Midp 2.0 game

IrishMike

Lookin 4 some tutorials on midp2.0
more specifically how 2 make a game

lookin 4 info such as how 2 inplement a timer, high score etc
any help is appreciated

the game is gonna b a 2d scroller
thanks

ps allready have the ones on the sun site and on javadeveloper

Farls

Hey, is this for a college project?

I made a game for my final year project this year, i'm not quite finished it yet but have the most of it done. Its just a basic car racing around a track to record the quickest time type game.

I've made my own very basic timer and am in the middle of implementing a high score function in it.

i have to have it finished next week so i'll post it up here then if anyone wants to test it.

Jason Lams site --> very very good website, full of source code and explanations.

microjava --> another great guide of how to program a game

There is more than enough on both those sites to get you going.

I posted here months ago about mobile games and a few people seemed to be making them, wonder how everyone got on/is getting on?

Farlz

soma

I'm writing mipd 2.0 applications (sony p900) but they're not games.

A great introduction to midp2.0 (and which contains a highly regarded section on java games) is "Wireless Java: Devleloping with J2ME" by Jonathan Knudsen. Get it from amazon.co.uk

Hobbes

Originally posted by soma
A great introduction to midp2.0 (and which contains a highly regarded section on java games) is "Wireless Java: Devleloping with J2ME" by Jonathan Knudsen. Get it from amazon.co.uk

I agree. It's an excellent book.

Also if you plan to design/write games I would strongly recommend "Ultimate Game Design: Building Game Worlds" by Tom Meigs. You can also pick up at Amazon.

Deals with designing/creating different kinds of genre of games as well what formats and information on the industry.

IrishMike

Originally posted by Farls
Hey, is this for a college project?

I made a game for my final year project this year, i'm not quite finished it yet but have the most of it done. Its just a basic car racing around a track to record the quickest time type game.

I've made my own very basic timer and am in the middle of implementing a high score function in it.

i have to have it finished next week so i'll post it up here then if anyone wants to test it.

Jason Lams site --> very very good website, full of source code and explanations.

microjava --> another great guide of how to program a game

There is more than enough on both those sites to get you going.

I posted here months ago about mobile games and a few people seemed to be making them, wonder how everyone got on/is getting on?

Farlz

hey farls how many hours roughly have u put into ur game so far ?
just want 2 get a rough estimation
thanks

Farls

very good question. I honestly would have no idea, we had to do the whole UML design stuff from september to december, then being lazy i only really started coding in February and have it almost finished now. I'm not the kind of person who does a little bit of work on projects each evening though, or even each week.

I generally spend a whole day at something and get a few weeks work done at a time.

So to answer your question i have no idea! I know that i had next to nothing done last week and after 2 days had the game nearly finished though.

It depends on your ability as a programmer i guess, when i started this project i was only beginning to learn Java and C++ so OO programming was all new to me.

On a side note i tried putting the game onto a phone earlier today and hit problems cuz the phone wasn't midp 2.0 compliant so i have to figure a way around this now.

sorry for rambling, i'm thinking off 100 different things at the moment. Any other questions though and i'll try to answer better!

Farlz

Hobbes

Originally posted by Farls
On a side note i tried putting the game onto a phone earlier today and hit problems cuz the phone wasn't midp 2.0 compliant so i have to figure a way around this now.

Only the new phones are midp2.0. Might have some in work which could run it.

Found a way to upload to them I'll post as another thread.

Farls

Hobbes, good idea on the FAQ for mobile devices. It would of been a great resource for me a few months back...hehe

I spent last night trying to figure out how to get a phone to run my game, i understand now that it has to be midp 2.0 compliant and theres very few of those phones around at the moment. Probably the best chance of finding one would be the nokia 6600 or 7600 but these would be very rare.

As for actually getting the game onto the phone i put it onto my 7250i last night using infra red and the nokia suite on the laptop. It transferred across no problem but when you try to open it an error saying the phone doesn't support it comes up.

I was looking up the 6600 last night and the cheapest i can find one is for 420e. I want a new phone myself but it would be a bit ridiculous buying one especially for a 20 minute presentation.

So my question is if i was to bring a 7250i into a nokia centre can they update to midp 2.0?

//I should probably be asking this on another forum but it fits in here with the thread

Cheers

Farlz

Farls

Having a bit of trouble here trying to get the game onto the phone. I have a kind of a beta done of the game, with just the basics working all compiled using the wireless toolkit 2.0

I have Sagem my v-65 phone here which is midp 2.0 compliant.

