Project Carrot

[Soulweaver]

https://i.imgur.com/w19gaLy.png
Project Carrot homepage (https://carrot.soulweaver.fi/)
GitHub: Project Carrot (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot) · PCAE (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot-pcae) · PCTC (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot-pctc) · PCLC (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot-pclc)

Current project status (1/2017): Semi-active
Slowly progressing, but also putting quite a bit of time into other things. Such as AGDQ'17 :p

Good to see my million years old account still works :p

I've been writing a JJ2 engine clone, titled Project Carrot for now, since this February. The plan is, of course, emulate the whole game without losing compatibility to old levels and tilesets while adding new features (like you can already have as many foreground and background layers as you want to). There are though some secondary features I have already decided to drop such as Caption tiles (likely to cause a lot of extra headache for little profit) and level password protection (source code being eventually open source would render any kind of protection useless because user could just check how the game decrypts the data for its own use).

I decided against announcing the project here immediately back then as I'm painfully aware how game development by casuals works most of the time: announce a project, work on it for a week, forget it till eternity. So I've been holding this back for quite a while now, but as I'm still three months later still working on it, I thought it'd be great to show it off a bit.

I recorded a short-ish overview of the current state of the engine and put it on YouTube. You can see it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jeLF_v6xI). The second preview video was recorded in October 2013 and is available here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uFeWwbaKcg), and the third video from May 2016 is likewise here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOS92nuHoXQ).

See the newest additions from the git commit history (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot/commits/master) in the repository.

----

Once I feel the code is complete enough, the game will be available for download and the source code <s>will be made public (I'll put it on git or something)</s> it already is. Or if I decide to scrap it, the source code will still be published. Until then, you'll just need to wait :p (I have so many personal projects that don't expect anything completely implementing all of Jazz2 for a year or two at least.)

So, yeah. Any thoughts, ideas I should record for later, etc.?

E: And of course, I need to express my gratitude to everyone who has been involved with taking apart the proprietary formats during the many years after the game was released. Making this would be a thousandfold harder without all the knowledge floating around :)

[Violet CLM]

Well, I'm sold! Some initial thoughts:
The framerate, and the turtles' movement in particular, looks a bit slow. Is this an artifact of running recording software?
The layer speeds look accurate, though it's harder to tell for non-standard resolutions. I notice layer 8 is also moving, which makes total sense, but is also some sort of statement about how you view emulation. Or just something you haven't cared enough to change yet, whichever.
I noticed an "Actors" count, which would appear to be the number of active objects, since it increases when you shoot a bullet and decreases when you collect a pickup or shoot an enemy. I also noticed that it's totally global and counts all the active objects anywhere in the level. Obviously this is a work in progress, but I might as well ask sooner rather than later: you know that's not how Single Player works?
"I haven't yet extracted the animation for [shooting while hanging] nor specified the ammo starting point." But they're in anims.j2a in the exact same place as Jazz's other animations, and internally specify their "ammo starting point" in the exact same <em>way</em> as Jazz's other animations. What's the problem here? Are you not reading the .j2a file?
What's with the weird converting .j2l and .j2t files into other formats thing? Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to be able to play them directly?
What are you basing your code on, physics and animation code in particular? Careful observations of JJ2 in action, or a disassembly of the executable, or what?

[cooba]

This looks very promising.

[Soulweaver]

Thank you for the kind thoughts and feedback :p

"I haven't yet extracted the animation for [shooting while hanging] nor specified the ammo starting point." But they're in anims.j2a in the exact same place as Jazz's other animations, and internally specify their "ammo starting point" in the exact same <em>way</em> as Jazz's other animations. What's the problem here? Are you not reading the .j2a file?
I am indeed not reading the .j2a file but instead specifying hard coded filenames coupled with fixed center points and FPSes from inside the code. That will probably change later, though, for both structural and legal reasons.

The framerate, and the turtles' movement in particular, looks a bit slow. Is this an artifact of running recording software?
Some of the speed differences come indeed from recording software which both slows down drawing a bit and can only record at max. 30FPS itself. It might be that I have typed an incorrect FPS for the turtle walk animation as well.

The layer speeds look accurate, though it's harder to tell for non-standard resolutions. I notice layer 8 is also moving, which makes total sense, but is also some sort of statement about how you view emulation. Or just something you haven't cared enough to change yet, whichever.
I can see what you mean; I didn't play around with JJ2 to notice this. Castle1.j2l seems to have non-zero speeds on layer 8 and I am just blindly using those :p At the same time it is a feature as you can define a speed to it just like any other layer (except sprite layer). A proper solution to this would probably be to ignore Layer 8 speeds at the conversion phase. The sky layer in Carrotus should not be moving in the video though, I'll need to double check that :p

What's with the weird converting .j2l and .j2t files into other formats thing? Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to be able to play them directly?
That is also temporary at least to some degree. Not sure how it will be done later on, other than that players will not need to tinker around with command line tools later on :p

I noticed an "Actors" count, which would appear to be the number of active objects, since it increases when you shoot a bullet and decreases when you collect a pickup or shoot an enemy. I also noticed that it's totally global and counts all the active objects anywhere in the level. Obviously this is a work in progress, but I might as well ask sooner rather than later: you know that's not how Single Player works?
I haven't done too much research on that; the only effect actors have when they are not in the field of vision is that they don't try to draw themselves off-screen. If there's anything crucial I need to know here, do tell :D

What are you basing your code on, physics and animation code in particular? Careful observations of JJ2 in action, or a disassembly of the executable, or what?
Only personal observations. That means the physics might be off here and there.

