The A-Engine: A new Beat 'em Up game engine

[InPhiKnight]

Well, I am not being able to open the A engine, It is stuck in the white screen.

I also would like to make some suggestion[ignore if already implemented]:

• z axis scrolling
  
• diverging background
  Spoiler (Click to View)

  
• a mini-map in the left bottom corner showing all player's positions in different color spots.
  
• progress bar in the stage mod showing how far the player(s) have reached[not needed if mini-map implemented
  Spoiler (Click to View)

  

[A-Man]

Well, I am not being able to open the A engine, It is stuck in the white screen.

I see you've tried the 4 month old version I posted in my forum. Your computer doesn't support rendering non-power of 2 textures, and that version didn't do any kind of pixel padding which was required to fix the problem. The next build should fix this.

[*]z axis scrolling

Implemented.

[*]diverging background

Spoiler (Click to View)

I saw this with HF sometime ago. It's nothing special if you pay attention; just a very wide stage with walls separating it into chambers. That's already there :P.

[*]a mini-map in the left bottom corner showing all player's positions in different color spots.

Will do.

[*]progress bar in the stage mod showing how far the player(s) have reached[not needed if mini-map implemented

Spoiler (Click to View)

Its too big. Such stuff will really clutter the screen. The mini-map it is.

[Rhino.Freak]

Aww yiss.. That bg looks awesome actually man, lets try for the best demo

[Shiya]

Damn, I was waiting for something like this. Great work. But I've got some questions, because I want to create a mod (or a game, since it's an engine), but my ambitions are higher than just throwing some energy balls at someone. Just tell me if it is possible somehow to do in your engine and if not, it's a suggestion.
1. Customizable AI.
2. Forcing someone to go into X frame.
3. Friendly fire.
4. Ability to hit your objects (balls for example).
5. Affecting only certain characters, which are affected by something. For example, I hit the whole map with rect and only characters who were hit by something else before are affected.
6. Chasing balls that don't move in Y axis.
7. Normal transformation (Louis).
8. Transformation into someone (Rudolf).
9. Timers, for example for transformation (after X time it affects you and transforms you into someone) which works even if you go into next stage (in tournament mode I think that you should start every fight from normal form).
10. Teleport (Woody) only to certain characters (let's say that there are many characters on map, but you will always teleport to certain one/affected by something).
11. "Thornmail" (when someone hits you with anything, he takes % damage dealt).
12. Inability to heal above max hp/mp/whatever.
13. Jan's Devils (with customizable fall time).
14. Rect that won't cause frame change.
15. Frame change resist (like above, but from character's perspective).
16. Ability to turn on/off score table with other button (maybe Fx, where xc~(1,2,...12)) and exit fight/stage only with F4 (or as you wish).
17. Inability to pick character when someone else has already picked him (I'm talking about character select screen).
18. Inability to pick certain characters (like you couldn't pick Mark without the lf2.net code).
19. Customizable velocity of chasing balls (because in LF2 they fly with fixed speed).
20. Chasing balls that focus only certain characters (affected by something).
21. Ability to slow someone down (movement or generally delay between frames) for X amount of time.
22. Objects attached to you (itr: kind 8).
23. Taking reduced damage even when hit by attacks which don't change your frame.
24. Inability to be focused by chasing balls (they just don't "see" you).
25. Customizable chasing balls (focusing yourself, closest enemy/friend, can switch targets).
Thanks in advice!

[A-Man]

Oh damn, I didn't see this post 0_o.

Damn, I was waiting for something like this. Great work. But I've got some questions, because I want to create a mod (or a game, since it's an engine), but my ambitions are higher than just throwing some energy balls at someone. Just tell me if it is possible somehow to do in your engine and if not, it's a suggestion.
1. Customizable AI.

Yes, but I am not done with this part yet. I am still thinking about whether I well be doing what Someone Else did with his scripts (except that there won't be any dlls since the source code is available) or stick to a more user-friendly syntax with built in functions for simple stuff like walking, running etc.

