Hey hey! So up until now, the Castagne community was a bit spread around, but especially on Discord. This isn’t always the best for storing information long-term and having transparent discussion, but it was good enough for a while. However, now that Castagne has grown, it’s time to migrate to a proper forum!
You can find a couple things on the forum already:
The Discord will still exist, but I’m going to focus more and more on the forum as time goes on. The forum is going to be the one pushed forward on the website from now on, and there are integrations from the forum to discord.
Little extra info: at the moment the forum is using DiscourseID, since my mail is blocked by gmail (probably previous owner of the IP doing weirdo stuff with it), but I’m hosting it on my own server. When I have the time to properly investigate and fix this, I’ll add the option for local accounts.
Remember that Castagne can be run independantly? It handles all the gameplay on its own, but needs to be hosted by another engine to actually poll input or display anything, which in most cases is Godot. This also means that some data has to be shared, which is the subject of today’s update!
Introducing two new types of data structure to Castagne: ModStructs and HostStructs. ModStructs are an extension of the structures that already exist, they store another Memory Stack and thus can be rolled back if needed. They are separate from the main memory, and live inside of the engine itself, which allows additional abilities where needed.
Currently, this covers the AttackData structure, and you can guess what it’s used for based on the name. The interesting part of ModStructs is that they are also accessible from CASP directly. As such, AttackParam is a thing of the past, you can now directly use Set(Attack.Damage, 1000) for example. It’s also much more flexible than before, as you will be able to declare any type of attack parameter using the declare variable syntax: declare Attack.MyCoolParameter vec() = [0,0,0] creates a new MyCoolParameter attack parameter of type vector. This will still be compatible with the Attack Overrides system, so it’s quite strong!
HostStructs are an extension of ModStructs, as they are one ModStruct plus an additional data structure on the host side. The most direct application is the ModelData structure, which holds the parameters for the model. This is stronger than before on the Castagne side, as you can do Model.Position for example instead of having the whole ModelMove functions. On the host engine side, HostStructs recieve callbacks at key points in the process, such as the graphics update step for models, which are used to handle data while keeping rollback in mind. Since HostStructs have access to this managed memory stack, they can read the correct values and update accordingly, which works better if you use an immediate update structure (meaning, you are not dependant on previous state). The responsability of data lifecycle during rollback will mostly be handled by Castagne, while the responsability of acting on the data is on the HostStruct. This effectively replaces the InstanceData system, which worked in a similar way but was less structured.
Anyway, that’s mostly internal stuff which is going to be useful for engine devs or those that go really far. On your end, it’s most likely buisiness as usual, as you just make your Godot scene and it gets loaded as expected. Or, you use Sprites which are handled for you.
One change that will be coming however as a result is the fusion of the 2.5D fighter and 2D fighter genre into one. This was a big mark of using Godot specifically, and it brought a lot of issues because Godot’s pure 2D engine doesn’t handle 3D models (duh), and as such a lot of default behavior couldn’t be used. Using Godot’s 2D engine won’t be off the table however, as it will become a config option, that way if you want to use pure 2D sprites and background you will be able to set it up.
This change will make the beginner experience much less brittle, and will cause less confusion around some features of the engine which are not available when using the pure 2D renderer as it will be opt-in AFTER the initial approach and ensure you actually know what you’re getting into. Many people think “2D Fighter” refered only to the characters, which is not the case but it’s not something you can “fix”, especially in the first 3 minutes someone has with Castagne. It also prevented the default characters from being used, so the choice most beginners made would cut them off from learning! Won’t happen as much now.
This is a pure banger feature, one of the best usability improvements of the new Castagne. State Calls were a huge feature in the previous version, and you could use it to create behavior either by extending a state or through composition. Interally both were the same, but I added warnings and _Helper() to distinguish between the two. You could alter internal defines, but it was a bit janky.
