KarBOOM

G'day!

I've decided to put out my game in its current state. There's detailed information on my website and older announcements go into some other details, but the most important stuff is here.

Download it from here: 7 megabytes.

EDIT: Or download the latest version 0.1.1 here:
6 megabytes

Watch darkinferno's video of some 2-player gameplay!

What does it look like?







How do I play it?

To start, activate each car you want to play by clicking on the coloured buttons in the menu. The controls for each car can be found and changed in the controls menu. If you're using XBox 360 gamepads (which I highly recommend), you steer with the left analog stick, accelerate and brake/reverse with the right and left triggers (respectively) or the A and X buttons (also respectively). The B button handbrakes (as does pressing A and X simultaneously, or pressing the forward and back keys simultaneously if you're using the keyboard). The start button pauses or unpauses the game. I imagine (and hope) it'd work similarly on other gamepads, but I only have XBox 360 pads. In future I hope to support as many gamepads as you can plug in to your PC.

Pause the game at any time with the ESC key (it can also be used to unpause from the main menu). The menu can be navigated with the mouse.

If you're using the keyboard to control several cars at once, you'll probably encounter key jamming. This is where only a few key-presses can be detected at any one time, so your car might not respond to some input while other players are using the same keyboard. There's nothing I can do about this. This problem depends entirely on the keyboard. If you're into PC gaming I strongly recommend getting one or more gamepads for PC. I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember, but never used a gamepad on PC until the beginning of this week for this game. My brothers and I have been using them for this game and others we already owned, and basically it is much better than mouse and keyboard for many types of games. Obviously if all you play is shooters or strategy games you'll have no need for a gamepad.

What are the rules?

Stay in the dirt patch. If you go out of bounds you'll begin to glow and expand, giving you a brief opportunity to get back in the ring before you explode. If you explode without bumping into any other cars you'll lose 5 points. If you bump into someone else before they explode you'll gain 10 points. The game currently has no victory conditions, but in the near future I hope to give the option of choosing Time Limit, Score Limit, Life Limit, and Survival to determine a winner in each round.

My brothers and I generally just say "First to 200!" and then when we get there we set a new limit and keep on going.

What are the mutators?

They add twists to the rules. They all stack. At the moment there are only two, but I plan on adding more soon. We have:

• sapoi -- from the Fijian name for "Rock Paper Scissors". In this mode, each car is strong against one car and weak against another. This mutator is only active when there are three players. Each player has a ring around their car pointing towards their target and showing the colour of their target. Each car can smash their target easily, but will bounce off the other car with little effect. Basically everyone's chasing someone and running from someone else. It can get confusing, but just remember who your target is and focus on them.
• tag -- when this mutator is first activated nothing appears to have changed. However, as soon as someone is forced out of the ring they become "it". Once that happens, everyone who is not "it" gains one point to their score every second. The person who's "it" needs to try and make someone else "it" instead, and does this by forcing them out of the ring, or simply making contact with them. The person who is "it" flashes and has a ring around them so everyone knows who to avoid. This can be played with any number of players.

What is replay?

From the pause menu you can hit "replay" to see a replay of the last 5 or so minutes of gameplay. Unfortunately it does not keep track of mutators, so while the score and outcome of all collisions will still work fine, there'll be no visual indication of who is "it" in tag, or who dominates who in sapoi. In future you'll be able to move forward and backward through the replay as you please, and hopefully be able to save your replays to view again later. The replay can be cancelled with the ESC key.

Why is the menu laid out as it is?

I kind of made it up as I went. It'll be cleaned up soon enough, but I really wanted to release the game today.

Why do some of the sound effects really suck?

I recorded some of the sounds in a rush today while trying to prepare the game for its first release. Some of them are placeholders. Some of them will probably stay as they are.

Why is the game so empty?

I think you get the idea. Work in progress.

What does the future of this game look like?

Here's a brief (and probably incomplete) summary of the things on my to-do list (in no particular order).

• Online multiplayer.
• Replay editor.
• Improved visuals.
• Improved sound effects.
• Music.
• Graphics options to accommodate for older PCs.
• Unlimited offline multiplayer (up to four keyboard players + as many gamepads as you can fit in your PC).
• Victory conditions. added in 0.1.1.
• More mutators.
• More levels.
• Racing mode.

Known bugs.

• Due to a bug with ISOMETRIC views, the particle shadows are the wrong size when the camera gets closer. This has been fixed but isn't in a public version of the engine yet, so I can't do anything about it.
• Replay sometimes misses an explosion or sound effect. This rarely happens, and I have a pretty good idea as to why this happens. -- fixed in 0.1.1
• Won't work on some peoples' computers.

I hope you enjoy this game and get involved as much as you can by giving me feedback and suggestions

Jibb

EDIT: Post updated to include a link to the latest version, KarBOOM 0.1.1, changes to the bug list, and changes to the to-do list.

cool game!
but you should smooth the controls a little!
it was really hard to play it.
but in fact a cool game idea and good graphics!
i like it!

nice game, love the features you have planned.. what are you gonna use for the mp? anet? oh i guess your probably using A8 hence the stable physics

Thanks guys
I'll take that as a compliment to my programming I do use A8, but no physics engine. I wrote the physics with the replay editor and online multiplayer in mind in good old-fashioned Lite-C. It's very simple physics but I believe it does the job. I'm going to stick with A8's network functions for setting up the online multiplayer, but more just to send my own information (rather than letting A8 automatically update entities or anything). I have a few reasons for this -- one is that I just like programming things my way (like with the physics), and other reasons will hopefully reveal themselves down the road.

I forgot to mention that I have absolutely no idea what to call this game -- I don't actually want to call it "Car Game LOL". Suggestions are welcome if you don't mind donating ideas. I was thinking since "Minecraft" comes from "mining" and "crafting", which is what the game is all about, I should call my game "DriveExplode"

I also forgot to mention that while I want to get all those things done eventually, the order in which I do them will depend largely on what its players want. So what would you guys like to see done first?

EDIT: I'm thinking victory conditions first, as being able to define rounds of gameplay would be very advantageous for online multiplayer; followed perhaps by unlimited players, simply because replay mode and the HUD will need some extra work on it to accommodate for arbitrary player counts. But I'd like everyones thoughts on this, and I'd like to hear what people are most eager to get their hands on!

Jibb

i think you could actually do more than just some circle, maybe even some small lap based racetracks.. or even some first to the finish style tracks..

@physics: ahh they did feel a little scripted, i was running to into cars to see how they react but i guess the suspension and amazing thing you did with the movement fooled me, amazing meaning, how the car skids if you keep turning and lose grip.. good job man, feels flawless..

@replay: am impressed with this the most, simply because i wanted to do my own but dropped the idea after not being able to think up a way to save particles, physics and other player positions.. though i guess there must be a way, will look into it again

@name: something simple indeed:
-boom racer, carBlast, carBump, [too lazy to think up more atm]

Ah yes, more interesting levels would be good. I was thinking that in future it could have Mashed-style racing -- the camera follows the whole pack around a decent-sized race-track, and if you fall too far behind you get kicked out. More levels and a racing mode have been added to my to-do list.

Of course, this will require a lot of work, since a decent sized racetrack should be much more complex than an arena. Also because I currently only do physics in 2D But that'll change. I don't mind a lot of work. And I've always enjoyed physics programming.

For replay mode I currently have an array of "states" -- a state is relatively simple since there can't be more than 4 cars at the moment, and each one is fairly basic. The states contain as little information as possible to replicate the current state of the game. Each "replay car" is a new entity (the actual cars are hidden) with its own action to kick up dust when it's losing grip, to rev the engine depending on its speed and the recorded input of the player, to align and rotate its wheels appropriately, to lean in the right direction according to changes in its velocity, and to glow and expand when it is out of bounds.

Each state also contains the time at which it was created. Playing back a replay involves incrementing a replay timer, and moving through the array until we're sitting between the state that should occur before this time and the state that should occur afterwards. Then it's just a matter of simple interpolation. States are automatically recorded every 16th of a second when the game is unpaused, with additional states inserted to make sure collisions are always perfectly replicated and explosions are never missed. Since it's simply a matter of interpolation between two states, I could very easily have an interface to scrub forward and back through the replay arbitrarily, although during backwards play I wouldn't want to create particles, nor play the same sounds.

These game-states will be the basis for my online multiplayer, although they'll be even further simplified, sent on a less regular basis, and I'll have to use some smart extrapolation rather than simple interpolation.

Thanks for the feedback

Jibb

Just played for almost an hour, loved it. 2-Players first, then 3-Players, we couldn't stop laughing.

Great game!
As for the Internet multiplayer part, I'm not sure I like the idea. I think you'll manage to make the movement lag-free and fun, but I believe this game lives from the "we're all on the same keyboard and we can hear each other laughing"-feel. Dunno, might be wrong.

Can you make the shockwave that pushes other people when your car gets removed about as large as the shockwave that actually pushes people? Right now, the visuel-effect is much smaller than the physics-effect. So you don't see the
dust hitting you, but you still get pushed, it felt "wrong" at first.

Otherwise no negative criticism. I simply loved the game.

Thanks Germanunkol! That kinda response makes me feel really happy

In regards to the online multiplayer: For one thing I want this game to accommodate for people who aren't likely to have other people around playing the game at home. I personally think offline multiplayer always trumps online, but some people don't, and I want to include them.

Secondly, I think it'd be really cool to have offline-online hybrid multiplayer, especially if there are team game modes. So imagine you and two or three friends around your computer all participating in the same online game. Even better, competing as a team against another bunch of people sharing a computer somewhere else in the world. Perhaps I should give hosts the option to limit how many players are on each computer, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

In regards to the shockwave: That makes sense. The actual shockwave doesn't have a size -- the force is applied to every car and the magnitude of the force is inversely proportional to the square of the car's distance from the explosion. But I can certainly make the size of the shockwave bigger to line up with what actually appears to happen.

Jibb

EDIT: CarBOOM? Like, a play on the onomatopoeia "KABOOM!"
EDIT2: MotoSumo/AutoSumo?

prefer KarBooM ^ ^ and i like the multiple users to a pc online multiplayer, i planned to do it one day, should be fun, guess i'll look into a replay thing for my game too thought its a bit more tricky, lol alot more going on ^^

just wanted to post this vid for those to lazy to download and look at it, maybe you could add it to your first post julz? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWmmwxgG3ZA

if you wanna edit the info i wrote on the vid and/or remove the vid for whatever reason, lemme know...

-good coding

Thanks darkinferno I love it. I'll edit my first post now -- you'll find it near the top.

Jibb

Great work!
I really like the idea and your selfmade physics. The drifting is cool, too.

IMO the camera sometimes comes too close what makes me dizzy, but that's just a matter of taste, of course.
Please add online multiplayer, as I currently have no one else around, too. Usually, I prefer local gaming over online gaming, but it can be funny with Teamspeak, too.

Btw KarBoom is a nice title!

Really great game and sweer gfx
It´s really funny and it kinda reminds me to flatout
I also have a suggestion. What about a Level editor?

I think the camera coming in close is really cool.
Maybe you shouldn't make it come in quite so much, or make it move slower, I don't know, if people dislike it. But the effect is kinda cool, makes the game very intense. So don't take it out entirely, but maybe lessen the effect a litte?

Yes, that's what I was trying to say. The effect makes the game vivid, but for my taste the camera comes too close and it kind of jumps and zooms too much, hard to explain.

I think the camera should 'include' the exploding car longer, to celebrate the explosion, so that the players can enjoy the explosion.

Nice work, just watched the vid and dloading now.
Agreed with Superku, needs MP urgently, would love to play 4 player. Although I can't imagine I'll be any better than the red car

sorry i didnt try the mutators, didnt remember them, either way, a few requests would be:

- quicker acceleration
- faster reverse
- faster steering
- some items sound perfect: giant car, speed burst, rubber shield or smn[bounces back a car]

i like the map editor idea, maybe using a paint style tool, simple, paint roads and paint grass, finding the danger zones should be easy ^^ may or may not be a bad idea

Hey guys!

Nice to see some more responses while I was out at a Halloween party

Yesterday after seeing Germanunkol's suggestion I made the shockwaves bigger. Sending the dust further didn't look too nice, so instead I've added an additional shockwave effect (nothing fancy, but it looks pretty good IMHO).

Camera suggestions make sense. Explosion should be kept in view for at least a little while, and camera motion should perhaps be softened. I'll see what I can do

I'm working on victory conditions right now. They'll hopefully be done by the end of tomorrow -- enforcing the conditions isn't hard, but I want some sort of victory/statistics screen at the end of a round as well as more menu options, so I don't know how long that'll take.

I'll probably take this opportunity to add a start-up menu (as opposed to going straight into a game with a pause menu). It has to happen sooner or later to accommodate for offline and online multiplayer modes, structured rounds, and so on. I think I might have a separate "free mode" that is more like what we have right now, where players can be added/removed arbitrarily, mutators switched on and off, and so on with some additional options as they become relevant (like changing levels).

