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

[feisar rocket]

I got airbrakes! Now I just need to add physics... Any tips, Aspect?

[Rotational_aspect]

For ship physics, use the dynamic or rigid body physics type to enable blenders bullet physics engine. To turn, still use drot rather than physics torque as the latter makes turning unstable at high speed.

Airbrakes eh? If you use 'tap' on logic blocks it makes it fire for an instant so even if you hold down the key it only works once. I can rig a demo if you like.

[feisar rocket]

I didn't make it but using the tut site, I made one on papier...

Using the Action Actuators, I set the action to flipper. Armature is a bone right? If it is, connect a plane (small) on to a bone, bone on ship. If not, I might use python...

Zero, My "x" button got worse...

Oh yeah, make one if you want Aspect.

P.S. Xpand, I found a way to export S.Up to Max. On S.Up, explode the object. Then import in blender, export to .obj.

[Rotational_aspect]

Here is an old file that has WO style controls.

CURSOR keys: direction
Z and X:sideshift

On test track:

Red square: recharge
Blue triangle: speed boost

If you hit the track or the cube in the test track you will loose energy. If it reaches zero you get a game over screen.

Hope you find it useful.

[Xpand]

P.S. Xpand, I found a way to export S.Up to Max. On S.Up, explode the object. Then import in blender, export to .obj.

That's the thing, I can't import S.Up to blender god knows why...

[zero3growlithe]

I've finally found good begginer videos for Unity 3D here (http://www.unity3dstudent.com/category/modules/beginner/) and here's what i've created from first 5 :D (pretty funny)
UPDATED: https://rapidshare.com/files/55453942/Cube_Emitter_Sound.rar
Creates cubes after pressing the space button that bounces in Box. Every cube has 15 sec lifetime... fast enough to fill the floor? :rock
EDIT: Now with explosions and sound:dizzy

[Rotational_aspect]

Xpand, upload your dae. file, I will try to import it.

zero3growlithe: cool!

[Xpand]

Don't have it anymore. Ask feisar_rocket, he's the one who wanted me to import his model to blender.

[feisar rocket]

That's the thing, I can't import S.Up to blender god knows why...You select all, explode untill you can't. Then export.

[Xpand]

Ah ain't got no S.Up, foo! :mr-t :D

Why can't you do that? Don't you have blender?

[feisar rocket]

Yeah, I'm doing that now. (S.Up just crashed... lol)

[Xpand]

Ok, started texturing the terrain:
2567
2568

Still a lot of details to be added!
2569

[zero3growlithe]

How you make your texture flow with track? I mean, is this one texture, or 3 different textures arranged differently using some type of script or something?

[Xpand]

Well, it starts with the way you make the track, in 3ds max you make a line following the track's curves and elevations and then you make another line with the cross section of the track. Then you use the Loft operator to make a solid object from those two shapes. That automatically creates UV coordinates for the track. Then you just make a mosaic texture and it repeats itself along the track, following it's curves.

here's this track's mosaic texture:
2570

I think this is how Studio Liverpool did for Pure. At least that's what I can tell from the development screenshots...

[Rotational_aspect]

Something similar is possible with Blender too, but you map the first slice of track and when duplicated the mapping sticks.

Update: with help I have a really good laser cannon script for Blender now. It features:

charge shots or regular shots (depending if you hold down the fire button)
outputs the shot power (at the minute in debug mode, but this can be outputted to an on-screen text object)
stops firing when the battery power = 0
laser bolt length matches the distance between the gun and the target (so the laser bolt does not 'go through' the model... unless it explodes!)
a smaller explosion is created on the hit point of the laser (at the minute a placeholder).

I will recycle some aspects of this for my other weapons (such as the jamming beam, vulcan cannon etc).

[Xpand]

In blender it's much easier, if you do the track with a line and then add a bevel object to it. The UV coordinates are already there and you just need to add the map.

[feisar rocket]

Xpand, any Mag-locks?

Lol, Blender had a major error.

Aspect, can you export textures with Blender?

I still can't make tracks. But, there are alternatives, right?

My cuz has Gmax and he tells me to get it. Should I?

[GrapeNuts]

Wow you guys are real clever! Awesome!

[Xpand]

Xpand, any Mag-locks?

Lol, Blender had a major error.

Aspect, can you export textures with Blender?

I still can't make tracks. But, there are alternatives, right?

My cuz has Gmax and he tells me to get it. Should I?

Mag lock is a programming thing, I was talking about modeling and texturing.
Gmax is pretty good but you'll be stuck when you see it has no export capabilities... You're better off with blender for this game's development.

[zero3growlithe]

Thanks Xpand for explanation :)
btw. I'm now on Sport Camp and i have to use internet from my cell phone... that makes making ship move with proper physics harder (i want to make ship bounce from wall like in WOHD and a little modified turning and other things).
btw. Somebody know why when i'm exporting a 3D model to *.obj some poligons dissapear? (even when mesh is not complicated... and i've tried with maya and rhinoceros).

[zero3growlithe]

Thanks Xpand for explanation although i won't check it for a while a i'm now on Sport Camp and i have to use internet from my cell phone... but i'm programming on my netbook although internet makes making ship move with proper physics harder (i want to make ship bounce from wall like in WOHD and a little modified turning and other things).

btw. Somebody know why when i'm exporting a 3D model to *.obj some poligons dissapear? (even when mesh is not complicated... and i've tried with maya and rhinoceros).

[feisar rocket]

Mag lock is a programming thing, I was talking about modeling and texturing.I'm asking about the track. Does it have one?

[Rotational_aspect]

I posted a mag lock script a few pages back.

[Xpand]

I'm asking about the track. Does it have one?

No, I haven't added anything cause it's being done in 3ds max and that doesn't have a game engine like blender...

[apemax]

Got some more of it done so here's the latest picture of it. It now has air brakes and a transparent canopy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/apemax/6028640385/

I think the next thing to do is make a texture for it.

[Xpand]

Nice! I have a new one coming too! Just started texturing...

[TearsToShreds]

Hey guys, long time no see. Wow, you've all been really busy I see. I don't really have anything to add except for a Tigron ship design I did ages ago, which can be seen on my deviantart page... http://poaalpina.deviantart.com/art/WipEout-Ship-Design-245258472

Since a year I've been painting in photoshop so I might actually give this a 'photoshop' makeover. I'm more of an 'organic' painter, so technical drawing really isn't my thing, haha.

[Rotational_aspect]

Small update:

I'm trying to remake my pathfinding logic in Python-mainly to make the layout simpler but it also means you can add as many nodes as you like and it will automatically use them all (unlike logic where you have to add loads of blocks).

Also, I have made some improvements to my weapon scripts, so I have a machine gun, laser and charge laser script (and I also streamlined them) plus a few others.

[Rotational_aspect]

Any pretty pics from anyone? Although I enjoy learning Python, at the minute I am making cubes fly around which are dull to look at!

[Xpand]

No man, sorry... I'm away and the only thing I have with me is my psp... I'll post something when I get back...

[GalacticSpartan]

That picture of Tigeron looks really cool. Cheers.

[Rotational_aspect]

Since nothing much is going on, I thought I might just talk about my efforts to streamline the node based navigation logic. I have managed to slim it down into two approaches: a Python/ logic mix and a pure logic example.

If anyone wants me to post them, let me know!

Has anyone else up to anything? Or are you all playing Deus Ex?:twisted

[zero3growlithe]

I got sucked in Little Big Planet and i'm making everything what is possible in its create mode..... tommorow i'll get LBP2 with many new tools for editing so, hmmm... i'm not playing Deus Ex :g

[jesse9705]

I can try to help with natural textures like rock and water, maybe lava/magma...
if you need my help for some textures just ask me

[Xpand]

So I restarted C++ again and made a program that calculates balistic trajectories, shows them (though there are a few errors I must correct with the angles: if they're bigger than 60 degrees and smaller than 30 degrees the program will give negative values for the altitude) and dumps the information on a file it created. This may not seem to have any similarity with this game but check this: balistic trajectories (flight physics), display information (with a bit more info I can display 3D models of any file format we need) and dump that info onto files (and reading them, though I didn't write that on this program) (create and loading save files, reading 3d model files, reading config files, modding will be possible).

Here's the program.
If you want the code just tell me:

P.S. The smaller the time step the more continuous the trajectory looks. I usually use 0.01 sec.
And try with a 45 degree angle. That works all the time... At least while I can't find out the problem with the angles... I think they have to be in radians...

EDIT: Corrected. It used radians. So I made a line of code to convert degrees to radians and it worked..

[apemax]

Very cool program you've made there. Could you post the code please?:) I could learn a lot from the source code.

Also i've decided to make a track to go with my ship however i want to make it so it will be fairly easy to texture in gmax. anyone know of any tricks to doing this in gmax?

[Xpand]

For the track do the track's shape with a single line and then make another line with the shape of the tracks cross-section and then go to compound objects and select loft with the main curve selected, then click get shape and select the second curve. Then you apply a mosaic map (like the one I have a few pages back) and the track will be all correctly textured without you having any trouble.
And the code's here:

And check this to configure the graphics.h file onto your project:
http://www.uniqueness-template.com/devcpp/
Scroll down until you get to "Borland Graphics Interface". Download those two files it tells you to.

[apemax]

Ok thanks for the code Xpand. :) I've got the making the track working but i can't remember how you apply a texture to a model. Could you give me a point in the right direction?

[Xpand]

Well, just drag the texture file on top of the track model. It should appear applied on the track.

[apemax]

Ah right i never knew you could do that. Thanks. So i made a test track to experiment with (A circle) and used this sort of shape for the cross section of the track:
__ __
| |____| |
|_______|

However the texture is going on the bottom of the track so it's not going where it should. If i use this sort of shape for the cross section of the track:
__ __
| |___| |

When you look at it from the top it's not there but if you look at it from the bottom it's there. So is there any special way of doing this so the texture will go in the right place?

[Xpand]

Nah, the normals are flipped. Go to the modifier stack and select normals and check the flip normals box...

[feisar rocket]

are you all playing Deus Ex?:twisted I wish... but, I'm always at my friends house playing Catherine...

