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Work in Progress / Exodos

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Chris Tate
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Posted: 18th Mar 2016 18:11 Edited at: 18th Mar 2016 18:23
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Following on from my last post this afternoon.

Quote: "Even with todays low latency and all, is it going to be viable? Will i be able to exchange data between 2 remote players at least 30 times per second, idealy 60 times?"


Sometimes. You are not going to get consistency throughout.

As for an example, I doubt your swedish players will be complaining since some of them have 1GB per second download speed with their suppior ISPs... Actually a few of them have 10GB per second

If those people complaining about latency happen to live in the UK, then you can pretty much take that with a grain of salt. The internet access available in the UK is extremely bad and over priced, lots of games have latency problems over here. Possibly one of reasons we do not have many professional multiplayer video gamers.
Quote: "
Competitive gaming has been big business for years in places like South Korea and the US, where superstar players earn hundreds of thousands of pounds.
But there aren't many Brits among those top earners, and the boss of one team has told Newsbeat that Britain is still "lagging behind" when it comes to e-sports."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/27975313/can-more-british-people-become-professional-gamers

As for the others with perfect internet and low latency in the fighting games; think about this from another perspective and ask did the developers have a choice not to bother with multiplayer?

Even if there are issues, is it viable to not practice, perfect and master multiplayer programming if you want to enter into the fighter game market? Only you can answer that. It is your talent, not mine. I am just thinking out loud, I do know a thing or two about the general gaming industry, and can deal with multiplayer programming side of things. (It is what I do)

So what I would say is, you are not going to experience a plain sailing, easy peasy implentation of multiplayer as a service. And we have not even mentioned hackers and cheaters yet.

In line with Ortu's point about early planning, for you, the earliest point for planning is right now. It will not get easier to restructure your code the longer it is allowed to expand without considering multiplayer support.

Don't worry about the how? I will help you with that. Just worry about the 'what', what do you want. A great offline game, online one or both. Do you want to be dealing with online cheaters, hackers trying to dDos your player's machines via their IP addresses? Do you want to deal with inevitable complaints about latency? Do you want to manage user accounts and moderate racist chat rooms, ban players from joining games? Spend time moderating players instead of focusing on designing your nice characters and next storyline. Consider the big picture before making the decision.

All the technical stuff can be explained as we go. There is no point talking about UDP and TCP, if you do not want to deal with the ugly side of multiplayer as a service. This might not be your style. Personally, I am willing to deal with that stuff because what I am creating is fundamentally multiplayer in nature, so I know what to expect. But you might not like it, if you think you won't like that type of work, just forget it and focus on making a great single player campaign and some nice offline battle modes.

So make the decision, multiplayer or not; does Exodos need it? and are you up for the up hill battle?

If you think it does, I will help make your multiplayer, at this rear moment that I have some spare time, might as well make the most out of it because when I release my game, that's it, I am going to be too busy to focus properly. So it is kind of now or never situation for me and you; unless you expect to find someone else to help you later in which case you could take your time. My goal would be to make the start and eventually make you able to hold your own and write your own networking code.
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Dimis
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2016 20:45
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Sorry again for the late reply, i should have taken more seriously the need for an online mode. I don't know anything about nerworking code and i don't know even how i should install such a feature in my program now, so i would appreciate any help on this. But for the beginning i should at least know the basic concept before getting into more technical things. How could this game work online? I don't know how professional fighting games work online.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2016 21:29
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Don't feel bad about it; this is good news because we are at this phase prior to you releasing the game, and out of luck I have some time to help; it would be worse if it were released without considering this issue if my prediction comes true.

I can't talk about how to make it work here, the number one rule about Fight Club is to not talk about Fight Club. lol. Jokes aside, the quote from the movie is a good principle regarding the structure of your multiplayer network; it has to be kept secret because hackers and cheaters will farm information about the networking of the game if it becomes successful, in order to produce cheats, hacks and in the worst case extortion. Things may never go so bad, but if it did in the early stage it would upset the players and would make the game famous for the wrong reasons.

So if anyone asks anything about the multiplayer features, don't tell them anything, or in the worst case don't tell them much.