I loaded the jar file onto my boards space

http://members.boards.ie/farls/MenuScreen.jar
http://members.boards.ie/farls/MenuScreen.jad

the jad is there also, but i loaded the jad file onto mobilesheaven with it directing towards the boards jar file.

Now this all works fine, i download the jad file onto the phone and it points towards the boards jar file then and downloads it. The problem is though that when i begin downloading the game the screen just shows up "PK" in small writing up the top left corner and the option to click ok. I click ok and thats it....nothing else happens.

I opened the jar file in a text editor to look at it and the first thing i see in it is "PK".

I'm wondering if whats happening means that the file isn't actually fully downloading maybe?

If anyone with a midp2.0 phone wants to give them a go be my guest.

Any suggestions as always appreciated

Farlz

Hobbes

boards.ie probably doesn't have the mime type set up correctly.

I had the same problem trying to download with the JAD on boards.ie

PK = The start of the Jar file (its basically a PKZip format). Most likely it downloaded to your phone as text.

Farls

Ok, so what i should do now is put both the jad and jar files on mobilesheaven and download both from there?

I'll give it a try sure

Cheers Hobbes tho, i noticed that PK was at the start of the file but wasn't sure what was going on

Farlz

Farls

Just tried that there but i'm getting a 404 connection not found, probably because you have to log into the site to download the files.

So any other site i could put my jar file on to get this working?

Farlz

Hobbes

Did you update your JAD to point to mobiles heaven?

Farls

yip

MIDlet-Jar-URL: http://www.mobilesheaven.com//usersfiles//MenuScreen.jar

is what its currently pointing too, where both files are sitting, i have the jad file on the phone and thats what it looks like in the info of the jad file as well

Farlz

[edit] i think the problem is either that link is wrong, or its because you have to log onto the website even through wap to see your own files [/edit]

Hobbes

looking at it now and it should of worked with your Jad pointing to boards.ie (I'll test when I get home).

When you upload the JAR/JAD it should give you an ID number and your password. You log into

http://wap.mobilesheaven.com/

Some of the later phones will allow you to download the jar directly.

Edit* Checked. Boards.ie is the problem in relation to the jar not downloading.

Not sure where you could host it.

Farls

hmmm...well at least i know where the problem lies now. cheers hobbes, your saving me a lot of time here of which i'm already lacking!

I tried putting the jar directly onto the phone but no luck. Java Class not found error coming up.

There is the option of infra red with this phone but i dont have a suite like the nokia one to use with it...also a data cable but theres none in the shops up here.

Hobbes i'm presuming you have some way of transferring jad/jar files to your phone?

If so ya wouldn't be able to test my game and tell me if it works at all?

Cheers

Farlz

The Corinthian

The issue with downloading JAR files onto your mobile is related to the HTTP Content-Type of the file ("application/java-archive"). Not all hosts support this as an installed MIME type - if not you can still output it as a binary stream using most scripting languages (pref. not ASP - ASP sucks serious donkey c0ck where it comes to outputting binary content).

OfflerCrocGod

Do you not have some sort of college hosting?; in my college we can put up our own little pages using the Linux accounts create a dir called public_html and stick in whatever you want into it - is that possible in your Uni?.

<edit>Of course that may not be a solution as you may still fall prey to the incorrect MIME^^ settings trap</edit>

OfflerCrocGod

I just grabbed your jar and placed it on my webspace FireFox identifies it as a zip file and the default program it tries to use to open it is the unzip util - so it seems to identify the file correctly. Here is the URL http://csserver.ucd.ie/~s01bf007/MenuScreen.jar see if after changing the jad file you can grab this.

Farls

Originally posted by The Corinthian
The issue with downloading JAR files onto your mobile is related to the HTTP Content-Type of the file ("application/java-archive"). Not all hosts support this as an installed MIME type - if not you can still output it as a binary stream using most scripting languages (pref. not ASP - ASP sucks serious donkey c0ck where it comes to outputting binary content).

Thats going slightly over my head there, what your saying is if i had my own website, i could use some php code (like in the FAQ) to get the jar file? how do i know what the MIME type is setup like on websites though?

Farlz

[edit] i'll that now just 5 mins please [/edit]

Farls

Just tried that there Croc, no luck tho same PK coming up in the top left corner.

