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Author Topic: Sailing/exploration type thing - ["UPDATE" 13/04/14]  (Read 2843 times)

« Reply #30 on: November 20, 2013, 10:14:40 AM »
I agree with Mike.
Try Mediafire, it's considered 'safe' (I believe) or something like DropBox, or Google Drive, is the best.


But about the game. I was looking forward to testing this.

First of all, I like the visuals. The sea, the boats and especially the flag all look great.
As I've said before, I like the concept and the gameplay.
The enemy encounter was funny as well, combat system is nice, although the boat physics don't seem exactly flawless.
I like the concept of the treasure island, it was just as well done as the rest. I like the dramatic entrance on the bridge above the island!
The puzzle itself is nice too, although I broke it immediately by clicking a couple of times on the very right button, which was a shame. I never got to finish it...

Something I'm really missing is a little text which appears when you look at something 'interactable'. For example: "Press [LMB] to open door" or "Press [LMB] to extinguish torch" etc.

Finally, something that's really lacking as well is some sort of music or background sounds. The sea sound on the boat is okay, but feel free to turn up the volume of it and add some screaming seagulls.

Then I took a little look under the hood, as I always do. The models are mostly al right. The terrains are good and most models have a very decent polycount. However, I noticed the player's boat has 29 different textures! That's insane, to put it mildly. You have over 10 textures just for some wood. Try to create one texture for the whole ship.
Something else, I said I liked the flag, but it's a FBF animation with 400 frames! Again, too much! If bonebased animation really is out of the question, at least create something better than this. One phase of the flag should be enough, with a fps of 30 or 60 that would make 60 frames tops.

Well, that's all.
Please don't feel let down by the above, because everything I didn't mention is great! As I've said earlier, you're on to something great here!  ;)
Rocket Rumble, a 3D Rad puzzle game:
http://www.3drad.com/forum/index.php?topic=9896.0
« Reply #31 on: November 21, 2013, 12:29:14 AM »
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts.

For those of you who are interested, a Mediafire link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zezjunr8zrkmx7d/Sailboat_20131120232240.zip

I guess I'll be using those from now on. You know, public pressure and what not.

@Mike. Thanks for trying to give it a go. Just in response to your comments on the other forum--I'm not so sure what's causing the difficulties down your end. I checked the file in the mediafire download link, and that seemed to work fine on my computer. The loading time isn't really an issue for me, and the game runs pretty comfortably on my machine.

I'm running it on a Windows 7 64 bit laptop, with a core i5 2.2 Ghz dual core processor, 8 gb RAM, and AMD Radeon HD 6300M series graphics card. I suppose that's better than some laptops, but as far as gaming goes, it's pretty modest. I guess a little less power than that would be the "minimum spec machine that [I would] recommend to run this"

Loading occurs for each level separately (the sailing, and puzzle level). What happens after loading on your computer? Does everything just freeze up?

As for the sounds. They are both in WAV as well as OGG format, though none of them are particularily large. Since Robertoo pointed it out, I realise now that the textures on my ship model may be slowing down loadtimes. Though, again, I still have yet to experience any issues regarding the loadtimes. Perhaps I am accustomed to horrendously slow loading speeds or something!  :D

Once again, I'm sorry that it's not working for you. I just don't know what the problem could be, but I'll do my best to find out.

@Robertoo. Cheers for the input. Ill try and have a look at the stuff you mentioned before the next demo. I will definitely try and improve the boat physics and enemy mechanics.

I also really like the idea of having an indicator appear when over an interact-able object. I'll probably make a dot appear inside the cursor or something.

Sounds are easy to do, so I'll be onto that straight away! I've been looking around (read: scouring Kevin MacLeod's royalty free tracks) for the right soundtrack, and have a few tracks in mind. Seagulls could be cool. I may even try and add some wildlife flying around the place if I feel adventurous enough.

The flag isn't mine, it is from an old forum post around here somewhere. I don't have the skills to design and animate my own, meaning that I'm pretty limited for choice when it comes to flags. I'll keep looking.

Also, are you able to let me know specifically what happened with the puzzle. How exactly did it break?

Kind Regards,

George.

BorekS

« Reply #32 on: November 21, 2013, 04:51:04 AM »
hi, I tried it yesterday too...
shame I cant say more that the loading time wasnt somehow long, but I wasnt able to see the game "in action" at all, coz the performance was 0-1 fps at my pc.

