I’m really not a webdev dude and it shows lol, but we got a new landing page now! The previous one looked “unique” (better on my screen in my defence) to the point I’m being cited as a part of the “anti-design” movement. You can’t take the artist out of me it seems.
This solves a few problems around communication, the first being that most progress was not really accessible unless you were already in the community. This shows how active the project is a bit better! It was also a bit tricky to keep up with the weekly video, and until its quality improves I believe it’s not currently worth the effort of translating them. So instead of having to spend big time every week, this style of short update is probably better? I was already doing it before, so it’s not like it takes much. Might be able to rig it to videos too, once I improve my pipeline a bit.
One of my next objectives is to move the Castagne community towards this website. Discord was a useful crutch there, but information easily gets lost, and it becomes more walled over time. This is going to happen slowly, as I also want to develop the engine, and being currently mostly a solo thing that means I’m already pressed for time lol. But this is a priority, as my gambit to develop a full engine in 3 months didn’t pan out as fast as I hoped so I’ll need to switch gears into more paced and clear development instead of a short intense period. I’m still very satisfied with the project’s progress, and you can see how many features are already in on the page.
This doesn’t change much my plans, except that March might be filled with more “admin” and “surrounding” work rather than pure programming, but it might make more people aware of the engine, which is nice! My next programming steps are going to be structured types (especially vectors) and either the physics or graphics module. Input already works, so this is some of the last steps to make the engine usable. Knowing the extra features coming, I can’t wait to port my own games to it!
Quick preview of changes:
The syntax is a bit different, check this:
# Assuming L is a button
IL: # Is L currently held down ?
IL.Press: # Is an L press buffered ?
# The buffer lasts around 8f at the moment, and is unbuffered if released
# If going into this branch, the event is consumed.
IL.Press?: # Same as previous, but doesn't consume the press.
I’ve worked a bit too much today to finish the CHECK in time lol so I’m giving a real quick preview
Target.VariableName, peep some examples:
Set(V, Target.V): Copies the value of V from the target inside of our own V.Set(Target.V, V): Writes the value of our own V into the target’s V.AttackDamage(Target.HP): Makes an attack that does exactly as much damage as the target has HP, killing him instantly if it hits!Fixed some bugs there and adjusted behavior to be defined
Subentities will now go to their parent, so the execution order is not shaken too much
CreateEntity and DestroyEntity have been renamed to EntityCreate and EntityDestroy for greater consistency, but I’m also adding aliases ! (they don’t work yet), so you can still write CreateEntity if you want. Gonna be useful when I want to write AttackFA instead of AttackFrameAdvantage
And NEW FUNCTION ! EntityDestroySubentities. Destroys your children. Combine it with EDestroy: to bring your children to the grave with you ! (in castagne)
The only remaining big module feature for the core is inter entity communication and targetting ! After that it’s onwards to the other modules
you can now destroy entities This also triggers a Destroy event so you can spawn one last VFX or something and detach it An entity’s subentities will be promoted to main entities (there’s no difference nowadays anyway except execution order), so you can kill (in the game) with no worries At the moment, there’s a bit of an edge case I haven’t decided on: if you kill a subentity that has subsubentities, should they go to the parent entity or be set free in the wild as strong independant entities? It’s the later at the moment, but I’m not sure if it’s the best course of action Additionally, I’ve decided for After to do what I said, and it now activates after every Action/Freeze/Halt phase has gone for entities and after a data sync but before entity destruction, and doesn’t process new entities created in After. With this, you can do both helper behavior like adding hurtboxes automatically if forgotten, or even synchronize entities a bit more, like tracking to the opponent. IF YOU’RE A REAL NERD THAT UNDERSTANDS WHAT I WROTE REACT WITH :brain:
I’ve added phases and events, compared to previous versions these work properly even with state calls That means that your custom code in states like AttackReactEvents doesn’t need an additional EOnAttackHit: anymore !
Also CallAfter is now EAfter, it’s an event now for easier use
Regarding EAfter, at the moment it’s akin to a second phase after the first, and runs after the inter-entity communication sync. I did it that way now to get it online, but I’m not sure how much of that to keep. I think I’ll remove the possibility of a state transition, but keep the barrier and sync to allow some tricky behavior that requires getting data from the other entities on the same frame
Lil surprise new function FlagCarryover(FlagName)
If the flag is raised, calls FlagNext on it
I use that pattern all the time and figured I might as well enshrine it instead of writing three lines everytime
New CASTAGNE CHECK! Got the editor working properly, onto the core module!
