The Dolmexica Engine [Moddable 2D Fighter]

[Captain Dreamcast]

wow this is exactly what i was looking for.. I have some questions on this I hope someone can help.. I am into mugen and create games and make games, characters and stages for mugen.. Only problem is mugen is only on computer.. I wanted something like this on the dreamcast.

You've come to the right place!

Im tying to make a very simple game.. Something a long the lines of street fighter 2 but with one super move..

Sounds sweet! The super moves are currently being added, now that the normal specials work flawlessly, I'm ready to add those Super-Mega-Ultra-Combo-Screen-Filling-Special-Gauge-Devouring-Moves we all know and love so much.

I was wondering can you make your own

title screen

Sure.

vs screen

Sure.

continue screen

Partially. The D-Engine does not unload, then reload the characters/stage when losing a match like most fighters. Instead, the Continue screen is just drawn in front of the stage and characters. Like in the Beta. You can black out the background so that it looks like an entirely new screen, but of course the fact that you still have the stage and characters loaded limits the amount of "artistic freedom" you have with that screen. It's still possible to do fancier things than the bland CONTINUE? from the Beta though.

stages

Yup, but like PhiseJr said there are small problems with the stages right now. Originally they were able to have five layers, later three and now only two, which is simply not enough. So I'm researching ways to speed that up. No dice yet, I was too focused on other parts of the code.

is there a tutorial on this?

It is not completed yet, but once it is, there will be an in-depth tutorial on how to create characters, stages and everything else. Probably even one of those Youtube tutorial vids with slow framerates. Flashy.

And I dont get what to download on sourceforge.. There is like 50 files and some of them just link me to a read me? Please could someone help..

Those sourceforge downloads are next to useless. They only serve to protect me from legal troubles. Trying to read these things must be like deciphering hieroglyphs. Once there is a tutorial, it'll be stored in an extra folder called "TUTORIAL" at sourceforge, okay?

The TOOL folder is being erased as I type this right now. Just some useless outdated junk in there.

If this cant be done with this engine is there anyting else out there that could do the trick i want to port my game on psp or dreamcast

As far as I know, there are no moddable fighter engines for consoles. Not sure about the PSP, but for the Dreamcast, the closest comparable thing is OpenBOR, but that one deals with Beat 'Em Ups, not fighters.

Also, just make that clear, there will be no port of the D-Engine, not even to the PC. It's a Dreamcast exclusive and uses so much Dreamcast-exclusive code, porting it would take longer than writing it in the first place...

The original post still pretty much sums up what needs to be done in order to create new characters.

Oh, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage have been added as playable characters. Their AI and Special Moves still need some tweaking, but they are in for good. Sadly, their sprites needed to be downsampled a bit to fit in with the Street Fighter sprites, but I'm sure the story mode will include an explanation why they looks so pixelated.

[Neohound]

Story mode ? If you give free reign to your imagination it should be interesting ! lol

Can't wait to play through it.

[Anthony817]

@Capt. The original Xbox has a port of Mugen, but that is the only system I know that has it, not sure about the PS2.

[VasiliyRS]

- I saw you compiled with SDL 1.2.9. You should update to SDL 1.2.13 (it's faster, stronger, higher... better!). You can get it from here:

Code:
svn://emuforge.com/kosports/sdl-1.2.13

It's not there anymore, maybe you are working on 1.2.14?
What kos repository would you recommend and what's the difference?

Any news on the engine, Captain Dreamcast ?

[Indiket]

It's still there, but I think that now the server is case-sensitve. Try with this:

Code: Select all

svn://emuforge.com/kosports

About which repo is better, well both are correct. The official one is OK, but I try to keep updated the emuforge repo. It has a few more libraries, so I would have a try with the emuforge one.

[VasiliyRS]

Thanks, it's working now.
I have an idea why dont you release new DC DEV ISO with your KOS, sd library etc and MINGW instead cygwin?!

[Captain Dreamcast]

Thanks, it's working now.
I have an idea why dont you release new DC DEV ISO with your KOS, sd library etc and MINGW instead cygwin?!