I was playing with nodes today and I got a funny texture. If I had a screen capture prog, then I would of shown you guys. It looks nice but only as a sphere . Perfect texture for shield...

P.S. I'm working on voices. (Warnings! Like rockets or missile. Don't worry I'm sane)

[Dan Locke]

You don't need a "screen capture prog" to take screenshots. Just hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard, open Paint, and paste the screenshot in. If you don't have a dedicated Print Screen key, use Shift or Fn on whatever other key it's mapped to, depending on your keyboard.

[Rotational_aspect]

So how is everyone getting on? Any more pretty pictures to look at or demos to play?

Personally, I've started to learn a few new Python/ logic brick commands to make a simple GUI for my game. Once I've done that I feel I should have enough to start puting things together and start doing some hard core ship/ track design.

[Xpand]

Sorry, for the next 2 months or so I'll have to widthraw from the project due to new adjustments in my routine from moving near the university and adjusting to the new working schedule... It has been 12 years living the same way and now there will be major changes... I'll be back as soon as I find a new free time for this...

[Rotational_aspect]

Well in 2 months I should have made most of the underlying Blender code so I will post that (and do updates) when its complete for anyone to use. Actually, in 2 months I shall have a second daughter to look after so the clocks ticking!

Good luck with university too! Enjoy the time as it goes very fast. By the way, what are you studying?

[Xpand]

. Actually, in 2 months I shall have a second daughter to look after so the clocks ticking!

Good luck with university too! Enjoy the time as it goes very fast. By the way, what are you studying?

That's awesome! Congratulations!

Thanks! I'm going to take a course on phisics engineering. That also means I'll have a C++ programming course too, which is awesome 'cause I'll be more able to help on a C++ version of the game!
But the reason I want phisics engineering, aside from helping to solve the Unified field theory, or "the theory of everything" ( http://physics.about.com/od/quantumphysics/f/uft.htm ), is to investigate Anti-gravity/Levitating devices...

[Rotational_aspect]

Sounds cool (and complicated- I'm rubbish at maths). Good luck with it!:rock. You going to come back a super genius!

Regarding your dream of anti-gravity, you could just cheat and make an ion lifter or use some kind of MagLev (as in the train tech). Maybe they may let you play with the Large Haydron Collider- strictly for learning of course:twisted

[Xpand]

Well, yeah, but the unified field theory is very related to anti-gravity. It's like the electromagnetism: a magnet moving near a wire can produce electricity and electricity can produce magnetic fields... After we include the gravity in the theory it's a small step to understand how it works and how to "undo" it! :g
Maybe the answer doesn't lay on gravity itself but on another of the four fundamental forces... Who knows! The possibilities are infinite... And I'm starting to sound like Carl Sagan! :g

Using the LHC would be sooo cool! It's like my childhood dream! :D

[Rotational_aspect]

A little heads up for those using Blender: there is a new build that now has A.I. automatic pathfinding via a mesh object- its a bit rough at the minute but it works.

[Xpand]

That's cool, does it use the track's mesh to guide itself? or you still need nodes?

[Rotational_aspect]

From what I have read, you have to make a mesh for it to use (the mesh has to be unbroken). It also allows for obstacle avoidance, which is a bonus.

[Rotational_aspect]

Small update: after having major problems understanding certain things with a script, a kind soul has made me a object selection script- and it is:rock. Now all I need to do is pick it apart and see how it ticks.....

[Xpand]

Nice! You'll use that to select the ships?

[Rotational_aspect]

Thats the plan!

[Rotational_aspect]

Hi all!

Feels like I've been away for a looong time! I think I have managed to make a decent ship select method now: it does the following:

> user clicks on the button that represents the ship they want to fly
> more buttons pop up showing the choice of weapon
> the weapon is parented to the ship

TODO:

> set the camera

If anyone wants this, let me know and I will post the .blend. How is everyone else getting on by the way? Its lonely here:cold

[zero3growlithe]

I got so sucked in LBP2 that i can't do anything else... maybe if i'll achieve my objective which is to make this (http://www.retro64.com/platypus_game.asp) game, then maybe i'll be able to detach from this game xD

[Rotational_aspect]

OK, fixed cameras. Now I can set various pre-defined views.

Next task: somehow set handling characteristics per ship. I have a few ideas on how to do this so see you all (or you, zero3growlithe) soon!

[zero3growlithe]

It's so awesome that you spent so much time on making this game :rock... i wonder if i will ever finish my version :paperbag But as i said, i'll see when i have my game finished after... 2 weeks? Maybe more... already have basic logic for ship xD (Off-topic!!!)
Rotational_Aspect: Keep it up :hyper

[nismology]

I presume you can't use official wipeout ships for your game. Here are some new ones I designed if you'd like to use them :)

Team Deltra
Manta Industries
Griffon Antigrav
Illustron Technologies

Images attached:

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: Things are moving along (slowly!), but I will keep going! When I have a working shell I will do a mega post of all the bits so people can use them.

nismology: Nice designs! They are not in the direction I am going with my version (check old posts for those) but thats no reason for you not to make them in 3D / make your own game!

[MyNameIsBom]

hello guys, I'm doing a Graphics project at school constructing a new WipEout Track and a new team and this is what I have done so far on the track....

please provide feedbacks!

[Rotational_aspect]

Certainly looks a good start, look forward to seeing the track decorated. Is the goal of this project to make something for realtime games, or pre rendered?

[apemax]

Great designs nismology. Also great track design MyNameIsBom.:)

I finally finished the Lego version of my Wipeout ship the AP-AG Racer.

https://sites.google.com/site/apesstuff/my-lego-models/ap-ag-racer

Still need to finish the 3D model of it and carry on with the track i'm trying to make.

[Rotational_aspect]

Nice Lego work apemax!

Micro update:

Work is going well on my ship select. I have now got a speed indicator on in-cockpit and 3rd person views, along with a system that changes the top speed/ handling depending on what weapon you are carrying (due to the weapons weight).

I have also begun designing a system so that each ship will have 1 script that defines speed, handling etc rather than several smaller scripts doing the same thing.

Onward:rock

[MyNameIsBom]

Hey wheres zero3growlithe? hes a pretty good contributor to this thread.

And is it possible to import GoogleSketchUp Models into Blender/ whatever programs you guys are using/ If so i can finish off decorating my track and post the file for you guys to import into your programs and use it?

[zero3growlithe]

Some time ago i've sent this to feisar_rocket too:
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/import-google-sketchup-kmz-models.php
btw. Thanks for nice words :)

[Rotational_aspect]

MyNameIsBom: Blender can import COLLADA (.dae) files directly. I imagine mapping is also imported too.


EDIT:
My experiment in having one script per ship is not working out so back to the drawing board.......but I fixed some problems along the way though!

[MyNameIsBom]

.dae files? never heard of them.... bad news is that i cant finish off my track now the files were saved in the school system and you see im kind on a holiday.... so i wont be able to continue on it till next week

one more question is GoogleSketchUp able to save models as .dae files on the program?

[feisar rocket]

Its been awhile. I was working on an abriged series... well what did I miss? What should I do? I can make computer voices with my own voice but... idk, should I? I have a power point to make for class so i can't do much.

Oh yeah, I should relax... Well I drew a ship and it looks like a fury feisar - W'O 3 Icarus hybrid...

I was listening to some songs and one song sounded so sweet with a quick game of Pulse. Oh well, I'll never know it's name.

[feisar rocket]

Got W'O HD sound FX! Any SFXs yet?

I'm gonna get the XGRA ones too! "shields fail" is what I want.

[Rotational_aspect]

Progress update:

Have a good working ship select now: the player will customise each race by selecting the opponents (and weapons the opponents use) before starting a race. I found this to be the least hassle, and leaves the door open to online multiplayer.

[MyNameIsBom]

UPDATE: i am working on the track, um how do i excatly export a Google Sketch Up model into a .dae file?

[zero3growlithe]

@Rotational_Aspect: Awesome :D
btw. How did you done ships phisics? Every ship has it's own force points or something like that or same for all other method of simulation?

@MyNameIsBom: Uncle Google don't bite

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: each ship has various values (like top speed, acceleration, weight), and each weapon has a weight value too. I have a simple equation that subtracts the total ship weight from the top speed, so when you eject the payload / weapon the speed will increase.

Its pretty primitive at the minute, but it works, and thats what matters!

MyNameIsBom: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=114345 might help.

EDIT:

Found a joypad script (and using an XBOX 360 pad) starting to get the player controls together.

[zero3growlithe]

I had to somehow get myself back to progress in making that game, so i did it through making simple fun game which i'll post soon (max 3 days) :g

Achievments:
- in-game material changing for object when hit and HP counting
- blinking object when hit and exploding after some time while emitting particles and force that pushes other object in specified area
- object that fall-apart when reach HP=0 to small cubes :P
- nice cannon with vertical/horrizontal control and shooting
- respawning blocks that were destroyed (whole game is about blocks:g)
- aiming with cannon using mouse (DONE! After so much time spent, it's finally done :g)

To Achieve: (i have to make it!!!:mr-t):
- homing missiles with smooth turning (look-at command with some modifications)
My english sucks but i think that someone understood me... somehow :blarg:nod

EDIT: Is blender game engine multi-threaded? I mean, does it support multiple cores?

[MyNameIsBom]

Update Stage 2 of the track development.

And no luck finding how to convert skb into .dae files yet....

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: The Blender game engine is sadly not multithreaded. And your fun learning game sounds good too!

MyNameIsBom: what version of sketchup are you using?

[zero3growlithe]

Bwahahah AHAHAHa ohohohh hihihih huhuhhuuh ohohoho eheeheheh.... ekhem
I did it finally! Jezze, to make this damn homing missile and mouse controls i had to sit almost 2 days :brickwall, but it was worth it :g
https://rapidshare.com/files/3980549027/Blocks_Crusher_xD.rar
So, here are the controls and some facts:
- to rotate cannon use your mouse
- to shoot plazma > LMB, to shoot missile > RMB
- to aim your missile press MMB on any object, for more accurate shoot press it rapidly (the faster you press it, the more accurate the shoot is)
- blocks respawn as follows:
> "B" button for bombs
> "N" button for normal blocks
> "M" button for mega block (shoot it with missile :g)
- Blocks have attributes as follows:
> Bombs explodes when hit after some time
> Normal blocks.... they just react physically... nothing special
> Small blocks that can't be respawned after 20 hits (bullets are double so 10 hits) falls apart on small blocks
Note: Big red cursor is for aiming with plasma, and normal mouse cursor is for aiming with missile.
Have fun :P

btw. I know about those physics related bugs, and i tried do get rid of them... i failed ;(

[feisar rocket]

I decided to just make songs and I'm starting to make one

SONGs:
Dj Carfil - The Bass Drive (i think)
Dj Splash - Bass Is Kicking (i think)
And some pure songs...
and some mercury hg songs..

wish me luck

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: nice demo! How hard was it to program, or did you use the node logic plug in?

