Recent posts by ArreatsChozen on Kongregate

Topic: Game Programming / Java; displaying game graphics

Don’t override the paint() method. This method is responsible for recursively calling the paint() method of all child components.
Overriding paint() and not calling super.paint() will result in basically all your content not being drawn.

What you want to do is add a JPanel to your JFrame, then override the paintComponent() method of the JPanel. In this method you are given a Graphics, cast this to Graphics2D, then do your drawing. Don’t call dispose() on the graphics, once the method returns it will do it automatically (swing is optimized to dispose of automatically created graphics contexts).

Topic: Game Programming / Best language to write a platformer in?

Just a note about performance issues, a simple platformer/ your first game will not ever be complicated enough that it requires the performance of C++. If it did it means you are writing horribly inefficient algorithms and code. All the other languages are perfectly adequate to run a platformer.

I would suggest to go for what is easiest. That would be either java, python or flash/ AS3. Considering the vast amount of resources available, and the ease of use for games, I would suggest using flash/ AS3.

Java will be a bit of a pain to deploy in web browsers if you did go that route – all the java vulnerabilities floating around lately has resulted in people disabling the java plugin. Flash has awesome support in browsers (this website/ the other swf hosting websites) so you would have a very easy time getting people to see it.

Flash also has heaps of online tutorials and full text books available specifically for game programming.

Topic: Off-topic / I Got 12GB Memory

Not unless you’re doing things like rendering 3d graphics or intensive mathematical computation.

Instead of buying more RAM, I’d suggest you upgrade your graphics card, upgrade to a solid-state-drive (at least to store program files), and update all your drivers to the latest versions (as well as Microsoft updates).
This should give you a much more noticeable increase in performance than buying extra (in your case probably unneeded) RAM.

Topic: Game Programming / Hard math problem regarding circle collisions

I don’t want to be a dick, but why are you building your own physics library. There are already many great ones out there.
Too many game developers get caught up trying to develop their “game engine” before developing their actual game and never get their feet off the ground.

If you’re doing it purely for learning purposes, then feel free to ignore this, but try not to get too caught up in building everything yourself from scratch.

Topic: Game Programming / Save every keystroke

Just curious why you would want to do this.
It could start to lag your computer out with any decent sized file.
Perhaps you could get into the habbit of pushing ctrl + s a lot. It’s what I do. I push ctrl + s every time I take a quick “rest” after typing a line or so.
This would be better because it would ensure you save your files on any program/ system you use.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Videogames

It seems to me people are just using (violent) videogames as a convenient scapegoat. We’ve seen it in America before with lots of other activities enjoyed by youth (retro arcade style games, comic books, heavy/ rock music, etc).

Living in New Zealand, which has the same access to violent video-games, yet almost (virtually none) no gun violence, I can’t help but think the problem with America has more to do with its crazy gun culture and ease of access of dangerous weapons.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Videogames

Another consideration is if videogames are having a positive effect.

When I was younger (couldn’t give exact age, but 8-9-10), I played Final Fantasy 7 for hundreds of hours.
All the engaging dialog encouraged me to read much more than what an average child of that age would read. The various strategies required to successfully play the game also encouraged me to think carefully and critically (good real world skills).

I’ve also played lots of pointless, violent, videogames too though. And after seeing lots of gore via the internet, I can tell you 100% I am not desensitized to it. Seeing real world, violent situations still disgusts me.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Quote Discussion, Current quote: “The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

Not just how we look at god, but whether we believe in him at all. Atheism is becoming more and more prominent, particularly in countries with affluent people, and a very high (relatively speaking) standard of living.

People who live in poverty and who lack knowledge about basic scientific truths usually find themselves inventing a god to give meaning and reason to what is an otherwise meaningless and confusing situation.
Affluent people who have an abundance of the necessary components required for life, as well as a lot of free time, usually don’t require such a being.
Lack of suffering and a sound knowledge of reality usually provide meaning enough.

Topic: Game Programming / Hittest error - not the usual stuff, it's a tricky one!

Yup, what pl0xz0rz said. I actually read an article about it just the other day. Pretty common platformer problem.

Your characters move in discrete frames (giving the illusion of fluid movement). The problem is if the players hitbox happens to move completely past the object in questions hitbox, there will be no collision detected.

A few things you can do to solve it:
– increase tick speed (keeping relative acceleration/ velocity the same). This gives your boxes more frames in which to collide in
– increase the size of the hitbox. This makes it easier for a collision to take place
– impose a maximum velocity on your characters. If you have a maximum velocity, you can calculate the maximum possible distance able to be traveled in 1 frame. With this information you can give your hitboxes appropriate sizes to guarantee a collision.
– ray casting method as described above (although rather an overkill for your game)

All but the ray casting are trivial to implement. Good luck.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The Moral Argument

So we hear the moral argument a lot in religious debates.

