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+ <title>Athene.Gay</title>
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+ <div class="entry">
+ <a href="../index.html">Home</a>
+ <div class="title-block">
+ <a class="blog-title" href="https://github.com/gnargle/YouBeat">
+ <h3>Youbeat</h3>
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="datestamp">2022</h3>
+ </div>
+ <div class="content">
+ <p>
+ A while ago, I wanted to adapt arcade game Jubeat for home play,
+ using a device called a launchpad. So I bought one. It looks
+ like this:
+ </p>
+ <a href="../img/projects/launchpad.png">
+ <img
+ class="blog-img"
+ src="../img/projects/launchpad.png"
+ alt="a
+ product photo of the novation launchpad mini mk3. It's a
+ keyboard-like device made up of a grid of translucent RGB
+ squares."
+ />
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Jubeat is a rhythm arcade game by Konami in their Bemani line.
+ It looks like this:
+ </p>
+ <a href="../img/projects/jubeat.png">
+ <img
+ class="blog-img"
+ src="../img/projects/jubeat.png"
+ alt="a
+ product photo of the konami's jubeat arcade cabinet. It's a
+ big box with speakers, a small wide screen, and a 4x4 grid of large buttons."
+ />
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ The grid of buttons are each separate note inputs, and the
+ screen above it actually extends below the buttons. The notes
+ for the beatmaps are shown beneath each button you need to
+ press. it looks pretty cool, but naturally it's hard to play at
+ home (ignoring that it's 'illegal' to play at home because
+ piracy, but like, who gives a fuck on that front).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Now, with a bit of RGB magic, you can kinda get an approximation
+ of the inputs for Jubeat on a launchpad. So... why not do that?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thing is, it ended up pretty involved. Like projects tend to do.
+ First port of call was talking to the launchpad from my language
+ of choice, C#. The launchpad is controlled over MIDI, with
+ regular input messages used when you hit a button, and output
+ used to tell the launchpad what colours to light up. There's
+ also a few sysex messages for stuff like changing mode, how
+ quickly the LEDs pulse, etc.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As I always do, I checked Nuget and found - well, nothing. So
+ <i>then</i> I searched github and found a perfect[ish] package
+ called launchpad-dot-net, from a user called iUltimateLP.
+ Unfortunately, it didn't support my model of launchpad, only
+ earlier ones, so before I could write the game, I had to rewrite
+ the library to support my launchpad. That's right, baby! It's a
+ project within a project!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title-block">
+ <a
+ class="blog-title"
+ href="https://www.nuget.org/packages/launchpad-dot-net"
+ >
+ <h3>launchpad-dot-net fork</h3>
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="datestamp">2022, 2024</h3>
+ </div>
+ <div class="content">
+ <p>
+ So I bought a midi device called a launchpad - it looks like
+ this.
+ </p>
+ <p class="blog-img">
+ <i>Image removed. That's enough of that - Ed.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ OK so I've done my funny joke but honestly there wasn't much to
+ this other than adding branches in the code for the new model of
+ launchpad. The previously supported models also didn't do full
+ RGB so I added the commands to fully control the LEDs
+ specifically for the mini mk3.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Forking this actually turned out to be really useful for my
+ future work on <a href="dalamudplugins.html">LPHotbars</a> so
+ I'm glad I did it, and I even did my due diligence of PRing my
+ changes to the original repo. Still pending, that one. After a
+ week-ish of no response from the original dev, I packaged it up
+ to Nuget and shipped it for future use. Since the original dev
+ never stuck the library on nuget, I felt that was... ok? I did
+ worry about it at the time, but the original library is
+ abandoned, so probably fair game.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then, later, as mentioned, I picked this up again for LPHotbars.
+ In the meantime, a very kind person called pstaszko had ported
+ the library to dotnet standard 2. Which was pretty damn
+ convenient, because over the course of 2024, Dalamud - the
+ modding framework for Final Fantasy XIV - started targeting
+ dotnet standard instead of some old version of dotnet framework.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Since I was in the code, I also added a testbed app, which
+ allowed me to discover a bug - the CC keys (all the labelled
+ keys in the image above, the ones around the edge) and the SYSEX
+ calls stopped working, so I had to fix those up.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I also experimented with replacing the midi library, in an
+ attempt to support linux. It wasn't successful, honestly -
+ doesn't seem like any underlying midi libraries for c# actually
+ properly support device comms on linux.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Going one deeper and forking an actual midi library to add this
+ support was out of scope for what I was working on and would
+ have ballooned the project, so instead I just abandoned the
+ cause. Maybe one for the future, it would be nice to offer linux
+ support for LPHotbars considering how nice XIV works on
+ Linux/Steam Deck.