Also, more updates from Blender:

I have been integrating my various scripts into a test file and have had some excellent results, and some interesting side effects!

Firstly, due to the physics engine, I have had to split the test ship models into chunks-

I can now get my ships to explode and shower the surroundings with wreckage

You can destroy individual parts from ships

With work could lead to customisation options (as the chunks of vessels can be swapped out for others)

I have also begun to integrate the weapons scripts I made earlier. At the minute I have a laser that is reducing the health of various parts of the test ship.

The next stage will be to put the weapons script into one of the dummy weapons and make it 'live', to see if there are any bugs. I must admit its very satisfying to see some progress that you can play with!

[zero3growlithe]

Yes, it is satisfying to have something working :P And about that programming difficulty... that was damn hard to program as for me :blarg I was sitting most of the first day programming to make mouse controls and most of the second day to make homing missile with no break :g (around 4 - 6 hours each :dizzy). Seriously :|
btw. Health for each part of ship sounds like you want to make it fall-apart when taking damage with quiet nice mess left :g
btw2. What is this node logic plug-in?

[Rotational_aspect]

Unity has a node logic system (similar to Blenders logic blocks but more flexible) via plug ins- there are several, in fact: Playmaker and VIZIO (Antares Universe) being two main ones.

[zero3growlithe]

Ah, then my answer is no to your question about it 8)

[Rotational_aspect]

Slight update:

weapon (laser) works fine, a minor glitch but its not noticeable in game. I have made a choice to go with having each part of the vehicle add to the collision hull of the overall ship, which means that each section cannot be 'hit' individually. This seems to be a built in limitation of Blender.

Why do this? Well it means the collision box is the exact match to the ship, and I can still detach parts at will, so I could have a piece of ship fall away if the players health drops below 50, for example.

And pat yourself on the back for doing programming from the ground up with your demo! Its scary when you start off with nothing!

[zero3growlithe]

Ah hahah, really mad idea flew through my mind :P Let's make a Lego Wipeout Game :blarg xD Taking a Lego ship appart would be really a great fun, especially with cannon :g Already working on that but on my old triakis (https://picasaweb.google.com/106083964399065727105/SharkDone#5528524481992711042) which has maaaany parts to take off :nod

btw. I can add an mesh collider to every mesh on my scene which detects collisions on every mesh individually in unity :)

[Rotational_aspect]

btw. I can add an mesh collider to every mesh on my scene which detects collisions on every mesh individually in unity

Show off! :P

I may ditch the custom ships for the sake of simplicity now, it gets very confusing (even with just three parts per ship on the test model). I can always swap the mesh to a damaged one (like in Wipeout HD when a ship explodes) and have particle emitters etc for smoke.

This also means the scripting will be simpler to do, which is always nice!;)

[zero3growlithe]

I can always swap the mesh to a damaged one
Why changing whole mesh if you can just add texture with nice damaged image and some places with transperency for holes? I think it's easier :P And i suppose it's made that way in WOHD :blarg (and for sure in Pulse)
EDIT: Oh, and using in-game component tweaking turn on gravity to make ship fall and make it look... dead xD

btw. To show off that particles fall-off i'll make my ship physics i have great problems with work (after hearing that you just done something and it's enough killed me :g) and add cannon to my ship and i'll make one ship with simple avoidance AI that will just fly through this track and will be my shooting target :g
Let's count one week to do this (i gotta mobilize myself somehow :|).
EDIT: OMG!!!! Why this g**d*** ship have to be so hard to make it fly!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rotational_aspect]

I did think of replacing the texture, but it is ironically easier to change the object- plus it means I can add more detail (like big holes or wires hanging out). And thanks for the gravity switch idea but I have something like that working now (when the ships health = 0 the 9.8 +z force is taken away).

Your target sounds a bit ambitious for 7 days- the way that I did things was to split up tasks into smaller chunks (like gun scripts, movement, antigravity etc) and bring them together later otherwise you may get multiple bugs all at once which are hard to fix.

But otherwise, go for it!

[MyNameIsBom]

MyNameIsBom: what version of sketchup are you using?

Im using GoogleSketchUp 8


Oh and ive gotten this far with the project.... i need a name for it, any suggestions?

[D_1998_BR]

Uhhh...:)

[zero3growlithe]

Nyaaaah, by this week i only got my ship phisics working :rock (but this was the hardest thing to make as for me), and i left easiest for friday becouse i have to force myself to start learning in school :twisted (3 exams :blarg).
Ok, so... here's my demo as for now... enjoy ^^:+
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Uploads... uploads.... uuuuuploooooaaaads... done :) Demo_Flying_Game (https://rapidshare.com/files/4028488589/Demo_Flying_Game.rar) (my CPU is DualCore Intel with 2,8Ghz clock... and it's enough for this game (only one core is used))
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EDIT: For now you can't see some walls from the other side becouse i have verticies turned in same direction... still i don't know how to make unity ignore verticies directions for a specific object :/ Oh, and you'll notice that camera is not following ship, it's only attached to it xD And i've fast-edited my track becouse it was too narrow to fly....

[Xpand]

Nice!!
Even with the inverted faces and all it looks pretty good! One thing though: You seem to have put a rendering quality ship on a game engine. I suggest you reduce the number of polys on your ship to about 5000 for optimum performance on Unity. If you want some of my ships and tracks I will send them to you.
Just tell me the format of the files.

I had a look at unity in september but other things steped in the way, especially university exams and I had to stop...

[zero3growlithe]

No, no, maybe later becouse i've put that ship becouse i want to make it destructable:nod Just for fun:twisted I'll adjust everything later so it'll work better :+
As for now small update added to download file: now there is no problem with steep hills :P (sorry that so late but i just figured it out xD)

[Xpand]

Okay, but having a 5000 poly ship doesn't mean it can't be destructible. It can have the same ammount of detail as your current ship, but without unnecessary polys, for example, in flat surfaces.

[Rotational_aspect]

Very good! The overall handling is excellent, very Wipeout-y.

Crits:

Xpand is right in you need to optimize your ship - no biggie!

The ship is too bouncy - on start the ship is bouncing too much and does not settle down, but I imagine its a matter of tweaking.

I would suggest making a basic arena that has jumps, lumps and obstacles so you can test the handling as a track is a bit too confining to start with. Even a flat plane with some primitives will do. When the handling is solid, then start with the tracks.

But well done though! You set a goal and did it:rock What next?

Update from me:

I never realised how much work is involved in making a game! I have the following done:

1 ) User selectable ship (I have two test ships but I have the designs for about eight)

2 ) User selectable weapons (again, I have about eight planned, with four working in test files and two working 'in game')

3 ) In-cockpit and chase views (in fact, you could have many more views as its quite easy to set up).

4 ) Ability to have in game damage- bits fall off, the main mesh gets /can be swapped for a more beat up version

5 ) Started thinking about sound (ship noises etc)

6 ) Have the basics of a menu system going (tied into point 1)

7 ) Have a basic weight system (heavy weapons slow you down, etc). As a byproduct, you can drop spent weapons in front of ships to bash into them.

8 ) A basic pathfinding AI via nodes

To do:

Finish the art assets (i.e. finalise the concept art and make the ships/ tracks / menus)

Streamline the scripts /logic- since I was learning as I went along, a lot of my scripts are.....a bit :blarg and need to be tweaked. The integration phase where I added the weapons to the main file helped me to see problems that would have sent me mad later.

Integrate lap timers, best times etc.

Playtesting: although since my ships fly rather than float, the track layout will be simpler.

So I would say I'm about 35% to 40% complete.

[Xpand]

Nice!

BTW zerogrowlithe: Do you make your tracks in real scale (the track's length is in the order of Km) or do you scale it down? 'Cause I make mine real size, just as the ships.

Cassandra update:
2724

[zero3growlithe]

Next? Hmmm:
- A.I. as well with nodes
- Weapon Pads/Speed Pads (why not begin with it :P)
- Some weapons
- Simple menu... or maybe something bigger :twisted
- Destructable ships (normal ship mesh being replaced in damaged places with damaged mesh and this replaced mesh falling-off from ship)
And everything else what will come to my mind while making this game :nod This is just simple stuff. I suppose that make-able this weekend

Xpand: Eeeeeeh.... hmmmm... my scale is, well, i'm not using any scale xD (maybe not exacly, becouse i've made alphard with some scale and it came up with many mistakes... Corridon wasn't scaled) And now i have to repair my mistakes... but i learned one thing, make your track twice as wide as you have in this moment so it'll be enough ^^And i can tell right now that your track is narrow too (something like mine in widest place), but looks really Wip3out'y (i mean proffesional :P)

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: after blowing up your first ship, its hard not to stop! Admittedly, I wrote this was after playing Modern Warfare 3..........

zero3growlithe / Xpand: Its also good to make things to 1:1 scale for things like physics. If objects get too small unpleasant side effects often happen- at the minute my models are actual size.

[Xpand]

I don't think it's too narrow. I used Sol 2's dimensons in HD by comparing the length of a ship to the width of the track and it's about 40 meters wide. can you tell me how long is your ship?
Thanks!

[zero3growlithe]

I've used WO Pulse ships xD I've extracted ships with track model from UMD while playing it using plug-in and i got that:
Eight ships put parallel to a wall can fit with no margin on the track (all teams). I somehow lost track of this scheme while making tracks... anyway when you'll be able to check it in practice you can tell me how is it with this scale stuff :P
Oh, and my ship is 20 meters long and 8 meters wide.

[Xpand]

What!? Eight ships!? Side by side!

