Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Work in Progress / Clearside - Third Person Shooter / Action-Adventure RPG

Author
Message
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 19th Jun 2010 21:40 Edited at: 25th Aug 2010 03:56


DEMO VERSIONS:
June 20, 2010: Demo #1 (It is possible to obtain a green shirt in the first level if you know where to look...)

VIDEOS:
July 13,2010: Battle Simulation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-A5-0yF4HM


Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I posted something on here, and after taking several on and off breaks from DBPro I'm back. Clearside is a Third Person Shooter/Action-Adventure RPG game which Videoboy45 and I have been working on for over a year (on and off, mostly off until recently) about a boy from a sunny village called Ashton Town. The game features special guns called "Blaster Gloves" which allow the wearer to shoot pulses from his hands. Two gloves can be worn at once, so the player can mix and match his weapons as he sees fit. The coding of the game engine is very well on its way (over 12,000 lines of code) and we have just started to implement the actual storyline of the game.

Levels Done so Far: 5.75

Here are some of the major features; I've probably forgotten to mention some things:

FEATURES:
As of 6/23/10:
- Slow motion kills.
- Changed some controls.
As of 6/20/10:
-Cinematics/Cutscenes
-Inventory/Equipment System (Clothes, Hats, Blaster Gloves, MISC)
-Putting on Hats, Clothes and Blaster Gloves changes your character's appearance.
-Item effects (ex. increased health, increased rate of fire, etc.)
-Enemy/Ally/Neutral Computer AI
-Combat
-Unit/Camera Waypoint System
-Flexible Scripting System Using LUA
-Player Name/Skin Color selection (The GUI for this is temporary at the moment)
-Varied Objectives
-Customized Bloom Shader
-Stencil Shadows
-Anisotropic Filtering
-Explosion Particle System
-3D Sound System
-Bullet Particle System
-Cartoon Shading

FUTURE PLANS:
-A wide variety of different levels, including stealth, assassination, battles with allies and enemies, puzzles, etc.
-Development of the storyline.
-More items.
-More unique blaster gloves.


And here are some screenshots (Click on the small ones for higher resolution):

FEATURED SCREENSHOT:
Clearside Blaster Glove Research Lab:


Screenshot from the opening cinematic:


And another:


Me looking at some villager from Ashton Town:


Another:


Talking to a villager:


More screenshots:
















CREDITS:


Please comment, suggestions are welcome


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!
seppgirty
FPSC Developer
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Jul 2009
Location: pittsburgh, pa.
Posted: 20th Jun 2010 03:21
looks good, i like the simple cartoony graphics. maybe add a full screen toon shader to it....

can't wait for the demo

gamer, lover, filmmaker
JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 20th Jun 2010 03:44
Heh, very cool style. I like the graphics how they are.

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 20th Jun 2010 18:41 Edited at: 20th Jun 2010 20:25
Thanks for the comments!

@seppgirty: Thanks I was thinking about adding a cartoon shader, but I've already added bloom and I don't want to make the game laggy (I'm also not entirely sure how to run two fullscreen shaders at once). Plus some of the later worlds may lend themselves to a more serious tone than cartoon shaders allow.

@Josh Mooney: Thanks, I'm happy my lack of modelling skills turned out okay .

Anyway, expect a demo later on today!

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 20th Jun 2010 20:18 Edited at: 20th Jun 2010 20:55
--------------------------------

DEMO #1 IS READY!!!

---------------------------------


As promised, here it is . It features the first 2 levels (I may add other people just walking around in the second level, I'm not sure yet). Also, you can change the resolution and turn shaders off in the Settings.ini file if needed.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. After you choose your skin color the mouse will disappear. THIS MEANS THAT IT IS LOADING, the game is not frozen. If the mouse is still there then click your skin color again.

In the first level you can get a new shirt if you talk to a certain villager

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE DEMO (Mediafire)

pictionaryjr
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 12th Mar 2009
Location:
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 00:16
Did you make all the textures and what not yourself?

JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 01:33 Edited at: 21st Jun 2010 01:34
Pretty cool game. The cut-scenes are nicely paced and not to long or short. The graphics work well with the game play.

Only two crits, when you click to shoot the camera zooms in and it screws me up a bit. I think instead of locking on to an enemy when you hit shift, you should just go into gun mode, with cursor. Then hitting shift will go back to normal zoom. I tried shooting both weapons rapidly and the camera went insane.

In the second level the guards keep one hitting me. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong, lol.

Fun time nonetheless.

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 03:24 Edited at: 21st Jun 2010 03:32
@pictionaryjr: Oops I'd forgotten to include that in the credits . All of the textures on the people were done by Videoboy45 and me, but most of the world textures so far have come from DarkBasic, DarkMatter or CG Textures.

@Josh Mooney: Thanks for the comments and for trying it out . As for the camera problems, I kind of like the idea of locking on because it helps when dealing with NPCs (and sometimes its difficult to aim FPS style). You make a good point though, and that's a cool solution. Perhaps I could combine your idea with the one already in place. LEFT SHIFT would remain lock on, but the camera would not zoom automatically when you shot. If you pressed Q or E, the camera would zoom in on that side of the character, and pressing that key again would zoom out again. While zoomed in the two crosshairs would show up. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I had been grappling with the issue of not being able to aim before you shoot, and I think this new method could work .
On a side note, did you experience any lag after shooting? For some reason this keeps happening to me and I've got no idea why.
As for the second level:


JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 04:16 Edited at: 21st Jun 2010 04:26
No lag when I shoot. Actually I experienced no slow downs throughout the whole game.

I'll try a new approach to the guards. I knew it was something simple, just sometimes I get trigger happy.

lol! I get past the guards and then...

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 05:05 Edited at: 21st Jun 2010 05:06
Quote: "No lag when I shoot. Actually I experienced no slow downs throughout the whole game. "


That's a good sign!

Quote: "sometimes I get trigger happy."


Don't worry, there should be plenty of time for that if things don't lag .

And yes, sorry to disappoint but I haven't made anything past that point yet .


I just realized I forgot to uncomment some code for the second level... It still works but there's one less way to lose. My bad. It's not super important; I'll make sure to put it in the next demo.

tiresius
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Nov 2002
Location: MA USA
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 06:22
This is very nice. I liked it. The fact that you've made the people Weeble-like with spheres for hands means there is a better chance this game will get finished! And that would be cool, indeed.

Nice smooth camera system, I can tell you put a lot of effort into it. Especially nice with the cut scenes.

The scale of the levels are a little off. At least that big corridor and steps at the end are huge.

I'm interested in the scripting you have done. Can you share one of the scripts, what it looks like, and how it is implemented in your engine?

Looking forward to more from this project!


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 16:26 Edited at: 21st Jun 2010 16:28
Thanks . Concerning the scale, it is something I've noticed as well (yes, the stairs are huge lol). While it would be a nuisance to change that level now, it is a problem that is going to be addressed in future levels.

The LUA scripting system was actually inspired in part by the Warcraft III World Editor trigger system. Basically the game engine code features a bunch of functions that are meant to be accessed from LUA (but some are used in other parts of the engine). Every world/unit/item file is actually a LUA script. For example, in addition to a bunch of data labels (i.e. modelfile="Worlds/blahblah.dbo" or scale=1.0) each world file also features two functions: startworld() and loopworld(). Startworld() is run when the world is first loaded, and it allows me to trigger any lighting effects, create the sky/sun, give orders to units, anything the functions defined in the engine allow. Loopworld() takes a parameter and returns the same parameter called "phase", which can be used to tell which "stage" or "phase" the world is in. It runs every loop. Since the LUA variables are local and would just be reset to 0 the next time the function is called, this "phase" variable is used to decide which scripts should be run and which shouldn't, depending on how far into the level the player is. For example, the first cinematic of the second level runs when phase=0. Once the cinematic is all planned out (the cinematics operate on a planned basis rather than a real-time one), phase is set to 1 and once the cinematic is over the phase is set to 2. When the phase is 2, all of the gameplay elements are executed instead. When the second cinematic triggers, phase is set to 3. Since the world scripts operate in this manner, they can end up becoming quite long.