Map editor is a good idea. I was going to make one anyway, but simply as a tool for myself for making levels that fit with my style and work hand-in-hand with my physics code. Including a (perhaps simplified -- we'll see) map editor for everyone else sounds like a great idea, though. I like the idea of being able to paint it all together.

Mutator ideas sound great. They shouldn't be hard to add at all. The more the merrier, really, since as long as I make the mutator menu easy to navigate people will just ignore the ones they don't like, and they might find some really awesome combinations I never thought of.

Two mutators I'd like to put in are "barriers" and "buttons":

• barriers -- the edges to the danger zones are blocked by barriers. For game modes like tag where there are other means to increase your score, being able to knock players out of bounds may be too much of a distraction. Barriers remedies this so players can focus on chase and avoidance.
• buttons -- each player has a button on their behind. If their behind is bumped by another car they'll explode. Possibly best played in conjunction with barriers to prevent players being blasted out of bounds by the car they just detonated.

@KarBoom: It's looking like the next release will use this as its title. Hopefully I can get a lot done this week and we'll have something nice this Friday Map editor will almost certainly NOT be done this week (perhaps won't even be started on depending on how long other things take).

Loving the feedback, everyone. And thanks again for the video, darkinferno!

Jibb

I dont what is wrong but it only give a blue screen with panels on every corner. I think I cant run A8 games.

i cant either. i got tires and a tan colored texture.

Bart and Blink, could you please put up a screenshot of what you see? Also what are your PC specs? I'm pretty sure I've tested that the shaders all compile on Shader Model 1.1 if they need to. I tested on my brother's old netbook, which only has Intel integrated graphics, and basically gave up on it because it can't seem to run shaders at all.

I should have alternatives for those with really old/wussy hardware I guess.

Jibb

EDIT: btw, I'm pretty sure I've seen you both use shaders before, so I don't think you're in the same situation as my brother's netbook.
EDIT2: Camera improvements: Camera is centred better on the action, waits for explosions, and move a bit more gently. Buttons mutator added. A bit hectic since I haven't added a barriers mutator yet, but I want to get victory conditions working and the menu cleaned up first. Update will come probably this Friday.

Alright, the buttons mutator I've mentioned a bit is now called weak spot and is indicated by a red glow on the back of each car.

There's some information about the next update available on my website. The update will hopefully be ready by Friday. I'm aiming to bust out a new version of my game every Friday (that I'll announce here and on my website), and information about my progress and my hopes for the next update every Wednesday night (just on my website -- I'll try and resist the urge to start a new post in this thread every time I update my website, but still try to keep this thread up to date with my progress).

I really appreciate everyone's input.

Jibb

I tested it using my Office old PC(well, it's actually the best PC in my office LoL)



Spec:
Intel P4D 3.2GHz
Onboard Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
1Gb RAM
Windows XP SP2 Genuine
Direct X 9.0c

Havent tried with my home PC but just a reminder that 3DGS A8 Free just dont work on both machines either. I do tried to install the latest driver.

Nice work!
have only seen the video yet, as the game doesn't work on my laptop too.
I have a nvidia Gforce 9200M video card, which should be able to run directX 10.
it just says it can't compile the effects.
The screen looks the same as that of barth the 13th, but only with tyres of the cars.

Interesting. That's a real shame -- it sounds very much like an A8 bug in general, and should be reported to conitec.

Roel, your problem could be a little different to Bart's, since the tires actually show up. Have you been able to run other A8 games?

Jibb

I have used the A8 engine to develop a project, and although WED sometimes crashed, the engine worked.
so I can play other A8 games.

might be drivers, althoug I updated last week

What sort of material do the tires show? Can you also post a screenshot? I ask because the tires use the same effect as the cars themselves, yet the cars won't show up.

Sorry for the trouble.

Jibb

KarBOOM 0.1.1 is up.

DOWNLOAD it now!

Try the new weak spots mutator -- bump into the back of another car to make them explode! Also, victory conditions let you enforce different ways to win the game. Limit the game by time, a maximum score, or limited lives for each car.

The menu system is inexcusably awful looking. The "options" button doesn't do anything, and the "ROUND OVER" screen doesn't actually tell you much about the round.

Basically the game now has a title screen, a game setup screen, and is played in rounds, but almost all the HUD elements are just a re-arrangement of what was in 0.1.

Over the next week I'll be focusing on cleaning up the menu system with a nicer looking title screen, and options button that actually works, nicer looking menus in general, and (most importantly) a more informative ROUND OVER screen with useful statistics and some way of emphasising which player(s) won.

I'm keen to get online multiplayer working soon, but it won't be just yet. As explained in my latest announcement, introducing online multiplayer will be a big step, but I don't want to miss a weekly update. So updates like this one and the next few are designed to make the addition of online mode easier.

The round-based system and menu system in this update required a lot of changes to the code to ensure the game knows the difference between being "in game", "paused" and "out game" (as opposed to version 0.1 when you're always either playing or just paused), and this will make adding discrete online rounds easier. Next week's work on the menu system will not just pretty it up; it will hopefully ready the game to use a lobby system I had working a while back before I started this game. And in the near future I hope to make improvements to the replay system -- whose ideas and concepts have a lot to do with the way online play will be synchronised.

Please tell me any problems you guys have! I haven't been able to make any efforts towards Blink's, Bart's, and Roel's problems, as I just don't know enough about what's going wrong on their side yet (except Bart's, which appears to be an A8 issue which should be reported in the Bug Hunt forum).

Jibb

here is a screen shot of what I see in the game:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101723348518...158610976073474

only the background color changed, first it was... the default blue

Okay, so the wheels are shown, but without material. Thanks for the screenshot. Have you got the latest version of DirectX?

I'm going to have to make alternate skins/materials for those with no shader support, so that even if this problem continues it should work with shaders disabled. But, of course, your PC should be able to handle the shaders no problem. Especially since my PC has the same generation of graphics card as yours.

Jibb

Just played the game with my girlfriend and it was really entertaining. Good work!

The mutators gave the gameplay some variety. I'd love to see different levels, especially one which is just a bit larger.

Also you could add another mutator that gives the players a bit more time until they explode when they are outside of the ring. there is hardly time to react. a short help/description for each mutator would help players who didn't read the readme.

Btw: graphics work fine on my ATI Radeon HD 3850.

thank you Julz for reminding me of updating directX!
forgot that
now it works

Brilliant Roel I'm so glad it works! I've put on my KarBOOM page to update DirectX if things aren't working properly.

@SchokoKeks: Glad you like! For a little while I had a help pop-up at the bottom that gave a short description of most menu elements. It never made it to this version. It makes sense to include it as I work on the menu this week. Thanks for the suggestion.

Different levels are a popular request! Should I aim for online multiplayer first or multiple levels? Both require a chunk of work (for levels I'd make a level editor -- first for my use, but hopefully later for everyone's use). This means the first new level will require a lot of work, but after that I should be able to pretty easily add levels as I please. I should also probably get the physics working in 3D before I have multiple levels.

What do people reckon?
Online first or multiple levels?

This week will still be menu-focused, because it really needs it!

Jibb

I'd really prefer to see online gaming first (as I usually only play 1-2 good levels in a multiplayer game, too).

Hi, just tried your game Julz. I enjoyed it a lot, me and my brother had lots of fun knocking each other around.

A few comments:

-The graphics are simple but look very good. Great job!

-The sound effects are a little lack-luster. In particular, the explosions sound kind of wimpy.

-Movement; some people may complain about a lack of acceleration, but I think this is a good thing. If the player has too much control over the car, it will make it too difficult to recover from a bump. Personally I think it's just right

-Music; obviously there's no music yet since you started development of this game just a few weeks ago (I'm guessing), but it's still something that needs to be done. I would suggest some bouncy songs like Bomberman that shift into higher frequencies when two cars come near each other (context sensitive music?)

-Multiplayer; apparently this is a popular idea. IMO it shouldn't be done unless you allow more than one person to play online from the same computer.

-Levels; the round dirt patch is a good bread-and-butter level that I think should be retained even after you create the level editor, but I like the idea of more complex levels too.

...online

Hey, goodnews , it does work on my PC, well, it give me error

at first, then all I need to do is copying the D3D_Compiler.dll(or something like that) to the game directory.
So A8 games do work on my PC :), but why 3DGSA8 wont?

Yes, this is planned. I should update the to-do list to reflect this.

I really appreciate the feedback Some level styles would be easy to generate (such as the circle I already have, a ring level with an abyss in the middle, and some stuff like that), so I might have a list of procedural levels that let you adjust their size to suit how many players you have (when online comes and there are a lot more players the current level will probably be too small, but still suitable for smaller games), as well as a list of pre-built levels.

@sounds/music: I'll see what I can do. I think these are important elements to have in the game to polish the whole package before I am more public about the game (at the moment I'm not making any efforts to advertise it outside of this forum) -- I think if I'm too eager to get attention to this game while it's still really rough, a lot of people won't give it a second look even when it's polished later on.

Bart, your problem is really weird :S But I'm glad you got it working. Thanks for putting in the effort

@online-vote: Noted. Thanks.

Jibb

DOWNLOAD v0.1.2

Slightly updated version. GUI slightly cleaned up. Supports up to 4 gamepads.

I know I said I'd be menu focused. I really only worked on this game last weekend -- rough week with university among other things.

Next I'm going to focus on making the GUI more gamepad friendly (it's really annoying to have to use the mouse in the menu after playing with gamepads), and add support for unlimited players. Now that I use WINAPI for the gamepads its really easy for me to add "unlimited" gamepad support. In fact I've only limited it to 4 in this version because of GUI limitations and the fact that there are still only 4 playable cars.

This means the next update will take some work, and thanks to university may not be released in time for Friday. But it'll make the GUI more functional (probably not better-looking yet), and support an arbitrary amount of players -- this will affect most of my code.

If you have more than two gamepads, PLEASE let me know if it works with more than two gamepads. I only have two, so I couldn't test the extra two.

Jibb

I've just tried the game with a friend of mine (both keyboard) and it's awesome, he really liked it, too. He asked for online multiplayer and I said that the developer is working on it. "Then I will buy it immediately!" was his response.
So keep on with the good work!

Thanks Superku, that's really good to hear I've been needing some motivation lately, and that has helped!

The game is coming along slowly but surely as I redesign and reprogram the menu to be navigable with the keyboard and/or gamepads. Needless to say it is tedious, replacing GS's nice "buttons" system with all this code.

Jibb

Don't give up on this game, I want to play it online!



I've had to do this once, too. As I am rather lazy, I did not want to replace gamestudio's buttons that I've already had implemented, so I wrote very few lines of code to control the mouse by keyboard and gamepad and a function to simulate mouse clicks.

Clever. I've got a long road ahead of me if I keep going like this, so I'll give that a go! Any hints?

Jibb

PM sent!

Wow. Very helpful! Thanks so much. If this was many years ago and we still had a user-rating system I'd give you 5 stars right now!

Jibb

I'm gonna need bigger levels...

Jibb

haha
That looks like fun!

What's with the dust-circles in the middle of the last screen? Are they not placed correctly?

How's the other stuff coming?
You're working on menus now, and networking comes next, correct?

it looks like two cars reversed into each other, notice the hotspot mutator is on [if thats what its called]

Exactly.
That's right. I had a rough week and lost my motivation for about 10 days. I've got my motivation back, and wanted to step up the game with a HUD that accommodates for any number of players, hence the extra players and the new score display.

This coming week will see a better system for adding/removing players (this will probably mean you'll no longer be able to control more than one car with the same gamepad/keyset), some more HUD improvements, and hopefully some music. Once that update is out I'll be working on the lobby system and network play until that's ready.

Jibb

Don't give up! I can already see this on XBLA.

Oh man! Wouldn't that be so cool!? To have a GS game on XBLA

I'm really hoping to knock down this menu and music stuff in the next few days so I can start the online stuff asap.

Jibb

Problem: Acknex is PC-only.

Conitec has always answered questions regarding console deployment that if a publisher has the right money and a GS game gets the "okay" to be put on a console, Contiec will port the game to run on that console. Apparently that's how other game engines got there in the past.

Besides, XBox 360 uses DirectX (a variant of 9, even, I believe), so if anything that'd be the easiest.

On the other hand, I want to self-publish anyway, so even if it's somehow uber-successful it'll probably never get there anyway

Jibb

hm this type of game are good for consoles. Anyway congrats, seems to be a really funny game. And that's the most important goal for a game. Keep up the good work

New changes made to the HUD -- to help keep players from being confused, each score tab has either a cursor-key pattern or a gamepad pattern on it, indicating how that colour's being controlled. When online play comes there'll probably be a third pattern to remind you that that player isn't on the same machine . They're also ordered from left to right -- that is, Gamepad 1 will always be to the left of Gamepad 2, and the cursor-key player will always be to the left of the WASD player, although the gamepad tabs might be in-between keyboard tabs or vice versa depending on the order in which you add players. I hope that makes sense. It will when you get your hands on the next update, hopefully to be done by Friday.

