Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
 | [Post Date: 02-Jul-2008 18:22]
Ok, I have the thing that randomly places stars out from a center, and it works...you can set the center locaton, and a skewness of how many stars are placed the further out, and also a number of stars.
The number is not exactly accurate, because if stars get placed on top of existing stars, then it just replaces it, but still counts as a star being placed, but it doesnt matter...
It also gives quite a round shape, as it should 
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Disrupter
[ Posts : 458 ]
 | [Post Date: 02-Jul-2008 18:41]
So when are you gonna give us all access to the Galaxy-tron 5000?
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 02-Jul-2008 18:58]
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So when are you gonna give us all access to the Galaxy-tron 5000?
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Soon
Still a few things needed to make it usable yet, most of the values can only be changed by editing the source right now, so not really very usable...
I will make an interface for it, so you can enter numbers and such, and also put descriptions etc for what things do...
I will try and get at least the basic version done today, and add more features to it after that...
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 02-Jul-2008 23:06]
Ok, I have the basic interface done, it has no validation yet, so if you try entering letters where numbers are expected etc, it will cause problems, and if you go crazy and try and make a galaxy 9999x9999 then that may cause it to crash or something...but otherwise its ok I think...
So, shall I post the source here? So you can save it to the right files and run it? Probably the easiest way, or email it...
Anyway, this is just the basic working program, their is still lots to do to make it more user friendly and stuff, so you can try it now if you want, just say and I will post it up, or wait untill I have done some more and its more complete...
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 01:41]
Ok, a really cool new feature now, it basicaly represents each star as 2x2 pixel square, so you can see large areas of the galaxy at once. Its got a bit to change, but so far its great
This will allow you to see the whole galaxy at once, instead of looking at just check boxes
This will be the overview view I was saying about, so you won't (at least its not planned) be able to edit on this, but it gives you some idea about how it looks...
Anyway, will do some more tomorrow. Its starting to look really good now
This message was edited by Emperor L
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Maverick
[ Posts : 1331 ]
 | [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 10:05]
Send it to me. I'm eager to see your programming skills Maybe I'll find you some work to do on DQ:H 
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 12:08]
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Send it to me. I'm eager to see your programming skills Maybe I'll find you some work to do on DQ:H
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Ok . I will try and finish it later today, I need to finish the latest part, because so far it has a few bugs like pushing the map if too big far down the page, so I need to set its positions and things, and also change some of the functions that expct the check boxes to be present, but these are removed when the new map displays...so need to change a few thinge their...
Also, I will put in better comments in the code etc.
Anyway, I have loads more to add, but these can be added for a later version. Things like:
~A box to jump to specified coordinates (so you dont have to keep moving sideways).
~Numbers marking the columns at the top and sides (so you know where you are)
~Black hole and wormhole modes
This message was edited by Emperor L
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 13:31]
Ok, the overview map seems fine up to about 800x800, and takes a few seconds to load. Any bigger though and it gives a warning about scripts making it run slow, think its because it is looping so many times...obviously it takes longer the bigger it is, so either I can split it up into maybe 400x400 sections (this is all that will fit on screen anyway), or try and find a way to prevent that message displaying...huge galaxies will work, I have tested up to 1500x1500, you just get the scripts running slow message 2 or 3 times...
I think maybe I will split it up into 400x400 sections, and give buttons to move to the next section. Maybe jump 300 quadrants in each movement...
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Disrupter
[ Posts : 458 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 15:30]
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Send it to me. I'm eager to see your programming skills Maybe I'll find you some work to do on DQ:H
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Yea, spread the wealth
I knew you could program but im honestly amazed at what youve done in the past 2-3 days
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 16:54]
Quote
Quote
Send it to me. I'm eager to see your programming skills Maybe I'll find you some work to do on DQ:H
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Yea, spread the wealth
I knew you could program but im honestly amazed at what youve done in the past 2-3 days
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Ok, I am almost ready to send the first version, its far from perfect and needs some changes etc, but I will do these after.
Maverick I will email you it when its done, and Disrupter I will place it on our wiki so you can download it . I havent done this yet, but will post here when I do
Anyway, so far the things that work are:
Overview and star placement modes, the others give you a message saying they need adding if you try them...
Navigation on the star mode.
Overview just draws whole galaxy at once, so takes a few seconds depending on size. Big galaxys give a message saying its running slow, click 'no' on that to keep it working (may have to do this a few times on really big galaxies). For now though its probably best not to try more than 800x800...
You can place stars, view them and output the code. The star class and size are randomly generated, and also the stars name is S followed by their number...
The spread stars from center option has a few problems, so I won't include that for now. Needs some work on it to get it to be good...
