(SSGX Origins) Let's make a Wipeout game! This time for real!

[zero3growlithe]

@Aspect: I've only simplified it a little and modifed some functions according to this movie about improving perfomance (got rid of some math functions). As for collision ray I'm using two rays to detect six collisions xD (I mean one ray activates sparks according to place where it have been hit).

[Dayviewer]

Thanks guys glad you all like it!

Dayviewer> great work! Some crits though:

The colour scheme is a bit bland due to having just two colours used. Perhaps you should add some details in another colour (personally, I would think white would look good). By details I mean picking out any decals like numbers, sponsors or adding stripes etc.

The rivets are too obvious and draw too much attention to themselves- try to tone them back. If you want to go for subtle panel work reference aircraft photos.

Thanks for the crit man, yea some decals and sponsors would definatly make it alot better with the collour scheme, i'll have to design some logos and come up for some names for that first though, i'll tone the rivets back a bit as well when the logos go on there too

Started on the second ship btw should be done the end of the week, started my first internship today full time so i don't have much time anymore

[zero3growlithe]

Solaristics have made some nice logos so I think you should take a look
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=678
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=671
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=673
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=676
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=679
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...&postcount=685
EDIT: New version of game just to show it's actual perfomance, no revelation: Download
A.I ships are now zombie so if you touch it you'll lose speed... i can make them suck out your power too if you want xD

[Rotational_aspect]

Nice work, Zero! I like how all the features of WipeOut are in there now (respawn points etc). Seems very solid.

Mini update: I have started to make the scripts more user friendly by having properties for speed, handling etc available to change via sliders than through code....should make setting up ships or tweaking much easier.

EDIT: Someone I know on BlenderArtists made a 600 player race AI demo (simple AI but then 600 of them.....!)

EDIT 2: I have (I think) got all the controls down- when my AI goes round a corner too fast it will now brake until it can steer properly- again this is all user definable.

[Xpand]

Oh man... That was soo cool! Awesome! I love where this is going!
By the way zero, about the ships, like, the sparks placement and stuff, can you tell us if it's possible to make the placement be linked to an object coordinates? Like you are making a ship and you want it to throw sparks in a certain location. If we put a box with a certain property will the game place the sparks there? This is just so that you won't have to place the effects manually on every single ship, because that's a lot of work, I suppose...

[zero3growlithe]

That's not so many work but I'll work on it although it can be hard as:
1. There is still this damn scale thing... everytime I export something to Unity it has other scale (yeah, it can be in modelling software but we need to set default units for models [including tracks]) and with scale I'll give i.e. for ship changes overall scale for everything u'r doing with this object, which means that raycast offset for ship with (original scale * 5) will be different for object with (original scale * 2)...
2. Hmmmmm.... i thought there will be more reasons... nevermind xD This one is enough to consider.
If you want I can send you newest version of project of game so you can take a look and check what I mean

[Rotational_aspect]

Zero: in Blender there is the ability to re-scale a mesh to 1:1- does unity have such a feature?

[Xpand]

Well, all my ships are made in meters and in real scale: 1 3ds max units = 1 meters. If everyone made the ships with that scale then you wouldn't have to rescale anything...

[Killercrusher232]

Someone I know on BlenderArtists made a 600 player race AI demo.

This is the GREATEST!
I mean as if racing 29 opponents in F-Zero X wasn't enough, or battling 39 drivers to first place in Daytona USA. In fact, where have all these vehicles gone? It seems to be only 16 now... but I want as many as you can fit on the track if not more!

[F.E.I.S.A.R]

600 vehicles on grid? You'll need a track as large as the Nurburgring 24h config,and then some more!

Anyone considering porting this to Android?(just asking)

[zero3growlithe]

Mini Update
I've added pitching to my game so if u'r pitching up it jumps a little higher but flyies slower too, but when pitching down it runs faster (it's only 5-8kph difference so no big deal) and it is harder to fall-off the track and it falls faster to the ground so almost no jumping Now it's time for barrel rolls ^^

[Xpand]

Nice! You sure are working fast! 6 more days and I'll be back in action! Can't wait to see the barrel roll effect!
Also:
http://soundcloud.com/rbng-1/ngage
What do you think?

Also: Tons of free HQ skymaps:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/show...sive-07-update!)

