CSP Game Engine V 7
Community Forums/Showcase/CSP Game Engine V 7
| ||
   A demo of version 7 has just been released. If you played it, please let me know if there have been any bugs or crashes, and if you like it or not, and why not. www.melog.ch/dropper/v70/ |
| ||
| Ohh, my favorite. |
| ||
| Woops, MAV! After the mission briefing as it just says Loading it crashes to a MAV error. |
| ||
| Ok D/Ling...I thought you told me this thingie doesn't have a level editor when there's a picture of one on your page???? You know I want this...;) What's the deal? Get back to ya once I've run the new demo. edit: Crashed and burned first time through. the level loaded and played but apparently it didn't like that I was still pushing the arrow keys after being killed and crashed with a MAV. Restarted and played through without any problems. |
| ||
| Whoops sorry jfK. Made that other thread before since this wasn't up. Ignore it now ;) |
| ||
| no crashes here after I install this required video codec...weapon firing sound is very high even I use to put volume down in main menu..headshot will be fine becouse of sniper, environment music is nice, save/load game will be fine..overall, it was nice to play/explore this level... |
| ||
| After the briefing i get a MAV error. |
| ||
| Ok, thanks everybody. I'll try to fix this. Phalastos and PCD GUY: when it crashed, did you already see the green progressbar on the bottom, below the "Loading" image? And if so, how many percent was it? Doggie you say it crashed when you used to hit the arrow keys during the "unfortunatly I'm dead" part (when the screen turns red), or when it already played the death movie? BTW. the level editor is part of the license product. Currently version 6 is available. Tho, maybe not the most userfriendly concept out there (a lot of config files, needs some time to become familar with) I have to say, using a realmedia codec for the cutscenes maybe wasn't that clever. |
| ||
| Well after the briefing it flashed the loading sign and then flashed back to briefing before crashing... I didn't see any bars. And I did install the codec so the movies played. |
| ||
| Maybe the codec don't close the movie correctly on all machines. Although this didn't cause problems on my machine, it sometimes fails to play a movie a second time when watched in the "classic mediaplayer" that is part of the (non-lite) "real alternative" codec distribution. So basicly I hope these problems are caused by it. And then there's Molebox, that could be the source too. I really wish everybody with a MAV would give me his pc specs. |
| ||
| WinXP SP2 P4 2.4Ghz 512MB DDR RAM 160GB HD ATI Radeon 9800 Pro |
| ||
| Win98se Athlon 2200+ MHz 512 MB DDR RAM 300 GB HD ATI Radeon 9100 64 MB VRAM |
| ||
| Ok, thank you. If you want to help me debugging this, I have uploaded a new version, it allows a commandline parameter: "/debug" that will write a logfile. So if you have the time, try to reproduce the crash in this debug mode (see release notes text in zipfile) http://www.melog.ch/dropper/v70/csp_ngn_70_demo.zip Again, thanks for your help! |
| ||
| CSP Game engine startup logfile ******************************* 10:02:52: reading start.cfg... 10:02:52: Determined first level CSL path 10:02:52: Successfully ChangeDir-ed into level folder 10:02:52: Successfully analyzed CSL file 10:02:52: Successfully tested Video Codec support 10:02:52: Successfully loaded keymap 10:02:52: Successfully set key names 10:02:52: Successfully set Apptitle 10:02:52: Successfully set variables of main cfg file (cam wobble, mouse speed etc.) 10:02:53: Successfully set Graphics3D mode in 800/600/32/1 10:02:53: Successfully intinalized GUI 1 10:02:53: Successfully loaded and set main and isdocument font 10:02:53: Successfully loaded system sounds 10:02:53: Opening game intro movie... 10:02:53: Start drawing game intro movie... 10:02:55: Stop drawin movie. Will close movie handle... 10:02:55: Success. 10:02:55: Successfully stopped and freed optional movie sound, if any. 10:02:55: Successfully initialized GUI 2 10:02:55: Successfully passed MAIN Reentrance Point --------------------------------- 10:02:55: Successfully initialized sniper scope view mask 10:02:55: Successfully (re)initialized variables 10:02:55: Successfully set up GUI2 3D stuff 10:02:56: Successfully set up inventory interface 10:02:57: Successfully (re)loaded isdocument bg image 10:02:57: Successfully loaded codelock sounds 10:02:57: Successfully set default font 10:02:57: Successfully initialized CPE particle emitter 10:02:57: Successfully set max_interior to 1000 10:02:57: Successfully dimed level objects arrays 10:02:57: Successfully loaded system sounds 2 10:03:01: Successfully initialized music soundtrack player 10:03:01: Will play level intro movie... 10:03:01: Will open movie... 10:03:01: Will draw movie... 10:03:07: Stop drawing movie 10:03:07: Successfully closed movie. 10:03:09: Successfully set collision actions 10:03:09: Successfully loaded scaling settings 10:03:09: Successfully loaded startposition 10:03:09: Successfully loaded camera settings 10:03:09: Successfully created 3D listener 10:03:09: Successfully initialized 'moon' light and ambientlight 10:03:09: Successfully initialized gloom fx 10:03:09: Successfully initialized footstep sounds engine 10:03:09: Successfully loaded filenames for light flares 10:03:09: Successfully loaded filenames for doors 10:03:09: Successfully loaded waypoint data 10:03:09: Start LOADING part |
| ||
| hey, this looks very nice. i tried to make my own fps engine, and i never finised it :( |
| ||
| It crashed when the screen went red. Only did that first time, I played again and had no problems. |
| ||