2. Forcing someone to go into X frame.

100%. You can make a bdy take the rect (itr equivalent) owner that interacts with it to frame X and you can make a bdy take you to frame X when hit. You can make the rect take you to frame X if it hits successfully, and you can make the rect force a target to a frame if hits. All these kind of object controlling is possible to the highest extent.

3. Friendly fire.

Huh? You mean team attack? Yes. There will even a team attack option in different modes. I have even be planning to do something which might let you prepare your own fighting modes setting rules and everything.

4. Ability to hit your objects (balls for example).

Yes. (using the "|UNIVERSAL|" switch on your object).

5. Affecting only certain characters, which are affected by something. For example, I hit the whole map with rect and only characters who were hit by something else before are affected.

Yes. This can easily be done by the help of the "registers". You basically "set_reg=" the targets of the first rect, and on the next rect, you set a condition to see if the target's register you set is what you set in the previous rect. If true, then you hit it. It can also be easily done with using "Curse Rects", but I am still to explain that when I come to to document the "rect[]" component.

6. Chasing balls that don't move in Y axis.

Well, unlike LF2, you will be doing chasing manually (that might sound bad, but its actually waaay better). Since you're now able to fetch your target's data, you will be able to have a "x/y/z_vel=" tags that will set your velocities according to the position of the target. Not using the "y_vel=" for that will simply mean that your ball won't be moving in the y axis at all.

7. Normal transformation (Louis).

OOPSI! Now I forgot to mention that transformation can be done as a second parameter for the "goto=" tag. For instance, if you would like to transform to id 10 frame 200, you would simply do: "goto=200, 10".

8. Transformation into someone (Rudolf).

Fetch your target's id via a rect, store the id in a rect, and transform to it later :P. As simple as that XD.

9. Timers, for example for transformation (after X time it affects you and transforms you into someone) which works even if you go into next stage (in tournament mode I think that you should start every fight from normal form).

Timers are possible. I explained how to do that in reply to BatTamer's post.

10. Teleport (Woody) only to certain characters (let's say that there are many characters on map, but you will always teleport to certain one/affected by something).

Yes. HARNESS THE POWER OF THE REGISTERS.

11. "Thornmail" (when someone hits you with anything, he takes % damage dealt).

Yes. You set a rect in your counter frame which damages the opponent by "@latestdmg@*(x/100)"; x being the %.

12. Inability to heal above max hp/mp/whatever.

Lol yes. Indeed.

13. Jan's Devils (with customizable fall time).

??

14. Rect that won't cause frame change.

Lol yes. Using the "|GHOSTRECT|" switch on your rect.

15. Frame change resist (like above, but from character's perspective).

Simply give your character a "|DEFEND|" switch in your move to make him defend (something like HF; when you try to hit Drew when he is using a D>A). Put in mind that you can also set how much % of the damage your character is going to resist. You can also give declare a certain DP count where your character will start to budge, break defend..etc.

16. Ability to turn on/off score table with other button (maybe Fx, where xc~(1,2,...12)) and exit fight/stage only with F4 (or as you wish).

Didn't get into that part yet.

17. Inability to pick character when someone else has already picked him (I'm talking about character select screen).

Yes. The character selection screen can be optimized to do almost everything. Now you won't have to stick with LF2's selection design XD. We've been working on a One Piece game using the A-Engine, and here is a selection menu I was able to do (it was quite hard to be honest):

18. Inability to pick certain characters (like you couldn't pick Mark withut the lf2.net code).

I didn't do the cheat code part thing yet, but you can now control what characters are going to appear in the selection screen and what won't.

19. Customizable velocity of chasing balls (because in LF2 they fly with fixed speed).

Yes, as I mentioned above.

20. Chasing balls that focus only certain characters (affected by something).

Yes.

21. Ability to slow someone down (movement or generally delay between frames) for X amount of time.

If you mean something like a time slow down, then I haven't worked on that yet. Slow frames individually is possible using a register which is added to that frame delay value, and a rect which increases it when it hits.