The units operate in a similar way. They feature a loadunit() function and a loopunit() function. Loopunit also takes a "phase" parameter. A simple example of this in action would be the Ashton Town Villager. Here is a portion his script; his face/skin color are randomly selected in the loadunit() function, and the things he says are randomly selected from a list when you talk to him. msg[] contains the messages, while dur[] tells how long they are on the screen for. All of the DBPro functions begin with "FL_" (from LUA) and are called using the LUA plugin's DBPro.Call function. The functions are registered with help from IanM's Matrix1 function pointer commands.



The "entities" are placed in an Entity Editor. This is a level editor of sorts, and allows me to place the player start location, NPCs, enemies, allies, points (cameras pan to these points during the cutscenes), or scriptboxes that trigger a certain script when the player enters them. Thus, every unit has an entity from whence it came .

The "dofile" commands at the top are like #include files. These other files feature useful scripts (shortcuts, really) for common procedures like pointing one unit at another.

The GlobalVariable commands are members of a custom global variable system, since you can't (or, I don't think you can) make global variables in LUA.

Basically, all of the scripts have avaliable to them the same broad range of commands, which allows for very flexible level design and unique items. That might not have been the best explanation so if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them.

Gingerkid Jack
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th May 2005
Location: UK
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 20:34
Playing your demo it reminded me of why games design is something I want to work in. It reminds me of the games like spyro I played when I was young which made me fall in love with game making. Thanks and it looks great.

Gingerkid Jack - Aspiring Game Designer\3d Modeler
Satchmo
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th May 2005
Location:
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 22:13
Pretty solid so far, levels are a bit plain but otherwise good. I agree with the comments about scaling but it's not that big of an issue. The engine itself is very impressive, particularly the camera system, and it would look even better with a toon shader. One problem I had was the ending where you followed Andrew, I think there should be some objects you could hide behind in that long hallway. Overall it's very good however I'd like to see more of it .

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 21st Jun 2010 23:42 Edited at: 22nd Jun 2010 00:07
@Gingerkid Jack: I'm glad you liked it . I used to play Spyro all the time it was one of my favorite games when I was younger.

@Satchmo: Thanks . Yes the levels are plain but I haven't really gone out to find models before. I guess I don't know where to look . As for the second level, I didn't want to make it too hard since its only the second level. I gave Andrew a very short sight range . I also couldn't really think of anything that would go in that hallway. Perhaps a desk? Idk. But that's a good point and I will (and tell Videoboy45 to) keep that in mind when designing later levels.

As for the cartoon shader... So far two people have brought it up . I'm reconsidering it now, but one of my problems is that I'm already running a bloom shader which I'd like to keep and I'm not sure if running two fullscreen shaders at the same time is very good for FPS; especially since I haven't tested any levels with fight scenes yet, which could lag. I found a simple cartoon shader but that one doesn't allow for different light colors and I can't apply it to my world models. I have the DarkShader one, but so far I haven't gotten it working.

When you say toon shader, do you mean the black outline, the cell shading, or both?

Also, if anyone knows of a good toon shader I'm all ears.

Satchmo
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th May 2005
Location:
Posted: 22nd Jun 2010 00:00
Both.

For the hallway, perhaps a few trash cans or benches or plants, even if it doesn't seem realistic(I.E. hiding behind a plant wouldn't really work in real life), it still adds some more fun to the game.

