Here's an update on my part: I've redone the bullets. As for the knife, I've only removed the sheath, I modelled it out before(it's a bit easier to read now). I might remodel the knife completely though?
hmmm, well that OgreMax thing I think is an addon that runs an instance of Ogre in one of your viewports, and in theory you should be able to use the game material in that.... I don't have enough experience with it to figure it out though.
We were planning on releasing our new trailer once we had the beta signups up and running, but the IGF entrants ninja'ed us was sooner than I expected. So here is Zero Gear's page: http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entry2010.php?id=112
Amazing work Marsh! Been following this game for a while now and i should say,i am proud of you guys and what you have achieved so far,waiting to play this game!.
thanks guys, I know I sound like a broken record - but we will be opening up the beta signups SOON.
I am starting to get that fuzzy feeling that our over 2 years of work on this project is finally going to come to fruition in the near future, it feels really good!
Also, I started on another kart last night - and in the middle of making it I realized it was similar-ish to a really awesome looking one that renderhjs made, which got me thinking further about trying to get some of the more outstanding assets people have made in the thread distributed with the game. I did a little bit of research and I think I can get a contract for around 300 bucks (cheap for lawyer work!) that would work for making sure the whole thing would be on the level. I think maybe after the IGF I will look further into that and approach some people from this thread about doing that.
I wanted to keep the rendering in the game as inexpensive as possible to make the game lightweight and playable on very low-spec machines. (I never mentioned it but the target platform is PC/Mac) So at least for now, the environments are vertex lit without any shaders, for the fastest drawing speed possible. Performance permitting, it would not be much trouble to add some simple effects like specularity on some surfaces that really scream for it. For now I am going to focus on effects like shaders on things like the karts that people are going to pay the most attention to.
There are many parts like the ice and the metal pipes and bridge that I will probably experiment with adding some effects on to gauge the expense. I would like to serve the lowest common denominator as much as possible, especially in regards to making people choose different gfx settings and such.
Marsh,do you mind sharing some screen grabs of the wire frame models and texture sheets? and if possible some breakdown of the tracks and its assets?
It all looks fantastic, and its been said already so many times, so ... ill just jump to one extra piece of feedback on ZG.
It took me a while to put my finger on it but here goes. It seems like when going over a boostpad, you change the camera's FoV (or something!!) to enhance the speed effect. However ... I find it very confusing during jumps for instance. It is as if the camera adjusts back in the middle of the jump (but it shouldnt : no reason to slow down in mid air!!), and i think it makes the landing quite confusing.
It is very obvious on the trailer when you show the target mini game. it very hard to tell where the kart is about to land because of this.
I dont think the effect should be totally taken out - but there must be some fine tuning to be done here. I must confess it gives me a little bit of a nauseous feel...
I think Trakmania is a good example of this effect done well, very subtle but I think it fels more 'in control'
Mario kart also does that very well. Altho ... I must confess I liked it alot more in MK snes where there was no such effect at all! Sharper in my opinion.
thanks for the feedback, I will keep an ear out for similar feelings from others about the camera. The camera is definitely something that we are constantly tweaking and evolving.
*edit* I think if we limited the distance it zoomed out it would look / feel almost exactly like the second mario kart video.
Maybe ... the effect could freeze when the kart wheels leaves the ground ? To avoid weird trajectory guessnig from the player. Even in MK I find it a little weird, like a try to move my head back and open my eyes wider to compensate or something...
Oh also! Would love, as a player, to be able to bring the camera closer to the kart. Maybe you could even let the player define his/her own camera placement relative to the kart. Right now it feels very 'detached'. (I understand it might help to see opponents coming from the back ... but I personally find it distracting)
right now it is oriented to point in the direction of your velocity, so you can see where you are about to land, otherwise you would be looking at the sky or other places that would keep you from seeing where you are headed.
nono I meant bringing the cam closer - at the moment the kart sits in the middle of the screen, very far from the player. I think the view in Trackmania and MK is more immersive (car near the bottom edge of the screen)
I'm having a blast playing the non-racing maps, especially the soccer and hockey ones. They were tricky at first, but once I started moderating my speed and using bunny hops to turn on the spot, the gameplay got less frustrating, more interesting.
