Rocks'n'Diamonds with GDash game engine

[artsoft]

It might be interesting to switch between several rockfords, controlling one at a time, so that the puzzles could be solved within help of several rockfords. When playing scaled up graphics, where the whole playfield is not visible, viewport is focused only on the last placed rockford, while others can move out of the sight.

And what about the bd multiplayer that was presented in original RnD?

Interesting question! There is currently no multiplayer support in the native BD engine, but as several Rockfords are already supported, this might be a nice addition (as R'n'D already offers this in its main engine).

If you know of any cavesets where this gameplay can be seen, please tell me.

Is that a bug or a feature of RnD GDash?

It's not a bug (this time ), but a feature!

Also see Marek Roth -> Tutorial -> level 17 "Suicide", which actively makes use of this.

[artsoft]

When entering cave editor, I don't get how to switch to the bd traditional graphical set in my levelsets.

It works with Supaplex or RnD games, because those graphic sets are included in the game. Rather than that, when switching to BD game engine, I still got that RnD graphic set and can't get rid of it.

Will that be fixed in the final release or do I miss something?

Selecting existing artwork to be used with newly created, own levels is not directly supported from the level editor for now (although it would be easy to add, I think). For now, you have to add a few lines to the file "levelinfo.conf" in the directory of your new level set:

Code: Select all

graphics_set.old:               gfx_gdash_boulder_dash_1
graphics_set.new:               gfx_gdash_boulder_rush
sounds_set:                     snd_gdash_boulder_dash
music_set:                      mus_gdash_boulder_dash_1

or

Code: Select all

graphics_set:               gfx_gdash_boulder_dash_1

This uses either full definitions for old/new graphics (selectable in the setup->engines menu), sounds and music, or just uses the classic BD graphics.

Future versions may directly support selecting the artwork sets to be used in your own, new level set.

[artsoft]

And one more comment regarding working on the BD engine in R'n'D in the near future: I'm leaving for holidays in a few hours, and I will be away from keyboard for about one month. So please don't worry about silence from my side! It's not because I might have lost interest in R'n'D or BD, but I'm just on vacation.

Will be back working on R'n'D and BD in August! Until then, have a nice time!

[igormakovsky]

Wish you to relax and gain more energy, enjoy beautiful rockery landscapes, fireflies and butterflies!

As an amoeba that wasn't stopped, I will drop some rocks, while you're away.

In parallel, I have launched Marek Roth's tutorial, you've just mentioned, to observe the multi-rockford cave 09 and: boom — "?" signs again

upd: There are plenty of the "?" in other caves of this levelset, as well.

upd: All the times I faced "?" it meant to be jewels.

[LogicDeLuxe]

A requirement of 0 diamonds does not mean that you can exit immediately. In old engines, you are required to overflow the counter to 0, which happens at 100 diamonds in BD1 engine games, and 1000 on later engines. Some modern engines like Gdash handle a value <=0 as a subtract from the diamond count present in the cave at start, iIrc.
It is possible to make a cave which don't require you to collect any diamond, by placing an already open exit or by creating it with an effect. In those caves, the diamond counter doesn't matter at all.
Albeit rare, all those cases do exist.

[igormakovsky]

It sure does, thank you for notifying! You've mentioned <=0 values, but you can't put a negative value in RnD GDash cave creator. Has this to be fixed then?

[LogicDeLuxe]

Just checked: <=0 values work like I said in Gdash, thus negative values should be allowed indeed.

[igormakovsky]

Can you please add support for light boulders?
https://youtu.be/D-9H6r-YyUo?si=YifTXMwGU4CqyVjd

[igormakovsky]

The Lost Caves 10, cave 16 (intermission)

How do you make intermissions look like this one, cut from the sides, not observable whole:



While actually they look like this in cave editor:



And when you test them in editor, they look big like this.



Can't find where you can limit the observable space for the player, while hiding other.

[igormakovsky]

What is the difference between "exit" and "save & exit" after triggering settings? As far as I see, "exit" saves changes for the current session only, but if you exit the game, the changes then won't be saved. Is that how it is intended to work? Because I sometime toggle settings and then press "esc" a few to times to get to the main menu as soon as possible and then face old settings after the restart.

I mean, is there any situation when I want to toggle something and not to save the new settings permanently?

[altermaven]

Light boulders were not a GDash element, and honestly it should. But GDash was designed to more or less allow usage of elements present in several C64 engines (including Crazy Light), and it would require GDash inserting that element through coding and other means, then making sure the addition doesn't break every single cave that is shipped.

It's not simple. And situations that require light boulders are not really used in GDash cavesets anyway.

[igormakovsky]

I'm currently testing Super Boulder Dash by Chaos and some of his levels seem unsolvable due to some changes in timing.

Here, take cave 015 (intermission)



When played in RnD GDash it just moves too fast. Not like in the video of a successful run here:
https://youtu.be/dSvhPveZjPE?si=bPt-EqwOi6fbeEk0&t=754

[igormakovsky]

Do you use a newer (Apple Silicon / M1/M2/M3) Mac? I have the suspicion that this is caused by the Rosetta emulation of the Intel binary. (Also see my other answer on this topic above.)

I haven't encountered this problem so far on my newer Mac; maybe this problem goes away when I build the game with more recent SDL library versions...

I'm now quite sure, that this happens during intermissions only.
btw., I'm having M1 max Mac.

[igormakovsky]

Just to be sure engine works as intended in GDash, because I cannot test it in the original GDash, please check:

A set of 6 jewels are falling and rockford using snap left to collect jewels mid-fall while they fall of the boulder to left.



In RnD Gdash player would collect the 2nd, 4th and 6th. While missing the 1st, 3rd and 5th. Is it like in original?

[igormakovsky]

This is the second in the row question, that I can't test myself in original gdash, so excuse me if that isn't a bug and it's just how it meant to be played.

This is the cave 14 in Arno Dash 16. It's a fun room where much depends on randomness of falling objects through slime. I've died plenty of times and noted that every time you play it again, the same pattern of falling objects repeats every time. Why is it applying the same seed again, I believed that boulder dash is all about random generation and unpredictableness? Is it like this in original or is it only happens in RnD?