I can only discuss the basics and the obvious nature of the multiplayer and the plugins which is so obvious for hackers that it really does not tell them anything they do not already know.

I will go into more detail in an email or PM; just let me know what means of contact to use.

Decide how you want me to help; I can either write the code seperately for you to use; or you can grant me access to your source code. I do not need to be given access to your source code in order to make this work, but it would get done faster that way. Sharing your source code may not be desirable so I working seperately is fine; I wouldn't share my own source code myself so I'd understand if you want to play your cards close to the chest.

The multiplayer will work using one of the multiplayer plugins by TGC, preferably Dark NET. Matrix1 utilities and the XML plugin by Madbit would be a bonus, because these will make the task easier.

The way the multiplayer works is it shares the variables and events in your game accross the network so that other players can control the characters through such shared variables. The details of this can be discussed via your desired means of communication.

Do you have any ideas of how you want players to meet up? Lobby System? League? Match making?

Give me a rough idea of how your UI works; is it sprite based? Is the mouse used to click through the menus? This is important for enabling players to meet up.

Is the AI working? Do you have something permanent in place or is there nothing concrete yet? This is generally seperate from the multiplayer in fighting games, but is this true in the case of Exodos? Are there any special modes, like coop PvE? If there is likely to be any form of AI functionality in the online game then I'll need to know sooner rather than later; and can help make AI if need be.







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Ortu
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2016 23:08 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2016 23:37
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The biggest shift in design that you may need to make depending on how you're code is set up, is the handling and response to input.

Basically, in multiplayer, you don't want a keypress to directly cause an action, you want a keypress to request an action by setting a variable/state and have actions execute based on those states.

You can then transmit the state data between players to sync and reproduce the same actions across clients.

The cool thing though is you can hook this in to your AI as well and have the same character update handle all characters local, remote, and npc. The update only needs the state data, doesn't care how the data is set or where it comes from.
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Dimis
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2016 22:19
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Is there something wrong with the forum's site? I didn't receive any of your replies in my mail. First time this happens since i joined, i just browsed the forum and show your replies.
Anyway, i think that my program is correctly configured, it doesn't use mouse input, but i can change that, no joystick or key press causes a direct action, every assigned key or joystick button sets a corresponding boolean to true, my program reads the booleans and does the appropriate actions, both in the game and the menu screens. I suppose that this is good for the online mode.
The AI is working, but it will need more "training", this is something that will require feedback from players. I don't think that the AI is needed for the online play. My biggest mistake is that i haven't joined any online game to see how they work, so i haven't thought of the way i want the online mode to work in my game. Something i should do this weekend.
About sharing the source code, i don't know if this is going to help really, my program is every programmer's nightmare, a big barely commented pile of code, of course i know what every line does, it is all in my head, sometimes i am afraid that i will bang my head somewhere, forget about the program and i will have no idea what i have been writing all these years.
So we should continue the talk privately. What should we use? Something with instant chatting, i use facebook all the time, is there something better? Due to a national holiday i will have a lot of spare time this friday to saturday.
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Ortu
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Posted: 24th Mar 2016 00:58
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Sounds like you are in good shape to add in multiplayer, I'm no expert but I'm happy to help if you need anything.

I have to say though, I still think I would leave this to later and stay focused on finishing the single player mode.

You are far enough in I don't believe it will be any easier to add it in now, nor harder to add it in later.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 24th Mar 2016 04:23
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Cool.

I do not need access to the source code if you feel I would not understand it.

I will write the multiplayer and you can continue with what you are doing or what you were going to do with the single player; let's aim to give the players a complete package. I will PM you my email address so we can discuss the details.
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Dimis
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Posted: 24th Mar 2016 20:23 Edited at: 24th Mar 2016 20:25
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Ok again no replies show in my mailbox as if my mailback is deactivated, does anyone else have the same problem or is it just me?