+ </p>
+ <p>OK, back to the main project.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title-block">
+ <a class="blog-title" href="https://github.com/gnargle/YouBeat">
+ <h3>Youbeat, again</h3>
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="datestamp">2022</h3>
+ </div>
+ <div class="content">
+ <a
+ href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnargle/YouBeat/refs/heads/master/Images/youbeat_game2.jpg"
+ >
+ <img
+ class="blog-img"
+ src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnargle/YouBeat/refs/heads/master/Images/youbeat_game2.jpg"
+ alt="an in-game photo of youbeat, showing the game screen and the launchpad in action.
+ buttons on the launchpad are lit with different colours to demonstrate how close a note is."
+ />
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ So once I'd rewritten the launchpad library I could actually
+ make the game. I have never really got on with game engines -
+ I'm largely a pure programmer, and my experiments with unity in
+ the past have massively frustrated me. (Unity is a fucking
+ nightmare. Has anyone else said this? JK I know they have)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So instead I looked for a minimal library that would do the
+ video-gamey-relevant stuff (directx instance, drawing, etc) and
+ then just get out of my way.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To that end, I found
+ <a href="https://github.com/kylepulver/Otter">Otter2D,</a> now
+ sadly discontinued. It was written by kyle pulver, who has
+ worked on a bunch of things you may have heard of including
+ super meat boy forever. Otter2D is exaclty what I wanted and so
+ naturally it crashed and burned to the ground like Icarus, a
+ library to perfect to exist.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But <i>before</i> that happened, I used it for Youbeat. And it
+ was really, really nice! Drawing stuff to the screen was a
+ one-line affair, transitions and tweens were simple to add and
+ there was reasonable variety to them, and the library itself was
+ flexible enough that I could build a game that primarily
+ functioned on an external device without it complaining.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This has always traditionally been my problem with game dev.
+ With otter, I could just write code, like I always do. I'm
+ pretty good at writing code, and I'm pretty rapid too. My
+ experience with engines has largely been them slowing me down
+ and getting me away from the stuff that makes most sense to me.
+ They're like wading through a bog.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As a result, this is the first time I've ever really
+ <i>completed</i> a game. This was admittedly helped by me not
+ really doing any level design or such, and while I did make some
+ art assets for the menus there was no extensive art necessary,
+ something I have always got stuck on. I know that's what
+ programmer art is for but my ambitions for games tend to extend
+ past prototypes and so it presents something of a psyche
+ barrier.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I also built a very barebones mapper! Partly so I could make my
+ own beatmaps to test the game with, but also because I firmly
+ believe that a good rhythm game always provides a mapper. The
+ rhythm games community is pretty tight-knit and thrives on the
+ free exchange of ideas and code, and so you will find that all
+ the best rhythm games either ship with a mapper or release one
+ shortly after they come out. It's extra work but it's good for
+ the health of the game!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I will admit that the mapper does kind of suck, though. It's a
+ horrible archaic winforms app, but it does the job. I think if I
+ wanted to dedicate more time to the project this is where I'd
+ start. Ultimately though I am a firm believer in Zack Freedman's
+ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1j93RnIxEo"
+ ><i>Finish More Projects</i></a
+ >
+ mantra. When it comes to stuff you're doing for yourself, done
+ is <i>always</i> better than perfect.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Anyway. While it may look a bit ramshackle now to my more senior
+ eye, this project taught me a lot about designing for weird
+ hardware, a lot about how games work when you don't have an
+ engine choking you, and a few nice tidbits about nuget and such.
+ Worthwhile! And hey, if you have a launchpad, you should check
+ this and LPHotbars out. I'm really proud of both.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ </div>
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projects / gnargle.github.io.git / blobdiff