Tank Universal 2 demo
Archives Forums/General Discussion/Tank Universal 2 demo
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| Given the first TU was a Blitz3d product, hope I can be forgiven for posting this. Please take note of the caveats before downloading the demo at the link below; http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=306 |
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| Looks awesome! I'll update my impressions here as I play more... 1) I really like the trail as you fire and the tank tracks. 2) Runs very smooth, frame rate fluctuates; But I spent a lot of time around 90FPS. I'm sure this will improve - as you indicated. This was on the high setting at 1920 X 1080 (fullscreen). 3) Tanks seem to move quicker this time, compared to TU1 (which is a good thing). 4) No crashes yet... |
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| I'll give this a try later and give you some feedback MJ. |
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| Very keen for feedback, so fire away! |
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| It rocks so far...Just kick Matt up the ass...Well regards sound at least ;) |
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| Well, he's returned to the fray and seems pretty committed to sorting the outstanding issues now. After months of uncertainty (and the spectre of Xors3d for example), it's great that he's back. Just need the sound issues sorted however... One of the big issues with the demo is it needs to run faster on slower machines - particulary 'gaming' laptops that aren't really 'gaming' laptops (i.e. Intel onboard graphics etc). But then I had the same issue with TU1. |
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| Yeah Matt was always more responsive than any developer I've ever known...Sadly money matters side tracked him for a while. Yes, luckily I have a capable system now...TU1 struggled a bit on my old system...But Matt is the guy for optimization questions - and Prime...Glad he's back in touch. |
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| Very impressed with George and the setting of the scene at the start. My first go I went for 1920 x 1200 on medium rez, on what I thought was full screen but it appeared to be windowed mode. I moved the windowed mode down a bit whilst it was unpacking, but once the cut scene started I couldn't move it back up again. 2nd attempt - went for 1280 x 1084 (I think it was) but I thought I selected windowed mode this time - however it seemed to start in Full screen, could've been an error on my part. George got into his tank and I'd a quick drive around, I think I may've been asking a bit much of my low-ish spec PC to run at these rez - but the main ground based vehicle you have to protect was animating well around the arena. Only had 5 or 10 mins - will try more tomorrow, nice looking work! |
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| Woah nice game. Unusual design but really makes fun. Runs very fine here on my "hefty" rig which is an iMac 27 with a 780M using native Windows 7 64bit. In 2560x1440 fullscreen, high settings i'll get 90 to 190 FPS, but mostly around 150 :-) The loading times are a little bit too long, perhaps you could improve this? |
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| bp If you don't hit the fullscreen button on the initial selection screen, it should start in fullscreen. You may have toggled the button inadvertently? BTW: what's your specs? I'm definitely getting the message that some hefty optimisation is required. K Thanks! First level will take a while as it's loading a lot of one time start-up data. For the final game I expect to replace the initial setup screen so it'll load the start-up data and then the main menu will appear. BTW: the aim is to try for a Kickstarter in the new year. |
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| Ooh yeah! I've been waiting for this one! I'll try it tonight after work - can't wait! |
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| The jetpack is cool. Being able to float high above the battlefield would be fun and would allow better planning of tactics. As for the frame rate, the first level seems quite a bit slower than the second. The first starts as low as 52FPS, rising to around 90. The second level starts at 96FPS and doesn't deviate too much from that. The frame rate doesn't jump around so much like the first level. Yes, loading times are too long. Maybe disguise it by loading a little while the cut scenes are up? |
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| System Specs: AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 545 Processor 4.00 GB Ram AMD Radeon HD 6670 |
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| oops crahs, no start, loading ... |
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| Yue What's your specs? Just saying it won't start isn't a lot of help... |
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| The demo is very slow and unplayable even in LOW mode 1024x768, and considering how the scene is not very detailed and glow seems to be off, it clearly needs to be optimized. TU1 was running fast and was playable even with glow on. Good luck for the next steps ! Lenovo Thinkpad E325, DualCore AMD E-450 APU 1.65Ghz, 6 Go DDR3-1333, Radeon HD 6320 Graphics 384 mo, Windows 7 Home Premium |
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| ..works fine here, and touch and feel is attractive for me, same as TU1..tank moves fast as well as turning, so its a bit harder to control, but i guess it will be polished out later, so no biggie..i truly hope to see this one in online mode..it would be soooo much fun..very good work so far.. Specs: ------ Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz Memory: 4096MB RAM Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 |
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| RemiD There is a lot more going on with TU2 than the original TU1, but as you say, needs optimising. However, can I ask you a favour? I've put an updated game exe at; http://www.tankuniversal.com/TU2_GAME_alt.rar If you extract it to the TU2/BIN folder and run, it might run a bit better for you? NA Thanks for the feedback. I've had to increase tank speed due to the levels being 2x the size of TU1. Hopefully it's just a matter of getting used to it. Regards online - never going to happen. Single player always. |
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| Madjack>>Ok i will do some tests in the evening. Btw, i like the intro with Georges, and the graphics are neat :) |
