[CLOSED] Zombie Madness

Zombie Madness
Date Started:[/b] 2004-03
Deadline: 2005-12

Status:
- Last Version: 0.2.15
- Last updated: 2005-xx-xx

[img]http://generationstars.com/files/dev/zo ... _0.1.92(1s).jpg[/img] [img]http://generationstars.com/files/dev/zo ... _0.1.92(2s).jpg[/img]
[img]http://generationstars.com/files/dev/zo ... _0.1.92(3s).jpg[/img] [img]http://generationstars.com/files/dev/zo ... _0.1.92(4s).jpg[/img]


Description:
... soon ...


Downloads:
- Version: 0.1.92
- Download: zombie_madness.exe [2.96 Mb]
- Source code included

Great resource - Car Physics for Games: (thanks to Nitro)
http://home.planet.nl/~monstrous/tutcar.html

List of Cars:
Nissan Skyline GT-R34 [meshman]
Toyota Supra RZ/GZ [meshman]

Graphic Engine:
http://www.truevision3d.com

Poll for name of the game:
http://www.cabar.hr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392

It is decided, game has a name: "No Speed Limits"

Guys, we need a lead programer. Edi, would you take the honor? After all, you are the guy with the biggest experience and knowlege.

Ok, give me one day to check how TV3D Engine works and am I ready to start working on 3D for the first time...

In the meantime, this is only thing I've made in 3D so you can check it out:
Download: Starship War - First 3D Test (ship).zip [16 Kb]

He He it's greate. You must create a landscape to see how ship move I finish my test i tv3d very soon.

That was just a 3D Test of the ship made by one friend (he meant to make an animation for Starship War in 3DSMax, failed project), I made it in DX7, tough job!

Give us an example of you TV3D test when you finish it. I'll try to make my own little test afternoon, but first I have to sleep (its 9h AM)...

I've seen the ship... I believe that it's on you'r mini CD.

Well, how should we organise our work on this project?

And, Miskec, are you intrested to work on this project?

Yes, i am very interested about this project. Edi and i allrady work on this project. We planing what we will do with this game. And we nead a model for this game.

Intro animation... ??? What do you think?

http://max-realms.com/nitro/scenery/no_ ... _night.wmv

Haa, it's great, it needs a little makeup on the title text but other than that, very nice

Heya Nitro, where can I get those models (and textures if available) to test them with the 3D environment?

True Vision is VERY easy to use, but they got some problems with Y,Z - they mixing them all the time (in Land engine, Y is for Height. For mouse in 3D position, Z is for Height), I think that Z has to be Height definition everywhere...

Nitro, I need some object to work with, I think that I can make that car driving in one day, with all the objects around the track..

I'm still working on Gink too, I'll organize myself to work on Gink every two days, and the other days in-between are reserved for NSL.

I've uploaded that test i've been playing with...
http://www.cabar.hr/game/test1.rar

All track models are included.

I'm waiting for meshman for the car models... until then David can provide you with a provisonal model...

The team list with asingments is going to be finished soon. And we'll have a new webpage very soon.

BTW, I believe that z axis in 3D space is for depth... but, I'm not sure.

Hi Nitro,

Your test file...does it require the truevision SDK to see it or is it a standalone?

Later

-David

It needs only one dll(engine), save it in system folder:
http://gs.gamer.hr/files/temp/truevision3d.zip [626 Kb]

Nitro, assignments are coming when?
I would like to program on the main game engine (all that has to do with ingame stuff).
Someone needs to take care of menus and functions needed by ingame engine to save scores and do some stuff connected directly with game...
For now, I'm just starting with map function that will load maps by request and low physics just to get from one point to another using cursor keys...

btw, do you have 3ds files of those objects?

David has 3ds files of those objects...

Asignments are coming in a few days... Nice to see that you're working.
I'll introduce all the programerst to you, Edi, so you can give them programing assingments... After all, you are the lead programmer.

BTW, anyone knows where meshman is? I can't reach him trough MSN messenger... ? I guess we'll need more car modelers. David, any ideas where to find them?

And, my test is not compiled. it needs visual basic to run...

I have some ideas about car parts and stuff...but I am interested, are we going to use
(example : stock tires, sport tires, race tires...or is it going to be level 1 tires, level 2 tires...and so on....)
It is easyer with levels, the game will be more simple that way, and we want it to be simple, dont we ?

