Minotaur Arcade Vol 1 (Gridrunner/Goatup)

[Deckard]

Thats good to hear - I am so looking forward to my LLamasoft Greatest Hits on my Switch....

[gilesgoat]

Thats good to hear - I am so looking forward to my LLamasoft Greatest Hits on my Switch....

Hopefully Switch could happen as a "consequence" when/if I am going to do another thing about this.

There is "a strange feeling in the air" about Switch, has to be said, and it's all down its shop and "visibility of the apps" that seems to be "abysmal"

"Voices on the streets" ( i.e. more than one ) seem to kinda say that "we should have a BUNCH of games on Switch" not just "two", of course "you need to start somewhere" so we should have at least something.

But the "overall vibe" that I am getting from the Switch, NOT by direct experience but from what "others are saying" is along the lines of "yes the Switch is a nice console but you won't make any money on it, the shop is too full of things to get noticed"

Which sounds like "a little bit" like "the iOS situation".

Said that I'd say that especially a thing like MA should be "almost at its right place" on the Switch.

Basically what I continue to hear is things like "If you want to do something specifically for Switch and think you'll make some ( decent ) money forget it ! If you can do it 'spare time' without expecting much of anything then do it".

Which is a bit of a sad thing to hear is it ?

Anyway I'd like to see some LS stuff on Switch too at some point but as I said "it may come out as consequence of another job" so do not despair.

[gilesgoat]

Thats good to hear - I am so looking forward to my LLamasoft Greatest Hits on my Switch....

Hopefully Switch could happen as a "consequence" when/if I am going to do another thing about this.

There is "a strange feeling in the air" about Switch, has to be said, and it's all down its shop and "visibility of the apps" that seems to be "abysmal"

"Voices on the streets" ( i.e. more than one ) seem to kinda say that "we should have a BUNCH of games on Switch" not just "two", of course "you need to start somewhere" so we should have at least something.

But the "overall vibe" that I am getting from the Switch, NOT by direct experience but from what "others are saying" is along the lines of "yes the Switch is a nice console but you won't make any money on it, the shop is too full of things to get noticed"

Which sounds like "a little bit" like "the iOS situation".

Said that I'd say that especially a thing like MA should be "almost at its right place" on the Switch.

Basically what I continue to hear is things like "If you want to do something specifically for Switch and think you'll make some ( decent ) money forget it ! If you can do it 'spare time' without expecting much of anything then do it".

Which is a bit of a sad thing to hear is it ?

Anyway I'd like to see some LS stuff on Switch too at some point but as I said "it may come out as consequence of another job" so do not despair.

Correction : let's say " If you can do it without expecting much of anything " ALWAYS applies everywhere and on anything.

I am just saying "when we'll be in the conditions to be able to do it someway without killing ourselves I'll be happy to do it"

[Whiteball]

Currently finishing with the Steam Leaderboards/Achivements/etc. integration plus the "omg omg I have a 120 Hz / 144 Hz/ something monitor" stuff and a few other things ..

Which .. turns out to be LOT MORE BORING and TIME CONSUMING than as usually expected but getting there.

Now the thing is turning out really cool, plays really nice .. will it be a "success" .. mah ...

I think these will be big in the VR realm.
Steam should be ok due to the Vive. Will they be in the Oculus store too?

[gilesgoat]

Currently finishing with the Steam Leaderboards/Achivements/etc. integration plus the "omg omg I have a 120 Hz / 144 Hz/ something monitor" stuff and a few other things ..

Which .. turns out to be LOT MORE BORING and TIME CONSUMING than as usually expected but getting there.

Now the thing is turning out really cool, plays really nice .. will it be a "success" .. mah ...

I think these will be big in the VR realm.
Steam should be ok due to the Vive. Will they be in the Oculus store too?

Now that's the funny thing, it probably will be NOT in the Oculus Store, that BTW I heard rumors they are a massive pain in the arse for "certification" to be in that store - I heard - I don't know for sure , but it will be on Steam for Oculus because so far we don't have plans to support the Vive for now ( we don't even have a Vive ).

So yeah, it will be Steam supporting Oculus ...

[Jamesac]

So, coming along nicely then?

https://twitter.com/llamasoft_ox/status ... 7231261697

[gilesgoat]

So, coming along nicely then?

https://twitter.com/llamasoft_ox/status ... 7231261697

I have a checklist of things to finish that I am still working on it.