First off, there’s a new syntax for state names, which immediately distinguishes between the two: StateName is a regular state, while StateName() is a helper state. Both can be called without issues by using !StateName (equivalent to Call(StateName) in the old version), that part doesn’t change. What is new is that you can now add parameters to that, which are treated as local variables! Here’s a long snippet showcasing the new abilities:
:HelperState(var X int(), var Y bool() = true):
# You have access to both X and Y here.
# A is a local variable that you can't set from the outside.
var A int() = 10
V Y:
Add(A, X)
!OtherHelper(A)
endif
:OtherHelper(var Z int = 5):
# This has only got access to Z, even when called from HelperState.
# These are copies, so even if called through !OtherHelper(X), it can't change X
# You can call parent with arguments too
!!(10)
:RegularState:
# You can specify parameters with or without defaults
!HelperState(5)
!HelperState(5, false)
# If there are no parameters, these are equivalent
!OtherHelper
!OtherHelper()
# Hooks also work! The parameter list will resolve when needed.
!SuperState?(10, true)
So now you’re either super hype or super confused. This is a core feature of the engine that allows many mechanics and tools to be made inside of CASP in an efficient manner. Let me illustrate the difference with the old Castagne with some examples:
!AirStep(5000) to make the behavior easily readable and contained!!OnLevelUp?. Compared to before, you don’t need to create the state immediately, it will only be used in the characters that want it.!IMPACT or !IMPACT(120) can now take care of everything!!TransitionIfHeld(M, 6, OverdriveMove) to automatically handle moving to OverdriveMove if M is held for the first 6 frames? Easy QoL on something that’s a bit too niche for the modules!FlagCarryover(F) for example, it’s just FlagNext(F) in an L branch. You could make functions like that for your own use in minutes! It’s not as optimized, but that’s easily done later, and you can get started with it faster.This is already super useful, but when you’ll combine it with the upcoming MechMods (!!? is specifically superb in this context, as it allows needed modularity) and Varspec (which can understand when it’s seen from a state call), it will be incredible. These three features are the ones that will bring the editor to a new level and I can’t wait for that!
Slight design musings to finish, since this post is already super long:
Transition(CoolState(500)) or something, but I think it would be a bit overkill in complexity and we can hold variables in memory for that. Maybe I could add a variable tag for that.var X int is valid. The variable tags are optional (the () in int(), which isn’t used for anything right now nor was it before, always a planned feature), and you don’t need to specify a default. In fact, some variable types don’t accept defaults, such as state or flag (semantic types in general), but you may use them in state calls.AttackParam internally. I don’t think this would be for the best however, as it would complexify the docs and make it more confusing to follow. Allowing the ! to become optional would fix that but introduce confusion instead. Making them as CASP functions would allow overriding module functions, which is another can of worms. I’m probably going to introduce module functions as macros to implement that.What’s next is a bit tricky to choose, but I think I’ll start working on the modules again. Logically, I won’t be actually able to implement the MechMods without having something to put in them! Varspec will probably be the very last core feature to be added, since it’s so dependant on the rest.
New feature alert! Whereas before you could only declare constants in your state, now you can declare variables!
These variables are only available for the state (or most likely, scope, due to how I’ve implemented it but I haven’t tested it at the moment), and get reset when going through it again. This means they are volatile: you can’t store state from one frame to another, and you also can’t reference them from the outside.
For the technical detail, it’s a per-entity memory stack that doesn’t get saved or rolled back. It has no upper limit, but it might need to reallocate. It starts at a reasonable size so it probably won’t come up unless you push it explicitely. Its volatility allows it to not bog down the implementation, as it gets “reset” every time you try to execute CASC code.
While it might not sound like a huge thing in the context of the previous versions, it actually enables a lot of future behavior. If you looked at the Base CASP I already used a proxy for them using the RegA/B/C/D variables you might have seen at times. They are usually used in intermediary computations. One such example that I’ll need to convert is F branches, which use it to handle modulos.
The main usefulness however is coming soon: using State Calls as functions, with their own local variables. Previous versions of this were limited and hard to parse, but this time it will be much clearer and integrated. Another benefit that is already in, is shorter compilation times: helpers don’t get compiled anymore so it removes like 80%+ of states. Unsure how needed that was since the compiler is in a compiled language now, but we’ll see when it gets to a higher level. This will be tricky to implement, but I’ve got a fairly clear idea of how I want to do it.
Incredible, but true! I’ve added structures to the compiler, the first of which is the humble Vector! It’s always a 3D vector, even in the 2D settings. You can use them either as a structure, or as individual components:
var V vec() = [0, 0, 0]
# As a component
Set(V.X, 5)
# As a structure
Add(V, [1, 2, 3])
At the moment, this is the extent of the system, but I’m planning on having 3 types of structures:
Vectors are meant to be used in many places in the engine, especially for anything involving Physics or Graphics. I’ve still got design concerns for the other two, namely if the Arrays should have a fixed length (most likely yes), and how Custom structures are meant to be used (just organisation is a bit weak, but I’m thinking it has great potential to replace Specblock structs). Please note that all structures are just in the compiler, and not an actual type in the runtime itself.