I've got some ideas for improving the sound effects -- apart from just recording better ones (which still needs to be done), I plan to have the menu buttons give some sort of audible feedback (without being annoying). Also, cars are too quiet when the camera's far away, but noisy when the camera's close and there's lots of them, so important sound effects like that and explosions (which as Redeemer mentioned are quite wussy) might get two sounds -- one that is softer and more muffled but has a more gradual falloff, and one that is harsh and crisp but has a fast falloff.

Depending on the resources available to me in the next few days I will either focus on sound effects or music. There's no way either will be "finished" by this Friday, but I do want to make some sort of step forward in audio (which really hasn't improved since 0.1).

Whatever the state, I hope to release 0.1.3 on Friday, and then forget about sound and music for a bit while I get online up-and-running.

I'd love to hear more ideas, such as for mutators (there're only 3 mutators at the moment, but some cool ideas might take relatively little effort to implement before this Friday). I remember Schokokeks recommended players being given more time before they explode -- I think that's a good idea, but not necessarily as a mutator; I'm thinking of making that a level option when level customisation gets some work. And was it darkinferno who suggested a mutator that affects the size of cars? Here's an idea: how about a mutator that attempts to balance the game by giving players who are doing worse a size and mass boost?

Thanks again for the support! KarBOOM now has an IndieDB page in case any of you have IndieDB accounts and want to follow the game there as well!

I have a Physics test tomorrow which is interfering with my productivity today and tomorrow

Jibb

KarBOOM v0.1.3 is out!
DOWNLOAD NOW (7MB)!



More reason to own a gamepad: the game now supports up to 8 players. Only 6 in these screenshots because I only own two gamepads.



The menu's a little prettier, I reckon.

Also, navigate the menu using your gamepad!

No new audio stuff, and no new mutators, unfortunately. But this should be the last version of KarBOOM without online play.

Now to get to work on online play! Wish me luck

Jibb

EDIT: Votes for IndieDB Indie Of The Year would be nice And don't forget about Silas, Gravix, and Aaaaa! as well!

EDIT 2: While I'm here, I've been fiddling around with a new tab for online players:

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing how you manage

It is becoming better and better!
You have my vote at IndieDB

Thanks, both of you

On IndieDB, every game has a "Statistics" panel with a "Rank" on it. Does anyone know what that rank means? I don't think it's for IOTY, because my game reached a rank of 20 today, before slipping back to 23rd.

Jibb

Dunno what the ranking is
Voted and requested on facebook for friends to too!

Hm... I get a lot of errors W1550 - Can't compile effect when playing.
The visible game is pretty much described by "Car Game LOL":

I'll try rebooting later, will edit this post.

Which GPU do you have?(GRaphiccard)
And does it support the shadermodel used by the game?

@ YellowAfterlife:

Try updating your DirectX driver.

I had the same thing, if the shaders don't get compiled the solution is updating directX

@YellowAfterlife: Have you tried the latest version? You can find it at the links in my signature. It includes a shader-compiler dll that should've been included all along. I can't update the original post of this thread, but CarGameLOL is old. It should hopefully mean people with slightly out-of-date DirectX versions won't need to update DirectX.

@James: Thank you But I can't see your friend request

Jibb

@JulzMighty: yeah, I've already noticed that I downloaded a outdated version. Downloaded both new version and a recent DirectX. Now everything works great

The new version seems better that the old one, though main menu looks a bit empty. You could add game level into its background, and make camera slowly rotate around.

Car models look very nice and somewhat cute (if that may apply to 3d car model). 'explosion' animation looks great too.

Gameplay is simple, but fun. For some reason I expected a sort of AI (which shouldn't be hard to do). You should add bigger-sized arena's, as well as different themed ones. I'll be happy to see online part in this.

You know what? Online is a lot of work, and I was hoping to complete something newsworthy today so that I can get another article featured on the front page of IndieDB before voting for phase one is over, but this is too much work for such a short time.

AI is a great idea, will add a lot for those who don't have brothers or someone around all the time to play against while online is still in the works, and could perhaps be finished by tonight.

So, yeah, I appreciate all your feedback. Most of it has to wait until after online (as I'm sure you'd understand), but today I'm going to have a stab at busting out some bots.

Thanks for the suggestion

Jibb

DOWNLOAD KarBOOM 0.1.4 with bots. You'll be glad you did. It was only a day's work, which sets back online play a little but gives everyone something to do until then.



The bots aren't geniuses, but they're relentless.

There's also the option of a larger level, to fit the extra chaos.

Jibb

Yay, bots!!
The bots are great, fun to play with. Though I noticed that when playing with 5 bots, one human player in the large dirt pit (score limit 300) when the players reach an average score of around 150, the game gets laggy. Or "jumpy", I should say as there's no network involved. It seems like the framerate drops once every second, making the game almost unplayable.
Is 5 Bots too much for the game to handle?

Interesting. What are your specs?

I tried under the same conditions as you (5 bots, 1 human, large dirt patch, score limit 300) and never dropped below 60 fps. I tried again with some more ridiculous conditions (13 bots, 1 human, large dirt patch, score limit 999, weak spot), and while my framerate wasn't great (mid-30s), it didn't vary enough to cause notable jumps. I kept an eye out for evidence of memory leaks, but the only place that could be possible is in the way I allocate space for replays, and everything seemed to be managed quite smoothly.

In those crazy conditions I hit up the debug panel (obviously not available in the release version) and saw script execution was taking up a whopping 10 ms -- I'll have to optimise my collision function, I think, with some sort of means to eliminate collisions that aren't going to happen more quickly. It'd be a shame for CPU performance to be such a bottleneck, even under the worst conditions.

These are my specs:
Intel Pentium D 3.00GHz 3.01GHz
4 GB RAM
32-bit Windows 7
GeForce 9600GT

But I couldn't find any reason for (nor evidence of) jumpy performance. There's the slightest possibility it could be happening in v0.1.4 and not v0.2 (since now I'm working on v0.2), but I seriously doubt that since the only changes I've made so far occur out-game, in the menu.

Jibb

Great work here! I voted for your project on ModDB. Keep it up. :|)

Thanks William Needless to say, I've voted for Silas. Hopefully see you in the top 50!

Jibb

That's a nice update, the AI is pretty solid.
Two suggestions:
1) Reduce the radius (and maybe the strength) of exploding cars.
2) I think that you explode too fast, try some different values there, too.

That makes sense. Another friend mentioned on IndieDB that the explosions can be a bit much, particularly in weak spot. Something like that affects gameplay quite a bit, I think, so would other people also like to see the strength and/or range of explosions reduced?
That was also mentioned before, and I completely forgot. The whole purpose of players not dying instantly is to give them a chance, so I'll see what I can do to increase that chance without letting them go too far out the ring.

Jibb

well playing it again, this time, it felt different, when i played it before with just two players, it was ok, but with so many cars now, the handling really feels weird, theyre behaving too much like real cars, even RC cars respond better, u knw, accelerate, decelerate, turning speed, half the time i died because the response was a bit slowed.... though i guess this may be an opinion

also, i'd suggest adding an icon above the player cars, u knw, like a translucent 3d arrow or something..

other than that, good job, coming on nicely

That's odd -- car physics/handling/acceleration/so-on have not changed since the first release.
That makes sense. I'll have to think about how to go about doing that without them being too distracting.

Jibb

Jibb, please do not change the behaviour, I think it's the best part of the game! The drifting and handling is cool.
I could imagine a mutator for increased acceleration or even a time lapse mutator.

not necessarily feeling different, just that with more players, the response time becomes more obvious, maybe have an RC car mutator that gives quick response and faster throttling =] because as said, its just an opinion of mine

Thanks Superku The handling hasn't changed since the game first came out, and it's something I won't change unless people hate it, since it takes a lot of tweaking.

Something I might add in future is the option to have player profiles, and to have preferences associated with each profile that include things like turning circle, steering speed, and maybe even acceleration -- but as long as friction and top speed remain unchanged it is (theoretically) automatically balancing (for example, a player with increased turning circle might have more maneuverability at low speeds, but at higher speeds they'll more easily spin out). This is all still just an idea, and something I'd be very cautious about implementing.

As such, I was very hesitant to make changes to the strength of the explosions, especially since they only seem to be a problem in weak spot. Then I played some more and realised explosions aren't significant at all without weak spot mode anyway (since they only occur out of bounds), so I can change their strength for the sake of weak spot without worrying too much about "breaking" the rest.

I increased the rate of fall-off for explosions, and reduced the cap on their strength. The old values are still there, commented out, in case I need to revert, but it makes weak spot much more playable!

Also, I played with how long it takes for cars to explode. It is affected by how far out-of-bounds the car is -- this means that cars can now survive a solid second drifting out and in again, but if a chain of explosions sends a car rocketing out they'll explode much more quickly, preventing the camera from being dragged too far out of the arena.

I hope all that made sense :S

Unfortunately, no one outside my family will be able to try out these changes until the next update is out, and I'm pretty determined to just work on online play until it works at this stage. If we're all lucky that means the end of this week, but I wouldn't count on it.

Jibb

EDIT:That makes sense (I've been saying that phrase a lot, lately). I'm putting it on my to-do list, and we'll see how that works out. You might notice that RC cars don't really knock each other around very far -- the factors that afford them quick acceleration and maneuverability (namely their friction:weight ratio) work against this kind of gameplay to a degree. Not that my game is a simulation by any means, but it might need some workarounds.

love it atm,

1 bug
if you've died then watch the reply before the game finishes you get another chance to wreak revenge on your foes even though your remaining lives are 0 in the lives count mode.

2 requests
if you added a timebar which you could fastforward and rewind through and display where people died by a simple tag showing their colour would be good

have it so you could upload (or at least send) your replays to other people

and I finally won a game!

Ah! Thanks for catching that bug! I've well-and-truly squished it for the next release.

@requests: Both sound good. I wrote the replay mode in such a way that it should be easy to move back and forth quickly, so it won't take me much effort at all to get that working. The timebar makes sense, and tagging points on the timebar when cars explode is a great idea (that's a good way to get a sense of where everything is).

In regards to uploading/sending replays, as a minimum I should aim for having the replays savable to a file that others with the game can open.

Updating my to-do list now The replay features will probably not be in the next release, since I'm focusing on online play, but bug fixes will make it.

Jibb

Hi,
Played again, same settings, and no problems this time. I think it may have been my Onboard graphics card which I used last time. This time, with the NVidea 9800 GT it works fine.

An idea came to mind: How about a mutator that makes a player more and more vulnerable to pushes, the longer he is alive?

I also agree about the explosions.
And the AI beats me every time

Yet, the game is more fun every time I download. Keep it up!

Can beat them most times on lives victory. Finally managed to beat them on score! (though only once)

Hey guys, thanks again for your input!

I'm impressed you managed to beat the AI on score, James! That's crazy! Not that the AI is brilliant, but it's relentless and stupid, so they keep taking each other down with themselves and giving each other heaps of points I can never keep up, except if I play really well with the weak-spot mutator on (and trust me, it's a bit easier in the version I've got with explosion power reduced).

I tried making them smarter -- it worked, and they were insanely tough, but the stupider stuff they did just seemed even stupider. I've commented out the code so it can easily be put back in if I need it, but I think in future I'll just have an option for ridiculously tough bots using the smarter AI -- once it has been improved, of course.

Micha: I like that idea about the mutator! Very cool It's on my to-do list. I've been meaning to get more mutators into the game, so that even when I make a relatively small update people have more reason to stay up-to-date.

There's no real news with this post, despite my silence for the past 10 days. I just realised I hadn't replied to some things, and I want to announce that there won't be an update for quite a few more days while I have exams at uni Online is coming along fairly well (although, Micha, I've made no progress on what we've been discussing).

I was thinking online play might be postponed until a new A8 update comes out that sorts out some kinks in the latest public beta, but yesterday I got my new computer in, re-installed A8, and found that I was actually one version behind, and those kinks have already been fixed So online is going very smoothly, and could be in action very soon after my exams! The problem is, a few days after my exams I go away for two weeks. I really want each release of KarBOOM to be very solid, especially as online play might require some maintenance, so even if it appears to work, KarBOOM Online might not be public before the New Year

Jibb

EDIT: Full-scene anti-aliasing works now, using a large render-target that gets down-sampled so I can switch it on and off easily, as well as it smoothing everything. This is as opposed to hardware AA which seems to only do the edges, which doesn't help my really pixelated specular highlights. Hardware AA also requires engine restart to take effect, but mine can be toggled on and off instantly as the user prefers.

No AA:

With AA:

Online play is nearly ready. You'll all be the first to play it, but I have other commitments and an exam over the next few days, so it still won't necessarily be out soon

I hope this hasn't died, it was looking pretty cool.