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 22nd Jun 2010 00:23 Edited at: 22nd Jun 2010 00:24
I'll consider adding the plants and stuff, although it wouldn't really help in this level. I'll probably make a level later on where you have to hide. Also, if I can find a cartoon shader I might add it, but I'm still a little on the fence about

A quick update:
-Game now goes into brief slow motion whenever you deliver the killing blow on an on-screen enemy.
-New Q/E zoom controls have been implemented. You can now aim before you shoot.
-Shooting enemies while hiding behind a wall will cause them to look in your direction for a moment, and then look around. They will not notice you directly unless you shoot them while they are looking around or if this has happened several times. Enemies must see your body in order to see you; they will not notice your hand poking out from behind a corner. If this happens to one enemy in a group, then all of the enemies in the group will begin looking around as well. This should allow for stealthy assassination levels.
-Work has begun on the third level of the game.

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 23rd Jun 2010 18:23
Okay, here are some new screenshots of the third level so far. It's an interactive cinematic where you have to answer the questions properly (you are being interrogated) "or else" (you get killed).

Here's a screenshot of the first question being asked by that guy in the blue window:


And here's a screenshot of the answers you can choose:


I don't plan on making this interrogation very long; it is mainly being used as a vehicle to advance the story.

JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 23rd Jun 2010 19:41
Great atmosphere. Any chance to see some gruesome deaths if you answer wrong?

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 23rd Jun 2010 20:42 Edited at: 23rd Jun 2010 23:08
Thanks. Lol, right now you just get shot at by a guard .

Dark Dragon
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Jun 2007
Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 24th Jun 2010 23:31
Lol, amazing, simply amazing.

I like the camera, the bullet particles give a cool feel. The Blaster glove idea is really unique, and quite nice. I like the feel of this game! Nice, keep up the good work, dude! This game rivals Dego on the fun factor.

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 25th Jun 2010 03:17 Edited at: 25th Jun 2010 03:18
Thanks for the compliments! I only hope the bullets don't lag the game later on.

Quote: "This game rivals Dego on the fun factor."

Yay! I've played the demo, Dego is quite a fun game.

Quick Update:
-The interrogation level is complete!
-The camera shakes when you take damage (I'll probably change it to shake only when you take large amounts of damage relative to your maximum health.)

Neuro Fuzzy
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Jun 2007
Location:
Posted: 27th Jun 2010 08:49


I love to see a game like this! It reminds me of LOZ or old RPGS on mah n64. Very very nice.
playing through the demo right now.


Is't life, I ask, is't even prudence, to bore thyself and bore thy students?
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 27th Jun 2010 18:30 Edited at: 27th Jun 2010 18:57
Thanks . The lock on system was actually inspired by LOZ .



IMPORTANT NOTICE:
I will be away for the next two weeks and will thus be unable to work on the game. This does NOT mean that I am quitting. I will continue working on the game when I get back.

Plotinus
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Mar 2009
Location:
Posted: 28th Jun 2010 13:47
This looks interesting - I'll give it a go!

Just one tiny point first - it's spelled "all right", not "alright". (Very common mistake though.)
JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 28th Jun 2010 16:08
Actually that is not entirely true.

On topic: A break is good, you may suddenly come up with an incredible idea to add to the game.

Dark Dragon
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Jun 2007
Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 28th Jun 2010 18:17
Have fun while away.

Kryogenik
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2009
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Posted: 28th Jun 2010 20:05
Quote: "Actually that is not entirely true."

