Sunday, November 25, 2007

HOLY %*#@&

Wow... Just found out something about the new language I've been using that blew my mind. Linked lists can be embedded into custom objects! That means DIRECT access to other objects pulled from other lists during previous iterations. And you can imagine in a real-time strategy game, where everything makes a target out of something else and with collision checks and whatnot, there is plenty of nested iteration to go around. This could pave the way to enormous increases in game speed. I wish I could bring this improvment back to the old version of the game to satiate those waiting for the new version, but alas, this is a result of some of the reasons I moved away from that language. :)
I won't rush into anything and probably won't modify my code to take advantage of this new discovery until it's all been converted, but based on preliminary testing I expect this to open a lot of doors; higher unit counts, better speeds, and possibly even larger board sizes.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Version Universal

Dune 2: TSHA vU is progressing. I've concisely separated the server/client modules from a design standpoint and am back into moving and converting the code from the previous project, making enhancements where available.
As for someone's comments on a mobile phone version: Dude, have you seriously thought about that? That's like putting a stock racing car on a sidewalk. Not really how it's meant to be used.
And since this touches on my overall thoughts on intellectual property, I'd like to add that I detest proprietary business models such as Apple's, and I think anything that can be infinitely reproduced (software and code in particular) should never be sold for profit. So, anything I create will always be free, and I'll be picky about which platforms I support. I'll support every operating system I can, because people are more limited in their choices there by many other factors beyond their control. But if you want to jump on the IPhone bandwagon, forget about me.