Stunt Marble Racers - now includes network playing

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:16 am

Hello,

I have a new game ready for beta: Stunt Marble Racers. It can be downloaded from my homepage at http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2.php, there are also some more screenshots than in this post.

It is Y.A.G.I.M.M. (yet another game inspired by marble madness

), the second one of these I've done. It uses IrrODE (link at the bottom of the post), my Irrlicht-ODE wrapper, and some code snippets I have posted here in the forum. It is a simple little game where you control a marble (either by keyboard or by joystick) and you have to finish the levels as fast as possible (that's why I called it "Stunt Marble Racers"

. There is also a two-player mode using splitscreen and a network mode with up to 4 players which can be really funny. There are some things left that are not yet finished / implemented:

- levels. The levels that are already included need some more work, especially things beside the track, and I want to add some more levels
- graphics enhancements. I'll wait for Irrlicht 1.8 and the new shadow system for that

Testing is not finished as well, but I hope to get some reports by posting here.

There is also a little HTML document I call "manual"

: http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2_m ... anual.html

3 videos of the game can be viewed on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVywTXa1bc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFgGl-HTk90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poijbDUYImg
Unfortunately the Taksi software I used to record the video doesn't (yet) record sound, so I added some background music from my band, killing cockroaches.

Here are some screenshots of the game:

Stunt Marble Racers uses my Irrlicht/ODE wrapper:

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=33292

I have used the following code-snippets for this project:

irrConfigController:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=34584
shadowManager:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=34669
followPathAnimator:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=34606

Lonesome Ducky · Post by **Lonesome Ducky** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:23 pm

Seems like the links to the pictures are broken.

Just tried it out, and my biggest complaint is that quite often the ball will not turn when you hit the turn keys.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:33 am

I just repaired the links to the screenshots. Stupid me. The server was "localhost", and I don't think that anyone else has my screenshots on "localhost"

If you turn the marble there will just be a little force applied to it into the direction you have chosen, so the turn might be a little slow (if you are fast already).

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:13 pm

I created another trailer you can find on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFgGl-HTk90

Lonesome Ducky · Post by **Lonesome Ducky** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 4:20 pm

I think the problem is that the ball quite often just lifts into the air by a tiny amount, and since it's not on the ground it won't turn

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:32 pm

Hmm ... does the marble not move to left or right at all? Or does it just spin very fast? If it spins I might have forgotten to set some physics parameter. Take a look at the videos I created, maybe you can see if it behaves differently on your computer. The way you see in the videos is the way it's meant to be. I think it takes some time to really learn controlling the marble in this game.

pyrop · Post by **pyrop** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:21 pm

Hi,
I like the game! Especially I was impressed by level "roll the line", its cool

But I found strange behaviour, which depends on marble spin speed. It will happen when the marble is moving on some level of high (maybe term "altitude" will be more clear) and touches the ground with highter altitude. I'll show it on this screenshot. The ball is moving on the grass and routing to the road. It will cause jump. But the jump high depens on the spin speed. And if you are able to spin your marble to very fast rotation, the marble will jump veeery high into the air (like this).

I don't know if you can influence this and if its an important thing. I only want you to know about that behaviour.
If you cannot understand my ugly english, I'll try to explain it more clearly.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:19 am

I know this behaviour. If you are on the grass (which is quite slippery) the marble rotates at quite high speed. If you then reach the road again (which has a lot of grip) it will turn the spinning speed into moving speed, and as you can see there is a vertical curb so that the speed will be right upwards. I think I can do something about it, maybe I'll have to do some little changes in the IrrODE wrapper.

But, nevertheless, nice to hear you enjoied it. Oh, on the screenshots (and in one of the videos) there are some missing textures. I uploaded a new version yesterday where these textures were added.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:48 pm

Hello,

I just uploaded a new version in which going off the track onto the grass will slow you down quite a bit. This should solve pyrop's problem, at least most of the time. This includes a new feature to my IrrOde wrapper, I'll post in that thread right after posting this one. Happy downloading.

pyrop · Post by **pyrop** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:21 pm

Hi,
good modification. Now it works almost fine when I intentionally turn on the marble to very high rotation speed.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:51 am

Did another update yesterday: after testing with my brother in splitscreen mode we came to the conclusion that it would be fine to have the option to split the screen vertically. Added that. Now you can choose whether you want horizontal or vertical splitscreen.

Josie · Post by **Josie** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:51 pm

Good job, keep it up!

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:24 am

Thanks. I am currently working on an IrrOdeKlangNode to improve the sound. I hope to get it finished within the next two weeks. I also did a little two-player-splitscreen-testing with my brother last weekend, and we recorded our races. I think I'll create another video for youtube from this.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:49 am

Just uploaded a new version with improved sound:

in single player mode it's now 3d sound, the sounds of the marble, hinges and sliders have a squeaking sound and things to kick around (e.g. the wall in the level "the wall" have a sound when they hit something (e.g. the marble).

in 2-player mode (splitscreen) there is mono sound, left speaker for player 1, right speaker for player 2

Things to come: levels. Before I assume this project as finished it shall at least have 20 levels, most of them for 2 players and with dynamic worlds.

devsh · Post by **devsh** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:10 pm

damn man you really need more shadows (soft if you can), i really have the effect of double shadow on the road and on the grass beneath on some levels, cause the road should cast a shadow too and you should be able to see the shadow of the thing above the road. Also you have terrible Z fighting on checkpoints on the meshes. and get rid of the vertex lighting!!!!

OverALL: AWESOME I PLAY THE GAME EVERY NIGHT

P.S. release some kind of an editor so people can make their own levels and append them to the game