FoFiX 4.0.0 Development Thread

[slantyr]

late to the conversation, bummer. i'd be willing to help with any project that returned fofix to its former glory. I can do graphics. I miss the days of mfh hotfixes

[blatz89]

I'd be willing to help out with whatever, I'm somewhat knowledgeable with Python, still working on some things with it, but I understand it enough to know what everything is.
Step one would be, obviously, to rewrite the code, or at least reorganise it so it's somewhat readable (Which, from what I understand from what you guys are saying, would be nigh impossible, so It'd be more likely the former).

..I started to rewrite fofix once but didn't get all that far what i did do though is on github. Though after messing around with some other projects lately i would do some things a bit differently. Basically i had a very basic framework that was basically a clone of the very general structure of fofix with a few improvements.

I'm curious to see this.

late to the conversation, bummer. i'd be willing to help with any project that returned fofix to its former glory. I can do graphics. I miss the days of mfh hotfixes

No more random hotfixes plz. :|. But this actually sounds like a legitimate concept at this point.

[zotastas]

It deleted my answer again :'( ... so the short version again ._.

If there are so much "developers", how many guys are waiting for fofix 4.0 in total? So lets do this.

@blatz89 (are you from germany/austria/switzerland??? xD)
I think because it sounds like you are able to write python but you're not the total pro, I think it would be great if you could write comments to weirdpeople framework. It sounds lame but it's like cleaning your room/apartment/house: it's totally boring and we hate it but in the end your proud of yourself and when you see the eyes of you visitors twinkle its the best in the world. Anyway, I think this would be a great start. Could you do this please?

@weirdpeople
So you started to clean up the code huh? So could you please add blatz89, amak11 and slantyr to the developerlist on github? The next thing is: would you please tell us something about the framework you've programmed? What is it capable of yet?
- are you able to play sounds and the music?
- are you able to catch keyboard events?
- are you able to start the game?
- are you able to load fof(ix) song files?
- what features are missing to get the same functionality as fof(ix)?
What you could do (next to answering to this post :P) is to continue reimplementation of fof(ix). I would suggest checking that there is just 1 Class per file. What do you think about reordering the files? "Divide and Conquer" - lets say we move the files responsible for encode sound-files to one directory and key-press-events to another one? I think it would make the code much easier to read.

@slantyr
The Graphics? Ok let's see ... while playing fofix, I've noticed that much ressources are used by the graphics. Maybe there is an easier way? Maybe if there is no menu yet, you could design one? Or what about choosing the song? A venyl case showing the album-art and when playing the song, the disk itself which fly out of the case and land on top of a gramophone (maybe this could be a new way the frets are flying in - on top of the disk ;) ). Make some suggestions =)

@amak11
Now it's your turn. To avoid a new code mess, what do you think about a plugin system? I thought of something like the possibility to:
- add audio encodings
- add new ways frets fly in
- add new Hardware support (GH guitar etc.)
I think it's a quite big task. I don't want you to implement these plugins but to make it possible: scan a directory to find plugins, load these, create interfaces for plugin-developers. Plugins would have the HUGE benefit to avoid much developers destroying the code. In Germany they say something like "Too many cooks spoil the broth". I thought you would be the best choice for this because you know much about the fofix code and I think your perfect to know what plugins could make sense for fofix. What do you think?

What are your thoughts about the tasks? Any suggestions? I think before we really can start programming, we need to know whats already available.

Greetings
Zota

[weirdpeople]

@weirdpeople
So you started to clean up the code huh? So could you please add blatz89, amak11 and slantyr to the developerlist on github? The next thing is: would you please tell us something about the framework you've programmed? What is it capable of yet?
- are you able to play sounds and the music?
- are you able to catch keyboard events?
- are you able to start the game?
- are you able to load fof(ix) song files?
- what features are missing to get the same functionality as fof(ix)?
What you could do (next to answering to this post :P) is to continue reimplementation of fof(ix). I would suggest checking that there is just 1 Class per file. What do you think about reordering the files? "Divide and Conquer" - lets say we move the files responsible for encode sound-files to one directory and key-press-events to another one? I think it would make the code much easier to read.

It literally does nothing at the moment but it literally has the bare basics like a window, task tracking, render layers, and scenes. It has a very rudimentary event system which could be used to give keyboard input to the game, not controllers yet.

Most of it i would rewrite now and do a different way, since me and a friend have been working on the side with python over the past like year on a game framework very slowly.

Basically the difference in a game engine and a framework is this: A game engine creates basically a basic game for you and you just add logic and other stuff to it. A framework is just basically helper functions/classes for stuff such as platform differences 3d model formats and stuff like that.

When we get it to a point of usefulness i will probably take it and work on implementing a music game with it and open source part of it. Then we can have a good cross platform fofix successor. This is basically what we have at the moment it renders a large 3d model. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh-jsrf4-nY

Its written in pure python, uses opengl 3.3 currently. All of everything was written ourselfs, and it requires no dependencies other than python. I get around 1300 fps on it.