[Violet CLM]

I can see what you mean; I didn't play around with JJ2 to notice this. Castle1.j2l seems to have non-zero speeds on layer 8 and I am just blindly using those :p At the same time it is a feature as you can define a speed to it just like any other layer (except sprite layer). A proper solution to this would probably be to ignore Layer 8 speeds at the conversion phase.
It's basically a bug in the original. They wanted layer 8 to snap to the upper left corner of the screen at all times when xSpeed=0 and ySpeed=0, which isn't how other layers work, in order to make backgrounds look better, but then they took that too far and made it true even if the speeds <em>aren't</em> zero. As a result, there isn't really a <em>right</em> way to treat layer 8 speeds, so much as there are various different statements it's possible to make by treating them one way or another.
I haven't done too much research on that; the only effect actors have when they are not in the field of vision is that they don't try to draw themselves off-screen. If there's anything crucial I need to know here, do tell :D
Broadly speaking, in local play single player, objects more than about 32 tiles away from the player will be deleted from the active object list. There are a handful of exceptions -- rotating rocks in particular are never deleted -- but for the most part that's how it works. It's supposed to be a memory/speed-saving measure, but it does end up having various side effects, positive and negative, for real gameplay and level design. (For example: without it, all swinging vines are synced with one another.)

[Soulweaver]

It's basically a bug in the original. They wanted layer 8 to snap to the upper left corner of the screen at all times when xSpeed=0 and ySpeed=0, which isn't how other layers work, in order to make backgrounds look better, but then they took that too far and made it true even if the speeds <em>aren't</em> zero. As a result, there isn't really a <em>right</em> way to treat layer 8 speeds, so much as there are various different statements it's possible to make by treating them one way or another.
Ah, I see :p Also, you have stated another difference in my implementation just now: any layer with zero speeds is treated equally in PC. I set Layer 3 to zeros in JJ2 and tested it, from what I gathered it just disappeared, so I guess not mimicing that wouldn't really hurt.

Broadly speaking, in local play single player, objects more than about 32 tiles away from the player will be deleted from the active object list. There are a handful of exceptions -- rotating rocks in particular are never deleted -- but for the most part that's how it works. It's supposed to be a memory/speed-saving measure, but it does end up having various side effects, positive and negative, for real gameplay and level design. (For example: without it, all swinging vines are synced with one another.)
Performance was the first thing I thought of, but if it indeed affects other things too, then I suppose I should do something about it. Just not running their tick events would work otherwise but I launched JJ2 and I can see they also lose whatever changes they were affected to (gems shot down are floating again) so I guess I'll need to think into this a bit more.

I remember you!
Ha, just noticed that :D How's that possible when I barely posted any posts here or even logged in for four years (according to what "you last visited" told me, anyway)? :D
E: Oh, it seems we had a PM conversation back then at least. God, I can't stand to look at my posts, my English was so simple back then :p

[Violet CLM]

Zero speed layers are used from time to time for HUDish effects... look at e.g. Tomb Rabbit or Another Story, though those naturally assume a 640x480 resolution.

Here's what deactivating does, using some very verbose names:
object.pointerToBehaviorFunction = NULL;
//The object is no longer is counted as active,
and its location in memory may be overwritten at any later time.
if (object.wasCreatedDirectlyFromTheLayer4EventMap()) {
eventMap[object.xTileOfCreation, object.yTileOfCreation] = object.eventID;
//e.g. 158 for a peach, whatever. For the most part this is
//redundant, but it does mean that when an object created
//directly from the event map changes event ID, e.g. a spring
//crate changing into a green spring, that change will be
//permanent even if the object is later deactivated.
setEventMapBit(object.xTileOfCreation, object.yTileOfCreation, 11, false);
//The event map, of course, is a series of thirty-two bit slots
//for each tile in layer 4. The first eight bits are used for the
//event ID. The next three are used for the difficulty and the
//"Illuminate Surroundings" checkbox. The bit after that is
//whether the the object created by the event at that tile
//has already been created or not: setting it to false tells JJ2
//that the next time that tile comes into active memory, the
//object should be created, since it hasn't been created already.
}

[Slaz]

I watched your YouTube video and like what you did so far. I'm not into coding, nor do I know how JJ2's physics work. But I can only encourage progress on projects such as this. A remake of JJ2 such as OpenJazz is for JJ1 would make dreams come true and stuff like that. :rolleyes:

Perhaps consider talking to DJazz on these forums? And read through some of his findings he wrote on his WebJJ2 (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=19528) thread. I'm sure he has some interesting solutions on JJ2's physics that're reade to use! ;)

[Soulweaver]

Zero speed layers are used from time to time for HUDish effects... look at e.g. Tomb Rabbit or Another Story, though those naturally assume a 640x480 resolution.
Hmm, I see, I'll need to look into those levels then. Can't do it right now as I traveled elsewhere for Mothers' Day and JJ2 doesn't apparently want to cooperate with Windows 8 on my lappy, but will do so on Monday.

E: I looked at the first level and I can see how it works, but now I need to understand why it works that way :p

Here's what deactivating does, using some very verbose names:
object.pointerToBehaviorFunction = NULL;
//The object is no longer is counted as active,
and its location in memory may be overwritten at any later time.
if (object.wasCreatedDirectlyFromTheLayer4EventMap()) {
eventMap[object.xTileOfCreation, object.yTileOfCreation] = object.eventID;
//e.g. 158 for a peach, whatever. For the most part this is
//redundant, but it does mean that when an object created
//directly from the event map changes event ID, e.g. a spring
//crate changing into a green spring, that change will be
//permanent even if the object is later deactivated.
setEventMapBit(object.xTileOfCreation, object.yTileOfCreation, 11, false);
//The event map, of course, is a series of thirty-two bit slots
//for each tile in layer 4. The first eight bits are used for the
//event ID. The next three are used for the difficulty and the
//"Illuminate Surroundings" checkbox. The bit after that is
//whether the the object created by the event at that tile
//has already been created or not: setting it to false tells JJ2
//that the next time that tile comes into active memory, the
//object should be created, since it hasn't been created already.
}
That makes sense. I don't actually even store the event IDs currently anywhere after the objects have been spawned but doing something like this would make simulating the effect easier. (Also storing the event IDs and all would kinda make emulating MCEs easier; I'm kinda on the fence with them in that they allow for some special stuff not otherwise possible, but at the same time are essentially a large scale bug and not really a feature.)

E: (De)activation routines have been implemented.

