Re: [pygame] Frantic (again)

["David Mikesell" <dave_mikesell@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Rene!   Comments below.

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:27:18 +1000, "Rene Dudfield" <renesd@xxxxxxxxx>
said:
> Hi,
> 
> I like your improvements.  The game is looking better, and sounding
> better :)

Thanks!  Been a lot of work.

> 
> However it takes *ages* to load.  Have you considered packing all of
> your images into a couple of big images?  I see you already do that
> for the explosion animations, and the rotated ships.  That would make
> the game load a lot quicker.

So pack the filmstrips into larger sheets?   Didn't think of that, but
it's worth a try.

> 
> Maybe have a little timer animation on the loading screen to show
> loading progress, so I know something is still happening.  If you
> could show a progress bar, or % loaded that would be even better.

That is something I definitely need to do.

> 
> I think it might have been because I had a machine with only 512MB of
> ram.  amd athlon 2100+, geforce ti4200 64MB vid ram.  After I finished
> the game windows told me it was increasing the amount of virtual
> memory I used.

Frankly, I'm surprised it ran at all on that machine.   
> 
> So maybe you could only load the animations, and images you need on
> each level?  That would reduce the memory requirements.

Good idea.  Will start on that next.

> 
> Do you use dirty rects for updating the screen?  The game seems to
> slow down during some animations.  I think it may have to do with
> swapping memory to disk.  So maybe fixing the memory usage would fix
> the slow downs too... not sure.

Yes, I'm using dirty rects.  

> 
> Have you considered limiting the frame rate to say 30fps?  That way it
> might look smoother overall.

I'll look into that as well.

> 
> I liked your new story, and the thrusters.

I plan an evil twist at the end, but it's still developing :)

> 
> Good work... keep it up.  You're almost there :)

Thanks for the encouragement.   It means a lot.

Dave