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Work in Progress / Death Bed: Brand New FPS shots and updates :)

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 03:05 Edited at: 21st May 2004 03:06
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Hi guys, sorry the last thread got corrupted by the sqldatabase crash the other night So this thread is replacing it

For anyone who doesn't know what this project is yet, there's an introduction on the website http://www.deathbed.co.uk

Here's the latest screen shots, again, large versions on the site, under the blog.


Looking quite nice I think. These are shots from the space base/ship style levels. Tomorrow I'll be working on the outside levels, making different planet types etc. Hoping for some beach style Halo/ Far-cry stylings, Perhaps also some UT2003/4 style terrains. Any hew, updates again tomorrow.

Thanks for the continued interest everyone, and don't forget to vote in the poll and post in the shout-box at http://www.deathbed.co.uk

Cheers, Sam

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Ian T
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Posted: 21st May 2004 03:18
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Looking very nice, reminescent of Unreal in the pre-release days-- I really mean that as a compliment-- of course, the technology's better, but the atmosphere seems similar .

But about 10,000+ levels-- obviously you can't hand-craft that many... does it include random level possibilities? Isn't that a bit misleading ?

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 03:48
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"Looking very nice, reminescent of Unreal in the pre-release days-- I really mean that as a compliment-- of course, the technology's better, but the atmosphere seems similar"
Thank you! I take that as a huge compliment! Yes of course I've been hugely influenced by the style of the Unreal games. Strangely though the actual textures on this level are hand copied from some DoomIII screenshots I liked the look of. Obviously they are a lot brighter than the Doom ones though as this game will be closeer to Unreal's visual style.

"about 10,000+ levels-- obviously you can't hand-craft that many... does it include random level possibilities? Isn't that a bit misleading"

Lol second time someone's said this! Actually I AM planning on hand crafting that many I can make a level in about a minute of editting a text file using my level system Obviously some levels will be similar, but I'm planning many differences, and the possibilities are infinite

The levels will be based around 10 main graphical themes, its the themes that take the time. I already have over 400 maps I've made, but all using the same, underground theme I posted before. You could argue that there will only be around 2500 hand-made levels, as I am including the four difficulty settings in my count. Each level of difficulty has extra features and areas to the levels, hense in easy mode, many rooms will be not available, corridors blocked etc. You'll have to complete each difficulty setting to unlock the next

So, 10,000+ is not unrealistic. PLUS you add the random level generator, level editor, and the hopefully steady stream of mods and extra levels appearing on the website, and you've got a blumming HUGE game. I appreciate that this is graphically not gonna compete with HL2, Doom etc. but if I can make a playable game that people can never run out of new things to do with, I'll have done my job. Kinda like the old days of DOOM - man I had thousands of levels and mods for that

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Ian T
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Posted: 21st May 2004 05:35 Edited at: 21st May 2004 05:36
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Pretty neat . By the way, the gun effects are starting to look very cool. How many are you planning for the full version ?

This next bit might sound a bit critical, but I'm trying to look at it objectively .

If there's already going to be a random level generator, isn't that... a lot... of levels? I mean, at some point, it starts to drain from the experience instead of adding to it-- how are you going to individualy name 10,000 levels ? People get tired of a theme after a lot of variation in just fifteen or so different u2k3 levels that people spent many, many man-hours of work on, so I think it's safe to say that people wouldn't ever really want to play through half of 500 levels with one theme. In my experience, what FPS gamers really want is a moderatly large (~10 - ~50) amount of very well crafted unique levels. Now I'm not saying your levels aren't either, from what I've seen they look quite nice, but if you can make them in a minute, they surely can't have a ton to seperate one from another.

So, my recommendation would be to cut that down to 5 to 20 levels a theme and spend a while adding unique touches to each of them. Some big ones, some small ones, some with tons of weapons-- you get the idea. But that's just my take on the matter . Whatever path you choose, this looks to be one of the coolest DB projects ever .

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Underworld 1020
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Posted: 21st May 2004 05:57
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I was wondering what you use to make your levels and how do you get them to look so good. I have C Shop 4 and there is no way I could ever make something that good.

How do you do it?
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Arkheii
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Posted: 21st May 2004 06:26
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Very nice! I hope you can get the game to look like that even on my gf2 mx. And, you _have_ started optimizing, haven't you?

I had problems with the underwater area in the first beta. Maybe you could also have an option to disable some shaders?

