Within BYOND #143

ID:2655848
 
Feb 15 2021, 8:24 pm (Edited on Feb 15 2021, 10:02 pm)

Hello, BYONDers! It's still bloody cold where I live and I'm not happy about it... But! There's a massive silver lining: 514 has officially entered Beta! Lummox JR has delivered on his promise to bring 514 to Beta by the end of January, and we've got so many new toys to play with! Particles, bloom, mouse macros, color gradients, and a boatload of additional fun! So, let's talk about what you've all been doing with those additions!

BYOND

BYOND Developer Lummox JR has been hard at work this past month, pursuing his new idea of color gradient space handling, which he elaborates on over on Patreon. Also on the list were changes to world.movement_mode, as well as some additional particle adjustments. All this to lead to BYOND getting a bit more depth, as we've ushered into the realm of 6 months (or, y'know, a lot longer than that...) of 514 Beta! Lummox JR embodies "You line 'em up, I'll knock 'em down" as he addresses almost every single Beta Bug report since release. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say his quick response is very much appreciated! Lummox forged onward, iterating on a bug with render targets from plane masters being included as vis_contents, and continued to chat about particle timing philosophy; namely, whether particle vars should be expressed in client ticks instead of standard BYOND ticks. Further, Lummox mentioned plans to improve render performance on Patreon!

BYOND Games

Acebloke has been putting in serious work on Wargames2! With the launch of Beta F (which Acebloke says stands for "failure," but I think it stands for "fantastic,") players will now be serenaded with glorious sound effects, and have access to a whole host of UI changes to make unit creation and management a breeze! A new Tundra terrain has been added, as well as Ice Age research. An incredible list of miscellaneous changes and bugfixes, which are far too numerous to list here, have also been implemented, so get over there and build your empire!

Flick's been very busy creating a Sprite Randomizer, which generates an impressive list of sprites for use with your next project! You're not allowed to use the "but I don't have any artwork" excuse anymore, dear reader! Download and run Flick's creation to make some varied and interesting sprites, pick out your favorites and save them for later! If you've ever wanted to make a 100% randomly generated game (you absolute madman!) then this is for you!

This pic isn't tgstation but damn if it doesn't represent the soul of SS13 Space Station 13 is a game that deserves to be covered on Within BYOND, and today, we break the cycle of silence! A pillar of the BYOND community, Space Station 13's numerous forks are difficult to keep up with as a whole, so today we're going to focus on /tg/station, which has ushered in an a very comprehensive combat system overhaul! The hallmark change is that intents are completely removed, replaced with a combat mode. This removal indicates the departure of one of the most difficult to teach mechanics of the /tg/station framework. Hotkeys have been changed, being much more fluid in practice, and you can now right click to tip cows or hold people at gunpoint. This overhaul should usher in a new framework upon which to build much more upon the combat system, and I bid godspeed to the devs as they move forward!

Right out of the gate, 514's Beta has ushered in an impressive list of toys, not the least of which is particles. Featured to your right is F0lak's very impressive bonfire, made almost entirely out of particles. Cozy! Featured on your left is a crazy distortion effect made by Crazah, made using a combination of filters, animate, and dark particles (so, like, with nothing but code, my dudes). F0lak was kind enough to provide the code he used, which I've uploaded to Pastebin for all of you to play with!

The Bloom filter sort of quietly made its debut in 514, its awesomeness hidden behind particles. Featured here is Crazah's use of it to showcase trace/ALTER's beautiful environment, with copious use of blue! If you're feeling a bit cold, then you should check out Crazah's use of bloom to show off a blazing fireball. Bloom really lets you make your environment and your effects pop, setting them apart from all that surrounds what you apply it to... Which is precisely the point!

Gold94's been busy with particles too, creating both a chimney smoke effect and a new defensive ability! Another pretty awesome effect is this particle rain effect by Crazah! One of the things I've learned about particles and bloom is that the possibilities for code-only effects is seemingly endless, and there's almost no game that wouldn't be improved by the addition of some well done particles! Go play with them, I insist!

And finally, I present a glorious use of 514's core features condensed into one, beautifully presented video. Ginseng went all out in his production lately, so please do give him some love in the replies as you check out the full video! Also, post your personal uses of 514's features, and hype up other developers to do the same, because the sky really is the limit with all that's available in the beta.

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Feb 16 2021, 1:56 am
so this is a reworked space station game(looks cool)???? also i hope there is going to be a pvp server.
edit: it actually like a db game, now i genuinely hope there is a pvp server lol. good work!!!
Feb 16 2021, 10:33 am
/mob/living/carbon/human do be schmovin tho
Feb 18 2021, 12:50 pm
I've been doing a lot of updates for Pondera, as well. But since it doesn't use any particles I guess it didn't fit in this release.

Texas power grid failure has been the main experience here recently!

