DSP has finally arrived on SF.net! http://sourceforge.net/projects/dsp/
And its blog: http://dsp.sf.net
This means the source code is now available, etc etc etc.

I’ll get some documents up on the source layout and such things as I have time over the next week.

As I have said in the DSP News:

Its been a long wait but it was worth it!
The current release (1.1a) has been uploaded and the SVN repository has been imported.

I’ve decided on GPL v3 for the code, and licensed the existing art under a creative commons license (see readme.txt)

I am keen to have more levels hosted in the SVN, but only ones which are CC licensed.
Only levels included in the SVN will be in the official releases, but there will be a wiki page dedicated to level links.

The wiki pages will slowly show up over the next few days as I import them from various sources.

I’ve applied for a sourceforge site for DSP. It is a takeover from another project using ‘dsp’ as its name already, they haven’t used the project at all however, (it has been idle for 2 years,) so I shouldn’t have any trouble getting the name.
I’ve done some minor improvements since the last release including:
– Show splash/speed when > 0
– Show tower stats when maxed.
– Very minor rendering tweaks.

I’ve also been researching improving the framerate and trying various different techniques.
Currently DSP renders at 30fps on the PSP, dropping to 20 if you are on the ingame-menu when between waves (text rendering is slow by the looks).
I’ve tried converting the rendering engine from immediate mode to use vertices with glDrawArray, this gave no noticable FPS differences.
During this testing I discovered that certain textures of the same size render faster than others.
Looking into this further (including the pspgl source) It would appear to be that PSPGL doesn’t copy/move textures between GE-Memory and System-Memory, so if your texture ends up in system memory you get slower render speed and nothing you can do about it 🙁
Will need to do more research into this including a debug build of PSPGL to find out what is really happening, but that is my current thoughts.
It may be possible to fix this in PSPGL or alternatively switch to using GU for rendering on PSP instead, we will see.
Not something DSP needs as of yet since the framerate stays high even with huge waves with lots of towers firing at them, but something new, fun and interesting to work on at some stage 😉

I’ve also created a draft XML file for the next level format: http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/level_draft_1.xml
This is a proposed replacement for the current level.txt.
Switching to XML for the file formats will give numerous advantages:
– Files become alot more self explanatory (no more, “what is line 5 again?”)
– Better backwards compatibility in the future.
– etc… >_>
Please give it a quick look over and offer any suggestions you may have (especially you Shazz!)

I will also switch enemy.txt / tower.txt to XML files, but haven’t drafted any up yet.

Another interesting thing I’m thinking about adding is the ability to run levels from within zip files, this will make for much faster copying of levels to your PSP.

Thats enough news for now.
danzel.

Update, will use this post for general ‘next gen’ XML file format discussion.
level.xml changes:
– Capitalize all attributes.
– Add ‘Radius’ to waypoints.
– Change “Name” attribute to “Folder”
– Change Path.flags to be seperate attributes (Boss, SaveTheHouse, UpgradePoint, all default to false)
– Add Enemy.Multiplier, makes old enemies new again! 😉
I’ve also added an enemy and tower draft, no big changes in there yet.
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/level_draft_2.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/enemy_draft_2.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/tower_draft_2.xml

Draft 3
Level:
– Add Level.LevelSprite (includes changeable Width, Height)
Enemy:
– Enemy has levels, the first one is used by default unless specified in Level.Waves.Wave.Enemy->Level (Which replaces Multiplier)
– Specify Sprites/Sounds in XML, allows different amounts of Frames for each.
– Add a “Leave Level” sound.
Tower:
– Add Capability (Hit Ground/Air, Slows), Replaces old tags
– Add Sprites (includes turret position)
– FireSprite (shown when shoots).

http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/level_draft_3.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/enemy_draft_3.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/tower_draft_3.xml

Draft 4 (final)

Everything:
– UpgradePoint is now an integer everywhere.
Level:
– InterestLevel/Live can now cost upgrade points.
– Add StartSound to Wave.
– Add Win/Lose (With Sound and Sprite)
Enemy:
– Add Weakness (take more/less damage from certain towers)
Tower:
– Add PlacementSound
– Add SellAmount to Level
– Add Poison:Damage/Length to Level
– Move Capability.Slow to Level.SlowLength/SlowAmount
– Change to , has supporting attributes for shot animation etc.

http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/level_draft_4.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/enemy_draft_4.xml
http://OFFLINEZIP.wpsho/dsp/tower_draft_4.xml

Still missing:
– Music, Special music for boss waves.
Smoke trail ShotType.

