Will it be possible to create extentions for Cold Stone to add features that are not suported? I think that would be really cool.

You could use events and have a special kind of event that would call on a function in a plugin, passing certain predefined aguments. These could be just about anthing. Possibly even somesort of graphics context.

Another option would be to have pluggins that were c++ objects, and which inherited from a specific base class, or possibly several for different kinds of plugins. You could use events to then invoke the methods using events.

Instead of events you could even let the designer replace larger parts of the runtime engine with there own systems. For instance, if the designer wanted to implement 64 bit graphics for some reason, they would be able to somehow implement it using a standard interface.

certain plugins would even be cross-platform. If a plugin simply performed a transformation of some sort (such as revesing the colors of a sprite) and did not use any system calls, It could easily be made cross-platform by changing the target in the compiler.

Not that you have to, but it would be really useful and cool.

BTW: When the beta test takes place, will the testers be able to publicly test there creations? I think that would be a good balance between a public and private beta.

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-Jorck

Gee, and maybe you could have a feture that would take your c++ code, and use it to create the entire game! That way, the entire final creation would be 100% independant of the coldstne engine!

I think that having anythig more complex than the most basic scripting language would defeat the purpose of Coldstone. The point is to make it EASY to design a game, even if it means sacrificing flexability. Right now, the furure Coldstone-user has NO flexability, because they can't even make the most basic of games. Coldstone will increase their flexability greatly, by allowing them to create a very detailed game. Adding c++ support will just alienate users. The point is to REMOVE code from the equasion, not provide a coding environment.

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"Then enemy gate is down"
-Ender, "Ender's Game"

Quote

Originally posted by nobody:
**Gee, and maybe you could have a feture that would take your c++ code, and use it to create the entire game! That way, the entire final creation would be 100% independant of the coldstne engine!

I think that having anythig more complex than the most basic scripting language would defeat the purpose of Coldstone. The point is to make it EASY to design a game, even if it means sacrificing flexability. Right now, the furure Coldstone-user has NO flexability, because they can't even make the most basic of games. Coldstone will increase their flexability greatly, by allowing them to create a very detailed game. Adding c++ support will just alienate users. The point is to REMOVE code from the equasion, not provide a coding environment.

**

I disagree. There is nothing that would make creating a game any harder. The addition of c/c++ code would simply give people more options. Anyway, If the code was implemented using plugins, the person making the game would be able to treat them like any other event in the scripting language.

I don't appreciate flames.

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-Jorck

I think plugins would be a great idea in some future version. I had in mind some kind of support for Flash movies (see previous post on .swf files) or RealBasic or something. The advantage of plugins is, those who program could create them and distribute them to the rest of us. Someone might create a card-playing plug-in that others could use in their games so it would be possible to walk into some tavern and actually play a real game of cards with an NPC. Stuff like that.

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"honi soit qui mal y pense"

Quote

Originally posted by Mark Borok:
**I think plugins would be a great idea in some future version. I had in mind some kind of support for Flash movies (see previous post on .swf files) or RealBasic or something. The advantage of plugins is, those who program could create them and distribute them to the rest of us. Someone might create a card-playing plug-in that others could use in their games so it would be possible to walk into some tavern and actually play a real game of cards with an NPC. Stuff like that.

**

May I point out that through event scripting it is already possible for the Coldstone user to program in a part of the game where the player can play a game of cards. However, the idea of plugins is still a good one.

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If it's not on fire, its a software problem.

I agree with Jorck.

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And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they had all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that the trees had been a bad move and that no one should ever have left the oceans. - Douglass Adams

Quote

Originally posted by Legendblade:
**May I point out that through event scripting it is already possible for the Coldstone user to program in a part of the game where the player can play a game of cards. However, the idea of plugins is still a good one.

**

Plugins with code in them would be a rather huge problem for cross-platform games, and it also would defeat the entire goal of Coldstone: to bring game creation tools to skilled, talented non-programmers.

There are, of course, other ways to make plugins. I think the idea of being able to make little parts of a scenario to add on to an existing one is an interesting idea.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by andrew:
**Plugins with code in them would be a rather huge problem for cross-platform games, and it also would defeat the entire goal of Coldstone: to bring game creation tools to skilled, talented non-programmers.
**

I think that if the plug-ins were scripted to give the same user interface as Coldstone, it wouldn't be noticable to the user. There would be no notice of code, just as their is no notice of code in Photoshop plug-ins. I think that Jorck meant that third party companies would create them to add features n to the programme, in a similar way Photoshop does. He didn't mean plug-ins to the final game like in Escape Velocity

Quote

Originally posted by andrew:
**
There are, of course, other ways to make plugins. I think the idea of being able to make little parts of a scenario to add on to an existing one is an interesting idea.
**

That would be quite a good idea. Libraries of basic events that you could build off would be a very good idea. If you added an extra section to the Coldstone addons, you could put collections of different Libraries for different types of game (ie. A set for a Myst game, one for an Exile game etc etc).

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Quote

Originally posted by the Necromicon:
**That would be quite a good idea. Libraries of basic events that you could build off would be a very good idea. If you added an extra section to the Coldstone addons, you could put collections of different Libraries for different types of game (ie. A set for a Myst game, one for an Exile game etc etc).

**

I for one cetainly plan on releasing my own set of event libraries, since my game is being created in a style where an event can set a couple of variables, call a handling event, and have the handling event do something based on the variables. Hmm, not clear enough.

NPC Talking Example
(Calling Event)
Set Talk Text to "Hi"
Set Talk Picture to "npc.pict"
Call Event "Talk Handler"

(Talk Handler)
Teleport to Talk Background
Change Dynamic Stamp to Talk Picture
Display Dialog "&&Talk; Text"

Something like that, except with a more extensive listing of events. That way I can pass it the variables in as many events as I want and only write the handling 'code' once.

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If it's not on fire, its a software problem.

Sounds good to me.

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Quote

Originally posted by nobody:
**Gee, and maybe you could have a feture that would take your c++ code, and use it to create the entire game! That way, the entire final creation would be 100% independant of the coldstne engine!
**

Umm, Coldstone scenarios(sp) are already independent of Coldstone. You just have to have Coldstone to make a scenario, not to play it.

-Andrew out.

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"Question boldly even the very existance of a God, for if there is one he must surely apreciate the homage of Reason rather than a blindfolded fear." -Thomas Jefferson