BZFlag Animation

BZFlag related only please...please attach large images
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LouMan
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BZFlag Animation

Post by LouMan »

Attached are a few sample screenshots of a BZFlag animation I am working on right now. There is still a lot of work to be done with it (sound, title/tag graphics, etc.) So far, the animation is 20 seconds long - I will probably get it to 30 seconds with graphics, etc. Suggestions for theme/audio/text are welcome!

I also have a sample of the video available, but the attachment is too big (wmv format 855k) for this forum, and I don't have a website to post it :(

** note that these are not screenshots taken from BZFlag directly - I have created the animation using LightWave.
Attachments
TankAnimReduced3.jpg
Screenshot 3
(81.14 KiB) Downloaded 70 times
TankAnimReduced2.jpg
Screenshot 2
(83.32 KiB) Downloaded 74 times
TankAnimReduced1.jpg
Screenshot 1
(71.99 KiB) Downloaded 85 times
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spldart
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Post by spldart »

It's looks like a RC tank :) I like it...
Did you want to email me the vid? I can try to goto divx with it and possibly cut back on resolution and video bandwidth to make it more managable. Might even host it for yah on my limited server.
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Post by dartman »

Whoa. Looks cool. I'd like to see it in action. :D
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Post by Guest »

I can host it as it is at 885kb, Louman. The screenies look neat!
If you would like me to host it, just let me know. ;)
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LouMan
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Post by LouMan »

I have already reduced its size from 13 Mb (avi) to 855 k (wmv) - thanks for the suggestion though.

CannonBallGuy - I would be very grateful if you could host the video for a little while! :) Please PM me with file transfer instructions and url to add as link in this thread. Thank you! :)
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LouMan
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Post by LouMan »

Okay. I figured out how to use the web space provided by my internet service to put up a temporary page for the video - I'll warn you that the site is very basic - I made it in about 5 minutes. Anyway, there is a link to the sample video there (remember, the sample is low resolution - will look much better when I make final render).

(removed, sorry)
Last edited by LouMan on Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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^nightmare^
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Post by ^nightmare^ »

WOW, VERY NICE. that should be but on the official bzflag website for an intro, then it takes you to the official page!
Need bzflag help? Try looking here: http://www.freewebs.com/bznightmare/map ... aghelp.htm
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Post by Guest »

Nice, Louman! :)
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Post by Spazzy McGee »

that's very impressive.
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Post by ducatiwannabe »

That's really cool LouMan :)
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Post by dartman »

Can someone put it in a format I can use to see it? Preferably Quicktime. :)
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Post by Guest »

You can download Windows Media Player for mac.... ;)
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Post by A Meteorite »

These tanks and explosions look so much better! Is there a way we can switch out the explosions currently with yours?

Now I'm waiting for the animation to download... :(
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Post by AlliedArmour »

I like that LouMan! It's really great.
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Post by JeffM »

his explosions are a 3d particle effect that lightwave took signifigant time ( probably seconds ) to render. Our explosions are 2d billboards that take 1/1000th of a second to render.

BZFlag could be changed to have bettere explosions, at a higher hardware cost. What you are looking at is a render from a profesional ray trace application, it does things very difrently. You'll notice the shadows are a lot better as well.

All the things in that animation are posible in real time, but not with BZFlag's current restriction of running on older systems that do not have 3d hardware acceleration.

if he rendered just the explosions out to a set of billboards then we could swap them out now, but they woudn't look exactly the same.
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Post by A Meteorite »

JeffM2501 wrote:BZFlag could be changed to have bettere explosions, at a higher hardware cost.
Maybe an option?
JeffM2501 wrote:if he rendered just the explosions out to a set of billboards then we could swap them out now, but they woudn't look exactly the same.
Hmmm... still would look better than the current ones. :D
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Post by a monkey »

Dang! That's nice! It very well could be an intro page for www.bzflag.org, if it were in a more universal format such as MPEG-4. The only weird things I notice about it are, 1) the treads are completely covered, whereas in BZFlag they are always at least partially visible, and, 2) the first time the tank shoots, you can't see the shot itself flying until right before it detonates; you can only see the light it's producing on the ground.
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Post by JeffM »

A Meteorite

yes I planed on doing better explosion effects, in the same way that the new smoke effects are put in, I just ran out of time/enthusiasm.

the problem with options is, there are classes of enhanced effects that start to change the underlying data structures we have to use, so the effects can work. When we get to that point, it becomes harder and more complex to make the code work in ways that are fast on the old systems. The depth buffer off mode in bzflag is a perfect example, it uses a totaly difrent scene database then the "normal" one, and it's has caused us many problems in the past.

at some point I hope we can remove the old machine requirement so it's not a chain holding us back.
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Post by Guest »

As for sound, I am sure you can pick out a 20-30 second clip from the Mini Cooper sequence of The Italian Job. ;)
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Post by dartman »

CannonBallGuy wrote:You can download Windows Media Player for mac.... ;)
I know, I just don't want to get it. my brother said it has spyware.
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Post by a monkey »

LouMan wrote:Suggestions for theme/audio/text are welcome!
I have a cool idea looping in my mind's eye. Don't have real gunshot audio, but the two times the tank fires, boom - an orchestral kettle drum. All the while the animation is playing, there would be a set of eerie chords from strings of some sort, that go musically with the kettle drums. Of course, you would have to make sure that the animation was rhythmically timed.
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Post by LouMan »

All very good ideas. I will keep them in mind. I have also added a sample mpg version of the file at (removed, sorry).

JeffM is absolutely correct in the assumption that I used the particle effects (hypervoxels in LW) to create the explosion. It is 3D - not sure if I can create a billboard version of it. There is a 'sprite' option in LightWave hypervoxels that (I think) creates a 2D version of the 3D particle effect (creates 'slices' of the 3D particle effect that supposedly always face camera).

In any case, remember that the samples are very low resolution and I haven't applied any antialiasing to the animation yet. As I progress, I will update the samples at the url above.
Last edited by LouMan on Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by AlliedArmour »

How fast does LW render animations?
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Post by LouMan »

Frame render time depends heavily on the amount detail requested from the software. Video size, special effects, antialiasing, special detail require much greater rendering time. Keep in mind that LightWave is rendering to a video file and/or a picture file and is not a 'real time' render engine. For the sample video (320x240, low res, no antialias) it took approximately 700-1000 ms per frame to render to the original avi file. If I add antialiasing and increase the video size, it almost exponentially increases the frame render times. LightWave is not a program to run games with, it is an animation package that can create great video/picture files if manipulated correctly.
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Post by AlliedArmour »

I was wondering because the trueSpace 5.5 trial can take a decent amount of time to do a file render.
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