SLiPCoR

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28/06/21 ( 02:59:30 )
The Finish Line!

03/11/20 ( 20:38:58 )
Rest in Peace, Flash!

11/10/20 ( 16:55:23 )
Onslaught update

27/08/20 ( 19:16:34 ) - I broke the RSS - again #coding #music

I think it is time to set up a mail subscription or something. I just noticed that none of the latest updates showed up in my own feed ... yeah.. sorry about that. If anyone is still reading this.

Short update, I have been active in the background but mostly taking a breather from all that is going on around the world. It is depressing if you let it get to you.

I am fine, everyone I care about is fine.

I will continue next week with active development, focusing on finishing this bad boy called Onslaught - I read somewhere that Adobe now actively encourages people to uninstall Flash --- if that is not burying a whole generation of video games, I do not know what is.

When that is done I will focus on getting a music release out, but I will focus on Onslaught first. I should be close to release. Should be. Still many errors because of instantiation issues, but I will get there. I am not letting these technicalities mess with me. The base code is done and tested... it should work soon :D

Have a good one and stay awesome!

Yours Chris/SLiPCoR

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11/01/20 ( 02:06:48 ) - Happy New Year! #coding #music

I hope that 2020 will be come the best year that you ever had :) here is my attempts at making this possible for myself:

1) Onslaught - the code base is completely transitioned to blueprints now [excluding modding, but that will be dealt with when everything is in place] - it is time to make things work now. Up next: the turret menu click -> build functionality [pressing keys might work already]

2) Music - I need to get back to practicing and getting shit done

3) The Rest - I have started a next level workout routine. It is tough but it feels like progress. No pain, no gain. This year will feature some great meetups, so relaxing is on the schedule :)

What else? Who knows... we will see :)

Take care and stay awesome!

Chris / SLiPCoR

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22/08/19 ( 10:17:04 ) - Summer Break #coding #music

Hi there :)

I have been taking several breaks. First, due to getting married, and secondly during the record hot summer, I had a nice restful vacation trip to Sweden.

Recharging batteries is really healthy and I had to.

I am back at it now, but I am easing in slowly while I am supporting a friend in need and also starting over with my workout routine. All of this is technically not directly coding or music related, but it affects everything.

Progress on both fronts is slow anyway, but I am not losing hope in these projects getting finished, and neither should you.

Onslaught will be ported.
Music will be created.

The belly will be gone.

Have a great fall, autumn or however you call it.

I will occasionally think about what I can showcase here, but chances are that the updates stay as infrequent as before. A lot of work is very backend oriented right now. We will see.

Stay awesome!

Yours Chris / SLiPCoR

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31/01/19 ( 16:01:04 ) - Resume - Resuming? #coding #music

Ello ^^

I tried applying the change of pace, change of language, change of approach, for two weeks each:

- Coding - Onslaught -

Here are the conclusions I drew from messing around with multiple ideas of future languages - each of them have had several days of trying to get things done:

C++ via Unreal Engine

This does not look like a viable option at the time. There is no reflection in C++ which I would like to rely on heavily in order to implement the arrays with String keys that map directly to variables. I tried replacing these by mapping String to String, but still I run into issues simply defining classes with other self defined classes as variables. The editor just crashes without any implementation and error message, I think what I am trying to do is just not in my reach currently, or probably not even what the Unreal Engine is made for. Extending existing classes seems to work fine, but I need to implement (2D!) classes that have the ability to call functions based on names, and just adding another class as a variable into the base class (that is not even used) causes the engine to not open the project any more.

I am emotionally done with Unreal Engine - C++ - as a BASE at least. For helper functions in the Blueprint logic it will be helpful still.

Java

I have spent the better part of a day trying to implement core features into a java implementation. I already got stuck at trying to implement a sprite that scales and rotates. Individually, that is okay, but putting them together becomes something that apparently nobody ever has tried to do, and all the answers I can find are either for transparency, or for scaling, or for rotating.

In case someone with extensive knowledge about this reads this --- it is pretty tough to get the rotation center point right and I often run into the fact that edges are cut off of the sprite... very discouraging ^^

There does not seem to be an extensive library to mess with transparent PNGs and scale, rotate them and fade them out, which is what I need.