But you can start clicking together a galaxy map, it won't be as quick or easy as with automatic placement options, but they should come soon
The control buttons are not very nicely placed yet, all different sizes and I just used <>^v for the navigation buttons, I need to make some images that I can replace the buttons with, but for now they work at least
Also, I have only tested it with IE7, so I don't know how it works with other browsers...so maybe try them out and let me know
Anyway, will send it soon
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Disrupter
[ Posts : 458 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 17:38]
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Also, I have only tested it with IE7, so I don't know how it works with other browsers...so maybe try them out and let me know
Anyway, will send it soon
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Ill test it on Mozilla Firefox, since that is my browers lol.
Also, will there be a 'save' and 'load' feature? That way we dont have to sit down and make a galaxy all at once.
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 18:36]
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Also, will there be a 'save' and 'load' feature? That way we dont have to sit down and make a galaxy all at once.
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Not yet, I may try this later, but I never done anything like that before so don't really know how...never tried either . I will try and find some guides on it or something...I dont even know if its possible in javascript...because its a web language and I doubt it will allow you to save and open files from the computer hard drive, because of the kind of security probems that could cause...but I dont know...
Anyway, if not. You can output the code and save that, and I will make a place you can paste it in, and then try and recreate the galaxy from this...opening a save file would work the exact same way, except that has the saving and loading bit that I dont know about...
EDIT: Maybe I could try cookies...I dont know how much data you can store in one...but thats a possibility...
This message was edited by Emperor L
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 03-Jul-2008 21:44]
Ok, its ready now...but...it slows down a bit when you move around...I think this is because every time you move it stores the empty places as 0, but this still is something in memory, so slows it down.
The time it took to move went from about half a second up to 1 and half seconds on a trip around the whole border of a 400x400 galaxy...so although its not terrible, its still slow, and if you traveled across every square (as you would when making a galaxy) it would slow down alot more probably...
Also, as their is no automatic placement yet, it would take forever to make a galaxy by just clicking, so I think I am going to make some changes first before I send/upload it, if you really want to see it then I will, but I think as far as having it working well, it needs some things changing...
Most importantly is not storing empty places in the arrays, its wasting space and slows it down...I think a much better way would to be just to store stars with their coodinates, and draw these as nessasary...
It will mean that the check box interface won't work, but I think that I can edit the overview map to make it so that you can place objects with this, and just select what you want from a dropdown menu...
This may take a little longer, but I think its worth it if it makes it faster and better
Anyway, as its evolved I have found better and better ways of doing things. It was just going to be a grid of check boxes, but its become really quite good now...but the arrays are the same as when I first started, so they are whats slowing it down...but I have learnt lots anyway about how to optimise things and such. Before now I have never made anything where performance became a problem, because they were just simple things...we have been taught about it at uni, but I never actualy had a situation where I could relate it to, so didnt really worry about it much...now I know, so its all been a good experience
This message was edited by Emperor L
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 04-Jul-2008 01:13]
Ok, this is great now.
Its a lot simpler than before, but also MUCH better, you can just click on the galaxy to place stars.
Their are some problems, like the position being relative to the window and not galaxy corner, so I need to find a way to solve that...not sure exactly how yet, but getting exact positioning of objects on the page including the effects of scrolling and things is difficult, and I cant find any way to do this...
Probably the only way is to not have scroll bars, but my own navigation buttons that move the view a set ammount, this way I will know how far it moved and add it to the position...
Anyway, so far so good...I have had to rewrite alot of it, and some more things to do like change the code output generator to use the new arrays and things.
Also, when you have lots of stars it starts to slow down, but thats because I redraw the view every time a star is placed and you get small delays between the click and it displaying, and this gets worse the more you add.
I will try and change this to just adding to the view and not totaly redrawing it, so this should help...
Also, another problem is if you try and zoom and other things, it looses its position, so...maybe I will make like a little thing that you can use to make it display right for you. A bit like those things used to set touch screens to work. A small point you have to clcik, and going by that it sets that as a guide...could work
This message was edited by Emperor L
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Emperor L
[ Posts : 1237 ]
| [Post Date: 04-Jul-2008 12:50]
Ok, I have the exact placement now depending on scrolling etc...I just know it isnt going to work in other browsers yet, because it seems they all do this differently...their are 3 methods of getting it, so I am trying something to get it to work for all, but without testing I have no idea if it worked...
At least it works in IE7
Anyway, will try fixing the code output later so it works with the new array...
EDIT:
Ok, done that. Just need to add a remove star option, and also stop stars multiple being placed in the same location, and then it should be done...well, enough to use anyway...still loads that can be added though
This message was edited by Emperor L
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