When you tab to see the stats, could you also show the current map name? Just as a quick reference for players to know which maps are which.
Been playing mostly against bots though...it doesn't seem like too many players from SE Asia got in the beta. Multiplayer is unplayable with the 300+ pings I get.
the cool dudes over at http://hyperduck.co.uk are doing the music for the game, in their honor I made a duck bill accessory that will be in the next build:
I really like the game, it is very fun! my only crit is that I think it would be better if the camera would move with your mouse, no need to right click for that.
Also, i'm the only one not being able to find server with low pings?
Edit: also, Skizot, those items are great! What happens when you play online with custom items, other player just see some default ones, or see you invisible?
Edit2: I'm getting a crash If I alt-tab then go back to the game
Not many people are playing yet ( The beta literally got opened up hours ago ) so it will be hard to find other people with low pings playing for a bit.
4 days after our beta went live we have a new update for everyone! Here is the changes:
1.0.1.0 Change Log
* Kart physics modified, the kart is much heavier now as well as other subtle tweaks
* Air steering is now only engaged by pressing the steer direction after leaving the ground
* Some maps updated to work better with new kart physics
* Camera adjustments, closer to kart, fixed distance, crosshair added to aim mode
* Ice cube will not ice the player who dropped it behind them when it obviously shouldn't
* Win score changed from 500 to 400 in Tag mode
* All players given springs in Target mode and bumpers removed until they are functional again
* Soccer ball/hockey puck larger and easier to hit
* Country code added to the server browser so you can see how close a server is to you
* Rank sorted correctly in the server browser now
* Setting added to enable the screen blur effect on boost as some players were reporting problems
* The game responds to input correctly after closing the settings or server GUI while in game
* The map change timer works correctly in the server settings GUI
* Map name and server name added to the player roster GUI
* Laps/Place GUI is now visible in spectator mode
* The goal GUI now tells the user which goal they need to shoot the ball/puck into
* The signal GUI will warn the user if they connect to a server with a very large ping
* Upon pressing the reset key, a GUI pops up to notify the user they will soon be reset
* GUI is now visible in Skate
* Newb loading screen key layout image simplified
* Music updated and Hyperduck accessory added (quack quack!!)
* Sound errors no longer print out to the log which seems to prevent the game from slowing down over time
* Bug in sound priority system fixed which should prevent more important sounds (music, engine noises, etc) from cutting out on some sound cards
* Fixed the "Failed to find receive data peer" bug that happened sometimes after exiting the game and starting it again quickly
i tried to play today but i think my ping was to high or something, which if funny cause i play a lot of online junk an rarely have problems,, is there anyway to check your ping when in game? i could not control my car well at all it was realy tedius trying to hit the soccer ball, it most likely was just a ping issue and not the game, but made playing more than 5 minutes nearly impossible
* 65 MS of lag removed
* Increased the network sync time to 30 times a second from 20
* Quick play button added to the main menu which will join the best server or start a local server if there aren't any good servers to join
* Reverse speed increased slightly
* Soccer ball tweaked so it is easier to hit around
* Player karts colored based on their team in Goal mode
* Tag rules modified
* Spring and punch strength increased slightly
* Punchbowl tag map reduced in size and other tweaks
* Some trees removed from downhill part of Chill Mountain
* Min players now defaults to 4 instead of 0
* The score now sorts correctly in Target mode
* Significantly improved the performance of the collision detection code when there are many objects in the world
* Bandwidth usage improved now as time shift wasn't enabled in the last build (oops)
* Going in reverse at the start of Chill Mountain will no longer cause the player to get stuck at the starting line
* The number of bots can be adjusted during play by changing the minimum number of players in the server manager GUI
* The maximum number of player will not be exceeded on a server anymore
* The player list in the server manager GUI now updates correctly when people leaving/join the server
* Pressing connect at the server browser when no server is selected no longer tries to join a local server
* Mouse sensitivity slider added to settings
* New "auto" mouse look mode added as default, the old mode can be enabled in the settings if desired
* Bots ping times in the roster GUI are now listed as "BOT" instead of the real ping time
* Players in result GUI no longer display above other GUIs in Goal and Tag mode
* Kicked players now go back to the main menu after being kicked
* Players with names longer than 32 character no longer cause the server to throw an error
* Exit removed from the key binding list in settings
* XPadder profile added to the Assets directory for the PC XBox 360 controller
Also, you can help show your support for Zero Gear by joining our Steam Group we are slowly climbing the official game groups listing!
