rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter DEAD TASTE :D

Posted By: rayp

rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter DEAD TASTE :D - 07/20/16 00:31

Hi.

Started to work on a topdown shooter.
Enemys are pre-rendered sprites ( from models in Acknex with ShadeC evo ).
With this trick a massive amount of enemys is possible.

The player movement is pretty far. For now it features jumping, walking, sidewalking, running, walking and shooting, sidewalking and shooting, running and shooting.

The enemy controller already features a first complete enemy.

Level is "not small" and ive taken it from my zombie-fps ( see "Projects" )






For the cycle+ file i use my Editor "CED" ( see "3rd Party Tools" ) then importing it into Photoshop to create the alpha channel and doing further edits. Good alphachannel is a must have when dealing with sprites btw.

The most basic and simple way is something like this ( did not test this one just wrote it ) if youre not confirm with rendering directly into "canvas/bitmaps" in Acknex. Sure not the best way, but will lead to some good results.
Code:
//add include's...etc be4 launching
//...

STRING* str_render_anm = "walk";  // anm2 render / save

action PreRenderEnt(){
 //my.material = shadeC or whatelse
 //set (my, SHADOW); // when using shadeC this looks better
   vec_set (camera.x, my.x); // bring cam into topdown position
   camera.pan = my.pan;
   camera.z += 100;          // adjust cam height here
   camera.tilt = -90;
   my.skill1     = 0;
   var counternr = 0;
   wait (-5);                // better wait for level_load etc...did not test at 2:20 o clock
   while (my.skill1 < 100){
	   my.skill1 += 4; // less = more frames
		ent_animate (me, str_render_anm, my.skill1, NULL);
		counternr += 1;
		file_for_screen ("anmframe_", counternr);
   	wait (-1);
   }
   wait (-2);               // time to save last shot again not tested if necessary here
   sys_exit ("done!");
}
function main(){
	...
	vec_set (sky_color, vector (255, 255, 255)); // white background in sprite images on hd
      //vec_set (ambient_color...);
      //vec_set (sun_color....);  
	...
	ent_create ("yourmodel.mdl", vector (0, 0, 0), PreRenderEnt);
        ...
        ent_create (NULL, vector (x,y,z), Your_Light_Source);
}


Videos and more information will follow as soon ive time again.

Btw, the realtime graphic is pure Acknex mtlView.c. No normal maps and stuff like that only std (hdr) and blur ( for some movement effects )...not that bad at all! grin

Iam planning to use SSAO from HeelX here.
Cool thing in topdown, my camera.view_far is 500 grin mhhhhh

Greets
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/20/16 16:23

Just started to work on gore. Need to rewrite a lot of blood stuff, cause it was made to work with models ^^

But i love working with sprites. In 5 minutes u can paint very cool things. Some first dead body for the streets. grin
...ohhh it will be bloody for sure...
Theres nearly no limitation for enemy- and sprite variations / amount.



Greets
Posted By: Dooley

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/20/16 16:54

It's looking great so far! I'd love to test this laugh if you need testers.
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/20/16 18:07

Thanks alot!

Iam working to build a demo. Hope i can show some stuff soon, maybe already playable then. Let me say so, i planed to finish a demo grin

First realtime gore and the dead body from above in "action". The blood leak becomes bigger ( like those days in Resident Evil ^^ ). Maybe ill add blood - foot - prints when Walking through leaks.

edit: Have to rework the alphachannel of the deadbody btw.
edit2: Later i floodfill the border of sprites with black, ill explain when done why.

Yesterday before falling asleep at 4 o clock in the morning i had a really cool "ingame cutsczene" idea with a new enemy type. A mutated Zombie dog btw.

edit:
SSAO doesnt match the look just tryed and removed again. And ull have small "graphic artifacts" with particles ( white borders etc ).
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/20/16 21:35

Creating the Alpha channel is tricky ^^. Starts with the right Background color.
First i do the body alpha channel.
When done i add blood and stuff.

Blood splats value is not the same as the bodys value as u can see, and every pixel is looking good ingame ^^



update grin



Howdy!
Posted By: Quad

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/21/16 22:08

Is map 3d or it is it rendered to 2d background too?
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/23/16 20:42

Hi, thanks for your interest.
3d, but i like your idea.

Already limited moving ents down to keep the 50-60 fps frown
but still enough action ^^ ...and already two different enemy types. Making a enemy now takes about 1 hour. And with every done they gettin better.

update ( now three enemys )


edit:
Good thing is, Ghostbusters I+II are running in TV.
Bad thing is, ive forgotten my Pizza in the oven grin damn!

Cheers
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/24/16 03:51

rayp - I really like it. and so I hate to give constructive crit. Check out the edge line on you sprite bodies. A graded buffer alpha or blur can fix that. Just saying it looks great, but that on thing pops out to me...

Great work!
Posted By: Kartoffel

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/24/16 09:00

yeah looks really cool!

Quote:
Already limited moving ents down to keep the 50-60 fps frown
Are you using alphablending for your sprites? Because all the overdraw from the piled up corpse- and blood-sprites might have a bad impact on performance.
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 08/03/16 22:59

I tryed again and found a way for much more enemys.

Thanks 3run for the tip and the example of mass-ai.
I made a single while that controlls all enemys. Enemys are stored in a array.
First i thought it makes no difference. But this is the trick, real Speed boost (almost like NOS)!

Note: Only collision models without sprites shown in the shot for now but already using pathfinding. 60fps again.