But your ship's size is normal, my Feisar for example is 15 meters long and 6 meters wide...

[apemax]

Great progress everyone.:)

@zero3growlithe: Great demo even though it's going really slowly for me. It must be going at 3 - 4 FPS. I'm using a 1.6GHz CPU and 64MB, 300MHz graphics card so my comp is clearly not good enough.

[zero3growlithe]

Hmmm, something like my netbook so i know how it works as i've tried it on it xD Don't worry, i can make version for those CPU's so u can check it out too :hyper
btw. I won't use in-game any of those tracks i've done so far (Corridon, Alphard, Pashtun Wheel) becouse they were done in Rhinoceros and are damn requiring for resources :brickwall Repairing them would've taken more time than making a new, better one :cold
Oh, and i'll add "Making HUD" to my To-Do list ^^

[Xpand]

You see, that's the problem when you use a image render quality ship on a game engine. apemax doesn't have a powerful enough cpu to run the game properly. And rhinoceros is awful to make game models 'cause it uses spline modeling which creates a ton of unneeded meshes that weight down on the framerate. You should use either 3ds max if you have it or blender 3D.

[zero3growlithe]

[facepalm] Doh, he again with this ship... I know thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! :brickwall I said that i just want to detonate that ******* ******* stupid piece of :turd and get it the hell out of my game :dizzy And i know already that Rhino is not for games :cold Pffffffffffff.... detonation on friday :g

[Rotational_aspect]

The Unity demo on max settings ran well on my quad core /GTX 460 card- out of all the settings it provided the most stable speed- the lowest settings was too fast as there seemed to have no speed limiting.

Looking forward to the explosion........;)

[zero3growlithe]

I wonder if i'll make this boom today as my dear Unity thought about hitting my eyes with beautiful error and getting my project &$%&$% up just when i thought about getting it saved...
Anyway i wanted to say that track with width of 8-ships-side by side is still a little to narrow :g
Slight Update:
- ship's speed is framerate independent
- bouncing is not so strong on jumps
- car chase camera... not my script :|
- Eheheh, check it yourself :P (Boom and not only)
UPDATE:
https://rapidshare.com/files/1071611067/Fly_fly_fly__boooom___.rar (still fighting with this collisions problem... btw. "space" to respawn)
btw. Apemax, i think this (https://rapidshare.com/files/3271833873/Advanced_PhysiX.rar) version should work better now on your PC :) (but just a little)

[Rotational_aspect]

Nice job! Do I see the energy/ speed bar scale in and out at speed:rock? At this rate you will be finished soon!

And more punch to the explosion....I want to see bits of ship bounce off my monitor! Also, perhaps try a slightly higher friction value on the track to aid handling.

I am interested in how you got the hover effect, do you mind posting or explaining how you did that?

[Xpand]

Props! :clap

You've done a great job!

Here come the suggestions: Add more polys to the track so it feels smoother even when colliding. The handling of the ship is perfect, you just need to stop it from accelerating when you're in the air so we won't shoot out of the track. Oh and sometimes, when you come out of the jump slow and land on the track, the ship goes right through it...

Also gameplay art suggestions: When the ship crashes make the camera close in and rotate around the wreck. Make the camera move backwards when you accelerate to give a more speedy feel to the game. Put the camera closer to the ship pointing almost straing foward, maybe only with a bit of pitch.

It's awesome! When you want some tracks and ships, I can send you, just tell me the file format you want them to be on!

[zero3growlithe]

@Rotational_Aspect
My ship's code is splited into 4 scripts (for clarity only ^^) named as follows:
- ship's stability (keeps ship alligned parallel to track using 2 raycasts)
- ship's turning (using localEulerAngles (rotation in degrees) and Mathf.Lerp (smoth interpolation between two values in t) keeps smoth and nice turning)
- ship's moving (just adds proper amount of force to move ship)
- ship's anti-gravity (keeps ship over ground by checking distance using raycast to track and using AddForce to push it up (that's why it jumps so strangely ^^), and while ship is out of the track (raycast check while i.e. jumping from ramp) add a little force down to make it fall faster and make it more heavy)
And rest is this speed meter and shield meter and respawn and camera :P
EDIT: Oh, and i've made this explosion a little stronger so now my face is hit by craft's bits xD
@Xpand
I think that adding a smoth not rendered in-game collider mesh to my ship is more efficent than making whole track smother as i've tried already adding more poligons to track and results are the same as with less polis :cold (stupid, isn't it?)
About tracks i don't know what file format as obj (as for me) exports "naked" mesh (no materials... almost) but i see light of hope in 3ds :hyper (can you believe me that i can't run 3ds Max smothly on my computer but i can Maya?!?!). Anyway, you can send in any format and i'll do something with it :brickwall :g
EDIT: I know about track "fly-through" thing :g and i know how to repair it (i think?) -> make track surface a little thicker... should work

[Xpand]

Well, in blender thickening the track would solve the ship's flying through.

I can export the tracks in almost any format since I have 3ds max. But the obj files shouldn't loose the material. Once I had to make some models for an arcade game and they were in obj format and had textures and all.

And about the smoothing track, I didn't know that there was that option.
I'm sending you the Cassandra track with two models: only the track and track+surroundings. Also the textures.
I don't know the max size of the textures in Unity. The cassandra's terrain texture is 2048x2048 px.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TIUF1UJU

[zero3growlithe]

Ok, got the track loaded (nice by the way :g) and first thing i did noticed (not about track :P) is that Unity "tried" to use installed 3DS Max to convert *.max to *.fbx (that's a clue on what track format to use in future :hyper) and thanks to Xpand's *.max files i finally figured out why 3ds max was working so slow 8) (doh, why camera controls has to be different in Maya and 3DS Max...)
btw. I had right with tracks width :g (there is some small changes to colours (not textures) in your model as i had to set them myself don't know why, but i used those from actual model) Should i upload this version of game or add something again and then upload? :D
btw2. Xpand, do you have some low poly ships? If so, then u can upload one just to get rid of this poly-monster ^^

[Xpand]

Nice! I think you should try and correct or add some stuff that you think it's needed. I would recommend a camera change button so we can switch between the three positions of the camera, and also make the camera flow around the track like in the early WO's.
I have this one ship in 3ds max format:

If you can show us some screenshots of how the track looks while playing, that would be enough for me!
Ah and be adviced that the track isn't completed yet! A lot of buildings/details and texturing are left to be done!

[zero3growlithe]

Flow around the track? When? After boom or during racing? How?
btw. I've already made some changes to camera script so camera is now closer to ship (script was written with mistakes and i couldn't change some parameters from inspector so i've repaired it and it's possible now, damn C# scripts). Thx for ship, i'll check it right away.
btw2. I've improved some ship's properties so flying feels a little better.

[Xpand]

Have you ever played WO3?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zymMHy3FUQY

As you can see the camera is never centered on the ship and rather flying around side to side. You can make a script so that when we turn the ship the camera moves a bit to the oposite side like in WO Fusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRVktGxMAs&feature=related . Or a script that makes the camera pan around in small motions and not too fast all the time.

Oh and in the future when you're making the menus and such I reccomend you to take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0IIY2O3oc

[zero3growlithe]

I got your point, but i don't know how to make such camera yet and i got used to this one :|
btw. How you want this ship animation to be played, ship boosts = open, ship breaks = close? (nice ship too)
About this main menu i will think of something :P Or make one too!
EDIT:
- i've used some math to reduce ship's jumping (ATForce / (raycastHit.distance * Multiplier))
- and i've multiplied ships turning (X-Axis to match tracks angle) by rigidbody's speed

[Xpand]

Make the animation as follows: if up key pressed = all open / else = all closed

[Rotational_aspect]

In Blender, the equivalent would be to animate the airbrakes (0 closed, 100 fully open) and set the action to 'flipper', so if the key is pressed down they open, when the key is released, they automatically shut.

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[Rotational_aspect]

That looks very polished-for those here who are making track based games it might prove quite handy. Would you mind posting it for them? The trade off is they can give feedback / bug reports.

And also, welcome! :D I / we hope you enjoy it here.

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[zero3growlithe]

No worries, 3 or more 3D modellers here will think of something :g
btw. I've stabilized ship's anty-gravity and now it's not jumping when not moving, it's stable like a.... hmmm, it's just very stable xD Oh, and boom is Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig :P Great boom especially for Rotational_Aspect

Now i'm making camera changing possible (with dynamic HUD it's not so easy as i thought it could be) and still improving "physics". Oh, Xpand, can i ask you to make a simple collider mesh for your ship? It needs to be something like second model but simplier, smooth enough for collisions and modelled to your needs (or wishes) on how and where ship will detect collisions 8) (eeeeeeh... u know what i mean i think :blarg :P)
EDIT: I did not posted any screenshots becouse Print-Screen doesn't want to catch what is shown on screen...

[Rotational_aspect]

Yes, explosions are good.....:twisted

Glad you are making progress zero3growlithe. How have you done your scaling HUD? I would know a few ways around the problem in Blender, but I have little experience of Unity.

In Blender you would take the acceleration as a value, store it globally and send it to the HUD layer to scale things in and out.

And for screenshots, PrintScreen will not capture Direct X content normally unless you use FRAPS or similar.

[zero3growlithe]

Oh, good to know, gotta check this FRAPS thing ^^ As for HUD it's made as you said, using speed parameter, but it's not scaling, it's moving in/out as it's normal 2D object in 3D space with alpha_channel_cutoff according to set parameter :P
Here are my textures used to do this:
HUD_Main (https://picasaweb.google.com/106083964399065727105/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLTttHbpPzySw&feat=directlink#5678289927084116578)
Speed_Bar (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6tnFV0lMFUAEJmcCeIF_bpvKcBreqPaKGegrWrNQUJY?feat=d irectlink)
Energy_Bar (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IkymN2Sjf5hxiQOMQcnXGZvKcBreqPaKGegrWrNQUJY?feat=d irectlink)
(textures made in Rhinoceros xD At least it's usefull here for me xd)

[Xpand]

Well, ok zero. I'll take care of that today. Be sure to be here in an hour or two. I don't need to texture it right? BTW do you want the speed breaks to be animated too?

