Blog for Vinh Tran at GarageGames.com

Prelim Wiimote Integration Posted

Vinh Tran — 2007-04-03T03:48:53+00:00

Been out of town for a bit so I haven't had a chance to get this out like I wanted.

This is just some prelim work. The Code currently supports all buttons (wiimote + chuck) and the acceleration of the wiimote in the x,y,z. It will return this as a Calibrated Value. -X to X, with 0 being no force. Gravity counts as a force, btw.

This particular integration modifies the Torque 1.5 starter.racing example game just to show what can be done quickly.

You should be able to tilt the remote towards you and use the [1] and [2] buttons for accel/brake. Turning the remote like a steering wheel will turn the car.

You will need some sort of USB bluetooth adapter and your wiimote needs to be connected to it before running the racing demo. I won't go over how to do this (its pretty easy) because there are many different adapters available.

My goal is to fully integrate and then do some development.

My todo list includes IR, Chuck Accel, Speaker, LEDs, and Port stuff.

I love discussions on the topic, feedback, or just general interest. I'm also open to PC Wii gameplay ideas to integrate. Hit me up at tranvv@gmail.com

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Usage:

There are 4 new files to add to the project in the platformWin32 directory:

hiddevice.cpp/.h
wiimote.cpp/.h

These files come from Kevin Forbes (http://simulatedcomicproduct.com) and have been flagged as public domain.

I've included Diffs of all my code changes in PDF format. This should make it a ton easier to integrate. You should be able to copy and paste from Adobe Reader.

I've also included the 4 new files, remember to add them to your project.

***See thread in Private SDK Engine area for code/diffs ***

Thread located here:
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=60044

Guitar Hero PC Clone Version 0.2

Vinh Tran — 2006-07-20T18:27:05+00:00

Newest version available!

Support for:
- HammerOns and PullOffs
- New Graphics
- Note Destruction
- Bigger font for all you blind people
- Lefty Flip
- Strumbar Calibration
- New GUI

Project Page:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=project&page=view.project&qid=3489

Download Page
http://www.hardkore.org/~ohsnap

Youtube Action
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1FaX_b7PC8Q

PC Guitar Hero Clone Prototype Release

Vinh Tran — 2006-07-17T15:08:43+00:00

This is the first version of my working PC Clone Guitar Hero prototype.

There's still a lot of work to be done but using the Freetar Hero editor, you can create and play your favorite MP3s in Guitar Hero style. If you have a USB2PS2 converter you can even use your GH guitar.

Done using TGE 1.4

http://www.hardkore.org/~ohsnap/

XML Data

Vinh Tran — 2006-06-01T18:45:16+00:00

Well, i had no idea people actually read these... but thanks! I just hope this doesn't clog up all of the resources with junk... Can't say I'm a big fan of these being considered resources.

While alt-tabbing back and forth through BWL last night I was able to flesh out the XML data section a little more. After making some modifications to the XML Console Parser I was able to read in the XML data completely. The XML data looks something like this:

<Data>
 <Note time="0.341" duration="0.0" track="0"/>
 <Note time="1.288" duration="0.0" track="1"/>
 <Note time="3.331" duration="0.0" track="2"/>
...
</Data>

After an arbitrary loading/starting time (of 5 seconds) I am scheduling the notes based on their time in the XML data. I've got a function I'm calling with schedule() that just outputs the notes to the console window at realtime.

Example output in console:

For my sample song (Metallica - Nothing Else Matters) it seemed to look pretty accurate. Of course it is only going to be as accurate as the user who edited it can make it. My next step will be to get the mp3 playing in accordance with the song and sync both of them up. When I'm finished I should be able to see the notes being displayed in the console log as the song is playing.

One issue is from what I understand, TGE works in 32 ms ticks. Hopefully this isn't enough to throw off the timing, but I won't know until I test it!

What to Do?
Since people are reading this I've got a few unanswered items that will need to be addressed in the future. If you have any ideas feel free to drop some comments.

- Note Display - I haven't thought of a good way to mimic the note display in the PS2 Guitar Hero. An implementation for the scrolling fretboard just isn't coming to me. The notes I can spawn as objects and just move them towards the camera in time with the music, but the fretboard I don't know about right now. Any ideas? Some sort of GUI? Searching hasn't given me any leads yet. I'm very interested in doing it with a 3d approach but at the minimum I can always create some 2d GUI control to handle it.