Just a few errors from yesterdays build to correct, and a few other things thrown in. Version 1.0.1.2 is now live on Steam.
1.0.1.2 Change Log
* The game will no longer throw error: "OGRE EXCEPTION(10:MyGUIException): ComboBox::setIndexSelected : index number 8 out of range [8]" if the min players is set to 8 in the server settings file
* The game will no longer throw error: "RaceServer.lua: 1042" when resetting at the start of a race map
* Quick Play now defaults to 4 min players and a random map order
* New default camera angle in the garage
* Added another checkpoint towards the end of Chill Mountain
* Red arrow point loss rate decreased from once every 2 seconds to once every 3 seconds, this means you lose less points while in red mode
* Point loss particle effects in tag now show the correct points lost
* Client and server log files added to error report in case of a crash
Played the game yesterday and today and i must say that i love the game, especially the Art direction and the Kart/Character customization. I feel that the control is a bit too rigid and its is hard to steer the Kart as it constantly spins or turns out of control. Should be nice,if this can be tweaked.
Great work guys!
* New Target mode map: PACHINKO!!!
* Experimental gamepad support, only tested with the 360 controller so far, please give feedback!
* Fixed the checkpoint random reset bug, you should no longer be reset while going through the correct checkpoint
* Stunt tracking added, you will gain boost after a sound and particle effect fire off after performing a barrel roll or flip
* Air steer force increased so it is easier to do rad stunts
* Pressing Apply in settings will now close the settings GUI
* Added a button to reset controls to default in settings GUI
* Servers in your country are specially indicated
* Removed ability to color player names so the names are colored according to teams in Goal mode (server names can still be colored)
ok thanks! really like the game but havent had a lot of time to play. I have to say I dont get the kick the football game my car kinda softly nudges the ball along but it really hardly feels like Im making contact with the ball. Id like to be able to take a run up at the ball hit it hard and punt it a good distance. Plus the other computer controlled players seemed really good at guiding the ball but they just took it to either the left or right side of the goal and never actually come close to scoring. The spaghetti west track is fun and I won multiple times on there but I think I might have been winning because I was hosting the server? I also felt the karts were very much on rails and didnt slide subtly on corners much and the turning circle seemed rather large for such a small kart especially when playing the football game. The look and feel of the game is almost perfect, rock on guys!
Replies
@KazuyaMochu, Looks good
Here's an update on my part: I've redone the bullets. As for the knife, I've only removed the sheath, I modelled it out before(it's a bit easier to read now). I might remodel the knife completely though?
and here is our new trailer: [ame]
reminded me of:
[ame]
I am starting to get that fuzzy feeling that our over 2 years of work on this project is finally going to come to fruition in the near future, it feels really good!
Also, I started on another kart last night - and in the middle of making it I realized it was similar-ish to a really awesome looking one that renderhjs made, which got me thinking further about trying to get some of the more outstanding assets people have made in the thread distributed with the game. I did a little bit of research and I think I can get a contract for around 300 bucks (cheap for lawyer work!) that would work for making sure the whole thing would be on the level. I think maybe after the IGF I will look further into that and approach some people from this thread about doing that.
p.s. the voice in the trailer is me
Marsh,do you mind sharing some screen grabs of the wire frame models and texture sheets? and if possible some breakdown of the tracks and its assets?
let me know if you get a key ok and it works, etc.
