Tank Universal Demo
Community Forums/Showcase/Tank Universal Demo
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| Hi all Looking for player feedback for Tank Universal. There are two levels included in this demo; Level 4 (The Training Level), and Level 7 (The CircuitRing Plain) - both of which contain some fearsome tank clashes ;-) Download size is approx 46megs - packed to one exe file (molebox).   What am I looking for with this demo? How it runs on your system (and your system spec's please) Whether you like it or not? (I'm hoping you do) What you found unclear about the game (e.g. aspects of the interface, gameplay, etc..) Whether you experienced crashes and when they occurred/what happened. Bugs, both game breaking (I hope not) and lesser bugs (e.g. graphics glitches) Gameplay suggestions. Anything else you'd like to mention. A few notes about the demo: Firstly, in attempt to keep the framerate steady at 30fps, the game's 'glow' fx and particle emission rate are 'choked' back if fps drops too low. On a 2Gig, 6800Geforce box there's some slowdowns when things get busy and I'll have to look at further optimisation before release - that's understood. Options and Credits on the Main Menu are not yet implemented (likewise, no key mapping as yet) - control is WASD and mouselook. Hit 'H' for control helpscreens. 1280x1024 causes the bottom of the shield display to become visible - perhaps you'd like to run in 1024x768 firstly... I strongly recommend playing the training level first. However if you decide to skip training, at least remember to hit the 'C' key to go faster. And yes, that is an old guy on the main menu screen. His name is George and he likes a cuppa and a sit down - his role will be more fully explained when the game is released. (By the way, if anyone'd like to mirror this demo I'd be much obliged - not sure how long my link will hold.) http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~pajones/TUC_DEMO.zip |
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| I have win98SE so I don't think this'll work for me, because of molebox (see Cygnus' thread about his racer). :( |
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| Just to let you know it works fine on WindowsXP - I'll post some more when I've had a few goes. |
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| Steve Thanks for confirming it runs ok on XP - looking forward to your feedback (and anyone else's!) big10p Sorry about that. I looked at using Blitz Media Linker, but it consistently spat the dummy over my code. I have a lot of code so I didn't feel comfortable trying to find why BML didn't care for it. I looked at Terrabit's packer but it leaves your assets exposed in a temp dir. So I went with Molebox. Edit: Been looking at the other demo threads regarding issues with Molebox. From what I can gather, Molebox won't run under Win98 and Anthony's issues arose from having missing files/packed DLLs in his release. I can confidently say that the TU demo has all required files included and does not include any DLLs, so if you have Win2000/XP give it a go ;-) |
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| This looks interesting - haven't looked at it yet though. |
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| Go on Puki - give it a whirl... |
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| Ok so, this game owns. Worked perfectly, solid 30 fps no matter how beefy the battles got. Here's my personal critique: Things I loved: The first thing that stuck out was the sounds. They are superb, from the interface to the shooting to the bullets the fit the game perfectly. The loading screens and death screens, and the transitions, they are quick and really make you feel like your in the game. The massive amount of things happening at once was great, really helps you to feel like your in the battle, not too confusing, but crazy enough to make you feel like your just another soldier in a bigger picture. The tutorial was very helpful and descriptive. Things I liked: Style was pretty cool, a lot of it felt like it was just 'lazy style', but the trees and stuff really felt like it fitted. The carriers that pick you up and drop you off in battle was a very nice touch. The energy distribution was a nice concept, I think it needs a bit more work, but I like the idea. Things I didn't like: The amount of time the carriers took to pick you up was insane, it really broke the flow of the battle. They should pick you up only seconds after you hit L. The old man in the intro screen. I know you said he's there for a reason and will be explained, but regardless of the reason, I just don't think its fitting. The rest of the interface is fast, sleek, and styalized...and then there's some salty old dude in an arm chair. Can't really pump myself to get ready to kick some ass and take some names when I'm staring at pops mcgee contemplating his life in his lazyboy. The speed the tank moved at, it was almost a crawl when you don't have energy allocated to it, and even when you did, it was not agile enough to doge attacks. Even with the upgrade, I didn't get shards often enough for the speed boost to be effective. I died really quick, when I was in the sights of the turret, there was just no way to escape, and I died almost instantly. The ability to aim higher would be nice, the turrets were too high for me to hit from the ground plane. Things I hated: Ahhh the controls!! When you stop moving the mouse, the turret needs to stop moving too. I see what you're going for with clicking Right mouse button to stop the turret, but it just doesn't work. Make it move like a FPS camera. This one thing can kill the game. You have an amazing game with more potential than I've seen from most blitz games, but I feel if this one little detail isn't hammered out it can ruin a very awesome game. All in all, it kicked ass. It's close to being great, just needs a few more things. Keep it up man! |
