Rotrix - Radial Gravity 3d Platformer

[MarkJ]

Here's a very early demo of a project I've been working on. I'd like some feedback and ideas. I'm very new to opengl, and can use all the help I can get :).

EDIT:
Here is the latest version: Newest Rotrix Download (http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix-4d.dmg)

Here is the original early version: Rotrix - Download (http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/newgame.sit)

[Danlab]

look really nice
should be nice with some special fx
you must add a small shadow under the ball

[ThemsAllTook]

This looks strikingly similar to another game, Vortex, posted by mnajera a while back...

Alex Diener

[MarkJ]

Yeah, I saw Vortex before mnajera released it, and even talked briefly about finishing it with him, but I decided to continue my own radial platformer. I wasn't aware he ever released it though.

[igame3d]

Really really slow on a dual g4 450 with Nvidia MX

[skyhawk]

*grumbles about file being called different from compressed archive.
your game goes into my download folder of over 1000+ items
1) it says date modified is 8/15/03.... wtf dude
2) different file name, took me a minute to realize newgame.sit == opengl game...
could you be any more vague?

now that I have grumbled about your delivery let us take a look at your game.

I don't like ijkl, why can't I have wasd?
the game ran fine, but it felt slow
was impossible to tell exactly where I was, so it make landing very difficult.
increase the number of polys on he ball, it IS your main focus, thus you should make it as pretty as possible (see gooball)
other than gameplay issues, it really just needs a lot of polish.

keep working on it some more.

[MarkJ]

As far as keys, thats no problem. The modification date is actual. This is a project I put down a year ago and started up again very recently. I think I'm going to replace the ball with a model, but I've been having endless problems getting the normals to look right.

My main concern is gameplay. Should I keep it kind of as a puzzle platformer? I think to differentiate it from Vortex, I could take out most of the jumps, change control so left/right rotate you, and turn it into more of a fzero style racer.

Any thoughts?

[igame3d]

Well since Vortex has the same gameplay, turn it more into a Tempest shooter, haven't seen one of those on the Mac in some years.

Change the jumps to ramps and so that the player gets some air time when he hits them at full speed, then you can include some powerups in air to add to gameplay.
Also hitting the ramps might become a necessary skill for making some death defying jumps.

That disintergrating floor thing seems totaly unneccessary, especially when the level first starts.

I think first and foremost you should get the speed way up there, then work out any additions and changes. Probably use a level with no holes to test how fast you can get it going.

I went looking for models in your package, but it looks like you are doing that all in engine, maybe supporting external files would help.

[MarkJ]

igame3d, I'll post a more recent demo later today and show you what I'm talking about.

[sealfin]

Liked the game, but I'll echo the problems other people have already reported: that the speed is far too slow (but not unresponsive, even on a rather pitiful G3 iMac), and that it is impossible to tell where you're going to land - maybe implement a short crosshair beneath the player? (so you both see the player's current position, and line the player up for horizontal jumps)

That disintergrating floor thing seems totaly unneccessary, especially when the level first starts.
Beg to disagree, I quite liked that; 'fighting' the environment is a change of pace, but perhaps you could implement a timer showing how many seconds/how far away the 'disintergration point' is from the player?
Perhaps also implement a level where the rotation of the tunnel is outide of the player control, but following a pattern, which the player must match with their jumps?

[Danlab]

Perhaps also implement a level where the rotation of the tunnel is outide of the player control, but following a pattern, which the player must match with their jumps?
there is alread some moving platform in this level

i think it should be nice to change a little the camera position
the camera should look the floor ( 10 or 20°)

you should remove the disintergrating and add some check point like racing game should be more fun and less stress

the game work fin on my Radeon 9000 but i think you are displaying a lot of polygones
i saw the grid when the road make some spiral you should divid by 2 the number of road polygones

with some timer and colors it should be really nice
i made a photoshop montage:
http://www.danlabgames.com/mini/ball.jpg

Dan

[MarkJ]

Dan, that mockup looks really nice :)

[MarkJ]

Okay, I've got a newer version of Rotrix that has multiple levels of platforms, and a placeholder skybox. You can move with the arrow keys, 'f' turns you around, and 's' toggles the skybox. I'm still working on a shadow, so judging distances is probably pretty difficult.

