The Blob

Post by **jacmoe** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:36 pm

raicuandi wrote:I think a The Blob2 could be a great commercial game! The idea is original. As a matter of fact, I'll send your game to a game magazine here in my country (Level), so they can try it too (that is, if you don't mind that). They'll be happy to see some home-made game like that!

Maybe you shouldn't?
I don't know what the deal with Utrecht is, but De Blob was made for them.

raicuandi · Post by **raicuandi** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:45 pm

Well he let us see it, why wouldn't they see it too? They're humans too!

(no, they're not gonna make an article about it!)

Post by **jacmoe** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:37 am

Image of the Day!

Kentamanos · Post by **Kentamanos** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:12 am

Based upon some other threads I've read there, I'd say the reviews were VERY positive. Congrats!

I've tried to download it a few times but it always times out at some point. It's very possible it's my connection though (cable modem). I'll keep trying though

.

Oogst · Post by **Oogst** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:40 am

raicuandi wrote: ...
As a matter of fact, I'll send your game to a game magazine here in my country (Level), so they can try it too (that is, if you don't mind that). They'll be happy to see some home-made game like that!

I do not mind if you do so (I'd appreciate it, actually!), but please give them the Gamedev Image of the Day-link:

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums ... _id=405555

This way they will know the context. The game itself does not explain anything about Utrecht, so they need to read that text to know what it is.

If The Blob gets covered somehow, then do put a screenshot or scan here, so that I can see it too!

Crashy · Post by **Crashy** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:31 pm

I just saw this!

http://www.clubic.com/telecharger-fiche ... -blob.html

for non French-speaking, the comments are really good

Oogst · Post by **Oogst** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 3:30 pm

Yeah, the conclusion of that one is incredibly positive:

The Blob est un petit bijou : frais, original, intuitif et très bien réalisé qui plus est, dans un style coloré et délirant pleinement assumé. A essayer absolument, pour petits et grands !

I do not remember bribing that reviewer...

Ravine · Post by **Ravine** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 9:49 pm

I get this error when the load screen gets to stage 4/4:

Code: Select all

Error #: -2147467259
Function: D3D9RenderSystem::_render
Description: Failed to DrawPrimitive : An undetermined error occurred. 
File: ..\src\OgreD3D9RenderSystem.cpp
Line: 2464
Stack unwinding: <<beginning of stack>>

I can hear the music playing but the screen never changes and I have to minimize to see the error box.
Although, I have also recieved this error from other OGRE programs, but never from ones I have compiled.

I am using the english version of this game.

Oogst · Post by **Oogst** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:42 pm

I have seen that error before, but do not know what causes it. What is your GPU?

Ravine · Post by **Ravine** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:59 pm

nVidia GeForce FX 5200, but I can run applications that I compile in Ogre.

I installed the latetest drivers and tried it again. Still no luck, same error.

Oogst · Post by **Oogst** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:45 pm

Hmm, that GPU should run it just fine. I have no clue what the error might be, then.

H4mb · Post by **H4mb** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:07 pm

Really nice game !! good job !!

hike1 · Post by **hike1** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:13 am

It wouldn't run.

Ogre.log

Description: Cannot open requested directory Assets\NL/Menus.

Post by **sinbad** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:58 pm

I posted about this above. Use an official RAR tool like WinRar, other tools don't extract empty directories.

achanda · Post by **achanda** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:54 pm

Loved the game and the idea behind it! But I can't seem to play it beyond 30 mins or so because I start feeling nauseous with the wild camera movements - so I squint my eyes and try to last longer ...

hike1 · Post by **hike1** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:26 pm

Use an official RAR tool like WinRar, other tools don't extract empty directories.

Made no difference, all I got was The Blob (English).exe 103,368,019 bytes
6/27/2006

master123467 · Post by **master123467** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:59 am

i hve an idea tht the blog team should use tht would help with speed and would probbly look better to

instead of showing the intire map when your playing the game u should hve it fogged out in the distance and the fogg would go away when u get closer and stuff it would help a hole lot with speed cuz all the map wouldnt be rendered at one time so u guys on the blob team should test it out

SuprChikn · Post by **SuprChikn** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:18 pm

The entire map isn't rendered all at once, except when you go to map view, and there's likely some LoD stuff going on then too (there definately is with the ink people, but I don't know about buildings in map view).

The background texture of buildings that surrounds the entire map is always rendered, and buildings/vehicles/ink-guys within a certain range of the player are rendered. More distant buildings are probably rendered based on height or something (so the really tall ones can be seen from afar).

If you pay close attention to the horizon, you should be able to see buildings appear when you get closer to them.

master123467 · Post by **master123467** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:34 pm

when your playing the game u can see all the buildings in the distance and u can tell its not a background pic because u can see its 3d ness and its edges

SuprChikn · Post by **SuprChikn** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:33 am

Not all buildings are drawn at once unless you are in map mode.

get on top of a building (the taller the better) and look around. You will see some fairly large empty spaces where buildings are not being drawn because they are too far away. If you move towards one of those spots, you will see buildings appear, one by one, as you get within the view range.

If you are on a roof and can see large empty spots like this, switch to map mode (right-click the mouse) and you will see all the buildings appear at once, filling those areas.

[edit]
I took some screenshots to illustrate my point.

In the first image, I am on top of a roof, and you can see some fairly large empty spaces in front of me:

In this next one, I have moved closer to the edge of the building (moving forward from the previous image), and you can see a number of trees and buildings have begun to fill some of the empty area, starting with those closest to me:

In this last image, I have just switched to map mode, so all the buildings are now drawn, and you can really see how empty the two previous images were:

[/edit]

Crashy · Post by **Crashy** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:36 am

With graphics set at maximum, I don't have this result. All the city seems to be drawn.

SuprChikn · Post by **SuprChikn** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:47 am

I just changed the graphics settings to be "high" (the defaulted to "low", so that's what it was set to for the previous screenshots) and went to the same place as before. Changing the graphics settings changes the draw distance, so more buildings were shown visible from that place, but still not all.

Go to the same place as I did for the screenshots and see for yourself. If you look at the map, you will see one of the special buildings you have to paint yellow at about the middle of the top of the city. You have to paint the north face of the building. To do that, you have to use an air-vent thing to get on top of a building, and then up a ramp. From there, head to the west edge of the building (looking over the train tracks).

Once again, screenshots to illustrate

This first shot is using "low" graphics settings:

This one is taken from the same place, but with the graphics setting on "high":

Compare those with the last screenshot in my previous post, showing what it looks like from this place with the whole city drawn.

hike1 · Post by **hike1** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:42 pm

Well, duh, it runs when I click the desktop link, didn't notice it
till now. Great game! Those little people remind me of Patrick of
Sponge Bob Square pants.

Oogst · Post by **Oogst** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:06 pm

Nice to see how well our methods where deducted from analyzing the game.

Indeed, buildings are drawn depending on distance and height. Special objects like trees and coins get their own standard culling distance, depending on my own judgement. If you get on top of the NH-Hotel (purple, just northwest of the station) and look over the station, you can see in the distance that the ground is empty except for shadows where the buildings should be. This is the only place where it is this well visible on high, though.

Most things are just hidden in the distance, only NPC's get real LOD. When far away, they are turned into sprites. Funny enough, this happens quite close actually, but no one seems to notice, so that is very cool.

Also, please not that the real performance breaker is the collision detection, not the visuals, so that is where improvements would be directed. I know ways to maybe even double the framerate, we just did not have the time.

master123467 · Post by **master123467** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:52 am

its not like tht for me though all building are drawn but tht might be a directx 7 ati radeon 7000 problem but still fogging would look good