In a place where your fantasy can roam free, there won't be any boundaries to what your imagination can create.
Misha’s Tech Playground
graphics, fun and code play
I'm crazy - but who cares? My ideas are constantly dwelling and this is the place for them to pour out and form into something good. Only active participation will ultimately make this place come to life.
Scripted Image Mosaics
Here’s another useful tidbit.
I already wrote a lot of posts about Javascript Sprites, how to animate them and how they perform. What I neglected so far is how they actually get on the stage or the page to use the correct term. Another fact is also that most people won’t have flashy Scripted animations all over their page – for those people utilizing one of my sprite classes is not just impractical, it’s also a waste of bandwith.
What it will do
To give those people some JavaScript love too I quickly coded a Mosaic Object this morning. It will basically look up a particular piece of your image and return:
- a canvas element which you can draw into a canvas or attach to another element
- or a div element, perfectly sized to fit the mosaic piece with background and background position set apropriately
Tags: Games, JavaScript, tile graphics
Your Own JavaScript Data Structures
Some Data Goodies
To keep one or the other occupied I thought why not give away some insights on how to implement advanced data structures in JavaScript. Read on to learn how to use Stacks, Vectors and various types of linked lists in your JavaScript Application - complete with Source code.
The Problem
Beside primitive types, Javascript has only built in Objects and Arrays (which themselves are Objects internally as well). While this is a convenience drawback, this also results in a great flexibility. This article will show you how to implement your own data structures utilizing JavaScript object’s prototype property to create your own data types. I’ve added all objects to my global Object CGE, you might need to adjust that to fit your code.
Although not necessary for these Objects to work, I’ll also provide a version of each Object that was made utilizing the AJS.Class constructor, thus only working when the AJS Library is present.
(more…)
Tags: JavaScript, oop
Choosing the right Graphics Technique for a Browser Based Game
Whether if you are doing a puzzle game, a tricky jump ‘n run or a full fledged mmorpg, be it a simply casual or a long term persistent browser based game, you’ll certainly need one thing: images and animations.
As mentioned in last weeks article, you have the choice of implementing the right drawing technique. However, there are vast performance differences. So there is no technique that fits them all, merely you’ll need to decide on a case by case basis what you are going to use.
Since trying out everything only to realize that there were some tiny details you weren’t aware of in the first place isn’t actually fun, I am providing an in depth review of each technique.
We’ll go into detail about each techniques pro’s and con’s and you’ll learn how you would go about animating your game graphics in the technique of your choice.
At the end of this article you’ll also find a matrix containing the most important facts from this review.
A Short side-note for Those Looking to Create Flash Games:
This article won’t include information about Flash or Actionscript. There are already a lot of really great tutorials and articles on this topic out there. I don’t think I need to be making another tutorial containing the same information. Have a look at GotoAndPlay.it which is an awesome source for anyone interested in making Flash games.
Tags: code performance, game engine, Games, JavaScript Library, tile graphics
Performance comparison between HTML, SVG and Canvas
I already found out that using scroll properties is good for fast map scrolling. I extended the concept, and after posting my code to animate sprites via a containers scroll properties I thought hey, why not just check if there’s anything better. The following article provides a short overview and a sample for each technique. There is a zip file containing the full sources as well 
(more…)
Tags: code performance, Firefox, Games, JavaScript, Opera, Safari, SVG
Animating with Scroll Properties, A view on Performance
Having had some time to polish up the AnimSprite Object of the game engine I had a chance to make a small performance test. I decided to give some insights on ow this style of animation works and to post the code that goes along with it for your personal joy.
The following html is generated by the script for each sprite that is placed on the stage.
Of course there is a stylesheet having defined the sprite class:
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.CGE_sprite {
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overflow: hidden;
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position: absolute;
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}
Utilizing the ScrollTop and ScrollLeft properties of the sprite box (the surrounding div) I can display 50 animated sprites @ 25fps on a page using Firefox 3 Beta 4 with a processor load of about 98% on my MBP 2.16GHz Core Duo.
Safari on the other hand is quite fast and has only 19% processor load for 50 sprites.
Having 100 sprites lets Firefox peak out at 100.9% load and slows down the animation to about 50% speed.
I'd say this is still not optimum, but it's quite a good start.
Here's my JS code for the sprites.
