Yeah... it just takes too long to do everything from scratch. But, for all you homebrewers, I recommend Tokamak for dynamics.

I also have Neil to thank... a talent, for sure.

More updates to come

Thanks for the props.
Big ups to you, for getting the models in the engine.

I was wondering why the tank looks so much brighter than the surroundings. Is that because of a shader applied to it (have you even done anythign with shaders yet?)?
If not, then i guess a quick fix would be to just adjust the brightness of the texture map in PS.

I like it though!

Yeah, that's just because there aren't any affects being applied to the tank just yet. Once things are working completely, I'll work on good shaders for the vehicles.

I spent the entire weekend on vehicle physics. Man, is it a bitch. It's coming along, though, with extreme experimentation. Fun as hell, though

Are you looking at any crazy Halo-Style physics or a more "actually follows the laws of gravity" style?

Well Halo physics are actually pretty realistic. When you see the Warthog fly 100 yards, it's usually because of a massive explosion. I'm trying to keep everything physically realistic, to answer your question

The reason Halo physics seem so messed up is because of indestructable objects. If you had that big of an explosion on a jeep in the real world it would just explode into a billion pieces. Just having the Warthogs explode into a billion pieces wouldn't be that fun now would it?

Halo's physics was set up to be realistic yet fun. Just like most FPS. If you make it ultra realistic and make it so that your gun randomly locks up and you can only carry 2 guns at once, then you'd get frustrated and bored.

There is always a line you gotta draw that borders on realistic and gay. I've seen games try to push the realistic too much, and needless to say the games disappeared.

True. I'd be pretty pissed if some jackass on XBConnect blew up our only warthog.

We're shooting for fun on this one. I'm sure we'll put a twist on gameplay physics if we feel it'll increase the fun factor a bit.

Neil, I worked some things out for the tank physics. It'll take me a few days to implement it, but it should be big pimpin.

wow i just read this thread and i must say, that this game looks incredible for a "spare time project"!! I can't wait to try it out!

Thanks Nukey... good to see u on here.

QUOTE (The unProfessional @ Oct 15 2003, 06:35 PM)

True. I'd be pretty pissed if some jackass on XBConnect blew up our only warthog.

LOL!!

Then everyone is just stuck in ghost mode and gets to view the eyecandy scenery

the unpro... when do I get to test physics engine

Soon Soon Soon, my good buddy

All right, I know you've heard this a million times already, but here it is again.........this game looks awesome! I cant wait.

Also, I was thinking about it, and is the engine you're writing going to be available for other homebrew projects. It would save others so much time and really help out the scene.

Yeah, as soon as i think it will be more good than headache for other devs, i'll release the source. Once the game is out and relatively bug-free, releasing the source will be a high priority.

Any new info yet?

Progress is being made and we're having fun with it. I like driving tanks around... Of course, it becomes a problem with one of 'em flies off into space as a result of buggy collision handling, but that's half the fun, right? A HELL OF A LOT of progress is being made constantly. This is a challenging part of the development, but damn is it fun.

New news update on the website

|
|
v

New vid on website... drivin' tank around

QUOTE (The unProfessional @ Nov 15 2003, 08:45 AM)

New vid on website... drivin' tank around

howd i miss this?
*runs off to watch*

I recompressed the vid, btw... its now about 2MB rather than 18

Looks great! Can't wait to play it! Oh, an if you need any beta tester... look no further I'd be happy to

QUOTE (The unProfessional @ Nov 21 2003, 09:06 PM)

I recompressed the vid, btw... its now about 2MB rather than 18

looks great!

Thx... I'll let you know once some more is rolled out.

Looks pretty damn sweet! Can't wait to try it out

Hey Un,

I've looked and looked, and I don't think I've found a single homebrew game for linux that looks as awesome as Jihad. It's amazing how you're able to take the Xbox homebrew games scene to the next level, and the linux game scene is still pretty drab.

Sleep_21

Thanks, sleep... I really appreciate it. Still workin' on it when I can and I'll keep you all posted.

lookin good man! can't wait till i can play this game! the vids look sweet! is there gonna be music in it? or can there be the xbox soundtrack in it?

xbox_freak!!

