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Work in Progress / Populous demo.

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crighton
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 03:18
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Hay all, finally got my populous engine to a playable stage.

So far,
land engine works. (raise/lower/minimap which is clickable)
tree generation and placement(auto so far, maybe buy trees with mana aswell.)
Basic good guy wander AI is set(nothing too sophisticated yet)
you will notice a tent at the bottom of the screen, this was a model test i forgot to move .

Anyway let me know what u think.
Also, will be looking for some help soon if any one is interrested.

cheers
crighton



PS. screenshots




aye!

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John H
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 13:05
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Lookin very good!


Join Our Forums and get game updates faster!
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Hawkeye
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 14:18
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Hey man, not bad, not bad at all Looks quite good in fact, how about telling us some more about the game?


I am but mad north north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw - Hamlet, Hamlet
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David R
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 17:50
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Quote: "elling us some more about the game?"




You don't know what populous is! How dare thee!

Populous is *the* original 'god-game' from the 1990's. You're a deity and you control lots of little people. (it was created by Peter Molyneux back at Bullfrog games, who eventually left his partnership with EA to found Lionhead, and thus ceate Black & White)
How can you call yourself a games programmer if you don't know that?

(This is based on the assumption that this is supposed to be a remake of the original populous. If I'm wrong... well, don't rub it in )


See details at http://lightningstudios.95mb.com/sig/buildDetails.txt
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Nack
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 17:53
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looks quite good! populous rocks! this should be interesting indeed!


I have NOT abandon these ^......^_^V hehe
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Hawkeye
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 20:39
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But I don't call myself a games programmer, just a dbp fanboy who likes music more


I am but mad north north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw - Hamlet, Hamlet
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Heckno
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 23:47
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Quote: "You don't know what populous is! How dare thee! "


Quote: "Populous is *the* original 'god-game' from the 1990's."


Don't forget some of the people on these boards were just seeing daylight for the first time back in those days...

anyway... Loved that game and yours looks very nice so far, will be keeping an eye on the progress...
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 23:55
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Is that Populous?? starts foaming at the mouth

Must... download....


Check the WIP board for updates on Block Verse
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Philip
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Posted: 29th Nov 2005 00:10
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Populous eh?

Excellent idea for a DBPro game. I entirely encourage you to continue with this project.

In fact, odd that you should mention it, after Entropy is released my next game is going to be a homage to Peter Molyneux's genius entitled "Omnipotence". Based on my standard eternal development cycle, I confidentally predict that the alpha will hit this WIP forum in late November 3560 AD.

Although I'm contemplating accelerating the cycle a bit by skimping on a few things.

Philip

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
RiiDii: "I highly recommend Philip's vector tutorials"
P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
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Azrael
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Posted: 30th Nov 2005 14:40
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Yeah Populous!
I really like this game. Hope you'll finish it!

Keep on working!
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Math89
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Posted: 30th Nov 2005 15:03
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Nice start man but loading is too long and game too slow (17 fps ).
You should use clone/instance object to load your trees.
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 30th Nov 2005 15:19
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Cloning object will save the loading time, but not the FPS. Instance object is definitely the way to go for objects that will remain themselves unchanged during the course of the game, like trees. You can still rotate and move them, hide them, whatever. They just share many other properties of the original object.

BTW, the game looks really good.


Pong y2k.5 - Balls of Steel, Beta http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=60999&b=8
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crighton
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Posted: 30th Nov 2005 17:45
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hay all and thanks, i am really excited and motivated by this project, everything seems to just fall into place at the moment.
Although my modelling and graphical skills are not upto scratch for it. But i shall proceed anyway.


Cash Curtis II & Math89, just started looking into that avenue.
Trouble is i cant clone animated objects(well on my machine anyway).
took the animation of the swaying tree's out so i can clone them, the houses the people make are all cloned.

Math89, i dont know why ur getting 17fps, with a screen full of men and houses(tent - castle im getting 70+fps). Only when the amount of people hits about 400 then it starts to slow down.(going back thru ai and making faster smarter routines just about everytime i open the project.)

Anyway, Status of project so far.
wandering/roaming is done.
finding suitable land to build, and build best fitting abode is done.
lifting/lowering land on a houses block evicts them.
wander too long and they die.
mana systems almost perfect. bigger the house the more mana it produces, the smaller the house the faster another person is spawned.

hmmmm.... and a few other bits and pieces are done, but again its 4 am, work soon, so i better sleep.

thanks again all, I appreciate the input.
cheers crighton


aye!
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 1st Dec 2005 02:34
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Very, Very nice. Long like Populous

Too bad you're getting rid ot the tree swaying, though. That was pretty awesome.

Could you do something about the blue space to spice it up when you get around to graphics, though?


