Release [REPO] Skunks - 0.0.0.7 - New

[Repository]

Skunks is a racing game by matei_v in the spirit of Stunts. It uses Open Dynamics Engine for the physics. This version uses GLES for rendering. Binaries where compiled with ptitSeb Codeblocks PND.
Get it from here!

 

[mcobit]

Nice one!

 

[Gausen]

^ Thanks!

 

[ptitSeb]

Looks good ! will try that

 

[pmprog]

I've not played it (or even heard of it), but sounds good fun. Is there a scoring system? If so, have you thought about making it Compo4All-enabled?

 

[Gausen]

Looks good ! will try that

Thanks! You helped me a lot with your advice on the screenshots and how to correctly package files to avoid write issues.  

 

[Gausen]

I've not played it (or even heard of it), but sounds good fun. Is there a scoring system? If so, have you thought about making it Compo4All-enabled?

It doesn't have a score system. In fact the race doesn't even finish when you reach the ending line. Thanks for the offer but Skunks its not really suitable for Compo4all.

 

[F_Slim]

I think analog controls could help drivability a lot. The blue car for example has a lot of wheelspin which one could probably avoid with a gentle thumb on the nub.

Also some more descriptive names for the cars and tracks would be nice. Maybe in some (later, advanced) version a menu with little preview pictures could be made?

Is this still under developement by the original author? It is a nice game and works well on the Pandora. I bet it was a lot of work to get it to run.

 

[Gausen]

^Thanks for the feedback. Nubs are working in this version, just set nubs to joysticks or plug an external joystick and Skunks will take the first one it founds as a controller (I think I added something on the readme, have to check). I believe matei_v keeps working on this, this sources are from october 23, 2012 (here's his site on sourceforge). I like the idea of using names for cars and tracks and also like the idea of a better launcher with preview pics.

 

[danielm]

Thanks for this port! I didn't know that it was command line and you had to program a start menu. Could you do something about the controls though? They can probably be changed with an .ovr (?), but that's not the best way and many people wouldn't even think about making their own config and dump the game instead. I also don't want to change my nubs to joystick-mode for the game, and then back tou mouse-mode after playing.

If I have some spare time, I could make screenshots showing the cars and maybe the tracks. That could be a good way to improve the start menu of the game.

 

[Gausen]

^ Ok, l don't have much spare time lets take it step by step. Some of the things to do are:

*Improve the rendering engine: Now it's very inefficient, it just send all triangles one by one to the GPU each frame.

*Add GLES lighting: Now the lighting is calculated in software. This will take the engine to load arrays of normals for cars and tracks.

*Make a better menu.

*Improve controls.

*Add some cars and tracks.

(Looking to the list, I don't know if this worth the time. Maybe it would be better to make something from scratch instead).

Anyway, we can start with the controls. Tell me which control scheme will be a good one. I can set analogue by default and rework it to make its response better.

Thanks for your help.

 

[danielm]

At least on a GHz Pandora, speed seems to be fine, even though I have not been playing Skunks much.

In my opinion, controls and the menu are the most important things now, because this is what users come in contact with first.

Analogue controls would be great (without having to switch the nubs to joystick mode), and digital controls like on the playstation (a or x accelerate or brake)

 

[Gausen]

Ok. I'll try to get the controls working this weekend.

 

[danielm]

Thanks for the update! Now, stupid people like me can test out the game without problems 

 

[Gausen]

You are not stupid. I will be looking on how to make some better menu. Let me know of anything you found.

 

[F_Slim]

Thanks, the car names in the list are a big improvement in my mind. The controls still need a lot of work unfortunately. It seems that currently the nubs just have digital steering, not analog(?) ... but before the analog controls did not work out either, because they were not "absolute" (steer left and back again and the wheels might still turn left).

If you think it might be easier to start from scratch ... well, why not?

It would be awsome to have a native Stunts-like game on the Pandora. I recently played the original again on the Pandora, and it just is pure fun!

I guess we all can try and help, either with imrpoving this or with anything starting from scratch.

 

[Gausen]

Thanks F_Slim. Yes, nub is working just as digital. Digital is the best control of all I've tested. I will be posting the sources here so anyone can take a look (are pretty messed by me though).

Regarding making something from scratch, I'll love to. As soon as I can sketch some conceptual model will make a new thread on that (it will take months probably). Help will be welcome and indeed needed.

 

[Gausen]

Ok, here are the sources.

skunks.tar.gz are the sources.

pack.tar.gz is what I'm using to make the pnd.

To compile:

1- Build and install ODE running ./inst-ode

2- Build skunks running ./comp-gl

To package the pnd:

1- copy sk-gl and rep-gl to /pack/skunks

2- I use the Lazy PND packer script contained in /pack (you can use anything you want to do this).

Interesting files to look into:

/skunks-4.1.0/src/sk-gl here is where input is handled.

/skunks-4.1.0/src/sk-js this is how skunks handles joysticks (is a separate build).

/skunks-4.1.0/config/joystick contains values for the code in sk-js.

/skunks-4.1.0/src/rendergl.h here is where main part of gles is handled (really messed this file).

Other files include those of Pickle's EGLport that I'm using in skunks to create the EGL context.

The sources aren't very clean, I started ifdefing and then just deleting and writing anywhere (sorry about that).

Have fun!

pack.tar.gz

 

[Gausen]

New version. [uploading here while the repo is down].

*Reworked controls. Left nub is used for steering and is truly analog now. Right nub is used to accelerate. Dpad support removed.

Turning velocity is still dependent on car speed. Unfortunately this is the only way of having control with an accurate physics model. Not doing this will result in the car rolling over at the slightest steering when in high speed. Now using a new function to limit steering velocity, hopefully not so frustrating.

skunks.pnd

 

[F_Slim]

Thanks. I just tried it, and for some reason I had to delete the appdata folder to get the new controls working.

There still is the problem that steering and throttle do not "reset". So for example you steer to the left, release the nub and the car is still going left. It should go straight again. Same for the throttle, to "release" you actually have to brake.

I had a look at the code you posted above, but it's way over my head. It doesn't look like it reads the absolute  position of the nubs anywhere and just works with adding or subtracting increments to the current steering/throttle-value ... which would explain it. Instead the nub-value should be used directly. Maybe scaled according to speed or made non-linear to avoid erratic steering.

No sure how to implement this in practice though. But I guess the most difficult part is to read the nubs correctly(?)