Despite you insisting, I probably won't be using particle effects! 2d sprites forever.
Feb 21 2021, 7:14 pm
Intersting, to me, that Space Station 13 just happens to get a mention here after /tg/station pushes a highly controversial update (the vote was somewhere around 50 for, 80 against) that admins stood their ground on for very little apparent reason, AND that specific rework - the combat update - is what gets mentioned here.
Feb 21 2021, 9:06 pm
In response to Cartlord
I know nothing about the politics of that update, nor does Spevacus. He wanted to reach out more to the SS13 community for Within BYOND (something I've also been wanting to see for a long time) and /tg was the first to respond. They had news and this was it.

I'm sure next time it'll be a different server, with some other piece of news that has mixed reception from the players, since the player base is a very diverse lot in terms of personalities and play styles.
Feb 22 2021, 9:05 am
In response to Cartlord
Cartlord wrote:
Intersting, to me, that Space Station 13 just happens to get a mention here after /tg/station pushes a highly controversial update (the vote was somewhere around 50 for, 80 against) that admins stood their ground on for very little apparent reason, AND that specific rework - the combat update - is what gets mentioned here.

In the interest of transparency: As Spevacus' pimp, I took an 80% cut of the bribe /tg/station admins offered Spevacus. That 80% of a garbage bag of Arby's fries was delicious. Come at me.
Feb 22 2021, 9:34 am
In response to Ter13
Ter13 wrote:
In the interest of transparency
Oh boy here we go.
As Spevacus' pimp
Citation needed.
I took an 80% cut of the bribe /tg/station admins offered Spevacus.
This is true. At the end of negotiations a man-horse-thing galloped into the back alley and threatened to trample the lot of us if we didn't hand over "the goods." We had no idea what "the goods" were, so we improvised.
That 80% of a garbage bag of Arby's fries was delicious. Come at me.
/tg/station admins, in desperation, snuck into an Arby's and stole enough fries to fill a literal garbage bag. If I weren't so horribly terrified by the man-horse, I'd have been impressed.

7/10 would raid Arby's again.
Feb 22 2021, 11:15 am
Arby's has crinkle-cut fries now, which makes a garbage bag full of them a more attractive proposition than it sounds on the surface.
Feb 22 2021, 12:54 pm
In response to Cartlord
Cartlord wrote:
the vote was somewhere around 50 for, 80 against

bruh, github +1s and -1s aren't votes

you don't get a say in how SS13 is made, that's at the discretion of maintainers
Feb 22 2021, 1:02 pm
In response to Spevacus
Spevacus wrote:
This is true. At the end of negotiations a man-horse-thing galloped into the back alley and threatened to trample the lot of us if we didn't hand over "the goods." We had no idea what "the goods" were, so we improvised.

This is totally terrifying, i'm never gonna accept /tg/ admins bribing. i woulnd't want this to happen to me.
Feb 22 2021, 2:35 pm
Hey that man-horse-thing is our host, say some nice words about him
Feb 23 2021, 7:46 pm
In response to Lummox JR
Okay, that is admittedly hilarious.
Feb 23 2021, 7:49 pm
In response to Lummox JR
Ah, understandable.
Feb 26 2021, 3:55 pm
Does anyone have a tutorial or guide I can check out for making particle rain and snow for my project? This seems like it would be very cool for making beautiful environments but I'm not super clear on where to begin
Feb 26 2021, 4:45 pm
In response to SinfulPhoenix
When you update to Beta, the reference has a very simple example for snow. Here it is in code form:

particles/snow
    width = 500     // 500 x 500 image to cover a moderately sized map
    height = 500
    count = 2500    // 2500 particles
    spawning = 12    // 12 new particles per 0.1s
    bound1 = list(-1000, -300, -1000)   // end particles at Y=-300
    lifespan = 600  // live for 60s max
    fade = 50       // fade out over the last 5s if still on screen
    // spawn within a certain x,y,z space
    position = generator("box", list(-300,250,0), list(300,300,50))
    // control how the snow falls
    gravity = list(0, -1)
    friction = 0.3  // shed 30% of velocity and drift every 0.1s
    drift = generator("sphere", 0, 2)
obj/snow
    screen_loc = "CENTER"
    particles = new/particles/snow

mob
    proc/CreateSnow()
        client?.screen += new/obj/snow


I would try reducing the drift, changing the color, increasing the gravity, and adjusting the fade values to try to achieve a rain effect. Everything else takes copious amounts of experimentation.

If you have more specific questions about trying to get a specific effect going, I recommend creating a new Developer Help thread or perhaps joining one of the BYOND Discord servers and inquiring there. All of the stuff I showcased here about particles was originally posted in one or more of the Discord servers I frequent.
Feb 26 2021, 4:47 pm
Yeah I'm currently experimenting with that code. I'm trying to figure out how to make the snow effect cover the entire screen, as it is only covering a 5x5ish square in the middle of my screen. I will make a developer help post. Thanks.