Old 11-23-2011, 01:30 AM   #1521
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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Originally Posted by YOSHl View Post
there is a changelog, i think he was talking about a seperate thing, indicating the things that are being worked on, like a TODO list for FFR with priority and stuff
This exactly
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Old 11-23-2011, 02:55 AM   #1522
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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Originally Posted by Velocity View Post
You have to remember that when FFR was first created back in 2002, only AS1 existed. Flash 7 and AS2 were released in 2003. Back at that time, actionscript was still very basic and people made due with what they had.

The only real problem is that over the years, FFR was never changed internally to support the demand for more extensive features, and everything was built around it. The fact that Synth was even able to make a rhythm game back so long ago that played smoothly was a big undertaking.

Part of the reason flash lags is honestly flash itself. The graphics engine they use up until Flash 11 and it's Stage3D is complete crap.

If I were to spawn every arrow in a song, and have them move, the old Flash graphics engine would scan EVERY PIXEL to check if it moved which makes total sense, and update accordingly. The happens every frame of course. But, flash also checks every pixel even if it's not in the view port, so if I were to spawn all the arrows, the area that contains the arrows would be massive and would check every pixel in that area. Which is slooooooooooooooooooooooow

Also Actionscript 3.0 added limited support for hardware acceleration (DirectX, OpenGL).

What Synth did was actual smart, by only rendering notes that need to be visible, it prevents a massive amount of lag.

TL;DR: Flash Graphics were and still are garbage except Stage3D that was included in Flash 11. Also Synth is smart and did the best he could years ago.

And just to understand how garbage Actionscript 1/2 are compared to Actionscript 3:

var i = 0;
var extrememememememememememelyLongVarName = 0;

in AS1/2, exemem...VarName is referenced slower then i.
in AS3, both of these are the exact same speed and length doesn't matter.
Interesting. I've always liked learning the quirks of engines. Re-coding would be well worth the time and effort, but it's not even really important. I mean, if you are gonna even think about starting on it you're pretty much gonna have to drop all your current projects for it, because anything you start now will be probably way easier once you get it all finished and polished up.

The one thing that stands in the way is brainstorming the proper approach to this new "engine". I.e. What is wrong with the current way the game reads and sends arrows, and what can you do to destroy that problem.

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Alternatively, you can look at it as a high goal one can strive to accomplish. Up to you. *shrugs*
I personally view player goals as [Heavy] -> [Oni] -> St. Scarhand. I like that format, and anyone who wants to play SHand can go on SM, anyway.
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Old 11-23-2011, 11:25 AM   #1523
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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Interesting. I've always liked learning the quirks of engines. Re-coding would be well worth the time and effort, but it's not even really important. I mean, if you are gonna even think about starting on it you're pretty much gonna have to drop all your current projects for it, because anything you start now will be probably way easier once you get it all finished and polished up.

The one thing that stands in the way is brainstorming the proper approach to this new "engine". I.e. What is wrong with the current way the game reads and sends arrows, and what can you do to destroy that problem.
Surprisingly enough, the projects have been in development for a long time. R^2 was started back in September, and the complete site recode even before that.

So dropping all projects really isn't necessary, we're just pacing ourselves so things are done right the first time. It's the amount of work to get everything redone is the worse part.

How the game loads notes into play along with spawning hasn't changed much at all. KBO uses an SM file encoded into an xml file. The engine itself converters ti to both frames, and MS timings. The engine spawns the notes according to the frame number and judges compared to the ms timing. Thirdstyle and even the old R2 from awhile ago did the same thing in essence.

It's really about optimizing all the code that runs during the level, more code/graphic update = more lag.


A small thing I forgot to mention about how the old graphic engine rendered things. Instead of picking the top layer and rendering that, flash renders every layer even ones that can't be seen. Movieclips have a option call "Bitmap Cache" that caches the image into memory instead of rendering the movieclip each time even when it hasn't changed. In order for the bitmap cache to be updated, it has to pass a tolerance level of how many pixels have changed from my understanding. If it passes this point, it updates.

Things that are constantly moving are slower is bitmap cache are used since it has to render it, then cache it. while things that are layered but don't move gain from it. Which means in terms of FFR which has few layers and many moving things, using the bitmap cache is slower then not using it.

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Old 11-23-2011, 03:37 PM   #1524
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

Would it be possible to not delete "used" notes, but simply move them to another array? That might make it easier to move around in a file. (Or actually... how about just using a pointer in the note array, and then incrementing the pointer rather than deleting notes? Can that be done?)

As far as the idea of clicking on a time and playing the replay from then, how about this: remove all arrows and replay hits before that frame, then essentially start playing only the part of the chart from there to the end. You would have a ~30 frame empty spot at the start before the notes start to appear, and with some clever mp3 manipulation it might be possible to get it to display on sync. I'm not a flash expert, but from your description of the arrow spawning engine it seems like it could work.
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Old 11-23-2011, 04:03 PM   #1525
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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Would it be possible to not delete "used" notes, but simply move them to another array? That might make it easier to move around in a file. (Or actually... how about just using a pointer in the note array, and then incrementing the pointer rather than deleting notes? Can that be done?)

