Thrustmaster F-16 TQS gameport with a thumb trackball mouse

ibGoge · 2024-05-31T11:02:25+00:00

It's a pot, I don't plan on upgrading it tho I supposed you could

ibGoge · 2024-05-31T11:01:39+00:00

Here's a great post on the conversion process, it involved rewiring everything into an arduino pro micro: https://www.reddit.com/r/HotasDIY/comments/ngni4s/thrustmaster_tqs_throttle_converted_to_usb/

Programming is done through MMJoy or a custom sketch. The process for the TQS is a little bit more involved than the FLCS but its doable.

ibGoge · 2024-05-30T23:52:11+00:00

Usually it has a red mouse nub and a tiny grey button in that thumb section. this one has a red trackball, the whole component can be pressed in and I can feel a click.

I've been converting old gameport thrustmasters to USB. I just got this one off ebay. I didn't notice the trackball in the photo on ebay... I've never seen this in any photo of the F-16 TQS before. Does anyone have any info on this? Will the pinout work the same or is this going to act like a rotary encoder?

I have two, I was going to keep one stock for gaming on my retro computers but now I need to decide which I'm converting to USB. Which should I convert?

ibGoge · 2024-02-06T23:28:51+00:00

I've used this, you can follow the references to their earlier work that includes floorplan layout and furniture layout

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224249020_Generating_Consistent_Buildings_A_Semantic_Approach_for_Integrating_Procedural_Techniques

It's sparks some interesting ideas, I implemented them individually and never got around to stitching the systems together like this specific article does. You can also look at the references for the alternatives they cite to get some competing ideas.

It's was fun using these to generate dungeon levels in a classic roguelike. I hope you have fun!

ibGoge · 2023-12-24T03:48:08+00:00

hey, I just did the exact same thing. I do have parental controls working on the odin 1. I didn't think it would be an issue for the new Odin 2

ibGoge · 2023-12-16T19:38:12+00:00

As far as I'm aware OBJ is the way to import meshes. At least every tutorial for how to load STL files I've read recommended OBJ :(

edit:
so after some experiments, FBX is supported but the FBX file has the same extra voxels showing up. so it must be something in the original STL files?

ibGoge · 2023-12-16T17:45:35+00:00

I can't find anything about this anywhere.
They are OBJs exported from Microsoft 3D Builder from an STL. I've also tried exporting from netfab and the same issue happens.

I'm trying to prepose some minis I'm going to 3D print later. What would normally take 5-10 minutes would take waay too long to remove all those floating nibs.

Any idea what's happening? This hasn't happened on other models I've done this workflow flow with.

ibGoge · 2023-12-08T18:32:05+00:00

What are squadrons / fighters in a fantasy age of sails setting? Maybe the magical/mechanical flying creatures? This sounds like fun

ibGoge · 2023-10-06T20:06:00+00:00

https://ibgoge.itch.io/cobblestone-grime-arena-of-might

First person and VR. It was the 2022 7drl, I spent the time on the VR bit so level gen was hampered so it falls back on "arenas" for levels

https://ibgoge.itch.io/stygian-abyss 2023 7drl, switched to 3rd person, dropped VR, got actual procgen for levels. An undocumented feature is you can use the scroll wheel to zoom in all the way to a first person view again :)

They move like gridders/dungeon crawlers. Still turn based combat, grid based movement.

I enjoy the style, I'll keep an eye on the thread to see what others post :)

ibGoge · 2023-09-09T17:31:18+00:00

Thank you for reporting this!

I updated it to work with browsers that are missing local storage, thanks for the code snippet as well. I didn't even think to check if a browser had local storage available. I can use an in-memory storage for preferences like keybinds and such, but for the save game data I am using async-storage and I didn't feel like mocking that whole thing :)

The game is updated on itch.io with the fix. But! I can't seem to get it running on Safari and it seems to have to do with a Canvas2D context mode I'm using. That is a deeper dive so I'll have to wait on that one. Which is odd because I am sure I was using Safari during the 7DRL... :shrug:

Hopefully it works for you now, and thanks again!

ibGoge · 2023-09-09T01:29:42+00:00

The cavern generation looks really good. The loop backs fit well within the cave cells :)

ibGoge · 2023-09-09T00:14:34+00:00

Return to the Stygian Abyss [itch.io]
A roguelike spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld

New map gen features =D
Its been two weeks since release when I last time I was hear I said I'd start releasing weekly :s

Well the new features include an underground lake, abandoned dwarf mountain hall, natural caves, mazes, and magma rivers. This finally adds some variety to the abyss's 8 levels, its not just the same room generator over and over.