Cheers for putting it up though, quite a strange problem this, i'm understanding whats wrong but i can't quite get my head around how to fix it.

Farlz

OfflerCrocGod

OK I thought that since Firefox was getting it from my website and recognizing as a zip(basically what jar is - with other stuff) that Apache had the MIME settings right......worth a try I guess sorry 'bout that:(. Do any of the more knowledgeable programmers know if there is anyway for me on my side ,without the right to fiddle with Apache(not root), to force a MIME setting - and what would that MIME be for it to work as it should?; what should the server be calling it?.

Hobbes

Corinthian posted how to do it in PHP (I added that to the FAQ).

Farls

I was looking at that hobbes, but i don't have access to a website to actually use that code, or even fully understand PHP.

I'm sure i could get a lecturer here next week to sort something out for me, but with the project having to be handed up next week i was hoping to get this going before then.

Cheers tho

Farlz

OfflerCrocGod

The only prob with that PHP is i cant see where the jar file name goes?; Hobbes I dont actually know any PHP so I'm supposing I replace all $JarFile with the jar name and call this x.wml and then anyone with a wap phone can log in and grab that jar file, right?.

http://csserver.ucd.ie/~s01bf007/test.html just html

http://csserver.ucd.ie/~s01bf007/test.wml wml page

http://csserver.ucd.ie/~s01bf007/test1.html where I am changing some stuff (Guess work I dont think it works). What do I change in the code to get it to work?

Mazikeen

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
Do any of the more knowledgeable programmers know if there is anyway for me on my side ,without the right to fiddle with Apache(not root), to force a MIME setting

We support both PHP (for tha script that was mentioned) and the MIME type for jar files. We're not free though...

Farls

Originally posted by Mazikeen
We support both PHP (for tha script that was mentioned) and the MIME type for jar files. We're not free though...

you hardly have about 24kb of webspace of your own for personal use that you might put up a wee program for me on tho?

//starts thinking of compliments

Farlz

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by Mazikeen
We support both PHP (for tha script that was mentioned) and the MIME type for jar files. We're not free though...

What are you from UCD?, we are allowed use our Linux machines accounts for web projects you know quite a few ppl have SQL databases web sites up and running for various projects I dont think 24k is a prob:rolleyes:. I'm just looking for the appropriate changes to the PHP subminted by The Cor so that I can get it working. I know zero PHP.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
I'm just looking for the appropriate changes to the PHP subminted by The Cor so that I can get it working. I know zero PHP.

I don't think the script is what needs changing.

Mazikeen

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
What are you from UCD?, we are allowed use our Linux machines accounts for web projects you know quite a few ppl have SQL databases web sites up and running for various projects I dont think 24k is a prob:rolleyes:. I'm just looking for the appropriate changes to the PHP subminted by The Cor so that I can get it working. I know zero PHP.

Nope, not from UCD and nothing to do with them. All I'm saying is either with the script that was supplied or even just downloading them directly, we support the hosting of Jar files. Sorry if it was out of place to mention.

Hobbes

Not out of place although you should of mentioned in context (I clicked your profile).

A bit too expensive for hosting something that is only 8-10KB on average. More for the website hosting.

*Edit. Also the mods don't like people pimping sites with no content to the actual thread. Now if you were to host his file to see if it is his file or the server that would help.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by The Corinthian
I don't think the script is what needs changing.

You have file variables in there, right?, all the $file(something like that) stuff look like variables I afto change to the actual files name (MenuScreen.jar). Or does the code find the .jar file in it's directory automatically; is it right to call it .html does it afto be .wml?.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
You have file variables in there, right?, all the $file(something like that) stuff look like variables I afto change to the actual files name (MenuScreen.jar). Or does the code find the .jar file in it's directory automatically; is it right to call it .html does it afto be .wml?.

Cut and past it into a text file with a PHP extension (say 'index.php'), drop it into a directory on the folder and whatever jar files you want in with it. It reads the fso in the directory and generates a menu of links to the Jar files automatically.

I'm surprised you couldn't work this out yourself as the principles of programming (Web or otherwise) are much the same in any language. It's not rocket science (unless you're a client, in which case it is and worth every penny :rolleyes: ).

Overall, it's a very basic script, but it works. Certainly it can be improved upon, but I wasn't going to spend that much time on it. If you want any further support for it, I suggest you teach yourself PHP, it's easy enough to do and a day's playing around will be all you'll need.