I watched your YouTube video and like what you did so far. I'm not into coding, nor do I know how JJ2's physics work. But I can only encourage progress on projects such as this. A remake of JJ2 such as OpenJazz is for JJ1 would make dreams come true and stuff like that. :rolleyes:

Perhaps consider talking to DJazz on these forums? And read through some of his findings he wrote on his WebJJ2 (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=19528) thread. I'm sure he has some interesting solutions on JJ2's physics that're reade to use! ;)
Thanks :) Yeah, I checked some threads involving him, I suppose he could have useful information and insight on some aspects :p

[Foly]

It's nice to see someone working on a jazz jackrabbit game. But like you said most projects have died so far. So far your video shows you've made quite some progress, so i hope you don't give up where others did! If you do succeed i also hope this can help to attract more players to jj2. But untill then, keep up the good work :)

[MrAlextov]

Keep it going! I Love this project to be finished.

I Have some questions...
It would support more colours at the tilesets? We now living at modern world and 8 bit colours are NOT ENOUGH!

It would possible to expand the tiles 1024 (4096 for TSF) limit? It looks too small and I love mixing 2 or more tilesets on 1 tileset.

[Soulweaver]

It's nice to see someone working on a jazz jackrabbit game. But like you said most projects have died so far. So far your video shows you've made quite some progress, so i hope you don't give up where others did! If you do succeed i also hope this can help to attract more players to jj2. But untill then, keep up the good work :)
Thank you :) I'm not planning to give up so don't worry :p

Keep it going! I Love this project to be finished.

I Have some questions...
It would support more colours at the tilesets? We now living at modern world and 8 bit colours are NOT ENOUGH!

It would possible to expand the tiles 1024 (4096 for TSF) limit? It looks too small and I love mixing 2 or more tilesets on 1 tileset.

I guess I have good news for you :p

Essentially, all the tileset conversion process shown in the video does is that it generates two PNG images: one for the tiles and one for the mask. Naturally, an original tileset can thus be made using PNG images as well. Since PC runs in full colour, there are no restrictions on available colours (and while I haven't tested it with anything else but fully opaque and transparent, other alpha channel transparency values should be supported out of the box as well). The mask image meanwhile works sort of like binary collision map (white or any pixel with full transparency is unmasked, everything else is masked). Tilesets are also not confined to being 10 tiles wide anymore; how this will be handled in the to-be level editor is yet to be seen.

The tile amount limit isn't nearly as strict anymore either. In theory, only the tileset image dimensions themselves limit the available number of tiles; the current temporary layer format I'm using allows up to 65536 static (first one still reserved for empty tile) and 65536 animated tiles, but that could be upped. Though, there's currently a yet unsolved graphics memory issue related to how SFML handles textures; i.e. large tilesets currently will fail to load on cheap GPUs because the image won't fit to a single texture vertically in their video memory. But if that is solved, then the max. tile amount can be raised significantly.

[Love & Thunder]

Wow, that is awesome! I mean, it's awesome anyway, but what you just said made it even more awesome(I would point out all the good things about the PNG format and RGB/Alpha, but anyone who doesn't know what all this means can just google it).
By the way, do you think it will be possible to have a high-resolution/HD mode, which would have double-sized sprites(Perhaps it could include an "animsHD.j2a" file, or something?), and allow tilesets with double-sized tiles?

[Seren]

I... might sound somewhat harsh. I admit I dislike it when people admire another community member for creating another level previewer, again. Hopefully you realize this thing here is little more than a level previewer. Collision detection is no philosophy and everything else will have to be completely rewritten later on if you want it to work like JJ2. So yeah, I consider it hard to be excited about this so far and I'm just bothered by apparent lack of common sense in this thread, no offense to anybody.

I know this is not quite a constructive message and I was holding myself back from posting it until now. I'll try to compensate it with an honest offer to help; I consider myself familiar with a good number of quirks of JJ2, most of which you should learn if you want to replicate its mechanics correctly. Also, although you're obviously not coding the game in it, judging by your signature you may be interested in a piece of GML code I'm coincidentally in possession of that draws what pictured below, if just for reference. Use PMs.

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img442/1881/screenshot4bm.png" alt="Click to view in full size, didn't want to stretch the page." width="50%" height="50%" /> (http://imageshack.us/a/img442/1881/screenshot4bm.png)

[Stijn]

Oh come on, it's clearly further along than any "level previewer" we've seen so far. There's item pickup, animations, lots of working events (vines, ammo, hurt), enemies, more-or-less accurate physics (you can shoot down items), sound effects, running/jumping/buttstomping... It's obviously not complete yet, but there's a substantial amount of gameplay implemented already, in a way that seems to mimic JJ2 fairly well so far.

[burnout92]

I saw the above posts in this thread. I'm think this game or whatelse is promising but is a good idea the high color (16-bit) or true color (32-bit) and higher tilesets. I wish good luck for developing. :)

[Seren]

If you say so, Stijn. I just believe most of the presented features that aren't necessary for a level previewer to be a matter of one weekend, but what do I know (http://youtu.be/rWn2ML3yfuI).

[cooba]

If you say so, Stijn. I just believe most of the presented features that aren't necessary for a level previewer to be a matter of one weekend, but what do I know (http://youtu.be/rWn2ML3yfuI).Wow, you convinced me, I no longer care about this primitive and plebeian level previewer <img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ql2qEPt.gif" />

[Seren]

I didn't have a whole weekend.

[Stijn]

If you say so, Stijn. I just believe most of the presented features that aren't necessary for a level previewer to be a matter of one weekend, but what do I know (http://youtu.be/rWn2ML3yfuI).
Looks a lot less complete than what UltimateSepiroth showed, to me.

Ether way, when does something stop being a "level previewer" and start being a "game engine"? Allowing you to navigate a level is a pretty big part of the game, after all.

[Violet CLM]

guys this is the STUPIDEST FIGHT

you BOTH are good at doing stuff and have promising projects should you care to continue developing them and we're proud of BOTH OF YOU and it's perfectly all right to have competing projects (I've done one! I think I kinda lost.) without being NASTY about it

don't make me call this a bunn<b></b>y game, the JCF censors it so it's kind of difficult to do so

[Seren]

Oh, thanks Violet, but to be honest I'm not developing anything and really don't intend to fight. Just took my own level previewer and added events and physics to it once Stijn mentioned this being more advanced. Then it took me the night to upload it to YT.

