very cool!

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 19:29, 11 May 15
I don't think competing is quite the right term!
CPCtelera is for 'native' CPC!
Yours is for SymbOS exclusive  :D
That's true, the intersections are different, the one is for all CPCs, the other one is for all computer plattforms running SymbOS :)

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Trebmint

Quote from: Ygdrazil on 19:29, 11 May 15
I don't think competing is quite the right term!


CPCtelera is for 'native' CPC!


Yours is for SymbOS exclusive  :D


But nice development anyway, can't wait to see what comes out of it!


/Ygdrazil
I didnt mean compete. What I plan is a drag and drop game creator, so we're aiming at different people. This framework looks good, and with a map/sprite editor combined would be a killer app for a good z80 coder

ronaldo

Quote from: Prodatron on 19:53, 11 May 15
@ronaldo: I am very impressed! A complete framework for CPC games, that's very cool!

Thank you! It's more than an honor having such an opinion from you, man. My project is not more than a little baby compared to your production :D

Quote from: Trebmint on 20:02, 11 May 15
This framework looks good, and with a map/sprite editor combined would be a killer app for a good z80 coder

It already has one. It includes an updated version of Retro Game Asset Studio, with ability to directly export sprites and maps in CPCtelera C Array format ;)

Trebmint

Quote from: ronaldo on 20:04, 11 May 15
Thank you! It's more than an honor having such an opinion from you, man. My project is not more than a little baby compared to your production :D

It already has one. It includes an updated version of Retro Game Asset Studio, with ability to directly export sprites and maps in CPCtelera C Array format ;)
Very cool. Have you thought about doing a youtube video.
Maybe its time we introduced the Wiki Game competition?

ronaldo

Quote from: Trebmint on 20:17, 11 May 15
Very cool. Have you thought about doing a youtube video.
Maybe its time we introduced the Wiki Game competition?
Do you mean a youtube showing demo examples created with CPCtelera? I have just created this one showing hardware scroll capabilities


Is this what you referred to? Or you wanted something like me doing programming?

For those curious, this is the source code for this example.

With respect to competitions, we expect to be anouncing #CPCRetroDev 2015 next month, and with a handful of prizes ;) .

EgoTrip

Can someone write a Game Maker style editor for Windows, so idiots like me can make games easier?

ronaldo

Quote from: EgoTrip on 21:05, 11 May 15
Can someone write a Game Maker style editor for Windows, so idiots like me can make games easier?

I wish I could press a button and get a fresh "Amstrad CPC Game Maker", but it is not that easy  :-[ . Maybe, if you wait enough time, our developments with CPCtelera could create something similar (would be awesome). But that lives in the future right now.

Other thing you could do is pay our wages for next 6 to 10 months and we will be happily creating this for Amstrad 8 hours a day  :D .

EgoTrip

Of course I don't mind waiting. I didn't mean like I want it today (although that would be good).

AGD exists for the CPC but it's extremely limited and very buggy. I can't do what I want with it, but my actual coding skills are on par with Ed Milliband's political skills, or a tories integrity. IE practically non existent.

AMSDOS

Quote from: EgoTrip on 21:05, 11 May 15
Can someone write a Game Maker style editor for Windows, so idiots like me can make games easier?


Can't you not follow the BASIC Platform Demonstration that @ronaldo helped me with? I guess to understand the Array can help a long way in understanding those kinds of games & maze games are not much different except for how the controls behave.
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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ssr86

Quote from: EgoTrip on 22:15, 11 May 15
Of course I don't mind waiting. I didn't mean like I want it today (although that would be good).

AGD exists for the CPC but it's extremely limited and very buggy. I can't do what I want with it, but my actual coding skills are on par with Ed Milliband's political skills, or a tories integrity. IE practically non existent.
My opinion is that without some actual programming every such ready "maker" tool will be quite limited...
I haven't used any such tools yet, but I don't think that one could do "what he wants" with them.
You will be always limited to what the author implemented. And most probably he had to sacrifice functionality because of simplicity (so that everything is paramtrized).
You will have to learn some coding and tools such as CPCtelera allow you to use C which should be much easier (than asm) to learn for beginners (and is more practical than basic).

I find it frustrating that so much people on forums say they "suck at coding", but have they really tried?...
It takes time to learn, but don't say you "suck" at something before really trying.

ronaldo

@ssr86 I agree with you mostly, and I also think most of the people would find that doing some average C programming is not that difficult (requiring time and training, though). However, I also find out every day that there are lots of people that love using the right-half of their brains much more than their left-half. Such people tend to be extremely creative, but not so skilled on logic and abstract thinking.

This way of using the brain normaly finds programming kind of a difficult and not rewarding task. They may learn how to program, but won't usually enjoy it, and prefer doing other things. Some of them will express this feeling as "programming sucks" or similar.

It actually doesn't mind to me how they express their feeling. I think that giving these people right tools to express their creativity is good for all of us. Even if these tools are much more limited (which is unavoidable), the thing is that all of us benefit from the creation-share cycle.

I certainly would like CPCtelera to offer several levels of abstraction to either programmers and designers, letting users choose and pair their abilities and desires with the right abstraction level and tools. That would draw more people to create new productions for CPC, and make all of us benefit from that. It seems like a utopia, but I would love to continue developing in that direction :).

And, of course, if we could help people like @EgoTrip to improve their skills during this journey, much better :).

EgoTrip

Just because one person can do something doesn't mean everyone can. I have tried and tried to get my head around coding but it just confuses the hell out of me. Usually when I try to learn something, eventually it "clicks" and I get it. But the click has never happened with ASM. My BASIC is pretty weak too. My brain is simply not wired to handle it.

Tools like Game Maker are easier to use because of the way they utilise rooms and objects and stuff, sure I have to put code in each object to make it work, the GML is actually quite easy to understand and get working. This is what I want. An environment where I can create rooms and objects and stuff, and a simple language that lets me use the routines. Then outputs a binary. That way I can concentrate on the creative side.

ronaldo

@EgoTrip: in the meantime, while waiting for tools to evolve, if your designing skills are good, you can always "hire" a programmer to aid you in the creation of great stuff  ;)

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