And so the struggle begins!

[Heff]

Hello there everyone!
New here, as well as to the scene at large. (Even if I've kept an eye on it as long as I've been on the net)
Normally a .NET/java person, I had always dismissed the demoscene as something that was too complicated for me, especially as I sometimes have a hard time with the math.
But a few days ago, something struck me:
I've been coding games on the side, as a hobby, for several years. The interactive aspect has always fascinated me.
Now, what if I was combine my interest in the amazing achievements I had seen in intros, with my interest in building games, and be damned if I gave up?

So, with that little intro, I'm happy to sign up to this community, you seem like a wonderful bunch!
The first little project I've been working on is getting something simple, 3d-based, interactive thing done in 4k. No idea how I'm going to accomplish that, but you gotta try, aight?
Above is a very important poll, that you should definitely participate in! (World-changing, I know)

Wish me luck!


(PS: Anything else I should do to avoid being filtered as spam?)

[combatking0]

Greetings Heff.

[Kirl]

Hello Heff! 
You just missed the cube challenge!

Don't worry about the spam filter, spambots that pass the turing test are welcome too!

[Raizor]

Sounds like an interesting project Heff, and quite a challenge! Wishing you the best of luck and looking forward to following your progress

[Shockwave]

Hi Heff, welcome

Nice challenge you've set for yourself too.  I don't think you should worry about not knowing how to make the really tricky stuff yet as most people are just as receptive to something that has been nicely designed or maybe shows them something new which is rarer than technically brilliant effect fests

[benny!]

Hi Heff,

personally I think you could fantatiscally combine games with demoscene fx. Especially if you go for some experimental gameplay. Always liked games with a demoscene touch.

Looking forward to your first release - keep us informed.

Best,
benny!

[Heff]

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome!
I see now that perhaps a post in the welcome thread would have sufficed for me

Anyway, I'll be sure to post my progress in the project forum, once I have anything reasonable to show.

Quick question: How do you handle debugging, with all the compression going on? Or is it premature of me to use crinkler and disable VS debugging, and I should just try to produce results, then try to reduce their size afterwards?

Been struggling with a bug for a few hours now, couldn't isolate it at all, and then I restarted my machine, and now it's gone o.O

[Raizor]

Quick question: How do you handle debugging, with all the compression going on? Or is it premature of me to use crinkler and disable VS debugging, and I should just try to produce results, then try to reduce their size afterwards?

Been struggling with a bug for a few hours now, couldn't isolate it at all, and then I restarted my machine, and now it's gone o.O

Usually, your DEBUG build configuration doesn't include the Crinkler step, so you can debug as you normally would. When your build using the RELEASE configuration, have Crinkler do its thing.

You might already be aware of these, but here are some nice resources for size-limited coding (4k etc):

IN4k

Graphics Size Coding

Code4k

There are a lot of good articles and resources on those sites, so well worth a browse.

Ferris also did a nice presentation on making 4k intro for The Gathering, which includes some intro templates for OpenGL, DirectX etc. I couldn't find the original link so have attached the PDF and template files to this post.

[Heff]

Yeah, I figured as much, quite a bit more practical when done like that.

Regarding those sites, I've been reading them as I have time, some really good info on there
Hadn't seen the attached one before, thanks!

personally I think you could fantatiscally combine games with demoscene fx. Especially if you go for some experimental gameplay. Always liked games with a demoscene touch.

Yeah, same here, hoping something nice will come out of it Though, I might need to skip the size limit after I've tried once, as it really limits the amount of gameplay one can include.
Currently trying to find some way to save text, as I would like to include some of that, we'll see how it goes. Might have to go with something purely visual, and hope the user understands anyway