Ballistic NG - Wipeout fan project

[Ace3000]

As the creator of Tenrai/Angelus (Angelus initially, name changed to Tenrai to avoid copyright), I should mention that their motto is "Faster Than Angels"

[bigsnake]

Hey everyone, today I'm releasing the Wipeout Anniversary Build. I was able to get everything I wanted setup earlier then expected so I might as well release it early for people to try out
As a side note, this version of the game might be more resource heavy then others on the graphics side. There's a bunch of graphics presets when you launch the game so if your computer is struggling then try turning the graphics down.

Download here

As usual, tell me what you like/dislike and I hope you enjoy it!


There's a cheat you can type on the menu to unlock a secret ship, you can find the cheat on the video.

[aybe]

Hi !

Very impressive

There are 2 bugs that prevented me fully enjoying it, however :

- if you run out of time, there is no escape but Alt-F4 as going back to menu will freeze while 'loading'
- Xbox One Controller : default config turns to the left, I remapped the input and while steering is okay, acceleration does not work anymore after starting blocks

Other than it's really great

Can't wait to see your code so I can learn a bit more on the topic !
Btw, do you have any time frame on when you'll make it public ?

Thank you !

[bigsnake]

Hi !

Very impressive

There are 2 bugs that prevented me fully enjoying it, however :

- if you run out of time, there is no escape but Alt-F4 as going back to menu will freeze while 'loading'
- Xbox One Controller : default config turns to the left, I remapped the input and while steering is okay, acceleration does not work anymore after starting blocks

Other than it's really great

Can't wait to see your code so I can learn a bit more on the topic !
Btw, do you have any time frame on when you'll make it public ?

Thank you !

Cheers for the feedback!

I'm currently looking into the loading issue, Maciek reported it just a minute ago too. Does the Xbox One controller still use XInput? There's not too much I can do on the input front at the moment because I'm still using Unity's input manager.

If you PM me your email I'll add you to my private bitbucket repository, since there's remakes of copyrighted material I'm holding off going completely open source until I can make a minimal starter assets only version.

[aybe]

As said by Microsoft, it's 'binary compatible' with the X360 controller, i.e. it is using XInput.

The trigger axes however are seen as independent by Unity but IIRC this is wrong (the design decision of MS to map them as a single axis for DInput).

That's not a big deal after all, i.e. you made a great job for the game (most important), this being minor bugs (btw, for Unity there is this library https://github.com/speps/XInputDotNet)

just PM'd you

[bigsnake]

As said by Microsoft, it's 'binary compatible' with the X360 controller, i.e. it is using XInput.

The trigger axes however are seen as independent by Unity but IIRC this is wrong (the design decision of MS to map them as a single axis for DInput).

That's not a big deal after all, i.e. you made a great job for the game (most important), this being minor bugs (btw, for Unity there is this library https://github.com/speps/XInputDotNet)

just PM'd you

Thanks for the info I can remember implementing XInputDotNet into AGR2280 before ditching it for BallisticNG so it will be easy enough to implement.

I've tracked down and fixed the loading freeze issue and I'm fixing a problem with the camera that occurs if you respawn, progress on fixes reported will be updated on my trello board. I'll release a hotfix update on the 29th.

[aybe]

alright, great !

I'll impregnate myself of the content of the repository tomorrow,

By the way, I've seen that on your trello board you've mentioned WO3 tracks have you made any progress on the WO3 reverse engineering ???

Maybe you've seen my WO3 unpacking tools already, here they are anyway :

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...287#post243287

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...339#post243339

It is a bit dated since I did it but basically WO3 PBPs are CMPs in disguise, the main difference though is that there is a higher level architecture with objects compared to WO1 and WOXL (undeciphered for now).

My tools will unpack every file in a PBP, now remains the hard work of TBC !

