What Type Of Driving Game Do You Prefer?


Daz_Genetic

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I'm currently programming a portable driving game engine that will eventually be targetted for the GP32. It's a Mode7 tile engine with scaled sprites and some real 3D objects. I've also already implemented a rough driving model. (needs lots of work)

I'm not very good at coding, so it's going to be far from a speedy engine, but I am a good artist so I'm going to concentrate on making an actual game rather than spend all my time optimizing already functioning code. Once i've got a game, or part of, I will have a better idea of what needs a speed boost.

Since most engines released for the GP32 never get turned into a game, I think it's best that I make a game myself, or at least a few fun and playable levels.

This is where I need your help. I'm torn between making a Rally game (offroad) or a Performance Car game (road/track).

I really love rally myself, but I feel that mode7 perhaps lends itself better to a track. Although colin mcrae rally on the GBA shows that is not necessarily the case.

I can't decide, please help me make my decision. Any other options or opinions are very welcome. Thank you.
 
That's a tough one, I love both kinds of racing.. If I'd have to decide (and I guess that's what this thread is for) .. I'd say I'd be pretty happy with Gran Tourismo or Project Gotham Racing on my GP32.. that is, track racing (at least for the most part)

:)
 
I prefer on road racing, it gives you an opportunity to play with the visuals a lot more and include a variety of terrains. My problem with rally racing is too much dirt! It gets boring to me after a while.

...Although, I suppose if you can make it really stand out somehow....

Better yet, MAKE BOTH!
 
Racing.jpg


This is what it looks like currently. I've still got to get the 3D objects stuff working. I'm not using a z-buffer, so in order for the objects to be drawn correctly I need to render the objects to an offscreen sprite, and then sort it along with all the other sprites. This isn't going to be very fast, but I figure even one 3d building every once in a while would look much better than none at all :).

I'll keep you guys up to date, but please don't expect anything too soon, as I have a marriage and a full time job on top of everything :).
 
Daz_Genetic posted on Mar 6 2004 at 09:12 PM said:
Racing.jpg


This is what it looks like currently. I've still got to get the 3D objects stuff working. I'm not using a z-buffer, so in order for the objects to be drawn correctly I need to render the objects to an offscreen sprite, and then sort it along with all the other sprites. This isn't going to be very fast, but I figure even one 3d building every once in a while would look much better than none at all :).

I'll keep you guys up to date, but please don't expect anything too soon, as I have a marriage and a full time job on top of everything :).
Could you send a beta just to even one moderator just to confirm that this actually is a real project? Iv learned not to trust one man bands that much <_<.

However, its looking excellent and keep it up.
 
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I'm not asking for you to believe me. Nor am I trying to build anyone's hopes up. That is a screenshot of it running on my PC under SDL. (I am only using SDL to create nice, easy to use surfaces which I can replace with my own when the time comes).

It is in absolutly no fit state to send to anyone, and since it is running on the PC, it doesn't prove anything as far as the GP32 is concerned. All you need to know is that I am trying my hardest to learn as much as I can in order to make something worthwhile for the system. Please don't let this turn into yet another shouting match as I am one of you guys. I own 2 GP32s and I also want new games.

Can we now get back on subject and just tell me which style of driving game you prefer. :)
 
WOW! :blink:
looks excellent

Can we now get back on subject and just tell me which style of driving game you prefer.

performance cars on race tracks or road circuits would be cool. As for the viewport/perspective I like the one you have chosen if you could include a switchable outside rear view that would be great.

Nor am I trying to build anyone's hopes up.

Too late :D
The one thing the GP32 needs is good driving games (non-emu)
 
It looks great sofar I hope it looks as good when complete and actualy playing on a GP. Maybe someone will help you with ways to insure better speed if you also detailall the difficulties you run across in creating it.

Multiple views are always welcome.
 
WhizzBang posted on Mar 6 2004 at 11:48 PM said:
I prefer road racing to rally. Do you think your racing engine could be used for a Mario Kart type thing?
Yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing this is meant for, once it's all done, you would just have to create the graphics and tweak the driving model. Though I have yet to even think about AI yet. I guess it will be a case of having a racing path that each car will attempt to stick to as they drive around the track.
 
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I'll post up a PC executable in a few days. I got some nice circle collision detection going but still need to implement some sort of culling system. I hope to have potentially thousands of sprites in a level, so I need to throw out a lot of collision and distance checks that I am doing right now.

I figured out a cool way to avoid having to render my 3D offscreen, so I am pretty busy rewriting a lump of code for this. Once this code is finished, any object in the level could be one of 3 things. A sprite, a 3D line, or a 3D model. Each one will be transformed and sorted by the same routine, so this will be a lot faster as I can render the polygons right to the screen without the overhead of managing offscreen buffers.

I have yet to implement my own texture loading routines so it still uses SDL to do that. Once I make a virtual GP32 surface, I can start optimising all my graphics code for the fixed bitdepth and size. I will then also be asking for help optmising various routines such as the polygon renderer.

Thanks for being patient. I am working pretty hard here, so I hope to show something off as soon as possible.
 
No off road - those are boring ;) But being seriously - please consider maybe a few tracked levels like in Stunt - all those ramps, bridges end other stunt stuff - it would be really great.
 
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