ID:2272402
 
Winter is here! No, not the literal one. I don't really mind an Ed Sheeran cameo at all, except on the radio. Also in the show I've been calling That Stupid Kid since the end of last seasion, because seriously, someone please shoot that kid, now we have nuclear winter. Also probably Hallmark is doing a Christmas in July thing, because they're nuts. Everyone knows the Christmas season starts at the end of September.

It's been another bit-of-everything week for development. Most of my 512 work this week has focused on the surprisingly complicated problem of Ter13's LEFT/RIGHT/TOP/BOTTOM screen coordinates, and I'm still trying to figure out some of the fiddly details. Like for instance, if I have a big object anchored to the right and it has overlays, how do I make sure the overlays are placed correctly? Nevertheless I've been slogging ahead.

For some of the week, I confess I've been working on a pet project, which involved modernizing some largely unused pieces of code. My goal is to at some point resurrect my favorite-ever BYOND game by correcting a longstanding bug in the game code that for all intents and purposes killed it. But this project has also helped further improve my knowledge of the whole compiler setup, which as you recall I had to delve into for some of 512's new features like a properly chained dot operator and conditional dots. Time analyzing the compiler mechanics is time well spent.

I'm still trying to puzzle through how I would implement filters, because I'd love to get those into 512. The main problem I have there is figuring out not only a good syntax, but a good way to handle that all internally. For instance, obj.filters would have to be a special refcounted object that knew what its object was. Filters themselves would, I think, work best like color matrices, which sort of bridge the gap between immutable objects like appearances and fully realized ones that take up memory for each instance; color matrices can be shared, but aren't immutable. And just as I'd need a special object for obj.filters, I'd need something for, say, obj.filters[1] which might be a blur filter, so you could modify obj.filters[1].size. It's not a simple problem by any means. And temporary objects also mean a potential for churn, so I'd want to find a way to drastically minimize that, avoiding memory allocation/deallocation wherever possible.

As you can probably tell, filters are really high on my wish list for 512. I've been talking about them for long enough!

So that's where we stand this week. I'd like to thank everyone who's contributed to BYOND this week, and especially a big thanks to Dragonpearl123 for setting up a contest to contribute. If you haven't gotten in on his contest yet and you're not a Member: two birds.

Nobody's advertising back-to-school sales here yet, but I'm sure they soon will, because I've seen the displays up at Walmart. When I become a supervillain it's going to be illegal to run back-to-school sales or ads in July, and likewise to send kids back to school before Labor Day because that's sick and wrong. Be nice to your grill this weekend, and consume copious amounts of meat. And when, at 1:00 in the morning, you get the idea of mixing Italian herbs and Parmesan into a bowl of grits instead of cheddar, don't do it. You have been warned.
Lummox JR wrote:
When I become a supervillain it's going to be illegal to run back-to-school sales or ads in July

B-but, where I live school starts in August :S

In response to Pokemonred200
Pokemonred200 wrote:
B-but, where I live school starts in August :S

And when I come to power, the people in charge of that will be forced to change it on pain of death, or worse.

Although I'll allow for colleges starting a week before Labor Day. I'm cool with that. But anything below that level, no.
How about hiring some new coders to help you? I'm really curious if there's any criteria that has to be met to enter byond dev, this engine, even with all its downsides, is fantastic in terms of the experiences you get by playing with its games (like SS13), and it'd be really nice to see it improving faster
In response to CarbonHell
CarbonHell wrote:
I'm really curious if there's any criteria that has to be met to enter byond dev

You must be an Italian Chef with 20 years experience in the art of pasta cooking and spaghetti sauce.
In response to CarbonHell
I'd imagine you'd need to be just as good as Lummox or near it. I can't speak from experience, but what I've heard, BYOND - for all it's flaws - is extremely complex. Nevermind that C++ as a language takes years to truly be competent in.
In response to CarbonHell
No monies.
I'm italian, and i know how to cook pasta and pizza, is that enough? Am i hired?I am?Fantastic.
who's payin