Try it out and let me know what you think: http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix.dmg

[Danlab]

its really better,
you should post a picture for each update in that way we can follow "the history" of your project

the game work only from the dmg if i copy it in a folder it crash :-/

if you want i can make some texture , like sky

you should not use a skybox but only a big quad in the background

you should use different quads for the sky to make somthing like a paralaxe scrolling (or zooming ;-) ) sky in back and some cloud texture in front

[MarkJ]

Newer version with a shadow under the player, better death behavior, and a few other things. Dan, I was inspired by your montage so I tried throwing together a demo level with your color scheme. I also hope you don't mind I stole one of your cloud textures... ;)

http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix.dmg

I'm thinking... enemies? bonus coins? should level completion be a race? What do you guys think?

[murgh]

this is cute and promising. it jogs some old trailblazer memories.. :)

I think it would be nice if walls and surfaces be of a certain width and not paper-thin. also, I feel there should be some ease-in to reaching max speed. having the ball animated marginally fatter at the moment of bounce would certainly be very nice..

as far as enemies, coins and clocks (or how about an insanely quick dawn-to-dusk time limit), could very well be the way to go.. hoops of fire and speed-doubling squares would easily fit into this universe. sticky puddles?

[BinarySpike]

Looks good (haven't tested yet).

[BinarySpike]

Do you have the specs.

all I get is a black screen. :???:

I have ATI Rage G3 Jagaur 350 Mhz 128 RAM and about 100Mb of HD space left :???:

[BinarySpike]

WICKED COOL!!!

I like the game (Little to hard).

But I can't run it without clicking the green button that's next to the yellow (on most all windows)

And then the black screen goes to the game :???:

Suggestion: Anti-aliasing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

[MarkJ]

Okay, another update :D. Levels now have volume, among other things...

http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix2.dmg

screenshot:

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix.jpg

[igame3d]

You need to save the last safe position on the platforms, when the ball falls off, it respawns at the fall off location and goes into a falling off loop.

Try some fog on the tunnel, right now its "appearing out of nowhere" effect doesn't look exactly right. If not GL fog then bring another layer of transparent clouds forward.

Also add some option to adjust the camera angle, right now its too dead on and behind, which makes determining the exact location of the ball in relation to edges a bit hazardous.

Your shadow is not following the ball when he falls off..you can probably put some kind of quick starbust animation in that shadow quad to better signify "you died".

Looks really good.

[Danlab]

you should add 3d object now, the control are better
the shadow should fade when the ball jump

you should add some jump platform:
i made a test by changing the jump force to 20!
the ball jumped to the other side of the tunnel and sticked on it
you should make it a feature by adding some special platform (blinking or what you want)

[MarkJ]

Okay, I got collision detection working, and tried making a new demo level-- this one has crazy barbarella colors. Also, 'x' shows seconds passed and FPS.

http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix-3.dmg

Here a couple screenshots to show the game's progress:

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix1.jpg
http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix2.jpg

[Fenris]

Yay, love the visuals on this one. I'm having a bit of a beef with the jumping system, something makes it extremely hard to handle imho... :)

EDIT: Played it a bit more, got closer to it. I get it now. You'll just want to make sure you ease in the player on earlier levels with very simple levels, jumping over blocks instead of gaps and so forth. <3 it.

[ravuya]

This game is awesome. :)

[gatti]

The game plays great, looks great, and is quite unique. One thing to throw in would be a nice squase and stretch action to the ball.

Also, down the line, perhaps the player can choose from a few different balls:
- rubber
- glass
- plastic
- magnet

Their physical material would have slightly different handling abilities for the player. For example the rubber ball would stop quickly and be able to make sharper turns, while the glass ball can gain speed and simply zoom through levels.

[Duane]

and the rubber ball could bounce!
what would plastic do? melt?

[gatti]

perhaps the plastic ball is like a ping pong ball and as it falls from a jump it falls slowly giving the player great control over the in-flight process.

[MarkJ]

Also, down the line, perhaps the player can choose from a few different balls:

I'm actually thinking more about replacing the ball with an animated character. The problem is coming up with a good character/theme for the game. I've thought about maybe a cubist jimmy stewart from vertigo, or possibly something more abstract.

Powerups will definitly make an appearance in the game. a SpeedUp powerup, possibly double jump, glide, health, etc.

Since the last demo, I've moved from GLUT to SDL, and have been messing with display lists to get a better framerate. I'll hopefully have something more to show soon.

[ravuya]

The ball is fine. The aesthetics are easy to understand, and it produces really streamlined gameplay.

[Danlab]

perhaps the plastic ball is like a ping pong ball and as it falls from a jump it falls slowly giving the player great control over the in-flight process.