[Soulweaver]

I... might sound somewhat harsh. I admit I dislike it when people admire another community member for creating another level previewer, again. Hopefully you realize this thing here is little more than a level previewer. Collision detection is no philosophy and everything else will have to be completely rewritten later on if you want it to work like JJ2. So yeah, I consider it hard to be excited about this so far and I'm just bothered by apparent lack of common sense in this thread, no offense to anybody.

I know this is not quite a constructive message and I was holding myself back from posting it until now. I'll try to compensate it with an honest offer to help; I consider myself familiar with a good number of quirks of JJ2, most of which you should learn if you want to replicate its mechanics correctly. Also, although you're obviously not coding the game in it, judging by your signature you may be interested in a piece of GML code I'm coincidentally in possession of that draws what pictured below, if just for reference. Use PMs.

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img442/1881/screenshot4bm.png" alt="Click to view in full size, didn't want to stretch the page." width="50%" height="50%" /> (http://imageshack.us/a/img442/1881/screenshot4bm.png)
Point taken, though I honestly don't know what you expected this thread to contain :p I'm not here to show off a completed game but a prototype. I'm not very sure what you mean by the rewriting point either - while I am going after the mechanics of the JJ2 engine, I am certainly not rewriting a JJ2 engine on structural or any other level. The "correctness" of mechanics isn't completely black and white; what is a bug to one might be a feature to someone else. While I strive to replicate the game behavior closely, I won't be throwing deliberate mistakes or unnecessarily complicated special cases into my code just to make it a 100% clone.

I expect the demo you just put up there was also written in GML; bear in mind that Game Maker provides the whole framework for handling sprites, drawing and different events built-in, while I've built my own engine that implements most of that stuff from the ground up all by myself. The way objects are handled in GML (basically almost nonexistent encapsulation) and preferred use of globals also simplifies things a lot.

Of course I could've started writing this in some game-centric engine like Game Maker or Stencyl but I wanted to use a more mainstream language to 1) learn C++ better, 2) make it easier for, erm, people with a better mindset to contribute later on, 3) not be too environment dependent (Qt, SFML, BASS all should work just fine in both Win, Mac and Linux). So, because of that decision, I'm required to write a lot more code that is specific to the engine but not necessarily the JJ2 experience. The TileMap class, which contains pretty much all tileset and layer handling (i.e. the core part of what would be a level previewer), doesn't even cover a fifth of the codebase (http://i.imgur.com/NZznzgx.jpg) :p

As for the textured background algorithm, I might be interested later; implementing it now is not a high priority so I'll PM you when it becomes topical (unless I decide to write it myself).

guys this is the STUPIDEST FIGHT

you BOTH are good at doing stuff and have promising projects should you care to continue developing them and we're proud of BOTH OF YOU and it's perfectly all right to have competing projects (I've done one! I think I kinda lost.) without being NASTY about it

don't make me call this a bunn<b></b>y game, the JCF censors it so it's kind of difficult to do so
I'm not much into fighting either, and I don't think I've been fighting at all at this point yet :p I also don't have any problem if someone else decides to start a separate project; if anything, that shows JJ2 still has enough appeal for multiple projects to appear.



As for the lack of new bullet points under the link in the OP, I've been busy with the exams for the last two weeks but I hope to get back into writing code next week :) (Though pauses in general shouldn't be taken as signs of abandonment, I do have other things in my life going on as well ;) )

[DoubleGJ]

keep up the attitude and don't give up
this could be big

[Seren]

Point taken, though I honestly don't know what you expected this thread to contain :p I'm not here to show off a completed game but a prototype.
I expected it to contain less exaggerated reactions, everything else is fine.
I expect the demo you just put up there was also written in GML; bear in mind that Game Maker provides the whole framework for handling sprites, drawing and different events built-in, while I've built my own engine that implements most of that stuff from the ground up all by myself. The way objects are handled in GML (basically almost nonexistent encapsulation) and preferred use of globals also simplifies things a lot.
Yes, although you must realize simplifying things doesn't always make them easier to use. And large portions of C++ code for drawing sprites, collision detection etc., can be successfully copied from older projects, assuming you had any. If I had had a ready level previewer in C++, I'd have used that to record the demo instead, but all I had at that moment was a GML one, so I used that.
Of course I could've started writing this in some game-centric engine like Game Maker or Stencyl but I wanted to use a more mainstream language
God bless you.

[MrAlextov]

Do you plan for another video?
EDIT: What program do you use for the buttons on the title bar?

[Soulweaver]

Do you plan for another video?
EDIT: What program do you use for the buttons on the title bar?

Eventually, when there's actually enough new stuff to show :p I got a bit sidetracked with playing several visual novels (Rewrite, Steins;Gate, Muv-Luv) recently, so I haven't been working on Project Carrot too much, but rest assured I haven't forgotten about this at all.

The title button software I'm using is Actual Title Buttons (http://www.actualtools.com/titlebuttons/).

Wow, that is awesome! I mean, it's awesome anyway, but what you just said made it even more awesome(I would point out all the good things about the PNG format and RGB/Alpha, but anyone who doesn't know what all this means can just google it).
By the way, do you think it will be possible to have a high-resolution/HD mode, which would have double-sized sprites(Perhaps it could include an "animsHD.j2a" file, or something?), and allow tilesets with double-sized tiles?

I just noticed I completely missed this post earlier, so better late than never. A HD mode could be a nice feature, but while I won't say that won't happen, implementing such mode is not a high priority at the moment.

Yes, although you must realize simplifying things doesn't always make them easier to use. And large portions of C++ code for drawing sprites, collision detection etc., can be successfully copied from older projects, assuming you had any. If I had had a ready level previewer in C++, I'd have used that to record the demo instead, but all I had at that moment was a GML one, so I used that.
Late response to this as well. Yes, I'm well aware. For instance, I struggled to make proper looking menus back when I actively used GM; they always ended up looking simple or awkward and utilized way too many objects. As for code snippets, I guess that's true, though I don't really have any :p

[MrAlextov]

Remembering how I wanted to make the JJ2 clone same way you did :D
The tileset would have the simular format but they are on zip file instead normal folder.

Do you add support for Palette just for the GUI and sprites?

