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 / PonyCraft : Tainted Skies

Author
Message
GLaDOS
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Jul 2009
Location: Italy
Posted: 22nd Dec 2012 20:20
Not a brony,but good job!

~GLaDOS
29 games
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 23rd Nov 2005
Location: not entirely sure
Posted: 23rd Dec 2012 00:15
Hmm, My Little Pony: Total War.

I'm not a brony either, I remember them from when they first came out, but this game does look good. It's a shame you couldn't get this to work with DBPro but that's just the way it is I suppose.

I wonder if Fallout will put a couple of ponies in Carnage Live, for target practice.

one of these days I'll come up with a better signature
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 27th Dec 2012 12:47 Edited at: 27th Dec 2012 12:47
lol, you should shoot Fallout an e-mail about it. I could supply the models if need be.

To anyone who is interested, I've started a blog : http://blankflankstudios.blogspot.ch/

I had no idea google also bought blogspot...

TheComet

Official PonyCraft blog : http://blankflankstudios.blogspot.ch/
darkvee
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Nov 2005
Location:
Posted: 8th Jan 2013 17:25 Edited at: 8th Jan 2013 17:31
Hi TheComet,

The game is coming along nicely. Is this Ogre c++ now? I been learning c++ using win32 api and directx. I have made some games with c++. I was wondering if you would consider me joining the team again. The reason you guys didn't need me was cause I didn't know c++. Well now I do.

I worked with a lib that is like Ogre. Except it's not just a 3d engine. I used sfml. It makes your life a lot easier to code then using c++ win32 or directx.

darkvee
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 31st Jan 2013 23:04 Edited at: 31st Jan 2013 23:37
PROTOTYPE IS RELEASED - DOWNLOAD IT NOW

PonyCraft_Prototype_x86
PonyCraft_Prototype_x64

Tips
*Press attack (hotkey: "T") and then click on the ground to target any enemies in that area
*Middle mouse button can pan the camera
*It's easier to look around by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen
*Use the hotkeys for commands (they are on top of the buttons)
*CTRL+<number> will create a control group. If you press <number>, you will select the units you added to the group again.

Well, I think I just finished the prototype. I'm done with DBP, aside from some very minor bug fix requests, I'm not going to develop this any further in DBP.

So please give this a test, tell me if the updater system works for you or not, and let me know your thoughts on the game so I can make it better in C++.

[EDIT] If your browser decides to open the link above as a text file and you get a huge amount of random characters, just press CTRL+S.

TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
"ZIP files are such a retarded format!" - Phaelax
Chris Tate
DBPro Master
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 1st Feb 2013 08:05
I played a few moments of it but died. It looks really cool. Runs at 4 fps on my old machine but that is why you are quitting DBP.

I still think this could run at 30 fps on my old AMD 3200 machine if a lot of the CPU processes were put into GPU shaders; but you are good with C++ so you are better off using a larger tool.

What will you do with all that source code? You should use it to make a couple small games for netbooks or something.

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 1st Feb 2013 13:46 Edited at: 1st Feb 2013 13:50
Thanks for trying it out Chris!

There are some balancing issues, let me just quickly fix some of those.

Quote: "What will you do with all that source code? You should use it to make a couple small games for netbooks or something."


The source will mainly be used to act as a bit of a template for the C++ version. Apart from that, it's become almost useless to me.

You can download it here if you're interested:

https://bitbucket.org/TheComet/ponycraft-prototype

If for whatever reason you want to improve the source code, it's quite simple. Just get yourself git, install it, then open up the git bash terminal (I personally dislike the GUI version) and follow these steps:



TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
"ZIP files are such a retarded format!" - Phaelax
Humanoid
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 20th Sep 2003
Location: Finland
Posted: 1st Feb 2013 17:41
Exe has error: Could not load music at line 23287

^_^

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 1st Feb 2013 19:12 Edited at: 1st Feb 2013 19:29
@ Humanoid - Can you run a small test for me to help fix that bug? Can you make a very simple DBP project, copy the music file from PonyCraft in "media/music/music.mp3" into this project folder, and then use this code and tell me if it works?