| Doggie - thanks. Seems to be the codec, since it should start a movie at this point. I guess on the DirectShow level this isn't really exact science , which is the reason why they have those learning functions to prevent future crashes. Phalastos - thanks a lot for redownloading. Now, this logfile is very interesting. The next function that should be executed, but obviously failed to, is createing the simple shadow textures. All it does is: create a texture in 128,128, 2 or 48 draw some ovals shift blue channel to alpha return the texture handle locking etc. seems to be done correctly, since it basicly works, at least here. Now I really wonder, could it be some cards or DirectX versions don't allow to draw ovals to a texturebuffer? Would be a little picky IMHO, or rather a bug. (Of course, it's always THEM who made the mistake ;) ) I have however edited the function, so now it will draw the ovals to the backbuffer, then copyrect it to the texture. Not sure if it's worth the troubles to upload yet a new "second edition". If other logfiles show the same problem, then I surely will. Phalastos, are you using the factory drivers for the radeon, or did you update them? Cause my 9200se needed a driver update to work correctly. |
| ||
| Yeah don't know what to tell you about that. |
| ||
| Thanks PCD GUY, very useful. I guess there's definitively something wrong. |
| ||
| Ok, I have uploaded a new version. I have replaced a function that was unproblematic in my view with a super extreme bullet proof zero-risk function. If this still doesn't work, then I have no clue. If you download it one more time, then I owe you something! :o) |
| ||
| Free licence when it works? |
| ||
| hehe. ok. But only this time. |
| ||
| Rad, it works. Thanks alot good stuff. |
| ||
| wow! finally, after all - and I have no idea what it was. I hate this :) Thanks for your help. Is jackrackam ät gmail.com ok for newsletter etc? |
| ||
| yeah, sure. Its the one I read. I'll keep up to date with this. |
| ||
| Hi jfk, now it works fine. :) We had the same problems with the render to texture dll in our game. I think the hack is not 100% compatible. |
| ||
| Mmm, I must find time to have a go on this. |
| ||
| You're such a tease Puki. Did you actually get round to having a go on my demo 2 months ago? (Tank Universal) |
| ||
| Thanks Phalastos. You had the same logfile. It may have been pure luck that I had one log entry just before the bugous function call and one just after it, so it was clear where it happened. |
| ||
| that thing is brilliant, but the only thing missing there are stencil shadows :) why don't you use our shadow system? its free :) cya |
| ||
| Hehe - I was thinking abou that. Had no time to implement it. I am also afraid it will be slow, at least comparend to the blob shadows that are used now. Maybe I'll try it. One thing is for sure, it has to be added carefully. EG: The user should be able to choose from several levels of shadow details , to prevent it from slowing down on low end machines. In fact, there are much more fundamental things missing. Physics, real AI and more. Things became pretty hard in compatition to the commercial engines. A team would help. Unfortunately everybody wants to be the team boss. You know what, the city hamburg pays 100 thousand euro to games designer teams with a business plan, as startup support. I'm not a hamburger, nor bin ich ein Berliner, but it sounds good. It's about time for my govt to start supporting games designers as they do with movie makers! Uhm well that was a lil off topic, but hey. |
| ||
| Excellent - The best FPS in Blitz3d just keeps getting better. A few observations : The Mouse movement doesn't feel quite right - I don't know if its too fast or requires a bit more damping. None of the cheat codes work for me either - just get the voice saying "incorrect code entered". I like the sniper rifle but it always switches to zoom mode as soon as you equip it. Maybe would be better to invoke zoom with a right mouse click if you wanted to use the telescopic sights. Some physics would be really nice even if just for the death animations and a few scattered objects. I would use ODE as it is very light on cpu cycles. Great work as always - hope to see the whole game soon ;) p.s.I always get killed by those "snake" creatures in the water - they seem invunerable to bullets !! - Any tips ? |
| ||
| well a new fine demo from jfk ! it works here and i must say the water scenes are verry verry verry cool i like this a lot . some hints from me sometimes the c4 bomb is landing in the "NIRVANA" sometimes i feel it is better if the door open's to the other side , the gameflow go down if your head hits a door . if i shoot a lamp the room must be dark imho ,maybe u need to load a new lightmap or somewhat but if you have a dark room u can make some cool features (radar,Infrarot or a camera ala predator ;) a the underwater / water scenes are lovely great !!! mfg panno |
| ||
| Downloaded it. Had to download a codec for it to run. Irritating, but willing to do this. No WASD. Come on, WASD is the standard... RMB to activate the note. Space to close the note - not RMB again. Why? Controls felt mushy and unresponsive. After opening the door, I was then confronted by enemies who rushed about like, excuse me, spastics on speed. Coupled with the mushy mouse control I found it nigh impossible to draw a bead. Died. Hit escape and uninstall. Really, this is something that indie game designers do far too often. If you want someone to play your demo, make it almost impossible for them to die for at least ten minutes. Give the player room to get comfortable with the controls and the way the game plays. Do not rely on the player being so enamoured of your game that they will reload and replay after having died repeatedly - or (in my case) even once within the first five minutes of playing. |
| ||
