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Plan for Phil Carlisle
Plan for Phil Carlisle
| Name: | Phil Carlisle |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Sep 25, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Phil Carlisle |
Blog post
Bleh, why do I have to be ill NOW! prepare for a long one!
Bleh, why do I have to be ill NOW!
This last week has been CRAZY with both work work and my work on Air Ace hotting up. We are starting back at work sometime next week, so of course we are going mad trying to get hardware and software in place for the new term. Of course, one of my colleagues has managed to give me her cold (thanks louise!), which means now I've got the next week and a bit to get rid of it before IGC!
My plan had been to integrate the new physics engine into the TSE build this weekend, but the complexity of integration kind of scuppered that idea, instead I've gotten on with some other code whilst Kristen gets on with integrating his physics. Its a bit of a pain in that he lives in the middle of nowhere in canada and only gets internet access worth a damn by a fairly large round-trip drive.
But its just more productive this way..
So anyway, time for a quick rant... I am coding some radar/map controls for the TSE build of the game and I am doing the usual (I usually code with a TV on in the background). Suffice to say, the program thats on TV "Britains worst celebrity driver live" reminds me so much why I hardly ever actually WATCH TV anymore. I actually spend more time playing online games with my mates on the UK Air Attack Club servers.. which is good, because these guys are also my alpha testers (we always connect with a teamspeak server, so I can at least explain things to them, describe new options etc). Anyhoo, back to the rant... what IS it with TV programmers that they are constantly dumbing down TV?
I mean, is it really good to show a LIVE programme which actually has live telephone votes on the *WORST* celebrity driver? I mean these idiots are doing things that would literally get a normal NON celebrity thrown directly in jail. And its being televised and glamourised?
I'm sure as hell looking forward to the days when games are more ubiquitous as an entertainment medium, maybe that would stop the dumbing down?
So back on track... things are getting REALLY tight for the IGC demo deadline.. most of the planes are theoretically complete, although we're still needing the zero, we've been getting some issues involving different versions of max and .max files not loading (how can a max file created with 5.0 not load in 5.0?? I dunno). Whichever idiot at discreet that thought it was a good idea to build the environment settings into the .max file and REQUIRE them for loading was an idiot indeed.
So almost every night this last week, we've been having some multiplayer tests, trying to iron out the wrinkles and add any elements that are really required for the game.. I must say its been a really productive period for the game, in that I've taken comments and turned them over into features in pretty rapid sucession. Of course most of these things are obvious, but its not until you sit there with real untrained players that you get that "how does this work" or "I didnt expect that" kind of comments. This is the real meat of game development, putting your game in front of players.
You know whats strange?
From all my time as a professional game programmer, it was INCREDIBLY rare that real players got to play the game before it was "complete". Imagine that? its not actually played by real players, or very rarely, until its gone out the door. Man, the things you learn by putting your game in front of the real buying public and yet companies really dont get it. Sheesh, we need to grow up.
So I've been churning through the major additional features that were a must have in my players opinions (ok, so choosing who you trust to listen to is a big thing here), but the game will be 100% better for just a couple of weeks alpha testing!
So what would we do without some quick shots?
Ok, first shot is from a formation flight... I'd forgotten to move the camera server commands from default.bind.cs into commands.cs, so they didnt function for anyone but the "host". So lesson learnt, remember that testing locally ISNT the same as testing a proper dedicated server setup.. get that in as quick as possible if youre game is MP focussed.
The next image, is from third test and is one of the testers (groundhog) having a go at killing me.. of course handlingg is still borked at this point, so it didnt come easy :)
And finally, of course it IS possible to get a kill! feels nice, although the tests prove that we really need some more love for the explosions for them to feel rewarding..
Ok, so see you later... and get testing in on your game as early as possible.. even earlier in fact!
This last week has been CRAZY with both work work and my work on Air Ace hotting up. We are starting back at work sometime next week, so of course we are going mad trying to get hardware and software in place for the new term. Of course, one of my colleagues has managed to give me her cold (thanks louise!), which means now I've got the next week and a bit to get rid of it before IGC!