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var CGE = {
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// globals attributes
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LEFT: 3,
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TOP: 0,
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RIGHT: 1,
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BOTTOM: 2,
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HEIGHT: 1,
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WIDTH: 0,
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X: 0,
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Y: 1,
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Z: 2,
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STYLE_SPRITE: "CGE_sprite",
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// the game instance if needed
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game: null,
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};
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CGE.Game = new AJS.Class({
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animSprites: [],
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init: function (keys) {
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for (var i=0; i <50; i++) {
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this.animSprites[i] = new CGE.MirroredAnimSprite("_img/jumping_shadow.png", [Math.random()*300,Math.random()*250], [32,32], AJS.$("map"), true);
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};
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this.run(this);
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},
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run: function (game) {
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game.hero.move(CGE.moveDir);
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for(var i = 0; i <game.animSprites.length; ++i) {
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game.animSprites[i].next();
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}
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game.mainLoop = window.setTimeout(function(){game.run(game)}, 40); //25fps
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}
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});
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CGE.Sprite = new AJS.Class({
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box: null, // for tiles this is the tile container, pos is relative to it
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img: null,
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spriteH: 0,
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spriteW: 0,
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// get x and y directly from object, faster for anim
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z: 0,
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frames: null,
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init: function(url, pos, size, parent, useBox) {
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this.img = AJS.IMG({src: url});
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if(useBox)
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this.box = AJS.DIV({className: CGE.STYLE_SPRITE}, this.img);
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if(pos)
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this.setPos(pos);
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if(size)
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this.setSize(size);
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if(parent)
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AJS.ACN(parent, this.box);
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},
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get: function() {
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return this.img.src;
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},
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set: function(url, size) {
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this.img.src = url;
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},
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getPos: function() {
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return [this.box.offsetLeft, this.box.offsetTop];
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},
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setFrame: function(name, n) {
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this.box.scrollTop = this.frames[name][n][CGE.Y];
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this.box.scrollLeft = this.frames[name][n][CGE.X];
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},
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setPos: function(pos) {
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AJS.setLeft(this.box, pos[CGE.X]);
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AJS.setTop(this.box, pos[CGE.Y]);
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},
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setSize: function(size) {
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this.spriteH = size[CGE.HEIGHT];
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this.spriteW = size[CGE.WIDTH];
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AJS.setHeight(this.box, this.spriteH);
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AJS.setWidth(this.box, this.spriteW);
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}
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});
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CGE.AnimSprite = CGE.Sprite.extend({
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isPlaying: false,
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isMirrored: true,
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sign: true, // true=add, false = substract
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frames: null,
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key: null,
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init: function(url, pos, size, parent, isPlaying) {
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this.parent(url, pos, size, parent, true);
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this.key = {name: "base",num: 0}
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this.isPlaying = (isPlaying);
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this.frames = {base: [[0,0],[32,0],[64,0],[96,0],[128,0],[160,0]]};
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},
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getFrame: function() {
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return this.key;
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},
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setFrame: function(name, n) {
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if(n>= this.frames[name].length)
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n = 0;
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this.parent(name, n)
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this.key = {name: name, num: n};
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},
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next: function() {
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if(this.isPlaying)
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this.setFrame(this.key.name, ++this.key.num);
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},
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pause: function() {
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this.isPlaying = false;
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},
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play: function(name) {
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if(name)
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this.key.name = name;
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this.isPlaying = true;
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},
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stop: function() {
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this.pause();
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this.setFrame("base", 0);
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}
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});
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CGE.MirroredAnimSprite = CGE.AnimSprite.extend({
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sign: true, // true=add, false = substract
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setFrame: function(name, n) {
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switch(n) {
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case this.frames[name].length-1:
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this.sign = false;
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break;
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case 0:
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this.sign = true;
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};
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(this.sign) ? ++n : --n;
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this.parent(name, n);
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},
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next: function() {
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if(this.isPlaying)
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this.setFrame(this.key.name, this.key.num);
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},
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});
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function init() {
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CGE.game = new CGE.Game();
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}
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AJS.AEV(window, 'load', init);
As you can see, I make extensive use of AJS. You can get the stock version of it at the official website: AJS JavaScript Library.
The code shown here should be fully functional. I just removed the methods and members which aren't used in this example. And as a little caveat, there is no depth management as of yet.
The image I used in my code is the same as in the Javascript Sprite Animation post.
The classes to use would be:
- CGE.Sprite - which is a single not animated sprite
- CGE.AnimSprite - which is an animated sprite running in a loop
- CGE.MirroredAnimSprite - which is an animated sprite that plays in reverse when it's last/first frame is reached
- CGE.Game - which coordinates the loop in which all animations are run
Have fun 
Tags: code performance, Firefox, Games, JavaScript Library, pbbg, Safari, tile graphics
Game Engine Preview
Since the class hierarchy is almost finalized I thought I post a little sneak peek of what is to be expected.
Not everything shown here will make it into the first release, unfortunately. But be assured that development is in progress...
You might notice that this looks a lot like pseudo code, but I just don't want to throw around pieces that aren't finalized yet.
So without further ado, here's some code to stick your nose in...
Tags: code performance, Games, JavaScript Library, pbbg, tile graphics
SVG vs. XHTML
Doing a web based game without any plugin is a high-put target. I noticed this today when I tried to do my first steps with SVG. While the standard itself is certainly not in it's infancy, the browsers trying to display it certainly are. This article aims to provide some first experiences and comparisons of SVG and (X)HTML for displaying raster based graphics on a web page.
Tags: Firefox, Games, Opera, pbbg, Safari, SVG, tile graphics
Is JavaScript enough for browser based games
Most Browsergames these days are done with Flash. Sure, Flash is a nice technology and it has lots of benefits over X3D, Quicktime, Silverlight and others. The main reason Flash is used for games though is because it has a huge market penetration. Somewhere around 98% if you believe in Adobe's statistics.
That there is another, mostly underestimated player is a fact that this article want's to shed some light on. (more...)
Tags: code performance, pbbg
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