Flying Starter Kit
by Martin Schultz · 02/09/2007 (6:02 am) · 64 comments
Update: See a video of this right here.
(please excuse the low resolution and crappy jitter - my dev machine is too slow)
I'm currently developing as side project a flying starter kit and wanted to put up some screenshots of it and see how the reaction on this is. Just like the starter.fps and the starter.racing kits, this starter.flying kit shall give you a complete flying game example as base from where you can start developing your own projects on. The kit is nearly complete and I'm into fine-tuning the last bits on it like writing a detailed instruction etc.
The flying starter kit is developed for TGE 1.4.2 and TGE 1.5 and should also work without big modifications in TGEA (will test this). I'm planning to sell this pack around 10~20 US$ via electronic download.
What does it feature?
- Complete flying game example with source art (ok, programmers source art) :-) and a complete "starter.flying" directory to put into stock TGE.
- special flying game HUD with ammo/weapons/scoring display.
- 2x primary weapons (Blaster, Pulsar) and 1 secondary weapon (MFRL - multi fire rocket launcher) triggered by left/right mousebuttons.
- scripted simple AI state-machine based flying logic. Bots can seek for targets, auto-select weapons, fly out to re-fill weapons, do simple fly-arounds
- The kit comes with a demo mission where 20 bots are flying around and battle each other.
- Additional aiFlyingVehicle.cc/.h C++ source file which contains the AI steering behaviour.
- Kit will come with a precompiled binary (Mac, Windows) for quick testing the kit.
- Instructions which code changes need to be done in stock TGE plus some optimization tips/settings.
- Bonus royalty-free techno style music track "Fuel" from my music libary at www.Decane-Music.com
Have fun,
Martin
P.S.: The names in the screenshot are purely random... ;-)
No plan without screenshots - here they are!
(please excuse the low resolution and crappy jitter - my dev machine is too slow)
I'm currently developing as side project a flying starter kit and wanted to put up some screenshots of it and see how the reaction on this is. Just like the starter.fps and the starter.racing kits, this starter.flying kit shall give you a complete flying game example as base from where you can start developing your own projects on. The kit is nearly complete and I'm into fine-tuning the last bits on it like writing a detailed instruction etc.
The flying starter kit is developed for TGE 1.4.2 and TGE 1.5 and should also work without big modifications in TGEA (will test this). I'm planning to sell this pack around 10~20 US$ via electronic download.
What does it feature?
- Complete flying game example with source art (ok, programmers source art) :-) and a complete "starter.flying" directory to put into stock TGE.
- special flying game HUD with ammo/weapons/scoring display.
- 2x primary weapons (Blaster, Pulsar) and 1 secondary weapon (MFRL - multi fire rocket launcher) triggered by left/right mousebuttons.
- scripted simple AI state-machine based flying logic. Bots can seek for targets, auto-select weapons, fly out to re-fill weapons, do simple fly-arounds
- The kit comes with a demo mission where 20 bots are flying around and battle each other.
- Additional aiFlyingVehicle.cc/.h C++ source file which contains the AI steering behaviour.
- Kit will come with a precompiled binary (Mac, Windows) for quick testing the kit.
- Instructions which code changes need to be done in stock TGE plus some optimization tips/settings.
- Bonus royalty-free techno style music track "Fuel" from my music libary at www.Decane-Music.com
Have fun,
Martin
P.S.: The names in the screenshot are purely random... ;-)
No plan without screenshots - here they are!
#22
02/09/2007 (12:24 pm)
@Edward: Intersting idea with the merger guide. I will think about this. Unfortunately I don't own the AFX pack, but I will write a section about how to integrate the bot stuff in your existing project. Good idea!
#23
02/09/2007 (12:27 pm)
Nifty, have you been able to solve the projectile/vehicle location interpolation issue when client/server are separated? 
#25
In general this kit does not solve global issues that the flying vehicle class has by itself, like the speed collision problem. But I think in general that those "little flaws" should not hinder one to create a flying game. One may possibly adapt a little the game design because of the flaws, but in general it should be possible to get some flying stuff working. And that is exactly what I want to archive with this pack - get a working base flying game as a starting point for your own development.
02/09/2007 (12:55 pm)
@David: Haven't noticed interpolation issues with a seperate server. I did some testing with the pack's origin game Subsonic and didn't see any problems there. In general, I highly recommand for this to increase the update rate to the client and the packet size to have a fluent game play with all the flyers and particles. I increased the server->client update rate for the video above to 32 updates per second and a packet size of 450 bytes. I also experiemented with a 800 bytes packet size and it went very smooth, although not very compatible anymore with low-bandwidth players.In general this kit does not solve global issues that the flying vehicle class has by itself, like the speed collision problem. But I think in general that those "little flaws" should not hinder one to create a flying game. One may possibly adapt a little the game design because of the flaws, but in general it should be possible to get some flying stuff working. And that is exactly what I want to archive with this pack - get a working base flying game as a starting point for your own development.
#26
02/09/2007 (1:01 pm)
Thats way cool. Very complete kit, congrats.
#28
Am I about to get blown up in that first screenshot? We'll have to do something about that. :)
02/09/2007 (2:10 pm)
Great stuff.Am I about to get blown up in that first screenshot? We'll have to do something about that. :)
#29
I am gonna have to get my hands on this and see what I can do with it.
02/09/2007 (2:53 pm)
SWEET, I love flying games!I am gonna have to get my hands on this and see what I can do with it.
#30
02/09/2007 (3:01 pm)
Looks great! Make sure its TGEA friendly :-D 
#31
02/09/2007 (3:03 pm)
Well, I'm certainly buying this. 
