The Castle

[michalis]

My PGD competition entry, The Castle is available here (http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/castle.php).

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/news/2006_05_22_thecastle.png (http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/castle.php)

The game is basically like a first-person shooter, except that your main weapon is a sword :) So the fight is mostly short-range. Atmosphere is a more-or-less fantasty setting. 3 levels included, packed with creatures, items, sounds and music.

The version currently for download is 0.6.3, which already got some fixes and improvements comparing to version 0.6.1 that was submitted for PGD competition.

The game is available with all the sources, binaries for Linux and Windows are included. Everything is done in FreePascal, using OpenGL and OpenAL. 3D models of everything (levels, creatures, items) were done in Blender and then exported to VRML.

Requirements to run: good OpenGL performance and around 300 MB free memory. Preferably NVidia graphic card, as there are still some unresolved issues with Radeon.

[Robert Kosek]

I must apologize, but your game takes forever to load and there is no "Level Restart" option. I refuse to take the 10 minutes it takes to load to fix a problem I have created, and seeing that it's similar to a roguelike, I'll be making many mistakes.

No hard feelings or anything, but it's just unplayable for me.

[michalis]

I must apologize, but your game takes forever to load and there is no "Level Restart" option. I refuse to take the 10 minutes it takes to load to fix a problem I have created, and seeing that it's similar to a roguelike, I'll be making many mistakes.

No hard feelings or anything, but it's just unplayable for me.

There is a "Level Restart" option --- it's just called "New Game" :) "New Game" option will allow you to restart the game from any level that you reached at least once. At the beginning only the 1st level is available, but once you "unlock" 2nd or 3rd level, you will be able to restart the game from there any times you want.

As for the "forever loading" problem: the game takes about 36 seconds to load *for the 1st time you run "New Game"*. When changing from level to level, or when reentering "New Game" e.g. after you died, the loading time is about 10 seconds. However, this was all talking about NVidia GeForce cards.

What graphic card do you use ? Radeon ? Then this is unfortunately a known problem --- the game takes a couple of minutes to load there, and there are other rendering issues. See the "TODO things" on the webpage, and the "TODO" file inside the game archive. I plan to fix these things, but it's hard without free access to any machine running Radeon (seems that everyone around me use NVidia). Some progress may occur around the end of this week, i.e. 2006-05-28.

[idee_fixe]

Michalis,

I've played your game a bit now, the load times were fine for me, less than a minute (and I don't have a beefy system).

I like the game overall, but I have a big complaint - you lose too much damage when you fall! Sometimes you even get hurt when you jump and there is a slight decline! The ghosts were a little hard to fight too, but once I figured out where the scroll of flying is on the first level I didn't have too much trouble!

It's a cool idea (smart to us VRML for the levels, too!), good job!

[michalis]

I like the game overall, but I have a big complaint - you lose too much damage when you fall! Sometimes you even get hurt when you jump and there is a slight decline!


You're right. I placed this on my TODO list, I'll make the "acceptable height to fall without life loss" higher and lower the life loss factor for the next release.



The ghosts were a little hard to fight too, but once I figured out where the scroll of flying is on the first level I didn't have too much trouble!


That's good, so the game is both "challenging" and "doable" :) Initially ghosts moved slower and were much easier to defeat, it was a suggestion of Szmon&Kaśka (the ones mentioned in the "Credits") to make them faster to be more challenging.



It's a cool idea (smart to us VRML for the levels, too!), good job!

Heh. Thanks! Actually it was smart to use VRML, *and* it was smart to design most of them in blender :)

[Robert Kosek]

There is a "Level Restart" option --- it's just called "New Game" :) "New Game" option will allow you to restart the game from any level that you reached at least once. At the beginning only the 1st level is available, but once you "unlock" 2nd or 3rd level, you will be able to restart the game from there any times you want.With the load time this makes "New Game" impossible. I find that the player moves far too swiftly in the air.


As for the "forever loading" problem: the game takes about 36 seconds to load *for the 1st time you run "New Game"*. When changing from level to level, or when reentering "New Game" e.g. after you died, the loading time is about 10 seconds. However, this was all talking about NVidia GeForce cards.

What graphic card do you use ? Radeon ? Then this is unfortunately a known problem --- the game takes a couple of minutes to load there, and there are other rendering issues. See the "TODO things" on the webpage, and the "TODO" file inside the game archive. I plan to fix these things, but it's hard without free access to any machine running Radeon (seems that everyone around me use NVidia). Some progress may occur around the end of this week, i.e. 2006-05-28.Yes, I have a Radeon 9800XT, and the loading took 10 minutes. Which is why I won't play until you fix that problem.