If that throws the same error you're getting, try this instead:



Let me know what works.

Thanks,

TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
"ZIP files are such a retarded format!" - Phaelax
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 2nd Feb 2013 01:41
@ all

Balancing issues have been resolved. It should be much easier to play now.

TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
"ZIP files are such a retarded format!" - Phaelax
jlahtinen
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Oct 2009
Location: Finland
Posted: 12th Feb 2013 23:09
Be careful.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/09/unlicensed-my-little-pony-fighter-shut-down/
mr Handy
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Sep 2007
Location: out of TGC
Posted: 13th Feb 2013 09:38
That's because they are using registered characters, names, images. Howewer it is strange that Picture Perfect Pony is still alive (using of characters).

*** Merry Chuckmas! ***
Seppuku Arts
Moderator
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 15th Feb 2013 10:53
Had a go at playing this and I can see why you're trying a different engine, I was getting 5 fps on it, not sure exactly why it's so unoptimised. Nonetheless it's a good demo, can't wait to see what you come up with in ogre.

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 15th Feb 2013 13:18
@ jlahtinen - Thanks.

@ Sepp - Thanks for giving it a go! Did you end up finding the easter egg?

TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
"You're all wrong. You're all idiots." - Fluffy Rabbit
"Bottom line, people are retarded." - Fluffy Rabbit
mr Handy
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Sep 2007
Location: out of TGC
Posted: 15th Feb 2013 20:59 Edited at: 18th Feb 2013 13:25
*del*

*** Merry Chuckmas! ***
Chris Tate
DBPro Master
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 10th Apr 2013 17:04
Hows Pony C++ going? Any new screenshots?

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 11th Apr 2013 01:19
Thank you for your interest.

The project has been halted until the 18th April 2013 (because I have loads of other crap I need to get done).

I've assembled a team of 2 other programmers who will be helping, so that's good news. I'll start updating this thread again when we begin properly.

TheComet

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu is a hill
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a town
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is a lake
SamKM
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th May 2009
Location:
Posted: 19th May 2013 00:35
This looks AMAZING, I'd really love to test it, but when I open the files it freezes on 'Getting data for PonyCraft'
Best of luck with this, I'd love to see where it goes

[href][/href]
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 19th May 2013 00:56
Oh hey, you were unlucky enough to download it while I was updating it to a new version.

Everything should be stable now, give it another shot! I would love to hear your feedback.

Thanks Sergey K for hosting a website for the game. You can download it here: http://www.streamsniffer.com/Pony_Craft/pony_craft.html

TheComet


Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a Gift. That is why it is called "present".
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 19th May 2013 14:40
It's now on a news site.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/05/game-ponycraft-tainted-skies.html

TheComet


Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a Gift. That is why it is called "present".
Sergey K
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 19th May 2013 18:11
im the PonyCraft hoster, and i also the AdvUpdater creator wich TheComent used to store all the installation files in it.
when TheComet asked me to host the game for him, i never imagined there will be so large amount of people wanting to download and play it.
i was pretty amazed by that! i hosted the game about 12 hours ago, and i found out there was over 2000 visits to the website, 700 people who downloaded the game and about 615 who installed it completely and all of that for the last 12 hours.
i never imagined this game will be soo popular on the net.

@TheComet: THUMBS UP!

this game rocks! im looking forward to see the C++ version out of it. keep us in touch! and as always, it will be my honor to help you out in anything you need.

Advanced Updater for your games!
SamKM
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th May 2009
Location:
Posted: 21st May 2013 03:17 Edited at: 22nd May 2013 20:27
Yay, the download worked this time
This is amazing, Comet, you've done an awesome job with this!
Good luck with the development!

[href][/href]
dogboy357
10
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Jun 2013
Location: Im in your base... Stealing your muffins
Posted: 21st Jun 2013 19:52
Hey I just found this project about a week ago and I've noticed that there hasn't been many updates very recently...

Anyhow, this is an amazing project and i am very excited to see an RTS game featuring MLP. Everything looks great. Keep up the good work
TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 6th Jul 2013 02:27
Thanks for the nice comments!