:lol: :lol: and what about a big johnson running in VaginaLand ? :lol: :lol:

[Shivers]

:lol: :lol: and what about a big johnson running in VaginaLand ? :lol: :lol:

Woah. Well, ain't that something.

:blink:

[MarkJ]

Shivers, I think DanLab was making an el ballo (http://www.elballo.com) reference. ;)

I've moved Rotrix from GLUT to SDL, and I've also been working on multiple layers of drifting clouds with alpha transparency, which opens the doors for some neat level theming possibilities.

screenshot:

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix3.jpg
http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix5.jpg

[Fenris]

Looks very nice! :) Have you moved the rings into display lists yet? The framerate drops a lot when I play it and enter an area with many curved blocks... :-/

[MarkJ]

I did move the rings into display lists, and you get a 30-50% speed bump, but then I increased the viewing distance, which sort of took that away The problem with putting them in display lists is that I can't cull as much of the level geometry while rendering without a bit more trickery.

Another big thing in development is a scripting language for levels, so that I can make switches, keys, enemy behaviors and that sort of thing.

[Danlab]

you should change the view like in Crash Bandicoot
with this view you can reduce the viewing distance

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/screenshots_library/dir_56/vortal_pic_28055.jpg

[Shivers]

The Bandicoot camera angle does indeed limit viewing distance but I don't know if it would work for Rotrix. The intimidating camera angle of "looking down the tube" works well for Rotrix. Of course, sacrifices have to be made somewhere.

[MarkJ]

Yeah, I don't know if it would help with depth perception, or just make it more confusing, but I can always give it a try

[MarkJ]

I've got md2 model loading and animation in, with just a placeholder quake 2 model in for now. Still thinking about a good character.

http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix-4d.dmg

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix6.jpg

[Danlab]

very nice !
but how do you create your caracter ?
tools ?

[geezusfreeek]

I don't like the gargoyle (or the idea of anything with legs) as much as the ball/marble thing. Go back to it!

[PowerMacX]

Very nice! :)

The only problem is that it crashes if run from the locked disk image:
Date/Time: 2005-02-05 16:23:25 -0300
OS Version: 10.3.7 (Build 7S215)
Report Version: 2

Command: RotrixSDL
Path: /Volumes/Rotrix-models/Rotrix.app/Contents/MacOS/RotrixSDL
Version: Rotrix version 0.1 (0.1)
PID: 752
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x83bf7b98

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 ??? 0x00019b8c MD2Model::renderLit() + 0x28c (MD2Model.cpp:584)
1 ??? 0x0001a4a0 Model::render() + 0x138 (Model.cpp:44)
2 ??? 0x00033f28 ModelEntity::render(GameView*) + 0xbc (ModelEntity.cpp:94)
3 ??? 0x0001d120 Entity::drawEntity(GameView*) + 0x40 (Entity.cpp:303)
4 ??? 0x0001d178 Entity::drawEntity(GameView*) + 0x98 (Entity.cpp:308)
5 ??? 0x0001d140 Entity::drawEntity(GameView*) + 0x60 (Entity.cpp:306)
6 ??? 0x0001d140 Entity::drawEntity(GameView*) + 0x60 (Entity.cpp:306)
7 ??? 0x0000ea70 RotrixGame::RenderScene() + 0x238 (RotrixGame.cpp:389)
8 ??? 0x0000fe04 RotrixGame::Render() + 0x24 (RotrixGame.cpp:711)
9 ??? 0x0000b65c mainLoop() + 0xc8 (mymain.cpp:137)
10 ??? 0x0000b6ec SDL_main + 0x74 (mymain.cpp:167)
11 ??? 0x0000b0d0 -[SDLMain applicationDidFinishLaunching:] + 0x7c (SDLMain.m:270)

[BinarySpike]

I noticed this on my lower version...

So it's been in the game for a few versions I guess...

[MarkJ]

Fixed.

Binary, what version of the game was crashing for you?

[funkboy]

Wow! Great job, first time I've played this game was today, and I'm genuinely impressed. I started at the front of the thread, and ended up downloading each successive version. Very nice to see the game progressing :)

I think I have to agree and say the marble/ball thing was a really neat, fun, simple idea. Putting a character in the game seems to rob some of the charm, the abstract quality, of the game. Maybe consider having both a ball and a character?

[FreakSoftware]

Well if it was an older version than the one you just fixed, who cares? :)

[MarkJ]

Okay, my friend and I have been working on possible character designs. What do you guys think?