Still haven't figured out what exactly to do with music... there was a guy willing to write the music (he's @#*$ talented)... gotta see if he's still interested

That would be cool, you sould implement custom soundtracks too. I've looked at the API calls, doesnt look too hard. But hey, i'm sure your busy enough with more important stuff, like physics.

Looking good though. Keep it up.

QUOTE (JapanFred @ Dec 10 2003, 06:12 PM)

That would be cool, you sould implement custom soundtracks too. I've looked at the API calls, doesnt look too hard. But hey, i'm sure your busy enough with more important stuff, like physics. Looking good though. Keep it up.

yea the physics first the music isnt very important yet

QUOTE (xbox_freak!! @ Dec 10 2003, 11:17 PM)

QUOTE (JapanFred @ Dec 10 2003, 06:12 PM) That would be cool, you sould implement custom soundtracks too. I've looked at the API calls, doesnt look too hard. But hey, i'm sure your busy enough with more important stuff, like physics. Looking good though. Keep it up. yea the physics first the music isnt very important yet

Indeed, if people are that bothered about the music, listen to your CD's

Thanks for the motivational words guys. I don't think you could imagine how much of a bitch the physics engine has been to Un_Pro. Just getting the tanks to drive around and stay on the ground was impressive enough. If the cameras were corrected, i'm sure we could launch the game as is right now (hell that's what EA does, haha) [just kidding]. Once we get that out of the way, then updates 'should' be out faster.

If you want, I'll contribute some heavy metal dropped-D (guitar) riffs, i think that's what you'd expect from a hardcore multi-playing tank blast-fest. I'd be honored to contribute to such an awesome project.

This just keeps sounding better and better! I Cant wait for a release.
So, Unpro What exactly is there left to do on the game?
and roughly how big will it be?

Well, I think at the moment The_UnPro is just getting the engine together. Once the physics and graphical base is all worked out, then he can start working on the actual gameplay.

Yeah, exactly right... once the core engine components are done then it will become an actual game

the vehicle physics are at a point where I think it's acceptable. Fine tuning will definitely come later, and even possibly some serious changes to the physics. But everything is set up with that possibility in mind. As of now, full rigid body physics are supported. The only thing that realllly sucks is the friction. Weird sh*t goin down.

Currently I'm taking the level/terrain to the next level... support much larger terrain patches and I'm hoping we can design at least two great levels for initial release.

I'm starting next on the net code and making this thing multiplayer. At that point, we can test game aspects in a multiplayer environment to best optimize development time.

Thanks for EVERYONE's ongoing support! You guys rock. I will definitely need to figure out where to get good music, but it'll be in a while. Thanks for caring guys.

Some other good news is that I'm quitting my regular day job, to cut my work hours from 75 to 40 (yippy skippy, i can have a little bit of a life). Well anyway, more time for Jihad. ('bout time)


Also, I decided to create most of my GUI-based tools in c#.net because it's MUCH more rapid than MFC/VC++. But, has anyone else had problems with Dx9 under .Net? Do simple things like Indexbuffers not work or is it just me?

Good to hear your work load is cut down and then pushed back up by Jihad! I'm gonna have to take a closer look at C# as I've heard lots of compliments about it.

"there was a guy willing to write the music (he's @#*$ talented)... gotta see if he's still interested "

It's Josh here, and yes, I am definitely still interested in writing music for Jihad, as long as you're still interested in heavy metal tunes to compliment the heavy metal tanks

Good to hear you're still working on this game, it's looking amaaaaazing! Better than some OFFICIAL Xbox games that I've seen. Can't wait to dink around in an early build for inspiration!

BTW, I'll take "@#*$ talented" as a compliment, thanks ... At least, I hope that was in reference to me

Later!

Josh! Damn right it was to you Glad to see you've been following the progress. I was worried I'd lost your interest. When I started this project I was overly optimistic in terms of time. But, my choice was to maintain my original plan and deal with the work and time, rather than cut the project. I'll send you an email. I can send you a current build of the engine & content (basically just driving around). Not sure if that'll help. Sorry guys, I think right now Neil and Josh can mess around with it. But since it's far from tuned, I don't want it distributed.

