Scratch

<move(  )steps><move(  )steps><play sound[ <play sound[ <play sound[ <play sound[ <play sound[ <play sound[  ]and waits><play sound[  ]and waits>

I've decided to cancel Project: Mario Kart.

I don't know why people are complaining that they already made a Mario Kart game. It's nothing but bits and pieces. I think that this is a good idea, making a FULL, COMPLETE, Mario Kart game. I hope you're adding multiplayer, advanced settings (what Nintendo has been missing), damage counter, and more! No one has made a game like this!

Maybe this should go here?

mastertech2020 wrote:

Yeah, we should move it.

He cancelled it anyway.

So, I attempted this and the outlook isn't good. (all info is with turbo mode in flash scratch)

But first:
Good news.
Yes, 3D mario kart is totally possible in scratch and I have it working here:

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Dawgles/2186639

Screenshots




Bad news:
Issue one: The level takes 10 minutes to read. This is a very small level (480x352px) with 34 colors. The reading speed is cut down by the "is touching color" block, which doesn't perform very well on the flash player (or squeak, of course).

Issue two: A high resolution image is too much to render realtime. At pen size one it takes about 3 and a half seconds to draw the ground. Here it is at pen size 4, and it's barely playable:

The solution here would be faster calculations and pen renders.
Not gonna happen, flash scratch is already pretty far ahead of the java and squeak versions in terms of performance and I don't think they can push it any farther.

Issue three: Performance suffers the larger your list is. My minecraft project is suffering from this too. I don't know how scratch stores lists, so I'm not sure how much of this is my fault/incurable.

Well, I got it working. That was a learning experience. 

I want to join and I have my own Mario Kart

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/pokepower/2248429

@Dawgles
I know how to fix issue three. In the flash player, lists are arrays. List blocks heavily rely on the flash array controls, and these controls require big amounts of memory consumption. Just to delete an element would require you to copy the array. This will be very slow. Another big thing is that lists can be modified and added to at run-time, so memory is being moved constantly. A faster way instead would be to write a method of lists manually. You would store elements in variables, and you would use some basic math to retrieve elements. This a speed advantage because you know how big the level will be when you write the game. You could use simple multiplication and addition to grab any part of the level quickly.

I could clarify more on anything, just tell me what you would like to know more about.

Disclaimer: I am not the Scratch Team, however I am very advanced in both Scratch and Flash.

-bobbybee

I'm Joining!

I Specialize in Sprite coding sometimes

Hey Scratchers I Want To Join. I Have Mk64 Sprites,(including The Racers) And The Knowledge To Script It. I Have Made 2 Mario Kart 3d Games. The 3rd Will Be Out In December 20th. Please Let Me Help.