GUNS - Reloaded

[billy1380]

Hmmm :?

Both PowerPC and Intel Macs have the capability to produce universal binaries, but that is through gcc 4 using a switch. FPC does not have a similar switch; not to my knowledge, any way.

That does not mean that you cannot compile baniaries for PPC on an Intel Mac or vice versa. Just play with the compiler switches? Not sure really...

As for PearPC, it is a bit slow and you will need a copy of Mac OS X to run on it i.e. it is a processor emulator... last post/update was last year?

[jasonf]

It's been a productive ol' evening all in all..

I've got the Wave system up and running. You can choose which guns are part of which wave. If all of your guns in the current wave are destroyed, the next wave is called although you can call the next wave yourself at any time by pressing 'W'

First tests of the wave idea give interesting results. No longer do you have to cope with 4 guns at the same time, but you can if you want to... but because the enemy also uses waves (currently only calling the next once a gun is destroyed) it opens the game up a little.. I won't know where the enemy is going to deploy his next wave until it arrives, just as he doesn't know where I'll deploy mine either.... should make the AI coding interesting (I don't make life easy for myself do I?)

To make this work I've had to add an event which is raised on the death of a tank (or any other in game object) so this means I can have missions where you have to protect a sacred item or something.. Simply by making the game end should said item be destroyed.

It also makes writing a tutorial mission a bit simpler. On the destruction of one Drone, the tutorial can spawn more until the end of the tutorial.

Next on the list are the Tutorial Drones and the Tank entry protocol implementation. Also high on the agenda is Mouse Control. At the moment, I'm using the same Keys configuration as the original DelphiX game...

The LockFPS works a treat now and with the additional performance enhancements I've been making, it runs really smoothly.

[jasonf]

OK.. Progress report again..


I have water.


big wow some might say, out house has taps too...

I have nice shiny, in-game water.. and it's not done using any hardware.

Here's the screenys







Absolute piece of cake to do too, but it adds so much more to the image I think.

I like it
[/img]

[savage]

Dig the reflection. How did you do that?

[jasonf]

I'm just rendering from and to the same location. I've got to test this in Full Screen mode to see if it still works (in case there's a problem with H/W Renderring)


SourceY = SourceY - i + (Random(4)-2)
i=i+0.1

DestY = DestY+1

SourceX = random( 8 )-4
DestX = 0

Using different Alpha levels to simulate transparency and also subtracting a line at different levels to make it gradually darker.

I need to add wave crest highlights and I want to use a sine wave instead of using random value, but that will come. At the moment it looks quite nice when it's working.

I'm also going to make splashes when things land in the water and if something flies over the top, spray will be launched.

I'm wondering whether tanks should be able to float, 'cos it would be nice to see them bobbing along in the water and the collision detection would be really easy.

[WILL]

Very nice water effect!

Though I have a 'small' recommendation. I noticed that the background image the you're using HAS water reflection in it aswell. But it's static light reflection and shadowing not dynamic. This might cause a bit of an unnatural look to the water as you'll essentially be reflecting unmoving reflections.

May I recommend that you take a modified segment of the background image and just remove all of the water's reflections and land shadowing using a base color and use that to create the reflective water on top of the 'untouched' original.

You'd really only see the modified segment in the water effect so only maps with the water would need it and you'd only need, like I mention, a segment instead of the whole background to match the area that you will want to scale into the water texture.

That may clear up any blemishes in your otherwise ultra cool effect.

I'm wondering whether tanks should be able to float, 'cos it would be nice to see them bobbing along in the water and the collision detection would be really easy.

You could add a new class of tank that is 'designed' to be ideal for water. Like an Amphibious Tank, call it the 'Piranha', 'Barracuda' or 'Python'... something to that effect. The main advantage being low ground strategy & harder to hit as they are moving a bit.

Though you'd have to have more water maps for this to work as an interesting factor in the game. Plus it would be beneficial if the Amphibious Tanks had a firing bonus while on water. Perhaps make it more difficult for tanks to fire while submerged in the water?

:lol: I'm now waiting for there to be Subs in the game now.


Good thing you didn't call your game Tanx.

[jasonf]

Cheers Will,

You're right about the water looking a little out of place with the water reflecting in the background. I'm going to remove the water from the background image and move it further down. The only water to be visible in the game wil be provided by the effect. That should fix this glitch.

I'll get it working on one of the other levels and see how it looks without any other water around, just reflecting the hills and mountains.

I've got some ideas for the mountain side level anyway.


The amphibius tank idea is good, I'd not thought about it too hard really. At the moment, all tanks are effectively heavier than water and falling off the screen is fatal so any tanks which fall are lost to Davy Jones.

The floaty tank idea was just to give people a chance should they run out of fuel over the water.

Also, because the water takes its reflection from the existing image, it can't really be deeper than a certain height so there can't really be any deep water levels as such.. unless.. (thinks).. yeah.. could be possible.

Some thoughts.. Shields should be useless in the water.. in fact, using a shield in the water will deactivate the tank.. or at least immediately deactivate the shield..

I need to think a bit more about this.

[WILL]

Hmm... well I didn't mean to take out the water from the background, just make an extra texture to derive the water effect from.

But then again seeing how having static water in the background and dynamic water in the foreground might be a bit of a contrast... you could try extending the water effect all the way back to the background's horizon.

Doing that though, you'd have to make the background's water masked so that you'll see your water effect in it's place. It might produce some more of your watery coolness. Forgive the pun.

You'd of course still have to layer the foreground effect on top of the background effect, but I don't think that'll be much of a chore. Just keep your foreground effect intact and restrict the background effect to the top of the foreground water.

[savage]

Hi Jason,
Have you tried using Vtune( http://www3.intel.com/cd/software/pr...tune/index.htm ) to spot any bottlenecks? They have a free trail version available for download.

[jasonf]

$699 for a single Dev license.. :shock:

I might give the demo a try to see if I can see what's happening..

Could do with something to assist in finding memory leaks too if anyone knows of anything..