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| Hi MadJack I downloaded and tried it. Firstly let me say I am one of the worst players ever at first person shooters - woeful at them. Therefore it is not a surprise that I couldn't work out how to kill the turret in the first mission and had everything blown to pieces except my weapon (which never took damage). I had to quit in the end since I couldn't continue. Gameplay ways - not my thing but I thought I'd try it. My first thought during the opening cut scene was that it had frozen. It said something like "Meet George" and didn't progress...I waited, waited for it to change the text. I clicked the mouse eventually thinking maybe it wanted me to do something. I pressed space bar and pretty quickly worked out that it wanted me to press space bar after each line of text. Not sure if I knew all the controls...but as said - I'm terrible at these first person games so not sure if they would help (WASD and left mouse button were all I knew). |
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| Matty Thanks for trying it though. The thing with the turrets is to keep out of range and bombard them from a distance, else you'll find them very troublesome. Regards the cutscene, may need to add a bit of text on-screen saying to press space to continue. |
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| Hi MadJack. Looking great so far. I hope to play more very soon and provide more useful feedback. For now, I'd just like to say that your tank feels too... I dunno... nimble? It just doesn't feel quite like a big lump of metal (even if it is a VR tank). The firing however feels great. I can still hit things a mile off, like I could in the original TU. That's one thing I love about TU - with practice you just "know" the height and strength of shot to use when aiming at your target. Really satisfying stuff. |
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| Therefore it is not a surprise that I couldn't work out how to kill the turret Aw come on Matty, reading again ;) The cut scene says "Turrets are very dangerous...Suggest you destroy it from a distance!" |
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| For now, I'd just like to say that your tank feels too... I dunno... nimble? It just doesn't feel quite like a big lump of metal (even if it is a VR tank). I know what you mean, but it was a big surprise to me just how much of a difference doubling the size of the level meant in terms of getting around and in the basic physics of the game. So essentially you're looking at TU1 x 2 for many parameters. <edit> I'm happy however that the lobbing of shells feels right to you. I'm still surprised by how easily I can lob a virtual shell onto a distant target just by looking at a collection of pixels. |
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| @MadJack Why you not considering multiplayer at some point? |
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| Some tests on my computer : 1024x768 TU2_GAME.exe LOW 4-5FPS TU2_GAME.exe MEDIUM 3-4FPS TU2_GAME.exe HIGH 3-4FPS TU2_GAME_alt.exe LOW 8-9FPS TU2_GAME_alt.exe MEDIUM 7-8FPS TU2_GAME_alt.exe HIGH 7-8FPS The demo takes too much time to load, i won't do more tests if they take so much time, sorry. It seems that the slowdown is not due to the render, maybe the AI ? Why the fire is canceled when the tank is hit by a bullet or sometimes when it moves ? This is frustrating. I guess this is part of the gameplay ? |
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| Ok, Windows XP, SP 3 4 Gigas Ram, Inteal Dual E7400 2.8 Graphics Card, Nvidia 9800 GTX 1 Giga. |
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| Yue Did you extract from the rar file with directory structure intact? In other words, are there subdirectories in your TU2 folder? |
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| New build released. New features + better performance. Feedback sought and welcomed. http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=308 |
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| Downloading... |
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| Just downloaded it to try. Couple of thoughts: 1) My desktop resolution (1920x1200) shows up TWICE in the initial screen:  2) A bit annoying that the launch window captures the mouse, can't exit the window while it is on the screen 3) It's not obvious that the game is waiting for a key press at the "meet george" screen, was waiting for quite a while for something to happen there 4) I get around 190fps in the "begin demo" game itself (full screen, 1920x1200, settings on high, ATI radeon HD 6750) 5) FWIW: When I hit alt-tab while the game was loading resources, it immediately bombed out with a MAV. Can't tell you much about the game itself, driving the tank was still pretty unintuitive for me so I didn't get very far there. |
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| The first demo I said "As for the frame rate, the first level seems quite a bit slower than the second. The first starts as low as 52FPS, rising to around 90. The second level starts at 96FPS and doesn't deviate too much from that. The frame rate doesn't jump around so much like the first level." 1) This demo runs on average around 200FPS (without any large fluctuation) at 1920 x 1080 settings at high, full screen. So much faster with a much more consistent frame rate. 2) The tank is fast enough without turbo mode. In turbo mode it flys along and doesn't feel like you're driving a tank anymore. I'd remove the turbo mode. 3) I really liked the blast effect when destroying the power station :) 4) The graphics modes go up logically in resolution, from low to high resolution - but the last 2 are out of order. The highest on my system should be 1920 x 1080 - but it's 1440 x 900 (and set to default). So I select the 2nd from last option (1920 x 1080). A bit annoying that the launch window captures the mouse, can't exit the window while it is on the screen It's not obvious that the game is waiting for a key press at the "meet george" screen Agreed. Can't tell you much about the game itself, driving the tank was still pretty unintuitive for me so I didn't get very far there. Totally disagree. Don't dumb the controls of the tank down or it won't drive like a tank! |
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| A bit annoying that the launch window captures the mouse, can't exit the window while it is on the screen Fixed. It's not obvious that the game is waiting for a key press at the "meet george" screen Noted. I also need to make the in-game engine cutscenes skippable. When I hit alt-tab while the game was loading resources, it immediately bombed out with a MAV. I'll look into this. It does alt-tab ok during general gameplay but hadn't checked how it handles it during data loading. Obviously not well! driving the tank was still pretty unintuitive for me so I didn't get very far there. Understood but the control scheme is from the previous game and isn't going to change at this point apart from tweaks to speed etc.. So much faster with a much more consistent frame rate. Good to hear! Still more optimizing to be done though. The tank is fast enough without turbo mode The turbo does have multiple uses. First it's a form of fast travel (given the levels are now 2x bigger), but it's also useful as a means of running rings around enemy tanks while shelling them. It's also a means of escape when under heavy fire and your tank is damaged. I understand about it not being 'tanky' but then this is a fantasy gameworld? I might look at reducing the speed a smidgen though. The graphics modes go up logically in resolution, from low to high resolution - but the last 2 are out of order. Noted.Thanks again for the feedback. Anyone else care to give it a go? |