TBH, put a bit of effort into things, or you'll be waiting tables when you finish that BSc of yours.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Cut and past it into a text file with a PHP extension (say 'index.php'), drop it into a directory on the folder and whatever jar files you want in with it. It reads the fso in the directory and generates a menu of links to the Jar files automatically.

I have tried that and it does nothing other then it tries to download the index.php page when i connect using a regular browser

http://csserver.ucd.ie/~s01bf007/php/index.php

Originally posted by The Corinthian
I'm surprised you couldn't work this out yourself as the principles of programming (Web or otherwise) are much the same in any language. It's not rocket science (unless you're a client, in which case it is and worth every penny :rolleyes: ).

I thought PHP was a mark-up language looking at it now it looks more powerful then that.

Originally posted by The Corinthian
TBH, put a bit of effort into things, or you'll be waiting tables when you finish that BSc of yours.

It must be brilliant being born knowing everything the rest of the human race can only look on in amazement as you blind us all with your omniscience. No right now I'm a little busy with projects so I dont have the time to learn PHP - I was just trying to be helpful; sorry about that.

Hobbes

I tried that link. It just times out on the phone. Its dreadfully slow (when I tried in a browser)

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by Hobbes
I tried that link. It just times out on the phone. Its dreadfully slow (when I tried in a browser)

Since I'm on a local network it's very fast and I can get a download of 30+MB of index.php - I cannot figure out why its so large ; thats why I was wondering wheter it was something with the code - I didn't really look at it and I wont have some time until later on today - so if anyone has a clue I'm quite happy to try anything out. The jar is in there with the .php file on its own.

Farls

This is amazing the amount of effort you guys are putting into this, i find it all quite interesting though as i guess ye do as well.

I tried that link there croc and i downloaded 128mb and then just stopped i'm on college connection so dloadin at 1.5mb/s

Farlz

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by Farls
This is amazing the amount of effort you guys are putting into this, i find it all quite interesting though as i guess ye do as well.

I tried that link there croc and i downloaded 128mb and then just stopped i'm on college connection so dloadin at 1.5mb/s

Farlz

!!!!!!:eek: what the hell is going on its 24 kb according to du, weird. I'm putting in this effort for the sake of the knowledge I - unlike The Cor - need to learn things, since the best way to learn is to do......I'm trying to get this to work . So far though I'm just confused:D. I wont be able to do anything now the w/e is here SSH is blocked from outside UCD so.....sorry:dunno:.

Farls

Ah don't worry about it sir, the effort you've put into this already is amazing i think. And this thread has thought me more in the past 2 days than i'd learn in a months lectures.

I'm going to work on the game some more tonight, i programmed it in a kind of procedural way but i have to make it OO now so that will take some time and i have a few UNIX scripts to throw together for an assignment tomorrow then i'll get some of the lecturers here on the case and see what they can do with it on monday.

making a MIDlet OO is a lot harder than i thought it would be.

I'm sure you have enough work of your own to be doing this time of the year. i'm just going to try that link again now and leave it downloading to see what excactly it picks up.

thanx again

Farlz

Farls

Downloaded that full link there croc and ran it using IE6 to see what it threw up, its around the 160mb mark i think in size, anyway this is what it shows up

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
  <!DOCTYPE wml (View Source for full doctype...)> 
- <wml>
- <head>
  <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" /> 
  </head>
- <card id="init" title="J2ME Downloads" newcontext="false" ordered="true">
- <do type="options" name="Prev" label="Back" optional="false">
  <prev /> 
  </do>
  <br /> 
  <b>Warning</b> 
  : readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in 
  <b>/home/cs2003/s01bf007/public_html/php/index.php</b> 
  on line 
  <b>32</b> 
  <br /> 
  <br /> 
  <b>Warning</b> 
  : stat failed for (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in 
  <b>/home/cs2003/s01bf007/public_html/php/index.php</b> 
  on line 
  <b>36</b> 
  <br /> 
- <p align="left">
  <a href="?id=">(0 KB)</a> 
  </p>
  <br /> 
  <b>Warning</b> 
  : readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in 
  <b>/home/cs2003/s01bf007/public_html/php/index.php</b> 
  on line 
  <b>32</b> 
  <br /> 
  <br /> 
  <b>Warning</b> 
  : stat failed for (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in 
  <b>/home/cs2003/s01bf007/public_html/php/index.php</b> 
  on line 
  <b>36</b> 
  <br /> 
- <p align="left">
  <a href="?id=">(0 KB)</a> 
  </p>
  <br /> 
  <b>Warning</b> 
  : readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in 
  <b>/home/cs2003/s01bf007/public_html/php/index.php</b> 
  on line 
  <b>32</b> 

etc......