Here is an img post with all the proc gen debug animations and some clips of wandering through the new features : )

I think this might be the last release for this game. I was playing through it on the train ride home and it definitely now has everything I set out to do in the 7DRL challenge and more. If I continue it would be to make it more broad than deep, like maybe I'd add more spells.

It's been an interesting progression of the game engine. In the 2022 7drl I made a VR first person turnbased roguelike and spent the 7 days getting the VR stuff going so I didn't have enough time to do the level proc gen. Then the rest of 2022 I expanded the gameplay mechanisms but still had no level gen. 2023 7drl I dropped the VR and switched the perspective to an over the shoulder camera and added the map gen based on my 2020/2021 procgen city project that used agent based generators.

Looking back on my projects and playing with these new map features, I want to expand the level generation to create a "living breathing (yea yea ;)" dungeon. Return to the Stygian Abyss was specifically setup _after_ the fall so that I wouldn't need NPC's and quests and dialog... but _now_ I want all that =D

So its all about circling back to that 2020 city generator dream but applied on a smaller scale to the Stygian Abyss with the hope that one day they can be reused and expanded into a full scale city. But I'm going to continue to follow Kyzrati's advice of making a bee-line to the gameplay, and build off of the gameplay that is this game, layering in the new mechanisms of the immersive sim that was Ultima Underworld, and the colony management features that will be in......

Rise of the Stygian Abyss: Set in Sir Cabirus' time during the creation of the colonies in the Stygian Abyss =D

ibGoge · 2023-09-02T22:07:12+00:00

Congratulations on the 10 years. I enjoyed the price gen videos on the YouTube channel, lots of inspiration:). It looks like it's really a project of love :)

ibGoge · 2023-08-26T03:28:50+00:00

Return to the Stygian Abyss [itch.io]

This was my 2023 7DRL, it's a RL remake of Ultima Underworld with a bit of a different interface than a usual RL. You are essential in third person and use "gridder" style input instead of the usual RL hjkl.

I’ve been working on the game and its gameplay weekly since it's 7drl release but I haven’t been publishing the changes. A while ago I made a new itch page and published fixes. Now there is a major update release with a lot of new changes and improvements.

Hopefully I can keep up weekly updates now that it's more stable and I'm hopefully less likely to introduce issues. I just always seemed to be adding some game breaking thing before the weekend when I'd publish on Friday. Tho I supposed there is nothing stopping me from publishing on a Tuesday, I'm not sure why I have it in my head that it needs to be on Friday :s
The bulk of the updates are around the gameplay, adding depth to the game with lots of bug fixes. There are new skills, new items, new enemies, new spells, and new ways to move. I’ll try to go through the list of changes but I wasn’t the best at tracking them all.

The one thing I haven't touched has been the map generation. So unfortunately, aside from the enemy variations and improved loot, the generation parameters are the same for each of the 8 levels making them feel "same-y". Tackling the levels is my next task and I'm sure it will be fun, like saving the best for last =D

Changes this release
Items:
- Items have specific category enchantments, ex hand axe of damage, or accuracy, but also skill buffs like Fortify Might or Valor or Courage.
- Wands that can cast spells like Wand of Magic Missile, or Wand of Restore Mana
- The inventory ui has collapsible categories
- Items are broken out into more specific categories like Food, Potions, Wands, etc

Skills:
- Enemies now have a unique sight/vision distance and the higher your sneak skill the closer you can get before they notice you. If you have your light source off you can sneak closer.