Chris, we will continue via emails, but before we continue i want to know a couple of things, i am indeed a dinosaur when it comes to network programming and the entire architecture behind it.
So how is the game supposed to run online? In the most realistic scenario we have 2 players fighting each other, no team battles or something more advanced. Is the game supposed to run on both computers, just on one, is it going to need a server, (something that i cannot afford for) or something else?
In the case where the game runs on 2 computers separately , where those 2 computers exchange boolean values (player's keystrokes, etc) through the network, it will be very hard to keep everything synchronized, right? The game relies on instant fast actions, if both players choose to play in 60fps then the data between those computers will have to be exchanged 60 times /sec. Even 1 frame delay could ruin gameplay. I mean, an action performed on 1 computer, a jump a punch, or whatever, if it starts with 1 to more frames delayed on the other computer, this will un-synchronize everything. Or the game will have to wait for the other computer's input in every loop? In that case, it will be extremely slow, i doubt that i could even program and test it with my local connection speeds. Maybe my logic is totally wrong here and there is a work around that, you guys know better this is why i am asking.

If that is something that should be discussed privately then it is cool, but i think that this is just general stuff.
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Ortu
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Posted: 24th Mar 2016 22:10 Edited at: 24th Mar 2016 22:12
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You will likely want a peer to peer setup where one player acts as host to the other. This will be cheapest and least complicated on your end and had fewer issues with scalability. You will still need some method to allow players to find each other / online match making, this can be handled by a relatively cheap web server without needing to get into pricey game server options.

The down side to this setup however, is that anyone hosting a game needs to know how to configure port forwarding on thier router to get the connections working. Issues with this configuration is not really a problem of the game, but players will often blame them on the game when they encounter them. Magicka uses this sort of multiplayer and suffers from this problem.

Timing and synchronization is definitely a complex issue, the typical solution involves client side prediction. Valve wrote an interesting article on this regarding counter strike some years ago, I'll see if I can dig it up, but there should be plenty of info on the googles in general.

Fortunately, a 1v1 fighting game isn't going to have a ton of network traffic nor will it need to transmit large amounts of data. Packet transmission and processing shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Latency is largely out of your control aside from accounting for it in the synchronization.
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Dimis
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Posted: 24th Mar 2016 22:54
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I start to feel that it might not worth the extra effort. I don't know if i should add something that might have a negative impact on the game, i would rather leave it as it is. Besides i will probably get a lot of emails complaining about stuff that i will not know how to fix or to advise users what to do.
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Ortu
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Posted: 25th Mar 2016 01:01
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Not meaning to discourage you man, multiplayer is awesome if you can get it in, and Chris knows what he is doing. Really just trying to answer your questions on how it works in a general sense.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 25th Mar 2016 01:39 Edited at: 25th Mar 2016 02:05
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I mentioned latency being inevitable in my previous post. Indeed, latency is a problem for all WAN multiplayer games, not only fighting games

Optimization, prediction code as Ortu highlighted; compression, qualitative and quantitative constraints, interpolation, well orchestrated use of boolean op codes...

Let me just put it this way; It requires work, work, work; working smart with clever multiplayer game design; there is no magic formula.

I strongly bellieve It is best to stick with what you feel motiviated and comfortable with putting in your game. Life is too short, do not let my curiosities, beliefs and methods distract you; no body knows your idea better than you. I would not want to volunteer to be a fulltime motivator, that's not what I want to be spending my time doing.

The good thing about independant game making is we all get to make great original works based on our visions according to our research, creativity and experience. Trust your vision, if you see in your mind players posting reddit posts and sending you email complaints about latency being a problem, then you should very definately stay away from multiplayer, because even the million dollar corporations have to deal with that. Complaints are like another day in the office.

Let's change the subject now, that's enough of me discussing this subject.



New topic. fighter game joysticks. Do you intend to make them work with Exodos? Are they recognized as regular gamepads in DBP? I noticed after watching fighter games over the years that the hardcore players use these instead of gamepads or keyboards.
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Dimis
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Posted: 25th Mar 2016 14:05
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Ortu I am not discouraged, i am just trying to be realistic. No multiplayer at all is better than bad multiplayer, in my opinion. My concern is that i don't know if dbpro can handle it. Are there any published games that use multiplayer successfully, made with dbpro? And if there are, do they have fast paced action, or are they designed from the beginning to work for multiplayer, having pre-calculated the inevitable latency? For example in my case if am receiving data from the other online player in an average of 20 times per second, then the game is not going to be fun at all, more likely to be annoying. As i mentioned before the PC version of Mortal Kombat X suffers from many online issues, but still, it is Mortal Kombat X, an awesome game, someone might overlook the online issues and just focus on the game.

