cfgt's Lua Interpreter v0.01! - Updated!

Here's an awesome release of one of the components from my upcoming game! It's a Lua interpreter! It doesn't work perfectly yet. I've added a command so that you can print out variable contents (since lua can't write out to the console normally using the print command): it's called consolewrite - and all you have to do to use it is type 'consolewrite(variablename)' and it'll print out the contents of the variable no problem. It's a great piece of software - very minimalist user interface (I love command line programs). You'll need .NET Framework 3.5 (grab it here if you don't have it installed) installed on your computer to run it.

Yeah, I don't know much LUA, but hey, it works!

Download it here (Mediafire) 129kb

Have fun playing with it! I've hidden a command in it (it's real easy to find, trust me - so you don't have to worry about spending hours trying to decipher a crazy puzzle - that's for next year).

A few things you should know before trying it out:

If you've got a Lua script that's purely Lua and nothing else, it should run perfectly using the dofile command (I've made sure it works.)

I believe the program shouldn't crash just because you're typing gibberish into it. It may be rudimentary - but it should have pretty OK error handling.

To exit the program, type 'exit' or 'quit' and the command prompt and the program will close itself. It doesn't leave behind any log files and the error messages are generally unhelpful - although that's probably something I'll work on.

If you find any bugs in this very early alpha version, report it!

Update - I made a small mistake during compiling which may cause problems for some people. Not sure if it'll fix anything, but I've updated the EXE anyway. I've called the new version 0.02 although it's only a hotfix.

Why a D90 over a D60

Like just about every crazy purchase, you must have your excuses. (I won't say reasons, since they are indeed excuses.) There is are quite a few reasons why I bought this particular model, and I am quite sure many people, even Canon users can come up with them too.

1. Access to more lenses - the D90 comes with the AF motor needed to drive many older design lenses - using them could save you a fair bit of money over the equivalent newer ones. If you buy plenty of lenses, this pays for itself bloody fast.

2. Wireless flash system - the D90 comes with the ability to use wireless slave flashes - no need to lug around an extra flash like on the D60 to do the same commanding. (the extra flash can now be a wireless slave too!)

3. The ability to keep ADR on Auto at all times - this might not matter to most people, but this is a lifesaver on many occasions for a newbie like me. The overhead of ADR on the D60 is just way too high to bother.

4. Live view - no need to go blind when taking those high angle shots - you can now see what you're doing.

5. More buttons - the nikon D90 has plenty of buttons so you can change just about about setting that matters to you. No more weighing pros and cons of assigning the Fn button - instead you'll be busy looking for something to assign to the Fn button instead.

6. The screen - the 3 inch screen gives dSLRs what would probably be the biggest gripe of upgraders from p+s a big kick out the door. The screen is brilliant, sharp and shows you so much more. It's less a matter size than it is resolution.

7. Faster autofocus - it ain't the D300, but the AF system is faster than the D60, it is however more confusing to use. Coupled with a fast focusing lens - the camera feels crazy fast compared to the D60's occasional hiccup. (Of course, while it is indeed more confusing - it's faster - and actually means you can just point and shoot  - less recomposing required. )

8. Movie mode - not really a reason for me, but it does mean i don't have to bring a p+s around to take the occasional video - i can just go all over the place with merely my D90 and 18-200 VR.

9. Better battery life - unlike the D60, the D90 does have an official battery grip for it, in addition to having a longer battery life to begin with.

10. Sensor - the sensor is ISO 200 to 3200, more sensitive than the D60. This essentially means better lowlight performance, not to mention this sensor should be highly similar to the D300 - giving us plenty of bang for our buck.

Photography?

You'll notice the mention of a 50mm prime. What the hell is that? If you haven't already noticed - I've gotten plenty of control over depth of field recently - and my photos have somehow gotten sharper. The flash has somehow become more diffused than it used to be.

Yep - that's right, I went through a few cameras - and now I'm finally settling with a DSLR - just a year after my 3-year-old Cybershot point-and-shoot decided to leave this world for a better place. I've gone through two cameras - and soon, I'll have the camera I have been planning to buy ever since it was announced. Which one? I'll wait until I can get a good shot of it with a friend's dSLR.

What might surprise you? I'm in the Nikon camp! Aha - that might give you a great clue as to what it is!

It's just another new hobby, together with speedcubing.

A flower from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne

Taken with an 18-55mm DX VR at 22mm, f/4 with a shutter speed of 1/250

I have a long way to go before good photos do show up. Heh.

Sword Fantasy! Maybe Sticks First.

I've once again decided to begin work on developing a game engine for Sword Fantasy. I've decided to start with Haaf's Game Engine, and hopefully I'll have some rudimentary version of the game engine running. The goal is to finish the game engine before moving on to Sword Fantasy. My goals:

1. Implement a working collision detection engine, either by using an existing one or writing my own.

2. Work on loading screens, menus, narration, message boxes, inventory screens and so on.

3. Obviously, implement some text file parser into the engine for maps, scripts, AI behaviour and savegames.

4. Implement a savegame system. (This will probably more of a between areas kind of thing since I intend for Sword Fantasy to be linear in fashion. I'm not fond of backtracking through a game.) This aims to eventually have a flag system so that if you want to backtrack, you can, although the game will have a mission selector.

5. Implement a physics engine. This is the tricky one. I know there are good ones out there - I am currently looking at Box2D and Chipmunk. I think I lack the skill to implement one - and since it's unimportant or more of a luxury, I'll probably skip this goal if it means I'll actually finish the engine. I know that having one of these will eventually afford me fun puzzles, great graphics and awesome tools with which to build fun levels. However, if it will cost me too much time and effort to implement one, I'll stick with lame math. :P

6. Make a rudimentary game. Obviously, making the engine doesn't equal making a game - and since I don't have the confidence to pull Sword Fantasy off yet, I'll be making a simpler similar game to test and demo my final completed merged engine.

As for development timeline:

End of September 2008: Swords + Sticks with rudimentary menu, loading process and exactly one level.

End of December 2008: Swords + Sticks with menus and options (hopefully with gamepad support - since it is meant for gamepads, although the control scheme will work well with keyboards - mice support will come eventually and hopefully the game will scale well to more than one resolution, so some rudimentary error prone option will be around I guess) that save OR inventory, save game system and (hopefully) a repertoire of five levels

I don't expect to finish anything.