So what does that mean? It means that I will continue trying to make either of the mentioned systems work. If neither allow me to continue actually producing positive results next week, then I will fall back to what has worked well so far (albeit without visible results) - even though I have considered moving to JavaScript and HTML5 - JS lacks the ability to debug properly, but offers String-Arrays and just as Java will probably not go anywhere BUT has some disadvantages, performance wise...

- Music - Undertale -

For the music, this has been a very beneficial change. I feel that I have a nice idea of how to actually go about messing around with some songs. The first song I am focusing on will be Spider Dance - heavily relying on a stage piano that will do the leg work for me pretty much, because everything is too fast to be able to learn this in a time frame that makes sense for me.

Stay awesome!

Yours Chris

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02/01/19 ( 20:00:48 ) - Scary Changes (Yes Clickbait) #coding #music

Happy New Year!

For both my biggest coding and music projects I will follow a very good friend's advice and do the following for a month or two, or three (my schedule shifts the concepts of time, a lot):

- Coding - Onslaught -

I will step back from the blueprint-only approach which started in me priding myself in the ability of using blueprints and hating literally copying the code into C++ which is a technical possibility.
Still I designed literally everything to be absolutely identical to the code, out of respect, and it will stay this way for at least the first release(s) - I might develop a version that has things I deem valuable as feature or maybe even big fixes, but for the first version I want it to be as close as possible to the original, because that is what it was. Close to perfect, and a gem of its time.

I will start fresh with this project [not throwing anything away, I will take use of some important blueprints later down the line for the implementation], I will implement the core code in C++ and by doing so basically literally copy the code and do small adjustments if needed for the code aspect of it, but I assume I will really be able to use 95% of what Gaby wrote. And I will have to design the GUIs (but I need to do that anyway).

If these three months get me further into the implementation, I might go through with going there full force. As I want to make it as true to its roots as possible, recoding everything into a new system does not really do what I intended to do, I just make more work for myself and I delay the process of keeping the ball running because I have to recreate everything manually (and not just GUIs and some actors).

TL;DR: I will pause development on what is the current blueprint game in progress and start fresh with a C++ based version (still allowing blueprints, but the main code will be in C++) which will allow me to re-use most of the original code, more or less. I expect much more and faster results, especially to show off things that and how they work. However this means that there will be a kickstarting time of no updates. We will see :)

- Music - Undertale -

I will step back - you could say leap back. My initial plan was to go through each and every song and remake / play it in some way as "my own". The more I tried imagining myself doing this with the first song, I realized that this would not really actually be what I thought it would do - do justice to what is the epic soundtrack of Undertale - but it would be (if I succeed at recreating the soundtrack) not really much better than all the people who re-upload the MP3 with some hastily crapped together gameplay footage [well I have that already but that is besides the point].

I think it would be more true to myself as an artist and more respectful to the original art pieces to actually choose my battles here. I will invest a lot of time into finding pieces that click with me, either musically or rhythmically. This will most certainly not result in what I hoped myself to achieve - replaying / redoing the whole soundtrack - which would be an endeavour of investing a YEAR - given that I release ONE VIDEO PER WEEK - which coincidentally does not allow for much creative spirits to thrive.

I think it will result into something that satisfies my pride more than my completionist desires to "do the whole thing" - I have no idea where that idea came from, not even the most talented and featured artists do the whole thing [except for the one shot things like the drum-along by 8bitdrummer ;) ].

TL;DR: I got lost in wanting to bite off more than I can chew and will step back to focus on things that will be fewer in numbers but greater in enjoyment, both for me and the ones listening to the results. This also means, like the coding topic, that the first month(s) will be planning and attempting with close to zero results, unless I get really lucky and inspired.

Thanks for your support. And if it is only you two people reading, that still is worth it to me :)

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25/07/18 ( 14:52:06 ) - Heat #coding #music

The summer has struck hard this year, and it is really hard to stay focused with 30Â°C in the evening after work.

Progress will continue to be slow, especially in the music department, it is too exhausting to invest the literal energy needed.

Coding does still progress, but I think I will look into gaming more, streaming something here and there...

Stay awesome :)

Chris

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14/05/18 ( 17:28:40 ) - Short Hiatus Update #coding #music

Hey there :)

It's my first week after the 4-week-hiatus I had - starting with YouTube stuff, and coding will be next week :)

As I touched on in the last blog post, the main work-after-work topics are alternating, and the only constant will be music, due to the band rehearsals being weekly anyway ^^

So, this will will probably not get any public coding updates, but next week will. I am looking forward to working on Onslaught consistently again :)

See you then!