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| Cool on those updates. But on my system it's so fast in turbo mode it's uncontrollable. Like a Ferrari bashing into things. |
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| Like a Ferrari bashing into things. Hey, how about stackable turbos? 1 powershard = 1 third of current turbo speed. 3 powershards = current turbo speed And it's an upgradeable facility so you have to spend upgrade points to be able to stack the max powershards. |
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| I'll check that out. |
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| Steve I haven't instituted that yet - it's a possible solution to your issue with the turbo speed. |
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| Oh ok. I loved the previous version. The bigger maps I can understand the need for greater speed - which the new version delivers. Spot on. Much more responsive. Love that. Any faster it gets a bit crazy lol. What you have now is as fast as is should get in my opinion - unless there's a bug in the timing code. Email me. |
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| Understood but the control scheme is from the previous game and isn't going to change at this point apart from tweaks to speed etc.. I really wasn't suggesting it needed to be changed, I just wanted to clarify why I didn't have much to say about the actual game play itself. |
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| xlsior Understood. Can I ask what kind of control scheme you would prefer or find more comfortable/intuitive? |
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| Can I ask what kind of control scheme you would prefer or find more comfortable/intuitive? It doesn't really matter, I'm not your target audience at all -- Pretty much any FPS style 3D game gives me motion sickness withing minutes, so I rarely play any of them. I'm more into RTS games, point & click adventures, and casual games myself. |
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| If I ever get this thing done, maybe I'll add a top-down view. |
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| It doesn't really matter, I'm not your target audience at all something to always keep in mind, listen only to the justified critics and to the realistic requests of your audience. The others do not matter. |
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| MJ, tried your November version, working very well here graphically you seem to have eradicated the Sep version issues almost enitrely - no real slow downs at all. Controls very intuitive - apart from the 'jetpack' mode. The turbo mode speed seems fine - the third level the tank does seem to move some what fast - part of the challenge I presume? Love the tank fix option you have from the outside. Great work - here is a screen grab of the initial graphic selection screen for you (I'm running 1920 x 1200) - whilst it seems functionally okay there is a little overlap of the selection boxes. Only real issue I found, apart from the sound seeming to become very distant whilst in the tank.  |
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...hi mad Jack..this build is better than one i saw before..there are several things i believe need your attention..when i destroy enemy tank, destroyed tank debris(those things look like crystal), blocking my tank to go trough and basically they are physics interactive and tank few times stuck..also, some of the enemy tanks i destroy, suddenly pop up in the air, with that destroyed debris and tracks, as you can see on the image i have provided..there is also graphical glitch, i think, over HUD where is energy level..some sort of rectangle is on left upper side, and im not sure is that as it should be or maybe glitch..as for controls, ill not comment now as its matter of settings, so that can wait i guess..i hope this helps.. |
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| BP/NA Thanks for the feedback. Have tweaked the screen res select screen so that duplication of modes should be eliminated. Am getting other people who find the jetpack mode tricky so will re-visit. Thing is it needs to be fast enough so the player can drop into moving tanks and take control. Regards turbo mode, am thinking about making it 'stackable' - so tap the shift-key three time to inc turbo speed up to what it is now. That will give the player finer control hopefully. NA I need to decrease frag mass so they can be more easily pushed around - also ensure they don't become static physics bodies. Tanks being in the air: I've staggered raycasting by distance but it needs another pass to avoid having tanks 'flying'. May be a flat-out coding error in there as well. Noted about the rectangle - I see it too. hope it's not one of those 'looks simple to find but turns out to be a symptom of a larger issue' bugs! |
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| Regards turbo mode, am thinking about making it 'stackable' - so tap the shift-key three time to inc turbo speed up to what it is now. That will give the player finer control hopefully. Sounds like a good solution. |
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| Overall I like it. I pressed escape which usually takes you to an option screen/pause in most games and it exited without warning, so I would like to see that changed in a later build. I don't like the turbo- it's one too many keys for my liking. Another option would be that if the tank hits top speed and the player momentarily releases the 'forward' button and then holds it again that the tank steps up to the next turbo mode. It saves a key but I suppose it's more like 'gears'. Anyway, good stuff keep it up. |
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| JG Thanks for taking the time to give it a whirl. player momentarily releases the 'forward' button and then holds it again that the tank steps up to the next turbo mode. Perhaps keep the shift key as an option but also allow the player to 'double-tap' the forwards key to inc turbo? The double-tap would lessen the possibility of turbo being triggered inadvertently. Hold reverse (S key) to disengage turbo. |
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| Yup, that would work for me... |