My plan had been to integrate the new physics engine into the TSE build this weekend, but the complexity of integration kind of scuppered that idea, instead I've gotten on with some other code whilst Kristen gets on with integrating his physics. Its a bit of a pain in that he lives in the middle of nowhere in canada and only gets internet access worth a damn by a fairly large round-trip drive.
But its just more productive this way..
So anyway, time for a quick rant... I am coding some radar/map controls for the TSE build of the game and I am doing the usual (I usually code with a TV on in the background). Suffice to say, the program thats on TV "Britains worst celebrity driver live" reminds me so much why I hardly ever actually WATCH TV anymore. I actually spend more time playing online games with my mates on the UK Air Attack Club servers.. which is good, because these guys are also my alpha testers (we always connect with a teamspeak server, so I can at least explain things to them, describe new options etc). Anyhoo, back to the rant... what IS it with TV programmers that they are constantly dumbing down TV?
I mean, is it really good to show a LIVE programme which actually has live telephone votes on the *WORST* celebrity driver? I mean these idiots are doing things that would literally get a normal NON celebrity thrown directly in jail. And its being televised and glamourised?
I'm sure as hell looking forward to the days when games are more ubiquitous as an entertainment medium, maybe that would stop the dumbing down?
So back on track... things are getting REALLY tight for the IGC demo deadline.. most of the planes are theoretically complete, although we're still needing the zero, we've been getting some issues involving different versions of max and .max files not loading (how can a max file created with 5.0 not load in 5.0?? I dunno). Whichever idiot at discreet that thought it was a good idea to build the environment settings into the .max file and REQUIRE them for loading was an idiot indeed.
So almost every night this last week, we've been having some multiplayer tests, trying to iron out the wrinkles and add any elements that are really required for the game.. I must say its been a really productive period for the game, in that I've taken comments and turned them over into features in pretty rapid sucession. Of course most of these things are obvious, but its not until you sit there with real untrained players that you get that "how does this work" or "I didnt expect that" kind of comments. This is the real meat of game development, putting your game in front of players.
You know whats strange?
From all my time as a professional game programmer, it was INCREDIBLY rare that real players got to play the game before it was "complete". Imagine that? its not actually played by real players, or very rarely, until its gone out the door. Man, the things you learn by putting your game in front of the real buying public and yet companies really dont get it. Sheesh, we need to grow up.
So I've been churning through the major additional features that were a must have in my players opinions (ok, so choosing who you trust to listen to is a big thing here), but the game will be 100% better for just a couple of weeks alpha testing!
So what would we do without some quick shots?
Ok, first shot is from a formation flight... I'd forgotten to move the camera server commands from default.bind.cs into commands.cs, so they didnt function for anyone but the "host". So lesson learnt, remember that testing locally ISNT the same as testing a proper dedicated server setup.. get that in as quick as possible if youre game is MP focussed.
The next image, is from third test and is one of the testers (groundhog) having a go at killing me.. of course handlingg is still borked at this point, so it didnt come easy :)
And finally, of course it IS possible to get a kill! feels nice, although the tests prove that we really need some more love for the explosions for them to feel rewarding..
Ok, so see you later... and get testing in on your game as early as possible.. even earlier in fact!
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 09/18/08 - Tell me I'm not going crazy!! 12/05/07 - The importance of good tools for productivity 11/17/07 - Using the way back machine. 09/21/07 - Juggling cats. 09/04/07 - End of Summer. 08/27/07 - Come work with me!! 08/14/07 - The changing nature of entertainment 07/25/07 - Someone stole my notes!! |
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Submit your own resources!| Andy Schatz (Sep 25, 2005 at 20:42 GMT) |
| Evi - Cubix Studio (Sep 25, 2005 at 21:37 GMT) |
is that a real map for the land texture :D
| Gary Preston (Sep 26, 2005 at 11:08 GMT) |
Quote:
The next image, is from third test and is one of the testers (groundhog) having a go at killing me.. of course handlingg is still borked at this point, so it didnt come easy :)
What you really mean is your flying a suped up fighter with god mode on but havn't told the rest of the testers just yet :P
The screenshots as usual look great :)
Edited on Sep 26, 2005 11:09 GMT
| Barry "Yossarian" Whitley (Sep 26, 2005 at 15:22 GMT) |
One comment though... are you guys planning on trying to incorporate any sort of "beach" texture on the terrain where it meets the water? Really kind of stood out to me looking at the shots that there is currently farmland going down hills right into the water, with no break or natural edge.
