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Microsoft Tilecode

microsoft.github.io

31–40 of 63 posts

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#31

> If a tile predicate has a non-empty Include set that > contains only sprite kinds then the associated tile must > contain a sprite if that predicate evaluates to true on a > state. We call such a sprite a sprite witness, as it > witnesses the truth of the predicate. Sprite witnesses are > TileCode’s form of variable binding. I can't figure out who this manual is written for. TileCode and the example games appear to…

This is a side effect of it being a research project. It's interesting to me because I've worked in this space (I designed and built the visual scripting system for Facebook Horizon) but otherwise I agree. Kids and non-programmers won't understand this

Perhaps there is one description for existing programmers (who would appreciate the comparison to variable binding) and one that doesn’t (who could care less about that)?

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#32

> If a tile predicate has a non-empty Include set that > contains only sprite kinds then the associated tile must > contain a sprite if that predicate evaluates to true on a > state. We call such a sprite a sprite witness, as it > witnesses the truth of the predicate. Sprite witnesses are > TileCode’s form of variable binding. I can't figure out who this manual is written for. TileCode and the example games appear to…

This text is from the page that documents the full programming experience, and was written for programmers. I've moved it out of the overview section.

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#33
post #11

With Christmas coming up soonish, and many of us going to be locked in at home (even more than ever before), there's a device I can recommend that is fun to build and reasonably fun to build on. It's basically a GameBoy (and runs emulators for it and other devices) for a laughably low price: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ (first link I found, there may be better ones — I bought it in Europe, where a few o…

I really got into these retro handhelds recently and I love them, but I would like to suggest some more options as Odroid has stock issues a lot of the time (do go for them if they're in stock, though, the shipping times are much better than other retro handhelds.) For cheap, I'd suggest the Pocket Go, [1] but for my favourite I love the RG350P, [2] which is a little more expensive but has a community with a lot of h…

I've been somewhat thinking of getting one of these handheld Game Boy-esque systems, so it's nice to see some options and opinions, thank you. Does the RG350P provide any other software besides emulation (Pico-8 support for example), or is that about it?

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#34

It strongly looks like PuzzleScript [1]. In fact, I would be surprised that this wasn't inspired by PuzzleScript; the paper [2] seems to have no mention of PuzzleScript though. [1] https://www.puzzlescript.net/ [2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/0...

Not clear about the mechanics on reading the site, but it reminded me of AgentSheets by Alexander Repenning (https://agentsheets.com/). It was 2d before "graduating" to "agent cubes".

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#35

> If a tile predicate has a non-empty Include set that > contains only sprite kinds then the associated tile must > contain a sprite if that predicate evaluates to true on a > state. We call such a sprite a sprite witness, as it > witnesses the truth of the predicate. Sprite witnesses are > TileCode’s form of variable binding. I can't figure out who this manual is written for. TileCode and the example games appear to…

This text is from the page that documents the full programming experience, and was written for programmers. I've moved it out of the overview section.

Thanks for writing it. It's always good to read thorough implementation details and have them readily accessible even in a causal programming environment. I especially appreciated the conflict resolution section

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#36
post #33
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really got into these retro handhelds recently and I love them, but I would like to suggest some more options as Odroid has stock issues a lot of the time (do go for them if they're in stock, though, the shipping times are much better than other retro handhelds.) For cheap, I'd suggest the Pocket Go, [1] but for my favourite I love the RG350P, [2] which is a little more expensive but has a community with a lot of h…

I've been somewhat thinking of getting one of these handheld Game Boy-esque systems, so it's nice to see some options and opinions, thank you. Does the RG350P provide any other software besides emulation (Pico-8 support for example), or is that about it?

There are basically three broad sets of handhelds: OpenDingux devices, ARM Linux devices, and Android ones. The RG350P is an OpenDingux device.

There's a lot of OpenDingux devices- they have MIPS CPUs, so they don't run the same variety of software as the ARM-based ones. There's still a bunch of homebrew for OpenDingux, but it's not exactly organized, compared to Android and Linux devices. It involves hunting down poorly-documented executables, etc. Here's one list of software available:

https://github.com/retrogamehandheld/OpenDingux

There are two Pico-8 emulators that run on those things, tac08 and retro8. They both work on many games, but it's a bit hit-and-miss.

https://0xcafed00d.itch.io/tac08-rg350 / https://github.com/Jakz/retro8

However, it is apparently possible to get the official Raspberry Pi version of pico-8 running on the Odroid Go Advance, which is an ARM CPU running Linux, just like the RPi.

https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=37256&start=8...

Additionally to that, I dug up a version of TIC-80 ( https://tic80.com/ ), an open-source PICO-like environment, compiled for the OpenDingux which will run on the RG350:

https://github.com/retrogamehandheld/OpenDingux/raw/master/E...

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#37
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really got into these retro handhelds recently and I love them, but I would like to suggest some more options as Odroid has stock issues a lot of the time (do go for them if they're in stock, though, the shipping times are much better than other retro handhelds.) For cheap, I'd suggest the Pocket Go, [1] but for my favourite I love the RG350P, [2] which is a little more expensive but has a community with a lot of h…

Do you assemble these yourself? I don't really care that much about the console, more about the fun and reward of building it yourself. I see it more as a fun project.

You do assemble the Odroid Go & Go Advance, but it's a matter of dropping the buttons into place, plugging the screen & battery into the single PCB, dropping that into the shell, and screwing it together. It's not very involved, but enjoyable.

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#38

> If a tile predicate has a non-empty Include set that > contains only sprite kinds then the associated tile must > contain a sprite if that predicate evaluates to true on a > state. We call such a sprite a sprite witness, as it > witnesses the truth of the predicate. Sprite witnesses are > TileCode’s form of variable binding. I can't figure out who this manual is written for. TileCode and the example games appear to…

This is a side effect of it being a research project. It's interesting to me because I've worked in this space (I designed and built the visual scripting system for Facebook Horizon) but otherwise I agree. Kids and non-programmers won't understand this

It's trying very hard to sound smart. But "...something with a non-empty include set that contains only x..." is the same as "...something that includes x and nothing else..."

There's this quote from a famous (in strictly relative terms) judge on the German Supreme Court: A good lawyer or judge will, according to him, "think like a philosopher and talk like a peasant!".

Of the three other possibilities, two are still fine. But trying too hard is a mortal sin.

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#39
I really don't get the game. How do you play it? I put a good 5mins and couldn't figure out anything.

As a child, I remember getting hooked to Super Mario in < 5min after I saw my friends play it. I'm telling ya, these pretentious "researchers" really don't know how us "normies" think.

Re: Microsoft Tilecode

#40
I had great experiences using a 'game maker' on my childhood (RPG Maker 3 on PS2). However, I couldn't share what I made, so I started seeing the hours of work I'd need to make something substantial as a waste.

I think having an easy way to share your game should be a priority. Clearly the web can be used to emulate and share almost anything now, so some kind of exporting system and web player would be ideal.

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