Pem's Code Blog

Revamped the the HUD buttons

mepem37 :: 2021/11/29 (Monday, November 29, 2021) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »

https://www.masterclass.com/classes/will-wright-teaches-game-design-and-theory

Just taking some notes while I watch it

1 Fundamentals: Learn stuff from other fields that you can pull in to game design.  That

mepem37 :: 2021/11/27 (Saturday, November 27, 2021) :: game design :: No Comments »

New blog post category

mepem37 :: 2021/11/27 (Saturday, November 27, 2021) :: game design :: No Comments »

New desktop (Threadripper 3990X) is setup and working great for Unreal Engine.

I noticed UMG keyboard input had some kludge behavior such as losing focus, so I migrated from using Key On Down helper to using Action Mappings for more of this.  Though it

mepem37 :: 2021/11/23 (Tuesday, November 23, 2021) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »

Just a small Saturday project inspired by crypto NFT collections.

Wrote a python script to generate 19,683 NFT’s.  Posted on solsea just to try it out.

Started on a simple DOGE one which does layers.

I used a modified version of https://github.com/Jon-Becker/nft-generator-py.git to generate the above images.  The basic idea is to have layers like background, foreground, accessory layers, etc.  PNG’s in a folder with white background as transparency (alpha).  Then combine the layers to do different variations.

The original popular version of this style of NFT was CryptoPunks June 2017.  The "bored ape yacht club" is a more recent popular example.  There’s already a DOGE version called "The Doge Pound".

According to https://www.nft-stats.com/collection/the-doge-pound , "The Doge Pound NFTs were sold 294 times in the last 7 days. The total sales volume for The Doge Pound was $4.28M. The average price of one The Doge Pound NFT was $14.6k" as of 2021/11/01.

From https://thedogepoundnft.com/

> Each Doge Pound has constructed algorithmically by mixing a variety of properties with different possibilities in the following categories:
Background, Clothing, Earring, Eyes, Eyewear, Mouth, Fur, and Hat.

> The Doge Pound was founded by three friends who set a goal and want to achieve it. Three oddly matched people expressing themselves via art and creating something interesting and hilarious.

mepem37 :: 2021/10/31 (Sunday, October 31, 2021) :: misc side projects :: No Comments »

My primary home development desktop is becoming an antique.  I have newer Android/iOS tablets and phones, Chromebook, Windows laptop, Kindle, Intel NUC mini desktop, etc.  A newer desktop and laptop at my day job.  A second (also old) Ubuntu desktop.  But it’s been over 8 years since I replaced my big desktop.

The motherboard is ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 Socket AM3+ DDR3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 AMD 990FX ATX Motherboard, which I appear to have purchased in 2013 (how the time flies).  Over the years, I upgraded the RAM, GPU, CPU, hard drives.  Oculus Rift required upgrading the CPU.  The motherboard has a 5 year warranty (I specifically ordered components with longer warranties), but I still had to replace the motherboard one time.

The original SSD is only 222 GB, and as it filled up I started using symlinks to other drives (I have seven total).

It was always kind of slow for Unreal Engine stuff.  And I seem to have evolved a habit of keeping an increasing amount of stuff (on multiple desktops) open at all times.  I considered putting web browsing, chat programs, notes etc on my Intel NUC (remote desktop) then just use the main desktop for Unreal and games.  But probably the saner thing is to just buy a new desktop every 3-5 years such as 2017 when Ryzen first came out.

The obvious choice is a 16 core Ryzen 5950X or a 12 core Ryzen 5900X with 32GB RAM.  Could definitely get something reasonably high end for under $4,000 (maybe under $3,000).  However, I might get a Threadripper 3990X (64 cores) instead.  It definitely seems like overkill (waste of money), but it sounds fun.

3990X was released Feb 2020.  I’ve been staring at rumors of "Threadripper 5000" series, but I don’t want to wait another 6+ months…

My old desktop with 16GB and 4 cores seems pretty weak for how I currently use my computer most of the time (especially when I use Unreal Engine).  I suspect 16 cores 32GB would be good enough.  So I don’t think I really have a good reason why I need a Threadripper with 64 cores and 128GB.  References:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Unreal-Engine-AMD-Ryzen-5000-Series-CPU-Performance-1967/#BenchmarkAnalysisCompilingSourceCode

https://www.techspot.com/review/1980-amd-threadripper-3990x/

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-threadripper-3990x-review

https://www.cgdirector.com/amd-threadripper-3990x-review/#Should_you_Buy_the_3990X_Is_Intel_even_a_consideration

https://techgage.com/article/maxon-cinema-4d-cpu-performance/

The last two links give an example where Threadripper 3990X is worse than Ryzen 59050X possibly due lower clockspeeds – Cinema 4D Viewport Benchmark

Either way, it’s a long overdue upgrade which will make it easier to do more fun stuff with Unreal Engine, Unity, etc.

2013:
 

2021:
 

mepem37 :: 2021/10/17 (Sunday, October 17, 2021) :: hardware and tools :: No Comments »

Our current plans for HeroQuest UE4 are:
1) finish importing all assets and verify each heroscribe map loads as expected
2) complete the game enough that user can play through book 00 from quest 1 to 14

The next step after that would be:
3) complete support for quest books 01-07
4) polish the game with music, sound effects, maybe transition from board game art to something more like Gloomhaven on Steam

Given the effort and complexity to implement 3 & 4, our tentative plan is to just focus on 1 & 2.  But TBD.

If someone out there reads this and wants to contribute…  Maybe a hardcore game developer that’s a HeroQuest fan.  Or someone who wants to get some UE4 experience (even newbies welcome).  Let me know, and I’ll be glad to share the code and advise (or mentor) on contributions.  Click the contact me link.

Or contact me if you want to start a different UE4 project – that’s probably my next side project after HeroQuest.

mepem37 :: 2020/11/30 (Monday, November 30, 2020) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »

Recent changes include:
* Lua scripting from Spiffy
* Spiffy is working on importing expansion assets (and we’ve both done some related reorganizing of asset files)

After we complete importing assets, next on our list is:
* connect the assets via C++ to open each heroscribe map (for monsters this means with basic stats)

mepem37 :: 2020/11/29 (Sunday, November 29, 2020) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »

Hasbro is releasing what appears to be a reprint of the standard game with basic expansions (Kellar’s Keep, Return of the Witch Lord).  From the description, it appears to be a reprint except that they removed Games Workshop IP – renaming Chaos to Dread (Dread Warriors, Dread Spells).  Replacing Fimir with Abomination.  I’m curious whether there are any other differences such as rules clarifications or balance tweaks – though at this point I’ll assume not until we hear otherwise.

The funding started this morning and it’s already at $857,000 out of the target $1,000,000.  That’s 5733 to 8600 copies pre-ordered in ~12 hours.  So I think it shows there is real interest in HeroQuest.

https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

mepem37 :: 2020/09/23 (Wednesday, September 23, 2020) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »

It’s been almost 3 months since my last update.  We haven’t made huge progress but still chipping away at it:
* update to latest LuaMachine
* incremental UMG tweaks (lots of them) for new UI
* fix bug: monster line of sight was spawning other monsters
* more Lua from Spiffy
* add to inventory gold – Lua support
* wandering monster – find closest spawn square with path to hero

Meanwhile, I’m working from home for lockdown, and Spiffy is continuing to contribute while he takes classes.

Here’s a screen shot spawning the wandering monster Orc – which searches for the closest path from an open square to a hero:

mepem37 :: 2020/09/22 (Tuesday, September 22, 2020) :: HeroQuest, Unreal Engine :: No Comments »