ID:2583262
 
It's been an odd sporadic week since 513 got out of beta. Development has been shifting back and forth between bug fix work for 513 and new features for 514, mostly favoring the latter. But between a heat wave and some medical issues and various appointments and errands, it's fair to say things have been pretty disjointed.

On the 514 front, I've been working out an implementation path for particles and as part of that, trying to decide how they'll attach to objects on the server and therefore how the client will be told about them. That's a very important decision as it has consequences one way or another, but I'll talk about that some more in the Patreon post since it's a technical matter.

Another thing I got in this week was support for world and client time zone info, simply in terms of an hour offset from UTC or GMT, but I fear that the method I used is pretty hacky and could use some refinement. I'm still working out changes to time2text() to put time zones to use.

The 514 wish list I posted last week inspired a lot of questions and comments from people interested in knowing more about them or hoping to shape the way they get implemented. I love this kind of participation and want to encourage more of it, so please don't be shy about posting your ideas and suggestions, even for things that aren't on that list.

And I haven't forgotten about the CEF project, but holy crap is that at the bottom of my priority list right now.

I've embarked on a bold change that may hopefully mean I can finally put my grill to use before summer is over—but right now, that change is kicking my butt, which was a risk I knew about going in. Right now I'd kill for a big ol' teriyaki steak that wouldn't kill me right back. Anyway I'm still working and moving forward on BYOND stuff, and I'm grateful to all our Members and other donors who make that possible.
I hope you knock them medical issues back to 511.
Lummox JR wrote:
so please don't be shy about posting your ideas and suggestions, even for things that aren't on that list.

1) Your "features in brief" and List/Road map posts should include a brief explanation of how it affects the design or development of a game, not everyone will understand what all of those things are useful for.

2) I think not having Dream Maker and Dream Daemon shortcuts show up after you install BYOND and agreeing to have Desktop Icons is a very bad decision.

3) What's going on with the webclient? Will you officially kill it already and concentrate on doing WebAssembly instead?

4) Will you increase the size of text in the "F1" help files? Or are we supposed to ignore that reference and use the web reference link instead?

5) New Feature: "New Map Formats" for Mode 7, Hexagonals(Both Types), Brick Style Grid(Square and Rectangles) and FPV(First Person View, Id Tech 1 type).

6) New Feature: Map Variables like Map Angle, Ceiling Map and Floor Map.

7) New Feature: "DM Ads" Programmable ads, including share rates. Would be cool to have a way to monetize that benefits everyone. And being able to program specific ads at different rates. Even a way to specifically support BYOND at 100% if one decides.

In response to 2DExtremeProductions
2DExtremeProductions wrote:
1) Your "features in brief" and List/Road map posts should include a brief explanation of how it affects the design or development of a game, not everyone will understand what all of those things are useful for.

Then it's no longer in brief.

2) I think not having Dream Maker and Dream Daemon shortcuts show up after you install BYOND and agreeing to have Desktop Icons is a very bad decision.

Uh... what?

3) What's going on with the webclient? Will you officially kill it already and concentrate on doing WebAssembly instead?

The webclient is in limbo but I do not intend to kill it; I do plan to get back to it.

WebAssembly would be super slow and would not be able to use the Windows API, so it's not a viable alternative for an in-browser frontend.

4) Will you increase the size of text in the "F1" help files? Or are we supposed to ignore that reference and use the web reference link instead?

I'm open to adding something that lets you control the base size, but I don't see what's wrong with it.
In response to Lummox JR
Lummox JR wrote:
Then it's no longer in brief.

Sarcasm isn't helpful either.

Uh... what?

When you install BYOND and choose to have Desktop Icons, they don't show up. You have to manually get the shortcuts. In other words, you make it harder for people to know that Dream Maker can be used to make games. Along with all the other simple stuff you do to make it hard for people to know that you can use the software to make stuff.


The webclient is in limbo but I do not intend to kill it; I do plan to get back to it.
WebAssembly would be super slow and would not be able to use the Windows API, so it's not a viable alternative for an in-browser frontend.

Considering everything being thrown at WebAssembly and all the crazy examples of it working and OS inceptions with browser inceptions running emulators running other emulators...I find your comment interesting, but at least we know something about what will happen with the webclient.


I'm open to adding something that lets you control the base size, but I don't see what's wrong with it.

Probably looks fine on a 768p screen. You could do all that or just up the size by 20% and make it easier on the eyes.


Darn, I guess people should be shy about posting their ideas.
Alternative to getting back to the web client eventually, can we revisit your plans to open-source it? Even a community fork of it could lighten your burden while providing tons of value to everyone.