Re: [AD] allegro_tiled: a new module for parsing tile-based maps.

[Damien Radtke <damienradtke@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I posted on the forum, but there haven't been any responses yet. =(

http://www.allegro.cc/forums/thread/610842

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 1:50 PM, Damien Radtke <damienradtke@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> You raise some good points regarding the drawing API. I've already
> made some updates to remove the map object's backbuffer property and
> implement new drawing methods that mimick those already in Allegro
> (including tinted/regional variations), which should make the API more
> flexible. I'm working on some drawing methods for individual layers,
> but if you look at draw.c, you should get a feel for the direction I'm
> taking this in.
>
> As far as including glib, the FSF's website says that the zlib license
> used by Allgegro 5 is compatible with the GPL
> (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ZLib). Glib uses the
> LGPL, which is also compatible with the GPL, so it doesn't look like
> there are any issues there. Both Allegro and glib are cross-platform,
> too; the only reason allegro_tiled doesn't support anything but Linux
> is simply because of a lack of effort on my end, but that will change
> once I feel that the API is stable.
>
> On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Hilton Medeiros
> <medeiros.hilton@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On 08/01/2012 06:15 PM, Damien Radtke wrote:
>>> Rather than copy the internal Allegro code into my module's source, I
>>> decided to add glib as a dependency, which not only gives me lists but
>>> also hash tables, base64-encoding (allowing me to remove some code I
>>> hand-copied from zlib), and a whole bunch of other utilities.
>>>
>>> I'm working on refactoring the code a little bit to try and figure out
>>> the best user-facing API. If anyone has any suggestions for this, let
>>> me know. After that's done and the API is more or less set in stone,
>>> then I'll post an announcement on the forums.
>>>
>>
>> Hello, I would like to see tiled support for Allegro, but I think it is
>> a bit complicated to make a simple generic API for it. I will just blurt
>> here some issues that cross my mind:
>>
>> * You draw all layers to a big backbuffer that may cross the texture
>> dimension limits of the device/card;
>>
>> * There is no way to draw layers separately and making backbuffers for
>> every layer you can easily overflow with big maps;
>>
>> * An usual use case is to draw only the `visible` tiles (inside the
>> screen box) directly from the layers, not from a backbuffer. But you
>> never know what a developer may want to do;
>>
>> * What if I want to draw only a layer with a specific property, or some
>> properties? Or some layers.
>>
>> * The `draw` API should follow the example of the al_draw_bitmap one
>> with at least `tinted` and `region` variations;
>>
>> * What if I want to set the z for tiles with some specified property for
>> z-ordering?;
>>
>> * Is there no geometries (line, polygon and rectangle) support?
>>
>> * You added Glib (I like it too) and mention support only for Linux on
>> github. I think the Allegro developers must have a good reason for not
>> using Glib for Allegro. Maybe license or cross-compatibility issues for
>> devices like iphone and android (or even compiling issues on Windows)?
>>
>> This is what I have right now.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Hilton
>>
>>
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