[feisar rocket]

About the game it self, is there gonna be pits?

Br's?? Please don't, wouldn't it be hard to make it operate without bugs. How about... hyperthrust (chill Xpand ) It should be easier to program into the source code? (shield value = s , speed value = x (PyShell)

S= 100.0
linear velocity = (3 u/s ?)
linear velocity = x
print = x
>>> linear velocity
print linear velocity (Im checking if it's ok)
>>> (3 u/s ?)
(idk how u put button command or time)
input (button?), (3 sec?)*2 = X + time*0.5
S- (3 sec?)*2

Hopefully you understood... ish (thats as much as I know...))

It's okay if you don't want to... it's just a thought.

[Rotational_aspect]

Barrel rolls should not be that hard, if in Blender (I imagine similar in Unity too):

1>Animate the ship doing a barrel roll

2>Use a ray to detect how far off the floor you are

3>If the ray is a certain distance and the player has enough energy (plus pressing some buttons) play said animation and increase thrust a little

4> Check for collisons- if there is a collison before the animation finishes then there would be no speed boost. But, if all 100 frames played then you would get the boost (and a reduction in health).

Hyperthrust would be easy too:

1> Get the players linear velocity

2> If it is a certain speed (and the player holds a button) deduct health but increase speed temporarily.

Pits are simple- this was one of the first things I made (Xpand indirectly taught me how to do this when I was learning Blender):

Cast a ray downwards- if it hits a certain material or object with a certain property increase the health value/ property of the ship. If health >= 100 then health = 100.

Speed pads are similar- if you detect a certain property or material add a percentage speed increase to the velocity of the player.

[zero3growlithe]

Pits are simple- this was one of the first things I made (Xpand indirectly taught me how to do this when I was learning Blender):

Cast a ray downwards- if it hits a certain material or object with a certain property increase the health value/ property of the ship. If health >= 100 then health = 100.

Speed pads are similar- if you detect a certain property or material add a percentage speed increase to the velocity of the player.

Man, why ray? Simple trigger with tag and viola (I'm short on CPU on things like netbook)... as for hyperthrust I've just made it for fun so it boosts player and reduces health (it took ~5 min). As for Barrel Roll I just need to find an alternate way to keep two rotation variables. Why two? Becouse when there will be tracks that need ship to tilt left/right, i.e when track is changing from horizontal to vertical on world axis (from _ to | ) I need to tilt my ship too so I'll make Barrel Rolls without using animation.
Oh, and my zombie ships are sucking my Energy fast like hell xD It's hard to get through them now... but I have cannon to kill them (btw. Now placement system is not freezing when they're destroyed)

[Rotational_aspect]

The system I suggested was a generic one that could be made in any system.

Also, prepare for some serious vector maths with your barrel roll method!!

Good news with your position system too, I got around that problem by using some of the features of lists in Python (len, sort etc) that do not rely on fixed variables.

A question: how are you handling collisions? Are you using linear velocity or straight collision detection (e.g. a bump from a ship = - 5 health)?

[zero3growlithe]

Couple of methods:
1. For ship-to-ship collisions I have special collider which detects only same type collider (with same layer) so you can ram other ships without flying over them (this one is without health change)
2. Ship's collider for detecting walls, bullets, or trigger for respawning (this one takes 2 points of life every frame when touching only EnemyAI ships)
2.1 On enemy ships it is only for detecting collisions with bullets and walls, for now it detects whether it's a cannon bullet or rocket (they don't have spark-activating rays for perfomance reasons)
3. Two rays on player's ship which handles sparks and by the way takes life according to actual rigidbody's speed (reacts only to walls)
Except for rays all of them are primitive box colliders with friction and constant rigidbody gravity turned off.

[feisar rocket]

I see, thanks Aspect!
Zero, how fast is fast?

P.S. Aspect, you know any awesome tuts for Python? I just have the manual to go by so far...

[Rotational_aspect]

Aside from forums like BlenderArtists, A Byte Of Python is a good introduction. Also check out (although outdated) Tutorials For Blender 3D which has code examples and (up to date) http://solarlune-gameup.blogspot.com/ has a series of beginner tutorials.

[zero3growlithe]

@How fast is fast?@
feisar_rocket: What do you mean?