[Soulweaver]

Remembering how I wanted to make the JJ2 clone same way you did :D
The tileset would have the simular format but they are on zip file instead normal folder.

Do you add support for Palette just for the GUI and sprites?

To be honest, I haven't really put much effort into solving the problems related to not using palette based graphics (SFML handles it all as 24-bit color + 8-bit alpha), though the only place where I currently remember palette based graphics being vital is multiplayer with its character sprites. I cannot say much at this point, but it's very likely there won't be much palette functionality in the end.

Packed level and tileset support is something I've looked into but haven't worked on yet at all; the actual format will stay as a folder with multiple files, but for distribution a single file approach is much nicer.

[abraker]

Keep working on the project and don't stop until it's finished (please). Just post at least once a month for the community to know you are still there.

[Soulweaver]

Keep working on the project and don't stop until it's finished (please). Just post at least once a month for the community to know you are still there.

I visit the forum at least once a week and post either if someone asks something or if I make progress warranting a new reply instead of a new item in the first post, so I guess that's enough. Speaking of progress, there hasn't been any and I know it doesn't look very promising; I have a bit of trouble trying to do everything I have under way, and programming has probably suffered the worst. Regardless of the slow pace, I'm not quitting :p

I actually put together last month a narrated short video about the changes I've listed in the first post but never uploaded it since I came to the conclusion that I can't talk English spontaneously at all. Maybe I'll try again later or just scrap the narration.

[MrAlextov]

Any news?

[abraker]

Relax, it hasn't even been a month since the last time he posted

[Soulweaver]

Any news?

Nothing more than what's written on the first post; as said in the previous post, having trouble fitting everything on my schedule currently, hoping it'll turn out better later on.

[Soulweaver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uFeWwbaKcg

I posted a new video on YouTube showing all (or at least most of) the new tiny bits of code added since the last video in May. As said, I would've hoped to get more done in five months, but at least the project isn't dead :p

[abraker]

Awesome! I'm sure we will all be excited the day you put it public!

[Stijn]

Impressive! Excited to see where this goes next.

[Jerrythabest]

This looks so much like the original Jazz2! Absolutely amazing work. Keep doing this please! :D

[Slaz]

I guess you've already read my YouTube commenting, but keep up the good work. I honestly didn't expect such a project to last this long! ;)

[Jerrythabest]

I honestly didn't expect such a project to last this long! ;)Indeed, after pretty much all the previous projects we have seen got abandoned. So it's really quite a relief to see progress reports like this! All is looking very promising :D

[Foly]

Very impressive video! I think noone ever got further than you making a new jj2 game (correct me if I'm wrong). Another important thing is multiplayer (online), do you think you can manage to make that work on the long run?

[abraker]

Indeed, after pretty much all the previous projects we have seen got abandoned.
This is pretty much the first time I am convinced somebody is developing the real deal on the internet. The number of abandoned projects and frauds of promised things on the internet exceeds my counting.

[Darkhog]

Impressive! While I still have plans to make whole new JJ game, though life gets in the way, my pet feels abandoned, etc., I am impressed. One question: Is this reimplementation of Jazz or Jazz2 engine?

//edit: Also, after engine will be done (as in it could run original game flawlessly), perhaps easier to use level editor would be good? JCS is damn hard - still didn't find out how to set backgrounds (lack of it makes character/enemies/tiles leave ugly "trail") or import custom tilesets.

[Violet CLM]

JCS is damn hard - still didn't find out how to set backgrounds (lack of it makes character/enemies/tiles leave ugly "trail")
http://www.ninjadodo.net/htjcs/, see "use layers" in particular

[Soulweaver]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback even though so little was new :) Yes, Slaz, I did read your comment on YT and answered to it as well :p

Very impressive video! I think noone ever got further than you making a new jj2 game (correct me if I'm wrong). Another important thing is multiplayer (online), do you think you can manage to make that work on the long run?
I haven't really kept an eye on other projects to know anything else than that no complete engine should be around, as you said. I've never written a single line of online code, but damn sure I will try to make online play possible as well.

Impressive! While I still have plans to make whole new JJ game, though life gets in the way, my pet feels abandoned, etc., I am impressed. One question: Is this reimplementation of Jazz or Jazz2 engine?

//edit: Also, after engine will be done (as in it could run original game flawlessly), perhaps easier to use level editor would be good? JCS is damn hard - still didn't find out how to set backgrounds (lack of it makes character/enemies/tiles leave ugly "trail") or import custom tilesets.
If you mean by your question whether I'm using any old code, the answer is no. PC is a Jazz 2 engine clone built from ground up without any reverse-engineered code from the original.

I will be writing a new level editor once it becomes relevant enough, and I would need to at some point anyway if I ever wanted to expand the event set beyond the current one. So far the only thing even remotely related is this Qt UI file (http://i.imgur.com/BiOtmaX.jpg) from July; no code using it exists, it's just a quick (heavily JCS-based) design sketch.

And the background problem got already explained above :p

[Darkhog]

If you mean by your question whether I'm using any old code, the answer is no. PC is a Jazz 2 engine clone built from ground up without any reverse-engineered code from the original.

No, I was asking if you are reimplementing DOS Jazz or Jazz 2. But that solved - from video I see it's Jazz 2.

I will be writing a new level editor once it becomes relevant enough, and I would need to at some point anyway if I ever wanted to expand the event set beyond the current one. So far the only thing even remotely related is this Qt UI file (http://i.imgur.com/BiOtmaX.jpg) from July; no code using it exists, it's just a quick (heavily JCS-based) design sketch.

And the background problem got already explained above :p

Yeah, but using JCS is still significantly harder, than say RPG Maker's map editor or Tiled.

//edit: Also as I am game developer myself, I know that level editor is usually last thing you do in project like this (reimplementation of old game). If this would be completely new game/new engine, level editor would be implemented along with engine to actually test if it works. But since you have both original Jazz levels and user-made ones to test engine with, this can wait until engine can run any thing original Jazz2 could.

[Jerrythabest]

No, I was asking if you are reimplementing DOS Jazz or Jazz 2. But that solved - from video I see it's Jazz 2.For JJ1 we already have OpenJazz (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=14235).

