[Kde-games-devel] 14 Segment Display

[Mark A. Taff]

On Friday 16 February 2007 06:06:23 Mauricio Piacentini wrote:
> Hi, Mark. I think it looks OK, with the thinner segments. They look
> better than the QLCDNumber ones. But I guess I will do a version that
> mimics the rougher QLCDNumber segments exactly as well, just to use in
> the KMines classic theme.

I can make a 7-segment version as well, no problem.  I just thought everyone 
would want to use the nicer 14-segment. ;-)  I'll do that before the grid 
version.

> I am writing this because KGameLCD (part of libkdegames) is currently
> semi-broken in KDE4. Actually, the problem is not in KGameLCD directly,
> it seems to be in QGameLCD. It no longer recognizes some of the palette
> change methods used by KGameLCD, and the result is what you see
> currently in KMines, with no change in background color (I commented on
> it in a recent SVN commit.)
>
> I scanned the source and KGameLCD and friends are used by KMines,
> Ksirtet, KFouleggs and Klickety. However, the last 3 are currently
> unmaintained, and also broken in current SVN builds. By broken I mean
> that they build, but the game does not work correctly. I am not sure for
> how long they have been in this semi-broken, I only noticed it this week.

My fiance will shoot me if she doesn't have a tetris game to play in KDE. :-(

> For KMines I will probably re-implement this KGameLCD class in a way
> that the display could be customized using elements from a SVG file.
> Maybe I should do it in KGameLCD directly, so it will be ready if anyone
> decides to rescue the 3 other games that use it in the next month or so.

Well, I am going to make an LCD grid version as well, so that makes 3 
character versions (7-segment, 14-segment, grid), so maybe we should work 
towards KGameLCD being able to use any of these three sets, with appropriate 
color/backlight changing calls, and a call to choose LED or LCD style?

If it gets done in KGameLCD, then not only the existing games, but third party 
KDE games and future games could use it as well.  This seems like the most 
elegant place to do this, imo.

Three character styles raise the question:  What considerations to think about 
when doing the graphics, with regards to the code being able to elegantly 
work with the different characters sets?

Same width and/or height, or same aspect ratio?  Thoughts?

> BTW, there have been some commits and a fair bit of re-engineering of
> KMines during this week. I have not integrated Mark´s art yet, still
> need to change more of the code in preparation for it.

Cool.

Regards,

Mark