I'm making PongFX available as a v0.1 release. Lots of remaining work to do, and an endless number of bugs left to iron out. Networking support was cut for the time being.
My ISP doesn't have .deploy files enabled on their server, which means that I can't use ClickOnce to get this out there. Sorry 'bout that. The binary drop should work fine. Note: you need the Avalon CTP to run this.
Poor man's documentation:
- Up: Move your token up
- Down: Move your token down
- Left-Ctrl: When held, will “grab“ the ball in sticky mode (releasing shoots it back)
- Escape: Quit the game
Feel free to report bugs, but I will likely respond with an “I know”... just haven't found the time to address most of them. I'm doing a few things quote unconventionally, and one of my largest mistakes was to couple the game logic and layout so tightly. Hey: it's a v0.1 release, cut me some slack!
Some notes:
- Yes, I stole the Avalon “shield“ logo from ChrisAn's XamlPad-clone application.
- I absolutely love the animation support in Avalon, although I haven't used it in many places I should have.
- The ball's rotation doesn't change as it should. I've had a hard time figuring out how to change animations on the fly.
- Resizing the window causes the playing area to extend beyond the bottom. It's weird. Maximize the window to see what I mean.
- Animation is a bit choppy, and I know I'm not using the graphics engine to its full potential. I'm moving widgets around in a very GDI-ish manner.
- Any physics major (or anybody who actually paid attention in high school physics 101) would laugh at my “physics“ simulation code. While you can fling the ball off of your paddle by moving it in a certain direction while hitting it, that's about as complex as it gets.
- 4-player support is nonexistent, and will be enabled once I pour the Indigo-networking on top.
- Game tick resolution is whacky. I think it's too granular at the moment, although the choppiness indicates otherwise.
- Etc., etc., etc.
I'd love to hear any feedback you have!