Implemented the auto-translating chat in the game.
Oh yeah, translate that text!
This was the lowest bar, easiest to implement method. I don't even show a name of who typed what! And there is actually no way for a player to set their language preference yet, so there isn't "in game" any translation, but i tested it out with hard-coded player preferences and you can see the results in the gif. So, hopefully, now i can move on from this to something else? Like getting the Dijkstra Maps working? Or maybe mining? Hummmmmmm.
Fool am i, i've been holding out, still wearing shorts every day. But it seemed like today was going to be just a bit too cold, and i picked jeans for the dog walk. Incorrect Choice. It was totally warm enough for shorts, and i blew my run of only shorts! Should have known better.
Have been working on the game project a bit, but in a non-exciting-to-show kind of way. And it is actually a side-track, and i am trying to decide if i want to keep doing down this path, or get off and try to find the main route again. It involves in-game chat, and auto-translation. I actually have the auto-translation working, via IBM's Watson service. But the UI for this feature is catching me up, as i have a bunch of specific "looks" that i want to try out, and not the box-with-text-in-it-in-the-lower-left-corner style. However, just in order to put this behind me and move on, i might just do that for now.
Oh and also, because it is text, i've been trying to find a good pixel font that is localizable. This is remarkably hard. I've actually only really found 2 options, LanaPixel and PixelLocale, and only LanaPixel has the Japanese, Korean and Chinese glyphs. Unfortunately it does not work with Unity3d's text mesh pro font rendering... There is this alternative font renderer that works better, but still not 100% great with the LanaPixel font. Anyway, this is another huge side track. I should just drop it for now, and get back to the "main" stuff... But! In my tests with other online players ("tests", ahahah, like 1 time playing with somebody else) i really wanted in-game chat. So here we are.
The end result is that i have to set a reasonable goal to finish up this feature. Which will involve no pixel fonts, no localization, and probably just a box of text in the lower left corner. So it goes.
Been listening to this track by Medio Mutante a lot today. Sad that the band broke up a decade ago. But good that i can still discover and buy their albums! Also, simply because of the name, reminded me of this movie "Acción mutante" that I watched back in the day at TIFF's Midnight Madness stream, like in '93... Actually, now that i think about it, i didn't watch it at TIFF, a film-nerd buddy came by with it and we watched it at my place when i was living in squalor on Spadina... Still must have been around 93 or 94...
Side Note, i kind of hate it when a bands main web presence is on facebook.
I worked on AutoAge: Standoff and one of the things i remember really wanting to get into the game were "drunk missiles". You know, those missiles that pop out of a mecha and fly in a crazy swirl towards their target.
"Macross: Do You Remember Love" was huge for me as a kid
I wanted that so badly. It was actually quite tricky to come up with a solution. We used a "guide" that moved in a ballistic way from the shooter towards the target. All the other "real" missiles simply rotated around that guide point. A tricky bit was ensuring that they didn't intersect with the ground while swirling around. In the end i think it looked pretty good, especially animated, but, sadly, i don't have any footage of that, just this still.
Oh yeah
Found that image randomly this morning, and made me nostalgic for the game and the work we put into it.
Have been rewatching The Mentalist TV show over the past month or two on Prime. Ciara and I watched it when it came out, starting in 2008. I still enjoy it, but it becomes increasingly crazy around the character called "Red John". No spoilers, but the amount of suspension of disbelief starts to really ramp up in season 4, which is where i am now. I can't remember how many seasons we watched, but i'm sure we finished 4, and probably into 5? I'll see how long i can handle it. I do liberally use the fast-forward, just to get through so many of the episodes, and story lines that i don't really care about. Feel a bit bad about revisiting a TV show, when there is so much new stuff to watch, or so many other things to be doing. But sometimes you just want the easy, warm blanket.
Had a nice Thanksgiving, turkey, potatoes, gravy, squash, pretty traditional.
Apple crisp with ice-cream for dessert! Lovely. The only thing missing was being able to visit with family. sigh. Covid put a stop to that. However, we did engage in a bit of silly "virtual" family photo(shopping)...
Got some work done on the game, actually have a displaying map and constraining the PCs and NPCs to open spaces. Very unoptimized, but, this is all kind of still just an experiment or prototype, so, i'm trying very hard to be ok with that. Having the map actually makes a huge difference to feel. And it is fun to have a map to run around in. Using Perlin Noise for the "cave" generation, as it was quick and easy. Oh and the NobleWhale Connect and MatchUp assets to make the networking easier, for the players anyway, if not me. Although it is better for me too. Need to reassess what the next steps should be...
Oh yeah, translate that text!
It might be rainy, but i'm looking good
"Macross: Do You Remember Love" was huge for me as a kid
Oh yeah
Seems Legit!
Yep, it is a dungeon