One possible setup we've been toying with is having this guy be at a laundromat, and he's washing his suit. Somehow, he gets stuffed into a giant spinning washing machine, and gets warped into / fever dreams this radial gravity world. You'd start out in just his skivvies, and then go through the levels, collecting articles of his suit, finally finishing up with his hat, or cuff links, on the final level.
http://www.sloppydisk.com/mark/design/character.jpg
http://www.sloppydisk.com/mark/design/character4.jpghttp://www.sloppydisk.com/mark/design/character3.jpg
possible enemy: http://www.sloppydisk.com/mark/design/enemy.jpg

[gatti]

I love the story idea and artwork. Quite creative and original. I'd say go with it!!

When it comes time, would you need an animator? Contact me if so. El Ballo is finally wrapping up and I wouldn't mind getting my feet wet in some 3-D animation.

[Duane]

you might want some faster animations, and perhaps and emergency 'glide' thing.

[socksy]

I love this game, it's brilliant!

I prefer to the ball than to anything with legs as the ball just seems to be easier to play around with, whereas that gargoyle just scares me :(
I'm sticking with version three for me right now.
I'm trying to work out how to make these levels you have, it doesn't seem to be chronological :S How come the level with the original game is way shorter in length of text but way bigger in size and quantity of things?
I tried to replace that moving block that appears on the first version yet doesn't on the later ones (of rotrix) with modifications to the original code to look more like the moving blocks within the latest demo level.

And err... yeah, I'm new here. Actually signed up ages ago there.

[socksy]

Actually now I think I have the hang of it. I may make another level at some point if I can be bothered.

[MarkJ]

This is slightly out of date, but here is a grungy sort of guide to the level format (http://sloppydisk.com/mark/misc/RotrixLevels.txt). Between that and looking at an actual level script, you may be able to figure out how to construct things...

[socksy]

Very useful, pity I had worked the majority out already, that would have been quite helpful.

[ Height x.x ] Specifies how tall the "walls" of the level are. Keep in mind a player is .2 units tall as off now.
What is the size of your new character so I can specify it now?
I tried changing the quake character but I got it coming out huge and annoyingly purple again. Is there any easy way to make models for the mac? And is there a line in the script to specify a sky box?

[MarkJ]

Right now there's not a line in the script to change the skybox. You have to Open Package Contents on Rotrix, and change "front.jpg" in the Resources directory to get a change. Also, you'd need to put all your new level images into that directory.

As far as height, I _think_ the guy is .35 units tall now, but I'm not sure. Yes, If you try swapping in a different .MD2, if its not the same scale as the gargoyle one, it'll scale differently. There isn't really a good way to make MD2 models on the mac. What'd you'd do now is model the character and its animation keyframes, and export each keyframe to .obj, and then use a commandline converter to put it in MD2 format. On the PC, its easy to convert model formats with MilkShape (http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/).

The next version I put out will have a much better system for managing levels. I'm right in the middle of all that resource management stuff now :).

[Blorx2]

Awesome game, where'd ya get the idea?

[socksy]

Yeah I already worked ot I had to change that already, one bit I found out. I tried making a level with a simple.bmp file in the rotrix package but it just doesn't start up properly. Is their anything wrong with my code?

{ RotrixLevel "simple.bmp"
[ Radius 1.8 ]
[ BaseRadius 1.8 ]
[ Height 0.25 ]
[ LighterTexture "lightermap.bmp" ]
{ Player
[ Position 0.20 -1.0 .4 ]

[ JumpVelocity 2.75 ]
[ Gravity 6.0 ]

[ ZSpeed 2.5 ]
[ RadialSpeed 2.3 ]

[ Acceleration 8.5 ]
[ Friction 3.3 ]

}
}

[MarkJ]

Snakey, if you're using Rotrix-4d, you'll have to specify the player model. But to possibly get a better understanding of what's going wrong, try starting up Rotrix while running the Console (/Applications/Utilities/Console). It should spit out the level loading process, as well as any errors the game encounters.

http://e4e.emubase.de/e4e/images/review/66/sonic2_005.jpghttp://ghz.emulationzone.org/sonic/son2/son2_42.gif
Thanks, Blorx. Well, I've gotta give props to the centrifugal gravity in 2001 (http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1015/Mptv/1015/5091-142mptv.jpg). I'm also a huge fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Tempest 2000 (http://www.macledge.com/features/?id=614), and the convention of level orientation changing when you walk on walls (Marble Blast (http://www.garagegames.com/pg/product/view.php?id=3), kiki the nanobot (http://kiki.sourceforge.net/)).