So i am thinking that i will open another chapter that will add a lot of extra work. I think i will follow Ortu's advice and first complete the game offline and leave the multiplayer for later.

Still, since Chris you offered to help with this, at least we can do some work so that i can test the possibilities before excluding something, it might not be impossible to make it work, no matter my concerns . I will send you later what you have asked me in the pm.

The peer to peer seems to be the reasonable way to work. Now, suppose the host does all the work, receiving the data from the guest, what is it supposed to send back? I suppose images of the action, like a video stream, or data such as object positions, animation frames etc? The second thing will be too complicated.

Now about the other subject.

Oh yes the fighting joysticks! I hate them. I hated them since the days of the arcades. I just can't do any special attacks with this type of controller without having my character jumping all the time around. I always preferred cross pads joysticks, it just seems easier for me to use my thumbs only. So i don't have one, i don't know if they work with Dbpro. Maybe i should buy one.
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Ortu
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Posted: 25th Mar 2016 17:53 Edited at: 25th Mar 2016 17:54
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The host would send back is own data/action states for the guest to reproduce as well as any error corrections to the guests data.

You absolutely do not want to stream images, these will be slow to transmit and process and don't tell the guest anything about what the host player is doing.

Basically both players will send essentially the same data back and forth: the info needed to reproduce the players actions on the other machine, but one player, the host needs to be authoritative and has to be able to override the other (guest) in case of conflict / discrepancy In the data, and needs to make decisions on if an ability hits, how much damage it does etc.

In peer to peer, having this authority on a player machine does expose the game to greater risk of cheating.

Bigger companies often prefer to run client server setup in which the server operated by the company handles all authoritative decisions for all players which among other things, helps reduce cheating by limiting what data players have access to and what they can do with it.
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Dimis
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Posted: 25th Mar 2016 18:30
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Yeah, i suppose transmitting images will be slower, the other solution seems more reasonable, it is going to be an overload of extra work and tests. Something to take under consideration, besides the possible latency issues. But it is going to be a cool feature if i can add it. How else am i going to play against you guys,it might take some time before i visit Texas or London.
So before i actually add something in the game, i should at least complete the gameplay and the engine. My decision to make the game as i originally wanted, based more on weapon combat, took me a few steps back. But i think that now the game starts to build a more unique character, also there are not many fighting games that use mostly weapons out there. Now i have many new ideas to make the game more unique, like weapon selection, or weapon attributes and powers selection. I don't know if i will have the time to expand the gameplay as much as i want.
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Ortu
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Posted: 26th Mar 2016 16:11 Edited at: 26th Mar 2016 16:15
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Sounds good man, looking forward to seeing more cool weapon fights.

I certainly know what you mean by needing to step back on order to move forward, I've been rewriting my engine from the ground up (again! ) always with the same basic principals but ever refining it. It can be frustrating to have to go back, but it's always exciting when it is finished and running better and smoother than ever with cool new capabilities.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 26th Mar 2016 22:15
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I also prefer playing on gamepads, but must admit they do make my fingers get tired.
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Dimis
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Posted: 29th Mar 2016 21:17
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So this week i will be preparing some screenshots and short videos to share on social media. I am curious to see what the indie game development community will say about this game.
Another thing i have left at side is the demo. A small playable demo should be next on my plans.

Gamepads are making my fingers get tired too, but i find it easier to control my characters, special moves mostly. I remember back in the arcades for example that i couldn't do Ken's Dragon Punch any time that i wanted. Most of the times my character was doing an uppercut or shooting his projectile. Some half circle motion attacks were hard to do, the things were easier with Mortal Kombat, because it had easier controls. But after i bought those games for my super nintendo console i found it easier to control the characters with the gamepads.
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Ortu
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Posted: 29th Mar 2016 22:01
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You don't see many indie fighting game projects, there will always be some negative people, but I think you will find a lot of positive enthusiasm overall
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Dimis
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Posted: 29th Mar 2016 22:10
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Yes there is a lot of pointless negativity on the internet, but i could get some useful feedback from a community of developers. I will not show the game to hardcore fighting gamers.
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Dimis
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2016 01:00
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Updates.
So I made Deimos's older half-helmet , a complete helmet resembling ancient greek army helmets. So should it be for his primary look, or for an alternative look? I started to like it for his main. Also i changed his older weapon with a war hammer.

