Pips!
I am almost ready to submit an update. Like, it’s so close, I can taste it. Part of the holdup was that I decided I needed to implements pips (the little dots on a 6-sided die) again. See, implementing colored dice with corresponding colored text labels wasn’t too bad. But in order to do pips just right, I had to tint the pips but not the shadow or highlight areas. There isn’t really an easy way to tint using the image calls that are available, so I had to write a bit of code to do it myself.
Anyways, the end result is that you’ll now have the option of displaying 6-sided dice with pips or numbers. There’s a setting for that. Oh, right, I’ve implemented settings over the weekend, too. More on that later.
Hopefully, the update will be submitted in a couple more days (I have a few bugs I need to work out). Then, it’s up to Apple to decide how long it takes to get on the store. But it seems to be between a few days and a couple weeks.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
awesome stuff; gonna buy this app again when you get that update out there
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I didn’t even know I wanted pips, now I can’t wait for them. Damn you and your awesome updates……LOL
You got another nice write up on Macrumors.com by the way.
Thanks for answering the time question. I figured there was no way to tell with apple. But nice to have a ball park.
Keep up the great work.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Lovely little app. Not the most “must have” app in the world, maybe, but simply and elegantly done. Just one of those perfect little apps that we should all have!
Well done, and I can’t wait to see what will be coming next!
Congratulations!
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:55 am
Is there any chance you could add a setting so that the dice move about more in line with how they would do if the iPhone were a box? I.e. they only stay flat if you have the iPhone flat and if you tilt it one way or another then the dice slip towards those sides. Adding in some feeling of a vertical depth with the accelerometer. I’d imagine that it would be like having dice in a box about the size of an iPhone box (the ones they come new in). So in a way, it would be kind of like a little particle simulator. You could use a little bit of friction to keep the 3d-like affect of slightly tilting at the moment.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
This app is more and more awesome every day…
The only point missing to me is better graphics/textures like those in MotionX Dice. But I know it will have to wait until Photoshop arrive ^^.
Good work!
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I love this app so far and am eagerly awaiting the improvements!
One thing being a wargamer I would love to see is a stats rundown.
So if I roll say, 36 d 6 for a mob of rampaging Warhammer 40K Orks, or a really strong monster in Tunnels & Trolls it would not just tell me the grand totals of what I rolled, but how many of each result came up.
Like 8 1s, 5 2s, ect.
It seems like it would be a simple thing to put on the bottom display, and something that would be so useful to a gamer like me. Normally for those BUCKETS OF DICE games you have to roll a pile of dice, pick out the losing or winning dice, and tell your opponent what happened. With this proggie and the above, it would speed up gameplay immensely.
“Ok.. I had to roll 20d6. I need 5s and 6s to hit. It says I have 4 5s and 3 6s, so 7 hits!”
In the long run it would be cool to not only see results, but options to only keep certain scores. Like above it would only keep the 5+ dice, which could then be rolled again ala in Warhammer you roll to hit, then you roll to wound.
“Ok, 7 hits. To wound I need 4s up, rolling again *shake, shake, shake your iPod*”
It would make a great application even better. I would never need actual dice again!
September 24th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Thanks for all the comments! I’ve been thinking about adding some more options to make more use of the accelerometer, but for now I’m focused on trying to get the core dice functionality in. Maybe in a future update.
I definitely have been thinking about some way to group values instead of just totaling them. That seems like one of the main advantages of rolling dice on something like an iPhone over physical dice. Although, no virtual dice program can ever quite match the coolness of rolling buckets of dice all at once over a big gameboard.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hello Mach,
Just bought Mach Dice. It is hands down the best dice application available on App Store. I also wrote the first review of it on the Danish portal of App Store, but I wrote it in English so that not only Danish people will be able to read it. Keep up the good work, I really look forward to any updates along the way. 🙂