Stunt Marble Racers - now includes network playing

Seven · Post by **Seven** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:39 pm

nice game. addictive and entertaining.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:13 am

Thanks for the comments. Before enhancing the graphics I wanted to get the rest done. Should I try X-Effects? Haven't tried it yet, but maybe I should.

@devsh: I am planning to release a "level design pack". This would be like 4 plugins to IrrEdit (IrrOdEdit for physics, plugIrrOdeKlangIn (not released yet) for the sounds, my ManagedShadow plugin (but I think I'll try something else there) and a InfoSceneNode to tell the program some information about the new level). The plugin pack would also get a tutorial and at least one demo level (of course).

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:06 pm

Hi again,

I didn't (yet) improve the graphics, but I uploaded a new video to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVywTXa1bc. This time it's a trailer showing the 2-player splitscreen mode. Thanks to my brother for taking the videos with me. The music is from my band "killing cockroaches" (http://www.killing-cockroaches.de). Within the next days or so I won't have much time to improve the game, I'll have to do some changes to the band's homepage (multi-language e.g.) and put it online again.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:13 am

Hi,

just uploaded a new version with 2 new levels ("stunt marble racers: precision" and "moving worlds: little tower") and 2 modified levels ("training 1: playground" and "stunt marble racers: oval in the office"). Graphics is not enhanced due to a lack of time

Revan1985 · Post by **Revan1985** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:58 pm

uhm...
600 fps on a 5870...
is normal?!?

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:33 am

I never get such FPS values during gameplay. I normally have something like 150-400, depending on the level and graphics settings on my AMD Athlon XP64 with a GeForge 9600. But as long as the game works I think it's OK.

If you get this value in the menu then it's normal. On my brother's computer (better than mine) we got more than 1000 FPS. But on my Notebook (with Intel graphics chip) I do get quite low values during gameplay (like 50-70).

But ... as I said before ... is the game running OK with such a high framerate?

Revan1985 · Post by **Revan1985** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:17 pm

ok, it's fine...
1900+ menu and 600+ game

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:37 am

A new update again:

- added and modified some of the levels
- removed the automatic respawning if you fall off the level (levels were modified so that you can't fall off ... normally)
- added a control that allows the user to respawn at the last checkpoint (key must be pressed for 2 seconds)
- now all tracks are "multi lap" removed the "reach target" functionality

can (still) be downloaded from the link on the first page. Happy downloading.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:47 am

After a long time there's a new update available for download. I completely rewrote the central game class, split it up into 3 classes to make it easier to maintain, and I added a tournament game mode.

In this tournament mode you can create a tournament with up to 20 races and do the races. There is a system with points (2 points for the winner, 0 points for the second places (aka "the loser"

) and 1 point for the player with the fastest lap. The "manual" was also updated (http://dustbin-online.de/marbles2_manual/manual.html).

I also modified the "the wall" level, now it's fun playing that track (at least for me). Happy downloading (http://dustbin-online.de/marbles2.php).

My roadmap tells me that the next thing to do is to create the "edit pack" that I announced long time ago. This will be a set of plugins for Irredit, a small tutorial and a demo track that also works as template for new tracks. When doing this I should also add some "validation check" for the racetracks, i.e. test if the player node and at least 2 checkpoints are present before the game is started.

Lonesome Ducky · Post by **Lonesome Ducky** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:38 pm

Man, every time someone has a directx8 dll, mcafee flags it as a trojan and removes it

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:44 am

OK, I guess I'll try to remove it. There is no option to use DirectX8 in the game anyways.

Edit: just tried by just deleting the DLL. Doesn't start because it expects the DLL to be there. I guess I'll have to compile Irrlicht myself and remove the DirectX 8 support.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:38 am

OK,another update: No ther is a EditPack for Marbles2 availble for download:http://www.dustbin-online.de/download.p ... itpack.zip (or visit the Marbles2 homepage: http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2.php). The EditPack contains all plugins for IrrEdit that are necessary to create Marbles2 levels, a little tutorial and a tiny demo level created in the tutorial. The tutorial is also available online:http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2_m ... anual.html. Happy downloading

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:52 am

Once again: an update. I removed the DirectX-8 support, so I hope McAffee won't claim it's a trojan any more, and I added some check functionality when starting a race to make sure the level is valid (check for player nodes, check for at least 2 checkpoints). Happy downloading.

PI · Post by PI » Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:52 am

Nice game Brainsaw!!! Thanks for sharing! I'd like to create a similar game with FC, one of the reasons why I've started coding it

Cheers,
PI

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:08 am

Thanks. Really nice to get positive comments

. I have a good quote, no real negative comments yet, except for the graphics, but I might fix that when the rest is done.

Currently I'm working on a replay-system where you can record races and watch them again. I might release it within one next week or so. The main reason for adding this is to get a feeling on how much data something like this would produce, because I am thinking about adding network support. This support (as well as the recording feature) are/will be absolute brute force, but for LAN I think it's OK to send between 20 and 150 KB/sec.