Sonic Adventure 3

[FanGameRevolver]

I tried coding out different camera paths for each level, but that failed, so I'm going to implement this kind of camera system as another option.

If you need help with that I guess I could do that easily enough !

[Snooky]

Another long hiatus. Better than posting with nothing of importance to say.

I SAGE'd myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWayimx2bWI

http://bsgames.net/sa3

Off to put the demo link up. Also bear in mind these are later levels you're playing, so there aren't really walls around the level...yeah.

[Sslaxx]

Downloading the demo right now...

The lack of different textures in the levels as of present does rather make them look samey, though.

[Aaron C-T]

Yea, you could use some better textures/a texture artist. I congratulate you on these being the later levels.

[flame6753]

Another long hiatus. Better than posting with nothing of importance to say.

I SAGE'd myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWayimx2bWI

http://bsgames.net/sa3

Off to put the demo link up. Also bear in mind these are later levels you're playing, so there aren't really walls around the level...yeah.

make sure you submit that page to sagexpo.ORG

[Snooky]

Downloading the demo right now...

The lack of different textures in the levels as of present does rather make them look samey, though.

You mean the levels look the same? They all use a different set of textures :\

Yea, you could use some better textures/a texture artist. I congratulate you on these being the later levels.

I have a texture artist but I chose to use texture rips from actual Sonic games instead.

make sure you submit that page to sagexpo.ORG

I did.

[Minon]

I think he means similar textures are padded all over the levels with not much variety, making the stage feel bland. The general map's model's also part to blame on that. It's more or less a bunch of boxes with textures and not much else.

...still with the mouse-controlled camera I see

[Snooky]

I think he means similar textures are padded all over the levels with not much variety, making the stage feel bland. The general map's model's also part to blame on that. It's more or less a bunch of boxes with textures and not much else.

...still with the mouse-controlled camera I see

Changing the camera isn't exactly the top of my priorities. It will be a last minute addition along with the Chao garden and those other things I don't remember.

[Aaron C-T]

Yea, the textures have very little variety so everything looks the same and it ends up looking like flat sheets.

[Amesuki]

I dunno if you did or not, but alot of people are complaining about your frame-rate uses. I played an old demo, and I had the same problem is DW, and the 30/30 does lie. I was running about 10, prolly less.

You need to make a draw distance, it is vital for making it run a HELL of a lot fast. Just deactive objects when from a certain distance, and reactive them when with-in a certain distance of the character. Add fog if you want to hide it.

Trust me, it runs it alot faster, because the reason it runs so slow is because it is drawing the whole level, where it should only be drawing parts it needs at the current time.

[Snooky]

I dunno if you did or not, but alot of people are complaining about your frame-rate uses. I played an old demo, and I had the same problem is DW, and the 30/30 does lie. I was running about 10, prolly less.

You need to make a draw distance, it is vital for making it run a HELL of a lot fast. Just deactive objects when from a certain distance, and reactive them when with-in a certain distance of the character. Add fog if you want to hide it.

Trust me, it runs it alot faster, because the reason it runs so slow is because it is drawing the whole level, where it should only be drawing parts it needs at the current time.

I already use that for most levels, some levels lag regardless (Skyline has an incredibly short draw distance but still lags at points >_>) I'll get around to adding a draw distance to the other levels as well.

[LarkSS]

Adding to what Amesuki said, you can 'mask' the draw distance effect by applying fog to the scene, or just make objects fade to a solid color similar to the background the further out they are until they're no longer drawn.

It helps if you're able to avoid drawing objects to the left and right of the camera and behind you too in addition to the draw distance. Optimization is key!

[Snooky]

Adding to what Amesuki said, you can 'mask' the draw distance effect by applying fog to the scene, or just make objects fade to a solid color similar to the background the further out they are until they're no longer drawn.

It helps if you're able to avoid drawing objects to the left and right of the camera and behind you too in addition to the draw distance. Optimization is key!

I thought of doing that but I would have no clue how.

[FanGameRevolver]

I thought of doing that but I would have no clue how.

d3d_set_fog(1,c_ltgray,0,1000)

d3d_set_fog(enable,color,starting distance,ending distance)

it starts to shade your color faintly at the starting distance from a point and uses that solid color at the ending distance.

just an example of the fog effects i'm using for my game. I'm not sure if it sets distance to an object or the camera itself but...meh.

[Snooky]

d3d_set_fog(1,c_ltgray,0,1000)

d3d_set_fog(enable,color,starting distance,ending distance)

it starts to shade your color faintly at the starting distance from a point and uses that solid color at the ending distance.

just an example of the fog effects i'm using for my game. I'm not sure if it sets distance to an object or the camera itself but...meh.