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Chaos
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Posted: 21st May 2004 15:35
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Quote: "I can make a level in about a minute of editting a text file using my level system "


That must be some good text file system you got there. So am i right in saying that you load all your infomation for the levels from text files?? If so how big are the text file levels??

New screenies look very nice btw. Nice textures.

Chaos


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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 15:36
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Mouse : Thanks your comments are really helpful and thought-provoking.

As far as the number of levels go, you are absolutely right - to an extent. As you can see from the maps on the screenshots, each "level" as I can it is a 5 by 5 grid. These can contain many elements, including ramps, smaller rooms etc, and are quite large, but to run around every room at full pelt wouldn't take too long. The story mode has ten basic chapters planned at the moment. These chapters contain around 10 levels, although by some people's definitions, the actual chapter would count as a whole level, broken down into scenes, containing these smaller "levels".

There is an arcade mode too, which contains many levels getting progressively harder and harder, almost like in a classic top-down shooter such as Galaga. I can see no particular reaaon why this shouldn't have many levels getting subtley more difficult, to drive players further and further trying to get a high score. Similarly there is a survival mode like this too.

I see that many people are interested in the prospect in an RPG stats driven mode, this would have to involve a long game with many opportunities for battling etc to make it worth-while. It's certainly something that I'm interested in.

However, you are absolutely right in the sense that the story and deathmatch modes would benefit greatly from a few large, well planned out, varied, showcase-style maps. I'll work hard at this

"By the way, the gun effects are starting to look very cool. How many are you planning for the full version?"

Thank you! There's many more wepon effects, I just don't want to spoil things by posting them all yet, I'll wait until at least the next demo. There will be 6 guns to start off with, but 4 more are unlockable. Each gun has 2 firing modes, the primary is either single shot, or rapid fire. The secondary is either a projectile or a beam. The secondary rounds use only one "bullet" stat, but require charging between rounds. Some of the weapons will allow you to carry two at once, and in the extended modes, weapon elements can be combined, in a similar way to FFVII's materia system The last feature works really well, and as far as I'm aware, is unique to this game.

"Whatever path you choose, this looks to be one of the coolest DB projects ever."
Wow, high praise indeed Thank you. That's especially cool coming from yourself, I've often thought of you as a highly respectable member of these forums

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 15:49 Edited at: 21st May 2004 15:49
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Underworld 1020 : "I was wondering what you use to make your levels and how do you get them to look so good. I have C Shop 4 and there is no way I could ever make something that good."

Thank you But actually CartographyShop4 is perfectly capable of making these levels, Thats how I start them. Basically I build and texture the rooms seperately in Cartography Shop, lightmap them in Giles (Although once it supports dbo export, CShop would do almost as good a job) and then load, place, scale and rotate them in DBPro, via a simple text file containing the relevant data. The rooms are comparitively low poly, just made from simple primitives in CartShop, its the textures that make them look good. Although the textures too are nothing too special, I just make them in PaintShopPro.

[edit] Ahh just for you I'll upload a pic of the room in Cartography shop to show it can be done. This is before lightmapping is added

Doesn't look so intimidating a prospect with no lighting you can see how few polys there are Its all just boxes and wedges!

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:03 Edited at: 21st May 2004 16:05
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arkheii "Very nice! I hope you can get the game to look like that even on my gf2 mx."
Thank you. Well, I haven't got a gforce2 to test on anymore I'm afraid, but the only problem you may have is with the lightmapping, as I'm not sure it can multitexture. Other than that all the special effects should be possible as I've added software modes for when the hardware doesn't support it

"And, you _have_ started optimizing, haven't you?"
Hell yeah! As I said in the other forum which dissapeared ( ) it is soooo much more optimsied than the last demo, it puts it to shame. Plus all the annoying bugs like the music error, black box error etc have been fixed. On medium settings, this is runs at over 60fps on my old 1800SMD (1.5Ghz) 256Mb GForce4MX440, and on my 2.66GhzP4 512Mb FX5200 it easily reaches 100fps on full settings at 1024x768x32

"I had problems with the underwater area in the first beta."
Yes, so did many people. This isn't really an issue with your hardware as such, its more a slight DBPro error, that means it'll work on some but not others. However, thats completely fixed, I've worked around it I'm convinced that a GForce2MX will be able to run the water effect fully animated with no clipping in its current form! How FAST it'll run is another matter

"Maybe you could also have an option to disable some shaders?"
Absolutely, already done. All effects can be turned on or off individually, even in game