[bigsnake]

I know very little about reverse engineering files so I wouldn't know where to begin trying to reverse engineer WO3
All the track remakes are being done from scratch with birdseye screenshots from the model viewer from Phoboslab

The hotfix is up. You can download it here, from the original anniversary post or go to the github download page manually, here's the changelog:

- Fixed loading freeze bug
- Camera now updates correctly on respawns
- Modified start boost
	> Increased accuracy zone from 0.7 - 0.8 to 0.65 - 0.85
	> Going over the accuracy zone resets engine power to zero
	> Added start boost sound
- Ship selection arrows can now be clicked
- Added temp invisible floor on right branch jump to make it possible on spark class
- Fixed loading screen hints being chopped off
- Added more hints to the loading screen
- Updated Wyvern's livery to make it a bit more distinct from GTek's

[Ace3000]

There's a cheat you can type on the menu to unlock a secret ship, you can find the cheat on the video.

It's... a... oh my. XD

It's by far the best ship, but still, it's... that

[TheXTR09]

Hot damn, this release is the best yet. Everything still runs smooth even on max settings, and the worldspace feels "filled" enough. Good job Snake.

However, there were painful glitches, and I have to be elaborate just to make them clear.

# Side walls on the track are not solid. You'll fall straight down, and then respawn so far away from where you fell. It's frustrating but I guess it can be easily fixed.
# Sometimes running up ramps can mess up the camera, making it go psudeo-first-person (in short, ship disappears). Trying to reset the camera will crash the game. Everything hangs up, and the HUD will disappear. Most likely because the camera being switched into cockpit mode.
# Switching cameras before the race starts works, but the model of the bare cocpkit can be seen in third-person as the camera zooms into the ship. It's spoopy. Trust me.
# The track is too easy. jk

I have some opinions on making the track better, but whether you like it or not is your choice.
# The track lacks a blue, snowy feel. It should have blue tint and some snowstorms to make it much more atmospheric.
# The skybox can use a flat mountain background and auroras like the original. Yes, there are color-changing auroras in the PSX WipEout. Made in 1995. Such anal attention to detail.


I'm not sure if I'm just nitpicking for anything, but I just can't see BnG go off being too generic. I know I'm being annoying again without contributing much, but what I know best is playing the game, naturally pretty much becoming a beta tester. I might create something in the year-end holidays, but this is what I can do now.

But you still impressed me, Snake. Dank job m8

[bigsnake]

It's... a... oh my. XD

It's by far the best ship, but still, it's... that

Because of the stats it's now also known as the God Tampon
If you want an explanation of why it exists by the way, when I first started on AGR2280 I had no skills in any area and for a ship I slapped a capsule and box shape together. When a few friends played it they kept mentioning how it looked like a tampon.

Hot damn, this release is the best yet. Everything still runs smooth even on max settings, and the worldspace feels "filled" enough. Good job Snake.

However, there were painful glitches, and I have to be elaborate just to make them clear.

# Side walls on the track are not solid. You'll fall straight down, and then respawn so far away from where you fell. It's frustrating but I guess it can be easily fixed.
# Sometimes running up ramps can mess up the camera, making it go psudeo-first-person (in short, ship disappears). Trying to reset the camera will crash the game. Everything hangs up, and the HUD will disappear. Most likely because the camera being switched into cockpit mode.
# Switching cameras before the race starts works, but the model of the bare cocpkit can be seen in third-person as the camera zooms into the ship. It's spoopy. Trust me.
# The track is too easy. jk

I have some opinions on making the track better, but whether you like it or not is your choice.
# The track lacks a blue, snowy feel. It should have blue tint and some snowstorms to make it much more atmospheric.
# The skybox can use a flat mountain background and auroras like the original. Yes, there are color-changing auroras in the PSX WipEout. Made in 1995. Such anal attention to detail.


I'm not sure if I'm just nitpicking for anything, but I just can't see BnG go off being too generic. I know I'm being annoying again without contributing much, but what I know best is playing the game, naturally pretty much becoming a beta tester. I might create something in the year-end holidays, but this is what I can do now.

But you still impressed me, Snake. Dank job m8

Thank you!