Those warnings over and over again

Farlz

The Corinthian

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
I have tried that and it does nothing other then it tries to download the index.php page when i connect using a regular browser

Had you considered that given it’s outputting WML (even a cursory glance would reveal that) it would be written for a WAP rather than HTML browser?

It must be brilliant being born knowing everything the rest of the human race can only look on in amazement as you blind us all with your omniscience.

I wasn’t born knowing everything. I just learned without expecting to be spoon fed. You should try that.

No right now I'm a little busy with projects so I dont have the time to learn PHP - I was just trying to be helpful; sorry about that.

Diddums. I got the impression you were looking for help not giving it. As for free time; don’t assume you’re the only person who’s busy on the planet.

Since I'm on a local network it's very fast and I can get a download of 30+MB of index.php - I cannot figure out why its so large ; thats why I was wondering wheter it was something with the code - I didn't really look at it and I wont have some time until later on today - so if anyone has a clue I'm quite happy to try anything out.

It’s looping through the content’s of the directory. If you don’t have read permissions to that directory, that loop becomes infinite. And error messages add up...

OfflerCrocGod

Those warnings are about the argument being wrong and the argument should be the jar file MenuScreen.jar. The PHP should be able to find that jar file as it excludes . and .. and the only other file in the dir php is MenuScreen.jar so there may be something wrong with the directory access/reading in PHP of my files...., right now I'm trying to finish some other guys messed up Java project when I'm finished that I'll see if I can understand what is going on.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Had you considered that given it’s outputting WML (even a cursory glance would reveal that) it would be written for a WAP rather than HTML browser?

Why do you think I said "regular" browser?, I was hoping that firefox would see it was dealing with wml and handle it - I dont have an internet enabled phone so I just tried the quickest easiest test.

I wasn’t born knowing everything. I just learned without expecting to be spoon fed. You should try that.

Diddums. I got the impression you were looking for help not giving it. As for free time; don’t assume you’re the only person who’s busy on the planet.

Fair enough but I wasn't going to spend time trying to learn PHP - I was trying to help Farls not you.

It’s looping through the content’s of the directory. If you don’t have read permissions to that directory, that loop becomes infinite. And error messages add up...

I kept on meaning to change my umask....but I just haven't bothered yet ; that sounds like a very likely reason as to why its giving these errors....unfortunately I wont be able to chmod till Monday cause UCD got hacked a couple of years ago and they wont allow SSH connections from outside.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
Why do you think I said "regular" browser?, I was hoping that firefox would see it was dealing with wml and handle it - I dont have an internet enabled phone so I just tried the quickest easiest test.

Regular browsers are generally not equipped to deal with WML content or content-types. When faced with an object with an unknown (to itself) content-type, a Web browser will prompt a file download.

Even then, had it not occurred to you to download it and then open it with a text editor? Failing that you hardly need an Internet enabled phone to see WAP content - all you need is Google and a little initiative.

Hobbes

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Regular browsers are generally not equipped to deal with WML content or content-types. When faced with an object with an unknown (to itself) content-type, a Web browser will prompt a file download.

Even then, had it not occurred to you to download it and then open it with a text editor? Failing that you hardly need an Internet enabled phone to see WAP content - all you need is Google and a little initiative.

Actually if you have the Sun J2ME toolkit you can point the emulator at the address.

Anyway I checked the address and the WML isn't being rendered at all. It seems to be another issue.

* Edit.. and less of the "I am better then you" comments.

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Even then, had it not occurred to you to download it and then open it with a text editor? Failing that you hardly need an Internet enabled phone to see WAP content - all you need is Google and a little initiative.

160mb of errors? - and when I begin the download it doesn't tell you how big the download will be either - the browser doesn't know, it just shows ??? - How was I supposed to know how long the download could go on for!. As Hobbes says using a wap browser gets nothing at all so I just quit that. I'll see if it is a permission problem tommorow :dunno:, hopefully that's it.