*Edit: Downloaded! 250 MB in 1 hour. Starting it up now...
It all looks fantastic, and its been said already so many times, so ... ill just jump to one extra piece of feedback on ZG.
It took me a while to put my finger on it but here goes. It seems like when going over a boostpad, you change the camera's FoV (or something!!) to enhance the speed effect. However ... I find it very confusing during jumps for instance. It is as if the camera adjusts back in the middle of the jump (but it shouldnt : no reason to slow down in mid air!!), and i think it makes the landing quite confusing.
It is very obvious on the trailer when you show the target mini game. it very hard to tell where the kart is about to land because of this.
I dont think the effect should be totally taken out - but there must be some fine tuning to be done here. I must confess it gives me a little bit of a nauseous feel...
I think Trakmania is a good example of this effect done well, very subtle but I think it fels more 'in control'
[ame]
Mario kart also does that very well. Altho ... I must confess I liked it alot more in MK snes where there was no such effect at all! Sharper in my opinion.
[ame]
Good luck!
*edit* I think if we limited the distance it zoomed out it would look / feel almost exactly like the second mario kart video.
Oh also! Would love, as a player, to be able to bring the camera closer to the kart. Maybe you could even let the player define his/her own camera placement relative to the kart. Right now it feels very 'detached'. (I understand it might help to see opponents coming from the back ... but I personally find it distracting)
Hope this helps!
When you tab to see the stats, could you also show the current map name? Just as a quick reference for players to know which maps are which.
Been playing mostly against bots though...it doesn't seem like too many players from SE Asia got in the beta. Multiplayer is unplayable with the 300+ pings I get.
I will add a note about displaying the map in the tab menu, thats not a bad idea at all.
linky
extract them to:
C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\zero gear\Assets\CustomItems
or where ever your steam may be installed.
Can't wait to try it out - that or I can hold out until you guys do the PSP version.
Also, i'm the only one not being able to find server with low pings?
Edit: also, Skizot, those items are great! What happens when you play online with custom items, other player just see some default ones, or see you invisible?
Edit2: I'm getting a crash If I alt-tab then go back to the game
1.0.1.0 Change Log
* Kart physics modified, the kart is much heavier now as well as other subtle tweaks
* Air steering is now only engaged by pressing the steer direction after leaving the ground
* Some maps updated to work better with new kart physics
* Camera adjustments, closer to kart, fixed distance, crosshair added to aim mode
* Ice cube will not ice the player who dropped it behind them when it obviously shouldn't
* Win score changed from 500 to 400 in Tag mode
* All players given springs in Target mode and bumpers removed until they are functional again
* Soccer ball/hockey puck larger and easier to hit
* Country code added to the server browser so you can see how close a server is to you
* Rank sorted correctly in the server browser now
* Setting added to enable the screen blur effect on boost as some players were reporting problems
* The game responds to input correctly after closing the settings or server GUI while in game
* The map change timer works correctly in the server settings GUI
* Map name and server name added to the player roster GUI
* Laps/Place GUI is now visible in spectator mode
* The goal GUI now tells the user which goal they need to shoot the ball/puck into
* The signal GUI will warn the user if they connect to a server with a very large ping
* Upon pressing the reset key, a GUI pops up to notify the user they will soon be reset
* GUI is now visible in Skate
* Newb loading screen key layout image simplified
* Music updated and Hyperduck accessory added (quack quack!!)
* Sound errors no longer print out to the log which seems to prevent the game from slowing down over time
* Bug in sound priority system fixed which should prevent more important sounds (music, engine noises, etc) from cutting out on some sound cards
* Fixed the "Failed to find receive data peer" bug that happened sometimes after exiting the game and starting it again quickly
Go check it out!