Would be a rad thing to have, especially considering all the new advancements since ISO #4, gcc 4.x comes to mind. It's pretty useless for me personally, coding in exile on Linux ever since mah Windows crashed and burned, but such a disc would make it easier to pitch porting projects or other shenanigans to non-DC developers, hehe.

Any news on the engine, Captain Dreamcast ?

Couldn't really post on a regular basis anymore after my interwebz broke down, but now that it's back running I'll try and be here more often with some stuff.

Here's the current development (in pseudo-chronological order):

- All SF vs MK characters are now working, both as enemies and playable chars. Most of them still lack their special moves though. *Sigh*, and Johnny Cage is so eager to use his BAWLZ PUNCH on Chun-Li. Soon John, very soon...

- Improved the Dolmexiler (Dolmexica-Compiler, remember? ), the Artificial Intelligence can/must be adapted manually to fit the character now. Naturally I've come up with another great pun to name this addition, DolmexicAI.

- Another tool: The Omni-Converter. Just drag 'n drop the normal computer pics (PNGs/whatever) and they are immediately converted to all D-Engine formats. Still can't come up with a great pun to name this tool. DOmnixi... DolmexicO... D-O... See? Nothing.

- New Artificial Intelligence: To just do this Hattori Hanzo style:

If on its journey, this AI should encounter God, God will lose.

Remember: It's not blasphemy if it's a quote from Kill Bill!

- Arcade Mode Completed: Enemies are randomly selected eight times in a row. No enemy is fought twice, the main goal of this mode are points. There are some other things, but those will be revealed *strikes a pose*, when the time has come.

- Survival Mode Completed: Enemies are chosen randomly, and may appear again. Fights last only one round and players keep their health, with ~20% being restored after each fight. It's a lot more fast-paced than the Arcade mode, with emphasis to live up on the whole Survival thing. Points don't matter in this mode, only the amount of baddies that were squashed. Now, that was pretty damn poetic, someone should make a song out of that.

-Story Mode Completed: Originally thought to be the core of Dolmexica, the Story Mode is still by far my favorite. The main kicker here are the Storyboards, basically you have five Textures, two Textboxes and three Sound Effects and given full control to do what you like with them. Naturally, it's very long and tedious to create long scenes this way, so maybe Templates or something would be a good idea. There were originally thought to be scripted battles (which now sound like a pain to pull off), but I'll see if it's possible. Before I forget, enemies can be random, taken from a "pool" of available enemies or simply a single enemy. There's nothing to go after really, except the story itself. Yeaaah, the only limit here is your imagination. Unless you create a story about a video defender trying to retrieve a mystical power source called Dolmexica. No seriously, DON'T.

- Intro Movies: Have a storyboard play before the title screen. Pretend you have invented something compleeetely new. Feel totally awesome. ???. PROFIT!
So yeah, it's just a storyboard.

- Made the fights smoother: Some things have been added to avoid cheap "corner deaths", where the enemy basically spams you with attacks while you're in the corner and there's nothing you can do, as well as some effects which hopefully manage to increase the pace a little bit. Oh, and the timer can actually cancel the fight now. Why the heck didn't THAT get fixed before the Beta was released? I blame ninjas, and so should you.

Now we're in the present with me trying to create a new file type for efficient D-Engine fonts. Nothing fancy, so what about...

Now we're in the exploding present with an exploding me trying to a new exploding file type for efficiently exploding D-Engine fonts. Yup, much more interesting.

Now that I have your unshared attention, I would also like to give credit to Jenkins, a DC-Talk/Sega-dc.de regular and epic designer, who is currently busy creating some cool screens for the Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat mod. They have not been inserted into the actual game yet, but once they are, I'll make sure to post some shottos.

As for the trailer... Apparently, a VGA splitter and a capture card are harder to get a hold of, than an innovative EA Sports game (a pop-culture reference! Bazinga!). The fact that the D-Engine's developer is a major cheapskate does not necessarily help the trailer's cause, so its fate is still in the flux.