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| Hi, I have tested your demo, there are more fps (around 20), the movements are faster (which is a good thing imo). The loading is too long or too boring, i suggest to start to give infos about the mission during the loading, it will appear shorter. I think the controls are good enough. I really like your futuristic pine trees and the architecture of the buildings, very nice and neat. I suggest to deactivate bilinear filtering/trilinear filtering, it will probably look better... |
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| Shaping up very nicely. I'll have to give it another try regards bug testing, but a definite purchase from me. |
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| New build up for Dec. Number of fixes + new cutscene graphics/ability to skip cutscenes. Download from here: http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=310&p=1350#p1350  |
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| Runs faster again - around 250 FPS average (1920 X 1080, High settings fullscreen). The resolution screen bugs have gone. Just one thing though, turning occlusion on dramatically slows the game to around 100 FPS. Shouldn't this be faster, not slower? |
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| turning occlusion on dramatically slows the game to around 100 FPS You'd think so. Have let the dev know. |
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| New build up. Details + download link here; http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=313 He's small but potent (red mine)  |
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| Faster again. Largely 270 - 280 FPS. The second level with lots happening dropped to 180 for just short periods. Average around 240 FPS. At 1920 X 1080 fullscreen. Still turning occlusion on halves the frame rate (off by default). Maybe you should disable that feature as many will turn it on because they'll be thinking that they'll get a speed boost - and it's the opposite. Unless your button code is reversed in error. There was a couple of occasions where the tracks left by the tank weren't parallel with the ground. I managed to look around the track to make sure it was a bug - it was, so grabbed a screen-shot. Unfortunately the track faded so it's not so clear. But if you look in the centre there are 2 triangle shaped tracks in the air above the ground. Track |
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| Steve Thanks for the feedback. The occlusion button's there for testing - will be removed for final demo. Tanks are still occasionally 'jumping' - which is a bug I'll have to track down. It'll be related to raycasts being called but the result is returned when the raycast is ready rather than the programme halting in order to get a result straightaway. |
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| No probs. Looking forward to playing the completed game now :) |
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| Steve Myself as well, but plan at present is Steam Greenlight + Kickstarter in the nearish future. |
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| Kickstarter? Does that mean you'll start to kick Matt if he doesn't sort sound? ;) |
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| New build up for Feb 2015. Improved turbo control, nuke fx, cutscene tweaks + many fixes. http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=318  |
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| Looking great. Can't wait to try it! |
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| ervin Looks like there's a level reset bug in level 3 if you playthrough from level 2. I'll fix shortly, but you can play level 3 ok if you start it directly from the start menu. |
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| The turbo 'feature' addressed. Look forward to testing ;) |
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| I am curious, what advantages have you noticed with the nuclear graphics engine that you didn't have with the Blitz3d graphics engine ? Is it faster to render the same scene ? TU2 looks almost exactly the same than TU1 to me... What graphics effects do you plan to add ? Probably glow ? What else ? |
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| RD NB as a language is about as fast as BlitzMax. The engine is DX9 and is also pretty fast - it has various background optimisations going on in terms of drawing stuff, so I'm getting better framerates than with Blitz3d or Xors3d. Downside is it's no longer being updated on a regular basis. I'm still waiting on a major sound fix which has been a problem now for 4 months. In terms of TU2 looking like TU1, I've been focusing on AI and gameplay first. Glow fx will be added and I'm looking at fast shadow options. This is where NB falls over - it only includes stencil shadows which are rubbish. |
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| @MadJack>>Ok thanks for the infos. Personally i like the appearance of stencil shadows and i think it can fit well with your world because from what i have seen so far, there is no leaves or complex shapes (stencil shadows looks good only if the casters are low tris, and only the casters (meshes) are taken into account, as you may know...) I hope that you will find a solution for the sound, what's the problem exactly ? |
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| Problem with stencil shadows is they cover everything - fullbright surfaces as well (although I haven't tried it with shader based emissive surfaces) Also, (at least in NB) if the camera moves inside the shadow volume, the shadows glitch out badly. Regards sound, playback, panning and volume by distance is hugely lagged. I't's the last big issue I have with NB but I've been waiting on a fix now for months. My biggest fear is I won't see that fix and then I'll be in a terrific bind. |
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| NB Shadows do glitch badly. I've not tried volume by distance so that might be a totally different problem...But when I was using NB/NF I had a problem with sound too, so Matt introduced a variable sized buffer, which solved the problem. I guess you've already tried increasing the sound buffer size? |
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| I guess you've already tried increasing the sound buffer size? From my discussions with M, it's a fundamental problem with how MS handles streaming sound and so requires a fix from his end. |
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| I have just stumbled on this thread, looks totally AWESOME! - great work! can't wait to play it. The previous (TU1) was just perfect gameplay, amazing graphics and a cool TRON feeling! And this one looks even better. |
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| JDK Just be aware the sound's pretty much borked so put on some suitably epic action music before playing. |
