Hi everyone,
I just finished the tutorials and the wiki sections (took me some weeks g) but still got a few questions before starting my "Game"!
My intention is to develop a 3D - Surfing - Game using the balance board as an input controller!
I managed to get the balance board working on the CubeGameState Tutorial and wrote a BalanceBoardController class. So the basics with the controller are done (for now 
)
Now I am a little confused on how to start and connect everything! I just need a little overview … (got so many classes and methods in my head at the moment)…
My main question is:
- What kind of app makes sense on my project? BaseGame?
(Should be possible: Load a few different 3D Model (know the code from the tutorial and that works), make a terrain, animate the 3D Surfboard with the bb, …)
Thanks for ANY help
RapidM
Sounds like a cool project. I'm thinking that you probably need to use some simple physics to simulate both the force of the wave and gravity on the player/board. If I were trying to put together a prototype on this sort of project I would use a snowboarding-like setup first – to get the player on the board sliding down a hill with gravity and controlled by the digital tilt-board input, as well as camera angles/movement. Then I would look into getting that mountain to move like a wave and get all scene elements working together…
I just finished my Game Design Doc
So the game should be like this:
First there is a Startscreen (Menu). After pressing “start the game” the game will start with a little video, explaining the game and how to use the balance board as a controller. This is done by a little tropical frog. The environment is different to usual surfing games, because it takes place at the amazonas. So the terrain shoud be with big rain forrest trees. A huge wave (from behind) starts the surfing --> First-Person-view where you just see the top of the surfboard.
So the game takes place on a river. In the river are a few “monsters” g Not really monsters, but crocodiles and piranhas. The surfer is not allowed to “touch” these animals. If he does the game stopps and saves the time he managed to stay on the surfboard in a ranking list. The same happens, when he surfs off the river.
When he manage to get to the goal the games is finished and the time is saved in the ranking list.
These are my thoughts:
-
Terrain (trees, sand ground towards river) make in Photoshop … using a skybox??
-
Modelling top of surfboard, piranhas, tropical frog and head of crocodile in Blender
-
Texturing these with Photoshop??
-
Animating them with blender? Or do you have a better way? Crocodiles eyes open from time to time. Piranhas swim around in a group of 5-7. Always just in a circle. Frog mouth opens, because he is the talker in the intro movie.
- Getting the gravity of the board (regarding the movements)
- Collision detection between "monsters" and surfboard.
As a level editor I was thinking about MonkeyWorld3D. Do you think thats is a good idea?
What do you recommened me to do next? I have all these ideas in my head ;) Did I forgot something? Spline Editor? Location Editor? Is this game possible?
Thanks RapidM
Sounds good.
You will probably need to model at least some of your terrain and trees in 3D so that there is a sense of motion. Usually the skybox is static and just there to fill up the background with something interesting.
I got a question…
Can I use blender as my level editor too? Cause then I only need to work with one program…
Thanks RapidM
I believe the answer is yes (although you will probably need to 'chop' up the terrain so its not one giant mesh).
Kine's project Bollidz is using Blender as it's level editor I think…
Hi again
I just looked at the TestIsland.java from the jmetest.terrain and this is just what I was looking for
Next step will be : Making my own "world" using a Skybox. Thought about using heightmap as my waterside… (just like in TestIsland)…
When I have done this I will need a collision check for the edge, so the board can just move on the water. Is there a simple method on doing this? Or do I have to calculate the area of the water and make a test for each triangle???
Thanks, Rapid;
You could test for depth (use picking)…
Okay thanks… found something useful …
Next question You are really helping me!!!
What size of terrain would you guys recommend? On the terrain will be a “river” with a lot of turns in it. This way I can use almost all parts if the terrain for my game. The surfer should be able to surf for about 1-2 minutes.
The route could be like in the image below.
and the rainforest should look like this:
So the questions are:
- What size of terrain would be best?
- Should I use a TerrainPage?
- How can I get the impression of having a rainforest next to me? (on the black areas ) Thought about using models, but maybe this would slow down the game?
- I thought about digging the terrain on the route of the water. Is that a good idea? This way I could put the water quad a little bit lower than the terrain and use the black areas for my rainforest.
Thanks again for the great help provided in this forum.
Rapim
I'd say use a terrain page (which is just made up from a bunch of smaller terrain blocks ;))
As far as size goes, I think you will need to experiment (one hint though, you don't need very small cells; I typically scale my terrain by a factor of ten on the x/z axis).
Your definitely on the right track with 'digging' out the terrain and just letting the water render pass do its magic there…
An idea I had while reading your post would be to use models on the edges of the river and a facade type image behind them…
Thanks for the reply
So it is possible to make a 256*256 terrain and then scale it to a bigger size and it still looks realistic?
Do you know some good sites or books where I can learn about the basics of terrains and terrainpages? And especially how to use models next to the river and put an image behind them…
There is so much you have to know in game development. It's fun but really much work g
Thanks
Rapidm