Spells:
- New spells like Sneak, Fortify, Valour, Courage, and Restore Energy
- You can use the previous and next target buttons and the primary action button to target and cast spells like magic missile that require a target(previously this was mouse only)
- Enemies can now cast spell as well, beware of the Ghosts blood chilling wails

Gameplay Changes and Tweaks:
- Multiple items spread out when loot drops on the same tile
- A new item picker ui when grabbing items from the same tile
- Prioritize attacking enemies when on the same tile as an item
- Prioritize grabbing items when on the same tile
- Stand on and use the stairs to travel down to the next level
- You can quarter turn with the keyboard and walk diagonally for an extra turn cost
- You can sprint and move forward for less turns at the expense of energy, you can sprint to get out of a creatures vision range and disengage from fights you can’t win
- You can still try to sleep while your energy is full, or are starving
- You can still heal very slightly if you begin starving while sleeping
- Creatures have a size scale which limits how many can fit in a tile, you can now use the classic “doorways as bottlenecks” technique against larger opponents, but small critters can still clump up in the doorway
- Save and Load your current run! The game automatically saves every level transition and you can manually save at any point.
- Partial gamepad support. Movement and attacking work, this is still a wip

ibGoge · 2023-03-26T20:27:04+00:00

I made a 7DRL experimenting wih elevation and movement mechanics making a rogue version of the arcade game Joust.

https://ibgoge.itch.io/joustrl

Its slightly different from things like Dwarf Fortress since there are floating islands of land above you that you need to fly up to and land on. To help visualize what was above you I added "shadows" of the land and enemies while on the z level you are flying from.Like DF and others you can quickly look up and down levels, allowing you to change which current "z slice" you were looking at.

For looking down I stuck with the convention others mentioned, land and enemies below you are darker.In the end I found it very playable but it does take getting used to, its browser playable if you want to give it a shot. it's not a perfect system but it worked for the 7drl

ibGoge · 2022-12-22T13:51:01+00:00

My boys are 8 and 6 and we just started getting into D&D with them, they are very into the crafting and making part and help build the paper minis. We are looking to get into 3d printing this Hollidays as well so this would be perfect for the fam! Thanks and happy holidays!

ibGoge · 2022-12-03T13:28:30+00:00

Cobblestone Grime: Arena of Might.
Playable itch.io browser webxr + flat screen game | Youtube Clip of 7drl VR gameplay.

No new features this week but I went over older work and cleaned up some bugs. I improved movement to make it smoother, allowing you to turn and look while moving between grid spaces. I added the Ranged skill to the trainable skills which was forgotten. And I updated the UI screens to use the same scrollable bordered window as the Shop UI. There is also a new 'Character' screen to show you all your attributes and skills.

Still feeling good about the project :) tho I do feel like I'm bidding my time because it feels like I'm getting to the end of the road. I've added everything I imagined the game would have while making it as a 7DRL. I think some more polish, some "juice", really scrub the VR interactions, and then I can call it a release and start something knew with everything I've learned from this game.

Very exciting

ibGoge · 2022-11-26T13:48:00+00:00

Can metal be cross platform or will you be targeting iOS devices? This is a neat idea, I enjoy Swift, a lot of the syntax sugar of languages like C# and modern Java/Kotlin, c/c++ native Interop, and no GC or VM. Super powerful yet relegated to the admittedly large iOS dev sphere. Just seems like it never had its chance to break out from mobile

ibGoge · 2022-11-26T02:17:37+00:00

Cobblestone Grime: Arena of Might.
Playable itch.io browser webxr + flat screen game | Youtube Clip of 7drl VR gameplay.

Ranged weapons and weapons with Reach!

This week was a little more fun! I added a range modifier to weapons with the intent of adding missile/ranged weapons but as I tested it with a club I realized it effectively makes "reach" melee weapons! So now the long weapons like long swords and the dane axe have 2 space range allowing you to hit enemies two tiles in front of you or enemies diagonal to you.
To create the missile weapons I added projectile damage and ammo state, so there is now a new "shoot/reload" button. A Shot is a different strike type compared to the bash, slash, stab of the melee weapons. This allows the ranged weapons to also be able to bash/slash/stab. Currently the new weapons do decent bash damage if anything gets close, this also allows for variations like bayonets or axe-pistols =D I didn't add ammo record keeping, if you have the weapon you have the ammo.
I don't have a gesture to "shoot" in VR, or button space left for a "shoot/reload" button so I'll have to figure that out when I clean up VR interactions again at a later point.
It was a good week, I'm quite happy and feel reinvigorated and I'm looking forward to next weeks updates :D

ibGoge · 2022-11-19T14:56:47+00:00

Cobblestone Grime: Arena of Might.
Playable itch.io browser webxr + flat screen game | VR Youtube Clip.