Actually, that definition says that "all right" is more formal/correct and that "alright" is less formal. So it is sort of goes either way like you said, not entirely true. Sorry to be a grammar troll, anyway

I played the demo. The lighting and bloom is really nice, how do you get those shadows? Set Object Shadow Shading (I think thats the commands name) or a shader? You can see square like shadows on the characters, circled in this pic. But other than that, its pretty cool. I couldn't figure out how to equip the gloves, but I'm probably just being stupid. I don't understand the character models, but they do complement the toon theme. Thats just my 2 cents.

cout<<"I'm learning C++, and this is all I know \n"

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 11th Jul 2010 19:30 Edited at: 11th Jul 2010 19:45
Well, I'm back

@Plotinus: I've seen it spelled both ways, I didn't know there was a preferred spelling

@Josh Mooney: No incredible ideas yet, but we've got plans for the next few levels

@Dark Dragon: Thanks, I did!

@Kryogenik: Thanks for playing the demo .
The shadows were done with SET SHADOW SHADING ON. As for the squares, I noticed those too. However, the only way I can think of to get rid of them would be to use a different shadow shader (I believe the one DBPro uses is vertex based, so the only way to get rid of the squares would be to add more verticies to the models which would increase loading time and decrease FPS). It's annoying, but I think the shadows are worth the trouble.
Was it confusing? Maybe I should add a tooltip... Anyway, all you have to do is click on the gloves in the list on the left, and then click on one of the item slots in the list on the right. Gloves can only be equipped to the LEFT or RIGHT blaster slots.
As for the character models, they are very simple because I'm horrible at 3D modeling . That was my first animated model; I made it in 3D canvas. The model is easy to draw faces/items for so I decided to use it for the game.



@Everyone: The next few levels are going to be some training simulations with platforming and bot battles

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 13th Jul 2010 19:11 Edited at: 13th Jul 2010 19:12
Okay, it's update time . I'm almost done with the battle simulation level (it's part of your training). It will basically be a deathmatch where you gain points for kills and lose points for being killed. You have to get a certain number of points to win. The red bots are against you and the green ones help you. I have a VIDEO of it and some NEW SCREENSHOTS!. You can see the slow motion kills in the video

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-A5-0yF4HM









Tom J
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Aug 2005
Location: Essex, England
Posted: 13th Jul 2010 22:16
This looks absolutely great! I like how the characters look, and more than anything how much atmosphere you got into that demo when the player was in the city following the blue guy (forgot his name), I actually felt quite tense following him.

All fine, although when I played the demo, the main character (i.e. me) was invisible in the conversation with the blue guy, which was a bit confusing, hehe Not exactly sure why that happened.

Will there be more character customisation later on? With the characters being fairly straightforward I'm sure other stuff like shirt colour and hair could go down well. Actually, I noticed the player had a guard shirt on in that video too, if that was expanded upon it could be a nice feature.
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 13th Jul 2010 22:49 Edited at: 13th Jul 2010 22:52
Thanks for taking the time to play and comment!

Quote: "I like how the characters look, and more than anything how much atmosphere you got into that demo when the player was in the city following the blue guy (forgot his name), I actually felt quite tense following him."

Thanks . Do you think that level needs people walking around on the streets, or is the emptiness good? Also, I was actually considering changing the character model to this, but I'd need to see how it looked in-game first.

Quote: "All fine, although when I played the demo, the main character (i.e. me) was invisible in the conversation with the blue guy, which was a bit confusing, hehe Not exactly sure why that happened."

The main character was invisible during one of the cinematics?? Which one, the one in the house or the one with the dummies? Did he re-appear when you could play again? The blue guy's name was Andrew btw lol.

Quote: "Will there be more character customisation later on? With the characters being fairly straightforward I'm sure other stuff like shirt colour and hair could go down well. Actually, I noticed the player had a guard shirt on in that video too, if that was expanded upon it could be a nice feature. "


It's already done, for the most part . Right now there is an item system that allows you to change your shirt, headgear and blaster gloves. I recently separated the hair and face textures and have already added the functionality to change them in the game. I haven't made any of the realcharacter customization menus yet, but I plan on allowing the user to customize their hair, face and skin color when creating their character. I might allow the player to select some clothing and headgear to start with, but I'm not sure yet.

