AMAZE - 18 - Experiment

For today's post, I'm going to try a new format. Instead of my usual style, I'm going to break up my posts into two parts. First, I'll provide a 'changelog' style of update, where just the features and fixes are listed. Then, I'll have a second part where I'll go more in-depth about something from the project, probably one of the features above it, and try to explain more precisely how it works. So, without further ado:

• Added a new file type, .oba, for premade objects. This pretty much follows the same format as objects do in map files.
• Added a new script function (Create) that creates a new object at a specific position and with a specific size and shape.
• Hitting escape anywhere outside of the menu now returns you to the menu. From the menu, escape still exits the game.

If you read my last post, you might be wondering why I got so little done despite having started on object files last week. I'm as surprised as you are. The main thing that kept me from finishing up this feature is a perplexing bug that I still don't understand. When making asset files, I use a library called zlib to compress them, making them much smaller. Then, when the time comes to load the files, I use zlib again to turn them back into their original form. Normally, this works like a charm. However, with the object files only, the loading process gives me nothing. I'm not sure why this process fails, as it's exactly the same as everything else that I use. Maybe I'll return to try and debug this later, but for now I just don't have the time. Eventually, I decided to settle with leaving the object files uncompressed. They're small enough as it is, so I'm not too worried about size issues.


If you have any feedback regarding the format of these posts, feel free to comment or send me an email at hugues.ross@gmail.com.