*** The Secret Of Manes ***
Community Forums/Showcase/*** The Secret Of Manes ***
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    As maybe some of you have seen I started an egypt style level some time ago (see here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=26976 ) Finally I found the time to add some new funky features to the engine and complete this new level. Hope you like it. Download here: http://www.melog.ch/dropper/v30/secretofmanes.zip (7.8 MB) This is the third playable level using the CSP game engine. |
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| It looks very good, but please do not enclose the title in stars! |
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| I'm sorry, too late - 8) please forgive me... |
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| play THIS !! |
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| Very nice! It seems you have tweaked the difficulty as well, the last level (the mansion) was pretty hard, this seems just right. The water/swimming stuff is cool too! I like the explosives, but the walls should break away from the C4 not into it :) Also you can jump incredibly high, a bit too high in my opinion. Great stuff though! Happy New Year and keep it up in 2004! |
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| Excellant, one can tell alot of work went into this title. |
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| Nice work man :) I like alot. Agree about the jump height, but it's pretty cool man! |
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| Very nice work that man. |
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| very cool! |
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| Very cool :) Much better than the previous version. |
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| It's very nice, and very polished, but I do have a few suggestions. 1) Agree with Fredborg that the jumping is too high. I can jump up onto those walls at the beginning and see where I'm going long before I get there. 2) The camera perspective is too narrow or too deep, or something. I can't tell which, but the zoom isn't right. 3) The zooming target cursor is really annoying and makes me miss the bad guys. Can you make it a bit more subtle? I like that it reacts, but it's too much and it gets in the way of aiming. 4) The bad guys take a LOT of punishment, even with the serious weapons. I mean 2 seconds with a chaingun tearing through their midriff and they're still firing. That seems kinda negative, so I'll point out some things I really like too 1) The mouse smoothing is great. Really slick. 2) Smooth movement, and attractive visual effects. 3) The opening doors is done will. I like that you can collide with them. |
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| Hay J .. Again like the rest nice work.. I think I only have one question though. you say your creating an FPS game engine, does this mean you intend to sell the source for others to make their own FPS with ? if so. you have a buyer here. Again if so. how much would we be talking about. cos I must say it really is looking near complete the way it is just now. |
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| Wow this is one of the funnest games I have played on Blitz. With a little more tweaking this could be a real proffesional game. I would have to say working on the controls more is a must. For example you should move the weapon selection keys closer to the arrow keys or use "W,A,S,D" keys to control movement. That was my only real major gripe with the game. Besides that I love it. Keep up the great work. |
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| Thank you everybody. I agree, this is far from being finished, but I cannot fix everything, I am a single person. Maybe I'll find an investor, then i'll work 24/7 with a "little army" of designers on it. I really hope so. Mojokool - didn't WASD work? Oh yea, jumping - like everything else jumping is multiplied with delta_t aka machine_crappiness. Now I am afraid I did it the wrong way: jump3=.4/t# instead of jump#=.4*t#... I promise I will fix this soon :) And I will also add 4 quads around the overground maze to hide the level so it cannot be seen when people jump onto the walls. |
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| Hey, "jfk" I've only had a few goes on it (I kept dying) - but hey it is good - respect. |
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| in the options (F2) you can lower the difficulty. I would also sell a godmode cheat code for 1.99$ ;) The hellhounds and mummies are tuff guys, you best shot them periodicly and then hide behind a corner right away. An other way is to run ziczac and never stop. Note their firemushs etc. do not correct the flying direction once fired. They also don't aim predictively based on you motion (not yet :) ) |
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| Hay jfk you didnt say if you were gona sell the source as an egine or if your just gona sell the final game. ? |
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| You know what? I am so used to everyone releaseing first person demos using the arrow keys I did not even think to try that afterward. Sorry. Boy do I feel stupid. Any way great demo. Again I love it and will keep an eye out for any further progress in the future. :) |
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| Sweet work. I saw you used the grass texture I posted a while ago, but edited out the bright pink background. Do you think you could send me or post the finished version you used? I'd like to use it. Thanks. |
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| I like it :) When you put it on the lowest resolution it looks like the old doom or quake :) |