That really rocks!
update with sprites:

update2: random movement and Animation Speed for each



Only problem, i need to rewrite my enemy script from scratch now. Need to think about how exactly iam doing this. A bit tricky with sprites in the array.Basics already done.

Greets
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 08/08/16 13:51

Everything is running nice till now. laugh

I did a lot of detail work in the AI controller.
Started to work on a HUD ( the heart is animated btw. less energy means faster heart beats ) and added money. Some dead bodys leave money to collect.
New "mass-AI-Controller" already features two enemys.

( please ignore the not 100% correct placed street models, ill move them later to fit )


Worked on a menusystem. Not much to see but game restart/reset ( means levelchange too ) already perfect working ( took a big part of the weekend btw ).


The "tech" is working in the background. Now i must do some gamedesign like quests and moneysystem. Then ill add further enemy types. But iam lazy...

edit: just implemented explosion fire and smoke effect. Looks ok in Motion


Next step is enemys checking for explosions for a bloody dead.


Greets
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 06/30/18 11:39

Update!

Rewrote all from scratch!

Working hard on this project for weeks now. Too much new stuff build in to count here wink
But a few things to say.

North of map

Random Scene from map


Progress is getting close to a playable demo version. laugh
Still all WIP of course.

If player walks over corpses hes leaving bloody foot steps.
Added three typed of sprite gore body deformations (critical hits for example without head and one leg etc).

Menu working. Features game load. Game can be saved at cell phones. But only if they have electricity. So if Player wants to save his first quest is to find power supply of the town. Once town is powered again Player can save on every cellphone around in the town.
If town is powered some lights and other objects/doors also start to work.

Toxic areas added. Player can find gasmask to enter those places.

GUI in first useable beta state ( some simple Player dialogs, info boxes etc ). Main menu working with cool first screen / menu background.

Two guns ready ( machinegun + shotgun ). Can be updated in Speed, firepower and bullet type ( for cash or with Bonus items found ).

Nearly every object can be searched for items ( like cars, trash cans etc ). Player looks at item. If he can interact, it starts to blink red.

Explosions and fire implemented. If zombie is Close to fire he starts burning.

4 fully ready pre rendered Zombies done ( using new Version of my Editor CED for making the anm sprites btw wink ).
Every animation scene using 25 frames, this way looking very smooth.
Animated faked shadows for the sprites.

Scene/Map now features shadows off every 3d model.

Game runs most time with 60fps ( frames limited ). A single while is used in the complete game. Max. 0.3-0.5ms for the functions.



Game starts with player crashing the car. Mainmenu background is in the car. When new game is clicked Player starts on the streets ( shot Shows WIP street Piece )





Its going to be a mini open world realtime arcade adventure grin


More shots and infos will follow soon.
Greets
Posted By: 3run

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 06/30/18 21:41

Your roject looks really awesome man! And it's great to see such awesome stuff being developed/posted on the forum! Keep it up, looking for a playable demo!
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/01/18 22:37

Thank you man for your nice words! Hope u stay in this Project Topic grin

First Version of the logo screen in game


laugh

Greets

edit:
@txesmi below
Thank you very much.
Posted By: txesmi

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/02/18 10:14

Looking cool. Keep it up!
Posted By: Superku

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/04/18 12:13

So all those characters are pre-rendered? Crazy. Got a video of that?

It's too dark on my machine though, I can hardly see a thing (I've said this on your previous projects as well, we must have quite the different setups ;-) ). Please include a brightness slider.
Even very dark games usually have bright areas/ things on screen or in the level, don't make it all just dark (for example the fire on the car and the surroundings are as dark as the rest).


The logo ain't bad but you could try and add a little 3D effect to it. You could use Blender's 3D text option, render it there or export it into the engine and play with the perspective, then take a screenshot and paint it over in Photoshop/ whatever tool you used to make the current one.

Good luck and keep it coming!
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/04/18 12:26

Hi.
Thanks for your feedback guys!

Yes all is pre rendered grin ...this way i can floodfill streets with enemys. And i always liked sprites...this works good together wink


Its a dark Setup yes, but not that dark ( around 45 in ambient and sunlight ). I switched my monitor yesterday. And on the new one its even brighter grin

Maybe i add a slider is. You mean a simple slider pan that controls ambient light yes ? That could be done.

About Video...iam working on a playable demo. But i can say it looks really good in Motion if you trust me grin
edit: Make the vids if more progress is done, like more Zombies.

The logo is a first try in a few minutes. Most Panel stuff is done in hurry while Scripting. Some ill redo some will stay.
But your idea sounds pretty good i have to say. laugh


Small progress
Added Special fat Zombie. This Special one can kill other Zombies on its way.
Preloading sprite ents now via script ( preload_mode helped but not 100% ).

edit:
Another Zombie (female) rendered and implemented



The new CED Editor Windows ( hard beta but working and saving time )



Greets
Posted By: rayp

Re: rayp's "Ultra arcade" topdown shooter :D - 07/06/18 01:59

After some video memory trouble i cleaned up all resources. Decreased Nexus to 220mb ( all stuff in game together [for now] ).
Was not funny to find out what caused the problem(sprite size limit) wink

Rendered two new female Zombies ( not in the pic below ).

Finally i can start now to work more on the details of the streets for example. That part that makes fun (sometimes).

For some days i wanted to fill the gap in between with some bush stuff: laugh


Tomorrow i will render another Zombie.

Greets
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