Input Trees Budding New Leaves
Ooh check that out! 9 days and we've already got a new posting. Crazy! Developmentally I've had on days and off days this past 1.3 weeks. Seems the holiday fervor is quickly starting to culminate. Soon it will all be over though, thank goodness. Tonight I probably won't get a whole lot done, I'm going to a local piano bar for my sister's 21st (Happy Birthday Erica!)... and tomorrow my girlfriends dreaded COOKIE BLITZ begins so I don't know that I will be able to concentrate for an extended period of time. But Hey! An update's an update, right?!
A few days ago I was hemming and hawwing and hooing and hurling... in the figurative sense... over thoughts of how to tackle the ever mysterious input tree. I've been aware of input trees since ehhh... Killer Instinct II (which seriously needs a sequel) I think? As I recall, the training mode in that game displayed your mash of button presses along the top of the screen as you went to town. I think that was when the understanding clicked in my head that "Hey, that's how they decide that quarter-circle A is a fireball!"
I knew all along that the input tree would be a major factor in any game with any sort of fighting game mechanics (such as mine)... possibly even any game in general. And I had a feeling it would be a fairly trivial task, but when I sat down to do it it crushed my face. With no clue how to approach it, and a really difficult time finding any reference online for it I had to retreat a day or two. When it did click, however, it was pretty amazing. In fact, the whole input tree creation was embarrassingly easy (if you're curious, look up Binary Search Trees (BST), as they can easily be adapted).
So my input trees are in full bloom in the middle of winter... how's about that? I can grow them or wither them at will, which will really aid my goal in the long run. Now, I just need to focus on how to get the inputs to control what's going on in the game. The trifecta here is input, state, and animation, and I'm wrapping up the input stage. Hopefully next week (or sooner) I'll be able to let you know how easily the state stage was eliminated.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! (all you PC hippies, use your imagination here)
A few days ago I was hemming and hawwing and hooing and hurling... in the figurative sense... over thoughts of how to tackle the ever mysterious input tree. I've been aware of input trees since ehhh... Killer Instinct II (which seriously needs a sequel) I think? As I recall, the training mode in that game displayed your mash of button presses along the top of the screen as you went to town. I think that was when the understanding clicked in my head that "Hey, that's how they decide that quarter-circle A is a fireball!"
I knew all along that the input tree would be a major factor in any game with any sort of fighting game mechanics (such as mine)... possibly even any game in general. And I had a feeling it would be a fairly trivial task, but when I sat down to do it it crushed my face. With no clue how to approach it, and a really difficult time finding any reference online for it I had to retreat a day or two. When it did click, however, it was pretty amazing. In fact, the whole input tree creation was embarrassingly easy (if you're curious, look up Binary Search Trees (BST), as they can easily be adapted).
So my input trees are in full bloom in the middle of winter... how's about that? I can grow them or wither them at will, which will really aid my goal in the long run. Now, I just need to focus on how to get the inputs to control what's going on in the game. The trifecta here is input, state, and animation, and I'm wrapping up the input stage. Hopefully next week (or sooner) I'll be able to let you know how easily the state stage was eliminated.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! (all you PC hippies, use your imagination here)
posted by Liege at
10:52 AM
1 Comments:
Damn you sir, now I need to play Killer Instinct!
By
pnoland, At
January 12, 2008 at 1:16 AM
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