Hey Redeemer Don't worry, it hasn't died. My family went away for Christmas and took me with them -- we've been skiing in Whistler, which has been amazing. Not something we can normally afford at all, but as expats we get to use our "home-leave" to explore other cool parts of the world

I've been working on KarBOOM's website while I've been away -- only here and there. I don't have much time to work on it, but it's the best I can do since I don't have access to my own PC from here to work on KarBOOM itself. KarBOOM.net will be the "official" KarBOOM website with all there is to know about KarBOOM, to-do lists, and its own forum for feedback, bug reports, and organising online games. KarBOOM online play uses an account system that shares the same backend as the forum, so if you've seen them on the forum you know who you're playing against. Most of it is not finished yet.

By the time I left before Christmas, KarBOOM itself had smooth and consistent online play (as far as my tests can tell at this stage), a lobby system, login system. When I get home I will optimise traffic a bit more for online play, make some user-interface improvements, and try to get a system working for detecting when someone's attempting to host from behind a router and hasn't set up port-forwarding.

While I've been away I've had tonnes of ideas for the level editor and different game-modes. I really can't wait to implement it all! But for now I'll focus on getting online up and running. When I get the forum working I'll be asking here for help testing out the forum, and when KarBOOM Online is just about ready you guys will be the first to test it.

Jibb

Sounds just awesome! (And have fun while you're still on holiday!)

Happy holidays then, glad to see the project hasn't been abandoned.

By the way, the website looks good!

Thanks guys

I've been learning a lot of javascript and css to get this working (haven't really done my own website before -- jibbsmart.com uses googlesites). It'll need a lot of testing!

Jibb

Alright! So, it's not as exciting as a new version of KarBOOM being released. But I'd really appreciate some help making sure the forum is all good.

KarBOOM's "official" forum.

It seems to have working ['b'], ['i'], ['u'], ['url'], ['url='], and ['img'] tags. Tear it up, post all over the place. I didn't really know what sections to have, so suggest stuff, post stuff, look at stuff, etc. Help me make it good!

Come to think of it, I should really add a page system so that threads and topics can't get too huge. Maybe I'll get that done tonight.

So of course, you're all wondering how do I register!? Register at the login page here. Test out the forum, please, but don't post pornographic material. I don't want to see it, and it's not the place for it. I don't want to have to remove stuff, but in that kind of situation I will. Please do give me suggestions and test stuff out. If any of you have concerns about the forum system itself (especially those of you experienced in that area) ask whatever questions you like. I really appreciate input, and want to make this a secure system.

An email address is required to activate an account -- this is for a couple of reasons. One is to reduce bot-created accounts, and the other is so that your account is safer. There isn't a password recovery system yet, but there will be and it will send it to your email address provided. Later on when KarBOOM is bigger and people are paying for upgraded accounts (that's the dream, anyway), I don't want people losing accounts because their passwords weren't properly secure, or for whatever reason. If an email address is always associated with an account, at least they can always get it back!

Enter your details carefully: I don't want to have to make changes manually if you don't like your username. Pick a password that you don't use with other services -- the system may not be as secure as it will be later on. Those of you "in the know" can help me with that.

KarBOOM Online play (when it comes out, which should be soon) will require an "upgraded" account to play online. At the moment, all accounts are automatically "upgraded" on creation (I can't really expect people to pay anything for it in this state, and I need testers). When there are more users and the game is a little further along in development new users will need to pay to upgrade, but accounts that were already upgraded (even for free) will stay upgraded. In brief: Join now = never pay.

But if you're just joining to play later (rather than help test the forum), you're probably best off waiting a bit until things are running really smoothly. Don't worry, I'll announce in advance before an upgraded account costs money.

Thanks,

Jibb

You could add different game modes that depend on the level that is currently loaded.
For example a race mode with more and less dangerous tracks.
Even though it looks like sh*t, I've spend a lot of time on the following sketch:


(Imagine a wider path)

I've made the same post in your forum (yeah, free updates/ upgrades!). Should I/ we still post here?

Wow, that's an impressive sketch!

darkinferno recently reminded me about a race mode as well. It's a car game, so it should definitely have a race mode. I need to put a to-do list on the web-site, really, so I don't lose track of anything.

Regarding posting here or KarBOOM's forum, I'd say definitely post there, and it's up to you whether or not to post here still as well. I'll be keeping an eye on both. When there are updates I will still update this thread so the GS community knows.

Jibb

That's right, I'm finally kicking KarBOOM 0.2 out the door and I need you guys to test it out! It has been a lot of effort to get it working online, and before I make a big deal out of it all over the rest of the internet, I'd really like you guys to help me find any bugs or urgent issues, and basically make sure it actually works.

DOWNLOAD 0.2 NOW



Basically, I'm aware that the online mode is light on features. But every release of this game is a work in progress, anyway, so as long as there are no urgent matters, I'm keen to get as many people playing this as possible.

So please test this to pieces, and hopefully you'll have fun. Give me lots of feedback, and I'll take it all.

Check out the README that's included. It describes the changes in detail, but here's the short version:

• ONLINE PLAY! Play against other players! If you're hosting, please make sure you are forwarding port 2300 to your PC if necessary. If you see a server in the lobby that is highlighted in red, it is because someone has had trouble connecting to that server even though they are connected to the internet. Unfortunately, this only helps the clients, as I'm yet to implement a way by which the server checks if players are having trouble.
• BOOST mutator! Boost! Just what this game needed. Try it and see how it works. [Y] button on XBox 360 controller, CTRL if you're the cursor-keys keyboard player, or either of your shoulder keys if you're another keyboard player (Q or E for the WSAD player, for example).
• THIEF mutator! In any score-based mode, a knockout will take away some of their points. But it's most interesting in Life-limit mode: knockout another player and not only will they lose a life, but you'll gain one! It makes for some really drawn-out games, even if all players only start with 1 life.
• AA: Anti-aliasing, yo. Don't be shy to enable it in the options menu -- I don't think it's very performance hungry (hard to tell on my GeForce GTX 580), and because it is a shader/view trick it toggles on and off instantly.
• TWEAKS and FIXES: Explosions are now a little more gentle, players are given more time before exploding out the ring, particle shadows are fixed, replay mode no longer brings back players who have run out of lives.

To play online you need an online account. You can create an account at KarBOOM.net. This account will automatically be "upgraded" to let you play online (otherwise it would only act as a forum account). Once 500 people have joined it will cost $5 or so for new accounts to be upgraded (that is assuming I get the Paypal system working by the time 500 people join), but if your account is already upgraded it will stay upgraded for free, for good.

The forum still needs some work, but is at least usable at this stage.

Thanks for your support, everyone!

Due to time-of-day stuff, I won't actually be hosting a game until at least tomorrow. I still have to set up port-forwarding. I did as much testing as I could from home with the help of my brothers, but for all I know you guys won't be able to play at all. Please let me know how it goes!

Jibb

EDIT: Oh, and btw, ENTER to chat.

Awesome!

Hosting a server seems to work, I'm missing bots (in multiplayer mode), though.
The game crashes when I click "join online game".
The handling is great (tried with XBox Controller), the BOOST mutator is awesome.
The handbrake is nice, too, but it is ~20% too strong.

It would be nice if the game saved the login information (check a box first).

That's not good Do you mean when opening the lobby, or when joining an online game from the lobby screen?

I'm online now and hopefully got port-forwarding working properly (I haven't actually done it before). If anyone wants to join me, now would be great! If it doesn't work, say so here so I can find out, please
It just locks the wheels, so I guess it's a matter of the wheels having too much friction -- or recovering friction too easily? (since the friction varies as difference between wheel speed and ground speed increases)
Glad you think so I've been meaning to add that for a while!
Did you have anyone join? I agree about the bots being available online, but I figured they're non-essential for the first online release. I will keep them in mind for future versions.
I was thinking about that. Never got around to it, as much as I frustrated myself having to type in my username and password every time I tested something (usually twice, since I was testing a client and a server).

Thanks for giving it a go!

Jibb

EDIT: Okay, off to bed for me. I couldn't reproduce a crash -- it froze for a few seconds while trying to connect to a server that had disconnected since the lobby's last refresh, but then it just said "connection failed" and refreshed the list.

EDIT2: It's worth noting that it failed to inform the lobby server of the issue, so when it refreshed the server was not listed in red. I need to see about that -- I think that's a pretty important feature.

EDIT3: No... that issue was only with the lobby scripts online. It has been fixed, and doesn't require an update. I guess I'm going to wait until everyone's awake again to see if people can actually connect to each other.

EDIT4: I got a bit carried away... 0.2.1 is in the works. So far, servers are notified when someone has trouble connecting. I won't release 0.2.1 until 0.2 has been properly tested by you guys, though, so that 0.2.1 can be a bit more substantial than that.

"Do you mean when opening the lobby, or when joining an online game from the lobby screen?"

I've tried it again: The game crashes when I open the lobby.

"Did you have anyone join?"

No, sorry.

Same problem over here. The exe crashes if I try to open the lobby screen.

Changing the textfield pressing TAB and login with ENTER, would be nice, too.

Great to see a new release!

The lobby doesn't always crash, I could connect to my own server.
Saving login information would be great, as GorNaKosh said.

some little suggestions:
The game doesn't show up in the taskbar until I moved it around.
I succeeded to log in 3 times... maybe it is a good thing to prevent this in later releases(to prevent account sharing)
for testing it might be an idea to lower the fps_max variable, so multiple clients can run smooth on a single computer.
It is not important, but you could hide the "login succeeded" bar after a few seconds.

getting count down then blank terrain in offline mode. no cars etc.

Bug at start! If the windows menu popup with its buttons you've to click for start playing -> my mouse getting crazy and move at it own fast over the screen to the up-left ... so it's difficult to click the buttons (don't have the time for trying) ... I've to close the prog per ctr-alt-del -> then the mouse bug stops.

Wow, what a rough start! Okay...
That's troubling -- I thought inclusion of "D3DCompiler_42.dll" was meant to prevent that. Updating DirectX fixed it for others, but it's a shame it needs that. If anyone has some advice that'd be much appreciated.
Bugger. I can't reproduce it here. The lobby seems to work fine on my end. Does the crash come with any error messages? I remember having inexplicable crashes a long time ago while testing the lobby, and they didn't happen if I logged into the website first (don't ask me why). But that hasn't happened in a long time, for me.I'm not sure I fully understand you, but you're saying that when you start the game the mouse goes crazy? Do you have any gamepads/joysticks plugged in? If so, one of them can control the mouse, and it might be what's giving you trouble.
Yes, that makes sense. Same question to you, though: any error messages with the lobby-screen crash?
Yeah, I have a system in place for preventing the same user from being online on multiple computers, but have it disabled for now. In regards to the taskbar icon -- I don't really know what to do about that I have been having that issue as well for a couple of versions now.

EDIT: Yeah, you're right, "login succeeded" should go away on its own. I'll probably change my alert function to have an optional timer, so that unimportant alerts go away on their own, while important ones (like login failed) stay up until closed.

I've got a server up now, and it should be up for most of the day, so please try and join and let me know how that goes. I really want to get this working!

Thanks everyone

Jibb

EDIT2: Apparently someone tried to connect to my server and failed? I've set up port-forwarding. I think. I don't really know how to test it.

The lobby does not seem to crash when there's at least one server available.
I click on "HostbyJibb", wait 5+ seconds but then the game crashes again. It's a regular Windows (XP) error message telling me that some "read" instruction on a memory address could not be performed.

Thanks for trying -- my server was informed of trouble connecting (I'm still using 0.2 to make sure everything's compatible, but the online database indicated as such), and so even though the program failed on your end it still managed to send off a message that it couldn't connect. The thing is, I've tested what happens in that situation (I thought), and don't get any such errors. I wish it would work the same on other peoples' PCs as it does on mine

When I start it, the lobby doesn't crash even if there are no servers available, so I really have no idea what's going on.

Any ideas as to how I can confirm whether or not I've set up port-forwarding correctly?

Jibb

It will be a good thing if you added all keyboard characters in the password... ingame.
at this moment when people register at the website, they can use characters like
{}[] etc, but ingame they don't work, so they can't make the password they created.
I hope you get the message out of my gibberish!

Ah! Thank you. I'll make sure that works in the next update.

Jibb

It was a stupid report from me, because it was obvious that it depends on my system and drivers or what ever (the bug appeared in the menu) ... I've really no idea, why this happened with your program - but when I tried it again now, it worked

Nice game

Seems to depend on the OS. The crash I reported was a normal windows crash (send message to windows bla). This error ocurred while using windows XP. If using my own Windows Vista machine everything seems to be fine. I can open up the lobby and host a server. But there was no other server for testing the join function.

Hope you get it work!

@Julz: As a reminder, I'm using XP, too.

Thanks guys. There's a lot of stuff to fix. As for the crash, I think it has something to with me using sys_free incorrectly somewhere, given the situations that crash. I've got ideas to change the lobby-creation function to be faster and safer (although, I really do try and use memory allocation functions safely!).

