Author Topic: CluGrid Discussion (Read 45345 times)

timns · « **on:** February 05, 2008, 02:27 PM »

Evening all. I just uploaded another free puzzle game called http://timns.dcmembers.com/CluGrid.html to keep http://timns.dcmembe...s.com/Deductoid.html company. This one's shamelessly based on those puzzle books you buy at the airport to feel intelligent while you wait to hear about the latest flight delays.

I was quite proud of writing this: the puzzles, text, objects and clues are all generated algorithmically and you get 999,999 variants at each size.

I hope you all enjoy it - there's a help page if you get stuck or it blows up.

Or ask me here...

JoTo · « **Reply #1 on:** February 06, 2008, 09:07 AM »

Dear Timns,

thank you very much for your CluGrid game. I love this kind of game and searched a long time for a computerized version of it.

What a pity it is unuseable for me. As a visually impaired person i must have a black background with a bright (white) text color. In your program i can read the hints as they use my system colors. But i cant use the grid as it has a fixed white background.

I wonder if it is possible and you are willing to investigate if its possible to ...
a) make the colors customizable or
b) use systemcolors for the grid as well as for the hint window?

I really would be very thankful if i will be able to play your game with the next version. Of course if i can use it, a donation is promised.

For your dedictoid game (there is another similar free, dos-based game named sherlock) the colors are useable. But there i have problems with the tinyness of the symbols. Maybe there it is possible to load other symbol sets that are easier to see for the "nearly blind"? Using simpler symbols (like the numbers - that are well visible for me).

I know, i am a minority. I really can recommend this games to all the others. The problems have nothing to do with the programs, it is all my fault (or better my eyes one).

I hope you won't leave me alone with my problem if there is a pssibility for you to solve it. The CluGrid problem is more important for me, as for the other game i still can use my Dos-based version of Sherlock.

Thx. again for your efforts.

CU
JoTo

timns · « **Reply #2 on:** February 06, 2008, 09:36 AM »

JoTo,

I will certainly re-visit the CluGrid code and see what I can do with the colours. The only minority I consider you to be is that of someone who gave me feedback

There is the "zoom" feature in Deductoid, and in fact Mr TPReal asked if I could make the clues zoomable as well as the tiles, which I shall do very soon - would that help at all?

Your other immediate option is to replace the .bmp files in the "Tiles" folder with clearer images. (Damn, I'm foresighted sometimes) with maybe some clearer clipart or big bold numbers or letters. You simply dump the images into the folders named "Row1" thru "Row10" and the game will pick them up next time you run. Make sure the ones you want appear first in the folder and you should be good to go. Don't worry about the image size too much either - there's a real-time smooth resizer in there what I once wrote.

Anyway, I have a couple of spare tile sets here, which are mainly big coloured letters. I really hope it helps - we can't have you going back to some inferior DOS game now can we?

timns

JoTo · « **Reply #3 on:** February 06, 2008, 10:01 AM »

Dear timns,

wow...you are really responsive. Only a few minutes after my post i got an answer.

I saw the "zoom setting" in Deductoid already...but i only understand how to get it zoomed now. Thats great. And with the capability to change the graphics to my needs i for sure can do a "del sherlock /S" :-))

Donation is on the way!

Thank you very much again.

CU
JoTo

timns · « **Reply #4 on:** February 06, 2008, 10:45 AM »

Whee! Thank you very kindly JoTo.

Now, if you can take a download of CluGrid once again, you will see a new menu item when you right-click in the clue area: "Invert colors"

I hope it makes the game much more playable for you.

timns

JoTo · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2008, 02:35 AM »

Dear Timns,

got the new version of CluGrid and tried it. The invert color option solve most of the problems for me, but after more testing i found some other problems like the following:

1. The hints window initially are unreadable for me, as they appear in black foreground on black background. As soon as i e.g. change the Fontsize with rightclick (smaller or larger doesn't matter) the window content refreshes in the new size in correct foreground color - getting visible. can you force a correct intial refresh?

2. when i change font size in the cluegrid area i get corrupted unreadable text on the left side of the grid. The text above the grid is readable though (see attached screenshot 2). Can't get it back to readable state. Neither with changing the fontsize back again nor with closing the program and start it again.

3. The popup tooltips (e.g. warning of a mistake) are white foreground with white background (unreadable). Not so important, because i can hear the different soundeffects, but if you can solve this too it would be great.

4. when changing fontsize in clugrid area the unused space in the window gets white background (even with inverted colors selected). I then have to refresh the window (e.g. switching to another application window with alt-tab and back to clugrid again) to get rid of this big white area. (See attached Screenshot 1)

5. The checkmarks, crosses and question marks in the grid are not affected by the invert color setting and appear black foreground on black background for me. Making them invisible. (see also the attached screenshots).