Just want to introduce mi'self
16. years old ( 2. grade computer tehnician ), wannabe game designer from Vukovar.
I'll try and help to develope A.I.

now tha' problem......
i heard u're writing the game in VB and i just never liked it so i started studying c++.
so is this going to be a problem?

btw
I'm ready to learn VB if necessary... :p

Well, I'm glad that you've joined the forum. Like I told you, Edi (edifreak) is our lead programmer, so you have to talk to him. I guess if you wanna do A.I. and physics, you can always do it in a general form, like a math equation or some sort of an algorytm. And it's good if you are willing to learn vb. Now, it would be cool if Edi could tell you what to do...

P.S. Dino, your idea about the parts with levels is ok. We'll use it. I'll upload a 'Part list' tommorow.

P.P.S. And, we should consider doing this game in two languages - ENG & CRO? What do you think?

P.P.P.S. Meshman told me that he'll upload his models tommorow!

The AI is easy to make, the road is straight and the computer can have some random chance to go left or right from the desired direction… and in some rare situations, computer may be disqualified by crossing left or right limit of the road.
The other thing the AI may do is changing gears, lets say that he has 70% chance to change gear in the right moment, some times, it may happen to early or to late…

I think the game would be much easier to program if there was some kind of a fence or a small wall between payers road and computers road…that way there are no collision detectors, except the ones on the fence.
Or we can do it without fences and walls, but the moment player crosses the limit, the game is freezes, and big message is displayed on the screen “DISQUALIFIED” !

When you start the game, first there is language selection. If you choose English, then the game loads all the text needed from some file (lets say English.dat). That way it will be easy to translate the game to any language…just add the Croatian.dat, French.dat… file.

I hope you understand everything I wrote…If you did, what do you think about it ?

Hello and welcome kEndi,
First of all, we all need to decide some basic game features without pumping the game to be like Nascar2005.

TO-DO WITH WHO:
This still needs to be updated
1. Game engine
[edifreak]
2. Map Editor
[miskec]
3. Game menus
[!]
4. AI (not programming, we just need to discuss how will they think on straight road)
[team]
5. Design & Modeling
[mashman]
[David]
[?] Original textures for all kind of things
[?]
6. Cut scenes
[David]
7. Music & Sound effects
[!]

Who can/will work on [!] and [?] jobs?
[!] We need someone at this position
[?] Maybe

BASIC FEATURE LIST:
- Quick Race > 400/800/1200/5000meters > random car for you and AI
- Tournament > Street Racing/Underground/World > ...
- Options > 800x600 fixed with blur ...
Please do, tell us what's on your mind!

IMPORTANT: Keep all ideas as simple as they can be. (many similar projects died cause of lack of knowledge or willpower)

Dino wrote:

The AI is easy to make....

I can't agree more!

Dino wrote:

...game loads all the text needed from some file (lets say English.dat). That way it will be easy to translate the game to any language...

Hmm, this is not a good idea, what about a big cool screens with cool text styles..?

It was a misunderstanding...What I wanted to say it that you’ll have big screen with flags (English, Croatian…) and when you select a flag, the game can load all the language from some file….it can be English.* or even better Language.* and in that file can be sections:

[English]
1-New Game
2-Options
…….

[Croatian]
1-Nova Igra
2-Postavke
…….

That way we will save a lot of time changing some text from the game, fixing grammatical errors or something. It is better than drawing over some pictures, and than you have to change one letter and you have to edit the picture again….what I wanted to say is that it is easier like this…!

what about difficulty level?

at "easy" we could just decrese oponenet acc. by 0,2 and lower a percentage of chance that he will shift to a next gear in a right moment.

I disagree with tires or bumpers lvl1,lvl2.....
My opinion is that every part that u put on your ride should have stats ( liike those in rpg games ), example...

Name of bumper
playersacc+(0,1)
playerstopspeed+(5)
something like that....

hi, i just modify test version of this game, I add trees and i range some errors. Here is link http://gs.gamer.hr/files/miskec/NSL/Tec ... exture.zip . Copy files from zip file to your test game directory and start the game.

I was wondering about the menus... Menu is the first thing an user sees, and I think it has to be impresive. First, what do you think is better? 2D or 3D menus? (3d example: Need for speed: underground, 18 WoS: Across America) I agree with Dino about multi language menus... Now, i don't know how it would effect on menu looks... Comments? Although, I do belive that we can make a multi-language game with 'picture' menus... I don't mind working in Paintshop and Photoshop.