Metal ... this metalhead would have it no other way. I thought of your tunes when I saw Maiden live a few months ago.

Neil has a phenomenal artistic talent... and now a good composer, too?

I'm the luckiest homebrewer there is...

Josh out of curiosity, because this will come up eventually. Video game music has to loop, and it has to be done in a means to not annoy the hell out of the player too.
With jamming guitars, there is the possibility of wreaking too much havok on the listeners ears if they play for extended periods.

What is your intended course of action, and how long do you think your loops would be?

I have some music you may be interested in for the game. It is a 6 song EP of original Hard Rock/Metal that may be fitting. It is professionaly recorded and mastered. I also have some riffs and song clips that could be used as loops. When you are ready for music, let me know if you're interested. ed@fivetotheface.com

Josh out of curiosity, because this will come up eventually. Video game music has to loop, and it has to be done in a means to not annoy the hell out of the player too.

With jamming guitars, there is the possibility of wreaking too much havok on the listeners ears if they play for extended periods.

What is your intended course of action, and how long do you think your loops would be?


I agree, but before I can answer you best, I have a few questions of my own.

What format are you guys planning to use? MP3? WMA? OGG? Will the music loop fairly well, or will there be a little pause between looping? Will there be specific songs for certain maps, or will it cycle through the whole list? I'm assuming you'll want some specific title, credits, menu, etc., music in addition to in-game music.

As far as length goes, I can be as flexable as you want should you have specific requirments, ie, 1-2 minute songs to 10 minute songs, whatever you feel is best.

Personally, I think it's best to keep the songs at a steady, intense pace (if that's the style we chose, but either way, keep it consistant, ie, not too many contrasts of moods within one track), but also keep it kinda short (2:00) if you plan on looping. Then again, the intensity of the music will depend on the intensity of the game. For example, the music would dominate the atmosphere if we had thrash metal and the game was more strategy-based. Likewise, the music would be lost and ignored if we chose a more ambient style with the game was a more fast-paced, frag-fest.

In other words, there's a fine balance I need to strike. The music should compliment the general amount of action on screen. I'll have to spend some time with the game in order to get a feel for the style/pacing/length that would best suit the modes of gameplay.

I'd like to hear any ideas you guys have on how I should approach this project.

PS If you could, list me some game soundtracks similar to the one your after.

That all makes perfect sense. The only thing that sucks is the pace of the destruction will be directly dependent on both the size of the map, and the # of people playing. I suppose, in order to intensify things, the tanks would be unrealistically fast. I think this may turn it into the frag fest we're looking for. What do you guys think?

As for the looping, I"d imagine 2 minutes is a good way to go there. But, we can switch tracks during rounds, since potentially one brawl could last any arbitrary amount of time. To start with, maybe just two tracks, 2 mins each, with X # of loops per track before switching to the next. Just speculation :-

Mp3, WMA, or OGG are all sufficient. I'm thinking mp3 at this point, but OGG is becoming a very possible format. Although, any format conversion shouldn't be a big deal, I hope.

custom soundtracks would be nice as well

If you really want to go to town Uber, then maybe you could explore the XACT engine which would allow you to make some form of interactive music to go with the action.

Probably requires a lot more music though so might not be the best option

That'd definitely be pretty cool. Definitely something to consider later on. But as of now, we dont even have sfx :-

If you really want to go to town Uber, then maybe you could explore the XACT engine which would allow you to make some form of interactive music to go with the action.

I was kinda thinking about that, but I don't want to complicate things anymore than they already are. I'm willing to write multiple piece tracks that could transist according to on-screen action. Could be very cool. Definitely something to keep on the back of your mind

I'll have to do some research on that one.

Keep the ideas coming!

PS If the format doesn't matter, I would prefer OGG for several obvious reasons, but mostly because IMO, it has less compression noise than MP3 or WMA.

OGG works for me