22. Objects attached to you (itr: kind 8).

Yes. Using the "|STICKYRECT|" switch with rects.

23. Taking reduced damage even when hit by attacks which don't change your frame.

Yes, as I mentioned above. Further more, you will even be able to reduce the impact you take from the rect.

24. Inability to be focused by chasing balls (they just don't "see" you).

Yes. Just do stuff with regs (I would explain, but I got tired of typing :P) .

25. Customizable chasing balls (focusing yourself, closest enemy/friend, can switch targets).

Yes.

And finally, you're welcome XD. Hope that answered all your questions.

[Shiya]

Gawsh, you're amazing. I expected only yes/no, but I'm even more thankful for those short explanations. ^^ I wouldn't bother you if I knew more syntax and functions, which I know you will share later, but I couldn't wait. xD
In 13th question I meant if there will be able to do similiar ability and if yes, if you will be able to customize how fast it goes down, but I think that everything is possible now.
Again, great work!

[qwertz143]

Oh my god, thats really awesome. I never knew you could do that with lf2. Wow A-Man you're so amazing
Mm on a side note you did spell "confirm" wrong though, but everything else looks spectacular.
Good luck on this project

~qwertz143~

[A-Man]

This is still on ever since then. I've just been too lazy to post my progress. The first release capable of creating a playable game is sooner than ever now (should've been already out, but couldn't resist adding more features :P). Here are the logs of recent stuff I did for those whom are interested:

2014-08-08 (Click to View)

--New 3 in-frame(in-frame tags are tags which are only usable in either a frame or a sequence, outside any frame component) tags:

Code:

[f=0] #example frame
red=255 green=255 blue=255 alpha=255  #default values
[/f]

"alpha=", which was implemented previously sets a new alpha value to your sprite. A value of 255 is the default value and doesn't do anything at all.
"red=" in combination with "green=" and "blue" sets a color filter on your sprite.
e.g: >> red=255 blue=0 green=0 alpha=200 >>

Related switches: |BARSIGNORERGBA| => use that if you don't want your HP, SP and RP bars to be affected by the color filter.

Uses: For ANY reason you might want to tint your sprite's color for. I personally found myself using it for burning effects and to color selection highlights depending on the player number for the selection menu.


-New in-sequence (in-sequence tags are tags which are only usable in a sequence; outside any frame component.) tag:

Code:

[s=0->5] #an example sequence consisting of 6 frames
img=0   #old
sequence_step=1  #default value
[/s]

You're no more restricted with the sequences stepping 1 sprite per a frame. "sequence_step" is the number the img id increments with each frame. A "sequence_step=2" will have your img ids adds 2 every frame in a sequence. A "sequence_step=-1" will have your img ids decrease by one every frame; thus, a reversed sequence.

2014-09-13 (Click to View)

--New feature: Camera Zooming; You can now have the camera zoom in and out according to how far the targets are. More details on this will be provided in the next log together with the new Stage tags.

--You can finally have comments in the "{info}{/info}" part of the .A file. And you can now put arithmetic expressions as parameters for the tags there, and they will be evaluated.

--New 2 in-file tags (in-file tags are an enclosing pair where instructions inside are only run at specific conditions. These are usually placed at the beginning of the .A files.):
-{main_loop}{/main_loop}: Instructions found inside the pair will be run every 1/FPSth of a second; every frame.