There was a guy at the University of Illinois who was developing a similar tunnel game called Vortex. He actually proposed we finish his engine and release it commercially. but ultimately I decided to forge ahead with my own radial gravity game. I think the Vortex guy has since graduated and is working for an arcade game company.

So yeah. :)

[socksy]

Snakey, if you're using Rotrix-4d, you'll have to specify the player model. But to possibly get a better understanding of what's going wrong, try starting up Rotrix while running the Console (/Applications/Utilities/Console). It should spit out the level loading process, as well as any errors the game encounters.

I'm using rotrix 3 as 4d has to have a model and you can't look back or disable the clouds or fog :( . In fact I got annoyed with the legs and the gargoyle so much that I changed the level model specifications to make it a bunny on a pogo stick instead ;).

I didn't realise the level mapping (to nodes) was in the output to the systems console so I hadn't checked there before. I got the following (thanks to one sad cookie as I didn't notice this forum had a code quote button):-
Tile size: 0.353429
Unrecognized object type in level tree: Player
! Aborting!
Deleting level map.
Failed to load level from file.
Mac OS X Version 10.3.8 (Build 7U16)
2005-02-28 23:37:28 +0000

I believe this to be that the player has to be a child in the parent of a platform? Or does it have to be in no tree at all? For now I'm going to see what happens when I take it out of the level tree.

Reading back a few posts (quite a few ) I'm all for f-zero racing type game ;-). Or is that not possible if the structure has to be a pipe/washing machine in which the "character" has to be restricted from therefore, not having a super monkey ball style level? :c)

[MarkJ]

No, what you pasted looks correct. I just tried your exact level in rotrix-4d (adding a line for the model), and it runs fine. Are you sure you've got simple.bmp in the directory with all the graphics? Also clouds are defined in the level. If you want to turn them off, take the { Cloud } stuff out of the level in question. You can also turn around by pressing 'r'. F had to be reassigned for switching to full screen.

You should e-mail me if you want to know more detailed information about making levels :).

[socksy]

I tried it in 4d and I got the same problem (yes, with model defined) I tried making player, errr, "class"(?) a parent rather than as a child of a level (which it won't let me do (grr)) but it didn't recognise it by it self.

I have done a file merge on the rotrix 3 and 4 levels so I noticed already that it was defined, I just wanted a key to disactivate it during gameplay, or just hide it. If makes you see behind, then how do you respawn?

[MarkJ]

'1' respawns at the beginning of the level. And why don't you e-mail me an attachment of the level you're trying to use at sloppy@sloppydisk.com

[socksy]

1 resets you to the starting point, does that mean possible different points to set up through the level therefore, having a very long level and places where you would respawn to if you fell off? It would stop the having to jump in a falling loop to "land".

When you say you would like an attachment of the testfile or the simple.bmp? The simple.bmp is just a rectangle which fills the level space for a placeholder and I pasted the entire contents of the testfile thing already.

Oh, and another suggestion is to edit your original post (with obvious edit signs i.e. EDIT:--- etc.) with a link to the latest version, so a person coming into the thread can find it rather than searching through 5 pages?

[Blorx2]

Snakey, if you're using Rotrix-4d, you'll have to specify the player model. But to possibly get a better understanding of what's going wrong, try starting up Rotrix while running the Console (/Applications/Utilities/Console). It should spit out the level loading process, as well as any errors the game encounters.

http://e4e.emubase.de/e4e/images/review/66/sonic2_005.jpghttp://ghz.emulationzone.org/sonic/son2/son2_42.gif
Thanks, Blorx. Well, I've gotta give props to the centrifugal gravity in 2001 (http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1015/Mptv/1015/5091-142mptv.jpg). I'm also a huge fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Tempest 2000 (http://www.macledge.com/features/?id=614), and the convention of level orientation changing when you walk on walls (Marble Blast (http://www.garagegames.com/pg/product/view.php?id=3), kiki the nanobot (http://kiki.sourceforge.net/)).

There was a guy at the University of Illinois who was developing a similar tunnel game called Vortex. He actually proposed we finish his engine and release it commercially. but ultimately I decided to forge ahead with my own radial gravity game. I think the Vortex guy has since graduated and is working for an arcade game company.

