RTS: Moon Project v0.5 released!

[AlexZ]

Nice progress with the buildings but please stop working on it for now, here's why:

I haven't had much time but I made 2 new versions of the engine. One is 2D like with a top view and you can freely zoom in and rotate, the other mimics a isometric view style where you can also freely rotate and zoom.

Now I prefer the 2nd engine for the reason that valleys and hills obviously can be displayed a lot better compared to the top-view, so this would be the front-end I would continue with.

Anyway, here's the deal: with OpenGL I have to go and learn everything again: how to draw lines, points, display text, also, with a 3D terrain the code for mouse interaction on the map gets a lot more complex I suppose. Then there would be creating a good interface, balanced gameplay and so on and so forth. Unfortunately I don't have the time nor energy to mess around with all that stuff even though I find it all very interesting.

The only way I see this "game" continue is by splitting the work to different people but I doubt many people would be interested since RTS games have been done many times before and this is nothing new. Initially my idea was not to make this a typical RTS game but sort of a simulation crossover as you noticed. Funny thing is there isn't even a basic game idea behind it as I already mentioned, just some moon to gaya transformation settler thing ;-) I'm not sure where to go from here, so it's up to you guys.

Comments?

[Dr_D]

Well, if it was a full on top view, you could easily rotate. If you wanted to go iso(with rotation), that gets a load of sprites involved, but the zooming is still no big deal. As for the 3d terrain interaction, I've posted some games and demos that demonstrate picking with ogl. I'd suggest full 3d, locked into a 45 degree pitch, but allowed to freely rotate and zom. :)

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Maybe you should just let people play both versions, so they could tell you where to go. I would personally like to see this game finalized. It functions perfectly for me as mini-game. It only needed small bug fixes. I recommend leaving more ambitious advances for another game. That is, if you wish to have a completed game behind you.

[AlexZ]

Alright, here's the latest status of my project folder. It has the .bas files for everything I've done so far, the game in 2D_fbgfx and some tests in 2D_opengl, isometric_fbgfx and 3D_opengl. You can use the arrow keys to rotate and zoom in opengl, the isometric engine can also scroll around. I've also compiled the opengl versions.

http://www.file-upload.net/download-378 ... t.rar.html

As you can see I've been playing around, trying different engines and it's all very dirty and half done ;-)

Dr_D: "I'd suggest full 3d, locked into a 45 degree pitch, but allowed to freely rotate and zom. :)" --> 3D_opengl is exactly that ;-)

[Frank Dodd]

I am hesitant to blow the IrrlichtWrapper trumpet again but I will anyway :D Using IrrlichtWrapper would be an alternative to OpenGL and would simplify the process, you would be dealing with 3D objects and would have load access to a wide range of 3D formats including animated models.

I am committed to another project at the moment so I couldn't really offer any support but its an option and something you could easily assess. I would in particular think about unit selection, low poly models and whether the engine can handle the large number of objects that might be needed for an RTS game.

For example loading and displaying an object on the screen would be as simple as: -

Code: Select all

' game data
DIM StaticMesh as irr_mesh
DIM MeshTexture as irr_texture
DIM SceneNode as irr_node
DIM OurCamera as irr_camera

' initialise
IrrStart( IRR_EDT_OPENGL, 400, 200, IRR_WINDOWED, IRR_SHADOWS, IRR_IGNORE_EVENTS )
StaticMesh = IrrGetMesh( "spacebase.3ds" )
MeshTexture = IrrGetTexture( "spacebase.jpg" )
SceneNode = IrrAddMeshToScene( StaticMesh )

' set up scene
IrrSetNodeMaterialTexture( SceneNode, MeshTexture, 0 )
IrrSetNodeMaterialFlag( SceneNode, IRR_EMF_LIGHTING, IRR_OFF )
OurCamera = IrrAddCamera( 50,0,0, 0,0,0 )

' game loop
WHILE IrrRunning
    IrrBeginScene( 0,0,0 )
    IrrDrawScene
    IrrEndScene
WEND

' tidy up and exit
IrrStop

Although really good 2D images can be just as good IMO for RTS games.

[AlexZ]

Hey guys,

I've done some work on the game, it's still not done and major parts are missing but it's going forward ;-)

The major changes are
- new music
- main menu
- updated HUD
- freetype fonts
- highscore list
- gameplay adjustments

Also I squished some bugs and the code is a tiny bit cleaner. The only major downside is the performance, I had about 250fps before, now it's down to 80 to 150fps because of a lot of transparent effects and freetype. Shouldn't be a big problem though I hope.

Download: http://www.file-upload.net/download-387 ... t.rar.html

When the gameplay is finished I'll move on to OpenGL or Irrlicht, let's see.

Lachie, if you want you can add this version to games.freebasic.net and give it a preliminary rating.

Enjoy ;-)

[Lachie Dazdarian]

15 MB?!? You are killing me man.

Anyway, no problem. Thanks for notifying me. Just don't hope from me to jump on the next version if it appears soon. 15 smeggin megs!

EDIT:

Man, those 15 Mb were really unnecessary. Two rather dull and repetitive tracks take up 12 Mb! I guess people who have broadband flatrate tend to lose their sense of...size.

Anyway, love the new main menu. But, why tutorial is not more...tutorial-like? Not finished? And the wall feature? I wish features that were not used were not present at all. Oh, well.

[AlexZ]

Haven't found any good midi songs or other small files, sorry.

Walls and tuturials are unfinished I know, that's why it is a beta ;-)

[Lachie Dazdarian]

People, you got to learn what BETA means:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_r ... cycle#Beta

[Dr_D]

Beta = B. :p

[badmrbox]

Everybody now, Pre-Alpha.

[TbbW]

Haven't found any good midi songs or other small files, sorry.

hmm... did you try aminet or modarchive for modules ? :)

[Frank Dodd]

hmm... did you try aminet or modarchive for modules ? :)

I would second this suggestion there is some great tracker music out there, another source is http://www.modules.pl/

[TbbW]

use XMPlay ( by unforseen ) to lisen to em... dont use winamp coz it does not play most of em correctly.

the nice part with XMPlay is that the bassmod with FB uses the same code as XMPlay does so u wont need to worry about it sounding diffrent.



Frank Dodd: haha nice java player they got there! never seen one like it.

[AlexZ]

Hi all!

I had a lot to do the last months so I couldn't spend any time on programming but I wanted to tell you that development on the game hasn't stopped. I found some time over the weekend and added an intro, a new main menu, and a bunch of small additions to the gameplay itself. Walls and supply lines are implemented, updated code for units (multiple units, animations, health bar,..). I made better graphics for the UI and it shows more info. It's also possible to freely move the UI around in realtime, a feature I haven't seen in any professional RTS so far ;-) I changed the tiles a bit but that's only minor, going to do seamless tiles in the next step.
So far I'm planning to stay with 640x480 and FBGFX only, it's a kind of challenge to see what is possible with it, like in terms of speed and features (PSET and alpha PUT are performance eaters) ;-) Will do some updates over the next days, and upload a new version - not beta, not alpha ;-) just a work in progress.

cheers,