S-Type!

[Orangy Tang]

S-Type is the game I've been working on recently, primarily as a showcase/test of V-Script, my game scripting engine final year project.

S-Type (via webstart)

Its a side scrolling shooter, still in its early stages but finally in a playable state. Use the cursor keys to move, and WASD keys to shoot (although bullets don't do any damage yet!). If its not reponding you might need to click on it to set the key focus.



Its been tested on several WinXP machines so far, but webstart should grab Win32, Linux, Mac & Solaris Jogl files. I'd really like to know how it goes on any non-windows machines.

In fact I'm mainly after technical feedback - does it run, is it smooth, does it look correct.

[size=8]If it doesn't work:[/size]
It'll create a log file in USER_HOME/.vscript which would be handy if it fails on anyones machine (esp. orange warnings and red errors). And if anything does go wrong I'd like to know the graphics card & drivers, Jogl crashes/hangups seem to be my main issues.

Enjoy!

[Jeff]

Dies without even opeing the webstart console on OSX JDK1.4.2DP2

Sorry

[Orangy Tang]

Uh, I'm at something of a loss there, I'd have thought not getting to the console suggests something wrong with webstart loading Jogl perhaps? Is there a log file? That should be the very first thing done..

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[nlmueng]

ran fine in windowed mode, smooth movement and display.

I'm assuming the bullets do nothing.

Cool lighting

nathan

[Jeff]

Uh, I'm at something of a loss there, I'd have thought not getting to the console suggests something wrong with webstart loading Jogl perhaps? Is there a log file? That should be the very first thing done..

Where does the log file get written?

JK

[Jeff]

no .vecript directory in my home dir, sorry.

jk

[darcone]

Wow! Awesome lightning effects!   Nice job, keep up the good work

[darcone]

TRied it on my laptop as wel, didnt get very good FPS, the lightning effects were not working at all and some parts of the images were gone as well (just black). Also got a memory read error from webstart when I closed the program.

[kevglass]

Seems to run ok, but the lighting seems to be a bit knackered:

http://www.cokeandcode.com/javagaming/vescript.gif

ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB

Kev

[Markus_Persson]

Ooh, neat!


Works fine for me. Geforce 2, 1.4ghz.

One of the "enemies" doesn't darken when he passes through any shadows, though.

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[wiederke]

Hi,

looks very strange on my laptop at work, only black an white planes. I will check it out at my private machine later.

[Orangy Tang]

Thanks everyone

darcone: What graphics card? I think i've seen something similar on a TNT2 with old drivers.

kevglass: I think thats because it's not getting a framebuffer with an alpha component, if you (and anyone else getting problems with the graphics) check the log file, somewhere it'll have:
Framebuffer created: R8 G8 B8 A8 S8
If that A value is less than 8 its the problem. Sometimes having the desktop to 32bit fixes this.

Markus_Persson: Great The test level still needs work on it (like lights around the second half ) so i must have missed that, its just an editor setting somewhere..

[darcone]

My laptop gfx card is a S3 SavageDDR something

[kevglass]

Changing back to 32bit desktop fixed the lighting issues. Very nice, very stylistic.

Kev

[Orangy Tang]

I found some silly errors in my webstart jnlp, which i've now fixed - they might have been the reason why webstart failed, hopefully Jeff can run it now..
(Btw kev, you've got the same errors in your webstart tutorial, missing closing tags on title, vendor and description).

[kevglass]

Cheers for the report, I'll fix post-haste.

EDIT: doh, the closing tags were in there, just forgot to replace "<" with &lt;  

Kev

[wiederke]

Hi,

I checked it out on my private machine:

- WinXP
- GeForce4 Ti 4200

Game runs quite good, but the shadows are still looking strange.

ciao torsten

[Orangy Tang]

Game runs quite good, but the shadows are still looking strange.

Can you post a screenshot and the log file? I'd love to fix these issues but i can't seem to figure out whats going wrong from such a short description.

All the GeForce4 machines i've tried it on have worked without a hitch, perhaps try changing your desktop to 32bit?

[swpalmer]

I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and Java 1.4.2 DP 1.