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| New build up. Tron style bloom! Much gameplay betterments! Details here http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=323  |
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| Oooh looking nice. Such green! Very glow! Wow. (sorry, I find Dogue stupidly funny). |
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| looking good! |
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| It plays beautifully. The tank *feels* good to control. Just wondering though, is there an ETA on a fix for the sound issues in the engine? That must be so frustrating... |
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| Looks good :) The eye reminds me of the "eye of providence" or maybe the "eye of sauron", scary stuff ! |
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| Thanks for the comments guys! I've made an additional post regards TU2 KS rewards. Would be great if anyone had five minutes to cast an eye over the rewards/tiers and give me their opinion. Are the rewards interesting? Are there enough tiers? Details here http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=324 |
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| Glowey Green...My download doesn't look like that! |
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| It will if you get through to the inside of the fortress on level 3 and change enough ground switches. Or it should! |
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| Re: Kickstarter Rewards: I'll second what the poster on your forum said about making the tiers less wordy. "Everything else plus.." is much more concise, unless you have a particular tier which doesn't include everything else. (EG: physical ONLY or digital ONLY tiers) More broadly, though, I'd say you've got way too many categories, ranks, names of in-game rewards. Am I going to pay $2,500 instead of $1,000 because I want to get my name in the 10th level of supporters' spire instead of the ninth and or to get into the Overlord tier of credits as opposed to the Hardened tier? No. If I do that, I'm going to do it because I want that tank. Do that thing with the spire by all means, but I don't think it needs to be stated in the reward tiers because it's not going to be the reason anyone does it. In general, I think you're putting way too much emphasis on in-game perks, particularly at the top tiers. If I was going to pledge amounts like that, which I've only done once, I would want more "stuff". I'd want a boxed edition, a poster, something you've signed, a soundtrack CD, things I can put in a cabinet. The top end tiers are going to be collectors, geeky game-mad people with shelves and cabinets full of exclusive merchandise they can revel in having. I think you'd do better with more of that. Plus, you don't need to write an explanation for any of that stuff. A lot of the in-game rewards need a key underneath so that I can figure out what I'm getting. If it says a poster, a DVD and a signed, boxed game, I know what I'm getting. Hope that's useful. |
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| If I was going to pledge amounts like that, which I've only done once, I would want more "stuff"....The top end tiers are going to be collectors, geeky game-mad people with shelves and cabinets full of exclusive merchandise they can revel in having. Thanks for your thoughts - very interesting! My thinking is that as a sole dev, I'm not keen on promising rewards that would require a lot of work external to developing the actual game. Hence the bulk of the rewards are 'in-game'. The other factor is that being in New Zealand, production and postage overseas is not cheap and so the size of the reward needs to cover that + still leave a good percent of the pledge. But then perhaps the answer there is to increase the project's overall goal amount being asked for to cover all that? But then asking for more has its own risks. <edit> I see KS do allow for shipping to be added to a pledge when they 'check-out' However, posters are very popular and so I'll look at including those for at least mid-range rewards. (As an aside, I do wonder if some project founders haven't properly costed their rewards and find they take a bigger chunk of funding than they had factored.) I see your point about geeky collector types being the ones who's be most likely to be top-end tier supporters and for them I have at least offered a few physical rewards as well. Looking at other projects' rewards asking for similar amounts, a lot of them do not get them filled. However, they're still worth offering as a 'punt', but I'll perhaps consider pulling back the amount asked for in the top range, while extending the range offering basic physical rewards (mug/poster). Lastly, I don't think there's too many tiers? Looking at other game projects, 10- 15 is about the usual range of rewards. Some projects offer many more levels again. <edit> but have reduced the number down to 10 Thanks again for your post G <edit> TU2 KS rewards rewritten for clarity, poster added https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/796853525/642019191?token=c4962190 |
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| I'm glad my thoughts were useful. I completely understand where you're coming from, particularly in regard to the external work involved in rewards. I'm currently in a similar position, although not so close to launching on Kickstarter as you are. It's just been my observation that the campaigns which have more physical rewards (even if they have the increase the amount they're asking for) are the ones that are successful. Your Kickstarter Draft looks good. You reference TU1 but I'd be inclined to add a few review quotes/scores in there for good measure. EG: "An arcade tank shooter with oodles of variables and that special addictive quality that pulls you back again and again" - IGN [7/10] |
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| G If you are going the KS route, will you preview here? I'm finding getting feedback early on is invaluable. The other aspect I've twigged to is that although my project page says 'NZD' next to the target amount at the top of the project page, people generally read dollar values on-screen as being equal to USD. Thing is 1 NZD = approx 0.7 USD, so I've made it clear the approximate USD cost on each reward level. This has gone down well with the previewers... |
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| If you are going the KS route, will you preview here? I'm finding getting feedback early on is invaluable. Hopefully. It's not made with a BRL product but I think that should be fine in General Discussion. I'm also looking at Prefundia, which seems to be like Kickstarter's preview except public. It was seeing your post here that made me realize that getting feedback before the campaign launches could be really useful. |