So yeah. :)Yes, I agree, Sonic and Marble Blast are pretty good, Marble Blast is pretty hard though, with all the obstacles. There are alot of weird recreations of Marble Blast and Super Monkey Ball, such as umm...3D Stress Ball. Well, that's my opinion.

[MarkJ]

Yeah. One of the reasons I am stressing a character instead of a ball is that I want to distance this game from being "just another" Marble Blast/MonkeyBall/Marble Madness derivative.

[socksy]

Sure, you can have a character instead of a ball but wouldn't be nice not to have legs? Couldn't you have a robot like character with a big ball like thing under its main "body"?

[FreakSoftware]

With rocket boosters that make it jump!

[Duane]

hmm... how about a character with legs, but rolls into a ball when huge bursts of speed are needed... you'd need more advanced physics, though...

[FreakSoftware]

Someone already said that -- that's how we got started on Sonic the Hedgehog :)

[honkFactory]

With rocket boosters that make it jump!
The world needs more comments like this one. :lol:

[socksy]

Well I believe that the world needs more comments that are wackey, stupid and completely insane and rather random and stupid.

I got the levels working but it is hard and complicated to sustain a working level environment for two reasons:

• I've managed to lose the sheet that I scribbled and planned down the level I was going to make.

•The latest version of photoshop I have is 5.5 somewhere down in the depths of a garage with a beige g3 on mac os x. Annoying for layers.

•I'm restricted to an unregistered version (I don't have my Dad's code) of graphic converter v.4.1

But if I make another plan on paper I'll trundle out with something in the end. : )

[Duane]

why don't you use gimp?

[Blorx2]

•I'm restricted to an unregistered version (I don't have my Dad's code) of graphic converter v.4.1

But if I make another plan on paper I'll trundle out with something in the end. : )
What do you mean your Dad's code? Is he a famous programmer or something? And why don't you register Graphics Converter? That is a very odd post you've got there...

[socksy]

Well yeah, I live in a household which my dad registered graphic converter, we just got a new mac and he registered graphic converter for his user and then (as he keeps codes on paper and files them) hid the code in some filing cabinet that I'm not allowed in :( . Why would he be a famous programmer for having the family code of Graphic converter?

I haven't tried gimp so I wouldn't be able to fully comment on anything but since it's from the linux environment doesn't have the same type of interface on os x? Blender is complicated and if it is nearly as complicated as that I probably go investing my time into something else (though I doubt it is as hard as blender because all the different sections at the bottom were hard to figure out because of me not understanding the icons :blush: ).

[socksy]

That last post sort of made sense but if no one does understand then I'll try and explain a bit more clearly.

[socksy]

Forget about the the graphic converter thing making sense now as I have found the code :).

Making my level now.

Haven't a clue when it'll be finished but expect it to be a very long time ;).

[Blorx2]

Ok, I get it. It all makes sense. Now if I could only learn programming...I've been trying...

[socksy]

Not too hard to get the whist of the higher level more modern languages. Python shouldn't take you long, but this isn't probably the place to discuss it.

[Blorx2]

I agree. I'll find another iDev forum to discuss that...Now, how many levels do you plan to have in this game?

[socksy]

Me? What do you mean by that?

If you mean Mark person then I guess he is still in early development of story and plot as his plot was a little vague...

[socksy]

I am hopelessly stuck on finding out the eact Position co-ordinates via any of the versions. I have tried the mass of the versions and p doesn't seem to do anything about recording the position. I also tried every other single key ('cept the eject key) on the keyboard so that can not be the answer (having moved control to other key answer thingy). This prevents me from making platforms that move of just plain platforms :( . I could try and workout the exact regions from the examples given, but frankly I have loads of better things to be doing :( . Anyway to get the position point?

[Swivel Master]

Hey everyone... I just found this forum and downloaded the game.

I must say, I like the idea of having an actual character with legs as opposed to a sphere. Having just downloaded demos of Gooball and Marble Blast, I'd rather see something more... creative and unique. That being said, I think the jumping needs to be more forgiving, as it seems like if the character is 1/3 off the platform and you hit jump, he does not jump.

I like the surreal quality of the graphics now (gargoyle not included), and I'm wondering if it would be possible to have translucent platforms, or platforms with environment/reflection maps. Or maybe a section of platforms that expand outward...?

Also, anyone played the game N2O for PS1? It's an arcade style game that takes place in a looping/infinite tube and involves shooting insects... it's not THAT great but it's got some great ideas and amazing visual design (and a licensed soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers!)... I personally would love to see some kind of surreal weirdness from a game like this.