| Thanks everybody. Madjack: I decided not to pack the codec installer to the download. A game release would simply contain the installer. It would then only suggest to install it, and if you say yes it would run the installer directly. This feature was added for maximum movie support and I think it's the best you can do for the compatibility (codec support is a nightmare by nature). If you hit ESC there's the keys options. Selecting WASD would have taken you 4 clicks and 4 keyhits - probably too much. However, the engine doesn't care what the initial keymap is set to, so this is only a level design issue. You may open the note with the rmb, then close it by moving the mouse with a certain speed, or any key (WASD if you want). Controls felt mushy and unresponsive because they don't use the same philosophy as many peoples prefered, completely unrealistic game, as a lot of FPS games do. But you could turn off camera smoothing, if you take a look at the main options, this would give you a completely nonsmoothed, 100% reactive, stiff camera, like rainbow six or something. But I am a sports shooter and I tried to make it a bit more realistic than all those IMHO dumb shooters, where shooting feels about the same as clicking an icon in windows. As I said before, I think it's very easy. Every jump'n'run is much harder. And most people seem to have no problems. Additionally there are cheats, including the god mode, so I don't know where's your problem. BTW the cheats are csp + god ... so eg. you have to type cspgod well the game is designed with some degree of realism in mind. If you're that "openhearted" to walk right into a room full of enemies, then it's your lack of tactical instinct that is killing you, and not the game IMHO. And this whole thing also isn't about level design, but about the engine. Really, excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in fact your critism sounded to me as if you spent some money for it or something. I'm sorry if you were disappointed because it isn't as good as PREY or HL2. :o) |
| ||
| Smiff - the snakes are indeed hard to kill, they may take up to 30 bullets, and they are hard to shoot because they're always in motion. Maybe you better just run trough the rooms. They may bite you one or two times, but there are 2 medipacks in the explosives depot, so that isn't such a problem. Cheats see my prev. post. |
| ||
| JFK, are you going to create game or this is just engine demo?? |
| ||
| jfk: if you want to have physic, wait for the beta of my physic engine(based on blitzODE). it works similar to easytok. or if you want to have commercial like physics, take easytok :) |
| ||
| 'Really, excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in fact your critism sounded to me as if you spent some money for it or something. I'm sorry if you were disappointed because it isn't as good as PREY or HL2. :o) ' Agreed, my criticism was flippant and hasty - and I aapreciate that you have included options to customise the game to suit. But I think that my flippant state of mind is standard for many people trying an indie effort for the first time; and that is that the user will be suspicious that it won't be any good ('cause it ain't a commercial product - harsh but true), that the user will have no patience to learn the finer points of your game or be inclined to customise it so that the controls are more standard in their layout, that the user is not interested in reading pages of text, will not understand why they have died so soon after having begun and will be irritated by whatever death message you may display. This is not a criticism of the technical quality of your work - it's all about lead-in. I'm pretty sure that if I spent more time with your demo, I'd be ok with it. I liked the fact that I started in a 'safe room' where I could start to get a feel for the game world and its mechanics. Then I opened two doors and I died. Now I know I was crap - but at that point the onus was on you as the game designer to lead me in to how to win in combat. Again, as soon as I saw the death message I quit - and I don't think I'd be alone in that reaction. |
| ||
| Well I think you really should try it say 2 or 3 times, in every game. In fact this is the reason why you can restart a level at all. A lot of games are harder IMHO, even things like Thombraider. Besides, this demo wasn't designed for Game players, but for game designers, mostily owners of a license. So it's up to them to set the learning curve etc. I have to agree with you in one point: although I prefere a smoothed camera, this one is really a little too much smoothed / delayed. Since I played this 1000 times, at some point I became so familar with the current controls, even if they are not perfect, this made me forget about them completely. So, thanks for the suggestion, also by Smiff. In a next release I'll try to optimize the camera feeling a little. NA - not sure. I'd like to make a full game. But it's such a big lot of work. And, to be honest, this game engine may be funnny, but it could not competite against the commercial engines on the market, so creating just ANY game wouldn't be such a good business idea. Only if the game was popular due to a scandal or something, then there would be a little chance to get in contact with the public at all. The current plan is to create a new engine from scratch with BMax and Max3D in 2007. I will be able to reuse all my good concepts and drop all things that are not so well done right now. Basicly this engine is my first "real" FPS engine, so it was learning by doing, resulting in a huge piece of code with lots of dead ends and complications. At least, this gave be clear ideas on what should be made diffrent next time. However, customers of the current engine will pay less for the next engines license. DC - thanks, good idea. |
   |