Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!macpaul
From: macpaul@ndirect.co.uk (Paul Harvey)
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Re: collaboration work?
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 13:45:50 +0000
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Robert Swan <rs108@mdx.ac.uk> wrote:

I have a question for you Rob:

You have some fantastic ideas, and your targets are (to me at least)
extremely high; I wouldn't know how to go about setting up 'real-time
shadows.." per se.

IDEA: If you have some time available now you're (temporarily) sans
Yaroze, would you consider sharing some of your (expert) knowledge with
people like me?

I understand quite a lot, I learn *really* quickly, but some of these
concepts are 'out there' as far as I'm concerned!!

I spoke to you briefly at ECTS (queueing for 2hrs to get a coke,
remember?) and we chatted about your first race game and how you created
the track with little pieces of different shapes, then kinda stuck them
together as the game ran.

Then, you talked about bezier curves as 'the way forward'. Well, I know
what a bezier curve is (use them everyday at work with vector drawing
packages etc), but how on earth would you create a track using them?

It's just a thought, and i know I would be really grateful for someone
to share how various concepts can be coded. Heck, I'd even PAY for this
kind of knowledge!! (wanna make some money?!)

If you're up for it (infact, this goes for anyone who can successfully
pull off programming feats), I've got a list of things I'd like to be
able to do with a program, but are not sure how to go about it.

Typical tasks include creating a static background for a game (using two
srites is a method I believe). What about scrolling backgrounds (a la
Zelda on SNES). There's loadsa things like this that could go into a
"Games Programmer's Almanac".

~mp

Great to see you're still around anyway...

> seeing as i dont have a yaroze at the moment im spending times thinking
> about what my next project + stuff should be. I have a nasty feeling its
> about time I risked working with other people on a project. I say risky
> as Im likely to a pain in the arse to work with (i hope not), but what
> the hell, ive warned people enough.
> 

> The projects Ive been thinking about, that I might want to work on (in
> order of interest)
> 
> first person perspective game
> idea is for two player split screen 3d word (similar to games like Jeff
> Hannons House of Hair out, doom whatever...) Reality is what is wanted,
> in terms of real time shadows for player, lighting on walls that cast
> shadows on the scenery, decent animation on the players, huge
> optimisations for speed, including some sort of adaptive modelling based
> on the frame rate to avoid slowdown. Game design should allow a variety
> of playing methods, such as normal deathmatch, or one player hunts the
> other etc, etc. I do believe its possible to get what ive mentioned
> running at 25fps with splitscreen and should look amazing (of course I
> would say that).
> 
> race game 3
> finally attempt to finish a racing game  properly. Finally decided best
> track representation is to use bezier curves (courtesy of Lars), but
> programming required for AI and special effects. I dont want the track
> to be static and the game to be a memory test, I think racing games are
> the best when you are constantly adapting, either through changes to the
> scenery (for example, bridges collopsing, trees falling over and
> blocking the path or wind changing direction constantly) or through
> working against other opponents (forget having 5-10 opponents, I want
> about 100 spread around the track!)
> 
> adventure game 2
> It may not look like it, but I cant really do much more to adventure
> game as it is, as I really have no memory left. I mean, im using some
> parts of main memory three times (for tims, then for sound files from
> cd, then for dynamic tmds) so other sorts (cheaper) of level
> representation are required (investigation). Better interaction with the
> world, nicer levels, and magic + items and character progression. I have
> a feeling that memory constraints will limit this one though.
> 
> ok, feel free to discuss on here or whatever amongst yourself, (and
> debate the validity of what Ive said). No real point in emailing me as I
> wont be around, but it might make a nice change on here for people to
> discuss something constructive!
> 
> Rob
> http://www.netyaroze-europe.com/~middex2
> rs108@mdx.ac.uk