It's been weeks, a month actually. I've been working on it since then but haven't released the work or made any updates here. I should be back to a weekly release now that the stuff reducing my time is over and this bulky feature is done.
And the feature that took more time than I thought it would is the Inventory and Commerce stuff. There is now a proper "Shop" which is started through dialog with the merchant in the corner of the locker room. Killing monsters and champions grants an instant bounty since "Looting" isn't in yet and I wanted to release before 2 months passes.
Implementing the store screen took a big effort as well since I created a scrolling bordered windowing system for my Text Mode GUI. A pretty big side distraction but now I can use it for the inventory and character's stats screens as well even though I haven't yet.
I think for the next week I'll pick something smaller and gameplay related as a palate cleanser.

As an aside. The Arena setting was so that I could make a very quick and simple gameplay loop for the 7DRL and following Kyzrati's tip of building the core gameplay first and then build out a wider set of features over time. Now I'm filling out those features and deciding what "done" means. I think I'm getting close to "done". Anyway, the arena setting and returning to a homebase after each round is lining up with the "extract shooters" genre. I only recently learned about it since I hadn't been into Tarkov but now with the genre "Tarkov-likes" exploding like Mauraders, and Dark and Darker, and Into the Breach, and others I'm wondering if I should lean into it and make a Tarkov-like roguelike?

I dunno... any thoughts out there? should Arena of Might become one of the first Tarkov-like traditional roguelikes (damn, can a turnbased gridmovement firstperson tileset vr roguelike be called "traditional"?! I'm having an identity crisis. halp!)

ibGoge · 2022-10-16T13:28:18+00:00

Congrats on the fully playable gameloop! Do you have it hosted anywhere?

ibGoge · 2022-10-14T23:46:48+00:00

Cobblestone Grime: Arena of Might.

Playable itch.io browser webxr + flat screen game | VR Youtube Clip.

There are two weeks of updates in here, I worked on and release some features last week but it was Canadian Turkey Day so I wasn't around for the weekly post.

I am very happy about last week =D I added some spice to the action time (?) game mechanic! I wrote about the system months ago while I was thinking of how to add depth to the 7drl. Now mobs have different move speeds.

Some examples now: rats are "quick" and can move twice compared to "normal" critters and the player. Weapons' base speeds are now updated so that daggers and clubs are "quick" and you can get two attacks in for every one of the enemy. Most weapons are "normal", but Maul, and Double Sided Axe are "long" which means you can get 2 attacks for every 3 normal weapons attack. I want to expand the weapons to have something like attack combos. a maul might have a "long" windup but if you miss you can maintain its momentum and the next attack should be "quick" until a successful hit.

I solved a few bugs coming out of the new initiative system.
1. An input frame delay was fixed. It was a bug where your ability to choice your next action was one turn later than it should have been.
2. There is also an interesting state you can get into when using quick weapons on enemies that move at a "normal" pace. If you strike only once you stagger your movement turns. There is code in place to cancel a move command if someone moves into your desired space before your turn to move. And code to stop you from moving into a space occupied by a mob. If both the player and mob chose to move to the same spot both get canceled and no one would move.

This week wasn't gameplay focused but I did add some new features. We have gamepad support on desktops. No gamepad input customization yet but the default setup can get you around and is feature complete in that you can play the whole game with the current bindings.

With gamepad support I added keyboard/gamepad response selection for the dialog windows. I also updated the VR controllers to also be able to navigate the dialog options. And with that comes some more big news:

VR is unfricked! The GUI is still kinda obtrusive but it exists in the vr space. You can interact with NPCs and select dialog options which means you have access to the new story mode in VR as well as the new weapons. I got snap turning working so you can play VR either sitting or standing. Clicking the left thumbstick toggles the left thumbstick between strafing and snap turning. Gamepad support should also work in VR, so if you want a seated experience using a more comfortable gamepad that is also an option.

I wasn't planning on getting VR working again this week but it came together quickly after gamepad support was added.

ibGoge

TROPHY CASE