May i hope again you will spent some of your precious time for me and my problems with CluGrid? [tremblingVoice ON]Pleeeeaaase![tremblingVoice OFF]

Hope to hear from you again
CU
JoTo

app103 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2008, 03:41 AM »

WHY??!! (there goes productivity down the drain)

I LOVE this game!

This type of logic puzzle can be an obsession for me, unfortunately. Those puzzle books never had enough of these to keep me happy.

If this is the last anybody ever hears from me, blame timns.

Credits on the way.

timns · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2008, 03:58 AM »

Thank you thank you thank you!

timns · « **Reply #8 on:** February 07, 2008, 04:07 AM »

Right! (Rolls up sleeves and cracks knuckles) let's see what we can do with this:

1. The hints window initially are unreadable for me, as they appear in black foreground on black background. As soon as i e.g. change the Fontsize with rightclick (smaller or larger doesn't matter) the window content refreshes in the new size in correct foreground color - getting visible. can you force a correct intial refresh?

Done!

2. when i change font size in the cluegrid area i get corrupted unreadable text on the left side of the grid. The text above the grid is readable though (see attached screenshot 2). Can't get it back to readable state. Neither with changing the fontsize back again nor with closing the program and start it again.

Ok, this is a problem - your grid area is simply too squashed in the vertical axis for the text to render properly, so what I've done is a couple of things. I've made the grid area a little taller, and I've given you a new menu option on the right click which will allow you to hide the grid at the bottom, making everything bigger and clearer. You'll have to nudge the splitter bar on the right, or resize the window a tiny bit to make the screen refresh - for some reason I can't make it redraw automatically. I'll look into that later.

3. The popup tooltips (e.g. warning of a mistake) are white foreground with white background (unreadable). Not so important, because i can hear the different soundeffects, but if you can solve this too it would be great.

Done!

4. when changing fontsize in clugrid area the unused space in the window gets white background (even with inverted colors selected). I then have to refresh the window (e.g. switching to another application window with alt-tab and back to clugrid again) to get rid of this big white area. (See attached Screenshot 1)

Done!

5. The checkmarks, crosses and question marks in the grid are not affected by the invert color setting and appear black foreground on black background for me. Making them invisible. (see also the attached screenshots).

Actually, they are there, but so small as to be almost invisible. I think my other change will really help, and I also made them a little bit bigger too.

New version uploaded and waiting. I hope this all helps.

JoTo · « **Reply #9 on:** February 07, 2008, 10:58 AM »

Dear Timns,

woooohooo! We're already there. I was just capable of solving my first game. Only a few beautiness bugs so far:

1. The hints window now shows up with good colors on program startup, but still has the black on black bug when using "new puzzle" menu item. Changing fontsize there restores the visible sate again.

2. As you already said, to make the left grid text readable i have to switch off the bottom grid and use the splitter bar. Then i can show and hide the bottom grid again to get an overview and play further as i need without "encrypt" the left text again.

3. I have to set up all settings every time the program starts up. So there is no save of the settings (main window size/position, bottom grid on/off, ...)

4. Can you make an option to disable the bubble help (balloon help)? Using your program is not so difficult that i have to be reminded every time i enter a new window (grid, hint) that i can right click for options. And the balloons hide information everytime they appear. I have to wait or move the mouse to read the hints behind the balloon. That is a bit annoying for "expert users" like me.

New 4. I think the "Show hints" option is supposed to switch off the ballons, right? OK but then i somehow can't get the program to remember my option settings. When i open the options dialog and remove the checkmark at "show hints" and "show spash screen" and press the "close" button and reopen the options dialog the checkmarks are back again.

5. The crosses and checkmarks are now well visible for me. But making them a bit bigger for me, as you wrote, results in that the gridlines are overwritten where the marks are set. (See attached screenshot). NOt a big deal as it has nothing to do with the gameplay itself, only a question of beauty.

6. I dont know how to handle the "players". What is the difference between "new player" and "create new player"? If i create a new "joto-player" and open "switch player" dialog joto is not there! What do i wrong here?

But as i said...i am now able to play the game as it is. The now existing bugs aren't no-goes now anymore. So feel free and take your time if you wanna solve them.

Second Time Donation for Second great game is on the way again. Many thanks again

CU
JoTo

CluGrid Discussion

timns · « **Reply #10 on:** February 08, 2008, 01:19 AM »

Thank you for the further comments - I will take a look since some of those items would annoy me if I were playing. However, a couple of things should actually work already - for instance the saving of screen size/position etc - that's written to the registry and re-loaded next time. Is there any chance you have your registry protected?

timns

JoTo · « **Reply #11 on:** February 08, 2008, 06:15 AM »

Hi Timns,

no sir! no protection! And i'm also using an account with Admin rights, so there cant be a privilege problem too.

When i start the program and maximize the main window and switch off the bottom grid and use the exit command from the menu and start the program again the window is again NOT maximized and the bottom grid is switched on again.