[zero3growlithe]

No need for air breaks as i can animate them in unity using build-in animator. (no texture becouse it'll be invisible)
btw. I won't be here in an hour or two as i have something like school i need to walk to tommorow and i need to be "fresh" to think of something on this damn test from chemistry i need to get good rank at...

[Xpand]

Ok then. I'll just leave it here. I'm going to have 2 weeks without any exams, so I'll probably make some ship blueprints and then the 3D models.

[Rotational_aspect]

Had a brainwave and I am now re-doing some of the ship selection mechanisms in logic bricks to conserve resources- with Python, usage is about 1.5 - 2%. With logic / minor Python, 0.09%.....I am impressed at what logic can do when used properly!

[zero3growlithe]

It sure is great improvement in speed :D
btw. I found some great motivational demos that show's the power of Unity... really great stuff and i'm happy i sticked to it :rock
http://unity3d.com/gallery/demos/live-demos#tropical-paradise
EDIT: Hey, Xpand, after you'll finish collider mesh u can add second one but now it'll be only on edges of ship, something to use as detector of side hits so energy won't be taken from hitting ground! Something like border of ship?... doh xD

[Xpand]

Here you go:
I made the collision bounds in red and made four boxes on the tip of the craft as damage points.
All this is already aligned with the ship.

[Rotational_aspect]

As not to let the side down, check out an old demo from Blender:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?152343-Advanced-GLSL-2D-Filter-demo or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8SZEmETxp0

[zero3growlithe]

@Xpand Thanks for mesh, although this ship-edge-mesh would be better than 4 cubes as checking collisions for 4 cubes takes more effort to code and more power to examine in result, but i can actually make this edge myself in creepy Rhino (awwww, gotta move my 3-letters and get back to work xD)
@Rotational_Aspect Uuuau, nice :P Graphic engines fight? http://blenderartists.org/forum/images/smilies/sago/confused.gif Kidding :P (just wanted to use this emoticon xD)
Hah.. haha... bwahahaha!!! I got my camera changing working :P

[Xpand]

@Rotational: OH I remember seeing that a while ago. Talk about realism!

Oh, and btw zero, did you try the track I sent you? Does the ship fly well in it? Are there any hard corners? Oh and one more thing: Can you put the models and textures as individual files instead of unity packing everything up in one file in the resources folder?

[zero3growlithe]

Um, not yet but i've already found a way to use external resources in-game, i just need to check it out. About track i'll upload new version of game today with some nice changes and your track (i've made around 39 laps already on it, my younger brother around 9 laps xD). There are only 2 hard corners which gave me opportunity to make my ship more flexible if it comes to different surfaces (u'll see what i'm talking about :P)

[Xpand]

Oh boy! Can't wait!

I'm gonna make these two in 3D this week:
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/175/7/5/7515c12ef338c18c4a6e4901ad29bb5e-d3juodc.jpg

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: all sounds really good- I'm looking forward to the demo!

[zero3growlithe]

Yeeeeaaaah, finally got that thing working :P Just turn down speakers a little and feel free to rock Cassandra :g
https://rapidshare.com/files/3718086702/Unity3D_Projects.rar
btw. I've recorded sounds (made by myself using my mouth xD) with my microphone and edited them in Audacity, only boom is downloaded.

btw2. Xpand, i'll set up your ship next as i just need to add collider to ready model and check if this can detect collisions a little better than...pffff, box collider ^^ I didn't have enough motivation after having SOME PROBLEMS with playing audioClips to set up it now.
Oh, and "C" to change camera and "R" to respawn.

[Xpand]

AWESOME!!

Every little bit of it is great, even the sounds!
One thing though: The ship starts reversed. The normal track is backwards of what you got! :g

[zero3growlithe]

Oh.... i was sure i've pointed it in a good way xD Anyway, both ways are fun to race ^^:+

[Xpand]

I just have to add fences in some corners so the ship doesn't fly out of the track.

[zero3growlithe]

Or i'll just add something like return-ship-to-track feature so when it fall off, it'll come back to nearest set-up checkpoint.
btw. How do you judge ship-to-track scale i've set? Is this meeting your expectations?

[Xpand]

Well, it almost matches my ship/track calibration model. So I guess it's pretty good. :g

[Rotational_aspect]

Nice demo, like the explosion! I like the track too, so well done for that too Xpand!

[Xpand]

Thanks!

Here's a peak at what I'm doing right now:

2750
2751

Added the final details:
2749

Now for the texturing. That will add even more detail but keeping the ship light on the CPU usage.

Also, I don't know if this one fits the wipeout theme as it does more with the Ridge Racer series. It could be a menu song:
http://soundcloud.com/rbng-1/spring

[zero3growlithe]

At the beggining yes, but later on it fits perfectly only to racing imo as it's too dynamic for main menu :g
btw. I'll find some time to at least make part of graphic main menu tommorow.

[Xpand]

Yeah, I'll probably remix it in two tracks.
Anyways: Finished the basic paintscheme of the Solaris C062 ship:
2752
2753
2754

Now for the actual colors and final details.
I'm going to give it a paintscheme with orange and yellow tones.

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[Xpand]

Thanks! That's a really neat tool!
Here's a preview of the paintwork:
2756

Oh and zero, can you scale the track size down about 5-10%? Cause the ship looks too small compared to the track. It looks a bit like an RC game..

[burt_ie]

HOLY FLYING SPACESHIPS BATMAN!

Just popped into this thread as i've been watching for a while and just played the demo zero3growlithe posted a link to.

WOW... absolutely amazing! I am really speechless. How the heck did you do that? Its really come along well and the track was amazing. The ship had a really floaty feel to it. Definitely felt like a wipeout game :)

[Xpand]

Thanks man!
Oh zero, forget what I said about the scaling. About 1 or 2% down is enough.
Also, is it possible for you to send me the source file of your current project, so I can learn and help you with the programming? Also, are you planning on making the ships animated? I'm cutting the airbrakes just in case. And you are also using the collision mesh right?
Sorry for the amount of questions! :blarg

[zero3growlithe]

Ok, so:
1. No problem with cutting scale about 2% (ship's i suppose?)
2. Ok, just get ready to get this 300mb project file :g
3. I can set ships with some animation, at least i'll try to...
4. Yes, i'm using collision mesh as without that... u know, ghost ship... xD

btw. Some help to begin with Unity 3D:

[Begginer Video Tutorials in English (http://www.unity3dstudent.com/category/modules/beginner/)] (i began from here :P)
[Forum (http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/index.html) on which u can search for answers if u have any problem and u can post your questions (just make sure to look for an answer for yourself before posting :g)]
[Unity 3D scripting reference (http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/index.html) (you'll be using it a lot probably... i did)]
Hope it helps :P

@burt_ie Glad u liked it ^^:+

[Xpand]

Thanks!
The scaling is for the track. The ships look too small in it. At least compared to the walls.
And thanks for the tutorials. You don't have to put the file just now, whenever you have the time. You can send an e-mail to sunraycer1@gmail.com if you don't want to post the source files here!

[zero3growlithe]

I'll upload it today so i won't have it on mind later :g
btw. Forget about what i said about those collision_detection boxes as i forgot they can be joined as they are already :redface:

Project File Progress Bar: [llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll]
Log:
Preparing Project...
Compressing... Done [317mb -> 153mb]
Uploading... Done [38 min]
Sending to set mail recipent... Done
Sending successful!
Your version is already with smooth ship-to-track alligning, uncomment Debug.DrawRay commands to see how it works and by the way u can see why it works as it works. The only way i found to get rid of those strange bug related with it is to flow the track on 2 rails again but without walls so i can detect only ground with rays. (collisions will not be affected)
Oh, and as for first lesson you can set up your ship :P Nice basics as for beggining imo, u'll learn some basic stuff.

[Xpand]

LOL. Well, I'll just finish the texture of the Solaris and you'll have one more ship to play with!
BTW how do you want the airbrake animation? I have it set as follows:
0 to 25 frames: Turn Left
25-50: Not used (return to original position)
50-75:Turn right
75-100: not used, same as 25-50

Edit: Here's the ship.
I may make some changes on the texture, but I'll send the new bitmap file seperately.
2757
BTW do you have skype or something for faster communication?

High Res wallpapers people:
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4411/solarisperspectiveedit.jpg

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/5084/solaristailedit.jpg

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/817/solaris1edit.jpg

[zero3growlithe]

Awww, gotta get something like that :g Wait a minute... pop, got it, my name is... hmmm, zero3growlithe on skype as always :blarg

[Xpand]

Nice, ok then! I added your contact.

[feisar rocket]

It's been awile... You guys are FARRR! I downloaded FLstudio 9 (or 10). I guess making songs is all I can do... if not, I'll just do something small... like draw a track. Make the little history lesson they do for each track, like in Pulse. Or do nothing and get an idea...

[bakkufu]

First off, apologies for not being about a lot, have had a loooooot happening of recent!

Anyways, have had some awesome Wipeout based ideas which I'd love to chip in, just gonna read through the thread first to make sure I'm not treading on any toes :D

[Xpand]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgTNqvkQrY

Ain't it nice!? Should I make this with all the ships I build? :nod

[stin]

lt`s looking awesome!

stevie:nod:+

[zero3growlithe]

Nice! It can make as a "You've recieved a new ship!" animation :D

[Xpand]

Great idea! That would be awesome. I just had to change the music for something a bit more arcady instead of sounding to like final fantasy like this one! xD

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[onlykpop]

It would be cool if there could be a team racing mode if there is gonna be a new wipeout. You pick who you want on your team and the game could recognize the teams with color coordination. In the game your team mate would be invincible to weapons you shoot or lay down :)

[dragiron]

I just stumbled upon this forum while looking up stuff for my own Wipeout like game called CX-1000. I've got some screens available. I haven't finished remaking all the cars, but I have 8 to choose from, 15 tracks planned and 3 of them nearing completion. I have a full GDD outlined. Haven't got the physics right yet but I'm using Unity 3D. Check it out! It uses C#, BOO and Javascript. Any way here are my screens.

[Rotational_aspect]

Some nice stuff going on there, dragiron! I'm getting more impressed with Unity 3D the more I see of it. One thing which has foxed me so far is the little things like stopping racers going the wrong way, race postions etc. Have you got any of these working? And if so, how did you do it?