So much from me. As you can see, things are getting closer to the end. Of course there's no rush and I won't release anything until it's working priperly and properly. We already had the other one before, and the same fail isn't funny the second time around.

[Anthony817]

Wow so much good news!

The exploding fonts sound really nice too.

Thanks for the epic update, I needed something to sink my teeth into.

[Captain Dreamcast]

Never mix up Dolmexica and Dolmexica-Engine. Like I did here. Oops.

For the first time in many moons, actual screenshots! As the pic above hints, they are not related to Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat, but rather the legal version. Not much has changed concerning the menus, except that the Main Menu sports a snazzy black background. Oh, and every mode works, but that was to be expected, wasn't it?


Snazzy. Classy. Jazzy. Insert-your-adjective-here-azzy.

Of all the modes, the Story mode promises to be the most interesting. While the storyboards have been discussed in great detail (see the last update), I would like to present a small example. Kinda unrefined, but I think it shows just fine what can be achieved with five textures, two text boxes and three sound effects.


Aren't the sound effects gorgeous?

Poor MS-Paint censorship aside, the five Textures are the Background, Character 1, Character 2, the message board and the small arrow showing which character speaks. The text box is the first text box, the second one is unused, although one could imagine it to be used for the second character's text, or whatever. Pressing the A button advances the storyboard just one "action". My personal preference is to have every "box" of text to use two of these actions. The first one lasts until the text has completely appeared on the screen , the second one lasts forever, thus prompting the player to press the A button to advance.
... Just an example to show that "storyboards" can be more than just a simple movie playing.

Note to self: Portions of the font still appear to be off.


Even Top Hat's name and the original game are censored. What the heck.

Yeah, the legal version has to contain characters I hold rights for. Being the uncreative slob I am, I quickly HD-ified the Stick-guy from The Best Game Ever, named him Stickler (Get it? GET IT?) and had him battle a caricature of myself, complete with the signature top hat and Captain-S jacket.


Everyone gets the kick.

The stage might seem familiar to you, as it is based on a real location.
For comparison, the background:

and this booth.

Of course all similarities are purely coincidental. At least that's what you tell the Redspotgames guys, okay?


Is he gonna hit or not? We shall never know.

Stickler is the typical Necro/Dhalsim/Twelve/Screw-physics-character, capable of shape-shifting into any form and even stuff like taking off his leg to beat the opponent with it. Nevertheless, he still walks like in The Best Game Ever, just lifting one leg.


NOT GOAL.

Kinda unfunny if you haven't played the game (and probably still unfunny if you have), but a good test to see whether a 640-pixels stage works. It does, and as a nice bonus, I have found out the solution to Zero divided by Zero: It is -2147483008. Usually the game crashes when it attempts to do that, but this time it worked. That being said, I'll take the Nobel prize in cash.


If you play Dolmexica for 4000 hours straight without turning it off, it might turn into this.

Just me trying to get FPS gamers interested in the engine. Let's move on now:


It was not until the character was finished, that it became apparent a symmetric char would have been better.

Despite the fact that he seems simplistic, this character is the first full-fledged 256x256, 255 (+1) color palette character. By default, each character uses his default palette (here: greeny pants). Only if a second palette exists and both characters are the same, the second palette is used. For non-paletted characters, or in case there is no second palette, both characters are drawn the same.

Seems like I've run out of screenshots...

The White version was supposed to be finished in 2011, but due to fails all around, it is postponed 'till... 'till... uhhhh... AH! I've got it: 'Till Sturmwind is pressed and done with. See, instead of two delays, there is now one delay. Eh? Ehhhh?

Anyway, it's not that much anymore. A few bugfixes here and there and some extensively intense Beta-testing. All the user tools are done (still lacking tutorials though), version identifiers are included for future updates and pretty much everything is moddable.

Phew, I hope this was the last update before the release. Can't wait!

[Dreamcaster]

Thanks for the update! This looks good, specially the bluedot stage, I hope you will add the stage to SF vs MK . I really can't wait to try out and make my own mods using your engine. Keep up good work .