For the parts - I agree with kEndi and Dino. (i think that you misunderstood each other and you're talking about the same thing) correct me if I'm wrong!

Eg.
Standard bumper: Weight(+-n), Aerodinamics(+-n) [...], Description
Level 1 bumper: Weight(+-n), Aerodinamics(+-n) [...], Description
Level 2 bumper: Weight(+-n), Aerodinamics(+-n) [...], Description
[...]

Parts would be the same for each car.

BTW, go to http://www.ashracing.com there you have a huge list of parts and stats for every part.


The idea about the map editor is excellent! How do you plan to make it work? Miskec is, I see, experianced in making map editors...
My idea is to make it look like the editor in 'Stunts' An old game from '92.
If you don't know the game I can upload it.

edifreak wrote:

BASIC FEATURE LIST:
- Quick Race > 400/800/1200/5000meters > random car for you and AI
- Tournament > Street Racing/Underground/World > ...
- Options > 800x600 fixed with blur ...
Please do, tell us what's on your mind!

Quick Race > i believe we need tracks with 402 and 1608 meters - thats 1/4mile & one mile. You can select a car that you've unlocked during the tournament. AI car is random, but the same class like you'r car. - That reminds me -> cars should be sorted into groups - like the cars in NFS4

Tournament mode >
- Race !!! (we can make a storyline here with David's animations...)
- Garage (where you buy cars/parts and install them)
- Save profile
- Load profile
- Back to main menu

Options > Ability to choose between 800x600 and 1024x768... I think that this is not so hard with TV3D, Select language, Audio options (music on/off...) And, news: Tommorow I have a meeting where I'll try to arrange original sountracks for the game.

Miskec I've checked you'r Tech Test and i have to say: congratulations That missing road was driving me crazy, how did you solve the problem? And, trees do add a touch into the game...

And, to end this post - here are Meshman's models:
http://www.cabar.hr/game/cars.rar
Meshman is buisy with school, so that's slowing him down. Miskec, can you test them a little (you have 3DsMax knowlege) ???

Hi Everyone!

I have a question about trees. For trees that are in 3d space, does the engine support transparency? For example, instead of having actual 3ds trees (the poly-counts would be huge) we can use sprites. The tree is on a 2d plane that always faces the game camera. Or, you can use two planes that intersect at a 90 degree angle with the same tree image on each plane. This type does not rotate with the camera since it provides a "3d" image from any angle. <----I think this is the most common one used. All I need to know is what color the transparent part of the image should be. If you know this, would your give me the color in RGB values?

Thanks

-David

3d Studio Max Stuff
http://www.max-realms.com

For Nitro:
Thanke you!
Problem was taht you render a lendscape before you render a atmosphere. Order staf to render is very importante.

I add the car model in test and i upload it about 24h-01h this evening. I also add the rain or fog, i think that ql for this game.
i have one question. Will this game have a steering, no metter you drive pretence?


For David:
3d engine supert the transparenci. Trees are not in 3d. Trees are 2d bilbord. That is face how always look in camera. Texture for bilbord
are in *.dds format. DDs format is format which have to pictures one is texture and seccond is the mask which is black color.
You mast make dds file in tv3d TexEditor.


<EDIT>
http://gs.gamer.hr/files/miskec/NSL/Tec ... exture.zip new update more info in txt file in this zip file

Hi Miskec

I see...However, I can make the trees on two planes and save as .x; there are two textures: 1) the color image with a black background 2) the image alpha which also has a black background but the area where the tree is will be white.

I'm suggesting this as an alternate way to make different kinds of trees or any other kind of sprite for the game (like people and such). Any highly detailed object that we can add will add more realizm I think.

Here's an example. The resulting image looks exactly like a 3D tree, but it is two planes at 90 degree angles:



Final Image



Is it possible to use this type of model in the game?

-David

3d Studio Max Stuff
http://www.max-realms.com

David, I was talking to Miskec, and his opinion is that two-planed trees woud suck up FPS rate...

David, make a couple of trees in this two-plane method and we can test them... They look great, so I think we should, at least, give them a try.

BTW,
Your opinion please - 2D or 3D menus... I would like to start working on them! I think that 2d would be better.