Quote: "I noticed the player had a guard shirt on in that video "

Lol yeah, I didn't feel like wearing that white shirt. Plus I'm probably going to make that guard shirt give you extra health . The sunglasses won't be there though.



Has anyone found the hidden green shirt in Ashton Town (the first level in the demo)?

Tom J
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Aug 2005
Location: Essex, England
Posted: 14th Jul 2010 02:15 Edited at: 14th Jul 2010 02:16
Quote: "Do you think that level needs people walking around on the streets, or is the emptiness good?"


I think the emptiness suits the scene well actually Making the place deserted makes it feel more like you are somewhere out of bounds where you shouldn't really be, and also having nobody around is kind of eery, adds to mystery of what Andrew is up to, because he's clearly up to something when nobody is around. The scene could do perhaps with some props like litter or something like that to make the place seem more inhabited though, in my opinion.

Quote: "
The main character was invisible during one of the cinematics?? Which one, the one in the house or the one with the dummies? Did he re-appear when you could play again? The blue guy's name was Andrew btw lol."


It was the scene in the house. I just rewatched it again, and because I wasn't observant enough first time round I realised that the player wasn't invisible, but he was positioned outside the house on the path instead. During most of the movie though he was either off camera or hidden behind a wall so I didn't notice that. I just figured he was invisible because the camera kept looking into an empty house Maybe the player is being repositioned too early or something? It seems to be something wrong with only my computer

Quote: "
Has anyone found the hidden green shirt in Ashton Town (the first level in the demo)?"


Hehe, found it on the second go I just had. Green is certainly much more fashionable than those old fashioned brown shirts

What you have planned for the customisation sounds cool too, personally I don't mind having limited control over the player at the start, because half of the fun of a game is often unlocking new stuff to play with later... in this case the shirts and headgear and all of that stuff.
C0wbox
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Jun 2006
Location: 0,50,-150
Posted: 14th Jul 2010 03:19
Well, for some reason I kept ignoring this WIP (I don't know why) but I decided I'd try it out just now and although what I saw was promising, there were some issues.

The very first thing I noticed was that the movement was exceedingly fast/jerky (too much so for my liking - he seemed to be running about 500mph )

Second, the camera was far too floppy, it detracted from what I was actually looking at that the camera was so far behind the player.

Third, well, don't take this one personally but I hate bloom. - In any game, so that's a matter of personal opinion to the game designer.

Fourth, I met with the guy at the end of the road and started doing what he said, then I got to the inventory screen, and equipped my gloves. I saw back button or any obvious way to close the inventory so I pressed escape (generic button to close whatever is foremost in the GUI) but it closed the game.

So yeah, I didn't get any further than equipping the gloves. - I got the green shirt though !

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 14th Jul 2010 03:43 Edited at: 14th Jul 2010 05:04
@Tom J:
Quote: "he was positioned outside the house on the path instead"

That's very odd. I just played the demo and he's in the house for me . Maybe it's something with my timer based movement. Was he outside on the path in front of the house near where Andrew was standing or was he behind the house? Also, was the game running smoothly for you? What kind of FPS were you getting?

Quote: "The scene could do perhaps with some props like litter or something like that to make the place seem more inhabited though, in my opinion."

I'll consider adding some street signs or something, if I can find them

Thanks for your comments

@C0wbox:
Quote: "The very first thing I noticed was that the movement was exceedingly fast/jerky (too much so for my liking - he seemed to be running about 500mph )"

That's strange, it runs very smoothly over here. Did the movement seem faster on your computer than it was in the video? What kind of FPS were you getting?

Quote: "Second, the camera was far too floppy, it detracted from what I was actually looking at that the camera was so far behind the player."

Was the camera farther away than it is in this picture? And what do you mean by "floppy"? Was the mouse too sensetive?


Quote: "Third, well, don't take this one personally but I hate bloom. - In any game, so that's a matter of personal opinion to the game designer."

