What is Laputan Blueprints?

by **bwansy** Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:21 pm

Almost 4 years after Takeya (a.k.a. Student), the legendary author of the great RigidChips, went MIA without a trace, he resurfaced. Sadly, he has confirmed that the development of RC has been halted, but in return, he brought us a new game called Laputan Blueprints.

This game incorporates a fast physics engine (with full collision detection!) and an integrated model editor. Its file format has changed to a standard XML format from the old RC one. Lua is now the primary, and only, scripting language available. Composition of models is perhaps the greatest change. Rather than chips of the same size, the models are made up of blocks and cylinders of any size (except thickness), with an array of materials to choose from. These "blocks" are connected by "connectors" that can be customised as well.

Scripting has been improved as well. From the Lua documentation that has been released yesterday, a large number of new functions have been added. The notable ones being high-level drawing functions, vector/matrix/object metatables, and the access to OS functions (time, file, etc).

However, all these may be changed in the future, as the version is labeled "draft", meaning that this is a proof-of-concept, or prototype.

by Timothy Ashtön Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:01 pm

Hope this community can become the beta testers or something to help out on the English side of Laputan Blueprints! Very Happy

by **bwansy** Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:04 pm

So, I've contacted Takeya. Originally it was an e-mail form that I sent to request for file sharing, while I tried to download the file. He replied:

Takeya wrote:? Who are you?

I then took this opportunity to send him a long message:

bwansy wrote:Hello, I am Bernard, a big fan of RigidChips, and just as everyone else, I was excited to find out this new game. However, when I tried to download the game, I encountered a "file not found" error. I clicked the "v2" link and it took me to a page for file-sharing request. I thought that I had to send this request in order to download the file, do I did. This problem had been solved the next day, so you can disregard this request. It seems that although the files appear on the front page, they aren't available until a day later. I think this is an issue on Google's side. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I am also the founder and an admin of the only surviving English RigidChips fan forum, and I have many friends from the Japanese community, too. On behalf of the two communities, I shall seize this opportunity to ask you a few questions:
1. Since the development of RC has been halted, would you release the source code? Many of us are interested in developing this great game.
2. Although very unlikely, will RC models be able to be converted into LB format?
3.Will LB have the same functions RC does, such as combat and online-play?

Finally, thank you for creating this superb game. It has brought so much joy to me and to many others.

Regards,
Bernard

And he responded quickly:

Takeya wrote:Hello Mr. Bernard
My rude reply is mistaken.
However, I am glad to hear your opinion.

1.It is too awful and is not shown my source though I think that I will globalize it. Then, I was developing a new code. It took a considerable time. LB appeared in the process.
2.The function to read the data of RC might be able to be offered. However, you will think 1.2 version levels.
3.I will build in neither a combat nor online play. However, I will prepare the infrastructure that other people can build in. For instance, it is Lua API etc.

Finally, I also work hard that stimulation is given to your wonderful forum even a little.

Regards,
Yasuhiko TAKEYA

Some good news and some bad news here. Let's keep our optimism!

by Timothy Ashtön Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:44 am

He seems in high spirits about this 'new' Rigidchips code, but what I'm shocked and really hoping he will reconsider is the online play. The combat is not really needed if there is already a colision system inside the online gameplay.
I'm happy to see him post the source code(if he did, and if on googlesite we'll need to pull it off before it dies like the link from what bwansy said) so we can still update it.
But to think now that Takeya may have created RC it's now or soon everyones job to not let it die, shall we be the first English community to update RC? Who knows ;D

by Point.Blank Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:34 am

been quite a while since I visited here...

Glad to see he's still alive and kicking, and this is a most interesting development indeed. I tried it out, and can't seem to figure out how to join 2 objects together, or how to change the depth (not thickness) of a part in relation to other parts...

by Hellome Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:24 pm

the current version is 1.06 DRAFT
Very Happy

by Timothy Ashtön Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:33 pm

Whoa, finally test LB and just whoa. It's so different yet similar at the same time. Like the fact of the fix to motor are preset and you only need to type modify the positive/negative power, spring and angle! How you can attach a 'chip' on one side or the other determined on which side it's on to the main chip (the first one everything is built off of) =D It awesome and it's only a draft!