- Background Display - Going along with the above, I want the foreground to contain the 3d notes and the fretboard, but at the same time I want something going on in the background. My first thought was to include the Music Video (if one exists) and have it playing in the background (I'm sure T2D is a better engine to do this entire project on, but i'm poor and don't want to purchase it at this time). The other idea is to use TGE to create an animated scene like they do in the game and then have the camera move around and change views within the scene. However, all the time the foreground items must be present which leads me to believe I need to create a GUI to contain my gameplay display. I'm not sure where to start when it comes to manipulating 3d objects on the gui.

Playing Catchup

Vinh Tran — 2006-05-31T17:18:59+00:00

Controller Input
I need to make sure I can use the PS2 controller with TGE. This is accomplished using a PS2->USB converter that I bought awhile back. I want to make sure all of the buttons, the tilt, and the whammy bar are functional because a game without the controller could get pretty boring.

After a little bit of testing I found that I was able to connect the controller and map all of the buttons within TGE. I currently have an issue with the Whammy bar not functioning and I believe this has to do with the PS2 Analog Control setting. I will have to look into this more later as it is not a requirement to get the Whammy bar Functioning.

Source Media Types
I made the decision to go with MP3s as they are the most widely used media source I know of and easy to obtain. The basic level of the game requires me to play the MP3 and then load objects across the screen as I record input from the controller and make logical decisions relating to score and other game elements. This is pretty basic when it comes to the MP3 side of things: play, stop, rewind, etc.

One thing I wanted to look into was isolating the guitar track in an MP3 to give the game a more realistic guitar feel, like in the PS2 version. The impact on the engine is the ability to play 2+ MP3s at once time and individually mute them as the song goes on.

This resource incorporates Fmod within TGE and I will be attempting to implement it at a later date:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2305

Songfile Input
The Freetar Hero editor lets you create songfiles to play along with mp3s. The program stores the data as XML files. That means I need to be able to read XML files and parse them from within TGE.

Last night I used the following resource to create a console XML parser. I will use this to parse the data out of the XML for the game information. I had to make a modification (which I documented in the thread) to read Text Nodes.

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=9031

Next up I plan to read the Song data from the file and schedule the creation of individual notes in the gameworld.

My current prototype plan:

- Calculate the XML File length and determine an estimated Load Time.
- Create an Active Note structure or object that will store the current active note. Any input from the controller will be matched against the Active Note for determining whether the input was accurate or not.
- Read the Error Time property to determine how long a note will be the Active Note. A note will be set to active while:
Active Note Time - Error Time <= Game Time <= (Active Note Time + Error Time || Another note is active)
-Determine the amount of time to display a note in the game world. This is equal to the preview of what is coming in the game as the notes slide down the fret towards the user. Called Delay Time (5 seconds?).
-Schedule the Creation of notes within the gameworld = (Note Time - Error Time - Delay Time + Load Time)
-Schedule the Cleanup of notes within the gameworld. This is sometime after the note has passed out of the active note.
-Schedule the note to be set as the Active Note = (Note Time - Error Time + Load Time)
-Schedule the note to be removed as the Active Note = (Note Time + Error Time + Load Time)

Decisions, Decisions

Vinh Tran — 2006-05-31T17:06:33+00:00

I've had plenty of ideas since purchasing the TGE but I've really never been fully motivated to work on a project for very long. 90% of the time this is because I get interrupted by something else and my attention is forever diverted. However, I've decided to work on a PC Version of Guitar Hero using TGE 1.4. I've also decided to journal development just for something to look back on.

Some background on myself
I'm a software engineer for a company in Fort Worth, TX. I've got aspirations for game design and development. I'm familiar with the software development process including some of the more often overlooked aspects of schedules and staff management. My 5 years experience in the workforce has given me a pretty clear understanding of how to work a project from start to finish from many different angles.

Inspiration
I'm not claiming this to be anything new or different from the PS2 original, at least not at first. At its most basic level I want to recreate the gameplay and allow the user to import any mp3 and song file to play.

At first I thought about creating an editor for the songfiles, but then I met Anton over at http://antonstruyk.com/freetar/ and found out he was already working on an editor.

Using his editor as a starting point, I have begun to develop my game.

Starting
I am using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express and TGE 1.4 with the instructions in the TDK on how to get the two working together. I plan to always post links to any resources I use during this project.