Chaos "That must be some good text file system you got there. So am i right in saying that you load all your infomation for the levels from text files?? If so how big are the text file levels??"
No not all the level data, you're right that would ammount in enormous files. The levels are based around themes, SpaceBase, Underground, Beach, Castle, Planetsurface, Urban etc. These themes are contained in Pak style files which contain loads of pre-fab rooms, objects, textures, sounds, music etc. Then the levels themselves are made out of using these elements to place at different sets of coordinates and rotations, to make each level. That is the data that is stored in the text files, so the level files themselves are quite small. This is a concious decision, as it will allow users to easily download and share new levels online, with basically no download times, even on 56k

"New screenies look very nice btw. Nice textures."
Thank you! I'm set on making this game as good looking as I can, without killing the frame rates too much

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Chaos
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:07
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Ah i get you now everwhat very interesting technique you have their thanks for the info.

Chaos


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Hamish McHaggis
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:14
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Looking very good, although the screens are quite dark on my monitor. Are they mean't to be? And I didn't realise you were kangaroo2! Wondered where you'd just popped up from and started making an amazing FPS .

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:17
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Hmm I was waiting till this poll reach over 100 votes to see the results, and here they are. So, the winner is drivable vehicles. Ok, thats doable. What kind of vehicles? Land or sky? I was considering war style vehicles on land, like jeeps/tanks etc. I could also go all out and copy the other games with a warthog style thing Space vehicles and combat are also possible, and would fit into the story mode quite well, although I'm not sure that these wouldn't detract from the game, and feel more like a mini game...? Any thoughts?

Real Physics comes a close second, this is something I'm keen on adding myself. I certainly don't see why I couldn't add some cool physics to boxes, barrels, objects etc. not sure whether the DM2 models will lend themselves well to ragdoll style physics, but I'll certainly give it a try I think I'll use Walaber's Newton Physics wrapper system, Tokamak seems to be slower in development (Not WoLFs fault at all, its a limitation from the Tokamak people themselves.) I have no experience at all with physics systems, I've always faked it myself, by I'd certainly like to learn how to utilise these Newton Functions, the demos I've seen have been great!

Third in the list is RPG style stats, and I see a lot of potential for this, upgrading guns, firepower etc as you go through a large quest. I'd love to do this as it could add significantly to the longevity of the game, and add a different style of gameplay to the playing modes. I will also put it high on the list of priorities.

Slightly surprised that Online multiplayer came last, although I'm pleased in a way. Setting up a server could be expensive, so although I'm not ruling it out at all, I think I'll wait until its commercially released and see whether it'd be viable.

Thanks to everyone whos voted, and feel free to carry on, I'm still interested ni what people think

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:26
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Chaos - Thanks! No problem

Hamish McHaggis - "the screens are quite dark on my monitor. Are they mean't to be?"
Umm no. lol This seems to be a consistant problem with people's pcs and my stuff tho, sorry about that. A lot of people who downloaded my last demo complained that there was no level just black Have no fear though, the game contains a brightness setting, gamma setting, ambience setting and the lightmaps can be turned off! Hopefully b then every1 will be able to see

"Looking very good" - Thank you very much

"And I didn't realise you were kangaroo2! Wondered where you'd just popped up from and started making an amazing FPS"
Yeah, when I first started this thread I wanted to be annonymous for various reasons. Also I can't really use the name Kangaroo2 anymore as the trademark belongs to someone else, who even stole my .com from me! Grr. I still love my old avatar that Indi made me though, so I'll keep it

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Chaos
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Posted: 21st May 2004 16:38 Edited at: 21st May 2004 16:41
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On the topic of vehicles id like heavy duty vehicles tank like etc Lots of fire power but also i think a few fast hovering vehicles would be good 2 E.g Think star wars when luke is being chased through the forest by storm troppers on thoughs vehicles.

Edit found a screenie just in case :

http://members.tripod.com/jims_digital_domain/forest2.jpg

A varity of ennemies would be nice also.

Chaos


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Ian T
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Posted: 21st May 2004 17:11
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Wow this thread really zips by .

Everwhat-> Thanks for that . Sometimes I feel a bit like the local hobo .

Driveable vehicles... fun stuff! I can't complain with Newton physics, they really rock . As for land or sky-- well, if your levels are BSP, I'd recommend sticking to three or so land vehicles to start with, maybe adding others as point releases went by. Maybe a fast hoverbike, heavy jeep-like vehicle and tank-- steriotypical, perhaps, but the speed/power balance with that set is impecible and after all the fun people have had with buggies and tanks in Halo and Ut2k4, I don't think they'd complain .