Code:

{info} #in_file "info" tag
ALLOCATE_FRAMES=1000 #1000 frames are allocated
ALLOCATE_IMGS=15 # 15 images can be loaded
ALLOCATE_SNDS=20 # 20 sounds can be loaded
NAME= Luffy
MAXPTS_HP_SP_RP= 500,500,500
INITPTS_HP_SP_RP= 500, 500, 500
WALKSPD_X_Z= 2, 1
...etc ..etc
{/info}

{main_loop}
add_rp=1-(@currhp@/@maxhp@) #rp will be regenerated every frame
set_reg=$t$, $t$+1  #the register $t$ will be incremented every frame (this can be made to a timer)
set_reg=$t$, ~$t$>60?0:$t$; #if $t$ is greater than 60, it is set back to 0. Else, it is just assigned to itself.
add_sp=1.5 #1.5 stamina pts are regenerated every frame
{/main_loop}

# Frames go here
[f=0]
img=1 center=0,0 delay=3 goto=1
[/f]
[f=1]
img=2 center=0,0 delay=3 goto=2
[/f]
#etcetc

The only supported tags/instruction in the main_loop tag are:
"set_reg=x,y" sets the register x the value y.
"add_hp=x" adds up the object's health pts by x
"add_sp=x" adds up the object's stamina pts by x
"add_rp=x" adds up the object's rage pts by x
"add_bp=x" adds up the object's bonus pts by x (an extra bar I put just if someone ever needs it)
"add_dp=x" adds up the object's defense pts by x
"add_kp=x" adds up the object's knock pts by x

-{init_regs}{/init_regs}: "set_reg=" instructions found inside the tag will only be run when the object is first called.

Code:

{info}
etc.. etc
{/info}

{main_loop}
etc.. etc
{/main_loop}

{init_regs}
set_reg=$a$, 1000
set_reg=$q$, 500
{/init_regs}

# Frames go here
[f=0]
img=1 center=0,0 delay=3 goto=1
[/f]
[f=1]
img=2 center=0,0 delay=3 goto=2
[/f]
#etc etc

The only supported tag/instruction here is "set_reg=". We all know that register's initial value are set to 0. In some cases, you would like to change that. This in-file tag was made to help you do that.

--[snd][/snd] info tag (found within the {info}{/info} in-file tag): Loads sound files and assign them an id.

Code:

{info}
NAME=Character
ALLOCATE_IMGS=2 #prepare memory for 2 image files to be loaded.
ALLOCATE_SNDS=2 #prepare memory for 2 sound files to be loaded.
..etc..etc
[img]
sprite\sys\character0.png, 79, 79, 10, 7, 0x000000 #0-69
sprite\sys\character1.png, 79, 79, 10, 7, 0x000000 #70-139
[/img]
[snd]
data\sound\sound0.wav #id 0
data\sound\sound1.wav #id 1
[/snd]
{/info}

It's only parameter is the directory. Ids will be give according to the order they were loaded just like the info tag. To play the sounds, you are going to use the frame component, call_sound[], to play them in your frames.

--New 3 frame-components (frame-components are enclosed blocks of related tags which adds or sets some feature to the frame):
-set_transformation[]: A component which lets you do transformations on the frame's texture/image. You can rotate, reflect, stretch or shear your sprites at will. Put in mind that collision-detection related frame-components can not undergo any of the transformations together with the texture/image (at least not yet).

Code:

[f=0] #example frame
set_transformation[
center=0,0
x_scale_factor=2  y_scale_factor=1  
rotation_angle=90  
x_shear_factor=1  y_shear_factor=0    
x_translate_vector=-30  y_translate_vector=-10  
delay=0  set_reg=$a$, 1  condition=@hp@<200
]
[/f]

"center=" the coordinates of the center of transformation.
"x_scale_factor=", "y_scale_factor=" sets the x and the y stretch values for the image texture.
"rotation_angle=" is the angle you would like to rotate.
"x_shear_factor=", "y_shear_factor=" the x and the y factors for a shearing operation.
"x_translate_vector=", "y_translate_vector=" change the position of your texture/image without affecting its in-game position. The parameters are the x and the y values you would like to translate your image by.
"delay=", "set_reg=", "condition=" works just like with every frame-component.

e.g: >> rotation_angle=45 >> (note the size changed due to camera zooming there)

Related switches:
|REFLECTX| =>When this switch is there, your texture/image is reflected parallel to the y-axis on the center.
|REFLECTY| =>When this switch is there, your texture/image is reflected parallel to the x-axis on the center.

