Silent Depth - 3d submarine game

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Projects/Silent Depth - 3d submarine game

Xaron(Posted 2012) [#1]
Hi,

so here it comes, our first 3d game made with Monkey hand in hand with Adam's Minib3d (big thanks to him!):

http://www.silentdepth.com

Some early screenshots from the player's submarine:

Driving over water:


ALERT! Dive, dive!


Under water...


coming from the silent depths, arising full power ahead (AK)...


Coming soon to Android, iPhone/iPad and probably Windows Phone. :)


MikeHart(Posted 2012) [#2]
Looks good. If it doesn't die a silent death, like Hexwars did, then I gonna get that. How is the performance on an Android handy?


Xaron(Posted 2012) [#3]
Hehe, this one won't die. The performance on Android is pretty good but I have to go down with the particle amount on low spec devices.

I still wait for some fixes in minib3d to see how it works there.


Why0Why(Posted 2012) [#4]
Good to see that minib3d is that far along. I have been following the thread, but my impression was it wasn't this far along. Impressive!


Xaron(Posted 2012) [#5]
The most freaking part is still the 2d stuff. I've created a hud class where you can place 2d sprites pixel perfect. Plus I use my particle candy port for the particle stuff.

Minib3d rocks!


silentshark(Posted 2012) [#6]
Looking good! Well done..


Supertino(Posted 2012) [#7]
Any chance of seeing a video of it action?


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#8]
im just waiting for minib3d to settle a bit more before I plan to use it to port some of my old b3d code over to monkey, I have to agree its looking real good.


it does make me laugh some times tho that we have not come up with a new 3D engine yet and even with max and now monkey were just reworking and reusing B3D.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#9]
OH crap I also meant to say, yeah that looks cool BTW cant wait to try it.


Xaron(Posted 2012) [#10]
Thanks guys! Will see what I can do creating a video.

edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmZ_n84VEXY


AdamRedwoods(Posted 2012) [#11]
Looks amazing, Xaron!

it does make me laugh some times tho that we have not come up with a new 3D engine yet and even with max and now monkey were just reworking and reusing B3D.


True, but if you look at Leadwerks, Xors3D, FreeBasic OpenB3D, and Ogre3D even, its a similar API. It shows B3D has got longevity, familiarity.

I feel the minib3d+monkey is far far beyond what the old b3d can do. not just the addition of OOP "entity.PositionEntity(x,y,z)" but introduction of new functionality like shaders, and customiztion of shaders, and even extension of the base renderer to move (somewhat) easily to new targets, as Rone did with XNA, and perhaps Flash 11, WindowsRT in the future.

monkey is INCREDIBLY powerful, and i can only hope to leverage that power into a ported 3d engine. Ogre3D is superior, but can never adapt to change as quickly as monkey+minib3d (clang/llvm portabililty? no c#).

My aim is not to make a top-performing 3D engine, but an extremely FLEXIBLE 3D engine for everyone to get started with easily.
(Perhaps i've overstated myself, but minib3d is my pet project...)


MonkeyPlotter(Posted 2012) [#12]
Looks very impressive, well done!


Xaron(Posted 2012) [#13]
Thanks guys!

My aim is not to make a top-performing 3D engine, but an extremely FLEXIBLE 3D engine for everyone to get started with easily.
(Perhaps i've overstated myself, but minib3d is my pet project...)


And you're doing good with that! :) Keep it up!


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#14]
Ok guys, some more screenshots:

The sub is diving to periscope depth...









Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#15]
Xaron the only thing I would change is the periscope layout, possibly to something like this.



all that black is just to much.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#16]
Well nice idea indeed, but in that case we get layout problems with devices like the iPad. There will be an UZO (spy glass) view as well where you can attack at the surface while you have the periscope view which is as it is.

Look, that's how it would look like on a device with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (like the iPad):



And the other extreme are 16:9 devices like the Samsung S3:



And that won't stay black at all I guess. ;)


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#17]
You could make the width of my suggestion dynamic so its always taking up most of the screen.

just think that much blank black area is a a waste of space.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#18]
Well Taiphoz, my mate did some tweaking and polished that periscope view a bit.