Check the WIP board for updates on Block Verse
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crighton
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Posted: 1st Dec 2005 02:46
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Bizar Guy, That has me stumped at the moment, i was thinking of making a sky box and putting the camera in it so the whole area is incased in sky, or just a side scrolling texture plain at the back of the game area.

If you could come up with some idea's i would love to hear them.
Also looking to make the buttons ect aswell soon, but not sure how they should run.(vertically under game area, or horizontaly).

As for the trees, I like the swaying better myself. Curious? if i make a memblock from an animated object, then make another mesh from it, will hold animation still?. something to try

cheers again
crighton


aye!
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Antidote
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Posted: 1st Dec 2005 03:19
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Well since Populous is about being a god and you have shamans and stuff why dont you make the background like a bunch of stars and galaxies and stuff. Move them around, put some 3d sphere mapped spheres in there. an occasional comet. basic eye candy kind of things.



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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 1st Dec 2005 03:49
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That's actualy a pretty good idea, Antidote.

The only thing to consider is will that make the game feel like it's always night?

Crighton, maybe you could add a day and night cycle background, so that during the day the background is moving clouds, and during the night it could be like antidote said.

Finally, I'd make the edges of the square of visibility fade into the background slightly, so that you actually forget all you're seeing is a small chunk of everything.

But those are all graphical details, so unless you want to work on that now, I'd save it until you're sound on all your game play mechanics.


Check the WIP board for updates on Block Verse
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ThomasFN
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2005 17:45 Edited at: 2nd Dec 2005 17:48
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populous? gimme gimme

like the graphics

as bizar guy says, get the gameplay going before little details

but i like the night & day thing

is that landscape a matrix? (can't run darkbasic at the mo - graphics card ain't workin' )

mebbe i could help out - with the interface

http://www.phpbbplanet.com/forum/?mforum=fortfn
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Halo Man
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2005 21:57 Edited at: 2nd Dec 2005 22:33
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Populous! I have to download this!


Used to be Earth Lord
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crighton
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 02:52
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ThomasFN ah yes and no its a memblock matrix, much faster to update changes to the tiles when ground data is altered. And any help you would like to offer would be appreciated.

Write now, im scrounging models from different sources, like poly count to get some more detail into the game and re-writing the code to clone objects(apparently cloning does work with animation, wierd), and a timer cache to release un used models if not used for ages ect.....

Bizar Guy, how would i fade the edges? I have been trying to come up with some sort of transition to hide the window. But not really having any good idea's. And the night and day thing is definatly goin to get tested, As a background, and the play area is on a plain thats a big space field, kinda like ur in a house in space and looking out the window and seeing a tiny bit of a planet.

Again thanks for the support and input, There may be another demo either today or tomorrow, depending on my tired brain(alcohol induced )and size of product.

cheers
crighton


aye!
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 05:40
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Hmm, maybe one of the shaders could help you fade the edges, or you could make a texture that fades to black at the edges, and use it to texture a plain underneadth the map, and then ghost that plain...


Check the WIP board for updates on Block Verse
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crighton
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 11:28
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hay.
No demo yet
but here's the latest screen shot. Yes background is sucky
back later.



aye!

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Math89
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 12:07
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You can change the alpha of each vertex you want and use set object transparency. You have to change the vertex color but not with rgb
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crighton
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 14:08
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Math89 thanks, but will that work with a completed object made from a mesh?

I mean this is a memblock matrix, u build it then turn it into 1 complete object. Im not sure if u can change a part of a object can you?

But i have been thinking along those lines, if i made the matrix out of poly's and not made a mesh and controlled each poly individually, i would have more controll(well maybe faster) over every single vertex. And every one could be change to a specific alpha level ect......

Hmmmm...... mind wanders again

keep em coming........

right now im working on the enemy!!!




aye!
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Math89
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Posted: 3rd Dec 2005 15:33
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Yes, you can, you just have to know if a vertex is on the limit.
You can do the same thing without using the vertxdata commands, memblocks can do it.
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Halo Man
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Posted: 4th Dec 2005 14:27
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Is there going to be a demo soon?


Current Project: Battlegrounds I
Lines of Code: 76
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crighton
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Posted: 5th Dec 2005 18:03
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Halo Man , I was going to but i have hit a big snag at the moment, im currently cloning everything and all is fine until u reach to many characters and houses(mainly characters though) loaded.

Seems when u load in about 40-60 600+poly characters u suffer a big performance hit. Now thats fine, So, I'm currently trying to teach myself how to make a super low Poly model(i mean less than 50-100 if possible) and animate it. But, Im not having very much luck.
Now i know this sounds like, "uuurk that will look crap", but they are tiny on the screen, and u would not notice that until u hit first person mode and get down amongst the people, oooops did i say that out loud?.
Oh well, its out now, u can hit 'c'(later it will be a button) and join ur worshippers at ground level. And this is when i will use a higher poly model.
So, if any one has an exceptionaly low poly char and would like to share, I would love to borrow 1, Also i shall keep struggling to make 1.