Chris / SLiPCoR

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28/04/18 ( 20:38:51 ) - Hiatus Half-Time? #coding #music

So far this month has been a success, I feel that I have been stuck in some negative feedback loops that kept me stuck internet things, distracting me from what I really want to do, a very big part of my daily time.

So as I kicked this out, even though I focused a lot on my RL, I was able to edit a youtube video which, by the definition of the way I do it, takes longer time than daily upload people do it - the rest has been slow as predicted, but I came up with a change of schedule. The way I work on things will be changed from a by-day-basis to a by-week-basis.

So far, I basically focused on things for [parts of] a day and next day I changed the subject from Golf to Onslaught or to My Little Blacksmith Shop.

I think this change with 7 day gaps [more if stuff in RL happens...] has been detrimental to my progress, as I had to get back to things like "where did I stop last, where am I going right now", I am very certain I will produce better and more consistent results when I focus, literally, by not changing things around too much, and still, taking breaks every day.

So updates will happen less frequently but then I should have more things to show. Is that good? I believe it is :)

Take it slow and be cautious around crazy countries like Germany who "celebrate" the first of May by rioting in the streets ^^

Chris

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11/04/18 ( 00:23:09 ) - No fooling around in April #coding #music

This month, progress has been very slow, as I am preparing for a hiatus of some sort.

I will focus on some RL things starting this saturday, basically I'll stop actively checking/participating in social media, reflect on some things, and refocus my priorities.

The end goal is a more balanced way of living which will result in more stable health and focus on the tasks at hand - so hopefully overall better results through concentration on the things that really matter and benefit me and the things that are important to me.

Things that are still happening (as doable offline):

* Onslaught coding - I really am motivated to get back to that without self-distraction
* Soccer Physics Theme - this really is tickling my fancy at the moment, even though it might have been a bit too ambitious, so I will be focusing on drum practice
* Dune II [midi->somethingelse] music recording

Even though I just recently discovered that what I used a base for my GP files is considered inferior to the Dune 2000 soundtrack, by Frank Klepacki himself - I was considering taking this soundtrack as reference, which would then basically push me back --- but part of me does not like all aspects of the new soundtrack - and the things I like, I feel like I would not have to add to it or I would not be able to actually do this justice then.

Dune 2000 is actually using a synthetic orchestra in WAV audio, where Dune II used the midi channels which had enormous restrictions and thus I felt I would be able to add to it. To the orchestra version, I am not so sure about.

Maybe this will turn into something wholely different, like an original album inspired by the dune vibe / melodies.

I have felt the need to get back into creative things, like writing songs, or other artsy things... but this requires some focus I do not have at the moment because I have too many things on my plate I am checking on a literal time schedule so I am able to get everything done - which I fail regularly right now because work has been getting to me in a way that I was tired after work for two weeks, every day.

So far, everyone has been understanding and supportive of what I do and of my hiatus. Thanks for that, and hang in there, I am not gone, and I do not plan on abandoning anything I started, yet. Yes, the MiniGolf game is also still in progress :D

Have a nice spring start and see you soon!

Chris

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25/01/18 ( 01:16:52 ) - Last week of rest #coding #music

Updates will resume in February, I just had to take some time off to recharge my batteries :)

Cheers

Chris / SLiPCoR

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10/11/17 ( 15:24:05 ) - This blog is also used for music updates! #music

Alright, after finishing up some behind-the-scenes things about the blog, I am back again with a little update about music!

As some of you might know, I am into covering, recording, sampling, and all the issues that come with it. Mostly the issue is that I can do most things only privately, for myself, unless I get the consent of the involved copyright owners.

Well, it happens to be the case that the author of Undertale, Toby Fox, gave me explicit consent to do covers of his soundtrack, and that I will do.

Current progress is, that I have created Guitar Pro files of all tracks that made sense to make into covers [almost all of them], and as I recently got done with this task I have been chewing on for the whole year, I am taking the rest of the year off.
In 2018, you can expect some little things that show my progress on the recording of songs, or on my jamming to it, we will see.

I am planning to use this blog here and my music section to offer updates on the progress, next to my YouTube account.

Any questions? Write a comment!

Cheers

Chris / SLiPCoR

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