Uses:
.You no longer have to create new sprites for when you want to rotate a sprite.
.Chasing energy blasts in the y axis can be made to actually rotate facing the target!!
.Scaling can prove really useful if you plan to have giant characters in your game. Imagine having to load assets for a giant character 400 px high and 350 px wide! You would want to preserve the quality of the animations and all, but it would take a looot of time and memory to load sheets that big. Now you can sprite your giant in a smaller size and then simply scale him up in the game! The Engine's OpenGL linear filtering insures the least amount of pixelation once it has been scaled!
.Falling momentum show in sprites: You can use the rotation feature to rotate the falling sprites according to how fast and the velocity of their object. This is so cool, and we are totally gonna have this for OPAE. NEXT GEN!

-set_set_dirtyquad[]: A component which lets you further clip an area or a quad off a sprite. Only the area enclosed by this quad will be rendered on the screen.

Code:

[f=0] #example frame
set_dirtyquad[
top_left_vertex=0,0 top_right_vertex=10, 50 bottom_right_vertex=70,40  bottom_left_vertex=5, 22
delay=  set_reg=  condition= #same old
]
[/f]

"top_left_vertex=", "top_right_vertex=", "bottom_right_vertex=", "bottom_left_vertex=" the vertices of the dirty quad.
"delay=", "set_reg=", "condition=" works just like with every frame-component.

e.g: >> set_dirtyquad[] >>

Uses:
.Imagine a case where you're having sort of small sprites, and its overdoing to have a complete sheet reserved for these or even place them in too-big squares which is just a plain waste. These all together would fit into one of the squares in the bigger gird; why not place them there and then clip each down with dirty quads in the game to make each appear alone?

-call_sound[]: A component to play sounds.

Code:

[f=0] #example frame
call_sound[
id=0  repeat=0 volume=100
delay=0  set_reg=$a$, 1  condition=@hp@<200
]
[/f]

"id=" the id of the sound loaded at the {info}{/info} part; works pretty much like the in-frame "img=" tag.
"repeat=" how many times should that sound repeat after it has played once.
"volume=" set how loud the sound is going to be. Max being 120 and mute being 0.

--New: 3 in-file switches (switches which affects your whole object altogether. Despite the name which suggests they're to be placed anywhere in the .a file, outside any tag, I've decided to let them be inside the {info}{/info} tag to make stuff more organized):

Code:

{info}
|NOSHADOW|NOBARS|IGNOREGRAVITY|
NAME=ABCD
ALLOCATE_IMGS=10
..etc
{/info}

The |NOSHADOW| switch will have all the frames in your object contain no shadow. Once you use that, you won't have to use |NOSHADOW| specifically for every frame to have the object shadowless. That's not the only advantage however; using that will make the engine not create a "shadow sheet" (a duplicate version of the sheet where all the visible colors are set to white and further filtered to form the shadows). This decreases the loading time and the memory usage of the game for that object.
The |NOBARS| switch will automatically disable bars for the whole object, so you wouldn't have to use it individually with every frame. This switch used like that will have the object not allocate 4 other objects that resembles the bars (HP, SP, RP and BP(bonus pts)).
The |IGNOREGRAVITY| switch will have your object unaffected by gravitational acceleration, again, without having to specify that switch with every frame.

--Bars now make use of frames; in other words, you can control how your bars look or even animate them just as if they were objects. This needs going in detail with some special .a file, "system.a", and I am already tired of typing.. Will explain everything later :P.

Questions are welcome. Suggestions will be appreciated.

[A-Man]

~Bump

The A-ngineer's Lab (Click to View)

So I've been working on this thing for about 2 weeks now; It's pretty much a program I intended to write to ease the whole hitboxes assigning and stuff (something like LF2's visual frame maker). However, as I've been working on it, I went on adding features here and there until it ended up being what it is now. A tool where you will be able to develop your A-Engine powered game's characters or objects like never before (well, its not like you've written any A-scripts before but whatever).