As far as the idea of clicking on a time and playing the replay from then, how about this: remove all arrows and replay hits before that frame, then essentially start playing only the part of the chart from there to the end. You would have a ~30 frame empty spot at the start before the notes start to appear, and with some clever mp3 manipulation it might be possible to get it to display on sync. I'm not a flash expert, but from your description of the arrow spawning engine it seems like it could work.
The idea could always work, but the amount of code I would need to throw into it would be more then the gameplay itself. Which is why I said it was impossible.

The easiest why to make it work is kinda what you said and I don't even need to play with the mp3, I just have to go to the frame in the level swf and flash knows what to play.
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:19 PM   #1526
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

Suggestion - Whore tokens less than 1 bil in a day

200,000,000 - Random new token song
500,000,000 - Random new token song
750,000,000 - Random new token song
1bil - VROFL

Edit:// Edited due to my misunderstanding, this is what I meant
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:19 PM   #1527
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

The lag issue is not within the control of the coders of the game - remember that the game is entirely coded on Flash.

As far as removing old engines, which ones are you referring to? The one in the FFR_the_Game.php is the legacy engine, and /~velocity/(etc.) is the current engine. There are a few really old engines, like one that has no note colors (not sure if it was removed at any point), and the av-miss engine still on the site.

EDIT: -1 for Heavy/Oni score unlocks
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:23 PM   #1528
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

I thought 1 bil already unlocked Oni once you posted it in that thread
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:23 PM   #1529
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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I thought 1 bil already unlocked Oni once you posted it in that thread
1 billion in a day unlocks vROFL.
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:24 PM   #1530
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

the heavy/oni tokens are to represent a milestone in your skill

it's not to commemorate whoring
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:37 PM   #1531
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

Oops, sorry I had the tokens mixed up, sorry for the misunderstanding

Edit:// But maybe add some whoring tokens? that was the idea

Edit2:// I edited my first post for what I meant, sorry for the confusion
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Old 11-25-2011, 12:58 PM   #1532
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

IMO, whoring isn't exactly something that should be rewarded/encouraged, nor is it very productive.
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Old 11-25-2011, 01:05 PM   #1533
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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the heavy/oni tokens are to represent a milestone in your skill

it's not to commemorate whoring
get you can add ST.Scarhand there as well.. xD
although it has to be only one song , yet, i think it is a milestone as well.
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Old 11-25-2011, 02:05 PM   #1534
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

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IMO, whoring isn't exactly something that should be rewarded/encouraged, nor is it very productive.
Lower amounts could be obtained just by going through the level ranks, which is very productive.

As for scarhand, I disagree there, like they said, it would demean the value of the token to add whoring req. I was suggesting whore only tokens.
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Old 11-25-2011, 02:21 PM   #1535
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

You weren't specific anyhow. If by "whoring-type tokens" you're referring to playing a particular song/group of songs many many times, I'm against it. If you're talking about attaining a certain grand total or something, then maybe...but I still don't like that idea very much.
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Old 11-25-2011, 02:23 PM   #1536
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

same here...
arrow mashing is far from true skill, and that is what you do if you want to get a total amount of points during a small time cap.
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Old 11-25-2011, 03:54 PM   #1537
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

But something you guys have to think about is that a whoring token encourages people to play more, and a lot of people don't just whore mindlessly...it's a good way to rack up some gt points, and also to exercise your stamina abilities. I think gamewhoring tokens are a decent idea. What is the worst that comes from whoring tokens? The arrow guessing game gets harder?

Seriously though...what are the real disadvantages? Whoring 1bil points isn't going to hurt the game or community any, just might provide me some discomfort. I agree mashing songs mindlessly is not productive towards building skill, but a token or two for racking up points isn't going to make people mash for life. I think it's an interesting new idea for more tokens and shouldn't be shot down too quick.

+1.
Good idea, Saxrunner
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Old 11-30-2011, 01:09 PM   #1538
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

I'd like to take a minute, and clarify what i was talking about, since vel seems to be thread watching now.

Okay so, on everyone's profile there's this:



however, as far as i understand it, this no longer shows AAA/FC count for TOKEN songs.

what I'd like to see, is an additional "game-play stats" for AAA/FC of token songs.

also, on that note, a number counter (in place of TP) for number of tokens unlocked. yes i know, you can always look at the tokens and count them, but it'd be nice to see it in xxx/xxx format.

does that clear it up?
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Old 11-30-2011, 04:43 PM   #1539
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

Either I'm missing something, or there's no Left/Right turn mods.

And I don't see why not, since the LD engine has them.
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Old 11-30-2011, 05:14 PM   #1540
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Default Re: FFR Suggestions

Changes the pattern of a file significantly (mirror still preserves the original chart to a greater degree), so those options were taken out. People would take advantage of that too much, and it really reduces the acknowledgement of the original file.
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