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| Excellent. That's exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for Lib. Thanks very much. Regards the control scheme. Point taken. I think the best bet is to give as many control customisation options as possible here (without breaking game balancing) - perhaps use some preset control 'profiles' (e.g. 'Pure FPS', 'Free Turret', 'Locked Turret' etc..), but let the player customise any/all elements within those profiles to suit. 'The energy distribution was a nice concept, I think it needs a bit more work, but I like the idea.' Yeah, it is just toggle on/off at present. It's an attempt to add a small layer of strategy but it could/should be developed further. 'The amount of time the carriers took to pick you up was insane' Hmm. At present it's a 'procedural' thing in that they wait 'off level' and then fly to the player, so you could say they 'don't cheat' in that the player is treated like all the other tanks. But I'll look at tightening this up. Style was pretty cool, a lot of it felt like it was just 'lazy style', but the trees and stuff really felt like it fitted. I hope players find it relatively attractive. I'm a team of one so I'm limited in what I can do. The old man in the intro screen.' What!? You don't like George?! Then you're going to hate one of the levels in the finished game. It's the level where you make him a cup of tea (I'm not joking). 'The speed the tank moved at, it was almost a crawl when you don't have energy allocated to it, and even when you did, it was not agile enough to doge attacks' - Hmm - this is a balancing issue. One of the things I wanted in battles is that firstly the player should have some caution about burling recklessly in to close quarters against enemy tanks. I know in most other tank games it's all about just getting up close and blasting- basically hoping for a good result. In TU I would want the player to consider keeping his distance and bombarding from a distance (using gun charging for example) as a valid option. After all, you're not an uber-tank and the player is not overpowered. If you're going in to battle you're going to take splash damage. Take too much then you may have to expend a turbo boost or health recharge, or just get out of Dodge, find a quiet spot and set shields to max recharge. Whatever you do, don't stay still when in range. Having said that, I usually play with engines on max. 'I died really quick, when I was in the sights of the turret, there was just no way to escape, and I died almost instantly.' I probably need to expand the tutorial to explain about fixed turrets. The idea with them is that they do have long range and are very deadly - they're a cue for the player to use distant bombardment and gun charge. Need to emphasise this further I think. Might also look at reducing the gun shake when at max charge. Thinking on the above - perhaps a definite bombardment mode' is needed. Say a powerup where the player's tank puts down supports, extends the gun barrel and is then in 'artillery mode' and can take down fixed turrets with ease... 'The ability to aim higher would be nice, the turrets were too high for me to hit from the ground plane.' Will do that - thanks for the heads up ;-) |
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| Very professional and very polished! By far one of the most striking demos I've seen on the Blitz platform. Hell I remember you working on this way back when I was just getting in game dev again....a few years back...and well worth it! Didnt quite like the controls but....will adjust if i have to. Its a tank game so... Graphics and atmosphere is top notch....I'm still amazed. The old dude in the main screen reminds me of pope john paull II..... |
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| As the others have said, very professional and polished. Didn't get very far into it though. I attempted to play the tutorial, picked up one of the glowing things then was told to head to the point marked on the map but in the radar in the top left I couldn't see anything which stood out from the rest. The control interface I couldn't get used to either - I kept rotating around in circles (or at least the turret did) which and found it rather difficult to move forwards. That was just my initial thoughts, I may give it more of a go later. |
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| Matty Once you've picked up one of the glowing things (glyphs), you should see some dashed lines appear in the radar which will lead you to your goal. Perhaps I could also have this indicator flashing to help pick it out - perhaps add some arrows to the dashed line as well. Others have commented on the control - but remember you can stop the turret with the Right Mouse Button. Also, press "H" for help screens that list control keys. |