Lol, I love bloom as long as it's not abused . There will be an option to turn it off though. You can already turn it off if you open the Settings.ini file.

Quote: "then I got to the inventory screen, and equipped my gloves. I saw back button or any obvious way to close the inventory so I pressed escape (generic button to close whatever is foremost in the GUI) but it closed the game. "

It said "Use the MOUSE to move through the menu and use the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON to select an option. Use the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON to go back." at the top of the screen . Maybe I should make that a little clearer somehow. When I finish the game I'll probably disable the escapekey and make escape go back as well.

Thanks for playing and commenting though, I can't tell if those first 2 problems were computer related or not. Worst comes to worst it could come down to the way I did timer based movement... Maybe I can interpolate it somehow. Anyway let me know what FPS you were getting, how your observations compare to the video, etc.

C0wbox
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Jun 2006
Location: 0,50,-150
Posted: 14th Jul 2010 05:22
@ Sixty Squares
As far as I'm aware I was getting 59/60 FPS.

But I mean the game was still playable and felt like it was meant to be that way, I just didn't like how fast the player moved and how slow the camera was at following it (when I use commands like set camera to follow I only have the smoothing at about 5 or so, otherwise it gets silly)

Ah, if there was a way off the inventory menu I apologise, I was kinda ignoring the instructions because I like to play games and use my intuition to control them. xD (Intuition told me as well that I should be using leftmouse or E or something to talk to people, not right shift (as well as escape to exit menus))

Tom J
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Aug 2005
Location: Essex, England
Posted: 15th Jul 2010 14:29
I'm getting between 30 and 40 FPS, on my laptop with Vista. The game was running smoothly though. And yeah, the player was on the path near to where Andrew first arrives. I'll attach a picture...

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 16th Jul 2010 00:12 Edited at: 16th Jul 2010 00:50
@C0wbox:
Quote: "But I mean the game was still playable and felt like it was meant to be that way, I just didn't like how fast the player moved and how slow the camera was at following it (when I use commands like set camera to follow I only have the smoothing at about 5 or so, otherwise it gets silly)"


Was the camera lagging very far behind the player, or did it look just like the video? I didn't think the player was moving too fast, but I guess everyone's different :S

As for the menu, I know the controls are a little wierd but I use escape to quit out. Maybe I'll disable it before I release demo versions in the future. The E key is already in use and the mouse shoots, so I figured RIGHT SHIFT was okay for talking. But you are right, the mouse would be easier if the game wasn't a shooter

@Tom J: Wow, that is very strange. I get around the same FPS but I'm running XP. I really have no idea what could be wrong, but it could be the time based movement. I'll look into it if this problem starts popping up even more.

@Everyone: Well, after lots of trial and error and a little bit of shader research I managed to modify a cartoon shader to be affected by sunlight and ambient light! Clearside now uses Cartoon Shading on the character models. It was too difficult to implement on the lightmapped worlds so I left them as they were. You guys were right though, I think it looks nice

(Larger image is attached)

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Dr Tank
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Apr 2009
Location: Southampton, UK
Posted: 22nd Jul 2010 05:16
You've some nice effects in this. Looking at the video, your levels look pretty with the lightmapping, and the explosions look good.

The demo plays at what feels like the right speed, although the framerate is about 20fps, and the vaseline effect doesn't help. Think my machine is slower than average though.

Controls and collision work. You should allow diagonal movement with WASD and cap the camera elevation. At the mo you can go over the top or underneath the player and turn the camera upside down.

Anyway I can see a lot of work has gone into this. Tweak a few things and it'll be super.
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 22nd Jul 2010 23:40 Edited at: 22nd Jul 2010 23:41
Quote: "You've some nice effects in this. Looking at the video, your levels look pretty with the lightmapping, and the explosions look good."


