NEWS LITE™: Your source for news on Eric's project without
the BS!!!
This is a condensed version of the news page. Click here
for the expanded version.
4/30/2002:
The cannon cannot move through walls or objects. Also, the three action keys (pick up/put down, load, and fire) have been merged into one context-sensitive action key. May 1st is the deadline for presenting to the advisory board, so I have prepared this version for downloading as "Funland Beta"
4/28/2002:
Tested and tweaked. The barrier is now a part of
the wall and you cannot cross it (unless you know the trick). Released the
current state as "Funland Alpha"
4/24/2002:
The turbofan is functional. Things that pass above it are blown upwards.
4/23/2002:
You cannot walk through objects anymore.
4/21/2002:
The camera can not pass through the walls unless
you really try (see the real news entry for an explanation). You slide smoothly
along the wall instead of stopping on contact.
4/14/2002:
Polygon hit detection works great, things bounce
off the walls. I also made a brick texture for the walls.
Download
the current state of the project.
4/12/2002:
Discovered that my entire XY coordinate system is
reversed, but it doesn't really matter.
Infinite plane collision detection works! Next will
be actual polygon hit detection.
4/10/2002:
Made it so there is gravity and things bounce off
the floor.
Working on making things bounce off the walls.
4/09/2002:
Made the cannon less soft. Check
it out!
Last night I found a great
website with a simple C-D routine and explanation.
4/08/2002:
Implemented vertex-shading!
It makes the cannon
barrel look like a big pillow.
4/03/2002:
Come and get
it! The playable "Funland alpha preview" has been released.
3/31/2002:
You can interact with things! You can pick up ammo,
drop it into the cannon, aim the cannon, and fire it! Things should move at
the same speed on all systems.
3/29/2002:
Released the
current state of the project. Major changes include First-person perspective
with time-based (monitor-independent) camera motion, the tree, the target,
the spring.
3/27/2002:
Made a new grass texture for the ground and changed
the sky to a more cheery blue sky.
I scanned the doodles I used to design the objects:
The first one contains the evolution of the cannon
(more or less top-to-bottom). The second one contains my thoughts on how to
make the cannon in a low-polygon form. It also contains my first idea for
the trampoline (now a spring). The third picture contains the evolution of
the spring. It continues in the fourth picture. The fourth picture also contains
a funny idea that I may or may not implement. The final picture has my doodles
for the ammo tree. To the right is a 'guided missile' that I may use.
3/13/2002:
Added the ability to read in starting rotation coords
for each object. Reverted to 800x600 resolution.
Modelled the target! I also made the ammo tree!
See both of them in this
screenshot and this
screenshot.
3/11/2002:
Look at this
screenshot. I am having issues with the framerate dropping to 30 fps at
times. I discovered the reason my friend was getting 200 FPS was because he
has his video card disabling vertical-sync automatically.
I have implemented first-person perspective.
I modelled the spring. The ground is 100% temporary
and I am aware that it looks like crap. I will make the grass look better,
too.
3/10/2002:
NeHe has posted my web site!
I am stealing code from www.GameTutorials.com
for the camera class and adapting it for my project.
3/6/2002:
I was deciding on the technical implementation
for collision detection. Objects that are on
the ground and are generally not in constant motion (cannon, fans, springs)
will have "collision meshes" which are ultra-low polygon meshes that
vaguely resemble the object they surround. These meshes are invisible and are
used for collision detection only.
I upgraded parseAse to accomodate for these meshes,
and I upgraded the object initialization code to read the collision type of
each object from a file. I also extended the Thing class to allow for a collision
mesh and a collision type.
The apple_orange demo runs at 200 frames per second
on a friend's computer (vs 61 on most people's).
3/5/2002:
Thought about collision and exploding objects.
Screenshots for the Counterstrike
explosion and Max Payne explosion.
These were fun screenshots to make :^)
I've decided to simply shatter the object on impact.
3/4/2002:
Released the Apple
and Orange Special Edition! Instances: Only one copy of the geometry is
stored, but there are several instances of the 'Thing'. This is more efficient
than reading in several identical files and storing them all.
This new demo uses 1024x768 resolution!
Transplanted the project into a newer framework
code.
2/27/2002:
New demo released! Check
it out! It allows you to control objects as well as their parts. It also
has the FPS-meter and a timer.
2/26/2002:
I can use fonts now, so I have a frames per second
counter on the screen. I also developed a new class called GameTimer and it
is a timer that can be paused and resumed and reset. It displays the time
like 00:00:00 on the top of the screen.
