Paper Soldier Search and Rescue
by Thomas Oliver · 01/16/2009 (5:29 pm) · 10 comments
This has been a idea my small team here has tossed around for some years now. Staying busy on different projects and different jobs has kept us from working on our own projects. But with the down turn in the economy and the slow down in work, We have decided its a good time to kick out some of our own ideas.
The idea of this blog is to get some ideas, suggestions and feedback on our current project.
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Your role is that of a paper soldier helicopter pilot and your job is to rescue all the members of your platoon that have been shotdown and/or stranded throughout the house. You will take your radio helicopter and fly around the house searching for your missing platoon members all the while dodging enemy fire and hazards of the house that can bring doom to a paper soldier.
Yes I said that right, throughout the house. The game world consists of two bedrooms, a computer room, two bathrooms, a front room, kitchen + dining room, backyard, and a front yard.
Thats 9 play zones and over 20 missions throughout the game. All of it being modeled after a real life location and lots of attention being put into making the game just fun to pickup and play.
The following screenshots are taken from our computer room zone. *Note these are not finished screenshots as the game is in a concept R&D stage right now.
As you can see we have no textures for these objects yet. I figured on putting that off tell I had the game up and fully working and fun to play before I made the final pass on adding in textures.
Everything in the screenshots above are all dif objects made with constructor and shown in TGEA 1.8.
We plan to do some interesting things with lighting in the game since some missions will take place during the day time and some at night when the room is barely lite and the major way of seeing is to use the lights on your helicopter.
Right now we do not have any plans to let the player outside of his helicopter other then during the cutscreens. But the world is designed in such a way that if a future multiplayer element was to be added to the game on foot movement would completely work. There are dozens of places to hide behind books, inside stacks of cds, in drawers, inside the printer, behind the desks. So as you can see lots of options there for some fun shooter style action.
Let me know what you think, any ideas you might have that you want to share, and just general feed back.
The idea of this blog is to get some ideas, suggestions and feedback on our current project.
-------------------------
Your role is that of a paper soldier helicopter pilot and your job is to rescue all the members of your platoon that have been shotdown and/or stranded throughout the house. You will take your radio helicopter and fly around the house searching for your missing platoon members all the while dodging enemy fire and hazards of the house that can bring doom to a paper soldier.
Yes I said that right, throughout the house. The game world consists of two bedrooms, a computer room, two bathrooms, a front room, kitchen + dining room, backyard, and a front yard.
Thats 9 play zones and over 20 missions throughout the game. All of it being modeled after a real life location and lots of attention being put into making the game just fun to pickup and play.
The following screenshots are taken from our computer room zone. *Note these are not finished screenshots as the game is in a concept R&D stage right now.
As you can see we have no textures for these objects yet. I figured on putting that off tell I had the game up and fully working and fun to play before I made the final pass on adding in textures.
Everything in the screenshots above are all dif objects made with constructor and shown in TGEA 1.8.
We plan to do some interesting things with lighting in the game since some missions will take place during the day time and some at night when the room is barely lite and the major way of seeing is to use the lights on your helicopter.
Right now we do not have any plans to let the player outside of his helicopter other then during the cutscreens. But the world is designed in such a way that if a future multiplayer element was to be added to the game on foot movement would completely work. There are dozens of places to hide behind books, inside stacks of cds, in drawers, inside the printer, behind the desks. So as you can see lots of options there for some fun shooter style action.
Let me know what you think, any ideas you might have that you want to share, and just general feed back.
About the author
#2
Also in the last screenshot almost dead center the little T looking figure there. You guessed it, thats the character standing there.
01/16/2009 (6:12 pm)
I didn't mention but for size comparison in the first screenshot in front of the computer screen on the right there's a black line standing there. Thats actually our test character standing there.Also in the last screenshot almost dead center the little T looking figure there. You guessed it, thats the character standing there.
#3
01/16/2009 (8:15 pm)
That's the orc. ;)
#4
Still trying to figure out a good way to handle helicopter controls. I would like for it to be easy enough to use a mouse / keyboard to control it but also simple enough to use a 360 / PS3 controller if someone wanted to go that direction.