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| I hadn't heard of Prefundia. I wondered how it makes its money and doing a bit of a google, I did come across this negative report. Things might have changed, take it for what it's worth... http://www.stillguerrillafilms.com/prefundia/ |
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| New build up for July/August Level 3 has seen a lot of work. Feedback gratefully received! Details here http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=332 Now with extra lava.  |
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..it looks nicely polished..controls to me are more responsive than TU1, so tank feels 'light', while on TU1 i could feel 'inertia', but thats ok..issue im having is gradual drop of frame rate, after i reach level seen on pic..starts with solid 50-60fps and then how game progressing, drops under 10 and become hard to play..dunno whats causing this..previous level was kicking over 120 fps.. |
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| NA What's your specs? There's a lot more going on in L3 than the previous two levels, but I've also added more elements which have inc'd the load. |
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| Will test L3 specifically then. It's always run fast on my system though. |
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..hi MadJack..sorry for late reply, specs are:  |
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| Will give it a try in a few days time - away from the PC at the mo ;) |
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| New build up for Oct. Download and details at link below; http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=334 A shed-load, nay boat-load of optimizations under the hood + big change to the end of level 3. Would be very keen to hear how it runs on rigs people previously found it sluggish on.  |
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| Cool. Will try tomorrow. |
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| I get a memory exception after I click on begin demo. |
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| ..played it just now, and this time is faster (frame rate is at 22-25, last time drop down to 9 and keep there).. |
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| Steve A couple of questions: Was your downloaded file ok? Did you extract the files with file structure intact? Does it happen if you choose windowed + lower resolution? |
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| Jack. Yes - downloaded twice. Yes. It works in Windowed Mode. |
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| Steve I haven't changed the screen res option code since previous versions - which I think ran fine on your system? Does a full-screen lower size resolution work? The only other thing I can think of is its falling over on creating the rendertextures for the bloom fx. <edit> what res does it fall over at? |
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| I get a direct X error about wrong version of direct xxx I'm on windows 10 with DX 9 and DX 12. |
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| E Sounds like you'll need to manually install DirectX9.0c. Does W10 allow you to update from the link below? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 |
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| Jack. Yes last version ran without a problem. No. Fullscreen at *any* resolution doesn't work - Windowed mode works at all resolutions. I don't seem to remember you using the Kune2D dll last version I tried - maybe a problem there. |
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| Steve One thing to try. Start as windowed and select options. Click on the button that says 'windowed' under the first column of video resolutions, then apply. This will switch it to fullscreen from within the game. Also, what native res does the game start in? |
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| No mate, switching to fullscreen in-game doesn't work either (already tried that). 1920 X 1080 native (which is correct). |
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| Can I ask you to try the following? In the Data folder, open TU2.ini. Find the first line that says FLAG_BLOOM = 1 and change it to FLAG_BLOOM = 0 <edit> and if that works, try changing to 3 |
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| Still no joy - I still get that Memory exception dialogue box. |
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| One last request. It's possible the NB dev Matthew has changed something with his last release. The exe below is the main executable compiled with an earlier version of Nuclear Basic. http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU2_GAME_previous.exe If you could place it in TU2\BIN and run. (Also, one thing I need to do in the next version is better logging so I can pinpoint where the problem's cropping up.) |
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| TU2_GAME_previous, runs faster on my rig..now it keeps 32-40 fps.. |
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| NA Interesting - I'd have to ask the NB dev why that might be. |
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| Previous version still throws an error. |
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| Previous version still throws an error. I'm actually relieved - it means it's more likely something in my code. A bit stumped at this point. Do you have anything running in the background that might conflict? <edit> does running the exe as an admin or in compatibility mode for an earlier version of windows (say 7) make a diff? |
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| lol I can understand that. Yeah, strange - all other versions have worked. No I always shut down programs before running a 'test' program. I tried to re-download September's version, but you've taken it down. Could you put the download here so I could re-try it. Maybe if it works you can spot some code difference with regards initiating a window. |
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| Could you put the download here so I could re-try it. Good idea - I'll re-upload and post here when it's ready. If it fails I guess that will mean something's changed at your end. |
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| Success! Running in compatibility mode for Windows 7 it runs in fullscreen...Obviously it doesn't like Windows 8.1...However I do get a white line around the edge of the screen using the compatibility mode. [edit] July version no longer works so things must have changed my end. Again running in compatibility mode for Windows 7 solves the problem - all-be-it with a white line around the edge of the screen. [edit2] More testing... It seems fullscreen will not run in Windows 8.1 on my system. However, running in compatibility mode for Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP all work in fullscreen - but with a white line around the screen edges. |
