Henke's flash engine (now open source)

Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:06 pm

henke37

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I am working on a case maker of my own. I am making it in Flash. This means that it will run in webbrowsers.

The data format used is XML. I chose XML because it is both machine readable and human readable. XML is a very strict format with a very detailed specification, meaning that there will be no half compatible readers and what not.

The graphics and sound is mainly stored in flash movies specially built for the engine. Nothing too crazy, just some structure for reasonable access.

My engine already supports investigations and cross examinations. I have a bunch of missing details for sure, like say, no arrow on the advance button.

Demo - Trial script used by the demo.

You can keep updated on the development over on AAO.

The project is open source. This means that anyone can look at how it works and contribute. Interested people should check out the assembla project.

I am currently recruiting. I am looking for someone to assist with importing things to Flash.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Last edited by henke37 on Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:28 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:43 am

SevenCarrots

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Whoa man, didn't know you already had the engine out already!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:24 am

SevenCarrots

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Double post, sorry!

I checked the demo out, the animations are extremely pleasing and smooth (Such as when Witness Testimony pops out), even the Objection! and Hold it! pops up are smooth.

Besides the quirks (like the weird gumshoe talking hahahaha), and missing arrow, slow typing, it looks VERY promising, I suggest people check it out.

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:36 pm

Trybien

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Nice job Henke, It felt like I was playing a somewhat better quality AAO.(other than those quirks, then again, AAO has some annoying quirks as well.)

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:54 pm

henke37

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The tricky thing is going to be the following issues that I have yet to solve:

Multiple colors in the text of frames.
Camera pans.
Fading the background out.
Replacing the background with a picture.
Not hiding the benches when the bg is black, if the sprite needs them

When listed like this, they seem trivial. And the final implementation will likely be trivial as well. But it's getting the design to work right that will be the issue. It's a lot of thinking here. And please, don't bother trying to help here. It's too hard for 99.99 % of the users. And the rest doesn't know how my system is designed.

Meh, it's stuff that I will have to solve.

The thing that I do need help with is getting assets. The existing rips are not very complete when it comes to gui things. And it's completly blank when it comes to non english languages.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:27 am

henke37

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I can now say that the above list is taken care of. I just need to deal with things like the psychelocks and the evidence GUI and it will be up to beta quality.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:05 pm

henke37

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Latest update: automatic error reporting.

Btw, I am sorta stuck, as I need some assets extracted properly before I can continue doing meaningful work on the player. Details in the other topic.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:12 pm

saluk

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I just have to say, nice job! It's got a long way to go yet, and as you admit, getting the basics is pretty easy, but then you start uncovering a never ending treasure trove of details that can get complex :)

There are some assets in PyWright that were not found in the rips, not all of it is good, but you are free to dig in there and take anything you can use. Check PyWright/art/general if you haven't already.

I also see that you want to keep some compatibility with aao. My PyWright converter for aao is pretty much finished (lol I've been saying that for 6 months) except for a few details, so eventually that could be used to jump start the converter from aao to flash, if it helps or is needed.

Oh and btw, your site seems to be down at the moment.

When you started making comments about PyWright, I had no idea they were from a ~~competitor~~ fellow casemaker-maker. Thanks for taking the time to see what I've done, and good luck with the project!

Creator of PyWright, the lovable case construction system!
Also visit the PyWright post.

Re: Henke's flash engine

Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:47 am

Unas

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saluk wrote:

My PyWright converter for aao is pretty much finished (lol I've been saying that for 6 months)

Good, because I've started work on AAO v6 which will use a different file format ^^
You still have a little time though, since it won't be ready before long.
I'll probably release the code publicly when it'll be done so you can get the source of the new loading modules, since I'm building some to load old trials into the V6 format, though :-)

Unfortunately, it won't be the same as henke's format, as I'll be using JSON formatting (far better for integration in a JS system, obviously). If I use henke's player for V6 (which I haven't decided yet), some changes will be necessary.

saluk wrote:

eventually that could be used to jump start the converter from aao to flash, if it helps or is needed.

Well, henke knows the AAO system better than many people out there, so I'm not sure he'll need much help with this, but thanks for offering anyway ;-)

Ace Attorney Online - Online trial creator and international Ace Attorney community.
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Re: Henke's flash engine

Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:17 pm

saluk

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Nice, json will be so much easier for me to use. It's actually almost native python file format as well. Also, most of the work has been concept mapping rather than format mapping, so if the concepts stay roughly similar it shouldn't be too hard to update.

If you are working on a new version, you should think about making it in a format that mobile devices (phones etc) can play. Flash is nice, but it doesn't work everywhere. I just tested aao on my android phone and it works well except for sound+music (which obviously need flash in aao 4). But flash would be a nice option where it is available. It is more work to support both though, and if you are like me, less work is better than more hehe.

Creator of PyWright, the lovable case construction system!
Also visit the PyWright post.

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:39 pm

henke37

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To elaborate on "knows better", I am one of the top 5 people in the world for understanding the AAO system. I have pulled some crazy stunts with it, including messing with the CE direction and writing a flowchart generator. But the most useful tool is a MS word exporter to make it simple to catch typos and bad grammar.

As for the assets, thanks. If I find anything, I will use it. But so far, I don't think I have seen anything I need/can use.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:46 pm

Unas

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henke37 wrote:

To elaborate on "knows better", I am one of the top 5 people in the world for understanding the AAO system. I have pulled some crazy stunts with it, including messing with the CE direction and writing a flowchart generator. But the most useful tool is a MS word exporter to make it simple to catch typos and bad grammar.

You're probably in the top 2, you know :-P

You're the only one other than me who has had an access to the PHP source :-D

Ace Attorney Online - Online trial creator and international Ace Attorney community.
AAO Deutsche version : AAO German section now open !

Re: Henke's flash engine

Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:54 pm

henke37

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Yeah, but that's the boring part.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine

Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:55 pm

henke37

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So I have finished save support. Well, mostly. I know that there are a few spots left to tackle, but it's more than good enough for now.

However, I still need people to help me out with asset importing.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine (looking for help)

Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:17 pm

henke37

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I have begun on a few minigames, still need some gui work on them and they miss the later steps.

But more importantly, I am currently working on AAI style investigations. It is working out quite nicely so far.

Of course, I still need asset importers.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine (looking for help)

Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:10 pm

henke37

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Yup, still need importers. But at least I got Edgeworth sorta walking now (man do I suck at animating). Just gotta write the examination collision detection code and the walking part will be done. Then there are the misc gui things like the bottom screen (no work at all done there) and the logic (nope, no work there either yet).

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!

Re: Henke's flash engine (looking for help)

Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:27 pm

henke37

Programmer

Gender: Male

Location: Sweden

Rank: Bug Sweeper

Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:25 pm

Posts: 832

The project has gone open source. This means that anyone can look at how it works and contribute. Interested people should check out the assembla project.

Currently working on a redesign of cr.net itself! Come talk to me about it on Discord!