Deimos's older weapon, the double axe, seemed to suit better the Minotaur. The double axe was a symbol for the ancient citizens of the island Crete, the Minotaur was also from Crete, so he gets the double axe thingy.

Now i decided to call this finally character Medusa, there's no reason not to use her actual name. Instead of the direct light beam, she uses a projectile attack that temporarily petrifies the opponent. The light beam now is just a visual effect, the projectile hits the opponent only.
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Dimis
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Posted: 8th Apr 2016 11:44 Edited at: 8th Apr 2016 11:45
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Testing new weapon combat animations. This is a AI fight. I need to re-write the defense code, it has become quite a mesh. Right now the AI plays very defensively and doesn't counterattack at the right moment. One of the things i want to do, is make the AI attack in more unpredictable patterns, if that is possible.
The combat is not complete, there are more things to be added next.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 24th Apr 2016 23:47
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Nice looking scene you got there. Really fast like MKX. Aparently there are a number of free capture tools out there which perform better than Fraps; this is a rumour so do not take my word for it.
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Ortu
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Posted: 27th Apr 2016 02:40
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Huh, never saw the post with that new video until Chris replied...

Looks so good man, this project really is a testament to what dbpro is capable of in the hands of a talented and determined developer.

The animation is smooth and the hits have a good solid feeling of weight and force.
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Dimis
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Posted: 2nd May 2016 09:23
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Thank you guys!
Here's a new background that i have been working on the last days, the Elysian Fields.

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hakimfullmetal
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Posted: 2nd May 2016 14:55
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Sell this on Steam already. If you're still adding stuff then release it as Early Access or something
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Ortu
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Posted: 20th May 2016 04:45 Edited at: 20th May 2016 04:46
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Hey Dimis, came across this in a thread on the DBpro board and thought you might be interested:

http://www.evolved-software.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=45&p=366#p366

Advanced Lighting in .dll form
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 22nd May 2016 16:22
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Quote: "Sell this on Steam already. If you're still adding stuff then release it as Early Access or something"


It will be quite refreshing to see a game like this on steam, although there are a lot of considerations.


@Dimis, the background looks cool; the effects have come a long way. If you do not mind me asking, how are you loading your character's clothes; as seperate objects or limbs?
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Dimis
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Posted: 25th May 2016 08:24
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@hakimfullmetal
I am thinking about trying Steam's early access, but only when i have something solid to show. I am not just adding things, pretty much everything is still under development. But i do feel that it is taking too long....

@Ortu
Thanks for that link! This will be a big boost concerning speed of development. Although i am not using the latest Adv lighting version. I guess i will have to do some extra work to use the dll, i don't know how many things have changed in the latest versions.

@Chris Tate
Now the reason i didn't use the actual cloth object is this. There is an annoying issue when using bone animated models. Recently i realized that the only way to get accurate results when trying to get a limb's position, is to have the bone animated object render to any camera first. Otherwise the results you extract from the limb commands, are from the previous frame, not the current frame. So all limb positions will only be updated, for the current frame, only when they render to a camera. I didn't know that when i was trying to attach a cloth to a character. The cloth always seemed to be 1 frame behind. I guess all i had to do to fix that was to update physics after rendering the characters to a camera.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 26th Jun 2016 10:12
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where there is a will there is a way. It is a shame about the limb latency issue; I find the limb functions to be quite a disappointment. I am dealing with a little fighting animations myself for a few scenes of conflict and some fighting scenarios and have runned some tests with the Enhanced Animations plugin which so far has not been a bad investment, but I'll see how it goes. I imagine you have already tried it or have it implemented already.

Prior to release you also have the option of showcasing your game as a concept in the steam concepts section; from what I have seen so far it is a decent way to get some attention before making your release. When you release you product, your popularity will have an initial peak in the first few weeks or months, then it goes down quite rapidly; not to mention you also need people to post good reviews. To make the most of that peak it makes sense to get as many people ready to remember your game and track its progress before hand.
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Dimis
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Posted: 6th Aug 2016 11:15
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It's been a while again since the last update. Just wanted to show some gameplay progress. I recently added multi - hit auto combos that utilize the special energy bar.