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| Actually there was no September build - the previous build was July http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=332 Can you recall if this version was the one you're thinking of? |
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| See my previous post :) |
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| Just updated to the latest Nvidia driver for the Geforce 7 series and now I'm getting an error. |
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| Just rolled back to 353.30 from 358.50 and no error, so I'd say the issue is the latest Nvidia driver. There seems to be a few reports on the Nvidia forums of 358.50 causing people problems and Nvidia have offered a hotfix driver. |
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| Oh Nvidia driver probs hmm. This version of the game is substantially slower (I was getting an average of 200 FPS). But this could be that driver problem. Apart from last level (which is a lot slower) I get fluctuating frame rates of around 175 FPS average (rather than a more consistent 200 FPS. For the first time ever I dipped below the refresh rate of the monitor on the last level (60 FPS). It was going from 40 to 60 around the lava at the beginning (nice effect btw) . Then back up to about 100 FPS - 125 FPS with lots on-screen. This was on high settings and at 1920 X 1080 (Bloom, anti-aliasing etc on). |
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| ** NVIDIA DRIVER PROBLEM CONFIRMED ** Rolling back the video driver resolved all problems. 1) No error. 2) No need to run in compatibility mode - and so no graphic glitch. 3) Speed back up there (with everything on) high settings @ 1920 X 1080. Around 220 FPS for first level. Around 200 FPS for second level and third level around 140 to 200 FPS. |
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| Thanks for your help diagnosing the problem! <edit> if you play through to the end of level 3, would be keen to get your thoughts on the changes. |
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| No problem, glad it's resolved :) Will do, when I have a min. |
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| New build up for Jan 2016. Download and details at link below; http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=340&p=1737#p1737 Big news is sound is in courtesy of Fmod! Very interested to hear how it runs on peoples' rigs.  |
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| It seems to be locked to the monitor refresh this time - 60FPS. Should that be the case? Tank now seems to be a little less responsive - have you slowed the tank speed? |
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| Steve Vsync's on by default - am getting some sound instability on lesser spec rigs with framerate uncapped. You can still turn it off if you like by editing TU2.ini in the DATA folder. Haven't adjusted the tank handling since the last build as far as I know. |
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..this time, controls are near identical as TU1, which i like a lot and feels much more better...exception is turret turning which is oversensitive on my end and making it difficult to aim..explosion and bullet firing now feels same as TU1, and i like it..problem is speed..this time, FPS is lowest from all previous tests, and it was virtually, unplayable..slowly dropping, and once i reach level shown on pic, its finally dead..i dont know what could cause this.. |
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| NA Thanks for the feedback - always appreciated. For this build there's an extra overhead of sound mixing/positioning going on. I see you were only getting 22fps on level 3 in the previous build, so I expect that's been 'used up' so to speak. I'll give the sound another pass before Kickstarter however. Regards the controls, mouse sensitivity slider in the controls menu should be working? |
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| As NA confirmed, locking to VSync slows response to TU1 standards, turning off VSync it's like the faster more responsive TU2 standard of previous demos. |
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| Are we sure it isn't the extra frames + tweening that make it seem so? The tweening/framelimiting should mean objects turn/move the same speed regardless of vysnc. |
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| It seems like the tweening/frame limiting is at fault. With Vsync on it plays like TU1 (as NA just said). vSync off it plays like TU2. I can shoot off quickly and play with pace (with vSync off) like I originally mentioned on first trying the TU2 demo - I said it plays faster than TU1. Vsync on it's back to TU1 speeds again. |
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| This is puzzling. I'm not really seeing it on my W8 i7 8 core 'power' rig or my W7 2 quad rig dating from 2009. (I am seeing that I'll need to optimise sound processing) I'm tempted to say vsync on is the default, but the user can unlock the framerate if they like. |
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| Well on my system and NA's it's running like TU1 vSync on. Are you using vanilla NB tweening? Or have you introduced something of your own? A hybrid of both? |
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| This is weird. I just turned vSync back on and ran it again - it's working fine now! As responsive and fast as vSync off. [Confirmed] Just a glitch. Ran it several times now and runs fast vSync on. |
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| Just using NB's native tweening. I hope Fmod isn't causing this... |
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| Cool. That always worked for me. Well Fmod and your use of it's functions seems to put extra strain on a system which might account for something. And indeed broke NB's sound system. Maybe a re-think needed here code-wise. I'll keep an eye on this, it might have been a one off, possible Windows shenanigins or something. If it happens again I'll let you know. Still runs average 220 FPS on level 1 as an example. |
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| Steve The other thing I've done with this build is reduce the priority of the process with a bit of internal code, else NB runs at real time priority. That might be the issue here. I'll wait and see what the other testers report but will devote some time to optimizing sound processing. Thanks again for your feedback! |