Missing but may not make it:
Add min range (to define a target reachable band instead of a target reachable disk)

Here is the current DSP TODO list, if you think of something missing then please tell me 🙂
Mainly engine changes, going to leave the level making up to you guys 😉

1.1 release should be next 1-2 days.
Update: Move more things to 1.1, hopefully can get it all in 🙂
Things in italics are done.

1.1 (AKA: Things that should of been in the first release)
Can’t play again if you quit in the middle of a wave bug
Difficulty multiplier
If level folder has its own pngs (acceptcampaign, cursor, sidebg_bot, sidebg_top, sidebg_selector, map_selector, font, fontbold, coin, tree) use them
Show wave count
Fix crash bug with windows endlines.
Rebalance ‘river td’, add a few more waves.
Tell how to upgrade tower
Fix Points
Better PSP controls.
Render Range rings when upgrading towers.
When selecting a Tower to buy, display all details parameters (range, time to fire, damage…)
Release Level making assistant tool (Defines Buildable map and Wave path)
“Save the house” : if ONE enemy reaches one given point, you loose

Maybe 1.1
Destroy/Sell tower
Buy Lives
Release source code
Load enemies only when needed.
Skinnable game over / you win.
Fix tower placing to round better instead of truncating.
Show tower stats on mouse over
Deactivate menu (unload sprites, more memerysz) before full loading the level
Credits Screen
In-game sounds (Wav) for “Wave start”, “tower settlement”, “Game over” & “End game”
Draw all tower target range when settling a new tower (to see overlaps)
Better PNG size (wxh) checks (=> display error) when loading else it freezes
Fix InGame Menu, should return to previous state.

Nearish Future
High Score screen
Possibility to define multiple waves with or not different routes, and with their own starttime
In-game music (mp3, mod)
Draw lifebar (option) below each enemy
Further Shot Types for Shot engine.
– Missile particle trail (option)
Mini-image for campaign on first menu
Savedata (player name, scores, levels, stats…)
XML level, ennemy, tower configuration files (TinyXML is C++/OS independant)
– Tilemap based level definition for easy level construction (TileStudio)
– Bigger maps than 32×32
Define where is the turret roration center (X,Y) if not the middle, as the Starcraft Goliath turrent is on top of the legs, not on the middle
Turrent animation SpriteSheet when shooting
Configurable SpriteSheet frames (sometimes 4 frames are not enough…)
Make Slow change with tower levels (time and length of effect)
GlBits3 (More efficient rendering, more framerate!)
– Investigate changing render functions to take floats instead of ints.
If you use an ordered insert into the instances lists, then when rendering it will be more efficient (render same sprite all at same time).
– Towers and shots can use this, enemies not really as we rely on their ordering

Further Future
Make menu hideable.
Online score tracking! / Level downloading
Render ground enemies THEN flying enemies.
Levels in Campaign.
– Code to jump to level X
Wave paths :
– Fixed (as you did path with step points)
– Curve (sin, cos)
– Collision detection (enemies will turn right is a wall is in front of them)
Add min range (o define a target reachable band instead of a target reachable disc)
Add “Miss ratio” (how often the shot missed the target)

Voting is up!
http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php?topic=4601.0

Update:
Fixed PSP executable
What was up?
Windows capitalises some of the folders when putting it on the PSP, this made the game bug out when loading towers and enemies.

Digg This!

For my neoflash entry this time, I’ve made a fully customisable tower defence game for the psp.
It runs on the PSP, and also linux and windows to assist in creating new levels 🙂
The level creation guide is included, please make lots of levels! 😀 😀 :D.

Oh yeah, the points counter is broken, known bug. I’ll fix it tomorow >_>

Neoflash link.

Big thanks to:
#hamlan for support
My collegues at SmarTrak GPS Tracking for some of the audio 😉
JMC for some of the audio 😉
Surreal for the build menu graphics.
Dapples for font selection.
thefamilyman and Dapples for hosting the downloads!
Myself 😛
And obviously tyranid, gimp devs, audacity devs, inkscape devs. Awesome software guys 😀

Download:PSP, Windows, Linux
Mirror:PSP, Windows, Linux

Mac version coming soon once I get access to a mac 🙂

Enjoy.
Danzel.

PS.
I’ll release the source under GPL including the SVGs I made the images from (under CC) sometime over the next week, will set up a SF.net project or something for it.