@amak11
Now it's your turn. To avoid a new code mess, what do you think about a plugin system? I thought of something like the possibility to:
- add audio encodings
- add new ways frets fly in
- add new Hardware support (GH guitar etc.)
I think it's a quite big task. I don't want you to implement these plugins but to make it possible: scan a directory to find plugins, load these, create interfaces for plugin-developers. Plugins would have the HUGE benefit to avoid much developers destroying the code. In Germany they say something like "Too many cooks spoil the broth". I thought you would be the best choice for this because you know much about the fofix code and I think your perfect to know what plugins could make sense for fofix. What do you think?

Hah if you code the game correctly the first time everything should be modular, no part should be very intertwined with another, and it would be plugin like almost.

All of those things you mentioned would be trivial to implement if everything is structured correctly.

[amak11]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa.... when did - I - get signed up for FoFiX development?!

I just follow things close, I know a few languages, but Python is one i have yet to master

[zotastas]

@amak11
xD sry I don't want to offend you. Of course you've never signed up for development. No one has (in this conversation). If it would be my decision you haven't subscribed yet, you're not subscribing right now and you never will. Signing up means to me that you're bounded (at least mental) or something. I don't want to say anyone what he has nor hasn't to do. What I want are people who think "What a great time fofix was. I've developed a USB Handler in Python before, maybe I can modify it so they can use it.". I'm asking for help and contribution. If you don't want to, well then just don't do it (would be nice to leave a message though ;) ). However, I have to admit that I misunderstood you. I thought you've developed parts of fofix before. In this case, the plugin system could be quite hard. I myself don't know anything about Python. I'm Java-Developer but this doesn't help anything ;D.

As I said before: If you don't want to contribute it's totally OK. I just think the more people will help the higher is the chance of finishing the project.

@weirdpeople
Again I don't know anything about phyton xD. Your video looks great. So one of the first things is to get the view. Something similar to fofix. At first 5 lines not moving and some buttons at the bottom? Maybe they could react on pressing keys?

You're totally right with the plugins. I thought we should at least deliver a basic version containing a playable keyboard implementation, a sound engine etc. but of course these could be plugins too ^^. So the plugin system would be the first thing we need right? How would you start?

Greetings Zota

[weirdpeople]

.. i wouldn't say that exactly. You write each major part of it to be modular. And you design it in a way so the underlying implementation doesn't matter, and can be abstracted from the whole. That right there solves the spaghetti code issue that fofix has lol.

Yes you could say it would be plugin-like but its not a plugin.

My goal though is to have basic stuff already done and simple stuff working before i bring others in, stuff like controller input, midi reading and audio playback, etc.

And amak imo you can never really master fully a programing language.

[zotastas]

When you can add a file or a folder or something it is a plugin isn't it oO. Whatever ... call it whatever you like ;). But that's what i meant.

BTW midi reading is one thing. Another could be gp# (*.gp4, *.gp5 etc.) files. Maybe there is a way for us to use them too. Then we would have a much greater source of music and as a small addition we could record the line-in interface and plugin a real guitar and play the chords and the notes ;D. So advanced player can create guitar tutorials and teach newbies how to play the guitar or their versions of songs ^^. Anyway that's another part.

*thumbs up for fully mastering a programming language* ;)

[raynebc]

Unless you add support for RB3 pro guitar controllers, or add pitch analysis (like Rocksmith), Guitar Pro file support would be largely ineffective except for just displaying tab. GP files also aren't usually accurate enough to sync with recorded versions of songs, but you could have Guitar Pro or an equivalent program export a synthesized version of the audio, and use that instead of a normal recording. There are some other alternatives like Go PlayAlong (which use an XML file to define sync points between an audio file and a guitar pro file), but this program has to be bought in order to export such files. Or you could use another game's chart format (like Rocksmith) to display complex guitar tab.

[FretsonFire9001]

Is there a mac version of this??

[zotastas]

@FretsonFire9001 Well currently there is no Version at all (which is also in development)

@raynebc So? ^^ I know what you want to say but I don't think it's a big problem. There are so many smart guys out there ... Yes I thought about something like Rocksmith or Rockband or Singstar or whatever. The point is, and you're totally right with it, it's definitely not easy to program and by far not made "on-the-go". There are a lot of things you should keep in mind. I didn't know guitar pro files are that "bad" (for using as sync i mean). So maybe they're not the best choice ^^. I like the way you think about it. You're not just saying "nope you can't use them" but instead you make suggestions on what else we could use.

But actually this was just a short ... ehm how to say it in english ... lightning of thoughts? Just an idea. It's nothing I would put into the basic development cycle anyway.

Greetings

[docer]

Hey This is already dead?

[Asskickulater]

Hey This is already dead?

Yes

[weirdpeople]

I wouldn't call it dead, im working on stuff. It will just be a while before anything gets put out there by me. I dont have all that much time with college so i only end up working on stuff like once every few weeks.

[amak11]

Hey This is already dead?

Yes

Bit quick eh, you could have waited until an actual dev posted instead of saying something.