Here is my most recent update from my ongoing space game project.
I had to update some of my graphics tools in order to produce better images.
Also with my new knowledge of MFC I'm fairly sure a 3D editor for the game to create levels and missions is not too far off in the distant future.
Nice work Bubba, be sure to keep us updated.
Now have you implemented a scripting engine for the actual game?
i don't think most standard compilers support programmers with more than 4 red boxes - Misplaced
It is my sacred duity to stand in the path of the flood of ignorance and blatant stupidity... - quzah
Such pointless tricks ceased to be interesting or useful when we came down from the trees and started using higher level languages. - Salem
Nope
Still working on the graphics engine. It will be some time in the future before its a game. Graphics engine is the vital part and since I have a dev team of 1 it takes awhile.
Also my asteroids clone is really close to being done - had to re-write some classes to support sprites. ID3DXSprite did not give me enough control over the sprites.
Last edited by VirtualAce; 02-22-2005 at 12:39 AM.
That sun looks awesome!
Looks pretty similar to the other screenies you posted, but still looks nice. I got the same effect working a while ago but haven't played with it at all.
Yeah the background has not been changed at all, but it wouldn't do the new graphic justice if I just posted the bitmap for it. My new Paint Shop Pro program generates these flares and glares for me much better than previous versions.
I really need some models to stick in my world. Ideally I want everything loaded from disk, including the planets and simple primitives. Generating them on the fly when a level is loaded is not efficient.
I'm also going to dump the orbiting planet idea. This will allow me to use lightmapping on the planets instead of real time lighting. After all the same effect can be done with lightmapping so there really is no need to do DOT3 lighting just so I can make the planets orbit. The earth orbits the sun once ~365.25 days. So you would have to play my game for at least 20 days (in game time, not real time) for you to even notice the planet moving. Simply a waste in my opinion. In fact my entire plan is to totally disable the default Direct3D lighting and transformation and move totally to pixel shaders. I'm not sure this is possible given that most cards out there do not support PS 2.0+. 1.4 has a lot of power, but no branching and I might run into some issues with that and more.
Last edited by VirtualAce; 02-23-2005 at 12:24 AM.
Uhh, instead of implementing DOT3 lighting in a shader why not use direct3d's built in vertex lighting functionality? The reason I say this is that lightmapping is typically slower than the built in lighting functionality, at least with OpenGL. It sort of makes sense when you think about it because while lightmapping involves very few calculations, it does involve binding another texture, and doing a texture lookup. If you don't believe me, fire up quake3, and try it with lightmapping and vertex lighting. At least for me, vertex lighting configuration always runs significantly faster. And I doubt it's just my implementation of OpenGL.
/me notices that plantes are spherical...
Bubba, if you want orbiting planets and you want to use lightmapping, you can (slowly) rotate your light maps texture coordiantes to cause the shadowed side of the texture to move around the planet as it orbits. Just an idea.
There is a problem with that method. Since I'm texturing the sphere's based on vertex u,v coords and the models are not infintely resolute when it comes to the number of faces on the sphere you will notice the texture popping over polygon boundaries if you attempt to just rotate it using u,v coords. This works very good for flat planes or nearly flat, but it does not look good when used on low poly spheres.
ahh, yes. thats true. I guess a hack fix would be to rotate the entire planet so the shadow faces away from that light source but thats kinda
btw: what kind of models are you looking for? have you tried blender? Its an open source 3d modeling program and is very good. It definately takes some getting used to as its controls are not like some other modelers but it is capable of professional quality models/animations.
wauw it looks gr8will you post the first playable game to let us know how it got ?
PLay MystWind beta , within two years
MystWind. I don't think that will be for a while. Why don't you go back a few pages on this board to see some of his other screenshots?
Actually I'm in dire need of some 3D modellers to create my spaceships. I have all of the design documents done for the ships and how they will react, but I do not have a lot of concept art for them because...I suck at drawing.
Sound effects are no problem since I've purchased Sony's Sound Forge 7.0, but music is a big problem right now. All I need are sparse tracks of ambient background music for 5 important game states:
1. Relaxed - exploration game state
2. Relaxed2 - exploration game state - more ambience, livelier than 1
3. Discovery game state - player has found something of interest - upbeat, gives the feeling of something non-normal has happened in the game
4. Alerted game state - enemy is approaching or has been alerted
5. Frantic game state - player is amidst a major battle with enemy ship(s)
And then of course I need transitions to and from each game state.
Last edited by VirtualAce; 02-26-2005 at 02:26 AM.
I would be more than happy to write some music for you
I'll try one of the ambient ones. I don't know how long it will take me, but I'll keep you updated. There is also a strong possibility that I will give up altogether because I can be a bit of a perfectionist. If that does happen I'll pm you.
[edit]
What I will do is send you some small samples so you can tell me if you like it
Last edited by sand_man; 02-26-2005 at 03:43 AM.
Sounds good
Ambient shouldn't be too long...just about 2 or 3 minutes and my random music player will play it at different times in the game
Having music all the time is annoying in space games.