Now it's time for the beach.





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The Slayer
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Posted: 9th Aug 2016 16:41
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Been following this project for quite some time, and I'm really hoping to see this finished, Dimis!

It's good to see such dedication and talent, and it being done in DBPro makes it even better!

Are you close to a state where you're ready to publish?

Cheers!
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Aug 2016 21:35
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I like the latest animation effects and character lighting.
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Dimis
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Posted: 13th Oct 2016 17:21
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Greetings everyone.

@ Slayer, Chris Tate,

I was sure that i replied mid August during my holidays, i suppose my reply didn't show up, probably due to the horrible connection that i had at the hotel i was staying, or i missed the reply button perhaps? I don't know.

I took a long break from the project, due to other obligations. Also i was getting tired working on the same things, over and over. So coming back, taking a more clear look at the project i saw things that i like and things that i dislike. There is room for improvements but not enough time to make them all.

So I am not ready to publish something yet, but i am working on it.

The programming is pretty much completed, so now i can work mostly with the gameplay and the graphics. I am not sure what to do about the sound. The sounds that i have are not enough for a game with multiple characters, powers, weapons, etc.

I am trying to improve graphics. My old geforce gtx260 graphics card recently died, and i replaced it with a newer graphics card. Apparently there have been some bugs or incompatibilities involving my old graphics card and the post processing effects included in the Advanced Lighting system, but with my new card everything works fine… almost. There is still a very annoying bug that i can't determine the cause for it. When i use any post process effect like bloom, when the camera moves bellow or beyond some world coordinates, the display freezes. The game continues to run but the display remains frozen, until the camera moves back to a range that doesn't cause problems. For example everything works fine, when the camera is between -120 to +120 in the X axis as long as the Z position of the camera is close to 200, (the numbers are not precise). When the camera moves for example below -120 in the X axis the display freezes. But i want to use the bloom shader at least, so i need to fix this.

The gameplay is a mix of hand to hand with weapons combat. Each character has his/her own weapon. That type of gameplay has possibilities for future expansions. Perhaps i could add a weapon selection feature. Each character could be able to select a weapon, even of different type, something that could change his basic move sets and combos, perhaps attack speed or strength.

Also i am changing every character's look, adding more armor parts, that will be destructible, and i am replacing some of my initial background.

Here's a screeny of a new background, a door to the underworld.

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Ortu
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Posted: 13th Oct 2016 19:42
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I know exactly what you are describing with the camera. As best I can tell it happens in areas with no 'background' its hard to explain exactly, but it most often happens for me when the camera looks below or otherwise 'outside' of the terrain or sky.

It doesnt seem that you are using either terrain or sky, but I suspect it happens for you when there are 'empty' areas in camera view that none of your objects are covering.

If this is the case, wrapping everything into an enclosed sky box type object may fix it.


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Dimis
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Posted: 14th Oct 2016 07:18
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I did some tests Ortu, it is not related to the presence of objects on screen, but i think i found when it happens. As i can tell when the world coordinates 0,0,0 are outside of the screen, then the display freezes.

So it happens to your project too? That's interesting, i don't see this happening in the example projects. Perhaps i should ask Evolved at his forum? He is still working on Adv Lighting i think.
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Ortu
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Posted: 14th Oct 2016 16:58
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I've seen it happen off and on on a variety of advlighting projects, but only after I have messed something up or left something out as far as I can tell, not intermittenty on a normal, known good build.

Easiest way to reproduce it I think is to take a free flight camera, disable terrain collision and position the view half above half below, you will get freezing and streaking in the below half.