[WILL]

Yeah, I got the Radeon problem too as per my previous post in your other topic.

[Traveler]

Radeon problems having been mentioned earlier by Dirk and me in this (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3192&start=30) thread.

[NecroDOME]

I'v tested your game.

The game runs fine, the bosses are maybe a bit easy.
The first boss in the castle itself: just hover overit with your Scroll of Flying, slash it with your sword and it just stands still. Almost the same with the big spider at the end: jump on it, slash it with your sword and yout done.

Graphics are simple but nice, but you could build a wall of fence around the first level to get rid of the invisible walls :P

Try to make jumping more smoothly and less falling damage. I jumped of a litte hill and got damage from that little jump.

Overall a nice game.

[michalis]

I'v tested your game.

The game runs fine, the bosses are maybe a bit easy.
The first boss in the castle itself: just hover overit with your Scroll of Flying, slash it with your sword and it just stands still. Almost the same with the big spider at the end: jump on it, slash it with your sword and yout done.


The trick with defeating the bosses with "Scroll of Flying" is known. It's sort of a reward for the player for experimenting with flying. Although defeating SpiderQueen even with the help of "Scroll of Flying" should be quite hard anyway... I think that I'll remove one of the scrolls, so that player can use only one scroll for 30 seconds --- this should make the fun harder.



Graphics are simple but nice, but you could build a wall of fence around the first level to get rid of the invisible walls :P


I like the idea of "wall of fence", but it's difficult to make this look natural. *Too difficult* for me anyway :) To make it look natural, the wall must use real 3D fence (i.e. not textured billboards), and the fence must be also scattered around the level to make it look more natural. So for now the "invisible walls" look better than the wall of fence I can model...



Try to make jumping more smoothly and less falling damage. I jumped of a litte hill and got damage from that little jump.


idee_fixe also mentioned this in this thread. It will be fixed for the next release (which will probably happen next weekend --- I planned to do it this weekend, but too little time).



Overall a nice game.

Thanks!

[Chebmaster]

I tried it.

1. Supply OpenAL with the package. I, for example, don't have it installed on my WinXP, so I was playing with no sound.

2. The volumetric fog isn't visible in the bottom part of the screen (see 1 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_0.jpg), 2 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_1.jpg), 3 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_2.jpg)).
Sempron 2400+, GeForceFX 5200.

3. With no sound it's very hard to see if you hit the monster or not.

4. Shouldn't be this dude (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_3.jpg) textured somehow?

5. Solutions for the edge-of-level could include: a) impassabe cliffs/abysses at the edges of the landscape (too high/wide to pass even by flying) b) endless sea (level=island)

6. It could help if your game spewed out a log file.[/url]

[michalis]

I tried it.

1. Supply OpenAL with the package. I, for example, don't have it installed on my WinXP, so I was playing with no sound.


I'll include OpenAL installer when I will do real exe installer for Windows. For now, installation instructions point to OpenAL installation, and most people seem to get it :)



2. The volumetric fog isn't visible in the bottom part of the screen (see 1 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_0.jpg), 2 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_1.jpg), 3 (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_2.jpg)).
Sempron 2400+, GeForceFX 5200.


The screenshots look perfectly fine, I don't see any problem there ? Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.

So that's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously :)



3. With no sound it's very hard to see if you hit the monster or not.


Most monsters except the bosses get a "knockback"... I think that for bosses it can be indeed hardly visible (as they don't get knockback most of the time). Boss life indicator helps here, but maybe you're right, this should be improved somehow.



4. Shouldn't be this dude (http://host-17-99.imsys.net/_share/castle_screen_3.jpg) textured somehow?


He should :) But he is not for now. I will texture him at some point.



5. Solutions for the edge-of-level could include: a) impassabe cliffs/abysses at the edges of the landscape (too high/wide to pass even by flying) b) endless sea (level=island)


Hmm, both are good ideas. I don't want to surround the whole level with sea (I want the level to "feel" like in the middle of the forest). Actually, maybe I'll use all three ideas ---- on the left side of the level I could do a cliff, on the right and bottom I could use wall of fence, and add a little "opening on the sea" on the right side where the river ends.