However yesterday I completed the "PC installer" so there's a "MinotaurArcadeVol1_Setup.exe" that works.

By the way I got a response from some MS Expert about the monitor thing that starts like this :

G'day Ivan!

My initial impression is that expecting consistency from monitors is a crazy pipe dream! You're a brave soldier for taking on such an endeavor.

*snip*

I believe you're doing everything expected to achieve what you want. I spent the last few hours testing comparable code and my Samsung monitors (all three) displayed the same resolution & refresh rate information that I set ..

( follows quite long reply with other info I still have to better look at )

The monitor stuff is quite a complicated beast, I still have one more reply of yesterday to check after I explained another bit of code I tried to use with little success, however the current code seems to work "reasonably fine" ( in the sense that I am sure if someone want to use some really weird hell-knows-what-settings it can probably still screw up but there's only so much can be done ).

But "A lot of other things been fixed", this actually to date is definitely "one of my most complex PC works" and "I want to get it right so I can re-use it for time to come".

Yesterday I was re-checking some files/licensing issues/shit .. GOAT time are really changed since last time I did some PC stuff ( SG and GRPPP ) ... "min specs 256 Mb ram and DX 9.0c"

But yeah while Jeff keeps filing stuff and testing on PC/PS4/etc. to be sure the game is "consistent" in all forms/etc. I do my best to be sure to file "as many as I can" of "all the PC annoyances" and this is really a very hard task, it also involves me ( trying to ) run many tests and be sure "at least it's not super crap"

Speaking of which, at this point, we may start "soon" to ask to some "would you like to be part of a PC testing phase thing ?".

You'd need :

1. A "capable" PC
2. Possibly but not necessary an Xbox360 / One gamepad
3. unless you are weirdo that has some other weird controller that someway you can make it work with Xinput
4. a monitor of some sort where possible you can change some refresh rate to see what happens
5. some time to spend
6. capability to report as best as possible what you done ( i.e. possibly NOT just "I don't know what I've done, it crashed, I can't remember what I was doing" )
7. possibly having an Oculus Rift ( remember the game is VR TOO if you have it )

When we collected a number of people ( not hundreds or I'll get insane ) will let you know, actually let's do like this "send me an email to gilesgoat@llamasoft.co.uk with subject "Wish to test Minotaur Arcade", ( I am over quoting DAMMIT "" "" ) , include your real name AND the forum name that I will use to create an account in our bugtracker/stuff you can log in".

Rememeber "the forum name or nick" is IMPORTANT, or I get emails like "Hey I am Sibelius Von Konekkamp The 3rd"" ... WHO ??!!! and then 3 emails later maybe like "Oh yeah BTW I am Jamesac .. " ... OH ?!

Then I can't distinguish you from spam or such otherwise

Ah yes Jeff reminds me I need to sort some audio samples ...

Anyway there you go

[Jamesac]

Be right back, gotta go legally change my name to Sibelius Von Konekkamp The 3rd.

Oh look, Yak posted a new video!

[gilesgoat]

Ok before you'll get anything I am still working on some shit ...

In Windows 10 ALL WORKS ..

In Windows 8.1 in one machine I get a "missing D3DCOMPILER_47.dll" that I am sure I DO NOT USE but "some parts of windows does"

In Windows 8.1 in another machine I do NOT get that ( and turns out that DLL is present in Windows/System32 ) but I get another shit. (*)

In Windows 7 I haven't tried yet.

So I am still a bit on this & that before to say "ok let's test this".

[edit] (*) Ok just sorted "that shit" by re-compiling using the "Win 8.1 SDK" version instead of 10.0.15063.0

[Chris_R]

Giles,
I've signed up to help out with the testing but a thought has just occurred to me. Do you have any thoughts on how it might run under WINE? My oldest lad has completely switched over to Linux on his gaming PC and so I'll happily get him to try it out on there too. I realize that won't be a priority for you but it'd be a nice bonus if it does work.

[gilesgoat]

... it might run under WINE?

*BLASPHEMY* !!!!

My oldest lad has completely switched over to Linux on his gaming PC ...

In my time "serious people" were using Linux via an RS232 port, from a VT320, TEXT ONLY, actually it wasn't Linux it was some Real Time Unix something version running in some weird HW you were only allowed to use VI or MAYBE Emacs ( but that was 'too evolved' ) the C compiler ( K&R ) was your only credo and you had to be writing "system software" all time, there was not any "amenities" like "games" ? .. on LINUX ?? ...

