Rover Run v0.1

I would like to share my first attempt at something using jME. Its an off-roading game centered around Land Rovers.



The home page for the game is roverrun.cinerasoftware.com and there you will find a full download and webstart link. I would love any feedback/comments you have as I’m still pretty new to this and could use any contructive criticisms any of you might have.



Thanks :slight_smile:

Looks really nice 8)



It's very hard to steer though. What about driving ahead if no key is pressed?

The cars tilt very easily. This a a general problem with ODE simulated cars. It's very hard to avoid. You can try lowering the center of gravity, make the cars very heavy and apply damping forces…

looks great, but DAMN it's hard. If this is the case, Land Rovers are DEATH TRAPS! :slight_smile:



It's great, the terrain algorithm is nice, wouldn't mind seeing that some time :wink:

I'm struggling with how to implement the steering. I need the steering as it is for maneouverability when tackling obstacles at slow speeds, but it also needs to be stable / easy to use when going faster. Will probably either add a 'rock crawling switch' to toggle this behavior or just change the steering operations depending on vehicle speed. I'm leaning towards the former.



The same problem exists with the stability. I need the rover to be fairly stable at higher speeds, but less so a lower speeds. If its too stable all around, rollovers while negotiating a steep slope or obstacle would be fewer than realistically possible.



irrisor: Looking forward to a completion of your new physics api. Visualisation of physics representation, and an easier method for setting CoG are two very exciting features. :smiley:

mojomonk said:

looks great, but DAMN it's hard. If this is the case, Land Rovers are DEATH TRAPS! :)


Not the case at all  XD
In attempting to make it more realistic at slow speeds, things end up terribly at high speeds.

mojomonk said:

It's great, the terrain algorithm is nice, wouldn't mind seeing that some time ;)


Are you speaking of the texturing?

Very nice. :slight_smile:



darkfrog

Just wanted to chime in that the game is deceptively fun.  :)  You just need to add a waypoint system and a timer and you've got a race game.  :)  Try to make it to each waypoint the fastest without wrecking!!

well the webstart ran for me in windows but failed in linux. after I selected prefs and track it went to black screen then closed.

this is the same behavior my app does in windows and linux, might be a missing native lib, im not sure.

I like the weather system in this game… (for those who didn't fully see it, press + to spped up time). You could do really cool things with that, like shadows that follow the sun around, and making it even darker at night together with putting some lights on the car.


Some suggestions.

--Add some check points for the player, level must have an amount of check points, and must pass those check points in order.
--Start points and end points, if their is also some timing, then cooler. This can introduce the heigh scors table for the us; I would love to beat darkfrog.  :P
--You are in the desert right ? Palms and cactus will be very cool addition to the environment. Also some rockes.

I have just seen some cool games, so those are ideas from their of course.

Everyone likes to beat up the frog.  :cry:



On the other hand, I would probably win, I could get some serious rolling points (you get points for that…right?) and beat everyone. :-p



darkfrog

Nice job azathoth! One thing i would like to comment is that i think that you should constrain the update rate so that controls and gui are more stable. Keep up the good work! :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone  :D. This engine is such a pleasure to work with!



– I am in the process of optimizing the gui controls at the moment, so hopefully they will make the grade soon.

– I added some cacti today. The cactus model is pretty crappy, I just wanted to get something in there to see how my vegetation placement algorithm is working.

– Will be adding rocks! That's been a big request from the rover folks I have shown this to as well.

– After I am finished with the gui, I Will add a gate/waypoint type game + scoring system. Look for it in the next few days :slight_smile:



So far I am really most proud of the skydome/weather system. It needs a few bugs worked out, like proper solar and lunar declination, but I am really happy with how its turned out so far.



I'll try to look into why its failing in linux as well…



Cheers!

azathoth

I forgot to ask… does your app use RenderToTexture? if it does that explains why its not working for me in Linux.

Yep, it does use render to texture. I am going to be replacing that ui element in the near future however.  :wink:

I have added a waypoint time trial to the first level.

Will add high scores soon.  :smiley:

I keep crashing into the damned gates :stuck_out_tongue:



Then again I don't have a driver's license…

Crazy cool.  I love it.  Where's the gates??  Can't wait to see what's up next.

Gates, 2 giant red lines sticking out of the ground, it's all the same to me :slight_smile:

This is perhaps the best thing I've played in awhile. Seriously, quite addicting.