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| OK - firstly system specs, 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 1024Mb RAM, ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128Mb RAM. AAAARGHHH!! Sorry but that old man - George Bray or who ever that old man is HAS to go! Totally out of place and doesn't make you feel like going any further - use some of the in-game graphics and a stirring sound track or something. The game ran constantly at 30FPS very smoothly and my next thought was "cool Tron-like graphics". My tank moved far too slowly until I worked out the speed command. Hmm - too slow I think. Tanks are generally not the fastest mode of transport, but they should be faster - especially given the virtual environment and therefore need to be larger than life. Unfortunately, the bad tearing totally ruined the effect for me - are you turning the vsync off? I can see the graphics being drawn up the screen - if that's intentional please turn it off! The tank really takes some getting used too! But quite satisfying when you do - tanks are cool aren't they? Some suggestions here. Make the front of the tank more distinct from the back so when you spin around you don't go backwards when you thought you were going to move forward! The gun turret spins slowly but the whole tank spins very quickly - shouldn't that be the other way round? Certainly slow the rate the main body of the tank spins - especially when you consider my previous point. Also, when you stop moving the turret should stop spinning gradually under momentum - but quite quickly (without having to jab the right mouse button). Having had a few goes at the training mission - destroying the tanks etc - now yer talking. I went to the demo level and er, what are you supposed to do? Picked up an upgrade that appeared on the radar - but no mission instructions appeared - got bored and quit. A demo has to try harder than the full game in a way to get you hooked quickly - or it gets uninstalled. All-in all this could be something special, despite some of my comments - just needs a few gameplay improvements. :-) |
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| How it runs on your system (and your system spec's please) Runs great, computer specs are at the bottom, Whether you like it or not? (I'm hoping you do) The game is wonderful, MadJack, I really love the tron atmosphere, I love all games that give that digital look and feel, reminds me of the Darwinia vibe which was so great. What you found unclear about the game (e.g. aspects of the interface, gameplay, etc..) I didn't notice anything unclear, except for when I first played the tutorial, the hub thingy or whatnot wasn't actually "targetted" atleast, I didn't know where to go until I explored everywhere, to capture the [hub?]. The controls were perfect, I had no problems. Don't change them. :) Whether you experienced crashes and when they occurred/what happened. Bugs, both game breaking (I hope not) and lesser bugs (e.g. graphics glitches) I had no problems running it, was great! Gameplay suggestions. I can really see this being fun multiplayer, maybe even co-op multiplayer, with a bunch of friends versus enemy AI. That would f#$king rock.Anything else you'd like to mention. Yeah, I can't wait for it. |
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| I quite liked this game... Only thing that keeps me from not getting much excited about it, were the controls. The mouse control over the turret is too slow and laggy... I would like some sharper controls. Also I thought the tank moved too slowly and was a bit too clumsy. Otherwise the game looks great and seems very interresting. I hope you do something to the controls. It would make the game so much better. |
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| Just so you know... I've downloaded it... just not played it yet! I will though... too blooming busy! |
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| Steve 'Sorry but that old man - George Bray or who ever that old man is HAS to go' Heh - you guys don't much care for old George do you? Well perhaps he shouldn't be on the menu screen - will look at a redesign here to save your youthful sensibilities ;-) 'Unfortunately, the bad tearing totally ruined the effect for me - are you turning the vsync off? ' Yes - and that needs to be a user controlled option. Thanks for the heads up. 'The gun turret spins slowly but the whole tank spins very quickly - shouldn't that be the other way round? ' Yeah - this is another example where perhaps I'm too close to the game to really pick up on things like this. Controls are a major issue - will look closely at this. 'Tanks are generally not the fastest mode of transport, but they should be faster - especially given the virtual environment and therefore need to be larger than life' Hmm - but does it then cease to be 'tank-like' and become more a race car with a gun attached? I'll give this more thought - thanks for the comment. 'Make the front of the tank more distinct from the back ' That's a good idea - I'll implement that. I went to the demo level and er, what are you supposed to do? Picked up an upgrade that appeared on the radar - but no mission instructions appeared - got bored and quit. ' Ok, this highlights the need for the game (any game really) to give the player a clear goal at all times. In the full game you have some context from the previous level to help guide you, but of course that means nothing in the demo. However, there's a short path down the hillside and halfway down you do recieve instructions to move onto the plain below where you'll find a lot more action. Give it a whirl and watch out for the bombers. Zenith 'The game is wonderful, MadJack, I really love the tron atmosphere, I love all games that give that digital look and feel, reminds me of the Darwinia vibe which was so great.' Glad you enjoyed it! 'when I first played the tutorial, the hub thingy or whatnot wasn't actually "targetted" atleast, ' The goalmarker on the radar needs to be tweaked - if you're too far away from the goal then you may not see the lines 'radiating' out from the goalpoint - need to fix that. 'I had no problems running it, was great!' Cool - it seems to be running stable for people. I figure that's a big part of the fight. I'll still need to optimise further before release though. Bouncer Controls - noted. Rob So take an hour? ;-) |