He made a small video showing the game on a Samsung S3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DxqUbK5ua8&


Raul(Posted 2013) [#19]
Not a fan of submarines or submarine games, but this starts looking good.

I am waiting to see some naval battles in the future..


AdamRedwoods(Posted 2013) [#20]
wow, looks great!
the water was popping occasionally, let me know if that's a minib3d problem.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#21]
Thanks guys! :)

Adam, this only happens on the Samsung S3 (again), not on my Sony Xperia. Looks like something Adreno 225 GPU related again. Oh how I hate this... lol

I don't move the water I move the texture coordinates. I can only guess that there is some kind of error when it leaves boundaries as I don't reset the coordinates just add to them indefinitely (even though very very small amounts per frame).

So basically I do:
_wt1U += dtSec * 0.008
_wt1V += dtSec * 0.002
_wt2U -= dtSec * 0.002
_wt2V -= dtSec * 0.0008
PositionTexture( _water1Tex, _wt1U, _wt1V )
PositionTexture( _water2Tex, _wt2U, _wt2V )


I know these values usually are between 0.0 and 1.0 but this works on all targets beside that Samsung...

GLFW looks normal, too, but I can only use GLES 1.1 there because using GLES 2.0 with GLFW just shows me a blue screen after the title.


NoOdle(Posted 2013) [#22]
Coool, I made a sub game in DarkBASIC many moons ago... I believe I chose the same name. Mine was very much a basic arcade game tho, nowhere near as polished as yours visually! Looking forward to playing this.

Does minib3d support cube maps?


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#23]
Some more shots:

We've discovered a freighter!



Target locked, torpedo fired...



...and running to its target...



Direct hit!



...burning...




Raul(Posted 2013) [#24]
omg.. you killed that little cruise ship full with people who just wanted to navigate around the world :))

nice progress. could you make the camera follow the torpedo? and post a movie on youtube :D


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#25]
HAHA. Nice! Well I thought of this follow camera as well. Might do it, yes!


ordigdug(Posted 2013) [#26]
Looking great.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#27]
Another video of the torpedo run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcA9y6demh4


Raul(Posted 2013) [#28]
nice soundtrack! :))

good. you still have a lot to do, but this will be a great game!


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#29]
Unfortunately our site was "hacked" so all screenshots are gone for now. Still working on this even though I have to admit that we don't continue with Monkey on THIS one. It just had too many bottle necks and pitfalls here and there. I can still post screenshots if anyone is interested but it's not a Monkey project anymore.

I still very appreciate all the hard work especially you Adam put into Minib3d and I think it's almost ready to use it in real games. :)


MikeHart(Posted 2013) [#30]
Bummer. Which tool will you use for it now? Unity?


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#31]
Yes.




AdamRedwoods(Posted 2013) [#32]
looks great!

I think it's almost ready to use it in real games.

ok, thanks for helping me with the engine. i should probably go with unity or leadwerks myself.


programmer(Posted 2013) [#33]
i should probably go with unity or leadwerks myself.
Or http://www.projectanarchy.com/ by Havok.


Raul(Posted 2013) [#34]
@Xaron:
make an indiedb page for this one maybe? I think it's a nice project. I am not a fan of this type of games but i like your progress.

you said u are using unity. are you using any custom 3rd party for the GUI?


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#35]
@Adam: No I have to say thank you! :) I was shocked how easy Unity is to use. Don't know about Leadwerks 3.

@Raul: I have a page for this game and a facebook page where I will post my progress. Of course I can do here as well but as it is not a Monkey project anymore I don't want to "pollute" this forum with non Monkey stuff. ;)

Oh and I use 2dToolkit for the GUI.


computercoder(Posted 2013) [#36]
That's awesome how you are being considerate of the Monkey forums like that Xaron :) It is very much appreciated. I believe that since this particular project started out as a Monkey developed one, and so many are interested in how it turns out, this may be an exception? Thats my thoughts anyways :)

Great job so far with the game and I hope that it is successful!