It goes something like this: “No objective moral truths exist without an objective moral foundation. God provides that objective moral foundation. (Therefore god exists)”.

Obviously simplified for the purposes of this discussion, but feel free to wiki it for a more detailed and rigorous explanation.

Atheists and non-theists often try to discredit this by saying we have an evolutionary basis for morality in reciprocating kindness, for the purposes of the continuation of our specifies.

What I don’t often see though are atheists and non-theists claiming that an objective moral foundation does not exist, or regardless of it existing, whether it matters.
The power of the argument relies on us accepting that objective moral foundations exist, and indeed that they matter.
I ask why is this?

What is your view? Do objective moral truths matter?
If you are religious, why do you value objective moral truths.
If you are a non-theist, why do objective moral truths matter to you? Or if they don’t, why not?

Please note I’m not asking if objective moral truths exist per se, but feel free to discuss this (although not as the focal point of this topic).

Topic: Off-topic / I lost a point on my exam for this.

Hitler.

Now everyone shut up.

Topic: Game Programming / Grabbing Array/vector from string

Can I just ask why you are doing it like this? It may be the case you are coding to the wrong solution.
Can you elaborate more on the context, and why you think it is required to do it this way?

Topic: Game Programming / [AS3] Collision detection?

It seems to me you are trying to add unnecessary complexity to your game, when creating your collision shapes out of simpler geometric shapes would suffice.

Pixel perfect collision detection is rather expensive from a computational point of view; it involves processing every single pixel of the two images you are testing.
Geometric shapes are rather cheap though; all you need to do is a few simple math equations per collision.

I really doubt your game (that is a top-down shooter) is complex enough to warrant pixel-perfect collision. Geometric shapes would most certainly be a better alternative.
Tank can be rectangles. Your ships hitbox can be a circle/ rectangle. Those odd-shaped enemies you have can be combinations of simple geometric shapes.

I would recommend you implement it first before saying it wouldn’t work, and then if you are unsatisfied with the precision, try pixel-perfect. Then compare and contrast the loss of speed (or increase in RAM usage) with pixel perfect. Also bear in mind that the average player really doesn’t notice such things as how you have implemented your collision system (unless it really sucks bad).

Topic: Serious Discussion / Are lolicons really bad?

Originally posted by 1132:

You’re assuming that the most searched pornographic subjects would be things that are illegal.
They’re not.
And besides, most people can get access to a sexual partner- the internet has actually facilitated that.
What we’re discussing is a specific type of porn associated with an illegal sexual activity.
So it’s a bit different

So associating with something that is illegal will mean that person is more likely to do this illegal activity?
We are therefore not allowed to watch people ingest drugs on tv or movies, lest we all become drug addicts.
We also are not allowed to portray any sort of violence or murder in films; we wouldn’t want more murderous rampages happening! (there goes our action film genre!).
Does this extend to books? In your theory does reading about a certain act make it more likely to do that act yourself as well?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Are lolicons really bad?

If the elements of a are bad, and x is a subset of a, then the elements of x are bad. Are you saying this isn’t true?

It is true, but it is a useless tautology. We could apply the same argument for any other subset of a. What we are wanting to discuss here is actual reasons lolicon is good or bad. Not to mention that what we are discussing here is pornography, which is a subjective matter to begin with. You say it is bad. I say it doesn’t necessarily have to be so.
My main point is that what else is there to discuss if we automatically say it is bad by default? What a pointless argument, especially since there is so many things specific to lolicon we could be discussing.

Not automatically, but quite likely

Are you actually agreeing with this? It was satire, if you didn’t realise. You also completely missed the point where I dismiss this and say it is possible to watch porn in a healthy way.

While I would claim that… …The same applies to lolicon, except this time, it leads to increased sexual cravings for children.

Which will of course lead people to find little children in schools and rape them? Just the same as men who watch adult heterosexual porn go out daily to rape all the women they can find?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Are lolicons really bad?

Originally posted by BobTheCoolGuy:

Originally posted by ArreatsChozen:

As I said, that specific point is entirely up for argument.
It really is a side issue though to the main point. I listed it as a pro to why lolicon should be allowed. That is all it is though.

Do you guys have arguments specifically against lolicon though?

vikTae and Azolf both bring arguments that are against porn in general, but that is not what we are discussing.

To Azolf, do you have any sources to back up these claims that pornography leaves people unsatisfiable? What about porn leding to hormone imbalance?
These arguments aren’t too strong either way. Caffeine can have pretty strong effects on a person. It can leave you addicted to it in the long run too, changing your bodies chemistry, yet these aren’t legitimate reasons to ban it.