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| MadJack- Only spent a few minutes with the game so far but- On the whole good atmos, gfx, sound The old man stinks and doesnt fit in as everyone said The mouse turret control is a pain and not like i would expect it to handle A 3rd person view may be less realistic but it would let you quiockly see the orientation of your tank tracks which would improve playability IMO This may or may not apply to your game - as I said not put a lot of time in - but avoid gameplay where you look at the scannner too much - it ruins the immersiveness of a game |
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| Nomen 'The old man stinks' Heh - he's going to go from the main menu screen no doubt, but he's not going to disappear from the game - he's part of the story I want to tell and so he'll remain. But not on the main menu. 'The mouse turret control is a pain and not like i would expect it to handle' By giving a range of control options (final release/next demo), I hope that'll suit just about everyone. 'A 3rd person view may be less realistic but it would let you quickly see the orientation of your tank tracks which would improve playability IMO' Myself, I don't like 3rd person as it's as you pointed out, less realistic. But it'd be worthwhile providing that as an option. Thanks for the comment. 'but avoid gameplay where you look at the scannner too much ' Again, I'm perhaps too close to the game to be objective about this, but I don't think that's an issue here - I hope the scanner's clear in its function and is useful but not critical to play. By the way, how does it run on your machine? |
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| Mmmm...Tank Universal. It's amazing how far the game has come since that early demo. Very well done, MadJack. Consider me customer #1. :] Some issues I noted (many have been stated previously): -Tank back needs to be different from the front. I'm not sure why this didn't creep up until now but nevertheless, I found myself pushing forward to escape an incoming round only to move backward and right in its path. -The upgrade UI in the tutorial mission confused me a bit, although I may have overlooked the obvious. The UI gave me the impression I was to select (via F1 or F2) which powerup I wanted. After pressing both keys to no avail, I discovered that upgrading actually gives you access to both powerups and you were simply supposed to close the UI via the spacebar. What's worse, it seems as though the game has frozen because the upgrade progress bar remains on the screen but never updates, etc. -I'm all for tank speed being increased slightly. It's really a balance issue because, as you've mentioned, too much speed and you become a racecar with a turret but too little and the game gets fairly frustrating. -On the training mission, the lifter clips into the "holding cell" wall. It's a minor issue, though. |
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| GNS Was hoping you'd have a go ;-) 'Tank back needs to be different from the front. ' Yep - perhaps something big across the front of the tank - something obvious when you're concentrating elsewhere on the screen. 'you were simply supposed to close the UI via the spacebar' Probably a flashing text message needed here to prompt. 'I'm all for tank speed being increased slightly' Perhaps the way to go here is to better delineate the different enegy settings - i.e. make the current engine max speed the default speed (i.e energy balanced setting) and make the engines max setting faster again, but heavily reduce the firepower for this setting. Perhaps that'd help address peoples' complaints about tank speed too(?) Will need to test. 'On the training mission, the lifter clips into the "holding cell" wall. It's a minor issue, though. ' I've noticed that too - need to inc its collision radius width. Thanks for the feedback GNS. |
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| Tutorial: - I didn't understand where to go and so I quit after 10 mins driving around, collecting these white thiggies without any aim. Demo Level: - Well, a barrier... where I have to go? For the main menu: - Please highlight the menu option if the mouse if over it For the Tank movement: - feels too slow, any temporal booster possible - the cannon always circled for me which is very annoying - aming the cannon higher would be nice GFX + Sounds: + Superb for most cases - Cannon shooting looked too much pixelated for me - How about adding pulsating laser beams that go up to the sky from the tower buildings? See Mastermind Tower or Com Sat Tower in "Tron the movie". I had no FPS issues, so add more eye-candy! :) |
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| Great work. Really nice retro visuals, frame rate a reasonably constant 25 for me. I would also add my voice to the opinions about control. I would like to see a more FPS-like control method, and certainly would like the turret to turn with the body when the body turns (although it might be useful sometimes to keep a bead on an enemy - maybe the right button could lock the turret so that you can do this). I would also like to be able to raise the turret higher - I was frustrated sometimes trying to fire from a ramp and only being able to hit the ground in front of me. I think I would like the radar to spin with the player, either around the body or around the turret - not sure which... I really liked the artillery bombardments, I would love to be able to call those in myself. I agree the front of the tank should look different to the back. Those fixed turrets are mental hard! Or maybe I'm just rubbish... Mind you, it made it all the more satisfying to destroy one. I like the ability to push power to different systems, but I was a little disappointed that it was just one level. I thought I'd be able to fine tune it - holding down the C, V or B keys to raise the level of energy in each thing which lowers the other 2 equally. It's been a long path so far and it's really looking fantastic - how much time a week are you able to give to it? |