#32
The engine caps at 450.
02/09/2007 (3:51 pm)
Way cool! I was wondering what you were up to. No status updates on Subsonic recently. :/Quote:
I also experiemented with a 800 bytes packet size and it went very smooth, although not very compatible anymore with low-bandwidth players.
The engine caps at 450.
#33
02/09/2007 (4:28 pm)
Is that first shot with the menu a screenshot or a game in progress?
#34
02/09/2007 (6:17 pm)
In the video, which of the pilots are humans, and which are AI? If those were AI pilots, I'm very impressed. I've been trying to keep my flying bots from flying into things for many months, much less have them fly as the vehicles in the video!
#35
Very slick video, I really like what you've done and feel a pack of this nature would be outstanding!
Some things I didn't see in the video which would be a great addition to the pack:
- Horizon GUI Control
- A targeting system (crosshair / reticle - not just a static bitmap at centre of screen, cast a ray from muzzlepoint of weapon and project crosshair from there).
02/09/2007 (7:19 pm)
Hi Martin,Very slick video, I really like what you've done and feel a pack of this nature would be outstanding!
Some things I didn't see in the video which would be a great addition to the pack:
- Horizon GUI Control
- A targeting system (crosshair / reticle - not just a static bitmap at centre of screen, cast a ray from muzzlepoint of weapon and project crosshair from there).
#36
cheers and keep up!
02/09/2007 (8:50 pm)
hi there... you got something on there.. ill be glad to pay $20 usds for it.. it sounds very promisingcheers and keep up!
#37
02/09/2007 (10:50 pm)
*Very* nice. Any plans on a space version, with planets and stuff? Or would it be easy to convert to that?
#38
@Thomas B.: No, I guess you were the ship that blowed up the other one :-)
@Stefan L.: He he, yes, that project and another one I recently joined. I increased the max. packet size in the engine to 800 and recompiled to give it a try. Also tried with 1000 bytes. Very smooth all, but not very modem-friendly :-)
@Frank C.: It's a background image with a screenshot taken from in-game (removed the HUD before screenshooting it). It shows the bots batteling. That's exactly what you get when you start the demo mission. 20 bots spawn and battle each other and that's how it looks like. No fake nothing, I just screenshoted it without the HUD controls.
@Brian: All except the my own ship "Fresh meat" are bots! What you see in the video is pure bot fighting. Only one human player (me!) joined to "see" the battle. Within script in one line you can define if the bots will fight also against human players or if they only take other bots as targets. That allows to go into the game and view the battle without getting shot every time - useful for recording videos etc. :-)
But to be fair - the bots are not checking whether they would fly into a wall or so. Haven't included that. That's the good thing if you make battles in the sky - usually not many objects in the way. It makes the "feel" also more realistic if the planes sometimes hit each other accidentially. More human like behaviour. It's in general really a time sucker if you're in the game and just watch the bots battle. I'm every time astonished about their behaviour. :-) It's a simple and not very long state machine and the results look very nice.
@Tim: Thanks!
Nice idea with the horizon control. I know there's already a resource out of this. Maybe I should contact the author to see if I can include right away in the pack or if I can only write a FAQ about integrating it here.
The idea about the targeting system is also interesting. I'm still thinking if I should include guided missiles, but that would require an OK from garagegames because of including source code. I'm going to talk to GG I think.
@Gary: Thanks. No, I didn't plan anything on doing a space version or so. But it's quite easy. Just remove the terrain stuff :-) The bots don't depend on a terrain.
02/10/2007 (12:06 am)
Thanks all for your comments! @Thomas B.: No, I guess you were the ship that blowed up the other one :-)
@Stefan L.: He he, yes, that project and another one I recently joined. I increased the max. packet size in the engine to 800 and recompiled to give it a try. Also tried with 1000 bytes. Very smooth all, but not very modem-friendly :-)
@Frank C.: It's a background image with a screenshot taken from in-game (removed the HUD before screenshooting it). It shows the bots batteling. That's exactly what you get when you start the demo mission. 20 bots spawn and battle each other and that's how it looks like. No fake nothing, I just screenshoted it without the HUD controls.
@Brian: All except the my own ship "Fresh meat" are bots! What you see in the video is pure bot fighting. Only one human player (me!) joined to "see" the battle. Within script in one line you can define if the bots will fight also against human players or if they only take other bots as targets. That allows to go into the game and view the battle without getting shot every time - useful for recording videos etc. :-)
But to be fair - the bots are not checking whether they would fly into a wall or so. Haven't included that. That's the good thing if you make battles in the sky - usually not many objects in the way. It makes the "feel" also more realistic if the planes sometimes hit each other accidentially. More human like behaviour. It's in general really a time sucker if you're in the game and just watch the bots battle. I'm every time astonished about their behaviour. :-) It's a simple and not very long state machine and the results look very nice.
@Tim: Thanks!
Nice idea with the horizon control. I know there's already a resource out of this. Maybe I should contact the author to see if I can include right away in the pack or if I can only write a FAQ about integrating it here.
The idea about the targeting system is also interesting. I'm still thinking if I should include guided missiles, but that would require an OK from garagegames because of including source code. I'm going to talk to GG I think.
@Gary: Thanks. No, I didn't plan anything on doing a space version or so. But it's quite easy. Just remove the terrain stuff :-) The bots don't depend on a terrain.
#39
02/10/2007 (12:34 am)
Looks Great Martin! I'll definitely buy your starter kit as soon as it's released.
#40
02/10/2007 (4:45 am)
sweet stuff 
Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
This will be greatly appreciated.