Finally, my exams are over, and I've begun developing the C++ re-write together with another programmer. Updates can be followed on tumblr here, or in this thread.

Here's where the project stands right now.

1) Basic framework is down (input manager, render manager, game state manager)
2) I have learned a lot about Ogre3D and how to use it
3) I have brushed up on my C++ h4ckz0r sk1llz and am ready for some action

Here's a screen shot of a black render window. Time to fill it with stuff.



TheComet

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 9th Jul 2013 12:57




Alright! Material scripts are functional! Now it’s time to test the fur idea I had.

I want people who create games using this engine only have to share a single file when they want other people to play their game. For this, all assets are compressed into an archive, along with an XML script (see below). The XML script is what controls the game.

You can pack an infinite amount of missions (here: "scenario") into this file, with infinite types of units, scripts, music, etc. etc. The only limiting factor will be your graphics card and memory, and engine limitations.

It will also be possible to create games with multiple outcomes using this layout.

The parser I used for the XML file is the Boost::property_tree library. It was quite a pain to get working, because it’s not intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it’s very powerful.

Boost::property_tree sits on top of rapidxml. If you choose to interface rapidxml directly, the downsides are you lose a layer of abstraction, and you won’t be as flexible. The upsides are you’ll parse the files faster, and will use less memory.




http://www.xbdev.net/directx3dx/specialX/Fur/index.php

I was thinking about giving the ponies fur. We’re going for a more realistic style with this game, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

It’s quite heavy on performance, but the units are also far away, which will allow some corner-cutting and speed things up.

TheComet

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 11th Jul 2013 18:52 Edited at: 11th Jul 2013 18:56
Local bloom shader:




It uses the alpha channel of the diffuse texture to determine what parts of a mesh should glow and what parts shouldn't. In this case, I only wanted the horn to glow.

The models don't have to be rendered twice with the way I have it set up, rather, the bloom shader just samples the alpha channel of the rendered scene.

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 13th Jul 2013 02:31
Fur Test #1







I can tell you already that fur isn’t a good idea. It looks good up close (I’ll tweak the fur maps to fix some overlapping issues), but you can’t see the effect very well when looking from afar.

Speed? The effect is very expensive, and is going to have a horrific impact on performance when having more units on the screen.

Conclusion

I’ll play around with it a little more and try to combine it all into one shader.

If that doesn’t work, I can still use an LOD system to show fur only when zooming in close enough. This is probably what I’ll go with in the end, because Ogre is equipped with LOD in its material scripts anyway, so no additional C++ programming will be required.

TheComet

Ortu
DBPro Master
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Nov 2007
Location: Austin, TX
Posted: 13th Jul 2013 02:47
id defnately go with lod if you use the fur, really though i think the resources would be better spent on a hair shader for the manes and tails, wont need nearly as many strands as the body fur and they will read better at a distance.

Shazam!
Dar13
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 12th May 2008
Location: Microsoft VisualStudio 2010 Professional
Posted: 13th Jul 2013 23:30
Considering this is an RTS game (IIRC), I think removing the fur and doing better hair would be best.

And about the XML:
Personally I think you're taking the wrong approach when it comes to the XML. Parsing time(the lone saving grace of RapidXML) is inconsequential when factored into the grand scheme of loading art assets and such. And anyways, now you have to rely on you not messing up typing in the strings into Boost's Property Tree library, one more place a typo can screw you up but this time it'll crash your program entirely. And then there's the issue of serialization(you weren't going to make your players write XML were you?) which is a whole other can of worms.

I recommend CodeSynthesis XSD, a tool that binds an XML schema to a C++ class. I also used the Xerces-C++ library for serialization but you can do that through XSD instead of dealing directly with Xerces like I did.

Compare your code(posted in the Posting Competition):

To one that I could use with XSD:


I have no idea how Boost.PropertyTree is setup but it doesn't get much easier than how XSD handles it. Plus you get the compiler double checking to see if you made a mistake rather than relying on you typing in the string properly.

Just a recommendation, glad to see this project get back on its feet again.

WTLD has been put on indefinite hold.
A new project is under initial development now.

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-03-29 14:28:51
Your offset time is: 2024-03-29 14:28:51