Re: [pygame] PCR & other notes

[sylvain.dufour@hotpop.com]

Hi all,

just thought I'd throw my 2 cents on this thread...

As a beginning pygamer I really enjoyed the PCR, those code snippets are 
very useful to learn more about graphics programming and pygame, though a 
lot of them are not "total beginner - friendly" - I mean I had a solid 
background in programming before learning python, but I think someone who 
choose pygame "just to learn how to program games" might find himself 
quickly lost after reading the few (though good) pygame tutorials.
So (and this is my first point), a good improvement to the PCR would be to 
rate the code snippets according to "skill needed to understand" and source 
readability - perhaps a user rating system, with votes on three category, 
skill level (novice - skilled - advanced), usability, "cleverness" (how 
good the algo or the implementation of the idea is, what I call the "geek 
factor")

Having a set of classes with base game functionality would be quite useful 
(at least to somehow as lazy as I am...), but lots of the things listed 
below already exist, for example vector classes as in cgkit 
(http://cgkit.sf.net if I remenber well).
Maybe a collective hunt for existing stuff might be useful, with someone 
compiling a list of all links and publishing it on the PCR pages, or on a 
wiki somewhere, like the one on http://py3d.org

Third, the license issue: I like my stuff to be as GPLed as possible, I 
don't like wasting my precious brain CPU resources on trying to find how 
different licenses might interact, maybe some lowest common denominator 
could be found (LGPL)... Or maybe that's not an issue at all (I don't know, 
license_issue = 'headaches' for me...)

Last point, not precisely related to the PCR - it seems some people are 
choosing OpenGL for rendering, just wondering if putting more emphasis on 
pygame-pyOpenGL compatibility (which works great) might increase pygame 
popularity...

That's all for now... btw sorry for my crappy english...

Cheers,
sylvain



At 09:32 24/03/03 +1000, Rene Dudfield <illumen@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I think a good idea would be to look at a few games and see any areas 
> where their functionality overlaps.  Then take that code from them to make 
> modules which all the different games can use instead.  This way it is 
> likely that whatevar code is made will be quite useful for yet more 
> games.  Even more likely that the code will be fairly efficient and 
> correct, as it is being used allready.
>
> Such things as animation, path, map scrolling, vector classes I've seen in 
> a number of different games.  So those would be a good place to start.
>
> Be also neat to get the different transition effects in the pcr into an 
> 'transitions' module.  Things like fade to black/white, the pixelized 
> thing, wipes, warps, etc.