[zero3growlithe]

I'm messing with physics right now too (mostly with collision detection). Can i ask what speed does your ships reach? (in kph if u can [rigidbody.velocity.magnitude * 3.6]) And do you have any idea on improving collisions? Thanks in advance :cowboy
btw. Do you know some good C# tutorials for Unity?

[Rotational_aspect]

Just a mini update: had some ideas, and I have come up with a credible way to tell the player they are going the wrong way along the track.

This was one of my annoying problems to deal with so I am pleased this has been solved.

I'm also having fun making destructible parts for my ships. Although I have to accept the limitations of the collision system, I can blow chunks off other ships and target specific sections.

dragiron: I forgot to ask: what system are you using for AI?

[Xpand]

Hey, rotational, do you mind sharing a screenshot of the gameplay. I'm curious to see where you reached! ;)

[dragiron]

Yeah, I don't know much about scripting but as far as race positions go, it would probably be just incremental placed raycasters in the track attached to fixedUpdate. I can probably pull a script from the racing game tutorial. Stopping them from going backwards would be harder, but there's probably a script out there. For C# Unity tutorials, check out the Unity Community forums, or the Unify Wiki for code samples.

Edit: For speeds, I haven't really gotten a set speed yet, because for my project I plan on having speed classes like Wipeout 64 as well as top speeds and accelerations for each car. Collision detection is a bitch. I have a ramp in my second track, the desert one, and the damn cars go through the track like its not there. I saw a Don'tGoThroughThings script on the Unify Wiki which is supposed to improve that, so I'll check.

As for AI, I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm still trying to get the damn things to stay on the track and steer properly. I'll attempt to get some decent in-game footage.

[zero3growlithe]

I've checked this script already ("Don'tGoThroughThings") and it does almost nothing, just when ship get through it's f****** it up somewhere up, but if it don't then it'll just get through wall as always...
btw. I have GUI speed/shield meter made already and u can check it out some pages back on this forum ^^

@Rotational_Aspect: I want to see some preety images too :P I'm really curious :g

[Rotational_aspect]

Sadly there is not much to see right now, I am focussing more on the engine and getting features working before I make art assets. This means I am still flying cubes and cones around!!

The biggest job I am doing at the minute is bringing all the individual features together:

Ship selection system (Python version complete, almost finished a simpler logic version) - track selection would be similar too.
Basic weapons (laser, cannon, missiles etc)
Camera system (finished)
AI (a basic working node based system is finished)
Race start (i.e. 3, 2, 1 GO! etc) working and finished
Lap times (I have a basic logic version working that stores best times etc)
A basic hud- at the minute it just shows speed but once I design the cockpits I can expand this a bit.
Ship damage (I came across a bug in compound collision hulls so I have to compromise on this)
System to stop players (or inform them) they are going the wrong way (complete:rock)
Very basic race position system

I still have heaps to do, but now that I know what I'm doing with Blender its not an uphill struggle! I still have to decide the overall art style too, although I have an idea of what I want.

I do occasionally get time to doodle- here are a few of them below:

By the way dragiron, why not try Playmaker in Unity? Its similar to the logic blocks in Blender, allowing visual scripting.

[zero3growlithe]

My latest thoughts (lol)
I've just played WO Pulse and watched quake working and i thought: hmmm, if quake is flowing along track so precisely then it needs an curve to follow along... And then: probably if i could make such curve in unity with lenght value (somehow made work) i can make unity check for ships distances from the beggining of that line (which is counted in one directon only... don't know if u know what i mean) and using that to show ship's place according to other ships, and same stop it from going backward when distance from finish is growing... those are only my thoughts :P

[Rotational_aspect]

zero3growlithe: your idea is sound, someone actually made something similar in Blender but it was very, very complicated and involved some crazy maths.

I'm rubbish with maths so I've gone with an easier option by calculating distance times speed- since I can now tell when I'm going backwards I can stop the calculation (so the player can't go backwards and still be in the lead!).

The other less accurate way would have been to count the track nodes as ships go through them- the more nodes, the further ahead you are-the only problem is this approach is as only as accurate as the amount of track checkpoints you have (i.e. if you had three checkpoints you would only get an update on positions three times per lap).

[zero3growlithe]

Blim! Another idea xD
Node based position checker as you said but improved with distance checking from closest node which player/ship passed, for example:
Ship 1: Is 20 meters from 9th/20 node and is 1st in ranking
Ship 2: Is 5 meters from 2nd/20 node so he's last (that means that when someone is on higher node he's automatically on higher position, then it is only metter of checking if another ship is in the same node, if yes, then it counts his ranking based on distance of another ship from this node)
Nodes will be set on straight parts, so if there is a turn it will need more nodes so position could not be mistaken in any way.
Sounds logic?

EDIT: Here comes imagination :P
Imagine two guys with grappling hooks racing in some kind canal or tunnel. Only our nodes are grabable so they need to grab nearest node to move forward, when they reach turn and there won't be any node to grab, both of them are finished... but if there was this one node in the "middle" of this turn and it was visible in straight line, they could continue.
Ok, but what about place? When one guy is on one node further, he is leading and that is obvious, but when they're both on the same node they have to assess who is further :g
That what i was talking about and that is how i want my script to work :nod

[Rotational_aspect]

You are right- its weird as I had this discussion on BlenderArtists and we talked about the very same staged approach. Check it out, it may be useful: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?216033-Methods-for-real-time-race-positions&highlight=race+positions

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[Xpand]

I used it. It's pretty neat. But does it only enable 2D editing of the track? I.E. flat tracks? If not, that's ok because I can add the height in 3ds max. But overall it's a very nice tool. Really cool for prototyping the tracks.

Also I found a neat way of using fractal maps to create terrain. This will be much easier than modeling the terrain by hand and it has much more realistic effects:
Here's an example in blender using the default cloud texture:
2779

And the tutorial:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/How_to_Do_Procedural_Landscape_Modeling

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[zero3growlithe]

@ Xpand: It works as displacement map from what I see :P btw. There is build-in terrain editor in Unity (brush type).
@ TrackEditor: Yes, there is one bug (i think): I can't run this program in any way on my Windows 7. Maybe that's the problem? :brickwall
Something like:
C:\Users\Zero3\Desktop\TrackEditor\TrackEditor.exe
The parameter is incorrect. error appears :|
@ Rotational_Aspect: There is some mind blowing disscussion on this site ^^

EDIT: F%$%$%#$%!!!!! My PS3 just showed me Red Light Of Death and died.... and again: FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU$%#$%#$%#$%#!!!!

[TrackEditor]

Deleted

[zero3growlithe]

Nope, still nothing :| I have DirectX 11 and 9.0c August version (this one was needed for DarkGDK to work properly) and it doesn't work on this system but i'm sure this program is awesome as I heard what it can do so it has to be :rock

[Xpand]

Mine works with no problems in Win7.... Are you sure it isn't your firewall?

[TrackEditor]

Updated version is needed..
Try this:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=35

[Rotational_aspect]

Mini update: making a HUD for some cockpit views- since my game has full 3d flight I thought it might be useful. Its only cubes at he minute but one indicates pitch, the other roll.

And sorry to hear about your PS3 zero3growlithe- is it under warranty?

[zero3growlithe]

@ Rotational_Aspect: Eeeeh, no... nevermind it as it's now YLoD so there is nothing to worry about :P.....*snif*...

Anyway, just uploaded my The Most Primitive AI Ever (https://rapidshare.com/files/3453551021/The_simpliest_AI_ever.zip) (node based) version of my game xD (those ships has veeery... "nice" turning capabilities... 1ms turning)
I'm at least happy with ship's stability i've achieved :)

@Xpand: This texture on your ship is not set correctly as i'm too lazy to do this in 3DS max and i can't set it in Unity itself to match ship's size :brickwall
Ehehehehe... 444 posts xD
btw. Before respawning your ship you have unlimited shield.

[Rotational_aspect]

Very cool! I too will be going the node based route as it will be the easiest to do. You also have got the handling working well, so you are making progress!

The only crit is the collision detection- are all the normals of the track pointing the right way? I seem to be able to float through quite a lot of track areas.

[zero3growlithe]

Believe me that it's not track's fault that ship is getting through, something seems not right with Unity's collision detection system.
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/Rigidbody-collisionDetectionMode.html

For best results, set this value to CollisionDetectionMode.ContinuousDynamic for fast moving objects.

Continuous Collision Detection is only supported for Rigidbodies with Sphere-, Capusle- or BoxColliders.
Triakis had box collider and rigidbody's collision detection mode set to Dynamic Continuous and guess what... it did not work better...
It seems that everyone has to get used to it...

EDIT: Fixed!!! :P
@ Dragiron: You had some collision detection problems too, right? Here's the solution (u'll need to change some of your ships parameters if u want them to fly as they were before) In your "Edit -> Project Settings -> Time" change "Fixed timestep" value which is 0.02 now too something like 0.01 or lower (if collision detection problem still occurs). Hope it helps ^^
Be aware that it affects overall game's perfomance a lot!!!

[Rotational_aspect]

Ah! That makes sense. The objects were travelling too fast, so the collision detection would 'miss' a hit.

[Xpand]

Damn the suckers are fast! :g
All I have to say to this:
:clap

But really, it's awesome. The ship collisions and physics are even better than before too.
I wouldn't worry too much about the texture right now. But it's kinda weird because when I added the textures in my unity project I just had to add them and they were fine. Are you sure you didn't mess with anything?

[zero3growlithe]

EDIT:Eeeeh... u had right, i did not used this texture normally at the beggining... now it's working :redface:

btw. Something to read about Time Stepping (it can be usefull to other programs too) http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Components/class-TimeManager.html

[Killercrusher232]

This is awesome, but i've noticed that (in the video of the ship you linked) the ship is really close to the ground???

[zero3growlithe]

It's something like half of the track's wall height over ground right now and it was like this in video too i think:nod

btw. Give kid a toy where he can do whatever he wants and this kid is me... i've put damn many ships on track and watched my CPU run it's last strenght to render them all and calculate many physics :g (i'm cruel to my PC :redface:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8k8cOFDOPs
btw2. I predict my next project update to be something not faster than within 4 weeks. (aaaah, something big is coming up :P)

[Rotational_aspect]

I feel sorry for your PC, I can feel the heat from its CPU from here!

