Radar 4K

[reardonj]

Proper radar is implemented!

Hello folks,

I'm mostly a lurker around here, but I was bored over the weekend so I put together a game for the contest:

WebStart:http://www.myjavaserver.com/~reardonj/radar.jnlp
Executable Jar:http://www.myjavaserver.com/~reardonj/radarSmall.jar

No webpage up for it yet, so the controls are:
*right/left and up/down keys rotate counterclockwise/clockwise
*the Space Bar fires and detonates the missile
*the "C" key will "Clear"

Known Bugs and Limitations:
*The program will sometimes display a blank window and not respond
*Sound support is done using byte arrays and a SourceDataLine. It works on the Linux box I made this on, but neither of the Windows machines friends tested it on produced sound(feedback would be appreciated on this)

And a few notes: Friendly fire is enabled, detonating the missile right beside the base WILL kill you. The special enemies appear only after a certain amount of kills. No, clearing does not score you points.


I think that's all, enjoy!

[nonnus29]

That's a good concept.  I got one beep at the start then no more  .  Nice fading effects on the text and what not.  I didn't get very far, a blue swerving missile wiped me out.  Nice job!

[woogley]

cool idea! the effects are great, ran really smooth here.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[jbanes]

Sound doesn't seem to work right on Windows XP, JDK1.5. I hear a "blip" when it starts, but no sound after that. You may want to make sure that you're not underflowing the sound buffer. Alternatively, you can check if the stream is already started and start it if it isn't. Just make sure you don't overfill the buffer and block the process.

BTW, I love the concept. It would be even cooler if you made a sequel that worked like a real radar screen. i.e. The line keeps swirling around, and temporarily lights up each target as it runs over it. You could then control the direction of the fire independently from the radar, sometimes having to fire blindly. What do you say?

Again, great work!

[Alan_W]

The SourceDataLine idea is interesting.  I've put together some sound support (in case I can fit in in to a game), but choose to use the Clip class instead.  However using SoundDataLine looks like it might use less library calls.

[reardonj]

Sound doesn't seem to work right on Windows XP, JDK1.5. I hear a "blip" when it starts, but no sound after that. You may want to make sure that you're not underflowing the sound buffer. Alternatively, you can check if the stream is already started and start it if it isn't. Just make sure you don't overfill the buffer and block the process.

Ok, I tried changing a few things from your suggestions. A new version is up(and the difficulty is tweaked a bit too).

BTW, I love the concept. It would be even cooler if you made a sequel that worked like a real radar screen. i.e. The line keeps swirling around, and temporarily lights up each target as it runs over it. You could then control the direction of the fire independently from the radar, sometimes having to fire blindly. What do you say?

Again, great work!

Thanks. I would have liked to have done that the first time around, but I'm short of bytes at the moment. If I can't get sound to work, I should be able to get that in. Otherwise, I'll have to try and optimize it sometime.

[Morre]

Awesome look and feel
Good work with transparency, giving it a smooth feeling. I love it!

EDIT: Agree with lilian's post below... that, and I'd like to see it getting more difficult a bit faster

[c_lilian]

Interesting concept

it would be nice if there was a ky to trigger missiles, an another one to make them explode.

That way we could fire multi-missiles and explode them in FIFO.

That plus the true radar effect (only showing ennemies when the rotating bar "hits" them, and you'd have a really immersive 4k game.

my 2c

Lilian

[swpalmer]

Nice!  Works great on Mac.

[g666]

Fun. Sounds works fine for me on winXP jre 1.5

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[reardonj]

Ok, due to popular demand, a proper radar simulation is implemented! The difficulty has also been tweaked a bit.

Interesting concept

it would be nice if there was a ky to trigger missiles, an another one to make them explode.

That way we could fire multi-missiles and explode them in FIFO.

That plus the true radar effect (only showing ennemies when the rotating bar "hits" them, and you'd have a really immersive 4k game.

my 2c

Lilian

An interesting idea, if I can ever find enough bytes to do it in I'll give it a try.

[CaptainJester]

Nicely done.  A lot of new concept games this year.

[jbanes]

The sound works now! And the radar change is pretty cool too! Good job!

Still plenty of tweaking that can happen though (thus my suggestion for a sequel). Here's a few ideas:

1) Clockwise is a much more "natural" direction to spin the radar.
2) Use greens or near-white blues for the colors. This is not only more realistic, it allows for more brilliant colors.
3) The fade doesn't quite feel right. The blip should be brilliant for a few moments, then fade quickly.
4) We shouldn't see the blips moving after they are picked up on radar. Remember, the radar is only a snapshot. We need to wait for the next sampling to find the exact position.
5) Try for an explosion that lasts a little longer. Presumably, any explosion would emit enough RF radiation to be visible for at least a second or two. Missiles are only "visible" on the radar because they (also presumably) emit a transponder signal.

And last but not least:

6) Make the game screen a LOT bigger. My smallest monitor does 1024x768. I hate playing games in tiny windows. (That goes to all the other windowed 4K games as well.)

That's all I can think of at the moment. Did I mention that I really love the concept?

[Vorax]

Great idea and well implemented.  I agree with jBanes's comments though.  As an extra effect (if you have the bytes) - when you die, you could crack the radar screen with a bit of procedural graphics - just a thought

[c_lilian]

oh by the way, it uses system.nanoTime() -> 1.5 only. That might exclude it from the contest...

Lilian

[Morre]

Great improvements, although I have to agree with jbanes. Keep working, great game

[reardonj]

oh by the way, it uses system.nanoTime() -> 1.5 only. That might exclude it from the contest...

Lilian

Eek! Forgot that was new in 1.5. New version is up with that fixed along with what of JBanes ideas I could do in a half hour.