Thanks

Quote: "The demo plays at what feels like the right speed, although the framerate is about 20fps, and the vaseline effect doesn't help. "


Hm. It runs at around 30fps for me. There is timer based movement, so it probably runs at about the same speed at 60 fps. If it's too glitchy you can turn off the bloom shader and shadows in the settings file. Also, what is the "vaseline effect"?

Quote: "Controls and collision work. You should allow diagonal movement with WASD and cap the camera elevation. At the mo you can go over the top or underneath the player and turn the camera upside down."


Already done since the demo

Quote: "Anyway I can see a lot of work has gone into this. Tweak a few things and it'll be super. "


Thanks for your feedback!


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!
Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 24th Jul 2010 15:51 Edited at: 24th Jul 2010 15:56
Updates!

Hello all. I'm not sure if anyone is still following this, but I'm here with a few updates nonetheless . I'm halfway through the level after the interrogation room (the battle scene in the video I posted was 3 levels ahead of it). The setting is a laboratory:



Also, a few minor updates were made. I encountered c0wbox's issue with the jerkiness when I loaded a level that ran at 60 fps. It was a problem with my timer based movement, so I averaged it out and now things run a little more smoothly. I also ran into Tom J's issue on a different level, where some of the enemies were spawning out of place. I believe this also had to do with the timer based movement, for there was a massive lag at the start of each level. Some units would shoot off to who knows where . But I think that issue is fixed now. I also decreased the smoothness of the camera, since it got out of control when I made the player move at high speeds. Good idea C0wbox

The level that is 2 levels after the interrogation room is pretty much complete except for a few lightmap issues-- it is a platforming simulation where you have to jump.


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!
JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 25th Jul 2010 03:18
Looking good! Any chance you read my email?

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 25th Jul 2010 20:58
Thanks . I did get it and I responded just now.


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!
leo877
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Mar 2008
Location: san antonio, tx
Posted: 29th Jul 2010 10:26
great game demo. nice work. i like ur little wobbles looking guys don't change them. the other characters look cool too.

i saw what plug in you, do you also use dark ai and dark physics.


OldPMan
TGC Store Seller
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 29th Jul 2010 12:47
Original idea. Really hard to aim when shooting.

.....already beside..... for all
JLMoondog
Moderator
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Jan 2009
Location: Paradox
Posted: 2nd Aug 2010 07:30 Edited at: 2nd Aug 2010 07:30
Did you get my last email?

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 2nd Aug 2010 19:21
Hi everyone, sorry for the delayed responses, I was away again.

@leo877: Thanks . The game doesn't use DarkPhysics or DarkAI.

@RUSSIA: Thanks. The characters move pretty quickly which can make aiming difficult. But I have added crosshairs so that should help . Plus you can always lock onto an enemy by pressing LEFT SHIFT. Then you won't miss unless the enemy moves.

@Josh Mooney: I haven't checked my email since the 26th, I'll respond now


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!
Zyronagon
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Mar 2008
Location: USA
Posted: 8th Aug 2010 23:55
Aw, I was really looking forward to this demo, it looks cool. Unfortunately, it won't run under Windows 7 64 bit...
Blobby 101
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 17th Jun 2006
Location: England, UK
Posted: 9th Aug 2010 12:23
@Zyronagon? - That's odd cos I have Win7 64 and i cold run the demo fine :S

Sixty Squares
17
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere in the world
Posted: 9th Aug 2010 17:17 Edited at: 9th Aug 2010 17:26
@Zyronagon: Hmmm... Do you have the latest DirectX installed? I don't have any Windows 7 computers so I can't test it for myself. But blobby 101 said it worked for him . Try updating DirectX if you haven't already, maybe that will work.

@Everyone: Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've been working on some shader stuff as well as a very small test project for the shaders, which is now becoming a small game. I'll post it in the Program Announcements board soon, and then get back to work on Clearside


Guns, cinematics, stealth, items and more!

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-03-29 10:02:57
Your offset time is: 2024-03-29 10:02:57