Yeah, but using JCS is still significantly harder, than say RPG Maker's map editor or Tiled.

//edit: Also as I am game developer myself, ...Wait, what... you are a game developer yourself, AND you have rather clear ideas of how JCS can be massively improved. Why don't you give it a shot, then? The structure of the J2L and J2T file formats (www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=15059) are known.

[Darkhog]

I'd do that... but I simply don't have time. Already has unity and RPG Maker projects on my head (unrelated to Jazz) and I'm not particularly good at writing level editors.

[Soulweaver]

I noticed this thread won't show anymore with the default time cutoff settings (for guests at least) at the moment so might just as well bump it to not make it look like the thread's dead :p

So... yeah, I've managed to find a lot of time to write code this month, so if you haven't been aware of that, go check the changelog in the first post. I'd like to do another video but it feels like I've been doing so much under-the-hood changes and so little else that it'd be rather pointless :p Most of the directly visible changes from that list can really be summed up to the following screenshots: 1 (http://i.imgur.com/Iu630Kc.png), 2 (http://i.imgur.com/Va8iQhI.png)

Layer positioning feels rather accurate for the first time (for all resolutions); background layers were still all over the place in the second video. Before anyone mentions, yes, I know, textured BG still needs a few tweaks.

[Marijn]

Awesome. Wrong gems.. But still bridge code!

[DoubleGJ]

Very nice progress!

[Soulweaver]

Awesome. Wrong gems.. But still bridge code!
Yeah, the event only honors the length parameter for now; it reads toughness and type as well but overrides them with default values. That's just because it was easier to work with a bridge type with uniform bridge piece width for now, and only Diamondus and Labratory bridges fit that bill :p

Very nice progress!
Thanks :p

[RabbitHare]

Very impressive work! I'm new here btw, so hello everyone! I've always been a big fan of Jazz2 prompting me to work on my own sidescrolling game engine as well, only to get sidetracked on other things.
But I'm tidying it up a bit and will post a thread about it shortly. I'll release the source code so perhaps it will be of some use to projects like this.

[Love & Thunder]

Welcome to the JCF; fire exits are north, south, and Dennis. Enjoy your stay. :)

On a less sarcastic note, what programming language are you using?

[RabbitHare]

what programming language are you using?
C++, I'll give the details in my own thread, but I don't seem to have the privileges to create one at this point(because I'm too new?).

[Soulweaver]

Very impressive work! I'm new here btw, so hello everyone! I've always been a big fan of Jazz2 prompting me to work on my own sidescrolling game engine as well, only to get sidetracked on other things.
But I'm tidying it up a bit and will post a thread about it shortly. I'll release the source code so perhaps it will be of some use to projects like this.
Hello and thank you :p It's always great to see other projects pop up, so if you're planning to improve on yours, good luck :) Rest assured, you're certainly not the only one who's struggling with sidetracking, I spent a good deal of last year letting my code just sit around while I was playing games and I might be going on a hiatus of a sort due to schoolwork in the near future too. As far as source code goes, I prefer to come up with my own solutions in cases I don't have any means to reference against the original game; that doesn't mean I won't check your code, though.

C++, I'll give the details in my own thread, but I don't seem to have the privileges to create one at this point(because I'm too new?).
That must be it as you seem to have been able to do that recently. Restricting new threads to established users, either with a minimum post count or a minimum account age, is a rather efficient (but obviously not failproof) method to curb spambots, so I can see why that restriction is in place.

[Soulweaver]

Due to my failure to deliver any new features to the engine during a major part of this year, I've decided to stay true to my word and share the source of the engine in its current state publicly:

https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot

The readme in there states the most important things about how to get into diving into the code, but as a recap: you will need MS Visual Studio '13, Qt 5.3.0, SFML 2.1, BASS 2.4 (newer versions should logically work too), and to actually run the game, you will need to contact me via a PM with a proof of ownership of the original (at the very least photos with your name + a boxed copy of JJ2, TSF, HH98 or CC will all do), for which I will provide the currently extracted assets in the format currently required by the code.

Also, this certainly doesn't mean I've abandoned the project, but it does mean I've left it untouched for a far too long time.

[Soulweaver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOS92nuHoXQ

Hey, remember this project? Surprise, not dead yet.

Bonus: Some bloopers from various stages of the events developed during the last month:
https://i.soulweaver.fi/uhhh.png
https://i.soulweaver.fi/halo.png
https://i.soulweaver.fi/brk.png
https://i.soulweaver.fi/springs.png
https://i.soulweaver.fi/FFsplit-160417-220325.mp4
https://i.soulweaver.fi/FFsplit-160411-010905.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt6HxdyT4Go

And an example of a new view model working – it has no use at the moment, so only one view is used regularly for now, but it is there while it wasn't a month ago.
https://i.soulweaver.fi/viewz.png

[Violet CLM]

Thanks for the update! It's cool to see the places where it looks like you intentionally changed the game behavior... turtles walking up and down hills, and I think I noticed some pickups bouncing off a swinging platform at one point?

[Treylina]

I'm assuming the tube physics are unfinished, though what I'm not sure is incomplete is the falling physics. Falling seems to go too fast. The falling speed cap should be smaller too. Also launching from springs still looks a bit too fast (no, I didn't use the blooper video as a reference).

Nice to see you working back on the project though. Good luck!

[Soulweaver]

Thanks for the update! It's cool to see the places where it looks like you intentionally changed the game behavior... turtles walking up and down hills, and I think I noticed some pickups bouncing off a swinging platform at one point?

Yeah, some of it is kinda intentional, in the way that when I've tried to implement a feature, it has accidentally ended up with a neat side effect that I haven't tried to (or maybe succeeded to in some cases) remove. I can't remember what my original vision was, but at the moment my strong opinion is that even though I try to be as compatible with the original engine as possible, in the end I'm already at a point that a complete clone would be difficult without revamping most of the inner structures. Their limitations would especially be detrimental if/when it is ever going to go into the territory where completely new features are added in.

I actually listed enemies walking up and down the hills as a bug in the OP (which I should clean up soon), but I might just as well keep it, at least as a default behaviour. Your observation with the coins being bounced by the platforms was correct as well: the platforms have standard collision checking with all actors. Only players can be carried by them at the moment, though – expanding that to other stuff could be something interesting to look into later.