Before I start explaining what all these buttons do, put in mind that this tool's setup is as simple as putting its exe in the A-Engine's exe directory. It will go through your "load.txt", load the A-Files files and handle all the parsing by itself.

So the GOTO FRAME button at the top left let you go to what ever frame in the current A-File. The GOTO ID button will similarly load whatever .A file in your "load.txt":

Spoiler (Click to View)

This is a rather sluggish way to navigate between the frames, but it's not the only way available. Surrounding the canvas are two sets of "<->" buttons. The blue ones will navigate back and forth according to the numbers of the frame. Like say you have the frame numbers [0, 4, 6, 5, 8, 2, 9], and you're at frame 8. The blue ">" button will get you to frame 9, and the blue "<"  will get you to frame 6. The green ">" buttons however, takes you to the frame stated by your "goto=", while the green "<" simply takes you to the previous frame that was in your canvas.

To the right of these buttons is a white box that previews the frame you're working on. A click on that box will allow you to directly edit the frame:

Spoiler (Click to View)

One the canvas itself are 2 perpendicular lines. These lines are what shows the position of your sprite in relation to its center. Centering a character properly will mean that his feet will have to be just on the horizontal line, while the vertical line will have to be placed on the sprite's vertical line of symmetry.

At the bottom right, you can see a set of radio buttons. "DRAW", for instance, will means you're in "Drawing mode". While in drawing mode, you can literally draw rectangles on the canvas as hitboxes for the sprite. Wether this rectangle is a "bdy" or a rect depends on whether you set the drawing mode to "RECT" or "BDY". Just like in any paint program, you can stretch and stress a rectangle by dragging one of its mini rects that appear on the main one.
"FOCUS" will similarly have you in "Focus mode", where you can't draw anymore. A click on a hitbox while in focus mode will render it "focused". A "focused" hitbox will show 4 mini rects on the vertices of the rectangle where you can resize the hitbox by dragging. A right click on a focused hitbox will remove it.
There is a third choice in "Focus mode" called "SELF". In that, you will be dragging around the sprite itself to correct its "center" value. In the future, I plan to have the sprite resizable while in focus  since the Engine supports run-time transformation using the "set_transformation[]" frame component.

To the bottom of the canvas is an "ANIMATE" buttons. Hold that to see your frames animated (it also considers the "delay=" values of the frames and your game's FPS to show the animation right). In the future, I plan to change the button into a "SIMULATE" button, such that it applies the actual physics of the Engine to preview what will actually happen in the game.  

At the top right, to the right of the preview white box, are two buttons: "+FRAME" and "+SEQUENCE". A click on one will let you construct a new frame by filling in a form:

Spoiler (Click to View)

I left out many other frame tags in the form, but the ones I did are the ones you will find yourself using 90% percent of the time. At the bottom of the form window, there is a "Frame Count: " field. Fill that in with the amount of frames your new animation contains. The tool will assume the sprites are consecutive in order, and will increment the "img=" values for the consecutive frames. Some times, you will find yourself worrying about overwriting existing frames, and that is when you will be checking the "Auto ID" checkbox. That will automatically make sure the frame ids given to the generated frames do not conflict with any existing frame's.

Finally, the the top right of the window are 3 "RSX" buttons. The red "X" obviously closes the program. The white "S" button saves and write any changes you've done to the current file. The Blue "R" button reloads the .A file again canceling any changes you've done and not saved yet.


So yeah, this is all the program is capable of so far, but I am still not very satisfied with the space in the bottom. If you've any ideas of any features that can be added there, please let me know.

Thanks for reading!

This will probably get a redesign later.

[Rhino.Freak]

Nice! It really looks convenient enough to actually create pretty accurate bodies..
The rect and bdys do have different colored rectangles right? and a random question, there's no limit to number of texts and bodies in a frame right?

a redesign is strictly needed by the way :P, also a minimize button?