Why do I get the feeling that Pea is about to post an uber long message again? :p
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Why do I get the feeling that Pea is about to post an uber long message again? :p
Hiya, yep, apologies if my previous post didnt seem like I appreciated Lux's comments, I did indeed, were indeed very constructive and i didnt really cry :)
Screenshots would have been good, I do actually have a few of them too, that were scaled down to the little thumbnails in the level select screen, so silly me for not including them in first post :(
Glad you like the effects on the later levels though.
As it happens though, all levels are tweaked to run at roughly the same frame rate. The reason the desert level cant have more 'flash' effects is because it has the numerous little cacti that pop in close to the camera. The snow level swaps the CPU cycles used for the little cacti for the snow effect. The night level again swaps it for the headlights. The rain level swaps it for reflections (i did at one stage have the rain dynamic in the same way the snow was, ie generated in real time, but had to resort to a single png over everything as on top of reflections, performance was affected too much). The forest level then puts most of the CPU into the vast number of trees. Admittedly the forest level also features shadows from the clouds in the sky being cast across the track, but that was just me being over the top :)
There is a version somewhere in the development folder that actually attempts using a displacement map to simulate the heat shimmering effect you get in real desert, but that never made it into the final game.
My biggest disappointment was not finalising the code to get tyre tracks into the game. Especially on the desert and snow levels. An early test version of the snow level feature tyre tracks, but I never found the extra CPU power or the time to properly implement them into the final game.
Perhaps for 3d rally racing 2 :)
Pea
p.s. for those interested in an early test version of the snow + tracks, you can find it here - http://www.percypea.co.uk/snow.html. The amount of snow can be controlled by the mouses position and you can see the tracks on the car thats driving around (click the checkbox)
p.p.s I hate Jimbo_W
can you please add some people to hit on the levels (twisted metal style)
please please please please
:)
hehe, norty mr_malee
Thanks all for your suggestions.
I had a test of taking out the speedo and extending the drawing area of the track to cover the space. And it looks like i did indeed underestimate the power of bitmapFill :)
On my test machine, the frame rate dropped a whole 1 fps.
Whats more, in changing the code for the track, i noticed i had been a very silly pea and left bitmap smoothing turned on from when early test versions were done in high quality.
Fixing that bought the framerate back to the previous version.
On top of that, i then found i was using 32bit bitmap data for all 5 levels, when only the rain level needed 32bit (for transparency). So that increased fps slightly yet again.
YAY
So updated version at www.3drallyracing.com should now run slightly faster on all levels, and be much easier to see whats going on as you race around the track :)
We've also changed the game so that both desert and snow levels are unlocked from the begining.
Unfortunatly we have not been able to improve the drawing of the track or the locking at 100% on slower machines :(
Thanks again
Pea
Very nice game, it seems better with the red car, a little speedier. First time I tried it it felt more like toy, remote controlled cars and not enough speed. I believe that's what others were referring to when mentioning difficult steering. I'd describe it as a little stiff and jumpy ( notice it in all mode7 games, must be the rotation, especialy if your driving is not smooth and you have to compensate a lot by making sharper turns/corrections ) but it seems better now.
Hey Percy,
I couldn't get to the snow level, sure thing it doesn't say locked in the corner, but there's no MouseOver glow and I can't select it :( Did take another shot at the desert though and I think the speedo critics will like this better :D
Hi MikeMD, yep the 2nd car is indeed easier to handle. But the 1st car has a higher top speed, so to get the high scores, thats the one to go for (apart from perhaps the forest level).
Thanks v much phreax for pointing out the problem. Strangely I had fixed it, but somehow it looks like I must have undid the fix code as its no longer in the latest fla. Have re added it and uploaded, and now you should be able to play the snow level :)
Thanks again
Pea
that's the awesomest game ive played!!
This game is breath taking man, keep up the astonishing work.
Congrats. A fantastic technical achievement.
I rememer when you first started this stuff and I have to say, it was excellent back then. I wrote a simple mode7 engine after your inspiration with the original. Super stuff this time around, a long time in the making, but it looks like you've picked up all the skills on the way, AI, pathing, 3d other than just the mode 7, etc etc the list goes on :D
RipX
Fantastic game!
A couple of small suggestions:
1- Try not to use transparencies so much. The rocks popup anyway, and while the transparency helps to make it seem more realistic, it eats resources and slows down processing significantly.
2- I have been working on generating terrain via bitmaps recently as well, and have found that when generating your final bitmaps, if you break the process up over frames by only generating a strip per frame, you will avoid the "unresponsive" flash popup on less powerful computers.
3- If you want to make it perform better for less powerful computers, perhaps add an option to turn off certain effects. Much as older first-person shooters use to have options for turning on or off things such as muzzle flash, shadow casting etc. These allowed users of for instance Unreal Tournament to be able to play regardless of system capabilites.
A very impressive game, I look forward to watching your progress with it!
Jerry, the game went live over 4 months ago, I don't think there are going to be any changes now mate.
Squize.
Oops, sorry! I should really pay attention to thread dates!
We've all done it :)
Squize.
Crap, I need to visit FK more often! I can't believe I missed this game Pea, but I'm glad someone brought this thread to the surface.
Awesome, awesome, awesome work. You've really pushed AS 2.0 to the limit. Congratulations, I'm really impressed!
It's been a while since I've seen you here Strille :) welcome back (though you never actually left).
Haha very cool engine i dont care if thread is old congrats are still in order, I shall myself have to build me a small 3d game engine in as3 now just to proove I can, PS does anyone know if flash has the power to do an MMORPG
man, your comment was great overall until you messed it up by talking about
MMORPG :)
Use the search function to look for threads on the topic.
hans down, the best graphics in a flash game that i've seen yet.