HW: Core 2 Duo @ 2.3 GHz, 4GB RAM, Radeon X1550.
SW: Win7 64bit
Screen resolution 640x480 windowed / full screen

some optimalization would be nice :-)
« Last Edit: November 21, 2013, 04:58:22 AM by BorekS »
« Reply #33 on: November 21, 2013, 06:11:11 AM »
Quote
Thanks for trying to give it a go.
my pleasure... always good to take a first look at something that looks like it has potential... unfortunately, it wouldn't run... all i got was the first frame of a scene on a boat, standing at the helm looking forward, sails open...  so the files came down ok...

after that there seems to be no action... looks like the frame rate is less than zero... i don't think it's frozen because i can exit normally with the ESC key...

Quote
Loading occurs for each level separately (the sailing, and puzzle level).
in other words, the sailing level is the first .3dr project... or are all the levels included in the first .3dr...

i've got a submarine, control room, radio room, periscope views... an infinite ocean... a liberty ship (overly complex mesh) all loading up in 37 seconds...  loading time for your demo is around 77 seconds... a minute and 17 seconds...  wayyyyy too long for what i can see in the scene...


Quote
I'm sorry that it's not working for you. I just don't know what the problem could be, but I'll do my best to find out.
don't apologize... this is all in the course of developing a game... i am relegated to this low spec machine at the moment, but it is a good gauge of what the target for a "mid range 3DRAD game" should be... one that doesn't stress the graphics and physics requirements...   it seems to run on a higher spec machine, but another tester with a mid range pc  is also getting miserable performance... so there's something that bears looking into...

good luck...

--Mike

« Last Edit: November 21, 2013, 06:20:17 AM by Mike Hense »
« Reply #34 on: November 21, 2013, 09:26:30 AM »
Also, are you able to let me know specifically what happened with the puzzle. How exactly did it break?

Uhm, let's see...

I clicked on the torch a couple of times and then I pressed on the button on the right about 4 or 5 times. After that, the puzzle didn't respond any more.

all i got was the first frame of a scene on a boat, standing at the helm looking forward, sails open...

A little note, when I open the game, I first get the same thing. For about a second the entire screen freezes and after that it continues smoothly.
Rocket Rumble, a 3D Rad puzzle game:
http://www.3drad.com/forum/index.php?topic=9896.0
« Reply #35 on: November 21, 2013, 05:15:29 PM »
Thanks guys for the info.

@Mike and BorekS - I'm going to try and make a few graphical tweaks to speed things up. I'll probably look at the bloom settings, and view distance first. I'll also reduce the number of islands (and, as a consequence, the number of trees) since they consist of more imposters than I need. I've also changed the method I use to randomly spawn trees, which seems to be less CPU intensive (and less glitchy for that matter) than the original method which is used in the demo, and which caused some slowdown on start-up for me.

I'll revisit my models and sounds at some point to see if I can improve loading times. The puzzle and island levels are separate .3dr's by the way.

@ Mike - Seeing as you are well versed in the ways of the 'nautical' game as well as 3dRad in general, I don't suppose I could pester you for some more ideas to help speed things up or reduce loading times?  ;D

Cheers.

@Robertoo - The counters stop at 10/X, at which point you have to extinguish the torch again to reset the puzzle. So I don't think the puzzle is broken; you should still be able to complete it. With hindsight, I realise how counterintuitive and arbitrary that is  :P. I'll add a special reset button before the next version.

Cheers,

George.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2013, 05:20:05 PM by georgio123 »
« Reply #36 on: November 21, 2013, 05:40:58 PM »
no bother at all... optimizing can be a real challenge, so welcome advice from everyone...

1 - convert those wav sounds to .ogg format if you can... smaller size is worth it (quicker loading & mem) though i'm not sure what 3drad is doing to em internally...

2 - Roberto said something that might point to something that may need your attention...
Quote
A little note, when I open the game, I first get the same thing. For about a second the entire screen freezes and after that it continues smoothly.

3 - the trees... are you using the 3DRAD tree objects... yes, they will bring down frame rates... anything with transparencies that the engine has to figure out sorting issues with will slow things down...

anything else i'd need to actually see the demo running...


--Mike
« Reply #37 on: November 22, 2013, 03:17:45 AM »
 Thanks for the advice. The sound should be pretty easy to fix. The trees are not the default 3dRad objects; only skinmesh and rigid body imposters.

I have a bit of lag when I first start the project as well. I just assumed that it was due to large numbers of imposters being created when the project is started. However, I'll have a look and see if there is anything to be fixed/improved upon.

