Thread: Summer Project Preview

Heh, I'm a little mad now, because I came to the forum expecting to post a thread, but to my surprise there was already one witht he same title I planned to use "summer work".

allwell.

Any way, practically the same idea as EVBlade. I'm working on several projects full steam to add to my portfolio so I can get a programming job. Thought I'd post a picture of the first project I'm working on, inspired by Magos remake of SkyRoads. I'm doing a remake myself now, but more cross mixed with JetMotto. That is to say (with out offense intendid) more complex graphics and earth themed maps.

I'm working on the tech stuff right now, model loading and fps saving. heres a screen shot of a floral tree model. The model itself is 555 triangles and uses alpha blending on the foilage. One model doesnt affect the fps ,its upwards of 1000 (what it runs idle), and increasing the number of viewed models to 9, only decrements the fps by half. Not bad for all the alpha blending etc.


As far as my remake of sky roads I plan to impliment:
Terrain maps - 1/3 done
physics engine (forces local to maps) - not started
liquid mesh patches (with real water like flow!) - not started
md3 model loading/textures - done
music - not started yet :P
xml powered menu - not started
xml powered ingame gui - not started
map editor - not started

As far as the xml goes, I'm working on using xml tags to define menu components--then writing a file parser that can load and use the menus. This will actually allow for the game to modable as far as gui and menu are concerned. So some one could make a bunch of jungle styled maps, create a menu system and ui interface jungle themed and release those files as plug ins.


I'll keep updates posted in this thread. so stay tuned.

md3 model converted to ms3d. has two textures. my model drawing routine is "smart" draws mesh by groups and turns on or off alpha blending if the model requires alpha blending in certain areas.

How does it do this?
Checks the group material texture file name for _alpha in it.
Ok, its pretty simple, but it allows for me to draw the trunk of the tree with out alpha blending, and draw the leaves with, all in one call and with out having to manually manage it.

I love it when people take 1/10th of their post to say 'looks good' to the poster of the thread, and then spends the rest of the time talking about their own projects trying to show what they know.

I love it where people could think one person is an ass, or a person who responds to his post is an ass, or the person who thinks that both of them are semi-asses at times.

im just kind of sick of the fact that every single one of bubba's posts turns into him talking about how much he's accomplished, and him doing it in someone else's thread just kind of ........ed me off.

And besides, I'm only an ass for no reason in GD Here I'm either nice and encouraging, or I layeth the smacketh when people deserve it (as bubba did recently to davidp anyway, so it's not like he's a total victim).

EDIT:
and it's not like I really give a crap either way, I don't get a whole lot out of posting here on this site.



EDIT1:
I've got a real question for ya goten.

physics engine (forces local to maps) - not started

What does it mean 'forces local to maps' ? I've never heard that terminology before.

Its not terminology, its an overly simplified comment. Rather then having some constant gravity variable, i'm allowing for for such forces to be defined in the map itself. You can section off sqaures over parts of the map, or all of it, and add custom forces. So you can have a nice gravity vector defined for the whole map, and in several areas of the map define wind vectors, or other resistant kinds of vectors. You might put a conveyor belt in the map, and want it to affect the player in more then looks, this is where a custom force variable would be applicable. Though, none of the maps I plan to do include conveyor belts, the option is there.

I've decided not to use terrain. I'm going to stick with mago's block map idea. Except Im adding shaders, and transparency effects. sshots later.

here is a shot of the shader system in use.
Unfortunatly the shaders are a slight hit on performance. Im setting up systems however to minimize the hit and so long as the entire level isn't shader blocks I think fps are fine. The blocks should be used in reservation, maybe 10-20 viewable at any time.

The way i'm doing the blocks, is i have a block.ms3d. It is a cube with all six faces mapped to one material, how ever should one have the want or need all you have to do is open up the .ms3d file and you can have up to 6 materials, one for each face. At that point though, youd want to redo the text mapping window and use a 128x128 texture. Im current using 740x128.

Anyway, the second image is what the texture kinda looks like. I overlapped the texture_template.tga onto the texture used in the first screen shot so you could get an idea of what that texture set up looks like. As you can see, ive done a texture for all sides, and added a few black areas (doesnt matter color) that are masks of where the shader will be displayed.

Currently the functionality of the shader is thus:
ms3dmodel has a pointer to m_pShaders[x]. You can have as many shaders as there are materials on the model.
each shader has its own sv/su, dv/du texture coordinate modifiers along with a possible pointer to shader function. So you can ahve a standard shader that moves the texture in an x, y, or xy direction or you use one of the defined shader functions for sine, cosine or other interesting motions.


As far as physics go:
I've already basicly iterated this in the previous post.
The player will be moved by forces (3d vectors x,yz), they include impulse, gravity and custom map forces. The NET force of all the vectors is calculated and thus determines the direction and speed of the player.

wtg dupe account. seriously, stop posting here. It's obvious you no longer have anything to contribute. GTHO (get the hell out).