They'd have to be balanced so they didn't overpower infantry of course-- you probaly already know how to do all this, but I'd say, make one gun particularly effective against them to keep the balance going.

By the way, about your latest two screens. They don't look overtextured to me, in fact they look perfect. The reason Unreal Tournament levels were so good is that they had a lot of colorful textures... but they didn't clutter the levels! In ut2k3 they went back and used the new engine's power to basically clutter the levels with a lot of static meshes that just got in the way. Reviewers and players alike didn't like this a bit. I think the moral here is that it's good to have vibrant levels, and stylish levels, but only ever as far as playability allows .

Again, just my two cents. And I really shouldn't be talking about just three vehicles, looking at my own project !

Looking forward to any new screnshots !

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 17:25
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Chaos "On the topic of vehicles id like heavy duty vehicles tank like etc Lots of fire power but also i think a few fast hovering vehicles would be good 2"
Yep, good sugestions. I like the idea of fast hover vehicles, and a slower fire power heavy duty tank would be cool.

"A varity of ennemies would be nice also."
I have 6 enemy types at the moemnt, but I'm sure I'll add many more, perhaps varieties on a theme, plus different species per planet etc.

Mouse
I like the idea of a threesome of jeep, tank and hoverbike, the balance between the three would be great. I'll see what I can do

"By the way, about your latest two screens. They don't look overtextured to me, in fact they look perfect"
Thank you! Your comments on the UT games make complete sense to me, that was exactly what I thought

Okay I won't post until much later tonight, otherwise I'll spend all my time here. I'll experiment with vehicles and improving the outside level system, and post a report, and possibly screens too, later, around midnight my time is realistic going by my recent trend

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Underworld 1020
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Thanks for the help and inspiring me to get better in C Shop 4 and that it can be done. I don't have DbPro, but I do have DB.

I don't know how to use entities do I need to know?

I also don't know what the via thingys are

I asked for help in the C Shop fourm, but no one responed

Your FPS looks great and It looks and sounds like a realy cool game probably of commercial quality

Can you help with C Shop? (Everwhatstudios)
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Ian T
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Posted: 21st May 2004 18:58
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Underworld, the C Shop forum is a bit empty . I suggest you start a new thread asking for explinations on those topics in the DarkBASIC forum, which is much busier.

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 21st May 2004 19:01
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I don't have time right now, but when I release the game, I'll release some tutorials for making complex levels in Cartography shop. Till then just fiddle about,practicing using box primitves to make rooms and shapes. Editting the vertices is a useful skill to practice, as is the UV mapping of a side. Both of these are covered in the help files that come with CShop.

"Your FPS looks great and It looks and sounds like a realy cool game probably of commercial quality"
Thank you very much

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Underworld 1020
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Posted: 21st May 2004 20:24
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I'll try asking for help in the other fourms

Thanks!
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 00:57
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Look back at your post in cshop again Underworld 1020.

"People don't fail ..... they stop trying." Specs. P4 2.8GHz 800 FSB | 512MB DDR333
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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 01:35 Edited at: 22nd May 2004 01:39
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Hi guys

Well I spent an hour or so fiddling with Physics, haven't got too far to be honest but getting a feel for the way Newton works. Made some cool (unrelated) demos with it, might make mini games of them when Deathbed is finished.

As I said yesterday, I wanted to work on the outside levels abit, so heres some early screenshots. Originally I was using matrices but have now upgrade to levels made with Hamish's Multiscape, its pretty damned good, and I've got my collision system working with it, including bullet holes still, so I can use the same code to make footprints in snow and trails behind vehicles!

Below are 5 screen shots of outdoors, this is a temporary landscape just to test, it looks quite good though I think. Once it has rocks, trees, people etc it should look quite impressive. There are 5 different sky types as illustrated, they are static at the moment, but tomorrow I will animate them, add depth to movement and lensflare to the light sources I should point out that the skys are editted versions of DM1 textures, and not my original work from scratch. However the sky sphere is mine, and by the time I've finished animating and splitting these they'll be infintely better

The sixth shot is one of a model vehicle I started, almost obviously inspired by the peugeot hoggart from Halo. What do you guys think, too much of a rip-off or worth sticking with? Its far from identical, but is pretty similar. If people like it and don't think its too much of a copy I'll develop it further, texture it and import it into the game Or I could start again, and try and make something more original.




