Top Down City dev log

Delfi · 2007-04-16 11:51:40

Lobster Martin wrote:

Defli that's awesome, I would have commented but didn't see and have been busy.
I love your little TDC.
Strafing..possibility, although I still think aiming would be horrible.
I'm not sure if this what you meant by using the mouse...

Basicly, you'd aim / turn to any target with the mouse cursor, and use WASD combination of keys to walk, something like in that "soldat" game.

Lobster Martin wrote:

I've played a number of top down games which use an interesting keyboard/mouse combination. I think for the on foot stuff it would be perfect.
Basically, you would have an aiming reticle, which you move around with the mouse, which determines which way your character points. You could still move north, south, east, and west with the normal buttons, but the character would keep aiming where you wanted him to. I know you've already implemented all this stuff and probably hate the idea of changing it, but I think it would be perfect. For multi, this would be neat..

Not sure if i understand this right, but it sounds like the way i was imagining it, but that one could be able to walk in any direction and shoot into another? not sure if i got this right.

Lobster Martin wrote:

How's the AI coming? I'm graduating from an AI degree this summer, maybe I could give you a hand or some help if you have problems with some stuff? It'd be cool to try and solve some AI problems for a game. Although you're a smart guy you've probably worked it out for yourself.

The AI is pretty poor atm, pedesterians have some basic well-working logic, they wander around, avoid obstacles and roads, etc.. and panic when you shoot near them, that's pretty good pedesterian logic for me For bots / scripted characters there's a pretty basic AI, which just directs the character towards the target and fires at it when in close range, they don't retreat if a second target is shooting at them at all, there are some glitches too with some weapons, etc.. but since i'd rather focus to netplay i don't give that much detail to ai ( honestly, i suck at programming physics, and i suck even more at programming AI, but smart AI bots are always fun to have ).

I was thinking of exposing the AI to some sort of externally scriptable code (like in far cry), such as using LUA or PAWN or some other similar scripting, so if you'd like to help me with AI, i can implement LUA and you can try making some scripts, if you are interested, IM me, my msn address is in my profile.

I'm currently working on some nice graphics features (i'm better at coding graphics than anything else ) i'm adding shaders to the map textures (think displacement maps, water effects and possibly reflections ), i also got basic stencil shadows working in a sandbox app using shadow volumes (think doom3 precise real time shadows), i'll try to port them to the editor and then to the game itself, i'll let you know how it goes (ans post screenshots)

Lobster Martin · 2007-04-16 14:16:31

Ah, that is exactly what I was thinking, just like Soldat.

I think that'll be a brilliant way to do it. The FPS style controls worked really well for the platform game style of Soldat, so there's no real reason they couldn't work well on a top down game. The only difference I can think of is that in Soldat you had to account for gravity and how bullets fell over time.

Soldat is quite a popular game, I think that's quite alot down to the physics. If TDC could have things like bouncing grenades, and nice simple controls like Soldat, it'd be really fun.

The graphics features sound cool, I'm quite interested in that sort of thing, although unfortunately my graphics knowledge consists of precisely squat.

Your pedestrian logic seems fine to me. Other than avoiding things, like roads, and running away from people with guns, I'm not sure what else you could do.

What about AI-driven vehicles... I suppose general city-goers would be quite simple (I assume road tiles would denote some sort of track?), are you planning on having lights at junctions and stuff?

Police might be a little trickier, do you have a plan for them? I suppose having working police would bring you one step closer to AI bots (who could drive cars around and find the player).

I'm just trying to get an idea for what you've done, it's an awesome project.

The scripting idea is interesting. I'd definitely like to try my hand at some AI, but it'd have to wait until after I graduate in July.

Delfi · 2007-04-16 17:54:36

Lobster Martin wrote:

Ah, that is exactly what I was thinking, just like Soldat.
I think that'll be a brilliant way to do it. The FPS style controls worked really well for the platform game style of Soldat, so there's no real reason they couldn't work well on a top down game. The only difference I can think of is that in Soldat you had to account for gravity and how bullets fell over time.
Soldat is quite a popular game, I think that's quite alot down to the physics. If TDC could have things like bouncing grenades, and nice simple controls like Soldat, it'd be really fun.

I already got bouncing rubber bullets, grenades and molotovs ingame

Lobster Martin wrote:

The graphics features sound cool, I'm quite interested in that sort of thing, although unfortunately my graphics knowledge consists of precisely squat.
Your pedestrian logic seems fine to me. Other than avoiding things, like roads, and running away from people with guns, I'm not sure what else you could do.
What about AI-driven vehicles... I suppose general city-goers would be quite simple (I assume road tiles would denote some sort of track?), are you planning on having lights at junctions and stuff?

i implemented fully vectorized roads in the editor, but i haven't got the car physics / handling done yet properly, so i'm not making driving AI until i sort this out.

Lobster Martin wrote:

Police might be a little trickier, do you have a plan for them? I suppose having working police would bring you one step closer to AI bots (who could drive cars around and find the player).

Yeah i guess police would be interesting for a online game like this, but it'd have to be done properly.

Lobster Martin wrote:

I'm just trying to get an idea for what you've done, it's an awesome project.
The scripting idea is interesting. I'd definitely like to try my hand at some AI, but it'd have to wait until after I graduate in July.

Okay, i'll check out lua and ways i can implement it.

Delfi · 2007-04-18 00:01:20

Real time shadow volumes, this is just drawing the volumes at the moment (in map editor), which are pitch black, ofcourse i'll have controls to manipulate the shadow intensity and shadows/lightning direction itself later, but this is just a test of half the shadowing functionality i'm working on.