.. tch .. tch .. they don't want to use Windows but they use a Window emulator ... perversion ..

Said that "I have not a clue what a thing needs to run on Wine" my SW tends to be "as much by the book ( MSDN ) as possible MS says it has to be" and "possibly working on most PCs".

It should not have "huge problems" as apart from the "occasional thing needed from the OS" it's quite "self contained".

There's a "BUT" in this new thing, is designed to for Steam with the Steam library/SDK, it can run without it, but I have not a clue what WINE could do with/to it.

For the rest "it's all Directx" depends how good they emulated those.

Said this "I never understood what linux wants" .. I suppose/fear you ( I ) do something on it only to find out things like "needs THAT lib 1.0.176.23.12.1301.11.77 but WILL NOT work with 1.0.176.23.12.1301.11.78 BUT COULD WORK PARTIALLY with 1.0.176.23.12.1301.11.79 "Friday version compiled at 14.32 NOT the one compiled at 15.16" ..

Also WHAT is "Linux" nowadays ? .. Ubuntu ? Gentoo ? Archie ? Slackware ? Red Hat ? SuSE ? Fesity Fawn ? Bouncy Elf ? Running Zebra ?

OpenGL ? LUOpenGL ? GLESNotGL, XDIRECT, FancyNameSDK, NotVulkanButVulcan, IndirectY ?

All of the above mixed in a jar , shake well, punto into an RMP pardon no now there's some other fancy packing system that's all the new rage now ?

Or there's the "megacorporation" Unity/Unreal that has a Linux version of that too ? ( which would "defeat" the "Linux philosophy" )

Well if suppose you can try it and you tell me what happens when you run it ...

[Chris_R]

I did laugh at him today when he said he was going to write his own game engine in C for Linux as he didn't want to use a framework and he wanted complete control. I said he was sounding like Giles and that I'd be hearing "MA DIO" echoing around the house. But to be fair he's learned a lot of C over the last few months and he has tweaked some of source for the MAME set up we've got running on our cabinet so I'll see how he gets on.

I have no idea whether your stuff will work but I'll just lob it in his direction and let him try, best way to learn. I've certainly no expectation that you'd do anything to accommodate WINE, you've more than enough to be worrying about.

[gilesgoat]

I did laugh at him today when he said he was going to write his own game engine in C for Linux as he didn't want to use a framework and he wanted complete control. I said he was sounding like Giles and that I'd be hearing "MA DIO" echoing around the house. But to be fair he's learned a lot of C over the last few months and he has tweaked some of source for the MAME set up we've got running on our cabinet so I'll see how he gets on.

I have no idea whether your stuff will work but I'll just lob it in his direction and let him try, best way to learn. I've certainly no expectation that you'd do anything to accommodate WINE, you've more than enough to be worrying about.

The thing is I have not even a remote clue what it means "to accomodate WINE", I never done anything 'specifically' for it.

Doing a game engine, if he starts even with a simple 2D or simpler 3D thing 'is not impossible' what you'll end up is YOUR OWN FRAMEWORK .. still a framework .. where you'll have "nearly total control" ..

Said that "it usually goes" that "graphics you can sort it in a snap" .. audio could be a bit of a problem .. "all the fraking rest" controllers input, save/load things, communication with external stuff -> UTTER NIGHTMARE ..

Then in our case we try to be really "multi plattform" so you can only imagine.

I'd reccomend him this 43 mins talk I've done at Codemotion Rome in 2018 ..



And yes liters of coffee and TONS of MA DIO expected ...

I'd reccomend also the use of "Mantis Bugtracker" THAT I DID INSTALL on my Linux server even as "alone" I love it to keep track of things.

Yes I do have a Linux server, yes I can make SOME things work, no the only time I've done "real time graphics" was AEONS ago using PURE X11 function calls.

.. I still love X11 ..

[Chris_R]

Thanks Giles, I'll get him to take a look.

On the MA games, how do you think they'd play with an 8 way joystick? I've always though GR's natural home is an arcade cabinet so I was thinking of trying it out in the cab.

[Chris_R]

I can confirm that MA runs under WINE and so I can play GR on my cab - hooray
It's only running on an IBM thinkpad so not a great spec. GoatUp is too slow to play and GR is OK at 640x480.
Giles, please delete this post if you feel it breaches NDA,