Here's the current TODO list for 0.2.1:

• Lobby crash -- simplifying the system should hopefully stop the crashes XP users are experiencing.
• Chat bug -- incoming messages interfere with host's chat bar.
• F5 for bigger window -- I like keeping KarBOOM windowed for now, but I'll at least let you toggle between 800x600 and 1024x768.
• Smoother play -- lag is ridiculously bad for the cars you own. Just awful. I have some tricks in mind to fix that.
• Input fixes -- German keyboard support (must be a nightmare for those of you trying to put in passwords [which are hidden] on a German keyboard!); username and password input support the full range of characters that are accepted by the registration process.
• More helpful interface -- See the max players, current players, who's online, your latency...
• Camera tweaks -- Camera zooms in too fast for comfort, at the moment.
• EDIT: Safer lobby navigation to prevent race conditions.
• EDIT2: Servers are informed when players are having trouble connecting.

Thanks to those of you who helped me test it out and offered suggestions and bug reports! So far I've been able to play with Superku, Roel, and SchokoKeks -- special thanks to Superku, who spent quite a bit of time online helping me test stuff. But also thanks to those I haven't been able to play with yet, but have continued to give me feedback here

I'm really glad for everyone's help, and so relieved that I didn't try and announce 0.2 everywhere -- it would've been a really bad start for KarBOOM Online!

0.2.1 will hopefully be out by the weekend's end.

Jibb

If I scroll through the lobby pages too fast, I get an app crash also ^_^

Damn, this uncontinuous bugs are sucking ^^


... I tried the page scrolling thing again before submitting and this crash is very uncontinuous, too. It's totally not comprehensible to me at which time those errors occurs.

Thanks. I was able to reproduce that crash. What I believe is happening is it's making more http requests while still waiting for the previous one (it makes a new request for each page), and this shouldn't be allowed. I'll fix that, and change the TODO list accordingly to avoid confusion.

Jibb

Just some WIP shots.

KarBOOM looks heaps nicer at 1024x768. Of course, the forum shrinks them, so you'll probably need to right-click->open-image-in-new-tab to actually see them at full res:


The bots really like the BOOST mutator:

And sometimes I just talk to myself:

Nearly there -- most items crossed off the checklist, if you look up a couple of posts.

Jibb

Nice! Still, I don't understand why you hide the nice KarBOOM look on such small resolutions? IMO a game screen resolution of at least 1680x... is a must-have!

I like playing it windowed, and I only have small screens (1280x768 is my biggest). I certainly don't want to restrict users to my preference, but I don't really want to think too much about different screen resolutions and aspect ratios for now (EDIT: especially as I can't test them from here yet, and I imagine there'll be a little more fiddling to do to make them work with my AA).

Maybe in 0.3

The current plan:
0.2.x for bug fixes, small improvements, and basically making online play nice. Once I've got a stable version out (thanks for the help testing it, btw!) I'll make a big deal about it all over the internet, and hopefully get lots of users. Once there are 500 users, newer users will need to pay $5 to play online as an "introductory price".

0.3 will be a huge visual update -- I'm quite content with the appearance of the cars and certain UI elements, but 0.3 will have a menu overhaul as well as a level editor and interactive replay editor (rewind, slow motion, scrubbing, etc). Once a stable 0.3.x is released it'll have a "final price" of $10 (of course users already upgraded won't have to pay that), and then hopefully people will keep supporting the game as I continue to update it.

Offline play will always be free.

That's the plan, anyway.

Jibb

"show player names"? But not beneath the cars?!

I really like the simplicity of the view the way it is. Please don't spoil it by having a WOW-Style-"50-player-names-visible-at-once" (http://tdamrau.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/wow2.jpg) type of view?

I was wondering if I would ultimately have that option, and appreciate that feedback. For this version, it'll just be a menu item that lists who's online (and perhaps which cars belong to which player).

Jibb

Ok, sounds fair.
I have a 1920x1200 and a secondary 1920x1080 monitor, thus 800 and 1024 pixels are still fairly little.


Normally, that should not be any problem at all. Just center the menu, scale the background panel(s) and loop over the in-game player panels, that means place all panels dynamically.

Yes, that's how I did it for this new resolution (although I didn't scale panels, and I don't think I will). I guess in the end it wouldn't be too hard at all I won't have more than just the two resolutions in 0.2.1, but that's simply because I want to get the first stable online release out ASAP. I'll add more resolution options in the near future.

With that in mind: is there demand for a full-screen option?

I certainly do want to have full-screen in for 0.3, as the scenery will be much prettier with custom levels. But until then, I can't see myself switching to full-screen mode to play KarBOOM.

Jibb

That's ok. I don't need to have fullscreen, window is fine, but the option should be there (in a later version).


You could display the name in the colored player score panel.
In Trackmania, by pressing a key you can toggle whether or not you want to see players' names above their heads.
In Halo, you can choose a secondary short nick name (don't know the right word, sorry), consisting of 2 letters and 2 digits, f.i. KU77. That short (!) name is displayed above every player's head (only when you get close to someone you can see their full name, too). The advantage would be that players could change their nick afterwards.

Yeah, that's the right word. I didn't know about that -- it's pretty cool. Along with allowing the player to toggle player names on and off, I think that's a good idea. I guess the list of players would still need to have their full names.

For now, I'll try and get 0.2.1 out the doors with the features in the list above, but I do like the idea of players having a short nick they can change afterwards, and I'll have to get that on my to-do list.

Jibb

EDIT: I believe the lobby crashes were caused by pointers that weren't initialised to NULL -- perhaps on a Windows 7 machine the memory is zeroed (or more likely to already be zero?) when allocated, but not on XP. So while I still haven't reproduced such a crash on my end, this gives me good reason to believe 0.2.1 won't have such crashes, as the changed system uses a fixed-length array anyway.

Sundays are always busy for me, but I'm hoping to have 0.2.1 out tonight.

y and z are mixed up on the german keyboard. Took me a while to figure out why I couldn't login: my pw had a y in it...
Also crashes when I press "play online" and then "join server"... so when it tries to load the list of servers, it simply crashes...

Cheers. The next version is very nearly ready, and it accepts input from German keyboards properly (I believe), accepts all usernames and passwords that the website accepts for registration, eliminates lobby crashes, and a bunch of other stuff.

I have no other commitments today. It should be out tonight.

Jibb

DOWNLOAD KARBOOM 0.2.1

I couldn't quite beat the weekend, as the last feature (show who's in the game) took longer to get working than I thought). I'm hoping and praying this works smoothly on everyone's PC, and that it's fun!

Here are the changes straight out the README:

I'm yet to add a "remember me" option in the login panel, but I do agree that it should be there. That'll be in a future version.

Please test it out like crazy. I'm not sure I can host, since I've been having trouble getting port-forwarding working, but I'll see what I can do.

Jibb

EDIT: Players still using 0.2 (who haven't given up on it yet) should find that upon logging in they are informed that a new version available online.

EDIT2: Had a game with Superku and SchokoKeks -- everything went very smoothly! SchokoKeks apparently experienced no lag (Superku was hosting), while being on another continent meant I did experience some. There were no crashes, and German keyboards had no problems.

I've still been unable to get port-forwarding working. If someone's keen to host a game, more than 30 accounts have been created now, but no one's hosting.

Jibb

Hosting game right now (I won't play much myself, though).

Cheers

I Played the game online the first time - great! Lag is no problem for me, so where are the tonnes of content, game modes, tournaments and so on ... I'm getting hungry

joined superku's server. anyone else comin?

+ Edit: Woot, the multiplayer code is soooo smooth over the net. VERY well done. Very cool game.
+ Boost modifier is neat as well, I like it.
+ No more crashes when joining.
- The game often doesn't show in the taskbar
- no bots in multiplayer?

Wouldn't mind larger maps with a few obstacles...

Superku totally wasted me though

Very cool, very jealous!

I'm hosting a game on the US East coast since I can't find Superku's server. Anybody who wants to join me is welcome.

Doesn't work, port-forwarding?

Yeah, it's probably my firewall. Let me take a look.

EDIT: Ok, I turned off one of the firewalls on my gateway. You're free to give it another try.

EDIT 2: Still not working. Maybe you'd better just try another server.

No, same error, sorry

Server is back online.

Good Distinct rounds and online game modes are definitely on their way -- I just wanted to get out a working online version as fast as possible. Next version won't have those changes, but they're important and I'm looking forward to getting those working relatively soon.

I'm maintaining a to-do list here, btw, for the next version (0.2.2). It's mostly minor fixes and improvements to the kind of things that should be standard, with a couple of extras in there.
I'm glad multiplayer's going smoothly! Yes, bots should be an option in multiplayer. And yes, I need to get the icon to work in the taskbar. I think it has to do with my starter-file. Thanks for the great feedback
I'm afraid those won't come until 0.3. It will have a level-editor and a bunch of standard levels that would all be created with that level-editor. I'm hoping to have "premium" accounts have online profiles where they can store custom-made levels online.

I've been having the same problem I'm sure I've set up port-forwarding correctly, but I can't seem to host a game that people can join

Extra thanks to Superku for so much time hosting KarBOOM today and yesterday!!

Now I have to study for a physics test tomorrow And a maths and computers test the next day (computers will be fine -- just programming stuff). Then I'll be back onto preparing KarBOOM 0.2.2

Jibb

i want to play online, but no ones hosting

I noticed that when I get disconnected because the server's gone offline, the game menu appears AND the server-list appears again. So they're above each other, and I can never touch the one that's behind the other one.

To reproduce the bug: join a server, create a car (dunno if this part is important) and then wait until the server quits.

Thank you. Noted to be fixed in the next update

Jibb

G'day! Over the weekend I worked on a new explosion effect in KarBOOM. It's a shader applied to a perlin noise sprite that takes a whole bunch of parameters I can change whenever I want to make all sorts of cool explosions. Currently, it's used for a car blowing up, as seen in this video:
[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A45P1T80peU[/video]
Before the next version is released it'll also be used for the boost effect. By using different parameters, the boost effect will be more fiery, less smoky, smaller, briefer, and we'll see what else.

Here's a screenshot:


Jibb

PS: It would be really lovely if embedding youtube videos worked again

Looking good Jibb! Perlin noise is great stuff, you can use it for anything.

Thanks For sure! I use it a lot in the multi-texture shader to get that irregular transition between surface types, and I've used it in a lot of effects in the past.

Without the noise, those explosions would just be glowing spheres that lose their light before fading out altogether.

Jibb

Very good explosions. The sound effect adds so much to it as well.

You have the advantage that the camera does not rotate. Sprite explosions look horrible when you tilt around them, and we haven't yet found a way to get rid of that problem...

Thanks The sound effect hasn't changed. For some reason it just comes out better in the video. I do plan to have a better explosion sound effect in the next update, though.It depends. The lighting is all calculated in tangent space (matTangent doesn't appear to work with sprites, but the fact that the sprite always faces the camera works to my advantage). The depth output is modified to make the sprite clip like a sphere (affected by the noise, of course). The explosion moves quite quickly, so as long as the camera isn't rotating while time is slow/frozen, it'll work. jcl said we'd have 3D texture support soon, and once that happens I can overcome that hurdle as well But yes, until then, they are relatively limited.

Jibb

Hey, I have found a little bug:

in life limit mode, when the player wins the round, there is no score screen or something;
the game doesn't stop.
[edit] it seems to work sometimes

I'm looking forward to your next release!

The next release is coming out really soon. I was expecting to have it out today, but have gotten really sick and I've been spending most of the day in bed.

Thanks for the bug report! Lately I've only been testing it with THIEF enabled, so I missed that one. That's pretty important, so I'll squish it before the next release.

Jibb

Hi!

I play the demo and i like the drive handle. Looks nice.
Waiting for the next demo!

Fresh bugs. I'm back in action and have been working on KarBOOM today. Implementing new bugs and... wait... that doesn't sound right.

But apparently that's what I'm doing

I've got my work cut out for me, today.

Jibb

Check the bounding boxes of your model, I think I've experienced some different behaviour in a recent build, too. (F.i. place a wait(1) for c_setminmax)

Thanks for the tips. I use my own collision detection so that things like bounding box settings won't interfere I figured it out:

As a bit of a place-holder until a future visual update, the "flag" for the new Hold the Flag mutator is just a bitmap of an exclamation mark, and its job is to spin on the spot, or spin above whichever car has the "flag".

It doesn't have its own action -- its spinning and position is handled by an external function using a global pointer. But on disconnect, the entity was being removed without the global pointer being set to NULL. So everything that was meant to happen to the exclamation mark was instead happening to whatever entity was created at that place in memory the next time the client connected to someone.

The video was an online test -- the flag was only being updated when its status changed, and the car was regularly receiving updates from the server, hence its ability to still drive around. Finally, even though the physics are currently all 2D, the collision detection function is working in 3D -- so when the floating orange car bumps into the red car, some of the force is down. The server doesn't care about vertical position, so the red car on the host isn't affected by the regular status updates and is allowed to fall through the ground.

All fixed, now

For slightly complicated reasons the K:D ratio and extra stats won't come in this version. They'd be quite difficult to implement now, and not much trouble at all later when online games are in defined rounds with limits (to the update after this, I'm thinking).