So for bugs:
The side walls are somewhat intentional and there is a trade off to not being able to fly on the top surfaces of walls. The idea is to emulate Wipeout's wall collisions without the inaccuracy of a physics solver (what pushes two objects apart on collisions), this is what made ships in the older Wipeout games fly straight through walls without any collisions possible. Anyway, the idea is you can't travel through the wall when on the track but if you leave the track then getting back on will be easy. I know having a full collidable wall would seem to make more sense, but in this context I'm wanting to make the physics authentic.

Are you able to record that ramp and camera issue? I haven't been able to reproduce it at all, it sounds like you're running out of time (at the moment the ship is just removed until I make some explosion effects).

Ah yeah the switching cameras before the race, that's a really quick fix. Thanks for reminding me

[aybe]

I know very little about reverse engineering files so I wouldn't know where to begin trying to reverse engineer WO3
All the track remakes are being done from scratch with birdseye screenshots from the model viewer from Phoboslab

The hotfix is up. You can download it here, from the original anniversary post or go to the github download page manually, here's the changelog:

- Fixed loading freeze bug
- Camera now updates correctly on respawns
- Modified start boost
	> Increased accuracy zone from 0.7 - 0.8 to 0.65 - 0.85
	> Going over the accuracy zone resets engine power to zero
	> Added start boost sound
- Ship selection arrows can now be clicked
- Added temp invisible floor on right branch jump to make it possible on spark class
- Fixed loading screen hints being chopped off
- Added more hints to the loading screen
- Updated Wyvern's livery to make it a bit more distinct from GTek's

Ok, going to give it a try.

For RE-ing I myself have very little knowledge, relying mostly on hints and lots of trial and error. For instance, vertices and polygon are easily identifiable as there are about 8 types used for PSX : flat/shaded/triangles/quads ... but for the objects system it is entirely new in WO3, the only hints we have is their name which is not that bad as they are quite evocative. We might not be able to decipher everything but as Dominic shown in his experiment it might be sufficient to get something on screen As you've seen on my pics, we have track data, remains texcoords and polygons and this took me about 1 day, I'm confident we'll crack it 1 day, and we can always ask Dominic later for some help ! TBC

Going to open the repo in Unity and get familiar with it,

[aybe]

I know very little about reverse engineering files so I wouldn't know where to begin trying to reverse engineer WO3
All the track remakes are being done from scratch with birdseye screenshots from the model viewer from Phoboslab

The hotfix is up. You can download it here, from the original anniversary post or go to the github download page manually, here's the changelog:

- Fixed loading freeze bug
- Camera now updates correctly on respawns
- Modified start boost
	> Increased accuracy zone from 0.7 - 0.8 to 0.65 - 0.85
	> Going over the accuracy zone resets engine power to zero
	> Added start boost sound
- Ship selection arrows can now be clicked
- Added temp invisible floor on right branch jump to make it possible on spark class
- Fixed loading screen hints being chopped off
- Added more hints to the loading screen
- Updated Wyvern's livery to make it a bit more distinct from GTek's

Tested last build, results:

Bug is still present for hints being chopped off

Input configuration is broken/misbehaving for Xbox One pad

On some occasions the accepted press will differ for triggers, i.e. sometimes axis 2, sometimes no. 9

Quick fix:

1. reset your configuration by deleting this registry key : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Vonsnake\BnG
2. run it again, setup graphics
3. setup only these axes: (airbrakes will work properly)
2015-09-28 23_02_03-BnG Configuration.png
4. you should end up with this (name suffixes on your side might differ)
2015-09-28 23_03_33-Registry Editor.png
5. navigation still works in menus but is reverse and long to react -> use your mouse
6. enjoy !

this until it gets fixed in-game,

@bigsnake

It is my 3rd attempt trying to sync the repo but it always fails due to a time out, near 400Mb. I guess those size warnings at Bitbucket are probably hintful, you might never experience this since you're the initiator and uploaded stuff progressively. None of the clients (Github, Sourcetree) do resume the sync, so when it fails I have to start from the beginning ...