As ever, the full sized shots are in the blog at http://www.deathbed.co.uk Thanks for the continued interest and support guys

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Hamish McHaggis
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 03:25
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ooooohhhh..... I'm pretty pleased to see my editor being put to some use . Are the landscapes it creates big enough? That was my one worry with it, but you seem pretty pleased. If they aren't you can always separate sections with cliffs/buildings/rivers etc. I'm currently trying to think of a way to make an easy to use, fast landscape stitcher. When U6 comes I will probably upgrade Multiscape to use the improved terrain system, which I must say sounds like it will make my current system look rather pathetic indeed .

One thing I'm confused by on your website is the 10,000+ levels . How are you going to make them all, or is that including the randomly generated ones ?

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Marthik
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 03:48
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i think it's fine, hl2 has a similar jeep, so i wouldn't worry about it.
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One Common Ruin
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 05:01
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I like! Can't wait, but will you plan on letting the player picking up the enimies weapons when the enimies die? Release a demo soon or there will be a riot !

Zink


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Cyberflame
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 06:46
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I was reading your site.. and you asked if it was over textured. As long as it makes sense, the more detail the better!

DANGIT NEO, YOU CHANGED THE CODE AND NOW THE MATRIX WONT TEXTURE RIGHT.
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ReD_eYe
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damn, those outdoor levels look great
@hamish, he explained about the 10,000+ levels near the top of this thread

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Dennuz666 v2
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 11:46
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I still wait for the next demo. The first one was very dissapointing It'looks sooo good!

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 16:08
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Hamish McHaggis "Are the landscapes it creates big enough?"
I was a little confused by the small scale of them, but I just stretch them in DBP, they still look pretty nice as you can see. I initially tried a 500x500 grid but my frame rate became very low. The grids I'm using at the moment are 50x50 then scaled up in DBP. it works quite well, but I'll experiment further. The main thing I like about the levels made with multiscape is the way the multitexturing is handled, I must say I wouldn't have thought of using that method, it works a treat and keeps file sizes low

"you can always separate sections with cliffs/buildings/rivers etc. I'm currently trying to think of a way to make an easy to use, fast landscape stitcher."
Yes I was planning to try that out, to in essence make a similar set-up to my grid based indoor levels. a stitcher shouldn't be too hard, I might consider doing this myself, but we'll have to see if the framerates would die if I had lots of multiscape models next to each other as opposed to just one.

"When U6 comes I will probably upgrade Multiscape to use the improved terrain system, which I must say sounds like it will make my current system look rather pathetic indeed ."
I think we're all waiting for U6 for one reason or another

"One thing I'm confused by on your website is the 10,000+ levels . How are you going to make them all, or is that including the randomly generated ones ?"
This is answered in a higher post, hopefully it'll be a bit clearer. Although it would seem that If I removed that claim from the website I'd get less people confused before release

Marthik "i think it's fine, hl2 has a similar jeep, so i wouldn't worry about it."
Thanks, thats what I thought. Does anyone else have any thoughts on the matter of the Hog?

Zink
"I like! Can't wait"
Thanks!

"will you plan on letting the player picking up the enimies weapons when the enimies die?"
Hopefully yes. This all depends on whether the enemy models have different limbs assigned, I haven't tested this yet. I hope they do because if so that will be possible, and also it makes the prspect of rag-dolls a lot more feasible with this game.

"Release a demo soon or there will be a riot !"
lol last time there was a riot cos I released to early and it was full of bugs I'll plan on releaseing a demo pretty soon though, keep an eye on this forum

Cyberflame "As long as it makes sense, the more detail the better!"
Thank you, I'm glad you agree. Most people seem to have said / thought this

ReD_eYe "Damn, those outdoor levels look great"
Thank you! They are a bit spartan to my taste, just you wait till I'm pleased with them, they'll look TONS better

Dennuz666 v2 "I still wait for the next demo. The first one was very dissapointing"
Yes, it wasn't in a particularly good state to release, very early, slow and buggy

"It'looks sooo good!"
Thank you! Hopefully when I release the next demo it'll live up to your expectations. Its certainly shaping up well

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Hamish McHaggis
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 17:47
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Quote: "The grids I'm using at the moment are 50x50 then scaled up in DBP. it works quite well, but I'll experiment further."


I don't see how you used 500x500 . I thought I capped it at 200x200 due to my pc seemed to freeze if I went above that. I can make 100x100 levels pretty easily without slowdown, and if you increase the texture frequency then you can make levels seem a lot bigger.