I just need to make and implement local markers, and then a new version should be ready.

Jibb

KarBOOM 0.2.2 is out NOW!

Yes, downloads are still hosted on my website rather than KarBOOM's. I don't want traffic interfering with the forum and the lobby system.



Grab your fresh version now.



Looking forward to your feedback/suggestions/bug-reports.

I'm planning for the next version to add rounds and limits to online play.

And I've just realised by that screenshot that there is a very small bug -- the player label above gamepad players is out by one number (G2 over gamepad 1). Since I've already zipped, sent to IndieDB, and uploaded it on my website, it's not worth changing for now. But it'll be gone in the next update if I remember.

We're about to have a "reading week" for "study" where we don't have to go to uni. This means I might be able to bust out a new update in the next week, which would be nice.

Jibb

PS: There are still around 280 free account upgrades available.

Hosting a game, if anyone wants to join. Please let me know if my port-forwarding works.
Julz, there is tools for checking if your port is open, but none of them seem to work for me

Server's still up.
Can anyone see it/join? Or does port-forwarding not work?

If anyone's wondering, Germanunkol's server works! Roel and I had a bit of a bash-around.

Jibb

Julz, to get rid of the arrow-key in the inchar function, try:
if(key_lastpressed == 75) //arrow key
...
if(key_lastpressed == 77) //arrow key
...

...
else
{
str_cat(...);
}

By the way,
when you left(Julz) the flag gets dropped on the ground
I think it is a bug, because when you were in game, the flag always landed on a car... your car

@Germanunkol: Thanks, I'll definitely try that.

@Roel: Really? From my perspective, the flag would drop on the ground whenever the person who had it went out of bounds and exploded. I've got to see what I can do about making the flag-changing during a collision more consistent.

Jibb

From what I can tell the flag always gets dropped on the ground, but if there's a car who pushed you out of bounds then the car will most likely be standing right where the flag is dropped and will be picked up immediately.
Correct me if I'm wrong...

Server still open...

It certainly makes sense to me. The flag always gets dropped within the boundary as close as possible to where its carrier exploded, and that'll often be where the one who pushed you out is.

Jibb

Sorry, didn't get that
It seemed that for some reason you always got the flag,
but It must have been that I didn't know how to get it, or something like that.

Great Game
Just 2 things, the key recieve is a bit slow, i mean if i press foreward, after 1 sec the car reacts.
And one more thing. Could you also add backward boost? Because if i drive backward and press boos, then the car make some weird things.

Thank you
That's odd. For me, the reaction isn't slow at all. The engine sound is smoothed out, so it might sound like the car is reacting slowly, but if you watch, I believe the car begins to accelerate or turn its wheels as soon as the corresponding key is pressed.
I don't think I'll do that. I quite like being able to quickly get out of a reverse by boosting. It has tactical uses when other cars are trying to knock you out.

Thanks for your thoughts

Jibb

Ah okay, this is a good idea Good, then everything is fine

For me, the key input reaction was slow, too. Reaction time was about half a second, which is a problem in this fast game! It felt better last version as far as i remember.

Also, I had a bug in the serverlist: After disconnecting and refreshing the list immediately afterwards, the game hung for a few seconds, then displayed the first server with strange characters, and didn't show the player count. I could still connect to that server, though. Refreshing didn't help, only restarting the game.

Also, when hosting my own server I had the name of the last server I had connected to as standard server name (I could still change it though).

I also had the chat and the score from player 1 from that server after my own server was set up! That definitely needs a fix!

Also, another user from the US opened a server but I couldn't connect. He said he activated DMZ on his router, routing all ports to his computer. However, I'm using DMZ too and he could join on my server.

You should find a way to save the user name or even the password, as its a bit annoying to type them in again every time.
Apart from this, I'm looking forward to play a few rounds

I also agree,
the reaction time is slow, it wasn't like this in the last version.
I remember some lag, but not slow reaction.

I almost forget to say: The game is nice!

I don't see how the reaction time could've increased between versions, but I agree it does feel a little sluggish. I'm hesitant to play with the physics too much, but I might have a bit of a fiddle and see if I can improve things.

Thanks for the bug reports, SchokoKeks. I'll make sure those things get cleaned up between games.

And the next version will have the option of remembering username and password.

Thanks guys,

Jibb

EDIT: Btw, Germanunkol, key_lastpressed worked a charm. Thanks for that pointer.

Hi,

I've got a server up and running in case anyone wants to play, since I heard the port forwarding issue has been fixed.

Darn, I'm getting those blasted port-forwarding messages again!

I opened up port 2300 on my firewall and it's still having trouble, so obviously we've got a conflict somewhere.

I'll look into it.

I'm in... I was able to connect. And so was "chr".
Are you gonna play?

Edit: Julz, I was in the "online players" list twice... It said:
online players:
Germanunkol
chr
Germanunkol

That's funny. I didn't notice when you joined. Then again, I was away from my computer trying to manage the port forwarding and firewall on my gateway.

Well, you're welcome to join any time then!

EDIT: You know, I'm still getting those messages.

Nevermind, I must be doing something wrong. I'll just join Germanunkel's server.

Uh, I joined my own one accidentally, which was still running in the background O.o
That's why I didn't find you

That was pretty cool, although my latency was awful. Group photo!



Pay no attention to those bad (terrible (atrocious)) statistics. My connection is known to be bad at online games. And my computer is known to be bad at games. Of the newer types, that is.

You shouldn't have said anything. No one would've known you were the blue player

I have the same photo, different numbers in the top-right, and different screen-size:

Thanks for the game, guys! And thanks for hosting, Germanunkol. I was laughing out loud a lot. When I implement rounds I'm going to keep the option to have no rounds or limits, just like this, because I really enjoyed just chilling out and chatting, and then getting into spontaneous car battles

This is the most people I've ever played with online.

Thanks again!

Jibb

EDIT: And for the record, I was green But I think it's safe to assume I've played this more than anyone, and yet black didn't have trouble overtaking me later on!

EDIT2: If you don't mind, Redeemer, what are you specs?

it was much fun to play (i was chr)

Thanks for playing, chris!

@Germanunkol: I've just manually removed the "trouble" marker from your server in the database. Next version will have a way for the trouble marker to be removed once users successfully connect.

Jibb

No, I was Orange. My brother was blue, so that's his score.

EDIT: My specs are:

CPU: 2.2 Ghz AMD Athlon 64.

RAM: 2 GB.

Graphics card: GeForce 6100. Yes, I know it's old. I haven't upgraded in five years.

Internet connection: I was playing on a computer that was connected to a PC acting as a gateway through multiple hubs on my LAN. My modem is a UMW190 Verizon Wireless dongle modem and I typically get a speed of about 256 kb/sec. Usually in super-optimized games like Quake, my best ping times are 150 ms, but when connected to servers halfway around the world, they are about twice that amount... Hence my latency of about 300 ms.

Here's a doctored up version of the photo I took earlier:



(if you zoom in on the picture you can see the wonderful faces I gave everyone)

Awesome!! Though I must say I look a little sick in that image...

chr was chrisp, who posted a couple posts back

Cool pic, though! My brothers found it pretty funny Interesting specs, too. You're probably due for a new computer! But you're also now my go-to-guy to test out performance improvement stuff.

For one thing, I might add an option to switch off particles, and perhaps "blob" drop-shadows. I might have to add tabs to the option window to switch between graphics-related and sound-related. It's too late in the evening to commit to anything for the next version just yet, and Sunday's my busy day, so I'm not expecting to get a lot done in the next 24 hours.

Jibb

There I was listening to my music minding my own business, the headphones wrapped around my ears with the Windows volume control set to 5/100... until I started your game that made my headphones knock off my ears by setting the master volume to 100! It scared the hell out of me, too...
Did you just confuse master_vol with sound_vol?

Otherwise, nice update, keep them coming!

Oh, thanks Superku! I didn't know there was a difference (I don't use the Windows volume control). I'll change that right away!

Jibb

EDIT: And sorry for the damage

I've been trying to fix this "port forwarding" issue for some time now. My brother has a server running on his laptop and I'm trying to connect to it. But I'm still getting that darned port-forwarding message.

Well, I've tried port forwarding and opening holes in my firewall, and that's not working. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm using Windows XP, while he's using Windows 7..?

Anyway, I'm pretty convinced at this point that it doesn't have anything to do with my gateway, because I don't have this problem with other games that use DirectPlay.

Is your brother behind the same network as you? If he is, you shouldn't need port-forwarding at all, since KarBOOM connects by LAN to servers with the same global ip.

I'm not really sure what to say, since KarBOOM uses A8's built-in connection functions, and we have indeed played with other players online. I wish I could be more helpful.

Jibb

Yeah, my brother's inside my network, so there shouldn't be a problem...

You know, I've had this sort of trouble with Gamestudio's built-in multiplayer functions before. Maybe this is Gamestudio's problem.

Perhaps. I don't like problems But I guess I have to deal with them in this line of work.

Jibb

If someone's online, please try connecting to "TestHostOnJibb". I'm trying to get DMZ working, and it's really hard to test it from this end.

Let me know here how it goes, please

Jibb

EDIT: @Redeemer, I'm not experienced in this, and I could be way-off, but if you're using DMZ, your network might be preventing you from connecting to the host from within the same network.

EDIT2: Okay, I've given up for now. I need sleep.

You could always try a virtual LAN like Hamachi. Those tend to work nicely...

Nice update. Can you create a optional menu for the radius (playfield). Small, medium and big for example?

He's creating a level editor, so such a feature will be unnecessary.

Different dirt patch sizes are available, click on the level name in server settings (?). (EDIT: In offline mode, sorry.)

This isn't an option yet in online games, but I'm implementing that now.

The next version (0.2.3, which I'm working on now) will hopefully be the last update before 0.3 (with the level editor), so most of the UI will be replaced/rearranged/improved quite soon.

Jibb

Looking forward to seeing how your network issues work out. I am using A8 native functions in Silas as well, if I remember right, A8 uses Enet now. I like how in other games a player can just play it would seem if they create a server. I wonder how they do this? I use port 7500 in Silas, but the player has to open it. Do you think other engines have a method of automatically opening ports or something?

Some newer games use a new technology called UPnP, a way to dynamically open and close ports for applications that need them. But as far as I know Gamestudio does not support this.

If I figure something out I'd be sure to let you know! I've heard of things like "tunneling" and other tricks, but I have no experience with them My only solution for now is to mark servers that are causing trouble so users are less likely to bump into such issues.

Jibb

Thanks. That is a good idea to flag servers on the lobby list if people have trouble connecting to it. Although, it's odd, since the majority of games I play I don't have to edit my ports. Just with A8 games. Although I guess Steam uses the same ports for all its games. But how do services like that work without making you open your ports? Unless they all use UPnP.

Have you ever hosted a Counterstrike server? I believe they do need port-forwarding, but the servers are setup somewhere already, and people just join.

One way is, as far as I know, to have a "masterserver"(when many people play you'll need multiple servers to keep up) which always runs the game. Then all players are clients of that server, and if one player "hosts" then he will not have to do any port forwarding because he's really a client just telling the server what to do/what map to choose etc.

I assume that's how Starcraft 2 and Halo3 does it(last online games I've played). But doesn't this mean it would have to run an instance of ever game being played on the masterserver? Because after matchmaking, it can't just select someone to be the server unless their ports are opened.

I have to imagine that having master-servers would cost a pretty penny for indie developers like myself. I think the best option for indies would be to implement dedicated server support that just rotates levels to provide an extra layer of consistent games in the database for those who don't want to open ports often. This is how TF2 probably does it, you just join a server that's always online in a level with no lobbies...

Too bad that its really easy to implement. Sure, not as easy as implementing NAT-PMP, but UPnP is easy too. Oh and UPnP is nothing new, and the newer games are already old too

JustSid, I'd LOVE some tips/links/help in heading in that direction. I'd really like to make it easier for people to host my game.

Jibb

By "new" I mean it only started enjoying widespread use in the last few years.

Hey guys,

This update is not being shouted across the internet. If you login using this update, you'll be informed that a new version is available online, but this is incorrect -- I just haven't changed the online information because this version is for testing rather than mass distribution, and don't want people logging in to 0.2.2 (as if that happens a lot) thinking a new version is available.

PLEASE TEST THIS VERSION OUT.

Thanks to JustSid for pointing me in the direction of some helpful UPnP code

This version adds new features as listed in the README, but doesn't have the complete feature list I wanted the next version to have. When creating a server, KarBOOM will automatically attempt to set up port forwarding. I'm not sure how well this works. On my machine I have had no errors, and the function returns all the right values. But I can only test it if there are people to play.

I've set up a host. Please try to connect. Also, if you haven't been able to host before because you don't have port-forwarding working, it'd be great if you try hosting with this version and let me know how it goes.

UPnP works on most routers but not all. But it's supposed to work on mine, and I'm not sure if my implementation will work at all.

Thanks for trying it out.

There are a bunch of other nice features in this update for you guys anyway.