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| Runs fine on my machine so far - only did part of the training so not had any battles yet. I'm running XP SP2 |
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| Seems to work fine with w2k stats in my signature. Not got much time to try it out, but at least you know w2k seems ok:) |
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| Grisu Look for dashed lines on the radar leading you to your 'hub'. Touch the hub to activate it. ' Well, a barrier... where I have to go?' There's a path down the hillside to the plain. It's behind the boxes on the left as you first approach them. Do a little searching - it's not difficult to find. 'Please highlight the menu option if the mouse if over it' Will do. '- feels too slow, any temporal booster possible - the cannon always circled for me which is very annoying - aming the cannon higher would be nice' RMB will stop the cannon. 'H' will bring up help screens. Remember to press C to max your engines. 'Cannon shooting looked too much pixelated for me' That's intentional - it's a digital world. MrTricks 'frame rate a reasonably constant 25 for me.' Would like it to run a little quicker but unfortunately it's still written in basic so it's never going to be as fast other compiled languages. More optimisation needed - there's a lot of function calling going on. 'more FPS-like control method,', 'certainly would like the turret to turn with the body ','I would like the radar to spin with the player' I think I can see myself releasing a small control test demo just to make sure everyone's happy. All these things could be user defined options. 'I really liked the artillery bombardments, I would love to be able to call those in myself.' In a bit of a quandary here. I don't think I'd include a 'call in an airstrike' option cause it's kind of contrived. I have been thinking about a powerup option to go to an 'artillery mode' - i.e. tank 'transforms' with the tradeoff being that the player's very vulnerable to attack when in that mode. How does that strike you? 'I like the ability to push power to different systems, but I was a little disappointed that it was just one level' Probably need to have more levels - perhaps fine control as a secondary control. However I think the player really just needs to be able to push a button and max out engines when needed. Those fixed turrets are mental hard! Or maybe I'm just rubbish... Mind you, it made it all the more satisfying to destroy one. Might tone down their damage rate a tad. Also point out (in the tutorial) the finer points of long range bombardment. However the turrets are useful in creating 'danger zones' in a level and 'discouraging' the player from going where they shouldn't too soon. 'how much time a week are you able to give to it? ' Usually 3-4 hours a night. More on the weekend. Obviously I've done quite a bit more than what's on show in the demo. Nomen 'Runs fine on my machine so far - only did part of the training so not had any battles yet. I'm running XP SP2' That's good. However it chokes back the particle fx when getting low FPS, so you're probably not getting full smoke plumes etc... |
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| Coming on really well I'm very impressed. I think all you need to do with the controls is make the mouselook independant from the turret. So you can look about with 100% responsiveness like in an FPS but the turret will turn slower and line itself up. This would then free up the right mouse button which could be used instead to automatically line up the tanks movement direction with the way you're facing. Driving the tanks in Call of Duty 2 was pretty intuitive, you might want to take a look at that. |
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| 25fps seems slow on paper, but actually because it was constant it was fine to play. I think any kind of interaction with the airstrikes would be great, however it is worked. Usually 3-4 hours a night. More on the weekend. Wow. For all this time? And do you hold down a day job as well? That's dedication. |
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| Nicoust Thanks - I would expect it to run ok with your specs. Would appreciate any further feedback you'd care to give. Pete 'I think all you need to do with the controls is make the mouselook independant from the turret.' And yet I read a review of a tank game recently which did just that and yet the reviewer complained about this very control scheme! Sigh. I think I'm going to have to make this game the holy grail of tank control options. FPS games have pretty standardised controls, but 3d tank games - everyone seems to have a preference and it's not as straight forward as it might seem... MrTricks 'Wow. For all this time? And do you hold down a day job as well? That's dedication. ' Indeed it is. |
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| And yet I read a review of a tank game recently which did just that and yet the reviewer complained about this very control scheme! Sigh. I think I'm going to have to make this game the holy grail of tank control options. FPS games have pretty standardised controls, but 3d tank games - everyone seems to have a preference and it's not as straight forward as it might seem... hehe, i don't envy you at all. My point of view is definately skewed by many hours playing FPS games ;) |