| Phil Carlisle (Sep 26, 2005 at 15:28 GMT) |
The final terrain will be based on either digital elevation models + digital satellite imagery OR the final TSE terrain editing solution.. or a mix of both.
As it is, right now, its simply a large tiled set of random tiled textures and a hand-edited-in-photoshop heightfield.
Of course, I can use a few stop-gap measures to create a more game looking terrain, but I do find the grassy field style kind of nice :)
Wait till you see the full version with the digital satellite terrains..
| Stephen Zepp (Sep 26, 2005 at 15:54 GMT) |
You mentioned about "testing locally isn't the same as testing on a dedicated server", and suggest that anyone doing a dedicated server environment should "test" that way as soon as possible.
I'm going to go one further (and I bring this up in every TBC I do): if your final game is going to be in a specific network configuration, design and implement, as well as test in that model and that model only.
In other words, your post implies that you do everything "single player" during your implementation, and then move it over to your dedicated server/dedicated client mode for testing. Instead, I would suggest that you implement in that mode from the beginning, and save the hassle of the "port" (for lack of a better word). The main reasons are:
1) Keeps you from making errors in your design/implementation based on things you can "do" in single player configuration that simply aren't possible in multi/dedicated configuration. Quite honestly, a pretty major bug in the initial release of the RTS-SK fell prone to this: the single player version (which is how this particular functionality was built) works fine for referencing certain elements of a datablock, but in multi-host/dedicated mode, the information it uses isn't available to the client, so the functionality didn't work. This bug would have never even happened had the developer used a dedicated environment during development.
2) It saves you complexity when it comes to your test cases: you as a developer (and I use "you" in the generic, plural mode) will automatically create test cases as you implement functionality. In single player mode, those test cases are necessarily going to be less complex than the dedicated mode, and it can be very easy to fail to recognize additional cases that are required for the "new" mode post-port.
These are of course just my personal recommendations, but I think that any developer with dedicated environment goals (or even just hosted multi-player) would benefit from being more disciplined in their development mode.
| Phil Carlisle (Sep 26, 2005 at 15:59 GMT) |
But for me, I simply couldnt get to that stage early enough.. Testing remotely requires a number of features and facilities I simply didnt have access to innitially. But I agree that adds pain to the process where it shouldnt.
| Stephen Zepp (Sep 26, 2005 at 20:35 GMT) |
| Vashner (Sep 27, 2005 at 06:22 GMT) |
Do you have plans to offset this performance factor for team balance of power?
Looking good.
| Phil Carlisle (Sep 27, 2005 at 08:27 GMT) |
Many planes had both good and bad characteristics. The best pilots knew what thier own plane did and also the plane of thier enemy.
| Frank Bignone (Sep 27, 2005 at 14:59 GMT) |
| Mike "Tango Whiskey" Lawrence (Sep 27, 2005 at 17:14 GMT) |
Technical question: Are you repeating terraing over multiple 2K squares or did you find a way to expand the default 2K square? For a flight sim, this would seem pretty important, especially if you're using a map to actuall "track" where players are. Anyway, sans ramble, what's the story on terrain squares and boundaries.
Input: WOW! (again.)
| Phil Carlisle (Sep 27, 2005 at 18:01 GMT) |
the size is.. erm.. BIG :)
I've had terrains bigger than BF1942 in there without any issues. So its plenty big enough.
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