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 18:21
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Sorry I meant 200x200

Oki everybody, doing some work on a beach level, similar to Far cry and Halo's silent Cartographer. Once I get it so I like it I'll work on the Hog and try and get it included. Updates later

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David T
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 22:27
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Looking incredible, especially the outdoor shots

Can't wait to see driveable vehicles in there

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Chaos
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Posted: 22nd May 2004 22:37
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Outdoor shots looking great. Waiting patiently for the updates.

Chaos


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Turoid
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 01:16
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have you already thought about AI for the enemy's? it looks very hard to me to program perfect AI for a deathmatch game.

however your game looks great, can't wait to see the next demo

cheers, jopie

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Peter H
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 02:04
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@Hamish McHaggis- that land editor is awesome! i'll be using it in my next game for sure!

just one question...when you use all those layers does it slow down the FPS(frames\second) alot?


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Ian T
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 02:35
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The landscapes look awesome. I'm also using Hamish's landscape editor for my rather different FPS project ...

Since I've been doing some expiriments with Hamish's terrain editor and landscapes for a project of a similar genre, I figure I might as well share my 'research' with you. For reference, I'm using three to five layers of 512x512 landscape textures, with tiling set to two or three (varies).

I've found that while a 200x200 landscape actually loads on my TNT2 machine (OMG reaction), it's unneccarily large for the engine to handle at once, and not quite big enough for some of my biggest maps. I decided to use multiple 75x75 landscapes, and the camera range + fogging would have about 70 tiles drawn at a time. I had to set the fog relatively close on my really awful machine, but I figure that on decent video cards it should actually work fine with a fog distance equivilant to, say, Tribes 2. Using multiple small landscapes also makes layer loading faster, because instead of, say, 8 layers on one large landsacpe you've got 9 landscapes with 2-3 layers (I think that's faster ), and it also makes collision a bit easier on the CPU because you're colliding with less detailed objects.

About the vehicle, it looks pretty good, not a terrible rip-off from Halo or anything. Half-Life 2's got one rather like that also, and it does look a bit similar to the scorpion in ut2k4 too; I doubt anyone will tag it as a ripoff (technicaly speaking, vehiclar FPS combat is all ripped off of Tribes anyways, period ).

Well that's that! I hope the info on how the landscapes run on my (awful) machine will give you some details about speed. Everything's looking amazing as always. Keep up the good work, but watch out, if you take a vacation you might get hitmen on your tail !

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 03:34
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Hi every1

Thanks for the great posts I'll come back and comment on them v soon. Just modelled and textured the hog a little more, I'm trying to import it into the game to take some nice looking screens

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Tapewormz
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 04:15
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I think it looks fantastic at this point! You should rip the arms and bones off of one of your models and set up the animations for holding the guns and fireing them and switching weapons.

Keep up the good work and keep having fun. DON'T GET DISCOURAGED!!!

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But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!"

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 04:44
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Sam... about the car, i wouldn't worry;
Halo, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-Life 2 all seem to have the same damn buggy - don't see why you can't.

Personally I prefered the look of the original Unreal2 buggy, if you can find the Karma test demo avi then take a look at it; cause it was never released but is different and a very nice design.

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 05:22 Edited at: 23rd May 2004 05:53
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David T "Looking incredible, especially the outdoor shots"
Thank you very much
"Can't wait to see driveable vehicles in there"
They're in now, kinda. See screens and details below

Chaos "Outdoor shots looking great. Waiting patiently for the updates."
Thank you I'm trying to keep every1 as updated as possible

Jopie Dopie "have you already thought about AI for the enemy's? it looks very hard to me to program perfect AI for a deathmatch game."
My AI is quite simple, I started off with AI similar to pack-man for the indoor box levels, then add constraints dependant on if they can see/hear you, their health/ammo levels etc and built up from there. Still needs work, but its quite effective. In outdoor levels, the AI simply consists of facing towards me and flocking at the moment, which obviously needs work

"however your game looks great, can't wait to see the next demo"
Thank you! I hope to release one soon, but want to make sure its as bug free and optimised as possible this time!

Magellan Studios "just one question...when you use all those layers does it slow down the FPS(frames\second) alot?"
Yes. But not as much as I thought it would, especially on simpler levels PS Magellan still haven't got that email from you, Re your Newcomers post?

Mouse "The landscapes look awesome. I'm also using Hamish's landscape editor for my rather different FPS project ..."
Thanks! And good luck with what you're doing, I look forward to hearing more!