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| Any chance of a quick update to allow user selection of vsync? I'd recommend it turned on as default. |
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| Steve Will try to get a user selectable vsync version up tonight. (I'm not on broadband yet, so it's slow to upload). |
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| Thanks! I find tearing very distracting so will give the demo level some proper testing once you upload - now I know what to do! ;-) |
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| only for in case it wasn0t said (didn't read all): quote: I have win98SE so I don't think this'll work for me, because of molebox (see Cygnus' thread about his racer). :( This is totally new to me, I am using Molebox on WinME and Win98se since several years now, without any problems. |
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| Steve Have updated the download - user can toggle vsync. jfk 'I am using Molebox on WinME and Win98se since several years now, without any problems' That's unfortunate. On the other hand people with Win98 boxes are probably not my target market. |
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| Well, I actually liked the old man. Seemed to add some character to an otherwise sterile game. The controls are horrendous I couldn't play it without getting pissed off and that's really kinda hard to do. I honestly, can't even see what you were thinking with the turret ... I mean trying something different is one thing and maybe if the weapons weren't so slow or you had swarms of enemies in a line that you'd need to destroy right in a row they'd be good ... but for the enemies I faced in the first level ... ugh. I'm trying to turn and face them and chase them and the turret just keeps going. At least if you'd made it so you can lock the turret with the tank that would have helped. But instead the lock keeps locked on it's view ... which isn't even an auto lock view. What good is that? Everything else seemed cool ... if a bit slow paced and sterile. From a technical standpoint it all ran great, no hiccups. |
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| That's much better - I felt as if I'd entered the Tron universe! The visible re-drawing because of vsync off gave a bad impression of the game - seems much smoother now. So if you implement the control adjustments I mentioned (as have others) double the current default speed and implement the other suggestions I made, then that would make a big improvement. Another suggestion - the sound of your tank rumble is far too quiet. |
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| 'Well, I actually liked the old man. Seemed to add some character to an otherwise sterile game' A vote for George! As for the game appearing sterile, well I guess that's a valid observation. 'I honestly, can't even see what you were thinking with the turret ' And yet for me the controls are about being able to swing the turret about rapidly with minimal mousework from a 1st person viewpoint - a control scheme that won't make you scrabble with the mouse but also recognises that a turret cannot turn 180 degrees in an eyeblink FPS style. It also allows for fine tune adjustments. Personally I think the controls do the aforementioned. But people don't like it. So I'm going to make a good effort at giving as many control options as possible. |
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| I agree that the gun turret shouldn't turn 180 degrees in an eyeblink - that's not how tanks work, and this does mean extra skill is required - which is a good thing (you have to use tactics now, not just whizzing about like a FPS). The more you play the demo the more this is appreciated. I really don't think you need 101 different control systems. It seems to me we all agree on the basic problems... The tank speed - double it (and increase the sound on the tank). The turret speed - double it (and don't let it continue to swing wildly after the tank stops - this should happen automatically). The tank body rotation speed - half it. |
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| OK, here goes:) Constant 30fps, very smooth, no gfx glitches. I like the loading screens etc, add something to the game. The old dude is interesting, wondering what he is for. Movement etc is good, only thing i would say is perhaps the tank body turns to quick. Otherwise great game. |
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| jfk: Does this work on your win98SE machine, then? If it does, I'll give it a go myself. :) |
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| I didn't try it (and the machine I am using right now has no 3d hardware). All I can say is Molebox works on all windows OSes down to 98 AFAIK. MadJack: >>That's unfortunate. On the other hand people with Win98 boxes are probably not my target market.<< Why unfortunate? Isn't it better when it runs on all Systems? Ah, oh, I see. Clever. You'll do the same trick as Microsoft with Halo 2 for the PC: won't run on anything but Vista. ;) |
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| Eh? No, I just figure that if you're running W98 then you're probably not going to have a high spec box(?). I'll try to optimise as much as possible but I figure final release will need a higher spec than, say, a puzzle game. |