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| halo - I did this texture completely by my own, seems like you're confusing something. however, this texture tga was posted in the "pretty realitic grass" thread in the code archives, feel free to use it. it has blurred contours on the alpha channel. po - but doom 1 didn't have lightmapping :) I agree, the pixels are huge in 320*240, pretty retrosish feeling. |
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| /me thinks jfk is avoiding the question lol |
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| Thanks dude. I guess grass just looks like grass. |
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| yavin - currently I try to find investors. the source is not very clean and maybe not ready for release. Later I'll let other people use it under license. But maybe there are cheaper solutions around. I gave away the source from versions 0.8 and 2.0, unfortunately I never saw any feedback in the shape of a game or even a new leveleditor gui. maybe my sourcecode is not structured enough. so I don't worry too much about that. It's likely that in the end it will be only me who's using it. what do you guys think about the underwater mode? halo - yup, it all looks the same but it tastes diffrently :) - hey - i stoped smoking without problems more than a year ago. </ot> |
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| JFK, great work again man. I really enjoy all your FPS demos. I really liked the sound effects and ambiance. I thought the underwater mode was sweet (how'd you do it?) but it's too hard to get back up the ramps (I drowned a few times). I can't wait for a whole game. If you just add a little bit of different gameplay and put together a 5-10 level single player mode and multiplayer on GNet I'd buy it. |
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| Thanks :) the underwater screen distortion is made of a sinus-based rect-displacement wave. Currently it works only on the Y axe. I had a displacement for x and y running and it looked real nice (just about like the haluciantions in thomb rider last revelation when lara gets bite by a scorpion), but it was double as slow and not double as cool, so I dropped it. |
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| Very nice game overall but, as was mentioned above, the camerazoom is out of whack. Personally I prefer to use a 1.6 default setting for camerazoom, which seems to be nearer to what the human eye perceives as the correct focus. Also I'm encountering a problem with underwater movement. When I go underwater I can't move the game character for the first ten or so seconds for some reason, which makes it impossible to get through the underwater tunnel before dying. I've tried to get through the underwater tunnel about 3-4 times and experienced this problem each time. As far as the stars around the post title heading go, I think it would be a good idea for this forum to adopt that as a standard for marking anouncements about finished games like this one, primarily to differentiate them from works-in-progress posts. There's a world of difference between a finished game and a WIP that may never see the light of day. Just my 2 cents worth. |
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| You can't move the character for ten seconds after jumping into the water?! now this is rather strange! I have no idea what happens here. Anybody else encountered this too? I wonder who did actually finish this level? For all those who need a cheat I decided to give you a little help: "somzara" will keep you alive. Axeman - could you describe this underwater problem a bit closer please, I want to fix this. Does this also happen when you jump into the pool in the room with the two army guys? |
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| Hi jfk, good job man! Looks really cool! only first time I started the game, the mouse sensitiviy / speed was super crazy fast! :) making it impossible for me to 'look around'. Everybody's got a different mouse /-speed settings ofcourse, so when I lower my mouse speed in the configuration panel, I was able to properly play it. Perhaps you want to include a simple 'mouse speed' in your options panel?! keep it up! -danny |
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| if you press F2 you can adjust the mouse reaction |
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| Wow. nice level for maplet. I'm stuck at the part after you blow up the bricks though. I keep on falling down thosse elevator shaft things. |
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| I found the problem with moving underwater. It turned out to be my mistake rather than a problem with the code. I was assuming that I could swim, Quake 3 style, but I found I needed to make use of the crouch button to move downward and gain ground traction. Sorry to be a pain, JFK. |
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| Axeman - no problem - it reminds me of I really should add a working "swim-mode", not only diving. bot builder - thanks! those elevator shafts can only be used from below. first you need to grab the c4, go back to the first destructable wall. there is an other elevator behind the wall, ready to be used. if it's too hard use the cheat code I mentioned above. It's pretty hard without a savegame function. |