I’ve done a lot of design work for the next parts of the engine, as they link a lot with the upcoming systems for top-tier integration in the Castagne engine: Varspec, a second language in the engine for editors, and MechMods, a simple composable way to add mechanics and system mechanics to your game. Combined with the upcoming State Calls with parameters, this will enable tremendous flexibility. That and a basic implementation of Physics, Attacks, and Graphics is my current objective, as this is where I can start porting projects to it.
Also, the forum is almost ready. I’m still testing out the rollout and managed to put myself on a spamlist thanks to a technical error. I guess it happens lol.
I’m really not a webdev dude and it shows lol, but we got a new landing page now! The previous one looked “unique” (better on my screen in my defence) to the point I’m being cited as a part of the “anti-design” movement. You can’t take the artist out of me it seems.
This solves a few problems around communication, the first being that most progress was not really accessible unless you were already in the community. This shows how active the project is a bit better! It was also a bit tricky to keep up with the weekly video, and until its quality improves I believe it’s not currently worth the effort of translating them. So instead of having to spend big time every week, this style of short update is probably better? I was already doing it before, so it’s not like it takes much. Might be able to rig it to videos too, once I improve my pipeline a bit.
One of my next objectives is to move the Castagne community towards this website. Discord was a useful crutch there, but information easily gets lost, and it becomes more walled over time. This is going to happen slowly, as I also want to develop the engine, and being currently mostly a solo thing that means I’m already pressed for time lol. But this is a priority, as my gambit to develop a full engine in 3 months didn’t pan out as fast as I hoped so I’ll need to switch gears into more paced and clear development instead of a short intense period. I’m still very satisfied with the project’s progress, and you can see how many features are already in on the page.
This doesn’t change much my plans, except that March might be filled with more “admin” and “surrounding” work rather than pure programming, but it might make more people aware of the engine, which is nice! My next programming steps are going to be structured types (especially vectors) and either the physics or graphics module. Input already works, so this is some of the last steps to make the engine usable. Knowing the extra features coming, I can’t wait to port my own games to it!
Quick preview of changes:
The syntax is a bit different, check this:
# Assuming L is a button
IL: # Is L currently held down ?
IL.Press: # Is an L press buffered ?
# The buffer lasts around 8f at the moment, and is unbuffered if released
# If going into this branch, the event is consumed.
IL.Press?: # Same as previous, but doesn't consume the press.
I’ve worked a bit too much today to finish the CHECK in time lol so I’m giving a real quick preview
Target.VariableName, peep some examples:
Set(V, Target.V): Copies the value of V from the target inside of our own V.Set(Target.V, V): Writes the value of our own V into the target’s V.AttackDamage(Target.HP): Makes an attack that does exactly as much damage as the target has HP, killing him instantly if it hits!Fixed some bugs there and adjusted behavior to be defined
Subentities will now go to their parent, so the execution order is not shaken too much
CreateEntity and DestroyEntity have been renamed to EntityCreate and EntityDestroy for greater consistency, but I’m also adding aliases ! (they don’t work yet), so you can still write CreateEntity if you want. Gonna be useful when I want to write AttackFA instead of AttackFrameAdvantage
And NEW FUNCTION ! EntityDestroySubentities. Destroys your children. Combine it with EDestroy: to bring your children to the grave with you ! (in castagne)
The only remaining big module feature for the core is inter entity communication and targetting ! After that it’s onwards to the other modules
you can now destroy entities This also triggers a Destroy event so you can spawn one last VFX or something and detach it An entity’s subentities will be promoted to main entities (there’s no difference nowadays anyway except execution order), so you can kill (in the game) with no worries At the moment, there’s a bit of an edge case I haven’t decided on: if you kill a subentity that has subsubentities, should they go to the parent entity or be set free in the wild as strong independant entities? It’s the later at the moment, but I’m not sure if it’s the best course of action Additionally, I’ve decided for After to do what I said, and it now activates after every Action/Freeze/Halt phase has gone for entities and after a data sync but before entity destruction, and doesn’t process new entities created in After. With this, you can do both helper behavior like adding hurtboxes automatically if forgotten, or even synchronize entities a bit more, like tracking to the opponent. IF YOU’RE A REAL NERD THAT UNDERSTANDS WHAT I WROTE REACT WITH :brain:
I’ve added phases and events, compared to previous versions these work properly even with state calls That means that your custom code in states like AttackReactEvents doesn’t need an additional EOnAttackHit: anymore !
