Speiger
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UI Engine Reworks.
🕑 Added 2018-10-15 20:02:15 +0000 UTC It's been another two weeks, and I am again a bit late to the none existent party.So what's been happening?
After I started implementing the Clickable Entities into the game, I noticed that certain features were either not properly working or missing and very hard to implement.
That was thanks to my very outdated UI/Text rendering that I was using (A improved version of OpenGL Immediate Mode for those who are interested), which was faster then the even older version but is very limited.
The reasoning why I used that instead of normal "Shader" rendering is mainly that for as for its simplicity and quick implementation of it.
And back then when I started the works on the Game, my "Shader" rendering understanding was next to nothing.
And doing something very complex like a UI/Text in that System is very very hard if you have no idea how to do it in that System.
Anyway I ported my UI now to the Shader System which after some hickups and a lot of "Derp" moments worked.
While that was happening was getting some teaching from OvermindDL1 again and some info about how the LiquidUIEngine did it's implementation on some elements to get mine improved. I am not using that Engine but I suggest anyone who wants some basic easy to implement UI Elements that engine is for Java well implemented.
I didn't because I have to be special and also don't use the required libraries.
Anyway another thing what was happening to that was that I was also implementing a couple new ways how Data is flowing within my Engine.
Right now it creates (Especially with Entities) a lot of Garbage.
Objects get allocated and dropped way to frequently within 1 frame of a cycle.
Especially on large Worlds there is megabytes created and deleted which basically slows down the game a lot.
So to fight against that I have implemented classes and also somewhat Systems that allow me to control Memory Flow. It is not finished yet. Since UI is not 100% finished, the components & Testing Screens run in the new Engine but the old UIs right now not. But that is just a trivial task compared what I finished just before the post.
But during this week I am going to finish both of those things. A better UI and also memory management System that allows me to have much more entities and causes less lag because of it.
But yeah to finish the story finally.
My new UI System runs smoother, a lot of the code was made simpler and its capabilities got a buff. Now I need to finish it up, Maybe add some more mini animations and then move to the Entities.
Also thanks to some further work Chunk Pregen I managed to get a very clear indication of how I want to layout my minimap to use the least amount of Memory and CPU, its interesting how much you can optimize things.
Anyway that's the end of the Post.
Thanks for reading it and thanks for those who support me, next post I try to have a "Scenario Builder" on the works that allow me to actually make "Playable" Maps.
I can't ensure that its going to be done, but its my next Personal Goal.
Have a nice day.
Speiger