When i change show splash screen and show hints to unchecked state in the options dialog, exit the program and start it again the splash screen and the bubble/balloon help still appear. The checkmark at show hints is there again then.

What can you tell me about handling the players?

CU
JoTo

timns · « **Reply #12 on:** February 08, 2008, 07:05 AM »

Hmm...I can tell you the "New Player" menu item is superfluous! I'll delete that next time I do a build of the game.

Click on "Create new player" and, er, create a new player. Set your settings how you would like them, then exit the game.

Now, when you go back in - do you get your new settings?

I just tried that and it worked.

timns

ThalSwe · « **Reply #13 on:** February 08, 2008, 08:38 AM »

Looks like a nice and complex game (and I am quite impressed by the amount of possible puzzle combinations) but what chought my eye was your helpfulness in this thread and the determination to be as helpful as possible. Had some credits left to donate and you certainly made yourself worthy for them troughout this thread.

to you timns

timns · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2008, 09:36 AM »

Oh my, thank you very much for the kind words.

I want people to be able to enjoy the game, so it's worth it to me to try and help out - certainly with the easy-ish stuff anyway.

Over the weekend I'll extend the data in the game so you get more variation of people and different items and topics - look out for guest appearances from certain noble DC members

timns

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** February 08, 2008, 10:59 AM »

It would be nice to have printout ability.
ps. Cluegrid is cool but I enjoy playing your Deductoid a lot more.

timns · « **Reply #16 on:** February 09, 2008, 05:50 AM »

You people want the moon on a stick don't you?

Ok, done and uploaded. You can now print out puzzles to go. Unfortunately it takes up 2 pages but the big puzzles have so many clues it's unavoidable.

timns

JoTo · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2008, 05:02 AM »

OOOOH, you reminded me of a true cool idea!

Having the moon on a stick would really be nice!

When can we expect to have it?

The kidding
JoTo

timns · « **Reply #18 on:** February 10, 2008, 07:25 AM »

Haha!

Well there's one type of "moon" I can arrange for you

but stay away from me with that stick!

timns

timns · « **Reply #19 on:** February 11, 2008, 10:34 AM »

New CluGrid uploaded. All you generous donors are now "starring" in the game

timns

JoTo · « **Reply #20 on:** February 12, 2008, 03:52 AM »

Dear timns,

i hope i am not too annyoing to you. But with your last uploaded version you built in again old bugs.

1. The hints window initially shows up again with bloack on black. Having the font size changed refreshes with correct colors making them readable. Was fixed in the former versions.

2. Still no chance to remember my settings. On every program start i see the splash screen (even with unchecked "show splash screen" option), see the bubble help (even with unchecked "show hints" option), have to set "invert colors" every time again and again, have to switch off the bottom grid again and again and now (new!) i have to adjust the fontsize also again and again to make the left text in the grid readable (have worked before!).

Maybe you can tell me, where your program expects to save the settings (inifile? registry? If registry - where? So i can look at it to find out whats there and what not! Tell me, what should be there and i will compare to the whats there state). Maybe we can find the reason then.

BTW: did you know that i was born in 1912, have a nice swim with sharks and like to climb willows?

At least your program said so! Nice idea to use dc members as protagonists for the game!

CU
JoTo

timns · « **Reply #21 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:28 AM »

Is there a chance you may be running an older version of the exe? The data files are packaged separately so would still work. I just checked my version and everything that you mentioned is still ok here

If you want to check, your settings are stored in ...\Program Files\Altura\CluGrid\Players\<whatever your player name is>.ini

Maybe you could try creating a new player?

Unfortunately you're stuck with the splash screen, but I have disabled the hints when they are switched off in the Tools->Options.

Anyway, what I have done is upload a new CluGird with build number 10 so you can be sure you have the latest.

timns

app103 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 12, 2008, 05:32 PM »

OOOOH, you reminded me of a true cool idea!

Having the moon on a stick would really be nice!

When can we expect to have it?

The kidding
JoTo
-JoTo (February 10, 2008, 05:02 AM)

I'll take care of that...let timns worry about the games.

Here ya go, JoTo...New! Moon flavored lollopop!

JoTo · « **Reply #23 on:** February 13, 2008, 01:08 AM »

Hi Timns,

first i don't find the .10 Version you mentioned. On your CluGrid page the download link still links to _9.exe.

Second, i found my players ini-file and set some options manually with an editor. And the game now respects my settings from the ini. But if i change sth. in the options dialog, the ini file isnt changed in any way. Strange, eh?

The only thing i can think of is, that i don't use the default path for installing the game. My installation dir is D:\spiele\CluGrid instead of the default one. Can there be any problem?

One setting i'm confused of is (from my players ini):

VerticalHeight=0

Is that correct?

CU
JoTo

JoTo · « **Reply #24 on:** February 13, 2008, 01:09 AM »

@App:

Thats DC live! Even if you say crap someone will pick it up and go a step further! Loved it!

Thx.
JoTo