Here's the relevant part of the README:


Jibb

Okay, brilliant, it works! I've just got to fix some little things, and then I'll have a UPnP dll to contribute for you all to use. EDIT3: The dll is now available in the User Resources forum.

Jibb

EDIT: New version at the same link, uses the new DLL. Please re-download. SHOULD be no problems, but I never like to assume too much with programming, so I'm hanging around if anyone wants to join. Once this version has been tested I'll put up the dll so that no one has any excuses for requiring their players to set up port-forwarding manually.

EDIT2: @Redeemer: I was AFK when you joined, but thanks for testing it out!

Thanks so much for the Upnp plugin, it is really great! As well, I thought I would mention that with your latest version it says I am missing "msvcr100.dll". So when I download it online and put it in your folder everythin works fine.

I am using windowsXP.

I know with Silas one of my testers had a problem with "msvcp71.dll" and "msvcr71.dll" being missing. So I now include them in my folder.

Not really sure what there for, but I think that on different versions of windows they may or may not be in your system32.

P.S - The game plays great, keep up the good work.

Thanks for the heads-up. Does that happen when you use UPnP in your own project, or just in the latest version of KarBOOM? Because I might have accidentally used an older version in KarBOOM.

And thanks

Jibb

Jibb, you may remember that I am also getting the "msvcr100.dll" is missing error when I start your game. I'm using Windows XP, too.

Yes, thanks for reminding me. I think I've fixed it -- it's an issue with the default settings of VC++ Express 2010, and I think I've fixed it.

The same link in the resources thread should have the new version now. The new version will be in the next version of KarBOOM, but I haven't updated 0.2.3.

Jibb

DOWNLOAD AT THE USUAL URL

Version 0.2.4 adds online rounds. Unless you're in "no limits" mode, cars can only be added between rounds, so it might be best to have relatively low limits on the rounds so there's less waiting for newcomers and more winning for whoever ends up thrashing everyone else (whether it's time, score, or life limit).

There's nothing visually different about this version, really, except for slightly different menu options. But here's a screenshot anyway. I like colours.


The server list is still lite on information -- the next update is planned to give you more info (such as game mode and host location), but until then this should be good.

This uses UPnP so most users will be able to host without having to even think about the words "port" and "forwarding".

A lot changed to have online rounds work, so I'm nervous of bugs.

Please let me know how it goes, what you think, and so on. The next version (with its extra server and game info) will hopefully be the last one before the level editor.

Tell all your friends and all that jazz.



Jibb

It still issues the missing .dll error.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Jibb

EDIT: I gave up trying to remove the need for it, and just included it in the folder. The UPnP DLL contribution will have it in a minute or two soon.

Windows vista seems to have some problems with the msvcr100 dll, and asks to reïnstall the application.
however, when I remove it, the game works without complaining.

also, a little suggestion:
When the results screen shows up, the time the player was alive is always shown in three digits.
So... I had a car that was alive for "021" seconds.

Well that's annoying. It doesn't cause any issues on my computer. Perhaps you've got an older redistributable installed (I assume older because I only installed VC++ a few days ago)? Whatever it is, I don't see a way to work around it. Some PCs need it. Mine doesn't, and doesn't care that I include it. And apparently yours doesn't need it, but does care that I include it.

I wish I knew what was going on

Thanks for letting me know.

Jibb

I know, I know... Twitter... so easily abused... but it's a good way to get the latest on stuff you're into without having to trawl through tonnes of information, as long as you're not following people who will tweet about tying their shoelaces.

I've had a Twitter account for a while, but hardly used it. That's about to change. KarBOOM's next update is a while away as it is quite big, but the little bits of progress I make don't warrant new posts here (as there'd be very little for you guys to say), nor on the KarBOOM forums.

So if you want the little bits and pieces to remind you that KarBOOM's still alive and kicking, follow me @JibbSmart. I promise, you won't hear about my shoelaces. And that's not just because I use velcro. It's because on Twitter I'm just a game developer.

Jibb

The cars are final, as are the particle effects. Some of the textures will be kept, and the icons will probably not change much. The rest are placeholders.



Ramps have spinning conveyor belts on them (believe me, it works well in practice; cars just don't get enough speed for a decent jump on their own), and this will be obvious when they're complete. There is still a tonne of work to be done (both visually and functionally).

Not shown are ice (still needs some tweaking and a lot of work visually), pits and bridges (they go hand-in-hand, really).

Here're a few things on the to-do list:

Visuals

• New multitexture shader.
• Barriers, ramps and bridges [not shown] completely redone (modelling, texturing, shaders).
• Improved shadow effects.
• Walls in the pits [not shown].
• Beautiful background.
• Fullscreen mode and more resolution options.

Gameplay

• Improved collision detection on ramps.
• King of the Hill mutator.

Other

• Complete menu redesign, recreate, reprogram.
• Level editor (I'm still just editing raw data by hand at the moment to test level elements).
• Music and some more sound effects.

That's not to mention heaps of online stuff I'm not even thinking about right now, and replay stuff to take advantage of the new level editor. Oh yeah, and player profiles on the website for sharing levels. Oh, and AI. The bots as they are do not know what to do about pits, grass and walls.

There's probably a lot of other stuff I've forgotten.

But yeah, that's where I'm at right now

Jibb

EDIT
BTW: Since grass doesn't really make sense as a hazard, are there any suggestions of what should cause the overheating effect instead? Fire's obvious, but game fire normally looks rubbish, and it'd look especially awful if I wanted quite a large patch of it.

How about quick sand? Obviously it wouldn't cause the cars to explode dramatically, but it would still function as a delayed death zone.

Awesome. Looking forward to the next release.

How are you handling the jumps? What happens if one car lands ontop of another car? Does it slide off?

Why are you redesigning the menu? I never understood that... Your menu is one of the coolest-looking I've ever seen made in 3dgs. So why change the design? It's simple, gets the job done, is easy to understand...

Some kind of electric floor? Might look neat, and you have an excuse for glowing cars. Also, you can add sparks.

Sparks!

Have you thought about "shaking" the camera slightly (have it quickly "wobble", etc.) whenever a car explodes and the camera quickly goes back? This can make a game feel a lot more dynamic. You can also try to ever-so-slighty change camera.roll (+-5 at the MOST) when you move the camera to the relative right/left. Again, this makes the camera feel more "alive".


Since I'm by now required by law to add this to any post in this topic: Please add over-the-top 2D-panel-animations whenever points are added or lost (see: Super Smash Bros. Melee).

Hey guys!
They kinda bounce off. I didn't really have to think about it much because much of the physics stuff was already handled with 3D vectors, so I just had to add in gravity and collision detection with the ground.

Playing in the level shown above, Weak Spot was on, and as I took the jump into the ring I landed on the weak spot of a bot, blew him up, and the shock knocked my car back out of the ring. It was pretty cool
Wow. Thanks. I really appreciate that. With that in mind I'll probably keep changes minimal. I definitely want to change a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, though. I want to render the panels on entities so I can control their movement more easily and so I don't have to worry about re-arranging the menu for resolution changes. But this also means I'll need to do some manual work to make clicking menu items work, and I'll probably take that opportunity to make gamepad control of menus more like one would expect (instead of just controlling the mouse with the joystick).

Having recently played through Oddworld Stranger's Wrath (great game) on PC, I quite like how it had a simple launcher that lets you choose between gamepad and keyboard, and choose a resolution. It always remembers your last choice, so it's not an inconvenience, and I know a lot of people prefer windowed modes over fullscreen, especially when they're doing two things at once, so I might go for a similar sort of thing in the next update (especially since I plan on introducing full-screen and heaps more resolution options).
I hadn't thought of that. It has potential, but I don't think I'll use it since I can't imagine quicksand contrasting enough with dirt to look nice. One reluctance I have with finding a different hazard surface is that the green grass looks quite nice next to the dirt. But my brothers were both pretty insistent that grass as a hazard just doesn't work.
That'd do the trick. I'll poke around with how I would do it. I can't imagine how I'd make it look good, but at least the very idea leaves a lot of creative wiggle room.
I haven't. But I will. It could certainly add a lot to the feel. It might have to be quite subtle considering how regular explosions can be, but I'll play around with it. Or I'll forget. But I'm writing it down write now on my to-do list, so that shouldn't happen.
Consider it done I was actually just thinking about it this morning. I'll look at SSBM for some inspiration. I won't coy exactly what they do, but I do want the score cards to show evidence that they like getting more points and don't like losing them.

Jibb

spikes/thorns are another option, maybe rotating gears around the perimeter that looks like the car will be crumpled if you hit them.

I like that idea! I reckon I'll work on various mechanical hazards that can be placed around the level. Between those and the electrified floor hazard, I think the conveyor-ramps will seem much more fitting.

Jibb

glad i could help.

bt whats it got to do with me?

just kidding, looks awesome. one of the best games and concepts i have seen around here. bring it!

Ah I get it Thanks Spike! I really appreciate it!

Today was a long day at uni, so not a lot got done. I experimented with "hot coals" as a hazard type (that fits with the orange glowing and heating up), but couldn't produce a nice enough texture today. If it doesn't get anywhere I'll try do something with electric floors as Error014 suggested.

Here's a fresh shot! Subtle change here:



Bloom. Not just any bloom, though -- I use MRTs to get most of the advantages of HDR (KarBOOM doesn't need automatic exposure adjustment, and since it's all forward-rendered there isn't an advantage to extra colour precision within the visible range either) with far less overhead. It might look like a bit much here, but I chose this screenshot to show off the effect -- 3 cars are just about to explode from being on grass too long, we have 2 fresh explosions, and the weak spot mutator is enabled.

And in case you weren't sure: the ramps, barriers, skybox and shader effect on the terrain are all placeholders.

Here's the deal for those interested: I don't want an over-the-top bloom effect like from the XBox/PS2 generation, but that is really hard to avoid when doing bloom as a post-process of a standard-range (as opposed to HDR) image. I only want bloom on items that exceed the normal range (that is, flat-white, even though it's at the top of the normal range, won't get bloomed at all, but things brighter than can be displayed should get bloomed). Secondly, items that do get bloomed should preserve the colour of the extra light (think of a lightsaber -- white in the middle because it's so bright, but the bloom around it shows the lightsaber's true colour). This is what HDR is normally used for, except I don't want a dynamic range -- the lighting in KarBOOM is constant enough that exposure testing would be wasteful because exposure would almost never (or only slightly) change, and HDR would require more render targets (or at least much heavier ones, depending on your implementation), requiring a bunch more memory and using up a lot of resources for post-processing. All for a subtle effect.

Yuck.

That's why I love MRTs All lighting is calculated in the shader and never limited, so the final colour value (between specular highlights and accumulated light from glow-maps, heating effects, and [in the explosion's case] internal lighting calculations) is often greater than 1.0. Subtract 1.0 from all components and write this to another render target, and there you have your input image for blurring and adding over the standard view for the final result. Colours at the top of the normal visible range won't get bloomed (like white, bright blue, and so on) unless they significantly exceed the normal range.

Hardly any overhead at all -- mainly the 16-sample blur (which isn't intensive at all by modern standards).

I still have some coding to do to have it switch on and off easily regardless of whether AA is on or not, but the effect is there.

Jibb

What about green acid then?
Acid is always green, you know.

Haha, makes sense! Alright, that's next on my list if I'm having too hard a time getting electric floors to look good.

Jibb

EDIT: Animated realtime clouds. Two purposes: pretty up the menu, and show off KarBOOM's smoke/explosion shader.

Hey, that looks good!

By the way, I was thinking KarBOOM needs more water. Perhaps you could fill the pits with water, and/or surround the islands with water? You could then make seagulls that fly around in the sky over the water and in the menu.

That makes sense. I was wondering what to do about the background, and it could look quite good. It's on my to-do list to try out.

Thanks

Jibb

Looks really cool!

i really like the realtime clouds

A new player (Banger in orange) recorded a video of a bunch of us playing KarBOOM Which I didn't realise he was doing until about 5 minutes in.

Frogger (in green) recommended to these guys (and others) after reading about KarBOOM in PC Gamer!

[EDIT]Another video, this one by furioapb (in black in Banger's video). Showing off some curious rendering errors I'll have to ask him about that![/EDIT]



That got me pretty excited

Jibb

Looks like this game is really getting widespread. I'm pretty glad everything seems to work so good at the moment. :-)

I hate how he says "it's really early on in the making of it". Gamers just don't realise the work that goes into indie projects. They don't realise that the message system they're using to type their chat message took a week to develop.

Is there a group somewhere for "indie developers that have spent much more time on a project than YOU would ever imagine"? If so, I might join.

You want kudos for your glorious chat system from the users because you spent one week for it? Are you kidding???

No. I don't want them to say "it's really early on in the making of it" when Julz has been working on this for what... over a year, when all the essential features work, and when the game already looks polished.

Edit: Also, maybe I didn't emphasize it enough, but the comment was written with a general feeling of "gosh I know the feeling of working on something for ages and then getting people who say 'uh, yeah, I guess that's pretty nice'", rather than a serious comment suggesting gamers should recognize the work going into a game. Because I realize most gamers never will.