Thanks for your input on using multiscape, you sound like you've come to similar conclusions to me. I still haven't experimented with multi small landscapes, but I am very tempted to try when I have time, as I suspect it would raise frame rates at you say.

"About the vehicle, it looks pretty good, I doubt anyone will tag it as a ripoff"
Thank you I made sure when I was making it that it was far from identical. It will handle very similarly though, I love the four wheel steering, I had not come across that as a concept on land buggy style things since Halo. I wonder if the actual Peugeot its based on steers like that too? The Hog model has been updated and textured, as you can see below.

"Everything's looking amazing as always. Keep up the good work"
Thank you again Wow every1s being extra nice today lol

"if you take a vacation you might get hitmen on your tail !"
I tend to anyways, thats why I don't leave the house Actually I do have a vacation planned in two weeks, but I'll strain to release a big, feature laden demo to keep the masses happy

Tapewormz "I think it looks fantastic at this point!"
Thanks *starting to feel big headed now, someone critcise me quick)

"You should rip the arms and bones off of one of your models and set up the animations for holding the guns and fireing them and switching weapons."
YES I'd certainly like to do this. It'd be an akward fiddly job, especially as you can choose a amle/female lead and change the colour of their skin etc. but its something I've been planning to add for a while now. It'd be one of the last additions though, relatively low priority, but still very cool if I have the time

"Keep up the good work and keep having fun. DON'T GET DISCOURAGED!!!"
Thanks, I'm trying Actually I'm feeling really positive now, from all the nice comments, plus the cool new vehicle thingy I'm playing with, see below!

Raven "Sam... about the car, i wouldn't worry;
Halo, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-Life 2 all seem to have the same damn buggy - don't see why you can't."
Thank you I've tried to make it a little different, but its an obvious "homage" gonna improve its control and weapon modes in various way tho

"Personally I prefered the look of the original Unreal2 buggy, if you can find the Karma test demo avi then take a look at it; cause it was never released but is different and a very nice design."
I just had a quick search and couldn't find it, if you know of a web link I'd love to check it out though, maybe I could make something similar

Let me know what you think of the textured and updated Hog below - its quite low poly but looks nice n chunky. Very aware the textures far from perfect, but it only took a short while today, I'll work on it further when I have more time

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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 05:24 Edited at: 23rd May 2004 05:27
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Wow its just gone 2AM and I'm not asleep yet, basically cos I'm too excited in what I'm doing. Knackered though so I'm going to bed now after I post this.

I did more work with outside levels today, concentrating on a beach style level, a bit like the beginning of the Silent Cartographer Halo Level. So I started with a sandy landscape, which turns to mud then grass higher up in the middle. I decided to add water, and I have to say it looks quite nice. The water is transparent, has an animated caustic effect, plus it rises and walls to cause lapping of the shore, which looks quite beautiful

Also I much improved the sky, the clouds drift by gently as you walk around, and the sun is a separate static object. I'll add a lenseflare to it soon also Started working on Rock and tree models but haven't imported them yet, it should look pretty sweet when I do.

I added a lot of detail to the Hog model, including seats, lights and a big double barreled weapon on the back Then I textured it, and whilst its not 100% finished I think it looks pretty cool. Anyway the last couple of hours have been spent importing the model of the hog into the game, and it looks great!

I have added basic controls to it so it can be moved around the level, the wheels spin round and also rotate properly for the four wheel steering also, and when you steer, the body tips on suspension! Pretty amazing for the short time spent working on it. Tomorrow I shall have to work on getting it to angle properly when it goes up/down hills, add control for the weapon, write a routine for the player to get in/out of the vehicle, and add a shadow to it. I'd also love to get it reflective, like the weapons and enemies. It'll be difficult to get it so it feels just right, but it'll be worth it, just the site of the hog on my level made me feel really excited about the prospect of vehicles in this game

There's some lovely looking screenshots here, wish you guys could see them moving, the water lapping up and down the shore and animating whilst the clouds float by is quite peaceful Might add some birds and fish, that would rock Anyhew, check these out :



Bigger versions on the site under blog http://www.deathbed.co.uk
As always, thanks for the support, I'm off for some well earned kip

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M00NSHiNE
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 05:39
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Lookin great this Everwhat. And Im still awake too

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Turoid
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 13:25 Edited at: 23rd May 2004 13:30
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Quote: "Bigger versions on the site under blog"


what do you mean with blog ? I cant find it

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 14:02
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All I can say is WOW. This looks absolutely superb. This will be great for the community as it can show what DBPro is really capable of. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Michael


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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 14:27
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Sam i'll attempt to get some screenshots; but the video is on Fileplanet somewhere... do a search for Karma; should show it up.
I really wish the vehicle had appeared in UT2K4/Unreal2; It's sooo sweet, like you have a central driving position. Then here are two seats for passengers facing outwards; plus the huge freaking cannon on the back.