I'm assuming the tube physics are unfinished, though what I'm not sure is incomplete is the falling physics. Falling seems to go too fast. The falling speed cap should be smaller too. Also launching from springs still looks a bit too fast (no, I didn't use the blooper video as a reference).

Nice to see you working back on the project though. Good luck!

Thanks! I'm assuming you have better knowledge of the physics than I do, so would you mind to elaborate on how tubes seem incomplete? Factors like speeds are fairly easy to change and they've seemed good enough, so I've kept them as is for now and focused elsewhere instead, but if they seem to be off significantly, I might look into them in the future. For the springs, you are probably correct – changing how it works would require some non-trivial changes at the moment, though.

Disclaimer that the above reply to Violet applies to this as well though: being a 100% clone is a very low priority if at all if it comes with a high-cost compromise somewhere else.

[Stijn]

Still looks nicely similar to the original, and it's encouraging to see some progress. I also had the feeling that the physics are "off" in some ways but at some point I suppose the law of diminishing returns kicks in and it's not really worth the effort of getting it pixel perfect. And things like enemies walking up slopes actually allow for more exciting gameplay than vanilla JJ2, so there's that too.

Could you tell a bit more about the end goal of this project? It would of course be nice to have a JJ2-compatible engine that is easier to tweak, but given the existence of JJ2+ (which you are surely aware of) it will probably see little use for playing existing levels. Would it be easy for people to use it as a general purpose 2D engine, for example?

[Soulweaver]

Still looks nicely similar to the original, and it's encouraging to see some progress. I also had the feeling that the physics are "off" in some ways but at some point I suppose the law of diminishing returns kicks in and it's not really worth the effort of getting it pixel perfect. And things like enemies walking up slopes actually allow for more exciting gameplay than vanilla JJ2, so there's that too.

Could you tell a bit more about the end goal of this project? It would of course be nice to have a JJ2-compatible engine that is easier to tweak, but given the existence of JJ2+ (which you are surely aware of) it will probably see little use for playing existing levels. Would it be easy for people to use it as a general purpose 2D engine, for example?

Yeah, I'm aware of JJ2+ (though I have to admit I haven't come around to actually try it out yet). Can't tell if I had heard of it in early 2013 when I first started the project, though.

The main goal has always been primarily to provide an alternative, open-source engine that can be improved and eventually extended with relative ease. Not being bound to some of the technical limitations the original engine seems to have (see: fixed memory limits, somewhat limited colour support - though palette based graphics do make other things easier - etc.) could also be useful in the future. I already take advantage of that in places where it comes with no cost, for example with full alpha channel support with tilesets and assets, full freedom over the number of layers in a level (only made difficult by the lack of a dedicated level editor for now) or completely free window resolutions. (I don't really know how feasible adding these to JJ2+ would be, or if they already are there, though.)

https://i.soulweaver.fi/pcsize.png

One factor, to be honest, is also just to gain programming experience in a language I don't typically use that much elsewhere, since having a wider arsenal of languages on one's belt is always useful. That alone makes it worthwhile for me even if I would be trying to win people over from JJ2+, which I don't really see as a goal I should be going for anyway. In particular, the flexibility AngelScript provides would be quite a beast to compete against after all :p

Content-wise, the current long-term goal is to bring the engine to a point that everything necessary to play single player levels from JJ2 is in place, with the exception that levels that depend on minor details or good bad bugs (read: MCEs and such) specific to the implementation may or may not work. Obviously, that is a matter of balance, and the closer it can be moved to the original with relative ease, the better. Since I have absolutely zero experience on netcode, I haven't taken anything it requires into account at all, so I might have already shot myself in the foot if I ever want to add online play without huge overhauls. Local modes will regardless stay as the primary target for now, so that's another reason for not trying to compete with JJ2+.

The point about a general purpose engine is one that I hadn't considered but that seems quite obvious in hindsight. At the moment it is already very easy to replace the graphics and sounds with something else – PC is not tied to any of the JJ2 formats after all but uses its own for everything – and with some minor changes you could already add gameplay elements that transform JJ2 into a new game altogether.

...Well, that was a lot of rambling. Maybe I answered the question, maybe not :p

TL;DR: Goal is a mostly compatible open-source engine with main targets as local game modes, extensibility – especially in the future – and the honing of own programming skills.

[Love & Thunder]

That sounds really cool.

Any estimate on when we can expect a playable demo/beta release? Or are you going to save release until it's actually gone gold? (Or have you not thought about it? :lol:)

[Soulweaver]

That sounds really cool.

Any estimate on when we can expect a playable demo/beta release? Or are you going to save release until it's actually gone gold? (Or have you not thought about it? :lol:)

Before that long break, I had set the first test release to be when the Shareware Demo episode is fully playable, with the exception of a few specific events. That's what I'm still planning to go for, but we'll see if it seems useful enough for me to release something before that. Assuming I can keep the current pace, I'm quite sure getting it there would still be at least a few months away, though.

I'm tracking the list of events left to do for that release in this issue (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot/issues/36) I added yesterday (I had had it in a random text file before that, so it isn't really new). This milestone (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot/milestones/Alpha%20Release%20One) also collects some (not all) of the bugs and missing features that I'd like to also have fixed/added in at that point.

[Primpy]

Really sweet! I'm glad people are still looking to do Jazz Jackrabbit fan made games (kinda). First this (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=19970), now Project Carrot (yes, I know it's been started before but you get what I mean, I'm a newer member). I've got to ask, are you going to add new features as well, like JJ2+ does to JJ2? Sorry if you already answered this question. I really like what you're doing, looking forward to see more of this project! c:

[Soulweaver]

Really sweet! I'm glad people are still looking to do Jazz Jackrabbit fan made games (kinda). First this (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=19970), now Project Carrot (yes, I know it's been started before but you get what I mean, I'm a newer member). I've got to ask, are you going to add new features as well, like JJ2+ does to JJ2? Sorry if you already answered this question. I really like what you're doing, looking forward to see more of this project! c:

That is eventually the intention, yes, but not a priority for quite some time now. And thanks!

