Beta: Sand Blaster

Previews and comments on future maps.
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Dutchrai
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Beta: Sand Blaster

Post by Dutchrai »

The BETA of Sand Blaster is now running on shellshock.bzflag.bz:4502

Unfortunately there is no fog for the moment since the server uses a slightly older version of BZFS.

See you online.

Edit: attached a few more screenshots
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sandblaster05.jpg
Sand Blaster shot 5
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sandblaster06.jpg
Sand Blaster shot 6
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Last edited by Dutchrai on Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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L4m3r
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Post by L4m3r »

Excellent. Amazingly clean, especially for a map made of arcs and meshboxes. Nice and varied, not overdone at all.

I see your reputation is well-deserved. :)
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Post by Dutchrai »

Tx, also added a 'well' in the middle of the map, as you suggested. Uploading the latest version to the server now.
Last edited by Dutchrai on Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by CannonBallGuy »

Yep, looks good. I'm lovin' it.
There is one problem though:
Those pesky tanks that keep killing me or chasing me with SW while I'm checking out the view after having climbed to the top of some building or other.. :wink:
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Post by Dutchrai »

Oh! THAT problem. Here's the solution: use Observation mode, no flag can harm you :shock:
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Post by joevano »

Wow, I just was out there playing this map. It is quite amazing. Not only does it look amazing, it plays great.
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Post by Winny »

Wow, amazingly playable but yet it looks good -not usually a combination you see.
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Post by ClayOgre »

The look and feel of it is great. I like the concept.

It did seem a bit choppy to me, which is weird, because I think the lowest fps I was getting was 29, but then I have somewhat older hardware.

I would also say that for me, the domes, both "onion" and regular don't work. The idea is sound, but there is no "light modelling" to the shape. At least on my hardware, it just looks like a yellow silhouette. It is a cone inside a sphere, correct? I wonder how it would look as a mesh object with a smoother transition between the "dome" and the "point", and perhaps a custom texture.

Edit:

Oooops....Somehow or other I had the lighting turned off...(everyone can attest to my absent-mindedness), so the color on the domes works. I still wonder about a mesh, tho.
Wow, amazingly playable but yet it looks good -not usually a combination you see.
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Post by Dutchrai »

Tx for the playability compliment, nice to hear since that's what I focus on first. The graphics are a nice addon, but should not get in the way I think.

As for the graphics however :-) :

The lighting set to off would definitely explain the yellow silhouette syndrome :-) Funny one.

And yes, the domes are a hemisphere and a cone combined. A mesh model would be an idea...I'll see if I can do something about that. However, the smaller the dome/cone, the less divisions I use. If I use a mesh, I would need them in several versions to keep this type of optimization as well.

As for the FPS...I am still optimizing (wireframe mode is great for this), and have just uploaded beta v0.92 with the latest optimizations included.
Trepan especially has been very kind to offer his expertise and has done a lot of work in this area.

It'll still be hard a bit on the older hardware though since the map does use shininess and stuff to make gold, copper, metal and glass really look like gold, copper, metal and glass.
Having said that, my own video card is a lowly nvidia 5200 (good for testing anyway) but it runs at max FPS most of the time in 1162*864 75Hz 32bits video mode with 2AA. Without AA (still very good at this res) it runs at max FPS 100% of the time.
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Post by Green Manalishi »

ancient/future technology in a small asian settlement! great concept, it looks great and is amazingly playable, as win xp said. reminded me of ratlab at times (which isn't a bad thing), but to the most part it feels very original. fog would be a bonus, but not a must imo. short duration for the bad flags is a good thing too.
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Post by Dutchrai »

It does remind me of Rat Lab a little too, although I did not intend to go that way. Sometimes you just don't know what will happen....you start with one building, then the next structure...etc. I was planning to go all 'old architecture' but then got an idea to put in some tech. I liked the feel and continued. It's like that I guess.

The fog is there actually, but the server on which it is hosted is version 2.0.4 (which does not support fog). Once it is released and you'll host it on a server 2.0.6 or higher, the fog simply will work (like in the screenshots). Normally I have not much going for fog, but it really works well in this map. Just adds to that desert feeling.

I am very close to release of the map, probably will include a rippled sand texture for the ground as well. Looks nice with it :-)
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Post by MonsterMan++ »

Wow, that's amazing stuff I reckon. :D It looks like a good map only there doesn't seem to be very many flags I think and I only saw a few teleporters but I haven't played it have I? I'm going to try it as soon as possible. :wink:
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Post by Dutchrai »

Phew...done. Go and check the section 'map releases' :roll:
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