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Work in Progress / WIP - Worlds Apart Online

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KISTech
16
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Joined: 8th Feb 2008
Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 18:43 Edited at: 3rd Apr 2009 18:47

Beta 6 is now available

This version is a complete rewrite of the entire WAO system. Making use of the full range of capabilities in DarkNet, I've switched the entire system over from a single server setup, to a multi-server realm solution.

At the moment there are 2 game servers attached to 1 master data server. (the realm server) Performance testing is needed to find out just how many users this system can handle, but I'm hoping to achieve up to 100 users per game server, and up to 3 game servers per realm.

Various graphics enhancements have been made to this version as well. The planets look better and some minor special effects have been added. The PhysX system has been removed due to performance issues, so the PhysX system software runtime is no longer required.

A dynamic object loading and unloading system has been created that now eliminates the long delay between zones. There is still a noticable delay of a second or two, but as the beta progresses the routines will be fine tuned, and hopefully the delay can be eliminated, or at least minimized.

A new artist has been hired, and we are very happy with his work. As new artwork is completed it will be incorporated into the beta releases.

That's it for now. I need testers so please if you have the time and the patience to suffer through a few bugs here and there, create an account, download the beta client, and let me know how it goes.

www.worldsapartonline.net

TechLord
21
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Location: TheGameDevStore.com
Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 19:38
Hi KISTech

I Joined up for the Beta, however, I didn't see any screenshots on the site. Just curious about what I'm getting myself into.

KISTech
16
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Joined: 8th Feb 2008
Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 20:54
I've been hesitant to post screenshots until some of the new artwork comes in, but I guess programmer art is better than nothing. (maybe..)

Here's a few I just took from the latest version.


Orbit screen showing contracts available at this planet.


An NPC AI controlled ship picking up a contract at this planet.


A view of Dakar, with Arcada in the background, and a very tiny Solana in between.


Solana.

zapakitul
17
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Joined: 1st Mar 2007
Location: In my world
Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 21:43
The game is nice, but it's kinda lonely and small having only a few planets out there. It should be filled with space stations and ships. I love the menu system, and the way you can control the ship. As a tip, maybe you should consider adding a "cockpit" in front of the camera like in X2. The game looks great, but i'm hopping for greater improvements. To bad that when i logged on i was the only one online (/who)
Serial Velocity
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 22:33 Edited at: 20th Apr 2009 20:28
Great progress so far

I really liked the new improved menus and sountrack. The planets most certainly look much better, now you need a nice shader effect for the atmosphere.

However it would be better if the the speed of the jump is increased because it just takes ages to travel to more distant planets. Also make sure you set the screen mode to the desktop resolution because it tends to look the best, but let the user configure it if it slows down the game.

Set Display Mode Desktop Width() , Desktop Height() , 32

If you HUD is made using paste image then this is going to create problems.

zapakitul
17
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Joined: 1st Mar 2007
Location: In my world
Posted: 3rd Apr 2009 22:44 Edited at: 3rd Apr 2009 22:45
I'm subscribing to what Serial Velocity said. If you pasted it using paste image hm... why not use a sprite, and scale it depending on the resolution. Keep us up to date with further improvements and btw, one question: Does my progress only gets saved when i log off, or is it saved real time?
KISTech
16
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 4th Apr 2009 01:03 Edited at: 4th Apr 2009 01:05
Quote: "Does my progress only gets saved when i log off, or is it saved real time?"


Player data is saved when you pick up or drop off a contract. The rest of the time the player data is updated on the main data server, but isn't saved until you log off. (or disconnect for whatever reason) I'm considering periodic updates just to make sure nothing is lost.

I actually use that code snippet already to calculate the aspect ratio for widescreen displays.

aspect = sw / sh
set camera aspect 0, aspect

I've been defaulting the resolution to 1024 x 768 x 32 though, but you guys are right. I need to do something different with the HUD images, as they are just pasted images. As the new artist churns out some of the new HUD elements I'll be using sprites and proper scaling.