Also, it's late right now and I looked at the level format stuff.... it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to make an editor, but entering all that by hand is just craziness! Did I miss some kind of "here's the easy way" part?

[MarkJ]

Did I miss some kind of "here's the easy way" part?

Nope.
;)

[socksy]

Well it is rather easy, you just define platforms and their colour, shape, and size can then be done via a per pixel basis with a bmp. There are other platforms that can be defined in other ways (such as the moving and flat platforms) but they require the position which I really would like to know how to obtain...
The text files aren't the main bit, after the level is designed and put out with images then the text files are added non-linear later on. Which just makes it look hard.

For the chacter, I didn't mean keeping the ball I just want a character with no legs... After playing both marble madness and goo ball then I can not really see how they compare after "they both have balls that move around". Their physics are based around completely different systems than rotrix, rotrix being based in a tunnel like thing and gooball (for example) on a disc that is tilted. As soon as I have access to the scanner, I'll scan in what I mean about the character. If you're lucky then I may have another one with jetpacks ;).

[socksy]

I like the surreal quality of the graphics now (gargoyle not included), and I'm wondering if it would be possible to have translucent platforms, or platforms with environment/reflection maps. Or maybe a section of platforms that expand outward...?


Platform with PNG as texture which is a colour with alpha channels may work-I'll check when I'm back on the eMac. If it does, then that would be so cool...
If by enviroment maps you mean bump maps, then it already has those, just hard to see, that's all. And reflection maps... *looks pleadingly at MarkJ*
What exactly do you mean by platforms that expand outward?

[Blorx2]

For the chacter, I didn't mean keeping the ball I just want a character with no legs... After playing both marble madness and goo ball then I can not really see how they compare after "they both have balls that move around". Their physics are based around completely different systems than rotrix, rotrix being based in a tunnel like thing and gooball (for example) on a disc that is tilted. As soon as I have access to the scanner, I'll scan in what I mean about the character. If you're lucky then I may have another one with jetpacks ;).
If you want me to draw a rough idea of a guy without legs, I can do that, scan it on to the other computer and post it here :D. The only thing is, don't expect anything high-class or fancy...this is only a rough animation I'm offering

EDIT: Be sure to tell me what kind of animal/humanoid you want if you accept my offer

[PowerMacX]

Something like this (http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2005/Robots/?i=movie%2E1%2F42%2Ejpg&w=1400&h=787) ?

[socksy]

Something like that, except that is way too big...
I'll come up with something using graphic converter or something if you want...

[socksy]

I've started sketching something that looks vaguely like what I am thinking of (not too good an artist) but in my experience when I scan my drawings in they only look slightly like the original :(. I have access to a scanner and all it's just the quality that I don't like...

[Swivel Master]

If by enviroment maps you mean bump maps, then it already has those, just hard to see, that's all. And reflection maps...

Definitely not the same thing... though I may be using "environment" and "reflection" as an interchangeable version of the same thing. An environment map basically makes it look like an object is reflecting something around it, and it looks really cool... though generally it's a trick for faking a reflective look without actually calculating any reflecting.

Bump maps can be pretty ugly. We could of course just go insane and ask for environment maps! Holy God does Doom 3 look great! :)

[socksy]

Does no-one know how I can get the position?

[MarkJ]

snakey, press 'p' while Console is open, and it'll print it out there. Beware, some positions are given in world coordinates, and some in "pixel" coordinates.

[MarkJ]

Ugh. I just discovered this (http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/reviews/torustrooper/index.php). Sort of an action/arcade Rotrix.... sort of takes the wind out of my sails a bit.

http://www.macworld.com/publications/macworld/images/content/torus.jpg

[Duane]

yea--I love that game. Written in D, which looks like a true C++ should.

[socksy]

Doesn't seem to have much in similar but the round levels... More of a threat to Frenetic than Rotrix.

[igame3d]

Wow finally caught up with this after all these months.
Its looking real good.
Keep the gargoyle!

Maybe a touch smaller wings though.

Add double jump...sorry just played hours and hours of Lego Star Wars on xbox and double jumping is just so..ninja-licious. A double jump would work real well with winged creatures, like Spyro, and ye olde MDK guy. I see right now its "hold jump", but this doesn't really allow for jumping, moving, and jumping again as naturally as double tapping for higher jumps. A single press of the jump key should have a consistant height, as it is, tapping the jump causes him to fall down early and thats not fun.