I'm not talking about fog, FGR XP I mean I don't know how I would make objects behind the camera disappear. I already use fog at several points in this game P:

[Yvarthecreatorgames]

the demo i played first wasn't that good. but that last video looked interesting. i hate that you still have the same name as Sa3FDS

[flame6753]

the demo i played first wasn't that good. but that last video looked interesting. i hate that you still have the same name as Sa3FDS

I hate that you both even used the name 'Sonic Adventure 3' instead of actually thinking of a title You could have just called it Sonic Adventure: Full Dark Sonic. And Snooky, regardless of the fact that he was claiming to only have named it because he was following along with the story, could still have created an original name.

[FanGameRevolver]

I'm not talking about fog, FGR XP I mean I don't know how I would make objects behind the camera disappear. I already use fog at several points in this game P:

Game maker does that automatically... I Know this because the game will run very fast when I tip the camera away from the majority of the level but lags a bit otherwise.

Also I got a good frame rate in the demo levels. At least much better then previous betas.

[Cyber Rat]

could still have created an original name.

Like it matters... I thought we surmounted the name issues on this forum?

[Snooky]

Yes, it is named Sonic Adventure 3 because it follows the story, and is actually 3D and ties in with the series. I have plenty of other games with original names anyway, so it's not as if I'm having any trouble choosing one.

[Damizean]

Game maker does that automatically... I Know this because the game will run very fast when I tip the camera away from the majority of the level but lags a bit otherwise.

Also I got a good frame rate in the demo levels. At least much better then previous betas.

It doesn't at all, not the type of clipping we're talking about. It does perform clipping on triangle basis, but not on object basis, wich is what you guys should be doing to discard large amounts of triangles.

[FanGameRevolver]

It doesn't at all, not the type of clipping we're talking about. It does perform clipping on triangle basis, but not on object basis, wich is what you guys should be doing to discard large amounts of triangles.

hmm...I have code that does that sort of thing to get objects out of the way that were in front sonic (blocking the players view) I could probably adjust it for everything behind him, rather than just whats between him and the camera...I just never felt a need to remove everything you cant see. Although now I'll look into it.

[Yvarthecreatorgames]

mines calls sa3 because it has a bit the same feeling like the adventure series.. with story, music and stuff.

[Shonumi]

Pssh... 8 Pages into the thread and naming is still an issue? Personally, I don't think fangames really need "justification" for why they're named. For all I'm concerned, the game file itself needs a name whereby I can differentiate it from all of the other thousands of files on my computer, so you know, I can play it. Beyond that, everything else is irrelevant.

Now, getting to something worthwhile in saying, I commend you Snooky for undertaking a 3D Sonic Fangame. I ain't played your demo yet, but I think the demo looks pretty good in concept. Aside from what has been said, mainly the lack of different textures, one other thing that I find that makes the game rather stagnant is the lack of other in-game objects.

Sure I see you've got springs and rings and dash pads, but those are all standard fanfare for Sonic games. I think there should be more environmental objects. Lampposts, benches, bushes, more trees, maybe a fountain, and even rocks will do the trick. I just goes further to add more depth the game. It also helps the game feel a little less like a closed box. Additionally, it should really be a simple feat to achieve, as you'll merely be adding a static object into the game.

Still I liked what I see, I know you're not done, but it's good work nonetheless. I'll keep my eye on this one for SAGE.

[Damizean]

Here's an example on how to do frustum culling based in the planes equations all 3D engines use. The culling is done in 2D through the use of camera planes calculated off the camera's Yaw and aperture (not the best way, but it works).

Doing the tests in 2D simplifies the maths involved and requires less processing power (something needed due the terribly slow scripting engine Game Maker has) and offers flexibility enough to be able to test if either:

• A point is in the visible frustum.
• A rectangle is in the visible frustum.
• A sphere is in the visible frustum.

To find out how to adapt it to your game, check out the example (both objCamera and objTest. Ignore objTimeDelta as it is used to keep movement consistency regardless the FPSs)

However, be warned. Due the amount of calculations that need to be done, the scripting engine may slow down a lot when there's a lot of objects around, so much in some occasions where the object to draw isn't that very high poly. In those occasions, it's just better to render directly, without culling testing. A good optimization would be using this in conjuntion of an instance deactivation system, though.

So this system is useful if you want to discard models with a lot of triangles (characters, objects, enemies, etc).

On a side note, this frustum culling test can also be used for 2D games where, for example, you need to check out if an enemy or a player is look at something

FrustumCulling.zip