Quote: "It should be filled with space stations and ships. "


Space Stations are coming, and are already a part of the program. I just don't have any good station models yet.

I would also love to see it filled with ships buzzing around and moving cargo everywhere. Then there's the pirates, and an alien race called the Vorashi. (all AI controlled) I really think LUA is going to be required here..

Go forth and spread the word. Testers are needed.

zapakitul
17
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Joined: 1st Mar 2007
Location: In my world
Posted: 4th Apr 2009 01:15
Question: Will it be possible to play as a pirate? Cause that would be awesome. And if you need models, maybe i will talk with my 3D Artist and see if he can lend you a hand while i'll be busy working on the physx part for our game. Anyway i will register on your forums and do a few hours of beta testing tomorrow! I really love the idea and i'm hopping of seeing this completed.
Grandma
18
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Joined: 26th Dec 2005
Location: Norway, Guiding the New World Order
Posted: 4th Apr 2009 11:39
Nice to see my name in the credits, but I'm thinking that won't last long. How's the hunt for original music going?

Bugs: I can press the [TAB] button when promted for login to skip lines or what ever is happening. Also when entering a login (any login), I get an error: "An error occured in mnSendTCP whilst executing. The cause of the error is unclear at line 33 of file ".\mnSend.cpp". Error code -1. Version "Release v1.1.2(25/03/09)".

Ignoring the error, I can still enter the menu, but that's about as far as I could go, so not much feedback to give yet.

This message was brought to you by Grandma industries.

Making yesterdays games, today!
Serial Velocity
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Posted: 4th Apr 2009 12:27 Edited at: 7th Apr 2009 12:29
@Grandma

Quote: "I get an error: "An error occured in mnSendTCP whilst executing. The cause of the error is unclear at line 33 of file ".mnSend.cpp". Error code -1. Version "Release v1.1.2(25/03/09)"."

I had that error before, i think this was because the server was down.

KISTech
16
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 4th Apr 2009 18:47
I've still got debug enabled for DarkNet in the servers. It seems a rogue UDP packet with a bad operation ID caused an error to pop up.

I'll go ahead and disable debug, and put some other error checking in on my own so the server will continue running.

DB PROgrammer
17
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Joined: 9th Feb 2007
Location: Nowhere But Everywhere
Posted: 6th Apr 2009 19:57
I'm having the same problem as Grandma, but it looks good so far


DBPro, limited by the programmer.
KISTech
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 7th Apr 2009 02:44 Edited at: 7th Apr 2009 02:45
The server has been up and down all day so I can fix the AI. The NPCs were just sitting in the middle of the sun.

I'm working on code now to handle those occurances when the server is unavailable, so there is a more coherent message, and it doesn't let you into places it shouldn't.

Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 7th Apr 2009 07:54
i ran it once and got a missing dll error, fixed that, then got this error

then it froze on the "Exiting login server" screen... and then i got the first error again, i'll keep trying to run it but right now it's looking dim...

cool screenies though!
KISTech
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 7th Apr 2009 18:44
Sorry about that. I had changed quite a few things around to bring in the new cargo ship, and forgot to change the default ship for new players. It was trying to load a model on the server that wasn't there anymore so the Master Data server crashed.

It's all better now.

Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 7th Apr 2009 20:15 Edited at: 7th Apr 2009 20:21
ooh, i think i was trying to log on while you were switching the servers on and off to get the npc problem fixed! sometimes it would be almost finished loading... and then get that error, and other times it'd show up immediately.

[edit] the same error's still popping up this morning. I think something that tells you if the server was down would be really handy
DB PROgrammer
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Posted: 7th Apr 2009 21:44 Edited at: 7th Apr 2009 21:45
Well I got to log on for the first time. I really had no idea what I was doing. Anyway, everything seemed to work fine until I flew by a planet at a high speed, I entered the planet and exited by pressing "L" but then I kept spinning around going slightly into the planet. I didn't know what was happining so I exited and then logged back in. I then got this error after a couple of seconds(once I was in the game)



Like I said, I didn't really know how to do anything so I couldn't test very much. But nice work so far.