If you kill the gargoyle, definately go with rocket boosters.
Think old serial movies Bullethead. rocket-pack type super hero as far as character goes.
Robot would do the trick too, with spring feet, boioioing sound effect and all, (find spring door stopper for that one!)

Also there should be some compensation for camera angle I found a number of spots where I could not tell that the drop off was a deadly one, and other areas where there were rises in the terrain, but the shading made that very hard to tell so I just hit a wall, which is weird.

Otherwise it looks good and could really be a treat.

Don't let anything take the wind out of your sails (sales).

I know someone who was planning a Gargoyle game, in 2D though, when really what you have right now, with some bad guys, some goals, and some not so obviously "radial gravity" levels would work just right, in a disturbing, world sideways & upside down gargoyle viewpoint kind of way. Although for that the gargoyle would look more natural loping on all fours then running about bi-ped style.

[socksy]

I really don't like the gargoyle. Did you play rotrix 3 or 2 aswell as the first one and the latest one? They have a much better implemented system, a robot like the waitor in star wars episode 2 would be great.

Be rest assured, when I have finished my levels, I will include rotrix 3 and rotrix 4 - rotrix 4 with a bunny on a pogo stick instead of a gargoyle.

[Duane]

I use a tellitubby (hell, how do you spell those damn things?) :D

[MarkJ]

Now that it's summer, I have the time to devote to full-time Rotrix development. This update is small, but the major things I've added are:

Death behavior: when you die, you should respawn on the last safe level platform you stood on before falling. How do you guys like this?
Levels: The game's architecture finally allows for multiple levels, and will take you to the next one when you finish a stage.

Grab it here (http://www.sloppydisk.com/projects/rotrix-5.dmg).

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix/rotrix6.jpg

I'm still not 100% sure what the final character will be, though I know I want it to be more abstract, to match the rest of the game's aesthetic. Coming soon should be switches to trigger events (moving/disappearing and reappearing platforms), and blocks that you can push around to set off switches and form stairs.

igame, I'm thinking of doing a double jump powerup, but the problem is that if you jump too high, you'll pass through the center of gravity and the entire level will flip over... don't know what to do about that :). Also snakey, you can now press z to display your player's z position and angle.

[socksy]

Yes! Now I can work at some point on my other 5 levels, yay! For the double jumping, set the height of both the first and second jump in the file format, then launch them to that height - and leave the rest to the gravity.
Trying now...

[socksy]

Americans have a word for metres when they don't use them? Scary. A nice feature would be one to have a level select, out of levels maybe unlocked...
That Gargoyle is now just annoying... As it seems you implemented the md2 format at first as a placeholder, maybe an easy thing to do - could you implement another system that is more greatly supported on the mac other than having one broken import and export script for blender?
Dim3s source has just been released and it has a skeleton system which can be used in games with a framework. They are considerably easy to make and would be useful. It would also be possible for level makers to choose their different models with ease, and make more.
For the design, I stick by what I said earlier with a robot with a ball underneath to move around. Not like the one in robots, but more like the waitress robot in star wars episode II. If I remember correctly.
Unfortunately I have been busy recently with other "stuff". Most notably opengl and playkode tutorial and loads of other stuff, so I haven't managed to make any progress on the level front. Exams are coming up and soon in lessons they will be revising stuff I have already revised hundreds of times at home, so I'll have more time to doodle levels, which will lead to done levels - hopefully.
socksy

[Duane]

I don't know about other americans, but I would much rather use meters then yards. I don't really like the idea of centimeters, however, I think they're much too slow. perhaps decimeters?

[MarkJ]

Lots of new stuff added. And here's a screenshot of a darker, more sinister level.

http://www.sloppydisk.com/pictures/rotrix/rotrix7.jpg

[Duane]

Link? :D
(meeting minimum post requirement...)

[socksy]

Great level! Nearly an exact contrast to my upcoming snow/milk level!

And I like a character, but that gargoyle really bugs me and I find it hard to use... Does anyone know of a good quake 2 model that doesn't walk (or use legs), or jump on a pogo stick? Does anyone have a link to a ball md2? For some reason the scripts for md2s in blender don't seem to work...

[MarkJ]

I thought I'd give an update on how the game's looking.

http://doomlaser.com/images/smoothshadows2.png
http://doomlaser.com/images/smoothshadows3.png
http://doomlaser.com/images/sideview.png

[ccccc]

This game rox, can't wait to play with the new graphics! :)