I pretty much agree with what vikaTae and Azolf said above. However, I do not feel in any way, that this is a side issue. Since you feel that general concepts, such as ‘principles’, ‘sanctity’, and ‘human decency’ are non-issues, the issue of the effect of child porn / lolicon is crucial. I don’t think classifying lolicon and child porn as different does any good nor is factual in respect to its effect on sexual desire. In fact, porn is probably one of the slippery slopes there are. In other words, the argument that child porn leads to more perverted sexual desires also applies to lolicon.

I am not saying the principles and sanctity of children are non-issues at all. I am saying they if you think lolicon is bad, then this is the reason why.
I said before that nobody is harmed in the making of lolicon, so these reasons are the only things left to judge it on.
And yes, lolicon and child porn are different. One uses real children and does not.
This is a crucial difference, because it defines how you must respond.

Either:
Your only issue with child-porn is that children are involved, in which case you should be okay with lolicon, or…
You believe there is something inherently wrong in portraying children in sexual situations, and it is your responsibility to justify this.

Again, the claim that pornography is wrong and immoral in general is not a helpful argument here. We are discussing the specific case of lolicon. You can disagree with pornography all you want, but it provides no benefit to the discussion here: “is x bad?”
“x is a subset of a, and a is bad, therefore x is bad by default. End discussion”.
No meaningful conclusion about the validity of x in this case can be drawn.

And on sexual desire. The argument that watching child porn leading to more perverted sexual desires (of which there really aren’t that many left) should also apply to watching porn in general. You argue that watching porn x of perversion level y automatically leads to watching of porn of perversion level z where z > y. By induction, we can see that watching porn of any perversion level eventually results (in an infinite amount of time) in watching porn that is the absolute worst possible perversion level imaginable. (basically watching any porn makes you watch worse porn, which makes you watch worse porn, which makes you watch worse porn, etc).

Obviously this is not true. There are plenty of people who use porn responsibly and safely, and the porn they watch remains in a generally constant state of ‘perversion’ (as you would call it).
If you are going to make a special case where this rule is not followed by people who watch child porn or lolicon, you are going to have to justify this with evidence.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Are lolicons really bad?

As I said, that specific point is entirely up for argument.
It really is a side issue though to the main point. I listed it as a pro to why lolicon should be allowed. That is all it is though.

Do you guys have arguments specifically against lolicon though?

vikTae and Azolf both bring arguments that are against porn in general, but that is not what we are discussing.

To Azolf, do you have any sources to back up these claims that pornography leaves people unsatisfiable? What about porn leding to hormone imbalance?
These arguments aren’t too strong either way. Caffeine can have pretty strong effects on a person. It can leave you addicted to it in the long run too, changing your bodies chemistry, yet these aren’t legitimate reasons to ban it.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Are lolicons really bad?

Generally the argument against having sex with underage people is they are not rational enough to give proper consent.
We can both (probably) agree this is a good and sound law.

When moving to lolicon this variable is taken out of the equation though. With drawn pictures, there are no real children involved. Whether this removes the crime is an interesting question.
Some would argue it should still be illegal because of the sanctity of children, and the principles involved. Again, others would argue that since no children is actually involved, what does it matter?

I personally believe it should be okay.
First of all, no children are harmed in the creation or viewing of these images.
Second, these images will often be viewed as substitutes for real child pornography. This means that the net result is that less real child pornography will be viewed.
Third, viewing lolicon (as well as child pornography) could act to relieve a persons desire to act out their fantasies in real life. Some people will argue here that it actually adds fuel to the fire (so to speak), but that is another argument entirely.

I believe the costs outweigh the benefit (with the only cost being the ‘principles’ and ‘sanctity’ involved), and therefore it is a rational decision to allow it.

Topic: Serious Discussion / bad test questions

I think it is unrealistic to think that people can derive formulas (no matter how ‘trivial’ you think they are!) in a high-stress test environment.

It’s amazing how some of the formulas we have today that seem incredibly simple and easy, weren’t actually derived until quite recently by extremely intelligent people. Take for example Euler’s formula: v – e + f = 2. This is a relatively simple formula and one could easily look at it and think it obvious and trivial – that is, after already knowing it.

I think maths should teach you everything you need to know, and then ask you questions that force you to use these concepts in areas that may not be immediately obvious. Students should be given all the tools they might possibly need, and it is up to them to use them in the right way to generate the answer.

Or if one wishes to test students with a new theorem they hadn’t been introduced to in class, the question should start with some situation in which the formula logically follows from the situation and in which it is reasonable the student may derive said formula, and then further parts of the question ask the student to apply this new theorem. From my university calculus classes, these were always the most fun and interesting types of questions.

Topic: Game Programming / Need help with a few things (upgrades, destruction)

I would suggest you start with planning, and don’t start programming until you have very specific ideas in mind.