About Unity: It's designed from the ground-up to make games development to be FUN and EASY! I've messed around with it, but could never bring myself to purchasing it, due to how steep the price tag is for it (of course now they went and changed THAT even to make it cheaper/more affordable).

I enjoy coding in Monkey still, and been really trying to focus on this language to beef up my code to build the games I want with it :)


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#37]
Thanks computercoder. :)

Well I still use Monkey for all my other projects and will continue to do so. It's just fun and easy to use. Using Unity for 2d games is a bit of overkill. And I have doubts this will change with 4.3 (where they introduce native 2d stuff).

I've never purchased Unity, just use the free version which has everything I need.


computercoder(Posted 2013) [#38]

Well I still use Monkey for all my other projects and will continue to do so. It's just fun and easy to use.


Of course! Monkey ROCKS :)

Plus it has a pretty decent community of developers that actually help one another. Thats something I've always liked about the Blitz communities in general over other communities. Simple, fun, and easy to learn/use language is the key.

You get the benefits of high end with simplistic coding and a fast turn around because everything affiliated with the backend nuances of platform differences and basic needs for building a game are readily available. Plus its actively being developed and expanded upon. Can't beat that.


quantum(Posted 2013) [#39]
Apart from perhaps a monkey IDE as good as VS2012... The more complex games you make the more you need to rely on the tooling.


silentshark(Posted 2013) [#40]
Perhaps I'm old school, but complex IDE's like VS2012 and XCode do my head in. Steep learning curves. Lots of complexity. Lots of hidden stuff going on under the bonnet. Monkey's IDE can be picked up in a few minutes.. Simple is good.


quantum(Posted 2013) [#41]
I agree, but being able to reliably see an objects methods/properties via auto complete is essential. JungeIDE is great but I find it only works 60% of the time. To me this is a key part of enjoying the (game) development experience.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#42]
Yep. Doing 2d stuff with Unity is a pain atm and I can't imagine this will change much with 4.3...

Beside that my friend made a small video showing the current gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IesYPx2tB1s


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#43]
Another video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJTOdkPDg6g


silentshark(Posted 2013) [#44]
wow! all done with Monkey? Very impressive..


rIKmAN(Posted 2013) [#45]
I think the current version is done in Unity, as per post #29.

Is there a smission structure / narrative etc to the game?

Looks cool :)


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#46]
silentshark, no I've switched to the dark side with this one -> Unity. That's why I still scratch my head whether it's fair to continue this thread or not...

rIKmAN, I don't think so. Sure there will be missions additionally to the free patrol mode but for now there won't be a real story behind it even though there will be some kind of career mode.


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#47]
Added some buoyancy, here comes a small video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0hhjIX3ttk


Xaron(Posted 2013) [#48]
More screens! Worked on a lot of details, for most of them a video would be much better I guess. Again my apologies because these aren't Monkey screenshots anymore but I would like to keep you up to date if you don't mind. If so I'll stop with that here but I feel just home in this fine community. :)


















Xaron(Posted 2015) [#49]
Well well well.... Once upon a time...

After struggling alot with Unity, which is quite a nice tool btw, we've decided to step back a bit and use Monkey for our first version of the game. And yes, plain Monkey, so like in the good ol' days where 3d was actually 2d.






MikeHart(Posted 2015) [#50]
Struggling... with all these impressive screenshots? You must be kidding, right? Care to elaborate what your issues where?


Xaron(Posted 2015) [#51]
Well it's not always fun. With Monkey I feel home. Strange.
Unity is awesome but actually I fell into a typical german trap: Overengineering. I spent countless hours on particles, water and whatever but spent almost no time in the game itself.

That doesn't mean that I won't continue with Unity. But a first version will be Monkey.
See it that way:
Silent Depth 1 will be Monkey (and probably like Silent Service 2, Silent Hunter 1)
Silent Depth 2 will be Unity...


MikeHart(Posted 2015) [#52]
I fell into a typical german trap: Overengineering. I spent countless hours on particles, water and whatever but spent almost no time in the game itself.


I can relate to this completely. Been there, experienced the same.


GarBenjamin(Posted 2015) [#53]
Hey Xaron.