It started OK for me.  I just checked and I don't see a 1.4.2 DP 2 available, so I'm not sure if Jeff got his version numbers right.  Anyway we can't talk about Mac 1.4.2 issues outside of Apple's java-seed list, so all I can say is that your program seemed to start up ok, but I couldn't figure out how to make it do anything, so I started randomly pressing keys.  I eventually got it to do something, which wasn't pretty but was not likely your problem.  I'll post more information to Apple's NDA list in the morning (if I remember).

I'm bummed because this looks like something I would really like to try.

[Preston]

The lights look very nice. :)

[Orden]

Starts ok, displays the screen then just hangs changing colour from pink through to blue gradually., but only in the pink area on the screen shot.

system :  win me, java 1.4.2,gforce 3, drive asus v8200 v44.03

Screen shot:

The log has one red error:
http://demo1.e-nablesolutions.com/log.html

Nice looking log, with drilldown.

[Orangy Tang]

but I couldn't figure out how to make it do anything, so I started randomly pressing keys.  I eventually got it to do something, which wasn't pretty

Sometimes you have to click on the GL canvas for it to grab the key focus before it'll accept key input. I'm still not sure if its a bug on my part or normal key focus behaviour. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some ideas of things that might need fixing to get it working on Mac.

Orden: The log file points the error out right there - no alpha component gets you no lighting. Changing your desktop to 32bit should solve this (I should put that in the log...).

[Jeff]

I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and Java 1.4.2 DP 1.

It started OK for me.  I just checked and I don't see a 1.4.2 DP 2 available, so I'm not sure if Jeff got his version numbers right. /quote]

Your right. java -version gives me:
build 1.4.2-001-31

Is that the same?

if so is there anything else I n eed to do?  Like download JOGL and install it seperately?

Lastly Im on  a tiPB G4, ATI 7800 chip.  Whats your hardware?

I d really like  to make this work

JK

[Orangy Tang]

Ok, I've created a zip of the files so you can attempt to run it manually. You'll need to download the Mac Jogl files separatly, I keep them in a /Library subdir, but as long as they're in the classpath/native lib path that shouldnt matter.

I've included my own batch file i use for starting this when testing so you can see what you need to put on the command line (the -scene tag needs to point to the scene file to use on startup).

http://studenti.lboro.ac.uk/~cojc5/Temp/STypeDist.zip

[elias]

I'm running SUSE 9 with an NVIDIA GFFX5650 Go and it doesn't work. The log file complains about missing preferences (normal I guess) but at the Creating OpenGL canvas, it just hangs. No window is ever shown, and I have to kille the java process.

- elias

[Daath]

on madrake9.1 (NV ti4200)window shows and hangs (have to kill it) - on win2k window shows - you can see scene then I click on windows(to get focus) and it exists.

[oNyx]

For the log: it works.

win98se, k7 500, gf2mx, 128mb, 1.4.2ish vm, 30.82 deto

However, the framerate is quite low (<10 I think) and I'd seen some "sparklies" (they are easier to spot with a low framerate )

Oh and that enemies will clip through you, if you are blocking their path (and should be squished between 'em and a nearby wall).

[Orangy Tang]

Elias: Yeah, the missing preferences is normal for the first startup, it'll use the defaults and create the file on exit for next time. I assume other Jogl demos work on that machine? Same question for Daath really, is it Jogl in general thats broken or just my use of it?

oNyx: The shadows are pretty expensive in terms of memory bandwidth needed on the graphics card (lots and lots of blending operations) so an MX is bound to suffer. Perhaps I should add an option to disable the shadows for people with slower machines. Is there anywhere in particular you've seen the sparklies? I occasionally get them on the edges of the shadow fins, fixing it is on my todo list..

[oNyx]

[...]
oNyx: The shadows are pretty expensive in terms of memory bandwidth needed on the graphics card (lots and lots of blending operations) so an MX is bound to suffer. Perhaps I should add an option to disable the shadows for people with slower machines. Is there anywhere in particular you've seen the sparklies? I occasionally get them on the edges of the shadow fins, fixing it is on my todo list..

Yea... I know that... just tried to give you some numbers to figure out the minimun system requirements


(I had to shoot about 10 screenshots until I got that little bastards )

The green line (wich is infact a bit too high) shows were sparklies usually appear (between the blind spot of two or more tris) and there are 4 little sparkies marked with green circles.

If you figure out how to remove that, I would be really interested in reading the solution

[Daath]

I can only say I am running more then 30 demos here without problem but cannot get this one. Sorry I cannot be more specific .