PS: I saw you on it, lol!


DBPro, limited by the programmer.

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Michael P
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Location: London (UK)
Posted: 7th Apr 2009 22:06 Edited at: 7th Apr 2009 22:07
@ KISTech
I will give you some information on the DarkNet errors that may help you fix them.


This error is normally caused when you try to use mnSendTCP on an instance that is not active (mnStartServer, mnConnect or mnStartBroadcast have not been used or have been used and a subsequent mnClientConnected or mnFinish has deactivated them). In client state you should make sure that if mnClientConnected returns 0 you do not try to use the instance. v1.1.3 provides more useful error messages that will tell you if the instance is inactive.



This error occurs when there is not enough memory in the packet, so if you increase the packet's memory size the error should not occur.

KISTech
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 7th Apr 2009 23:58
Thanks for that.

I've seen the first error many times, but odd thing is the instance was still running, and the client was still connected. Clicking No several times (in 1 test I did) bypassed the error and everything continued.

I'll have to do some digging to see what caused the second error. There's only 1 or 2 places where I'm even using mn Add Int.

TechLord
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Location: TheGameDevStore.com
Posted: 10th Apr 2009 02:43
KISTech,

Looking real good. Just having some issues learning the controls.

KISTech
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 10th Apr 2009 18:05
Press F1 in game for help.

Right now there's an issue with the movement routines related to time based movement. I should have it sorted out soon, but don't be surprised if you get to a point where you can't turn your ship.

To get out of it, press M to pull up the map, select a planet, and press W for autopilot. It will turn you towards the planet and you should be able to continue from there. (until I get this fixed..)

TechLord
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Posted: 17th Apr 2009 17:28
KISTech, I really like the concept of a MMO First Person Space Shooter. I always wanted to work on a Space MMO so its very inspirational. I see enormous potential and would like to contribute something to the game when I get some spare time.

What is a good time (GMT), to catch you playing? Are you going to add more NPCs Ships, Asteroids, etc?

KISTech
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Location: Aloha, Oregon
Posted: 17th Apr 2009 19:49
There's a lot more to add. I have an artist working on ships at the moment.

I'm not really happy with the HUD elements at the moment. I just sort of threw them together for function so I could focus on getting the bulk of the gameplay written.

Right now there are 5 NPCs active. I have 195 more waiting on the sidelines for me to finish the AI that controls their jobs. The current NPCs are using the "Cargo Transport" job. That was one of the more difficult ones to write, and it's still not perfect.

NPC combat is going to be the one that really gets me though. How the combat works in the game will set the stage for much of the rest of the game. So I'm taking my time with that to really get it right.

I'm not sure what you would like to contribute, but I'm open to suggestions. I'm on the US West Coast, Pacific Time Zone. You can email me any time. Just remove the NOSPAM from the address in my email link.

TechLord
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Posted: 21st Apr 2009 10:59
Hey KISTech,

Believe or not, I'm very inspired by Worlds Apart Online. So inspired that I took a small break to outline some ideas for C O S M: A Concept for Inner-Space MORPG.

Quote: "Right now there are 5 NPCs active. I have 195 more waiting on the sidelines for me to finish the AI that controls their jobs. The current NPCs are using the "Cargo Transport" job. That was one of the more difficult ones to write, and it's still not perfect.[quote]What other AI Behaviors are you writting? Are you using DarkAI? Are you using a Scripting Language/Engine (ie LUA)?


[quote]I'm not sure what you would like to contribute, but I'm open to suggestions."
Neither am I - lol. I'm really not familiar with the Genre although the classic Asteroids is what inspired me to get into game development. I'm a programmer and I have plenty of game ideas. Perhaps if you provide more details on what, why, and how you developing parts of the game, I can offer something more useful.

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