2/25/2002:
Created a function called 'thingLoader' that assigns
each mesh to its appropriate 'thing' and assigns each 'thing' to its appropriate
'master'. It knows this information from the name of each mesh that complies
with a simple naming convention.
I made a logo for the game and I decided that I
will name my 3d graphics engine "Whisk" in the spirit of my previous
independent study "Spork".
2/18/2002:
I designed and modelled the 'spring' (formally referred
to as a 'trampoline'). It rocks bigtime and here
is a screenshot of it's current look. I also gave the turbofan a renovation.
2/13/2002:
Control both the cannon and the turbofan independent
of eachother! Download it!
2/11/2002 at 3:22 AM:
I decided to normalize the normals myself.
2/10/2002:
I'm wrestling with a problem I just noticed with
the face normals of the models that get loaded.
I've set up the 'Thing' class which will be used
for organizing objects.
2/10/2002:
The ASE Parser is now FULLY operational I am brainstorming
a way to organize how objects will be stored.
I have made more progress on the cannon.
2/6/2002:
I had some fun and slapped a cool texture onto what
I have of the cannon.
2/5/2002:
I split my project into multiple files. I had no
idea what the guidelines were for doing this, and OVER TWO HOURS LATER I finally
got my project to compile and build :^) I'm learning everything the hard way!
I had sent an e-mail to Jeff Molofee from NeHe
Productions enquiring if he would be interested in my ASE parser when
I finished it. Today I heard from him! He said he would love to have it!
Check out this partially textured turbofan!
2/3/2002:
I wrote a parser for the 3D Studio Max ASCII Object
Export (asc format) and it actually worked! Unfortunately, the power in my
dorm went out mid-debugging and I LOST THE ENTIRE PROJECT!!! I had NO BACKUP
of my project. Visual C++ was no longer able to compile anything. But I stumbled
upon... A COPY OF THE PROJECT THAT I FORGOT ABOUT! I had to rewrite the parser,
but I was going to have to do that anyway!
I planned to use the 3D Studio Max ASCII Scene Export
(ASE format). I decided to write all the parsing code and all the display
code compiler-less! I wrote about 240 lines of code this weekend and I have
no clue if it works or not!
I am extremely proud of my parser and I have dubbed
it "ParseASE".
1/28/2002:
I used a ridiculous method of hand-extracting vertices
from the Maya Ascii format and then plotting them on a post-it note and figuring
out the vertex order for each polygon myself.
I have discovered that 3D Studio Max has a great
ascii exporter that creates a text file that is beautifully formatted in nearly
plain English.
12/13/2001:
I decided to make my turbofan model using Maya 3d
modeling software. I decided it would be fun to get the model data the hardest
way possible.
DOWNLOAD
the fan demo!!!
12/04/2001:
I drew a picture of some of the elements of the
world previously referred to in the last news entry. Enjoy.
12/04/2001:
I'm thinking that
this environment should be loaded with spheres or sphere-like objects, and
the user can fire them from cannons and watch them bounce off of walls and
bounce off of eachother. There can be trampolines or air-jets and other crazy
stuff to add to the mayhem. I've done the research and I think I can handle
that.
I would like to acknowledge that my project has
changed in focus from the original 'vague' description, but I think it is
for the better. I plan on finding a decent Collision Detection algorithm and
optimising it for this particular environment.
11/28/2001:
Collision detection is REALLY hard! I wish I took
linear algebra.
I am disappointed at my lack of actual progress
as far as the project is concerned, but I am learning a lot of extremely complex
stuff at a very fast pace.
11/27/2001:
Collision detection is REALLY COMPLICATED!!
11/26/2001:
I did more research tonight.
More research to come...
11/19/2001:
I am getting a clearer idea of what will be needed
for this project as well as developing a firmer idea of the project. I've
decided that the original idea was frustratingly dull and too open-ended.
Therefore I want to make it more of a game. I will try to somehow encourage
the user to create some kind of Rube
Goldberg-esque contraption, but still nothing is forced. This will require
a primitive physics model as well as collision-detection.
10/31/2001:
Up until now I have been reading textbooks and browsing
the internet so that I can familiarize myself with both C++ and OpenGL. I
have worked with all the NeHe tutorials up to and including number eight:
"blending".
Download my
project up to this point. This is not my real project, it is merely a
learning exercise.
