[WIP] Stunt Playground *beta 3 released!!

[walaber]

project update

for those interested, I got in a few solid hours of work on this project today, and made a big change: you can now rotate props in all 3 directions when placing them! this allows for much more complex and interesting arena layouts... I was stacking the plywood planks like a house of cards... it was beautiful

after I add a few more props I've got in mind, I'll release a new beta.

[charlie]

I'll release a new beta.

Cool, great to hear... Sounds really promising

[walaber]

more progress...

I've made lots of progress on the game, including fixing a few timing issues, which makes for smoother and more accurate replays, and also finally got started on adding LOD to the prop meshes. of course the automatically generated LOD meshes generally don't look very good, so I made a quick tool that will create a new mesh with several custom meshes for LOD data. it it working great, and I was amazed at the performance increase.

at 1024x768 + shadows & reflections, the big complex arena I posted yesterday was getting about 5-10 fps when driving towards the props, and now with LOD implemented, it runs at a very playable 30-40 fps, which is amazing considering the amount of props onscreen!

I still have a fair amount of props to add LOD too, as well as add a few more props, and then I think I'll be ready for another release... which might as well be an "official" release, because the game is nearly complete now... just missing a few sound effects and a few other finishing touches.

[cravikiran]

walaber, this is really awesome stuff man. Excellent stuff.

I don't know if this was brought up before but something I would personally like to see is: A camera that is free movement (err, free rotating around the car). If this isn't available in the game play mode, I think it should be available in the replay mode... sometimes I would really like to see action happening at a particular place relative to the car but can't because of the preset camera views. Hopefully, its not just something I'm missing...

Anyway, Stunt Playground is really sweet !

Ravi

[walaber]

you're absolutely right, I'll add the "free cam", which will basically be the same camera system as in the editor, using the mouse to rotate, and mouse wheel / SHIFT key to zoom. I don't see why it shouldn't be available in both driving and replay modes

[edit] here's a small shot that shows what you can do with the new all-directional object placement system:

[Kencho]

Stunt "lego" playground!!

Sounds cool Walaber, congratulations. This is going to be great!

[walaber]

can't do much on the game right now, so I spent a few minutes recording a little video of the current build

things you can see in this video:
* new 3-degree prop placement system (transparent ring shows current rotational direction).
* repeat last prop feature for quick arena building
* realtime reflections on the cars
* improved GUI colors / font

New Functionality Video - divx5 encoded .avi file, approx 6MB

[DWORD]

Damn!

It's hard to keep finding superlatives.

[Kencho]

Damn!

It's hard to keep finding superlatives.

Agree completely

[walaber]

project update

still working hard... very, very close to the final release now. I have been working on the vehicles a bit, I greatly improved the automatic transmission code today, and I now have a working engine sound system (if a bit simplistic). it makes such a big difference to be able to "drive by ear", based on the engine whine. I also added a quasi-rotational mass system for the engine, which causes the car to slow down when coasting (amount of drag is based on rpm), so you can actually slow the car down by simply downshifting, like in a real car. it's all adjustable, and I'm really happy with the way it's working.

a bit more tweaking and finalizing, and I'll have a full release ready. I've already made a custom config screen and icon for the game

I'll post in the showcase when it's done. shouldn't be too long now, perhaps a week or so.

almost done with my first Ogre game! how exciting

[Vectrex]

I'll put in another vote for a handbrake I absolutely loved (still love) Powerslide, but it seems like it's not possible to do do burn outs or some sideway action in this? Maybe turn down the friction on the dirt and up the acceleration power? I know if I took my 1987 Corolla hatckback on a big open dirt paddock I'd be rally driving all the way
The steering doesn't seem to 'reset' when you let go, you still steer in the direction you were, which is a little odd to me. Also the bounce amount might need turning down a little, since... cars don't bounce off their roofs

[walaber]

actually, the brakes are already a "handbrake" basically, they will lock up the tires in almost all situations (especially in the dirt).

I have also adjusted the car physics a bit, and you can definately get the cars sliding now, especially the GT, as it's the most powerful.

the steering absolutely does reset when you let go of the wheel, but not instantly. there is a factor in the car setup that let's me adjust how fast the tires can steer. perhaps it should be a bit faster. also, because of the physics, the car can tend to continue to steer in one direction after tou initialize a turn because more weight is put on the front outsife tire, causing ti to "dig in" and get even more traction. I agree that this part could use a bit more tweaking, which I intend to do before release, as the rest of the game is pretty much complete.

I'll also turn down the bounciness of collisions with the car body, to make them more realistic.

[regress]

Walaber, are you actually in Tokyo? Curious as to where you plan on using this as a resume!

[BlasterN]

I see a little problem with the beta.
When you load the complex scene and you try to add something in the scene the fps goes down! (very down around 10-15fps)
INMO you have to disable the update of 3D graphics in this menu because you don't need it, you are only selecting what you want to put in the area.

Other thing with complex area, if you don't see all the objects that is placed in the north of the area (north for example) and you are seeing the south, You can't see anyhing but fps is down too
- what type of SceneManager are you using ??

--
I'm in a cyber so i can't put any screens i try tomorrow

[Kencho]

I have a reason for that: Real time reflections. You actually see them reflected in the car
The most "rudimentary" scene manager is the Octree scene manager, and it actually culls unseen objects - I've tested that. But think that you render the scene two times, and from different viewpoints (indeed, many objects are rendered twice). If that fps drop is too high for you, try disabling real time reflections. That should do the work

[Wooden]

also physics are computed for every object not only the ones seen in the viewport...

[walaber]

when I load a very complex scene, looking at the complex part takes a frame hit, but looking away at a less-populated part of the arena makes the fps go up a LOT. I've found the biggest thing that causes slowdown is shadows. lots of propr = lots of shadows = low framerate. the physics is really efficient, and it doesn't calculate things that are at rest, so most of the time the entire arena is at rest.

the upcoming release has LOD implemented, which greatly improves the framerate on complex arenas. but the big ones are still taxing on the computer, so those with less powerful machines will have to hold back on the amount of props they put in

p.s. I should have the game ready within a day or so!

[Vectrex]

why not try setShadowFarDistance() to cull distant shadows? Maybe test for low fps and auto-set the shadow distance to maintain fps?
Speaking of which it'd be nice if the modulative stencil shadows alpha fade out instead of just disappearing. Texture shadows look good fading out.

[sinbad]

Since modulative stencil shadows are based on an on/off stencil rendered in 2D, you can't do fading. Additive stencil shadows do fade because it's based on a light mask rather than a block darkness modulation. But of course, that's even more expensive

walaber: for a lot of complex geometry, texture shadows are more efficient than stencil shadows. However, without shaders you lose self-shadowing. To keep the same look your approach of using LOD is probably the best one.

[Dynamyt]

sweet!

waiting with baited breath for final release

[walaber]

version 1.0 has been released!! jump to this thread.