Most of the fun is going to come from guiding your heli into and above the person to pickup. It won't always be as easy as it sounds. And all the while you are avoiding enemy fire and *unknown* worldly encounters.
01/16/2009 (8:38 pm)
It could be the orc ;) Or it could be the spaceguy :D Still trying to figure out a good way to handle helicopter controls. I would like for it to be easy enough to use a mouse / keyboard to control it but also simple enough to use a 360 / PS3 controller if someone wanted to go that direction.
Most of the fun is going to come from guiding your heli into and above the person to pickup. It won't always be as easy as it sounds. And all the while you are avoiding enemy fire and *unknown* worldly encounters.
#5
01/16/2009 (8:59 pm)
That is cool! Looking forward to seeing more!
#6
One question: are DIF's created in Constructor as light-weight as the ones created in blender or 3dmax?
I mean, used to think that Constructor was not to be used for creating props, but rather just for creating structures.
I probably am wrong, and would love to hear from you.
Would you encourage us to build props in Constructor? Doesn't it come with any penalty in speed and/or memory?
Thanks,
Rui
01/17/2009 (3:54 am)
Very cool!One question: are DIF's created in Constructor as light-weight as the ones created in blender or 3dmax?
I mean, used to think that Constructor was not to be used for creating props, but rather just for creating structures.
I probably am wrong, and would love to hear from you.
Would you encourage us to build props in Constructor? Doesn't it come with any penalty in speed and/or memory?
Thanks,
Rui
#7
The only down side I have encountered is that it does take a little longer to lite the scene this way.
I would have to look at memory useage on both a clean scene and the above. But I haven't noticed any major fps drop with the scene above. Ageain I would need to do some testing there for exact results.
The down side to Constructor DIF objects is that it does take a fraction longer to light the entire scene. But then ageain you do get complete control over how it is going to be lit and how detailed you want the scene lighting to be (Since you can adjust the light map detail from 256 all the way upto 2048 size light maps per dif.) But the larger you go the longer its going to take to light that dif.
01/17/2009 (5:37 am)
Well generally I use constructor for anything that doesn't need to move in the game world. You get the speed bonuses from using Torques BSP collision system as opposed to polysoup and / DTS object collision system. It's just that the BSP system is just generally faster and easier on the FPS then making a bunch of modeled DTS objects and applying polysoup or using bounding boxs for them.The only down side I have encountered is that it does take a little longer to lite the scene this way.
I would have to look at memory useage on both a clean scene and the above. But I haven't noticed any major fps drop with the scene above. Ageain I would need to do some testing there for exact results.
The down side to Constructor DIF objects is that it does take a fraction longer to light the entire scene. But then ageain you do get complete control over how it is going to be lit and how detailed you want the scene lighting to be (Since you can adjust the light map detail from 256 all the way upto 2048 size light maps per dif.) But the larger you go the longer its going to take to light that dif.
#8
That is running on a:
Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.8-3.1ghz
3gigs of Ram
Intergrated GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Windows 7 build 7000
I do not consider that too bad for this graphics card. By using portals I could get the entire house to render with no loading between levels. But since this is just a simple game I figured just to do each room as its own level and sometimes combine two rooms to extend the length when needed.
01/17/2009 (5:54 am)
The above scenes seem to average around 57-65 fps and contain 117 dif objects and 4 lights. (Should be noted this is with TGEA 1.8)That is running on a:
Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.8-3.1ghz
3gigs of Ram
Intergrated GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Windows 7 build 7000
I do not consider that too bad for this graphics card. By using portals I could get the entire house to render with no loading between levels. But since this is just a simple game I figured just to do each room as its own level and sometimes combine two rooms to extend the length when needed.
#10
I will tell our graphics guys (Dilson and Rafael) that from now on, we can try some props done in Constructor.
Rui
01/17/2009 (10:34 am)
Thanks for the reply.I will tell our graphics guys (Dilson and Rafael) that from now on, we can try some props done in Constructor.
Rui
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