Cheers,

George.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2013, 05:34:55 AM by georgio123 »

BorekS

« Reply #38 on: November 22, 2013, 05:15:52 AM »
Quote
im going to try and make a few graphical tweaks to speed things up.
prima  ;) if I may to add my 2c: instead of impostering the SM and RB objects (trees) you can try to create the whole woodland as a single object (SM and RB). maybe you will wonder, how much better framerate you got then...  :P
« Last Edit: November 22, 2013, 05:18:08 AM by BorekS »
« Reply #39 on: November 22, 2013, 07:41:07 AM »
Quote
The tree's are not the default 3dRad objects; only skinmesh and rigid body imposters.

that would appear to move one possible cause out of the forefront... (good)

food for thought... the player's object will most likely only be able to collide with one tree at a time... having rigidbody imposters for the trees may be overkill... a single simple shaped collider rb  with some proximity script might be a better solution performance wise...

--Mike
« Reply #40 on: November 25, 2013, 02:33:38 AM »
@BorekS - thanks for the advice, but to have the woodland as one object would mean that individual trees can't be collected. It would also mean that I couldn't have randomly placed trees. I'll probably have to stick to individual trees, but I will keep looking at ways to make this viable performance wise.


@Mike -

Quote
food for thought... the player's object will most likely only be able to collide with one tree at a time... having rigidbody imposters for the trees may be overkill... a single simple shaped collider rb  with some proximity script might be a better solution performance wise...

I may try something along those lines. Thanks very much for the idea. If I just use a proximity script on the skinmesh imposters, then I won't have any need for the rigid body collider, or any rigid body imposters and could cut a whole bunch of imposters out of my project.  ;D

This may be getting into "technical discussion" board territory but, if you don't mind me asking, how would I link a proximity script link to an individual imposter object?

Cheers to both of you. I really appreciate the advice and ideas.  :)
« Reply #41 on: November 25, 2013, 07:44:53 AM »
i did something like this a while back in order to provide an airplane/trees with collision in a plane demo...

if i remember correctly, the key was a loop which tested the distance (iVectorLength())  and ignored the object if the distance was beyond a certain point, and placed the collider at the closest object...

if the potential set of locations was large (a lot of trees) then test loop can be segmented (remember, the instructions are being repeated about 60 times a sec) without a real loss in effectiveness...


iVectorlength() and iObjectImposterGet() are the instructions to become familiar with  (Scripting Reference Guide) for this to work... and it does,...

good luck...

--Mike
« Reply #42 on: November 26, 2013, 03:56:13 AM »
Awesome. I'm not the best when it comes to coding, but this sounds pretty do-able. I'll head off and give it a go.

Cheers,

George.
« Reply #43 on: November 26, 2013, 07:27:26 AM »
just write out your logic in simple english, as comments... then use that to write your code... you'll do fine...


--Mike
« Reply #44 on: December 09, 2013, 04:41:45 AM »
Well, I wouldn't really call this an update, however, I need some feedback on how my project runs on other computers.  So, what I've done is put together another little demo. This one contains a single (large island) to sail around and explore, and some buildings. There is an enemy which can be found to the south of the island, but he is immobilized for the time being until I get around to working on his AI. Feel free to shoot him anyway  ;D

The main things I would like to know about are:

Loading times: roughly how long does the compiled project take to load up.
Framerate: Does the game slow down? If so, when (at start up, during sunrise/sunset, or all of the time) and how badly (unplayable? Bearable? unnoticeable?)
If the game is running poorly, does a lower resolution or running the project in windowed mode make any difference?
Does the game even start?
Finally, what are your system specs?

Download link: https://www.mediafire.com/?ucvzhgdr1jyvik0

Controls for the ship:

W,S,X,A,D: Movement
Q,E: port and starboard cannons
1,2,3 - camera views
left mouse - use telescope (when in crows nest)
Enter - repair ship (requires wood)
mouse - look around
M - view map
F - leave ship

Controls for character:

WSAD - move/swim
R - toggle run/walk mode
left mouse - interact (collect wood from a tree/food from a shrub)

Misc:
F5 - damage ship
F9 - hold down to speed up day/night cycle (can muck up the game's music)

NB: the food counter (represented by the corn icon, continually ticks down, eventually causing damage to the ship when it reaches zero)

That's all for now. Thanks to everyone in advance for their input.

Regards,

George.
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