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| N/A, Steve Have updated the link to the latest build. Found a nasty audio bug that was seeing some sound positions being momentarily reset to 0,0,0 after their parent had been deleted. This meant a slight cut-out a short way into the playback - most noticeably on explosion samples. Have also spread audio processing over more cycles to help frame-rates. http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=340&p=1737#p1737 |
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| ..this time, i was able to complete demo..on few places FPS dropped rapidly, for a very short time (shock wave or large explosion)...issue i came over is related to controls. Once i set up turret sensitivity with mouse settings, up to my liking, first perspective mode when im outside of tank, is affected as well on such way that its hardly possible to move (rotate), without moving mouse physically up and then drag again and again. I guess, same value is used for both, turret and first perspective, but angles of turret and first perspective mode are very different for same mouse motion.. |
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| NA Thanks for getting back to me. Where's your setting on the mouse sensitivity slider? Half-way? Less than half-way? (also, how's progress on Hoodwink2 coming along?) |
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| ..mouse sensitivity i have set to 14%, so tank turret with that was perfect for me..but free style was very badly affected so mouse couldnt rotate much.. HW2 is done, im messing with voice acting (soooo tiring..huh) :) |
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| NA Sounds like you want fairly low turret sensitivity but a much higher 'FPS' sensitivity for when on-foot - which makes sense. The solution is to have two sets of sensitivity settings - turret and on-foot. Also, how are you handling the voice acting? Are you getting people into a studio or is it on-line with a number of contributors? |
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| ..maybe good solution will be to lock down some 'normal' turning speed for free mode, if it is not so often used in game, and let mouse settings affect turret, instead of having two settings.. ..voice acting is done partly by local actors here, folks from radio and some foreigners i know around doing voice narration for TV/radio..everything is recorded at sound fx studio, which is owned by friend of mine (hes from New Zealand), Mike Bloemendal (Imaginex Studio)..very funny fella but yet, equipment in his studio is really good and he is very professional..hes also gamer and composer as well so he understands :).. Hardest part is to explain to actor, how you want it, so often everything ending up, like, im acting some creature or something, making idiotic noises, and explaining what suppose to be done, which is all a bit funny, but very tiring..and bring it all at same time table is a nightmare(except Mike)...huhh.. :) |
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| Thanks again for your feedback! No probs. 2 games I am looking forward too - Tank Universal 2 and Hoodwink 2 :) |
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| Damn....Sony has been secretly spying on MadJack this whole time... |
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| ..wow..so similar look..even fonts seems to be very a like.. |
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| Looks nice, but is the AI just a series of enemies spawning who then home in on the player relentlessly? Obviously TU2 can't compete graphically, but I suspect it is a bit more sophisticated AI wise. In TU2 there are tanks that will protect targets and won't attack until the player comes into range, re-inforcements are airlifted in or enter from beyond the map's edge rather than simple spawning and tanks can retreat when too damaged or frightened by enemy numbers. Could be wrong though! |
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| ..it really does look like rip off..color theme is identical, even some maps with red/blue colors, buildings/structures are, practically same design, just more details...look at explosion debris...same look as TU1/2..really really similar visual style.. |
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| I agree with NA - this definitely looks like a ripoff of TU1/2 - the similarities in graphical style, object design and gameplay surely cannot be coincidental. I suppose it could be argued that TU itself was based on the original Battle Zone - but [if that is true] at least it was a reinvention rather than a blatant copy. |
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| Assuming this a PlayStation exclusive this could actually help TU2 |
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| cdb Let's hope so as frankly, the TU2 Kickstarter is not tracking well enough to get funded at present. There's still another four weeks to go though... |
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| @MadJack>>i have read some of the negative comments of TU1 on steam, and the complaints are often that "it is slow" or "it is boring" or "i don't know what to do or where to go next", sure you can't please everybody, but maybe take some of these comments into account for your TU2 demo and also for your gameplay video. If you show the players interested in such games that you have made the necessary improvements, they will probably support it more. (my 1 cent) |
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| RD I think I have taken those crits on-board for TU2 - at least in terms of giving more info on where to go/what to do on-screen and having action right from the start (rather than an extended intro) and speeding the action up in general (although some people don't like that - they want the original pacing). But in terms of directly addressing these 'improvements in user friendliness' in the vid - it wasn't something I really thought about. Perhaps an extra section detailing the improvements to the UI etc might be the ticket? |
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| imo the demo and the gameplay video must demonstrate that you have taken into account the previous praises/critics/requests of players and that you have added some modifications/improvements (that you think fit in the gameplay/world of course) Also, i hope that you have added the possibility to skip the story cutscenes/dialogues for those who don't care about that or for those who want to replay another time without having to reread/relistento/rewatch the whole thing ! (simple functionality which, if it is missing, can make me give up to continue/replay a game (hello shining force 3)) |
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| possibility to skip the story cutscenes/dialogues During the static scenes you can hit escape to skip those, in-game cinematics - you can spacebar forwards. |
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| Good ! :) |
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