I've seen it come up when I have introduced errors into some of the .fx files, or misconfigured AL or display settings


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Dimis
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Posted: 14th Oct 2016 17:12
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Probably it has something to do with the display settings, as you mentioned. Evolved's projects always start in full desktop, i am not using the same settings. I will see if that's the problem in my case.
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 25th Oct 2016 20:57 Edited at: 25th Oct 2016 20:59
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I am not sure if the camera issue you are talking about is related to the issue with camera angles getting screwed up by what only god knows what. Not to assume you have not already tried it but it may be worth monitoring the angle of the camera when the problem occurs, if I remember correctly, using the X/Y/Z Rotate function (or was it Turn/Pitch Camera ), can cause issues at certain coordinates below or behind 0,0,0. I hope so because you can fix that problem by using Rotate Camera with WrapValue.
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Dimis
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Posted: 28th Oct 2016 00:18
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This problem is fixed. I replaced the Advl files and shaders with a newer version and the problem is gone, the post filters work nicely. But with a performance loss unfortunately.
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Dimis
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Posted: 4th Nov 2016 11:59 Edited at: 4th Nov 2016 12:01
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Ok something went right for a change! I attempted a core change in the project and it worked. Multiple characters, fighting at the same time is now a feature. This is something that can expand the gameplay creatively, adding team fights for example, or change entirely the game.
Here's a video of a little fighting chaos, it's everyone against anyone, each character uses AI.



More things need to be adjusted, more important thing is to adjust the distances between characters so they don't step on each other.
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Ortu
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Posted: 4th Nov 2016 17:50
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Neat, nice work man


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Dimis
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Posted: 7th Nov 2016 20:01
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Thanks! Actually i didn't expect to make it work but it does. I am thinking of adding the option of having team fight of 3 VS 3 fighters, not on the same time, this would be a mesh, but i can have the player switch between characters during a fight.

Actually i was working on something else at the same time, i needed to test some ideas i had in my head for a long time now. I wanted to see if the game could work as a platform side scroller game. I worked on collisions, interactible items, etc. It seems possible, but i don't know if it is a good idea to change the game that much, although having the adventure element implemented could make the game more interesting. Opinions?

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Ortu
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Posted: 7th Nov 2016 21:56
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Side scroller could be a fun spin off for your next game, I'd probably keep the scope limited to just the fighter for this one though in order to get it completed.


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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Nov 2016 19:02
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Team combat and multiple character combat seems intriguing. I look forward to seeing how well the game turns out.
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Dimis
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Posted: 29th Nov 2016 17:10
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The team fight feature seems a lot promising.
Actually i expected it would be harder to make it work, but it wasn't really that hard, most parts of my program where ready for such an upgrade from the beggining, so there were not so many bugs to deal with. But i had to rewrite a lot of code, for example the way collisions work, or the code that handles projectiles, now there can be multiple projectiles at the same time.

The only thing that is still buggy is the victory counting. Some times the program miscounts how many times every team's fighters have been knocked down, but i will fix it. Of course during stress testings more bugs will show up...

Another thing i should modify is the healthbars. Somehow the status of every fighter should be displayed during combat.

During the team combat, you can switch between characters at almost any moment, between combos or special attacks, i need some creative ideas to make use of the team fight system.

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hakimfullmetal
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Posted: 18th Dec 2016 10:07
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Make them as gory as possible
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Ortu
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Quote: "i need some creative ideas to make use of the team fight system."


You could add a tactical layer, allowing the player to issue 'squad command' type orders to adjust and control the AI behavior of the teammates not under direct control.

like 'be aggressive', 'be defensive', 'spread out', 'focus fire' etc
http://games.joshkirklin.com/sulium

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Dimis
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Posted: 10th Feb 2017 11:44
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Greetings

Two months for an update, is too long. I keep postponing my updates and time passes realy fast. I am turning 40 tomorrow, and i am in that kind of mood......

hakimfullmetal
Probably more violent, than gory, i don't have the time to turn the game into something as gory as mortal kombat for example, most likely i will add finishing moves that will make the opponent explode, those moves will be available when the player has a full rage bar.

Ortu
Good thinking. Something like that was a feuture in mortal kombat 9, in the team fight mode, it was possible to call the second character to jump in and execute a quick special attack. For now i have only added the ability, during the character swap, to have your next fighter enter the scene executing directly one of his special attacks. Even during a combo. A combo attack can include all available characters until completion.

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Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Feb 2017 17:13
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Happy Birthday; and welcome back. Hopefully you will be able to free up more spare time to focus on this game, it will be a great investment for return once released.
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