Nouveau CASTAGNE CHECK ! L’éditeur marche bien, c’est l’heure du module core !
Alright we’re in buisiness ! The editor link is now fairly robust (it works in all my tests, even if the engine itself crashes) and the lifetime of the engine is handled by the editor (so you don’t have to think about it) (in your computer the window will be hidden but on mine there’s no “minimize” function in my window manager lol)
Display is calibrated for accuracy rather than exact input, so there a bit (+2f) of input lag. This is due to godot’s rendering delay and only affects the editor. This could potentially be removed at a later time, but this would require a deeper dive into godot’s rendering architecture for something that’s not a priority. You may still test without input lag by launching the game separately (which the editor can also do). This is a bit of a downside of the separate editor, but there’s many upsides like the game crashing not crashing your editor too lol
But yeah good progress, this was one of the big technical issues to solve and it’s done now, the editor is almost usable in production now!
Editor now loads and saves files and projects ! It’s getting close to a usable state ! Main remaining things to go through for a minimum viable editor are:
Castagne CHECK! I reworked the compiler and my brain is fried help
J’ai retravaillé le compilo toute la semaine aled
New Castagne CHECK, this time on the modules! I also introduce the upcoming changes to the physics!
Nouveau Castagne CHECK, cette fois sur les modules! Je parle aussi des changement au module physique!
Actually lets ping @Castagne too because I need you guys to SUBSCRIBE (you don’t need to like, you can hate if you want) so that Youtube knows I’m trustworthy enough to put links and multiple audio dubs
Castagne CHECK #2 is out ! Come get some news on development Today’s subject : Godot 4 and Subentities
Gonna add an @everyone / @Castagne for a quick favor :
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE SO YOUTUBE LETS ME PUT LINKS IN THE DESCRIPTION AND MULTILANGUAGE AUDIO thank u
Castagne Editor now works!!! It uses IPC to allow for better UX and new possibilities (like network, customization, better crash handling…) and it was tricky. It’s fast enough, but can be improved if needed. I finally got the basics down for the project!!!
you gotta know right away
CASTAGNE NOW RUNS INSIDE OF GODOT 4
that’s it, that’s the message Doesn’t look like much (yet) but it does compile a casp file and run it inside of the CastagneEngine node Each time the button is pressed, an engine tick advances, and the state is read back with no issues.
What’s next?
While you might think it’s “just port the rest of the functions”, it’s actually the editor connection. Castagne’s true potential is unlocked by allowing it to serve as a tooling platform, and for that it needs close communication with the editor.
I’m thinking of making the editor a separate program, so that use is a bit simplified and you don’t need to download the full thing every time, or open and close the editor every 5 seconds, as well as permit more advanced features. This is going to be extra tricky however, so I want to nail it early.
The editor being functional will mark the end of the first phase of the compiled castagne rewrite: the core structure. Phase 2 will be continuing development on the core to allow each module to come back, thus building it back into working order.
(I’ll of course make a video like the one from monday to explain more, just give it a bit of time)
@Castagne-SmallUpdates First Castagne check / changelog preview / whatever you wanna call it I’ll try to put some small videos for progress from time to time With the software it’s really quick to make BUT i do need to spend a couple hours to improve it if I can I planned on doing dev today but I got roped into helping out with cursed computer problems lmao https://youtu.be/oklO_x6w5Ag
Starting stream soon! Come for the whiteboard catch up on castagne’s design lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3s8JSZg82Y
Castagne dev stream: Variables Let’s go, this time I actually slept before lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aprIF_6Ze1U
Hop in, we doing the compiler I’ll only ping @Streaming from now on if that becomes regular, so check the role if you’re interested! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkvQRiN0AU
As requested by you guys, dev stream for castagne https://youtube.com/live/wEmolGKz8pI?feature=share
Castagne for Godot 4 STARTED TODAY! currently doing setup and writing the design in full the new editor is going to be incredible