4E4 Contest Entry - Unnamed RTS

[HopeDagger]

Absolutely love the graphics. I can see that the game is starting to take form in a very attractive manner! Did you make them yourself? :D

EDIT: Just tried the game, and it's crashing on me. Here's the log file it spews out (looks like init problems :/):

STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:37 AM MSG : Starting Application IN : Initialization
STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:37 AM MSG : SDL being started up. IN : S2DLDraws.Initialization
STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:39 AM MSG : Closing down fonts IN : S2DLText.Finalization
STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:39 AM MSG : SDL being closed down. IN : S2DLDraws.Finalization
STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:39 AM MSG : S2DLDraw surface being cleared IN : TS2DLDraw.Destroy
STATUS INFO : @ 10:02:39 AM MSG : Terminating Application IN : Finalization

[cairnswm]

Sorry about the missing images problem - I'm just trying to save some web space and still be able to keep all the versions on my web site for someone that wants to see the progress.

I may put some FileExists checks at the start and exit if the files dont exist.

I will be continuing the progress a bit later this week - unfortunatly I will also be working 14hour days over the next 2 or 3 weeks so I'm not sure how much time I'll have

[cairnswm]

Done a little work on this again - yes I know its about time!

I changed the way the items are draw so that they (mostly) are draw in reverse Y order (ie this draws the back items before the foreground items) - mostly - as the position of the item is defined by the topleft corner of the item instead the actual 'feet' of the item.

I have added some skeletons and some robot buildings (thanks WilliamHK - NAG forums - will be doing the robot units for the game) to the program. These items can be selected by using the selection rectangle (Ill add click to select a specific item at a later stage - as well as shift to 'add' select items)

Here is a screen shot:


After creating the image I relealised that the picture making the biggest impact of the size of the download was the trees, so I trimmed out some trees to minimise the download. So the exe only has 8 tree pictures.

The download is here:
http://www.cairnsgames.co.za/downloa...es/rts0-05.zip

If anyone wants the source please PM me with your email address (I'm saving space on my site).

Started implementing some of my object model now.

Basically I have something called an TRTSGame (All classes in Delphi start with a T) - This actually manages the whole game data. It knows how to draw itself and items in it, it knows when to tell items to move, it knows about selecting etc. Any item that needs to know about another item in the game asks TRTSMap about the other item. (Basically a cross between a game object and an object factory).

All items that get displayed on the map are decentant of TRTSItem. An item basically knows how to do very basic functions such as controlling selection, drawing etc. It will have no collision management, no AI options, no movement ability.
From TRTSItem there are a number of branches. For now I just added TRTSUnit and TRTSBuilding - however in the final object model these will probably inherit from a TRTSPlayerItem as opposed to a TRTSObstruction item.

Trees are currently just TRTSItems but will later become children of the Obstruction class. The obstruction class will have no movement or other interaction methods but be a static object that gets in the units way.

(Man - its good to get back to game dev... I have spent 150 hours at work over the last 2 weeks - excl travel time).

[Traveler]

Sweet, another update!

Everything seems to work quit well. I didn't find any bugs in any case, so good work there. I see you're also testing for missing images now nice!

As always,.. looking forward to the next version.

PS. I'm not really sure why but your "fan club" at NAG appears to be quite a bit larger. :?

[cairnswm]

I never knew I had a fan club - If I had known I might have updated my web site more often

NAG is a local game magazine - the forum has only been up for a month or so - so a lot more people will be joining the forum over thenext while

Keep the bug reports coming - the more testers I have now the less errors there will be when I hand it in... I am away (again) this week end - so maybe a change tonight else the saga continues next week. (Also NAG have a contest on for this month so need to develop something for that tooo).

[Crisp_N_Dry]

60fps (VSYNC enabled I'm guessing) on a GeforceFX 5800. I like the unit selection, very cool. Although a click select is pretty much standard fare for RTS' but I'm sure that's on the way. Keep us updated, this is definately one to watch.

[cairnswm]

What version of the download are you trying? Versions 0-01 to 0-03 are using straight SDL (pretty much DirectX 5) - and I get a FPS of around 30 on my notebook. From Version 0-04 onwards I have integrated OpenGL with my SDL libraries. Now I get an FPS of about 80.

If you want to look for bottlenecks most of the source code is availabel for download and you can compile for yourself.

[cairnswm]

Version 0-06



Added life counter to the units.
Added movement (Use rect to select units - right click to move to the location)
Add formations - Up to 9 units will walk and move in formation.

Exe is here (PREVIOUS IMAGE FILES REQUIRED - see RTS0-05.zip)
http://www.cairnsgames.co.za/downloa...es/rts0-06.zip

I want to add Unit animations but that will increase the file download sizes too much. I am going to leave this until later in the process.

I am going away for the weekend. More updates starting sometime around wednesday.

[lief]

cairns, how did you handle formations? once selected will they keep current formation while walking (im at work, cant download it)? I'm workin on a little abstract tactical squad thingo, ive got terrain modifiers, line of sight, viewing arcs (can only see forwards) and waypoints working. i was thinking over a formation system and how strict to make it. its very wooden to have 5 men marching in a five-dot-dice pattern through a forest while chasing the enemy. I was hoping to plan a slightly random path for each soldier, with lagged adjustments so it is more general. More like a swarming algorithm I guess but adding angle estimates to squadmates as well as min & max distances.

[cairnswm]

At the moment I'm using the 5 dot dice pattern Add a little bit of randomness to where they stop/start and you should have something that looks quite good.

When it comes to movement each unit will use their own path finding system. This means that they will not walk in the formation but will each choose their own path. While walking they will check collisions along the path and stop when bumping into each other. (Too many bumps will mean trying to find a new path).

While using swarming to manage the formations I feel it is important to weigh up the amount of work to benefit, at this time I feel something like that will not add greatly to what I am achieving. Therefore the 5 dot dice pattern (10% work effort - 80% as good) is the better option.

Because of the limited time I have to work on games (usually about 4-8 hours a week) I always do this sort of cost/benefit evaluation. I want to get games done and finished. If they are only 80% of what they could be because of using the 10-20% effort routines well thats fine Remember the old adage - 80% of the work is in 20% of the code - I just always avoid that 20% of the code