Yes, I think I'll do it. Although this will have to wait untill I'll get some free time to do some modelling, I have it recorded in "TODO" file. Thanks!



6. It could help if your game spewed out a log file.

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report :) ). At some point some log file probably will be generated, but no need for now.

What information were you looking for when seeking for the log file ? I mean, maybe I should expand "View video information" or "View sound information" dialogs with some important info ?

Thanks for the feedback!

[Chebmaster]

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report Smile ).
Since people here aren't all normal players but some are pascal game developers trying to help each other. I'd send you such file anyway.



Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.
Try dark halos around the characters instead (work on your font in photoshop or use software approach). Because as it is, this feature feels like it's a graphical bug.

[michalis]

Why ? That's useless for normal player anyway (as long as the game doesn't crash and he doesn't have to send me a bug report Smile ).
Since people here aren't all normal players but some are pascal game developers trying to help each other. I'd send you such file anyway.


Thanks :) But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful. That's why I didn't implement it for now --- although it probably will be added at some point. In case you're just curious what the game is doing, you have access to full source code :)




Unless you mean the darkened area at the bottom of the screen ? Bottom of the screen is always darkened, to make the yellow messages more visible. Otherwise, if you would look at some bright object, yellow text could become unreadable.
Try dark halos around the characters instead (work on your font in photoshop or use software approach). Because as it is, this feature feels like it's a graphical bug.

That's doable, but IMO darkened area at the bottom looks simply nice and I would like to keep it :) Why does it look like a graphical bug ? I mean, when you use mouse look, the darkened area always stays at the bottom of the screen, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen". Maybe removing the "fade" of the darkened area helps --- like on http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/tmp/castle_screen_0.png ?

[Chebmaster]

, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen".
Nuh-huh. It says "Oops.. something wrong here. Maybe the fog doesn't work in the bottom part of the screen due to some glitch in the shader?"

*Especially* after what I heard about bugs with the fog on ATI.


Thanks Smile But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful.
Well, it can tell you the system specs, supported OpenGL extensions and driver vendor.

[michalis]

, so it should be clear that it's "tied to 2D screen".
Nuh-huh. It says "Oops.. something wrong here. Maybe the fog doesn't work in the bottom part of the screen due to some glitch in the shader?"

*Especially* after what I heard about bugs with the fog on ATI.


Which basically means that you were mislead by some rumors, and when seeing a properly working feature you thought that it's a bug :) Bugs on ATI are intended to be fixed, that's different story.

I'll ask what others think about the darkened area --- so far noone considered it a bug, so I'm after leaving it the way it is, because it looks nice.




Thanks Smile But in case of error I would usually need to ask you for more specific info anyway, i.e. general log file is seldom useful.
Well, it can tell you the system specs, supported OpenGL extensions and driver vendor.

That's printed in "View video information" dialog. I also made long time ago a separate program for doing just that http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/glcaps.php. Contents of "View video information" dialog should be "dumpable" to the stdout (and to the clipboard), that was intended to be done since a long time (and it still is :) ). Once again: I'm not against implementing a log file, it will be done at some point, and then probably will include everything printed by "View video information" and "View sound information" and by yellow messages printed on game screen, and probably some more... You know, it's probably easier to implement it instead of talking :) OK, it will be done for 0.6.4 version (hopefully around next weekend).

[WILL]

So any luck with a Radeon fix yet? I still haven't been able to play this game yet and it's been 4 months since the end of the competiton. :o

Are you going to continue 'The Castle' now that the competition is behind you?

[michalis]

Sure it's continued. Engine was in quite development this summer, which allowed me to implement VRML 97 support. 0.7.0 release of "The Castle" is planned very, very soon --- quoting myself from http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/changes_log.php, it will have

1. a small joke/experiment level (it's already partially done — you'll see what is this :) and

2. finally fix these Radeon issues.

Also demo level designed in VRML 97 will be added. It's planned around the middle of the next month. It will be announced in this thread.

For now you can enjoy my master's thesis about my VRML engine on http://www.camelot.homedns.org/~michalis/vrml_engine_doc.php. This is what I was working on this month.

[tanffn]

Nice thesis work!
Congrads on its completion, must be a nice feeling.. :)

[michalis]

Nice thesis work!
Congrads on its completion, must be a nice feeling.. :)

Thanks, it sure is a nice feeling. Just got it finalized today, all corrections etc. are applied. It was fun writing a thesis that basically describes my game engine :)