Oh big thing there is a way to play multiplayer on LB, create two separate chips independently control and ram each other until break. Only problem is we are all over the world, and not within walking distance. (For one, I'm not swimming to Europe xD)

by supershade Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:06 pm

We all are going to still play rigidchips right?

by Thorero Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:28 pm

Well I know I'll still be playing RC, though I may dabble in LB a little bit. Smile

by supershade Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:57 pm

Thanks...anyone else?

by Point.Blank Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:23 pm

LB isn't meant to be a replacement for RC, but rather a different type of design (instead of using modular chips, you can customize component sizes and joint types). Although it does have some engine features that are considered better than in RC (variable water level, durability, gravity and etc.), it is just a branch from the same concept with different implementation.

In other words, I don't see the majority of RC players (Japanese-speaking or English) switching only to LB until it has better documentation and features.

by supershade Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:24 pm

Okay thats good.

by Timothy Ashtön Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:46 pm

I'm still going to be in RC, though LB interests me because of the blueprint layout and directions used. Other than that, no LB won't replace RC for me. Very Happy

Whoa, Thorero made a post! Your last post was on Mon Aug 23, 2010! D:

by supershade Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:48 pm

Cool thats awesome

by fredsmith Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:05 am

Hey, good to know that Thorero's still around.

I really hope that Takeya will keep his word on the things in the email! Source code would be great, with such a large Japanese base new versions will appear in no time!

These days I'm a little bit too busy to play around in RC too much, but I still enjoy playing it. I agree that LB is a different system (all GUI! whoa) so that it won't replace RC, but I'm interested to see where this goes. I think I'll dabble in LB a little bit but stick to RC mainly, especially if it gets open-sourced.

EDIT: the newest version is 1.1.3 with a function called 'Glue' although I haven't had time to download & play around with it... can someone tell me what 'Glue' does?

by RA2lover Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:56 am

its another method to attach objects.

by **bwansy** Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:25 pm

Glue is a clever way to allow circular linking (e.g. A->B, B->C, C->A) without the risk of physical inconsistencies. When two or more objects overlap, they would be shown with an orange outline in the editor, which can be "glued" together by simply clicking on the glue icon. Both objects would have green outlines showing that they're now glued together. I don't know many degrees of freedom the glue joints have, but there are handful of amazing contraptions on the uploader that uses this feature extensively, from which you can work out its mechanics.

by fredsmith Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:05 pm

Oh, so there's circular linking now? wow. That's one thing that RC won't have, ever, I don't think.

by Timothy Ashtön Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:28 pm

Not unless Takeya put out its source code so we can add it in? :9

by fredsmith Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:21 pm

True... I dearly hope that the source code WILL be released.

by **JHaskly** Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:53 pm

I'm just going to say that the addition of circular connections would greatly increase the complexity of RC's physics engine, making it rather difficult to implement.

by fredsmith Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:46 am

Well, it has been done in LB, has it not? By one person?

by RA2lover Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:36 am

yup, but he used help from other programmers. check the bottom of the project page.

This software is linked to the following libraries.

+ Qt: Framework

Qt libraries version 4.6.3

Copyright (C) 2010 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).

http://qt.nokia.com/

+ Bullet Physics library

Bullet version 2.76

Copyright (C) 2011 Game Physics Simulation.

http://bulletphysics.org/

+ Lua (Embeddable scripting language)

Lua version 5.1.4

Copyright (C) 1994–2010 Lua.org, PUC-Rio.

http://www.lua.org/

by Thorero Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:17 pm

he used help from other programmers.

Well not so much that he used their help, he just used those libraries. In fact quite a few one man developments use outside libraries. But the folks who coded the libraries don't directly help the developer.

by **JHaskly** Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:39 pm

EVERY (well, almost almost) game uses external libraries. It's impossible not too.

LB may have a different physics engine, however. The simplistic one in RC is not designed for circular references - the one in LB might be.

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