I can’t completely decipher what your plan is, but this is the jist I get…
So you have components on your character that are upgradeable. This could be weapons, armour pieces, helmets, leggings, boots, shields, etc. They are upgradeable in terms of statistics and graphics.
During gameplay the parts are destroyed and they visually deteriorate and then disappear from screen.

I would recommend deciding exactly what parts you wanted to have. Then I would note down the exact statistics you want them to have. Things such as HP, defence points, damage, etc.
Then you will need to design the upgrades, all the different graphics, transitions, prices, etc.
You will also need to define how these parts are damaged through gameplay. You will have to create elements in game that can damage your player and/ or armour pieces.

You can start to see it becomes quite complicated fast.

If you are serious about this, I would recommend just starting with 1 thing first. Perhaps a sword or something. Prototype the whole concept, and try to generalise it so that you can take the knowledge from that 1 piece to all the others you’ll need to implement. You will definitely want to look into inheritance and creating a superclass for your parts.

Topic: Game Programming / Anti-Hack

I would agree with the MochaiAds thing.

Check the site you are currently at. If it is Kongregate, don’t display the ads. Anywhere else, display the ads.
This way you follow Kongregates rules but gain money anywhere else.

Also encrypt the swf. I know people can decrypt it, but at least make it harder for them.
This will also make it harder for them to remove MochaiAds as well.

At the end of the day, if somebody wants to steal your game, they sure as hell will. You may as well try profit out of it instead. Also if you input instructions that will upload where the game is being played from, you can check which sites are hosting your game.

Topic: General Gaming / The "What was that game called?" Thread

Originally posted by Fireseal:

Originally posted by ArreatsChozen:

This is not a flash game, it was a windows based game, from 10 years+ back. I just remember having such fond memories of it.

It was an action/ adventure/ puzzle game, made probably some time around 2000-2004 (just a guess here) for PC. You were a guy located initially on a coastal region (I think I remember there being a lighthouse) and it was set in some-what modern times.
You had different modes your character could be in. For example I think there was an ‘aggressive’ mode, where you could attack monsters, and there were other modes, perhaps examine mode, running mode, etc, although I can’t remember what they were.

I remember you had to try build (I think, my memory is rather vague) a ship of some kind (possibly extraterrestrial) and this took you to some facility with hostiles. Then you escape and you were in some sort of desert. I remember there being an ancient Egypt themed puzzle room that could have been a pyramid you had to get through.

I’m trying to think of more details, but my memory is incredibly vague. If you have any idea the game, just give me names and I’ll look up any leads.

Thank you for reading :)

Little Big Adventure, or perhaps it’s sequel? They seem to fit a lot of that description. Also known as Relentless: Twinsen’s Adventure and Twinsen’s Odyssey.

Omfg… Dude you have no idea how much I love you right now.

This is the game. This is actually it. From 10 years ago. You have no idea how much I appreciate your help lol.
I am going to download this game and play it and reminisce and be in awe of how awesome it is.

I just watched some youtube vids. It actually seems more awesome than I remember it. There are random elephants and stuff.

Once again I am eternally in your debt, thank you for your help :)

Edit. Actually 15 years now. Further back than I thought. It’s actually quite impressive the graphics they had back then I think.

Topic: General Gaming / The "What was that game called?" Thread

This is not a flash game, it was a windows based game, from 10 years+ back. I just remember having such fond memories of it.

It was an action/ adventure/ puzzle game, made probably some time around 2000-2004 (just a guess here) for PC. You were a guy located initially on a coastal region (I think I remember there being a lighthouse) and it was set in some-what modern times.
You had different modes your character could be in. For example I think there was an ‘aggressive’ mode, where you could attack monsters, and there were other modes, perhaps examine mode, running mode, etc, although I can’t remember what they were.

I remember you had to try build (I think, my memory is rather vague) a ship of some kind (possibly extraterrestrial) and this took you to some facility with hostiles. Then you escape and you were in some sort of desert. I remember there being an ancient Egypt themed puzzle room that could have been a pyramid you had to get through.

I’m trying to think of more details, but my memory is incredibly vague. If you have any idea the game, just give me names and I’ll look up any leads.

Thank you for reading :)

Topic: General Gaming / you only live once .sol

If you still haven’t been able to play the game, I figured out an easy workaround.

Just go into private browsing and it will not interact at all with your current saved sol files.
This allows you to play the game again as many times as you want :)

And yeah, I also tried deleting the sol file as well, but I couldn’t find the right one (for some reason this game is rather tricky at this!).

And also, check out Raitendo’s other stuff… He is one crazy bastard developer lol. His stuff is honestly mental. Very well done, but mental.

Topic: Game Programming / Swf decompiler that actually works?

Try SoThink swf decompiler.

I’ve tried it on a few of my programs, and it managed to bring things almost exactly to how they were, variable names and all.