Reminds me more of the ATV Quad from Final Fantasy TSW. (which is also an awesome vehicle imo)
Problem with the screenshots is gonna be snapping the Dx Layer as for some reason Media Player Series 9 shots always appear blank

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Hamish McHaggis
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 15:17
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Nice shots . You coding your own car physics and not using newton then? The car seems very dark compared to the rest of the landscape. All I can see is solid black with hints of brown here and there, even with my monitor on full brightness. Maybe you want to increase the ambience?

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Ian T
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 17:16
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The car texture is very dark, and the level is obviously not completed, but it looks pretty *d'oh* nevertheless-- really fantastic, and the concept of the hog blazing around that map getting roadkills and blazing people down with the gun on the back is great !

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Peter H
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 17:24
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If you’ll notice I responded in my other thread….but I don’t expect you to go over there and read it…you do have a busy life

Anyway what I need to know how to do is make a constant “fizzle� in exgen(instead of a explosion…)


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Everwhat Studios
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Posted: 23rd May 2004 20:22
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M00NSHiNE "Lookin great this Everwhat. And Im still awake too"
Thanks Good to find some1 as crazy as me

Jopie dopie "what do you mean with blog ? I cant find it"
On the front page, down near the bottom is a section of text labelled "Blog/Updates". a blog is a weBLOG, or online diary of sorts. The pictures for each day are text links, labelled one, two etc.

Code Monkey Michael Eddie "All I can say is WOW. This looks absolutely superb. This will be great for the community as it can show what DBPro is really capable of. Keep up the good work."
Thanks very much! Yes one of my hopes for the project was to raise the profile of DBPro and encorage the community. I'm all for a resurgence of the bedroom game makers, I was around in the spectrum, commodore and Amiga days, and there was a lot more creativity and originality seen in the game charts those days, I'd like to make a game by myself and see it gain at least minor commercial success, just to rpove to myself it can be done in the recnt climate

Raven "the video is on Fileplanet somewhere"
Fileplanet notoriously hates me. Probably cos I don't have a subsciption to it, it just keeps me waiting, and then cuts me off before it starts
"Sam i'll attempt to get some screenshots"
Thanks that would be great, thank you! Although you're right, taking screenshots from a media window is often more complex than you'd think

Hamish McHaggis "Nice shots"
Thanks!
"You coding your own car physics and not using newton then?"
Lol u r a mind reader! Thats what I've been fiddling with today! I'm finding it hard to get to grips with, but I think it could be well worth it, I'll update on my progress later.
"The car seems very dark compared to the rest of the landscape. All I can see is solid black with hints of brown here and there, even with my monitor on full brightness. Maybe you want to increase the ambience?"
Yes of course you are right, the car is too dark especially in this level, I should have mentioned I did that on purpose as I;m planning on adding a reflective layer to it

Mouse "really fantastic, and the concept of the hog blazing around that map getting roadkills and blazing people down with the gun on the back is great !"
Thank you! Yep it'll be great fun once its working properly I'm trying to get the controls so that you have some control over the weapon as well, perhaps a similar feel to "Abuse" but in 3d if that makes sense. I didn't like some other dude controlling it in Halo, I like to do everything myself. Not a big fan of Squad based combat to be honest, I prefer a contract killer style game, where you're all by yourself, and can choose to run about wildly firing, or be stealth and sneaky if you want, more like a Doom Goldeneye cross I guess.

"Magellan Studios" If you’ll notice I responded in my other thread….but I don’t expect you to go over there and read it…you do have a busy life"
Ahh sorry thats why I posted my email, as I don't have time to look around all the threads
"Anyway what I need to know how to do is make a constant “fizzle� in exgen(instead of a explosion…)"
You could make several small explosions one after the other. Or you could take the separate images made in exgen and overlap them in a merged psp/photoshop file, eg frame 1 and 10 mixed, 2 and 11, 3 and 12 etc. Hope that helps.

Oki everybody, Thanks for the comments and continues interest, I'm mostly fiddling with physics for the car today, I'll post later to see how I've done

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