Monday 27 October 2014

Three minor unrelated things

I have redesigned my website. Should be nicer to browse now. Please report any broken links, suggestions, or other inconveniences.

I have also created a guide about how HyperRogue implements its hyperbolic geometry development. This gives some basics about how HyperRogue was created, of course the source is more detailed. I have seen a research article somewhere which uses a similar approach, I think I should link to it, but I cannot find it now...

Last but not least, you probably already know that if you are interested, but ADOM R51 is released for the backers! It uses NotEye 8.1a, of course.

Thursday 2 October 2014

NotEye 8.1 + Hydra Slayer 16.1

After a long break, NotEye 8.1 is released!

The biggest change here is porting NotEye to SDL2. The major advantage of this is that NotEye should run much more smoothly now, which should be visible now. In the future, it should be easier to port to modern hardware such as iOS or Android, or to create games with many windows. This required lots of work to achieve — for example, SDL2 input handling is very different from the SDL one. I suppose the new handling is usually convenient for game developers, but it makes things much more complicated for frontends such as NotEye, which have to simulate the system console of Windows or Linux, or to communicate with libtcod (which still uses SDL 1.2).

More changes include:
  • An OSX package is provided. You can now enjoy Hydra Slayer on a Mac!
  • Tile transformations are cached (tilemapping). Another solution which greatly improves the efficiency of NotEye.
  • Added more sizes of the minifont (used for the minimap in ASCII mode). Thanks to Asmerillion on the Polish roguelike forums for the files. Also the font selection menu has been split into two submenus.
  • Supports changing of mouse cursors and window icons. DOS mouse cursor is simulated in the fullscreen ASCII mode.
  • NotEye now supports TrueType fonts, modal windows, and special input codes (sent to the integrated game, but not corresponding to real keys). These are currently used only by ADOM.
  • I have decided to remove the RogueBard music from the official NotEye package. It is still included in the Bundle version, though.
  • The new sounds for Hydra Slayer are finished (well, for now at least). Thanks to Brett Cornwall for the new sounds!
In case you wonder where is NotEye 8.0: NotEye is intensively developed as a part of ADOM. The latest closed releases of ADOM (r48-50) use NotEye 8.0. There have been some changes since then, so this is NotEye 8.1.

Downloads: Have fun!

The Indie Ocean's Top 10 Roguelikes


The Indie Ocean has posted his top 10 roguelikes ever (so far) on YouTube. The list features my HyperRogue and Vapors of Insanity, as well as NotEye (as used by PRIME). Also several good, original, and less known roguelikes are covered, such as The Slimy Lichmummy (which I have tried already) or TraumaRL (which I still have to try). Watching recommended. Have fun!