Rocket Arena [pre alpha 0.1]

xray · Post by **xray** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:08 pm

After more than one year of working on Rocket Arena, which is based on the old and legendary Rocket Jockey the first playable version is now
available! You dont know Rocket Jocket?? Shame on you!

It would be nice, if you could check it out and tell me what you think about. Im still searching for enthusiastic members
who are willing to help out in my project. Please check also my website at:

http://www.solar-ray.org

Please check the readme for control settings!

...there is also a forum with alot of fans of the old Rocket Jockey and maybe also for the new one!

Rocket Arena was/is build/using the following applications:
- TrueAxis physics engine
- Blender3d
- Gile[s] global illumination editor

and the following websites for resources:
- CG-Textures
- lfgrafix

Download link:

http://solar-ray.org/index.php?id=download&download=m1

Cheers,
xray

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:13 pm

another awesome irrlicht project! congratulation for finishing your game.

*downloading*

JP · Post by JP » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:13 pm

Ok, well my first impressions based on the screenshots there was an out-loud "f*ck me..."

So i'm currently downloading and will let you know my thoughts!

EDIT:

What's this....

bad lighting?

Also there's no shadow for the rocket, only the character, is that a known 'issue' or some bug with my pc?

the controls are a bit strange with W being forward and left and right cursors being turn... would be nice to be able to walk backwards too. The run animation of the character is a little strange...

I spent a while trying to hop on the rocket in the starting area, that's something you might want to consider. I know there's the arrows pointing you to the real rocket on the 'pitch' but i thought they were pointing to the one in front of me

Obviously, although you've spent a year on it, it's still not the finished article so i'm sure a lot of these things are just because it's early development but i thought i'd just plonk down all my first impressions for you as i guess that's basically what you were after!

Good job and good luck in getting it finished off!

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:29 pm

Well, I got the same 'issue' like JP's. The shadow looks really odd. And I thought it's the settings problem so I went back to click the option button. But it didn't work.

And yea quite difficult to control (at least for me). By the way I'm stuck at the fence.

p/s. heh JP you're like cropping the image from mine.

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:03 pm

INFORMATION:
------------
Rocket Arena is freeware. It is not decided yet if the source code will
be released (but you can hope).

LMAO.

And I get the same lighting bug as JP and Virion.

Beside that, that's a pretty cool game, nice work.
Just how the hell should I attach myself to both of the things. It's too hard

JP wrote:I spent a while trying to hop on the rocket in the starting area, that's something you might want to consider. I know there's the arrows pointing you to the real rocket on the 'pitch' but i thought they were pointing to the one in front of me

ROFL!! Same here

JP · Post by JP » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:15 pm

Are you meant to attach yourself to both of them? I managed to attach myself to one which was easy enough, but i can imagine both would be quite hard!

Presumably the point of the game is to race around against other people or something? I'm not familiar with the game it's based on i'm afraid!

xray · Post by **xray** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:43 pm

Thanks for your opinions!

Whats this... bad lighting?

I have the same problem here, but I cant tell you whats going wrong. I just used the irrlicht addShadowVolumeSceneNode! But this was just for
testing the shadow, in an later version I will use other ways to create shadows, because the irrlicht realtime shadow seems to need alot of gpu power. Thats also the problem why I didnt attatched this shadow to the rocket.

the controls are a bit strange with W being forward and left and right cursors being turn... would be nice to be able to walk backwards too. The run animation of the character is a little strange...

The control settings are the same like in the old rocket jockey. But I can understand that it is a little bit confusing at the beginning. In the next version you will be able to change the settings.

And yea quite difficult to control (at least for me). By the way I'm stuck at the fence.

Confirmed! The normal way would be, that there is an explosion an the player falls off the rocket when you fly directly against the wall. Options and Multiplayer arent working right now.

Presumably the point of the game is to race around against other people or something? I'm not familiar with the game it's based on i'm afraid!

Well in the old rocket jockey, there were 3 different game types. The first one was "rocket war" where you have to catch other players out of there rockets! The second was "rocket ball" where you have to catch balls and throw them into goals, and the last one was "rocket race"!

Here are some pictures showing the old rocket jockey from 1996:

xray

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:56 pm

Sounds good. I too reckon the shadow might be irrlicht's problem. I really like the baked light/shadow and particle though. keep it up.

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:55 pm

After that I really look forward for the next version!

xray · Post by **xray** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:57 pm

Thanks alot!

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:11 pm

EDIT:

What's this....

bad lighting?

what , in the back of the man?

well, havent done many tests in irrlicht, but in most engines/apps, if that's not black texture, I'd bet for some faces with normals inverted, or some faces with double facing, or too near double faces that only get too match depending on the pose. Sometimes is bad UVing.

Realtime shadows tend to be of more cost than older solutions, in most engines. but is what is being used everywhere now.

Halifax · Post by **Halifax** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:22 pm

Yes, that is a problem with Irrlicht's shadowing technique for shadow volumes. I believe it was pointed out by sio2 in his driving demo, which also contain broken stencil shadows like this game.

But either way, great start there man!

EDIT:

It would be cool if an option was made so that you can select between OpenGL, and Direct3D 9.0. Because I only get 1 FPS in OpenGL, but I am sure to get at least 5 FPS in Direct3D.

(Direct3D always runs better on my system when compared to OpenGL.)

FuzzYspo0N · Post by **FuzzYspo0N** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:32 pm

Hey,
this is a pretty cool game conceptually. i like the idea behind it. I would be careful with the name rocket arena , as this was a very very popular and successful quake 3 team arena mod.

In terms of feedback, its pretty much all been said, only other note would be that the rocket needs a shadow too

xray · Post by **xray** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:52 pm

Oh thanks fuzzyspoon for your hint towards the the name "rocket arena"! So I have to think about a new one mh

Right the rocket has no shadow right now, because the realtime shadow from irrlicht is really slow and framerates would decrease alot with shadow for the player and rocket. Next version I will use another shadow code, maybe from the xeffect project.

FuzzYspo0N · Post by **FuzzYspo0N** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:23 pm

Yes blindside did a great job with those too. How far along in percent of the gameplay stuff do you think u have done here?