Ok, fine that was exactly what I thought as well

Thanks, that's what I thought you meant. It's been about 6 months of development, but I'd still like to think that this isn't "really early on in the making" -- I'd like to be done with big updates and working on prototypes for my next project by the end of this Summer.

At the same time, I really appreciate their enthusiasm towards KarBOOM

Jibb

I feel the same way. Here's a typical conversation between me and my older brothers:

Me: "Look at this thing! It took me 7 months to build. It's very rough around the edges, but can you see how I did XYZ to accomplish ABC and how elegant a solution it was?"

Them: "It's not glorious or exploding with special effects yet, therefore it sucks."



BTW, I just noticed that in that photo of PC Gamer KarBOOM is listed right under Minecraft! You're bound to get attention by just being on the same page as that game.

The registered userbase had stagnated since it had been a while since I had updated KarBOOM. Suddenly on Friday I had 10 more players, one of them citing PCUser UK as the reason they found it, and since then another 15 or so have joined.

I'd be interested to know what section KarBOOM is being shown under. Friends of ours in the UK are sending over a copy.

I'm hosting a game right now for most of the day -- probably until about 9pm EST -- but can't participate myself because I'm studying (5 exams this week). Server offline. Having port issues, and don't have time to resolve them today

I can't wait to finish uni for the year and focus my efforts on KarBOOM again

Jibb

EDIT:
UPnP doesn't always work perfectly, is not necessarily helpful for network savvy users, and will only ever be used by players who host a game. The plugin itself crashes on some systems unless a certain Microsoft C++ redistributable is installed, and this crash happens on game startup, even though many users wouldn't have needed to use it.

It's extremely useful, for sure, but causes enough problems that it could have users give up on KarBOOM without even being able to try it if it crashes on startup.

With these in mind, the next version of KarBOOM will not use the UPnP plugin, but will come with a separate application that does to let the user open and close ports. The plan is for the player to be able to launch this application from KarBOOM when setting up a host (which will use command line options to set appropriate default values); if the application crashes, it won't take KarBOOM down with it.

If at all possible, you should install error handling and return codes into your UPnP application. Then, if KarBOOM tries to run the application but the application crashes, KarBOOM can notify the user that he has the wrong version of the C++ redistributable. Even if the user doesn't understand what that means, he will at least understand that the problem lies in his own computer, and not KarBOOM.

And in my opinion, this will help lessen their initial impression that KarBOOM is bug-ridden software.

That makes sense. I'm not experienced with communication between two different applications, but I'll see what I can do.

I'm hosting again today, and this time it'll stay up much longer, I believe. I still can't participate, because I'm studying for exams.

If you can't find the server online, make sure you're using the latest public version (0.2.4).

Jibb

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving home at 8 for my final exam, which means I'll finally be able to get back to work on KarBOOM after this 2-week study break I've just had. Uni will be over, and I'm not thinking about getting any Summer jobs -- let's see what it's like to be an Indie Developer full time.

Assuming I'm organised enough tomorrow morning, I'll be hosting from about 7:30am EST. I won't participate, because I'll be at my exam. But if people are playing when I get back I'll join in for sure

So get your acts together! People have been joining, but never more than one at a time before driving around a bit and leaving!

I think the next version will have to have a "min players" option, with bots filling out whatever's missing, so players have reason to stick around if other players aren't on yet. Also: joining victory-limited rounds mid round (at least the time limit and score limit modes, since that'll only give you a disadvantage) instead of having to wait until the next round.

Jibb

Good luck with your exam!

Final exams eh? Good luck!

Thanks guys! They went well. Now I can work on KarBOOM full-time

Jibb

awesome

Great! And now that you have nothing else to do, you have no excuse if you don't deliver.

By the way, I just realized you've got about 120 free accounts left on KarBOOM.net. Have you got a system in place for that magical moment when the meter hits full?

Sure do! Accounts created then will not be upgraded. Once activated, those accounts can be used on the forums. When logged in a not-upgraded account can be upgraded with PayPal for $5 (US).

I put the system in place a very long time ago in the hopes that accounts would be created faster than this I recall it being well-tested, but when it gets closer to the limit I'll probably look over the code again to be sure.

I've been playing a lot of KarBOOM 0.3 with my youngest brother (unfortunately he's better than me at it). Still a way to go, but most of the gameplay stuff is implemented.

Jibb

I'm hosting right now if people want to join. I'm about to go out, but I'll leave it on for a few hours. Check out #screenshotsaturday for heaps of screenshots of WIP indie games, including KarBOOM (most weeks except last weekend) and Error014's latest project (usually but seemingly not this week).

Jibb

It's more of a sideproject, really (first person to PM me with the correct tweet wins* ~ there's also a neat gallery)

The REAL DEAL is still incredibly secret and has only be shown to very few people, most of which we had to kill right after.


* - there is no real prize avaible, but I might edit this post with a list of WINNERS.

Here's a video of KarBOOM as it is at the moment.

Jibb

Well done! Looking great.

Do grass and dirt have different attributes?

Grass has slightly less grip, and it makes cars explode (I've grown kind of attached to using it as a hazard, and figure I have more important changes to make for now than using something else that actually would make cars explode).

Cheers

Jibb

What about partially destructible grounds which eventually break after some time when drove over them too often or if you move to slow?
I could imagine glass, ice with water underneath or brittle rock with lava below.
Great job so far!

Awesome! Reflections are cool!
Have you thought about uneven terrain?

Thanks guys!

@Hummel: I definitely want to have more dynamic levels in future. I'll put on my TODO list to try something along those lines.

@Superku: I've thought about it and really wanted it, but that'd require a much more complicated level-creation process. It may be something I come back to in the future, but the level editor is difficult enough to create as it is. Having said that, I don't want the first version of the level editor to be the final version -- I want to add more improvements in future updates.

Jibb

Awesome polished game !

I just would want tom traps and obstacles like some walls, rocks to hide or have some strategy !
But perhaps its better keeping it simple specially with your own physic system !

Thanks ratchet! I've already implemented ramps, walls, and rocks (kind of) to hide behind I just didn't include them in the video because they look terrible at this stage (they work great, but the art isn't done).

Jibb

I love that game already. Nothing bad to say ATM (as long as you promise to fix the horrible SFX) XD

As I said before, some Bomberman-esque music would sound great in a game like this, especially if you program the game to speed up the music based on how chaotic the on-screen action is.

I love it dude!

Thanks guys I definitely want to put music in, and improve (or at least somewhat hide) the sound effects. I'm thinking a simple 2-gear system, so cars aren't revving as loud as they can all the time. It won't affect the actual play.

Musically I have a lot of experimenting to do.

And as there aren't many free upgrades left (3 right now), I figure I really want to get a version out with online improvements soon, so the next update will probably lack the level editor, but still come with some new levels and online improvements so it's easier to host and players have more reason to upgrade.

Jibb

EDIT: 500 accounts have been made! Time to clean up the website and forum.

Congrats on hitting those user numbers and the magazine articlse - all very cool! I look forward to seeing this project progress.



I find it works fine on some of my machines. But on my new windows 7 64bit, freshly installed, it doesn't crash the game but it doesn't open the ports either(defaults to the "no upnp enabled router" error). Even though this router works fine with upnp on other computers.

Since I need a similar solution to Silas. I am willing to pay you to license your work for use in Silas if you can get this working solid in Karboom? Something like this is very important to let users easily host games.

I am also wondering, what errors have users told you about your current upnp config and startup crashes? All the information helps as I really need a solid solution for my game or I might just have to retract to the dark ages of making users open ports themselves. Which I really don't want to do.

Hey William, I'm sorry I somehow missed your questions. The only error I've heard about is the one when "msvcr100.dll" is missing. If I include it, the only error I've heard about is when for some reason the user's computer doesn't like it and they need to remove it and install the appropriate Microsoft redist.

One option is to actually include the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package with your game.

A couple of times I've been unable to open ports from my computer (also Windows 7 64bit), but most times it works fine.

Jibb

Thats typical for UPnP, a fallback would be NAT-PMP which isn't supported by older routers by telcos usually give you one for free every few years (at least here we have 5 different routers now)

why are good projects getting buried. dev guys! jk but i am excited to continue following.

Thanks for the motivation! Don't worry, I haven't stopped. Progress has slowed a little as I add finishing touches to this next update. Progress has slowed a little more as some changes are being made specifically for these guys.

I can't go into details yet, but I figure a public website with a screenshot from my game is allowed

Jibb

exciting as hell. thats awesome. looks like your game is getting quite the viral attention.

Thanks! I'm so excited. I really can't wait to see what comes of this.

Jibb

Awesome news! This is great to read.

Good news! Let us know how this turns out.

KarBOOM at 1600x900 (right-click for options to see it full size, since the forum shrinks screenshots):


What resolution do you use? So far I have:
800x600
1024x768
1152x864
1280x768
1280x800
1280x960
1280x1024
1360x768
1366x768
1400x900
1440x900
1600x900
1600x1200
1680x1050
1920x1080
1920x1200
2048x1080

The bootstrapper sets your desktop resolution as the default option, whatever it is, but then once you start going through the list that information is lost, so I'd like to make sure I cover all the common resolutions.

Camera adjustments (like arc and the way the camera automatically places itself to fit all the action on-screen) automatically adapts to any ratio.

I've been mostly fixing bugs lately. I've also been cleaning up the code to make it more scalable. Effects or features that just worked under the conditions I was using them now work at arbitrary resolutions, full-screen or windowed, online or offline (lots of features were previously only implemented in offline play).

Nearly at the next update, I think, but still have a few things to do.

So what resolution would you play at?

Jibb

1680x1050 and 1920x1080

usually 1600x1200

i use 1920x1080 on desktop 1400x900 laptop

1920x1200 here

1680x1050 and 1440x900

2560x1440 and 1920x1200 and 1920x1080

OMG, I'm a bit amazed what kind of workstations you guys have... I usually play with 1024 x 768 (if possible, otherways to increase performance I even play 800 x 600).

Wow, Slin! That's huge! I added it just now. I won't be able to test it, of course. But it should work just fine.

And thanks for the info, everyone! It's good to see the variety in there -- I was feeling like my list was a bit ridiculous, but not anymore.

Keep them coming!

Jibb

1280*1024 currently - looking forward to more KarBoom!

I hate 1280x1024. It gives the wrong width:height ratio.

Anyway I use 1280x960 on my desktop, but whenever I play a recent game (ie any game released within the last 6 years) I play on a low resolution, like 640x480 or (sometimes) 800x600.

1280x1024

@Redeemer

just of curiosity - does it give a big performance boost in most cases?

Screen resolution and lighting/shadow effects are the two biggest performance killers in almost all 3D renderers. Shaders can be a big one too.

The best available:

video_set(sys_metrics(0), sys_metrics(1), 32, 1);

AFAIK, shaders are the reason screen resolution matters so much. Pixel shaders, in particular. I haven't forgotten about your computer, Redeemer, for which I'll have some lower settings.
Of course The bootstrapper sets those as the default setting (if there isn't a config file to trump it), but I don't want to automatically start the game like that -- I like when games have a bootstrapper that allow me to play in windowed mode (depending on the kind of game), or at least choose my settings beforehand (most games seem to default to my secondary monitor's resolution, which is smaller).

Jibb

Discrepancies between client and server experience get more severe when playing with boost, and even more so with sapoi. By changing video_alpha on the client I can more easily see when and how badly this is happening:





In motion, it's easy to see which is the client and which is the server, because the client is always a little behind.

Jibb

I'm working on music for KarBOOM, but not sure what style to go with. If anyone has examples of music they think would go well with KarBOOM, please post a link where I can listen to it for inspiration!

Jibb

just think this needs something light and fast, it still is a car game afterall, needs a certain pace..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-atQAvUc0E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vxJ2XAKopE&feature=related

I was looking at Crash Bash stuff before. Classic!

Part of me feels that the style doesn't fit my game's "character", but I can't figure out what KarBOOM's "character" is, and perhaps the music it ends up having will play a large part in determining that.

Jibb

Funny. I was asked nearly the same thing this evening. I then browsed for about 2 hours iStockPhoto for their audio stuff, brainstorming for some new ideas for Razor, if it ever happens that I develop it.

So have a look at iStockPhoto.

I didn't know they had audio! Thanks for pointing me in that direction. I found some cool stuff, and I think I'm going to go with a largely percussion focus for KarBOOM's music.

Jibb

EDIT: At Error014's suggestion, I'm going to try and have the music depend on the action. This will at least mean the overall intensity of the action, but ideally other aspects and particular events will trigger unique parts of music. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Btw, I finally got myself a copy of the issue of PC Gamer that had KarBOOM in it so I could see what section featured it. It's called "Top 10 Downloads"

i could make you a demo track if you like?

Thanks for the offer, but as I've made everything else myself, I really want to do the music myself as well.

Jibb

okay^^