[luke11685]

Wow!Looks promissing.I guess it's gonna be unofficial refreshed Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Open Source Edition.Hey!Will Project Carrot support Android devices and rest unfficial ports like OpenJazz?

[YRSHKD]

Wow!Looks promissing.I guess it's gonna be unofficial refreshed Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Open Source Edition.Hey!Will Project Carrot support Android devices and rest unfficial ports like OpenJazz?

That would be spazzin-awesome.

[Soulweaver]

Wow!Looks promissing.I guess it's gonna be unofficial refreshed Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Open Source Edition.Hey!Will Project Carrot support Android devices and rest unfficial ports like OpenJazz?

All of the libraries I'm currently using do support Android (and iOS), so there's a theoretical possibility. That said, I have zero experience on mobile development, so I'm making no promises at all, and of course, even if it happened, it isn't really high up on the priority list.

https://i.soulweaver.fi/pixcol.png
Making some progress with pixel-perfect collision tonight.

[Darkhog]

Really cool. Is there's a GitHub of the thing? I mean, with more developers around it would proceed faster.

[luke11685]

Soulweaver you can count on Alister Thomson.Guy who made a open source port of jazz jackrabbit 1.

[Primpy]

Really cool. Is there's a GitHub of the thing? I mean, with more developers around it would proceed faster.

I do believe you're talking about this (https://github.com/soulweaver91/project-carrot)?

[Darkhog]

Thanks. Will look through it to see if I can help with either optimizations or new code.

[Soulweaver]

Yeah, the source code is available and visible there. I don't outright refuse help, but it is discouraged at least for now: there's still still some refactoring ahead which may mix up things, and I am not really tracking too accurately what I am working with at the moment, so it cannot be guaranteed what you'd like to work on actually needs work currently.

[luke11685]

openjazz was game(still in actual updates from 2012 to 2015) engine clone for jazz jackrabbit 1,jj2+and project carrotus are game engine clones for jazz jackrabbit 2 as for jazz jackrabbit 3 unofficial patches are over so i guess there's no need for game engines clones for jj3d from unreal engine 1 and jazz jackrabbit advance game engine clone-it's crap from gameboy advance not the best like jazz jackrabbit classics.Unless I found UShock tool for Unreal Engine aka map viewer,but it makes no sense if someone like me wants to make jazz jackrabbit 3 again.

[Soulweaver]

https://i.soulweaver.fi/carrotlinux.png

Decided to figure out what it takes to build it on Linux and lookin' fine after a bit of wrestling. (Sound is quite choppy though, I'll probably have to see if it is a VM problem or BASS + whatever audio interface Ubuntu uses by default problem or something else.)

[Love & Thunder]

Sounds cool! It'll be great to have JJ2 playable on all three major OSes.

[luke11685]

i'm still wondering why's no tcrf.net articles about canceled jazz jackrabbit 2 sequel jj3.Anyways jj2 fangame engine clone is looking great,curious.Now stijn knows my criptic life,but why he's covering/hiding another jazz jackrabbit fangames.No matter what he's planning to ban me permamently.

[CowCatcher]

A great thing about a project like this is the possibility of widescreen support and better antialiasing for the low res graphics... unless pixels is what you're going for. In any case, a modern game. Good work! I really hope this could become the future of JJ2!

[Primpy]

Something tells me the project is dead yet again. Does anyone know if Soulweaver is still working on it?

[Love & Thunder]

I'm sure he's working on it, but he doesn't have anything in particular to say about it.

[Soulweaver]

Something tells me the project is dead yet again. Does anyone know if Soulweaver is still working on it?

I have some quite recent local changes that aren't in the repository currently (some basic Freezer mechanics, namely). I've been somewhat occupied, though, by my rereading of the CLANNAD visual novel (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/clannad-official-english-release) that I finally received around a month ago (a "perk" of being a physical-only EU backer was to get it later than everyone else), the already past Summer Games Done Quick 2016, and now the ongoing European Speedrunner Assembly 2016. Plus I was quite overwhelmed from moving from the three work days + two university days (that I mostly spent home) schedule to the full five-day week for the summer as well :p But it is still on my mind and I'm still working on it whenever I have enough time.

https://i.soulweaver.fi/freezerthings.png

[Primpy]

Oh, it's nice to see you're still working on it. I like how your taskbar on top, not bottom :)

[Slaz]

Yeah, I'm still interested in progress towards this project. Looking back, it really came a long way from what you first showed us!

In a way, I feel kind of sad that all I can do here is appreciate the project. I can't really program, but if you do donations at some point I'm willing to support.

[Soulweaver]

Just a small update: I posted a round-up video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqU2YRLoqU) of features that were added in since May. As evident from both my activity here and in the repository, my focus has again been all over the place except in PC, but I'll try to put more effort into it again soon.

I think I read these messages before but didn't have to time to answer right away and forgot... Anyways:

Oh, it's nice to see you're still working on it. I like how your taskbar on top, not bottom :)

Hehe, thanks :) It's a long time habit now; I find it useful to have the task bar on the eye level than at the bottom.

Yeah, I'm still interested in progress towards this project. Looking back, it really came a long way from what you first showed us!

In a way, I feel kind of sad that all I can do here is appreciate the project. I can't really program, but if you do donations at some point I'm willing to support.

Your and everyone else's interest into it is already enough support, and also something I am quite grateful for :p

Programming-wise, it's not like it'd be easy for anyone to contribute at the moment really. There's still a lot of cruft in the engine that needs to be rewritten in a better way, so the game core would pretty much be a moving target to anyone else looking towards helping. Maybe in the future it will be more stable...

Donations have crossed my mind at least once but I decided that as long as I cannot reliably promise continuous development, it'd pretty much be a scam on my part, plus I'm managing well with the salary from my daily job anyway so it'd just be a bonus and not something that really helped me put the bread on the table. So, I don't think that'll happen even if it would sound like a motivator.

----------

EDIT: Magic. Okay, still a bit broken, but regardless.

https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8328551/21204323/9b45dfda-c25f-11e6-8861-e419a9bf830b.png

[Kunuckles]

Long time player and lurker here. This project makes me excited and I just want to congratulate OP on his current progress.