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| i hate maze games... me just too stooopid to find my way out... ... that aside, this has some elements of being an addictive fps... a lil retro Doom like, but with some pluses. i only got down into the lower level, but got killed mainly because i ran outta ammo (shot everything in sight, like an idiot), and couldn't get to the chain gun in time... only a few bad thing so far... (1) turns are wayyy too quick for the map... the character turns around too quickly. (2) nice bullet holes, but crates could shatter when shot enough, and 55 gallon drums (some of em) could explode when shot. (3) to grab things... a separate use key and proximity tied to sight only and not the crosshairs for activating and picking up objects would seem smoother than the current need to aim at something in order to pick it up. ok, lemme get back to it and see how far i can get... :) (that's the important thing here... the desire to return to the game. you've managed to make it interesting and compelling enough to make me wanna play it further... that's the key to it being a 'good' game. usually, these demos get deleted after i've looked em over quickly, but yours is gonna stay... at least for a while :) ) --Mike |
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| jfk, Once again. Amazing work. Classic FPS Game Play. I'm not sure if you plan to build more levels, but, it would be nice to see the plot unfold. |
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| Only thing i didn't like was the sidestepping speed. Sorry if it's been mentioned, but i'm lazy and couldn't be bothered to read the rest of the thread :) |
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| Thanks! Ross - too slow sidestepping? You see, that's exactly the way it is: in the last demo some people said it was too fast :) |
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| First of all, I have to say this is an amazing accomplishment. It shows both how capable you are, and how capable blitz is. I certainly respect this work. (Oh, and Wow! Decals on the people...err...corpses. Am I seeing things??) The water effect is beautiful. The style and textures give the map such depth. The doors are done well. The crates look great. And so many other things...but you know that already. Now for the constructive criticism, baring in mind i've already said this is amazing :P - Stand on something and jump so you hit the roof, and you pause mid-air matrix style. (You can even walk across the roof!) - Pick up items/activate switches - I think it works really well that you have to click on it, rather than run through it. However it's too precise... Would be better if the click was registered anywhere within the crosshairs circle - Strafing would benefit by a 'slight' speed increase - (Nitpicking) Where there are 3 health boxes stacked up, take the bottom 2 away and the top one floats - You can jump on things outside and walk across the top of the maze. This would be fine, however it lets you see into the rest of the level. - No jumping allowed on the elevator/lift (I understand why it's like this...however it would be more realistic if you worked this out) - If you start the elevator while you're not on it and walk under it, you are automatically moved to be standing on it. Same for if you are on the platform above and it is coming up and you walk off the cliff - The marble texture seems out of place/character (to me)...not exactly sure what would make it seem right though... - AI/Paths - I know very well this area is difficult. What you've done with the defined paths works well, however I'd like to comment that it seems the opponents don't pick the right direction to go to reach you. Too often do they tend to run away for no reason - Crosshairs reaction is great however the zoom is too much...maybe zoom to half the size? - The grass is really nice, however it doesn't seem right that you collide with it. This is especially true since its backface disappears and you can walk through it from that direction - You should probably run slower while crouching (Side comment, I have to complement you on removing the decals on the walls that you blow up. I was so expecting them to still be floating there! :D) Keep up the great work! |
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| Tanks a lot. I totally agree with everything you said, it seems to me you watched it very closely. I couldn't write a better to-do list. Let's hope I can fix these things until the next release. |
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| One constructive criticism that I have is that the crosshair is often impossible to see while aiming at the dogs when they're spewing fire. You can't tell if it's zoomed or not to indicate that its on target. Having lighter and darker areas for the zoomed crosshair image (and possibly for the normal crosshair too) would make it more visible under different conditions. Possibly a green cross in the center and a black circle around the outside. Also, the options settings should be saved to a file when you return from the options menu so that changes are persistant. |
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| Yes, thanks Axeman, I thought so too. I'll fix that, promised. BTW here is another bug I just detected: it checks 1240*960 Pixels... stupid me! |
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| I think that pool that you jump into to get to the underwater tunnel might need to be widened also. It seems like my game character's collision zone is getting snagged between the ramp and the wall. |
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| really? It works without problems here. It is true, it requires a bit of dexterity or sure instinct to use the ramp to get out of the water. But once one knows how to use it it works well imho. This is also one drawback of Maplet. you cannot simply go back and edit some parts unless all texture works are redone in Decorator. |
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| This is also one drawback of Maplet. you cannot simply go back and edit some parts unless all texture works are redone in Decorator. Ugh... tell me about it! |