Also CallAfter is now EAfter, it’s an event now for easier use
Regarding EAfter, at the moment it’s akin to a second phase after the first, and runs after the inter-entity communication sync. I did it that way now to get it online, but I’m not sure how much of that to keep. I think I’ll remove the possibility of a state transition, but keep the barrier and sync to allow some tricky behavior that requires getting data from the other entities on the same frame
Lil surprise new function FlagCarryover(FlagName)
If the flag is raised, calls FlagNext on it
I use that pattern all the time and figured I might as well enshrine it instead of writing three lines everytime
New CASTAGNE CHECK! Got the editor working properly, onto the core module!
Nouveau CASTAGNE CHECK ! L’éditeur marche bien, c’est l’heure du module core !
Alright we’re in buisiness ! The editor link is now fairly robust (it works in all my tests, even if the engine itself crashes) and the lifetime of the engine is handled by the editor (so you don’t have to think about it) (in your computer the window will be hidden but on mine there’s no “minimize” function in my window manager lol)
Display is calibrated for accuracy rather than exact input, so there a bit (+2f) of input lag. This is due to godot’s rendering delay and only affects the editor. This could potentially be removed at a later time, but this would require a deeper dive into godot’s rendering architecture for something that’s not a priority. You may still test without input lag by launching the game separately (which the editor can also do). This is a bit of a downside of the separate editor, but there’s many upsides like the game crashing not crashing your editor too lol
But yeah good progress, this was one of the big technical issues to solve and it’s done now, the editor is almost usable in production now!
Editor now loads and saves files and projects ! It’s getting close to a usable state ! Main remaining things to go through for a minimum viable editor are:
Castagne CHECK! I reworked the compiler and my brain is fried help
J’ai retravaillé le compilo toute la semaine aled
New Castagne CHECK, this time on the modules! I also introduce the upcoming changes to the physics!
Nouveau Castagne CHECK, cette fois sur les modules! Je parle aussi des changement au module physique!
Actually lets ping @Castagne too because I need you guys to SUBSCRIBE (you don’t need to like, you can hate if you want) so that Youtube knows I’m trustworthy enough to put links and multiple audio dubs
Castagne CHECK #2 is out ! Come get some news on development Today’s subject : Godot 4 and Subentities
Gonna add an @everyone / @Castagne for a quick favor :
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE SO YOUTUBE LETS ME PUT LINKS IN THE DESCRIPTION AND MULTILANGUAGE AUDIO thank u
Castagne Editor now works!!! It uses IPC to allow for better UX and new possibilities (like network, customization, better crash handling…) and it was tricky. It’s fast enough, but can be improved if needed. I finally got the basics down for the project!!!
you gotta know right away
CASTAGNE NOW RUNS INSIDE OF GODOT 4
that’s it, that’s the message Doesn’t look like much (yet) but it does compile a casp file and run it inside of the CastagneEngine node Each time the button is pressed, an engine tick advances, and the state is read back with no issues.
What’s next?
While you might think it’s “just port the rest of the functions”, it’s actually the editor connection. Castagne’s true potential is unlocked by allowing it to serve as a tooling platform, and for that it needs close communication with the editor.
I’m thinking of making the editor a separate program, so that use is a bit simplified and you don’t need to download the full thing every time, or open and close the editor every 5 seconds, as well as permit more advanced features. This is going to be extra tricky however, so I want to nail it early.
The editor being functional will mark the end of the first phase of the compiled castagne rewrite: the core structure. Phase 2 will be continuing development on the core to allow each module to come back, thus building it back into working order.
(I’ll of course make a video like the one from monday to explain more, just give it a bit of time)
@Castagne-SmallUpdates First Castagne check / changelog preview / whatever you wanna call it I’ll try to put some small videos for progress from time to time With the software it’s really quick to make BUT i do need to spend a couple hours to improve it if I can I planned on doing dev today but I got roped into helping out with cursed computer problems lmao https://youtu.be/oklO_x6w5Ag
Starting stream soon! Come for the whiteboard catch up on castagne’s design lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3s8JSZg82Y
Castagne dev stream: Variables Let’s go, this time I actually slept before lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aprIF_6Ze1U
Hop in, we doing the compiler I’ll only ping @Streaming from now on if that becomes regular, so check the role if you’re interested! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkvQRiN0AU
As requested by you guys, dev stream for castagne https://youtube.com/live/wEmolGKz8pI?feature=share
Castagne for Godot 4 STARTED TODAY! currently doing setup and writing the design in full the new editor is going to be incredible