Crits: if you look closely you can see ships jumping around, I take it thats a glitch?

And your update.......ship selection? Race start? UI? I'm looking forward to seeing what you have / are going to do!

[zero3growlithe]

It's normal with this big amount of ships, if i would have reduced this amount to something like 20 it would've been ok (all ships recuire raycast under them to push them up whenever they're close to the ground, if CPU is overworked it is just not making it, making ships go down sometimes, and when that happens collision detection is a bit late too so it shoots out this ship somewhere if it detects it too late... eeeeeh something like that xD) Anyway it just can't be helped with such conditions.
btw. My CPU is well cooled so no worries ^^:+ Sometimes I pray for it to not freeze :g
btw2. About update it will be something like that :nod
Just small changelog:
- smooth A.I ships turning with left/right bank... that's all xD
- How do i make Ship Placing script:
I have 27 nodes with names 1,2,3,4...blah,blah, so when my ship pass node 5, it gets number 5, then distance from this node is counted, so i put it like this (Distance from finish line is "[LastNodePassed].[DistanceFromThisNode]") and i get for example value of "5.354". Awesome, now it's just comparision of other values (which one is bigger) and we're finished.
Note: Node is "activated" when distance from it is smaller than 15u on phantom speed, but it's variable so it can be changed to make Placing more precise.
EDIT: Ok, got it working :P My method works nice but it can better with better node placement ^^

[MyNameIsBom]

hi guys, i now have a personal laptop, i brought it for myself for christmas :)
first i have nothing to do all holidays, so is there anything that i could do for you guys?

[zero3growlithe]

From my perspective there are many things you can do:
- learn blender and make tracks/ships in it other than sketch-up
- learn python to make games in blender
- learn JavaScript/C# to make games in Unity 3D
- get free student version of Maya/3DS Max and learn it
- do 2D textures in graphic program like Photoshop/Gimp
- make game music
What do you think? :cowboy

[MyNameIsBom]

All of them sound fun! accept the music one.. LOL im not great at making music at all. Id love to learn how to make tracks in blender first because that sound interesting, also i dont mind making textures :D

i have blender on my Computer its just i need to learn how to use it, any tutorials you think maybe useful to me then please post links.

@zero3growlithe, since it sounds like you spend alot of time in front of your computer, i recommend you go and download this, it will help ease eye-strains and has been scientificly proven to help reduce effects of eye damage from the computer :)

Download Link: F.lux (http://stereopsis.com/flux/)

EDIT: what program do you recommend me to use? 3DS MAX or Maya?
EDIT2: never got a chance to post these...
EDIT3: LOL i played the game to the point where all AI blew up!!!
EDIT4: i heard 3DS MAX is better for desgining games so i downloaded that one, i have downloaded a few tutorial videos and will look at them tonight hopefully ill be able to get started design tracks and stuff tomorrow.
EDIT6: OMG **** **** **** ****, i accidently downloaded 3DS Max "2012" instead of 2011!! omg i am so dumb! wasted 4GBs for nothing *sigh*, ill try download 3DS MAX 2011 now.... with only 6GBs of internet to use for 14 days
EDIT7: My apologies but i cant download 3DS MAX now, cause of low bandwith data, i will be able to download the program in 2 weeks... but in the mean time, i will be making track concepts and textures for tracks.

EDIT8: Ok ive done one texture pack so far, below are some preview and theres a zip file containing .pngs of the textures for you to download. Also please tell me what you think of the texture.... i know its kinda... ummm bright.

Ill continue to draw concepts of tracks tomorrow and maybe make better texures.... *yawn* for now im going to bed,its 2am :P

[zero3growlithe]

Awwww, i've just run on some kind of popular in Unity bug that makes animations work in Editor but not in Player... i suppose i have to wait a little for an answer from Unity developers to my bug report :brickwall
EDIT: Eeeeeeeh...... i think i've just done the most stupid thing in the world! I've sent bug report without even checking my project completely! It was not working becouse I was rendering wrong scene!!! WTF!!! lol...
Anyway, my actual update: race begin sequence with nice graphic counter (it looks really nice if watching my 2D graphics making skills xD) and ship placing system with lap's counting and... ship acceleration/deceleration and handling similar to WOHD's.
btw. I've remade ship controlling script by making one script out of 5.

My next tasks:
- make ship's HUD completely
- make nice main menu
- work on in-game sounds

@MyNameIsBom: Nice texture and track :D But it sure is a little too bright X_X
btw. What is wrong with 3DS Max 2012 that you want 2011 version? :|

[Xpand]

I have exams until february. But after that I'm going to start making some concept drawings for the menus and also finish the Cassandra track and start a new one. Also make ships... That's always important...

[MyNameIsBom]

@MyNameIsBom: Nice texture and track :D But it sure is a little too bright X_X
btw. What is wrong with 3DS Max 2012 that you want 2011 version? :|

yeah, i know. i shouldve stuck with colours like silver or something like that, give me some suggestions.
and 2011 3DS MAX has an application called "cityscape" where you can easily make or import pre-existing land marks into the application and build tracks on it.
im trying to learn the basics of 3DS MAX still... making a box is a huge achievement for me xD

@Zero3growlithe, i can help make the HUD if you want, ive already made some cooncepts sketches of them a while back.

[Rotational_aspect]

Lap counter and position system? Cool! How do they work zero?

[zero3growlithe]

Same as i have explained earlier ^^ I have 28 nodes by now on Xpand's track (but i think that 33 should do for perfect placing :nod), my place/lap is still shown in debugger but i'll take care of it soon while completing HUD. (that is not today as it's time to evacuate immediately with my Win7 to another disk... reinstalation...bleeaaaah)
Here are two scripts that controlls this whole thing:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/drS__3kW9APzASLLO-sJrpvKcBreqPaKGegrWrNQUJY?feat=directlink (This one checks where is my ship actually (it's attached to EnemyAI ships too))
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hntJjAl-NiHCSdUfiTsggJvKcBreqPaKGegrWrNQUJY?feat=directlin k (This one shows actual place as number... simple one and made quiet crudely)

EDIT: Doh, i have to!!! I HAVE TO! learn 3DS Max... I'm lazy and when i think about learning again many new stuff it's just throwing me from wall to wall but it has to be done. Why's that? Becouse I just saw how much i'll lose in making games if I don't jump on 3ds max right now (I've learned so much in maya :cold *snif*)... Anyway, i still have 2 weeks until my next update ^^
EDIT2: Got new HUD done, now I just have to get it working in game ^^ Here's example of HUD:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/r-9rB6-dINmrDNJbCYRHI5vKcBreqPaKGegrWrNQUJY?feat=directli nk
If someone wants I can send *.psd file with this HUD and font used i it :)

[feisar rocket]

Wow, it's been awhile, I learnt how to make nice textures in a two months time... I hope I can help out... Its not like I abandoned this project its just time (almost high school, need some good marks)... Its the Christmas holiday and got my LGX12 working again (a short in batt. and charger)so I have plenty of time

Hopefully there is something I can do, right?

P.S. Bom, nice speed pads, looks better than HD's!

[Killercrusher232]

Are we allowed to submit track designs? (i love drawing tracks!)

[zero3growlithe]

@KillerCrusher: Of course! Who said u'r not allowed to? ;)
@feisar_rocket: Whatever u want, any track, texture or ship is pleasantly seen :cowboy
btw. I think that concept arts are better kept for yourselves to make something by yourself out of them and then share it with others (but if you just want to give some nice "picture" of nice climatic environment while not having enought skill to model it yourself, something that should be made by someone good in modelling (like Xpand :nod) then it's good time to post it imo)... just my thought :donut
_off-topic_
Hmmmm... i think that i'm the only one here that writes posts with so many smileys to make my statement more livelier :dizzy
EDIT: Happy New Year Everyone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wH51pcYGOQ
EDIT2: My HUD is up and running (except for times).

[feisar rocket]

Fastest texture I ever made (3 min) ... even though it's a "demo texture" (bad textures made in MSPaint) looks alright for a demo. Im making a texture in S.Up, not sure if I can though...

I'll post as soon as BT headset and ps3 controller fully charge to upload...

[Xpand]

Hey people, you can post whatever you want! Any idea is a good idea! I'm going to upload some more concept drawings for new tracks soon, so keep your heads up!

[MyNameIsBom]

P.S. Bom, nice speed pads, looks better than HD's!

Oh thanks, i kinda based it on the HD's one though..... :brickwall

[feisar rocket]

Yeah I know, it's just you had to make them from nothing, making you do more work... so I want to make u feel better.

Demo texture, weapon pad it's small though... tell me if you need a bigger one.

ATM, ripping textures from a game and making a track texture. (starting section)

[Xpand]

I would add a bit more detail and volume to that since it seems a bit too flat. And by the way, about making textures, you have to restrain yourselves to generalist stuff because many textures will require the actual 3D model for them to fit perfectly... When 3D models are done and you want to make the textures I, or other user that's making 3D models will send you a texture sheet for the specific model with the wireframe guidelines.

[feisar rocket]

...add a bit more detail and volume to that...a bit too flat. ...send you a texture sheet for the specific model with the wireframe guidelines. I see okay!

[zero3growlithe]

New track i'm aiming to finish in near future. It requires mag-strip but it is nothing that i couldn't make, no? ;)
https://picasaweb.google.com/zero3growlithe/NewTracksForSlipstreamGX?authuser=0&feat=directlink

[feisar rocket]

About your track, just one problem, one of the turns look too sharp (learnt about AI acting like a douche around one ctrl point (node) with FZEP for F-Zero X, the hard way) It wont be a human problem but a AI problem like in the 90º left hander in Chenghou.

Sorry for seeming negative... forgive? But it's a nice track after all. I wanna make with FZEP. Can I?

P.S. Its nothing I can make. Thats for sure! Good luck.
May the nodes be with you! *star wars theme song plays*

[zero3growlithe]

Sharp corners is no problem as i have A.I under my controll so i can make them able to move without scraches on any track :cowboy Human can have problems with navigating through this track :brickwall xD

[Killercrusher232]

That track looks like a rollercoaster... plus abandon hope all ye who enter...