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| Are you serious? Maplet can export .B3D, but cannot import it. Decorator can only load .B3D. So if I once decide to finish level modeling and start texturing in Decorator, it's a point of no return. some time ago I wrote a uv-combiner which tried to use uvs of matching tris from an older mesh, but this don't works if there are new lights in the scene. I am hopefully looking forward to a maplet version that is capable of exporting lights information, as well as import (Maplet-exported).B3D together with the mentioned lights information file. Or maybe simply include something like Decorator in Maplet. |
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| Well, it's hard to pin down what I'm doing wrong in that underwater tunnel entrance pool. Sometimes I jump in and seem to sink like a rock, but usually I end up getting stuck for several seconds before I can break free, which makes it impossible to get through the tunnel without dying. I've also gotten stuck in that area, at the bottom of the pool, coming back through the tunnel from the other direction. I seem to either be not-gaining/losing walking traction, getting jammed against the geometry, or getting stuck by some bouyancy, force, collision, whatever, anomally, which dramatically reduces my enjoyment of the game and my inclination to play it (just my feedback as a game player). The bots are pussies compared to that little bit of water :-) |
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| please use the undead cheat code i mentioned above and try to figure out what it exactly is that makes your player stuck in the tunnel. I never had any problems. but I only tested it in my machine. Tho Collision Radius is the same on all machines. PS when you dive you have to steer as if you'd fly - up or down etc. So when you jump into the water, first look down and press the forward key. btw you could also help me debuggin this when you tell me the framerate. you can enter the debuggin cheat: "sominfo" to toggle debuggin info, the fps is on the bottom line. I'd like to know your average rate byside the pool and inside the water. |
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| Well, I jumped into the underwater tunnel and had a play round. 'Diving' upwards seems to work well enough but diving downwards doesn't work at all for the most part. I found that if I moved the mouse around I could get it to dive down very occasionally, but it's pretty awkward. This seems to be where I lose the most health as it takes too long to get to the bottom of the pool. I don't seem to be getting stuck on the geometry, I think its a math thing. I found that, when I let the characters speed stop while walking through the tunnel, it 'sticks' for a variable amount of time lasting from a fraction of a second to several seconds. I couldn't find any noticable relationship between the time I let it stop for, which direction the character was pointing (attempting to dive), or anything else. The framerate next to the pool was around 50-70. The framerate in the pool was around 50-80. It didn't seem to change noticably when the character was 'stuck'. The general framerate seemed to average in the low fifties. In the maze it was fairly low, around 30-50. In the lowest levels it was much higher, around 50-80. The FPS counter was fairly hard to read, though, it needs to be averaged out a bit. Here's the code I use to average FPS if it's any good to you. milli_secs = MilliSecs () ;........ ; -- Frames Per Second counter. framecount = framecount + 1 If milli_secs > fps_timeout Then fps_timeout = milli_secs + 1000 fps = framecount framecount = 0 EndIf Color 180, 0, 0 Text 350, 5, "FPS" Color 255, 255, 255 Text 390, 5, FPS I also timed the amount of time it took the character to use up all its health once it got in the water. It took 14 seconds (with a difficalty level of 1.0). |
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| thanks! I guess there is a delta_t problem. max. underwater speed is a parameter dependent on delta_t. could be the bad guy here. delta_t is the movement multiplyer calculated from the current framerate, so the game _should_ run with the same speed on all machines. 50 to 80 fps? strange, I use flip true, shouldn't that limit it at the users vsync rate? Did you disable vsync in the DirectX settings? |
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| I don't have vsync disabled, that I'm aware of. I do have my monitor set to 85 hertz though, which is what that FPS counter code I supplied usually shows when my projects that use it are running at top speed. It steps down to around 40 odd when things get heavy, which is what should happen with vsync enabled as far as I know. Like I said, that FPS counter in the game was very hard to read as it was running so fast the characters tended to blur together, so it was hard to accurately tell what it was showing. BTW, I noticed that the cursor on the cheat console was leaving green residue between the gray console and the bottom of the viewport(?) window. If you need any more help to nail this problem, what I'd suggest is that you make up a version of the game that records suspect variable data to a file and post a link to it here. Then I can send you back the data file to study. |
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| Thanks a lot! I work on the engine from time to time, when I have enough spare time. I worked on it in the end of last year, not shure when I'm gonna have my next creative phase. I'll send you a mail if I cannot fix that bug. I will shurely investigate this part closely. |
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