[ame]
[ame]
1.0.1.1 Change Log
* 65 MS of lag removed
* Increased the network sync time to 30 times a second from 20
* Quick play button added to the main menu which will join the best server or start a local server if there aren't any good servers to join
* Reverse speed increased slightly
* Soccer ball tweaked so it is easier to hit around
* Player karts colored based on their team in Goal mode
* Tag rules modified
* Spring and punch strength increased slightly
* Punchbowl tag map reduced in size and other tweaks
* Some trees removed from downhill part of Chill Mountain
* Min players now defaults to 4 instead of 0
* The score now sorts correctly in Target mode
* Significantly improved the performance of the collision detection code when there are many objects in the world
* Bandwidth usage improved now as time shift wasn't enabled in the last build (oops)
* Going in reverse at the start of Chill Mountain will no longer cause the player to get stuck at the starting line
* The number of bots can be adjusted during play by changing the minimum number of players in the server manager GUI
* The maximum number of player will not be exceeded on a server anymore
* The player list in the server manager GUI now updates correctly when people leaving/join the server
* Pressing connect at the server browser when no server is selected no longer tries to join a local server
* Mouse sensitivity slider added to settings
* New "auto" mouse look mode added as default, the old mode can be enabled in the settings if desired
* Bots ping times in the roster GUI are now listed as "BOT" instead of the real ping time
* Players in result GUI no longer display above other GUIs in Goal and Tag mode
* Kicked players now go back to the main menu after being kicked
* Players with names longer than 32 character no longer cause the server to throw an error
* Exit removed from the key binding list in settings
* XPadder profile added to the Assets directory for the PC XBox 360 controller
Also, you can help show your support for Zero Gear by joining our Steam Group we are slowly climbing the official game groups listing!
1.0.1.2 Change Log
* The game will no longer throw error: "OGRE EXCEPTION(10:MyGUIException): ComboBox::setIndexSelected : index number 8 out of range [8]" if the min players is set to 8 in the server settings file
* The game will no longer throw error: "RaceServer.lua: 1042" when resetting at the start of a race map
* Quick Play now defaults to 4 min players and a random map order
* New default camera angle in the garage
* Added another checkpoint towards the end of Chill Mountain
* Red arrow point loss rate decreased from once every 2 seconds to once every 3 seconds, this means you lose less points while in red mode
* Point loss particle effects in tag now show the correct points lost
* Client and server log files added to error report in case of a crash
I M43D A M4P W1TH M4R1O5 1N 1T
Great work guys!
1.0.1.3 Change Log
* New Target mode map: PACHINKO!!!
* Experimental gamepad support, only tested with the 360 controller so far, please give feedback!
* Fixed the checkpoint random reset bug, you should no longer be reset while going through the correct checkpoint
* Stunt tracking added, you will gain boost after a sound and particle effect fire off after performing a barrel roll or flip
* Air steer force increased so it is easier to do rad stunts
* Pressing Apply in settings will now close the settings GUI
* Added a button to reset controls to default in settings GUI
* Servers in your country are specially indicated
* Removed ability to color player names so the names are colored according to teams in Goal mode (server names can still be colored)
ok thanks! really like the game but havent had a lot of time to play. I have to say I dont get the kick the football game my car kinda softly nudges the ball along but it really hardly feels like Im making contact with the ball. Id like to be able to take a run up at the ball hit it hard and punt it a good distance. Plus the other computer controlled players seemed really good at guiding the ball but they just took it to either the left or right side of the goal and never actually come close to scoring. The spaghetti west track is fun and I won multiple times on there but I think I might have been winning because I was hosting the server? I also felt the karts were very much on rails and didnt slide subtly on corners much and the turning circle seemed rather large for such a small kart especially when playing the football game. The look and feel of the game is almost perfect, rock on guys!