[zero3growlithe]

My brother said totaly same thing about this track xD

[Xpand]

Reminds me of Florion Heights for some reason. :rock

[feisar rocket]

Its like another silverstream... I hated that track, auricom acted like a cow on it and Qirex... just no.

I made a track that needs mag-strips too. But in FZEP... Why you ask? So I can race it in F-Zero X. Its also a good thing to tryout your tracks on. If it's too complex (but FZX AI sucks though...)

That felt more like a advert than information...

[Killercrusher232]

i've been playing a lot of F-Zero X recently and i love racing so many people at once... it's... a 'game fetish' I have.

[MyNameIsBom]

@Zero3growlithe
wow the track reminds me of Outpost 7, but i owned Outpost 7 though..

So is it possible to make MagLock sections in the tracks?
if it is possible then it would open up opportunities for tracks to have awesome sections. Eg. Talon's Junction Loop etc etc,

and do you guys think we need more tracks? what about ships? will this game get the ability to choose different ships with different stats?

[feisar rocket]

...playing a lot of F-Zero X...
You playing it on a ROM (sorry mods)? I'll send F-Zero Execution Project to you and one of my .fzep's forward and reverse. (unless you have it...) I've started mashing keys to Silence and White Land and Sector tracks ( especially Sector ß)

Back on topic

More the marrier right?
Any hopes on Zone mode?
I started using python today, its a powerful programme! (just at chapter 2 in tutorials though.)

back off topic

My gf broke up with me so I have more time to work with you guys. And I learnt Hex in one day (00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, etc. ) And Senary. ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, etc.

[Killercrusher232]

I use Project64. it's weird, WipEout 64 doesn't like the plugin that I use for f-zero, and neither look good for f-zero in the first place (one messes up menus but has good 3d, the other has good menus and bad 3d...)
Also, Thread derailment yay!

[zero3growlithe]

@MyNameIsBom: Yeeeeeees, it's possible to make them, just change texture or mark it somehow else on track in places where u want mag-strips and i'll take care of those places ;)
@feisar_rocket: ("Any hopes on Zone mode?") Hmmmmm... maybe :g If Unity will keep up with increasing speed and will detect all collisions then no problem.

[feisar rocket]

Hmmmmm... maybe :g...

Great, I made a ship model already! (not precise... but you'll see where I come from)

[Rotational_aspect]

Mag-strips are possible, all you need to do is set the ships to automatically orient itself to the track (i.e. align to normal) and then make gravity local to the object (so wherever the objects -z axis points is down).

I felt that I needed to do something similar to you Zero and program an auto sorting node based pathfinder. I'm almost finished, I just have to find a way to compare two lists simultaneously- it feels great when it works!

[MyNameIsBom]

Yay! thats great news! :clap, looking forward to zone mode! :g

as for improvements... in the game. im going to be a B**** on this one.
1. the ship hovering is great, but it feels really stiff somehow. feels like pulse, not saying its bad but when you turn a corner, especially corners that have slopes, the bottom of the ship grinds the track. which slows you down a bit.
2. excessive bouncing.... i dont really like it :P
3. the collision box for ships need to be fixed abit, because i can just fly staright into another ship and it will just fly over it.
4. The walls of the track, theyre rather easy to drive through? all you have to do is drive straight into it and youre out of the track, im sure there is a way to fix it, make it that its impossible to drive through.

i know my list is a bit demanding, but dont stress at it, take your time.
i know the game is at alpha stage(?) at the moment, wow i cant wait for zone mode or even the weapons! :D

also at the moment im still dumbstruck with 3DS max, i cant look at any tutorials at all due to my internet being at 0.06Mbs... :brickwall

is it a good idea if i draw some tracks for you guys? how about ships?

[feisar rocket]

Zone ship model, and FZEP (for anyone interested) is gonna be uploaded tomorrow or tonight ( depends on when my mom stops stalking and searching my room...)

If the Zone ship could be a team, celeritas (speed in latin), aptus (prepared in latin), Ar-Ce-O (pronounce like R-C-O) or caelum (pronounce like Sail-um) are names I like.

Short discription; Team <name here> has an open hull for the air cooling of its Delta level, Desync drive engine, capable of forcing the ship to mach 1 in a straightaway. But with a problem It's only possible to access mach 1- supersonic speeds with a light weight ship. Therefore, smaller shield batteries and less armor are installed. But with this speed, out running a weapon would be easy, unless your on Zero's latest track...

Speed over lateral stability and shielding, at least the Space Corps lended team <name here> military grade airbrakes to help you slow down at break-neck speeds. This is team <name here>.

P.S. Bouncing? Good! Give it that first WO feel. IDC about name btw.

[MyNameIsBom]

actually disregard my previous mention about the bouncing, i actually like it :redface: but still the "hovering" of the ship needs fixing, i wish i could help... only if i knew how to programme :brickwall

hold up, with the current "sliding" of the ship, zone mode would be impossible beyond phantom, i mean you would be sliding everywhere, wouldnt you? i think, give your opinions as well, that the sliding needs to be tweaked abit, im not saying that it has to be the same as HD's but rather like Pure's but towards Fusion abit.

as for zone tracks.. you can count on me! and i may come up with a ship.
as for the "sliding" factor, it will limit how sharp the corners, i draw, can be..
ill see howit turns out ;)

[feisar rocket]

...if i knew how to programme :brickwall......as for zone tracks.. you can count on me!

Ahlie! Only if...
Zone tracks... I might feel a track or two come up by morning.

Count on me 2! but not as much cause of Bom's s*xy tracks!

[zero3growlithe]

I just woke up and i got squashed by overnumbered posts replies on this thread X_X
Anyway, as I wrote earlier ("sterring like in WOHD") I meant that there is no sliding now and acceleration is WO like so i can control thrust now and make boosts possible to make.
@MyNameIsBom: Thanks for criticism, I'll check what i can do about stiff gravity. About flying through track... It's somehow fixed... a little again...
And about flying over AI ships I just got idea of making separate colliders for A.I ships and for other collisions so there will be nothing to worry if you'll want to bash A.I out of track xD
I think that's all:D

[feisar rocket]

I just woke up...

And Im just going to bed... what a coincidence!

[MyNameIsBom]

@MyNameIsBom: Thanks for criticism, I'll check what i can do about stiff gravity. About flying through track... It's somehow fixed... a little again...
And about flying over AI ships I just got idea of making separate colliders for A.I ships and for other collisions so there will be nothing to worry if you'll want to bash A.I out of track xD

oh sorry if i did sound harsh on my opinion, my apologies :frown:
as for the steering news, thats great! that means i will be able to do killer hair-pins and hard-to-maneuver chicanes! xD


Ahlie! Only if...
Zone tracks... I might feel a track or two come up by morning.

Count on me 2! but not as much cause of Bom's s*xy tracks!

well you can help me too, theres no I in a team! we're in this together, plus 2 is better then 1 right? :g
PS. thanks for the compliment

oh and i already am working on a ship, the progress is about half way now. will post pics when i can ;)

[feisar rocket]

Can I do team discriptions (like in Pure)?

[zero3growlithe]

Sure, why not? ;)
btw. "Zero's latest track" is a bit too hard for first look? :g

[Killercrusher232]

I've always liked the idea of a nascar stadium style track for zone mode, that way players would really get a taste of the higher speed levels!

[MyNameIsBom]

Ive finally made a concept/early version of a zone ship on Google sketchup! ;) i will export it into 3DS MAX once it is fully done :P Preview images is in the attached zip file, i cant upload them one by one because it would take an eternity! :brickwall PLEASE do look at the pictures and tell me what you think of it!
the file is only 911.4KBs! ;)

i await your critisism/comments :g

[MyNameIsBom]

Post removed

[Xpand]

I've always liked the idea of a nascar stadium style track for zone mode, that way players would really get a taste of the higher speed levels!

I though of that too, I'm actually drawing it right now. I'd call it test/training tracks. I'm making an oval version and a 8 shaped one...

About the team descriptions, lets not get ahead of ourselves. we don't have all the teams done and the most important part which is the gameplay isn't actually complete yet, not to mention the menus...

I'd focus on a brainstorming on how the menus would look like.

[feisar rocket]

btw. "Zero's latest track" is a bit too hard for first look? :g
Yehs! *shouted like captain falcon*

Alright then, Xpand :(
I drew a HUD but lost it... 1 year ago...

Menus? Linear like WO3. I have the font already (downloaded off the 'zone btw)

I uploaded the Zone ship/ maybe new team ship
KillCrush, i uploaded FZEP for you with 2 tracks

[Killercrusher232]

now i just have to figure out why my track isn't showing up in the game...

[feisar rocket]

There are many rules.
rule 1, there cannot be more than 64 ctrl points, they cannot be too close (10 units^2).
-rule 2. To lower load errors, There CANT be 1 ctrl point at a 90* or over corner.
-Rule 3. You cannot overwrite the import rom (1st one at patch window (your F-Zero X rom should turn into F-Zero X mfd (two different roms) or it will not load.
-rule 4. YOU MUST CHECK "recalculate header checksum" AND LOAD FROM FILE.
-rule 5. You cannot have more than 18 speed pads, 4 jump pads, 8 widgets, no pits in center.
thats a summary of it

p.s. load up my track- half loop.

[MyNameIsBom]

post removed

[MyNameIsBom]

....I'd focus on a brainstorming on how the menus would look like.

Already on that my friend ;)

[Killercrusher232]

-rule 4. YOU MUST CHECK "recalculate header checksum" AND LOAD FROM FILE.


I probably forgot to select it in it's directory...

[Killercrusher232]

How's this for a first (proper) try at Sketchup:
2813

[feisar rocket]

KillCrush, its okay for a first but ONE question... How'd you get the top see-through without the whole thing being see-through?
recalculate header checksum by pressing F8 (patch window) and check it.

Bom saw your zone ship, its like a Pure-HD hybrid...

[Killercrusher232]

It's a texture in the fill tool's menu, under transparency.
Also, I got FZEP working now. Half-loop is deadly, half-loop rev is death...

[Killercrusher232]

Plus:
1000 posts!