Oh and a new screen shot. And dont get to excited about the sky yet,
thats only in '1st person mode'. still havent figured out the 'edit mode' background yet.

cheers
crighton


aye!

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Kangaroo2 BETA2
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Posted: 6th Dec 2005 17:58
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Populous was a very cool game, played it a lot and this looks to be a cooool version of it Keep it up


Details here:http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=66053&b=8
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 6th Dec 2005 19:50
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The lack of poly's shouldn't matter, look at Age of Empires 3

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120...
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UFO
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 00:13
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I like it! When I raised the land under the tent, it got buried

Good job!
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crighton
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 03:43
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ok,.......

Here is the new demo, i was hoping to have a lot more going on ingame b4 releasing a new one, But this model problem has slowed the process down alot.

Right now only a max of 50 men can be used on screen at any time.
tree swaying is off for now, testing speed difference with 'instance' instead of 'clone'.(none really so far)

2 spells have been made, nothing spectacular.
'U' - like in first populous "Volcano" or something, not sure what it was called
'I' - Flatten, hit this to make a square section flat.(only works with raise for now)
'M' - boost mana reserves(test purposes only)
'c' - will take u to 1st person mode in the center of the map. cant move or build, but u can look around. press it again to return to edit mode.

max population limit is 500. You will notice total deaths and births start flying near 350-500 mark, ignore it.

Oh....... sorry for the rar, zip would not compress it small enough to post.


And....... thats about it.

aye!

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UFO
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 01:39
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Cool. The people look cool. I have some suggestions:

*Ability to move in fp mode.
*It loads alot quicker now, but during the game it is really slow. In the town that was build, it took forever to move through it by scrolling.
*It doesn't detect keys very well.
*The flatten thing doesn't work well either. It should use the height of the area below the cursor when you first press I and give that height to all the tiles below it after you move it around.

Good progress!
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crighton
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 11:53 Edited at: 9th Dec 2005 11:56
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UFO, yeah thanks, the speed issue is a big problem at the moment, well was.

I had a video card problem today b4 work when i tryed something new, i start the demo after making the changes and bang. system froze then wouldnt boot up.

got home after work and pulled out my vid card, ripped the fan off, and gave it a good clean out, whacked it back in and system is running again. But...., in the process, db(or xp) decided there was to much code in the file and delete half of it. Opened the backup file and it was the same, so now im struggling to get it running again.


but, back to the speed issue, i noticed when i built the land, no matter what size with a memblock matrix, fps sat on 75 at full throttle, then slowed to 30 and less with 500 pop, then when enemy's were running around as well, it slowed to 5. so im currently in the process of trying to find a much better way of keeping this detail and keeping fps high. If you have any idea's, i would love to hear them.

the current engine uses a matrix(memblock) of
30*30 tiles
and a size of 1620.

At the moment im trying the regular matrix again to see what i can achieve.

anyway. back to the regular boards to figure this out.

cheers all

crighton


edit*****
ps. i fixed the model slowdown issue aswell b4 it done this. i used plains and textured them with the animation, instead of animating a high/medium poly char. worked extremly well and u couldnt tell that it was only 2d characters


aye!
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Halo Man
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Posted: 11th Dec 2005 01:51
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Good luck on this! You're doing really good


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BearCDPOLD
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Posted: 13th Dec 2005 05:04
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Dude this is aewsome. In my 6th grade math alp class we could screw around once we finished our homework, and the whole school had macs. Somebody donated a bunch of games to our math teacher, and the only good one was Populous. We'd spend so long figuring it out (no manual was included ), and made progress each day, little by little. Awesomeness.


I'm going to eat you!
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crighton
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Posted: 17th Dec 2005 11:57
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Hi again,
sorry for the no reply, but after i lost most the data my interenet was turned off and i moved house, now im back online and all settled in.

The project isnt dead, i have managed to get it running again, and doin the enemy at the moment.

Anyway, just a quick screen to show progress so far.

cheers
crighton



PS.
As u will notice, these are rolf anims from ps2 for those who remember phantasy star at all. which reminds me.

Is any 1 interested in doin some graphics for me, the character animations for good and evil.
They should include:
walking in all 4 directions (left, right, up and down)
standing still and waving and/or bowing
fighting -> good fight left, evil fight right(face left and right)
being turned to ash.
show their skeleton
and anything else u may think it may need

something along the lines of 32*64 or their abouts. And amount of frames dont matter, as long as good and evil are same amount.

Any way i hope this request isnt goin to get this topic booted, just thought id ask while i was here.

cheers

aye!

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MMORPG programs
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Posted: 29th Dec 2005 04:43
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It seems like i'm the only one having this problem. It keeps saying- memblock position out of range at line 535.

santah my god, theyre real! *santa faints*
red m&m:oh my god, hes real!*m&m faints*
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