Your game looks good! And I remember you on the Unity forums. You were one of the few who agreed with me that Unity adds more work for 2D game dev than it saves when I posted a thread taking a poll on that subject.

I hope you are able to progress much faster now!

Also, on the spending time playing with particles, water effects and so forth. That is an easy trap to fall into with Unity especially if you frequent the forums because there is so much focus on "looks" and FX over there. ha ha!


tiresius(Posted 2015) [#54]
Glad you are back with Monkey for this project. 2D still looks great and I'm sure gameplay will be more fun to play the more you pay attention to developing it.

Would mojo2 give you some more effects magic with its added abilities?
Might be too late to switch to mojo2 I don't know ...


Xaron(Posted 2015) [#55]
Hmm... I dunno what mojo2 could be good for actually. And it's still too beta to be useful.


MikeHart(Posted 2015) [#56]
Xaron, I think he talks about shaders.


Ferdi(Posted 2015) [#57]
Hi Xaron, very nice screenshots.

Not sure where to write this, but I have finish testing my Android build IAP, Ads etc. And I did not find any problem with MonkeyStore. It is rock solid. Sorry probably not what you want to hear.

I am on MonkeyXPro85d. And I tested it on my Android x86 4.4-r3 running in VirtualBox.


Xaron(Posted 2015) [#58]
Thanks Ferdi, well I used an older Monkey version and in the version.txt it looks like some old issues were fixed already. Thanks for testing!


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#59]
Sooo.... dear all, here comes our teaser video for Silent Depth. We're currently uploading it to the stores which will take another few days till it's reviewed by Apple. Stay tuned! :)

I have to admit this is done with Unity and NOT Monkey, but I hope it's ok to post it here as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWv7KjSqI28


MikeHart(Posted 2016) [#60]
Congrats to the release. Are any extensions planned or will you just maintain the game?


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#61]
There will be update to that game, including air planes (attacking your sub, you can defend with an AA gun then), medals/achievements, global online highscore list and stuff like missions. :)

After all - if it's a success - we will create follow ups, aka new games in that universe.


MikeHart(Posted 2016) [#62]
That is great to hear. Good luck! Make sure you inform PocketTactics and Wargamer


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#63]
Thanks for mentioning, yeah will do that! :)


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#64]
Some screenshots from our finalizes game. Finalizes doesn't mean that it won't get updates. We have many features planned already like attacking war planes, medals/achievements, ...













Cheers!


MikeHart(Posted 2016) [#65]
I will definitely have a look. Which IPad does it run on smoothly?


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#66]
Well it needs at least iOS 8 due to Apple. It should run well on older devices as well. At least it runs smooth on a 6 years old Samsung S3. You can change the water quality settings in the menu anyway. :)


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#67]
The Android version is already available! :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codeknitters.silentdepth

iOS and Windows Phone are still in review...


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#68]
Apple finally approved our submarine game. It's out now for iPhone and iPad! :)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/silent-depth-submarine-simulation/id1167380530?ls=1&mt=8


EdzUp(Posted 2016) [#69]
Is Unity any easier to release than with MonkeyX? I have only done one simple game but nothing major with it but have loads of other prototypes in the pipeline.


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#70]
When it comes to deploying stuff, then yes. It's just a click. I had to change one thing in XCode though because the validation did fail because Unity did not switch to 64bit builds. You get tons of compiler warnings, too! :D


MikeHart(Posted 2016) [#71]
How about targeting UWP on a windows 7 computer? Still not possible, or?


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#72]
Nope, tried it. You have to use Windows 8.1 at least. Oh and what "joy" is it with Unity sometimes. lol. I cannot use their serialization stuff so loading/saving has to be done separately for Windows Phone.


Xaron(Posted 2016) [#73]
So far a pretty good start. Maybe interesting for you as well that Android sucks compared to iOS when it comes to sales. I always knew that iOS performs better but that the difference is that huge... Some numbers: On iOS we currently average about 100 sales per day, on Android it's about 10-12 and Amazon... oh well... 1.

Cheers!


MonkeyPlotter(Posted 2016) [#74]
Just looked at the Demo, a very polished game, looks and sounds extraordinary - great work.