Development Update 1

[agerson]

Well, it has been a very exciting last month for CocoaFIBS and me. I have been doing a lot of research, learning, and coding. The app is coming along very quickly. The basic data structures for chips, triangles, boards, players, etc... are done. I have a nice socket steam class (thank you Prachi Gauriar from the Cocoa list serve) that authenticates, sends, receives, and parses the FIBS telnet server. Paul F. helped me work out a few kinks with my FIBS Cookie Cutter implementation - thanks Paul! I have started working on the GUI using place holder graphics from JavaFIBS.

If there are any graphics people out there, I could use some help. If anyone would like to contribute a full board design that would be great. Please look at how JavaFIBS packages its boards with each graphic in a individual file. This is the method I am following. As for dimensions, please use the dimensions and proportions of the larger JavaFIBS boards. These display nicely at 800x600 and I am assuming that most of the MacOS X community has at least this resolution. I could also use icons for the app, and all of the in game toggle options like auto-double, resign, etc... If you are a good Mac OS X style icon designer and would like to work closely with this project over the next few months let me know.

If you want to help please email me at

agerson AT mac.com

I have a spam filter so incase it eats your email try again, im not ignoring anyone who wants to help

Adam

[alef]

I think I'd like to try to design a new board. Are gif's the best file type? Are there any suggested guidelines on the number of colours used, or just assume most people have good monitors?

[Bondy]

Is it even necessary to cater to 800*600?  Are there any systems that run OSX that run less than 1024?  All the current models run at least that, and all of the iMacs are capable of it.  Unless someone has managed to run OSX on an Apple II, I expect you'd be safe assuming 1024 resolution.

[agerson]

Bondy, You are absolutely correct. I did some checking and first generation iMacs have 1024. I believe this is an acceptable cut off point. Let me make some new GUI designs and I will post some new dimensions for the files.

alef, thanks for your offer. Yes, individual GIF files are the way to go. However, I have to change things around a little now that I am designing for 1024 resolution. I am at work now, guess I shouldn't be on fibsboard ;-) When I get home I will start working on the dimensions of the background board and you can take it from there. Ya, go for nice, rich, Mac OS X worthy colors. We'll assume people have millions of pixles.

Adam

[webrunner]

There are several downsides on GIF:
1. It can only use 256 colors per image
2. It is not a free format anymore.

I would suggest png( portable network graphics), which also supports transparency and has 32bit colors (16,7 million), as the way to go.
True they are bigger (not as big as BMP though) but that doesn't really matter anymore nowadays.

png is better in quality as jpg and has more options. It's the format of the future.

[agerson]

webrunner makes a good point. PNG works for me. I can take PSD files too.


Adam

[burper]

PNG is great.

The patents on the GIF format (actually the LZW algorithm used in GIF) have already expired in the US, and are set to expire in Europe, Japan and Canada next month.

[agerson]

The "large" size board that comes with Java FIBS is still about all 1024 can handle. Here are the dimensions, but if you are going to make a design I encourage you to download a copy of JavaFIBS and have a look at the files. I will be using them as placholders during development.

Board Background 497 x 354

Double Cube 26 x 26

Dice 21 x 21

Player Chips 27 x 27

Player Chips while in home after bearoff 26 x 8

Pip Numbers 412 x 12

Thanks,
Adam

[tryout]

Even though I will likely never use this client unless you make it cross-platform here are my 2 cents:

Did you consider making the board scalable using a vector format? You could still have graphics as textures or even choose to go the ultimate path and use procedural textures. (http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/~legakis/MarbleApplet/marbleapplet.html for an example)
Btw, JavaFIBS also has vector boards.

[agerson]

I would be into adding a vector board. Anyone here good at marble textures?


Adam

[webrunner]

Here's one...

[webrunner]

I've got hundreds of textures, wood, stone, water, bricks.
Just tell me what you need.

[fergy]

> Is it even necessary to cater to 800*600?
> Are there any systems that run OSX that run less than 1024?

I don't think it is worth worrying about 800x600 since OS X itself is rather awkward at that resolution. The only systems that are limited to 800x600 are the first generation (fruity clamshell) iBooks. When I was developing GamesGrid, I made a decision to require 1024x768 as the minimum screen size and have had only one complaint.

<fergy/>

[Bondy]

I've got hundreds of textures, wood, stone, water, bricks.
Just tell me what you need.

ooh, a water board would be cool!

[agerson]

Yup, I am going with 1024. I am designing the board with some static images from JavaFIBS. I believe the objects I have created will work fine with vector based images as well. I want to get it working with static images and then I will add vectors latter.

Adam