Otherwise while waiting I've been browsing the code and I might need a little guidance the unity project is huge compared to mine and I feel a bit lost ... I suggest that and also that you give me my first task and we'll see from there

[AGgamer]

Hey, bigsnake. If you don't mind me asking: What's the plan for the backstory? I know you're waiting until all the teams are accounted for, but I was just on the BnG Wiki and it seems you're already making a lot of decisions on what you're doing with the backstory. G-Tek already has a backstory, as does Project Utah. Will you be open to help with fleshing out the story? Or do you want it to remain your own? Because I can seriously help in the story department.

[aybe]

@bigsnake

I finally cloned the repo

It took a very long time and worked only through SSH btw ...

Looking at the tracks scenes, you did an impressive job

I will definitely need you presenting to me what does what and so on, it is really huge !

And for my first commit I was thinking of something like doing the 'controls' section on the menu for instance, for a start !

see ya

[bigsnake]

Hey, bigsnake. If you don't mind me asking: What's the plan for the backstory? I know you're waiting until all the teams are accounted for, but I was just on the BnG Wiki and it seems you're already making a lot of decisions on what you're doing with the backstory. G-Tek already has a backstory, as does Project Utah. Will you be open to help with fleshing out the story? Or do you want it to remain your own? Because I can seriously help in the story department.

Yeah I'm completely open with the story, what's on the wiki right now are just placeholders more then anything. If you want, make a new page on the wiki and add all your ideas there, just make sure you link it somewhere visible (here, on the ideas page, wherever really). I'm now going to focusing on getting all the pending team ships modeled so that will be one step towards having everything needed to get the story going.

@bigsnake

I finally cloned the repo

It took a very long time and worked only through SSH btw ...

Looking at the tracks scenes, you did an impressive job

I will definitely need you presenting to me what does what and so on, it is really huge !

And for my first commit I was thinking of something like doing the 'controls' section on the menu for instance, for a start !

see ya

Git is a pain in the ass, to clone through HTTP you need to do a shallow clone and set the download buffer to a stupidly high amount. Shallow cloning only clones the latest commit on the repository, I had to do it when cloning SSGX otherwise it would just refuse to clone and kill itself.

I'll send you a PM outlining where everything is and what it does. I think implanting a controls menu is a good idea, you'll need a third party input manager though because Unity's default one only allows you to change the controls when the game isn't running (it reads the controls from the registry on launch and then forgets about it)

[Tucknut.net]

Very nice progress since the last release. Thanks for sharing!

Love the track. And no issues using my XB1 controller.

However, I do agree with Temet on the track texture. I like the one in the 0.1 video much better. The reflections look great and it has more of a WO HD feel to it.

[aybe]

Yeah I'm completely open with the story, what's on the wiki right now are just placeholders more then anything. If you want, make a new page on the wiki and add all your ideas there, just make sure you link it somewhere visible (here, on the ideas page, wherever really). I'm now going to focusing on getting all the pending team ships modeled so that will be one step towards having everything needed to get the story going.



Git is a pain in the ass, to clone through HTTP you need to do a shallow clone and set the download buffer to a stupidly high amount. Shallow cloning only clones the latest commit on the repository, I had to do it when cloning SSGX otherwise it would just refuse to clone and kill itself.

I'll send you a PM outlining where everything is and what it does. I think implanting a controls menu is a good idea, you'll need a third party input manager though because Unity's default one only allows you to change the controls when the game isn't running (it reads the controls from the registry on launch and then forgets about it)

yes actually I've even tried 1.8Gb as the buffer but it failed too ... if you look at there's a huge 1.2Gb file in .git in the end SSH did it but at 120Kb/s ...

just PM'd you too

[aybe]

@bigsnake

just pm'd you ! first skeleton for an input manager

[TheXTR09]

@bigsnake with ramp issue

Sorry, nothing to do with the ramp, it's actually the checkpoint running out of time. If you do run out of time, you can still move around, but switching views crashes the game.

And I'm pretty sure going too far off the track in WipEout simply made the ship hit an invisible wall, sending it back to tbe track...

Speaking of the track, the final chicanes on the second left tracks (leading to the finish line) aren't banked. I remember those corners screwed many people sideways but that part to me felt the most rhythmic. Feels so good getting through the hard parts without a scratch.