Last edited by 179 (2007-04-18 00:15:15)

Delfi · 2007-04-19 14:57:21

OK, here's how it looks now with proper stencil buffer and controllable transparency, it can be set to point into any direction, like day/light and stuff like that:

here's a upclose shot showing detailed proper shadowing of combined sophisticated block layouts:

and another one:

Last edited by 179 (2007-04-19 15:11:17)

Lobster Martin · 2007-04-19 19:23:32

That adsdesres several of my concerns actually. http://bsgwrvwlgle.com tymuztvr [link=http://qtlggtc.com]qtlggtc[/link]

Delfi · 2007-04-19 20:06:08

Yo, good loiokn out! Gonna make it work now. http://wabxnnu.com bxbgyawuzvd [link=http://sniqyc.com]sniqyc[/link]

Delfi · 2007-04-24 16:30:33

This is how the new proper dynamic shadows look ingame.

Lobster Martin · 2007-04-24 22:08:47

Very awesome.

Would it be possible to implement that so that vehicles like trucks have larger shadows?

Delfi · 2007-04-25 07:10:48

yeah i could do that i guess..

Fragdieb2 · 2007-04-25 11:38:07

Are those little flashing icons on bottom some sort of damage model? Looks like a really cool idea!

Delfi · 2007-04-25 13:07:21

Fragdieb2 wrote:

Are those little flashing icons on bottom some sort of damage model? Looks like a really cool idea!

Yup it shows amout of damage on your car.

Niteye · 2007-04-25 16:04:07

I heard there's a Top Down City billboard in GTA3. I never noticed it where is it?
Also, are you aiming to make TDC into a full game or is it more a proof of concept thing.

Delfi · 2007-04-25 17:18:46

Niteye wrote:

I heard there's a Top Down City billboard in GTA3. I never noticed it where is it?
Also, are you aiming to make TDC into a full game or is it more a proof of concept thing.

Yeah, there are ads for it in gta3 and gta-vc as well. and TDC is a game and is not just some concept thing.

PissBeagle195 · 2013-08-02 11:58:55

Delfi wrote:

ok, here is what's cooki'n:
i'm coding a new game called "Top Down City"
this won't fail... why? because half of the game
engine is already coded, realy i'm suprised too!
so i need your best cars for the game, but please
note:
- the game might get commercial if i found a
publisher enough interested into this
- the cars should be more normal (jeep, sedan,
truck, bus, train, and all possible normal cars,
sports cars should be normal cars riced to sports
special vehicles (rocket trucks, tanks etc.. ))
examples:
this is fucking sweet:

my favourite tank ever:

this are examples, i won't use any of these without
asking ofcourse so any cars you might have that would
be ok:
- post image, yours real name and a link to it
- you agree that car could be used in commercial
purposes and must be your own work (no steals)
- cars won't use names of real cars
- if you have 32 bit true color version of deltas
link that one, the game will be 32bit and
transparency will be using alphas
and no connecton to "gta" should be with the car
(such as in car names, texts etc.. )

- if game gets commercial you can get a free copy
of it.. thats all i'm affraid, i don't have any money

Is it dead?

Delfi · 2013-10-12 13:38:49

no.

Inky · 2013-10-12 16:57:37

Holy shit it's Delfi, and with good news

[deleted] · 2013-10-14 15:19:52

Holy shit it's Inky! >^_^<

Delfi · 2018-10-01 10:26:44

Who remembers this? I've been busy.

Progress with internet play / networking sync:

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxGfOh … ic3KEMB6iA - Subscribe.

Last edited by Delfi (2018-10-01 10:27:15)

Meaison · 2019-02-22 11:37:58

Delfi wrote:

stop joking around, i have AI, v tight gel rocket launchers & flamethrower and car enter / exit animations done!

lol thats the good one

Last edited by Meaison (2019-03-04 06:50:46)

florencioagullette · 2020-01-10 08:26:19

Meaison wrote:

Delfi wrote:
stop joking around, i have AI, https://www.giannasgrille.com/ rocket launchers & flamethrower and car enter / exit animations done!
lol thats the good one

good one..

GOURANGA! Forums

#51 2007-04-16 11:51:40

Re: Top Down City dev log

#52 2007-04-16 14:16:31

Re: Top Down City dev log

#53 2007-04-16 17:54:36

Re: Top Down City dev log

#54 2007-04-18 00:01:20

Re: Top Down City dev log

#55 2007-04-19 14:57:21

Re: Top Down City dev log

#56 2007-04-19 19:23:32

Re: Top Down City dev log

#57 2007-04-19 20:06:08

Re: Top Down City dev log

#58 2007-04-24 16:30:33

Re: Top Down City dev log

#59 2007-04-24 22:08:47

Re: Top Down City dev log

#60 2007-04-25 07:10:48

Re: Top Down City dev log

#61 2007-04-25 11:38:07

Re: Top Down City dev log

#62 2007-04-25 13:07:21

Re: Top Down City dev log

#63 2007-04-25 16:04:07

Re: Top Down City dev log

#64 2007-04-25 17:18:46

Re: Top Down City dev log

#65 2013-08-02 11:58:55

Re: Top Down City dev log

#66 2013-10-12 13:38:49

Re: Top Down City dev log

#67 2013-10-12 16:57:37

Re: Top Down City dev log

#68 2013-10-14 15:19:52

Re: Top Down City dev log

#69 2018-10-01 10:26:44

Re: Top Down City dev log

#70 2019-02-22 11:37:58

Re: Top Down City dev log

#71 2020-01-10 08:26:19

Re: Top Down City dev log

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