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| Hey jack, I was playing Battlefield 2 and the way they do their turret controls in that game is great. The turret behaves like a FPS camera, but to make it feel more like a turret they just change the sensitivity. Basically, if your in a large vehicle, like a tank, the mouse sensitivity is low and you have to sweep the mouse multiple times to do a full rotation. Where as if you are in a machine gun nest a simple half-sweep with the mouse will get you a full 180 rotation. It allows the user to be very precise, which players want, but it also allows you to keep the user feeling like they are in a tank, which is what you want. Not sure if your end game is going to have light, medium and heavy tanks, but it might be somthing you would want to keep in mind - it works really well. Also, Battlezone had some great tank controls, its an old one but its great. Just some ideas :] |
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| I'm absolutely having a blast playing this, MadJack. It's easily on the top of my 'must-have' game list. :] I also realized I forgot to post my system specs and framerate so: Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ RAM: 1GB PC3200 Video Card: NVidia GeForce 6600 Framerate: Stable 30 FPS for the majority of the game, slows to 25-28 in very intensive fights (especially with many destroyed tanks emitting particles) |
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| Liberator I've played that demo (BF2) - will look at it again - thanks for the suggestion. GNS Good to hear you're enjoying it. As for FPS, the software glow fx really gobbles up FPS. I choke it off if the framerate drops below 24, but I really wish Blitz had a rendertotexture function. Copyrect just acts as a bottleneck. |
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| "I really wish Blitz had a rendertotexture function." you can use dx7test.dll for that purpose. |
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| t3K|Mac I've briefly looked at this (dx7test.dll), however I'm really leery of incorporating anything that has even a remote chance of causing compatibility issues down the line (Blitz, on the other hand, is stable and what few issues it has are pretty well known by now...) |
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| if you don't dare, then you have to use the bottlecked copyrect ;) |
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| I tried to run the demo and when I am promted to leave Vsync on or turn it off I get a memory access violation no matter which option I choose. Would really like to try the demo but unable to at this point. Have a athlon64 3000+ with 1 gig ram and 6800GT. |
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| delbar What's your OS? (Also, did you doubleclick to run from within winzip? or did you extract to a directory and run the exe from there?) |
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| So I repeat, what's your OS Delbar? Just love it when someone says he can't run a Blitz demo and then doesn't reply... |
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| Have you emailed him at delbar@... ? |
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| Sorry. I had a RL issue come up and wasn't able to log on to my comp for quite awhile, I am running XP home SP2, I extracted to a folder and couldn't run it. Coming back to it now and I can run it from the same file HMM. something is wierd. Gonna give it a try and see how I like it, will post and let you know, hopefully quicker then this reply to my last post and your reply. Edit: Tried it out and it is an awesome game, took alittle bit of getting used to the controls for moving turret and base but once i got used to it was fun and exciting combat. I didn't experience any slow downs or bugs and no crashes of any sort, it ran perfectly on my machine. As far as the old man , I don't see where everyone is complaining if he has something to do with the storyline or something down the line. I would hope that once key mapping and options are avail. that there is a hotkey or something to lock the turret to a forward view as this was my only issue eary on ( mainly for traveling while not in combat) as I played tho it began to become pretty awesome to run and have turret/camera direction independant of each other. The combat and" feel " of being in a tank is very good and if this game is going to have multiplayer over the internet it would dfntly be a buy for me. |
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| delbar Not quite sure what would've caused it not to run first time. Occasionally directx can require a reboot of course, perhaps that's what the issue was. Or perhaps it was molebox acting up. 'Tried it out and it is an awesome game -moving turret and base but once i got used to it was fun ' Glad you enjoyed it! As for controls, I'm going to provide options so people can customise. That'll include whether the turret is independant of the tankbase or not, for example. 'I didn't experience any slow downs or bugs and no crashes of any sort,' That's heartening - there are one or two bugs still there but they're not game critical. 'As far as the old man , I don't see where everyone is complaining' I think I'll change the intro screen to show a preview of tank combat, but with flashes of George (like a music video). 'if this game is going to have multiplayer over the internet it would dfntly be a buy for me. ' Sorry - no multiplayer. I'm aiming for a single player experience and that's taking all my dev time. Thanks for the feedback Delbar. |
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| MadJack Sorry - no multiplayer. I'm aiming for a single player experience and that's taking all my dev time. If its as intense as the demo level and a good storyline I will buy it as a single player game too I think. I have been playing it since I posted and even with only that 1 level I find myself having a ton of fun. I really love tank games so I may be biased alittle. Keep up the awesome work! |
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