Topic awaiting preservation: FPS game (Page 1 of 1)

Having been very impressed by people's raycasters, Id like to suggest an ieda for a game: a textured, multilevel, FPS with a "wasd" + mouse fighting system, possibly with multiplayer (see video pool on javascript-games.org). I believe that all of this is definitely possible. If anybody would be prepared to write a really good raytracer (multiple height levels, removal of fish eye, texturing, etc) then I would be preparewd to write control system + AI etc. The multiplayer would be harder, but i think it could be incorporated for co-operative/DM fun.

please help!

Go to kimber-ja.demon.co.uk and click on the link to the raytracer!

I''ve been learning OpenGL for something like this... not nearly good enough yet...

Stay Tuned...

Petskull: OpenGl skills are not required to write a raycaster. All you have to know is a some matrix and vector mathematics plus a good knowledge of DHTML and JavaScript in that case.

wrayal: In the middle of your post, you wrote raytracer though I guess you meant raycaster.
I'm pretty sure many things you suggested are possible maybe with some harsh limitations ( I mainly think to the several heights feature ). I don't know how Scott Porter implemented the network layer in his Video Pool, anyway the "Straming JS" thread might point some interesting tracks. A co-operative mode would certainly be easier because the speed of DeathMatch will require a movement predictor to counter the lag.

Regarding the mouse, it's almost unusable the way you want since the browser retrieve the absolute coordinates of the mouse.

Another important point is the browsers limitations. All my test engines so far ran pretty good with IE but the framerate dropped by 60-75% in MZ. But I admit I haven't investigated any further with MZ till now.

I just left my job and have to work on some personnal ( until they become professional ) projects. I stil enhance and optimize my raycaster engine sometime and expected to continue that way but if you can tease me a little more and gather 1 or 2 other freaks I'd be glad to get into a "serious" DHTML raycasting project.

Cheers,
NB: See a screenshot of my latest basic raycaster. The framerate never drops below 25fps on my XP1800+ with IE6.0. And yes I have 5 browsers

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

Yes I did mean raycaster, well spotted, stupid me...
It would be great to have you on board, we just need to encourage a few more people...that raycaster you are working on looks very good. Something similar to that would be awesome for this project. The height levels certainly could be forgotten for the sake of online play, and of course we could try to incorporate them later of course if we think we would be able. Co-operative also sounds better to me-more fun. It'll make me have to write some clever AI though.
However, if I am to write AI, it would have to be processed on the server, would it not? What language will I have to learn for that?
Finally, the fighting system. Use the same controls as normal, but have a crosshair for the mouse, and have the mouse be able to move about within the screen. I think I have got that system worked out, and we can do the gun(s) as just an overlaid layer.
And by the way-

EVERYONE, PLEASE JOIN US ON THIS PROJECT!!

Thanks for the input poi.
Petskull, unfortunately I was planning to do it in javascript, not another language that uses openGL, but please join us anyway!

Wrayal

Go to kimber-ja.demon.co.uk and click on the link to the raytracer!

wrayal: An earlier version of my engine already have a crosshair pointing the middle of the render area or the slice hovered by the mouse. An href is attached to each wall. Thus those "behaviour" can be triggered when a wall is clicked / mousewheeled / .... The controls are the cursor arrows plus X and C to strafe.

Regarding the AI I think it would be better to put it on client side to lower the amount of datas sent by the server and to limit the problems of lag. Since each client would run exactly the same AI the problems of lag will come only from the players themselves.

ATM my main problem is to position correctly the entities in the render area shame on me.

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

Ok, but since (hopefully) the AI will be pretty good, there could be a difference in the reaction of the AI to a player on one comp compared to the other if lag causes him to be in a slightly different place, so there should be some check in place, but only to be executed rarely.
If different height levels would not be possible, then would you be able to build in the code for looking up/down? Then there dould be a better mouse control system:
a+d: turn round
s+w: walk forward or back
mouse up/down: loop up down
mouse left/right: target onscreen

Go to kimber-ja.demon.co.uk and click on the link to the raytracer!

looking up & down in a realistic way is almost impossible in realtime in javascript because it would involve to "taper" the walls on the upper or lower part. I guess you rather think to that as what is described in the wold famouse PERMADI tutorial which is obviously possible in realtime.

Doing floor / ceiling even the way described in the above mentioned tutorial would involve something closer to raytracing and you know the framerates achieved by JavaScript raytracers

Using the datas sent by server since ( they notify what effectively happened ) as the base environment for the AI should limit a little the problems at the cost of some stupidity. But some problems of synchro would remain if you want a really clever AI.

What kind of FPS or enemies do you have in mind ?



Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

I see what you mean about looking up and down (and yes I do know about frame rates for raytracers, hours for proper pictures!)
As for AI, it should just be checked occasionally, but it should not prove too much of a problem.
For type of FPS, I was thinking sort of sneaky like MGS maybe, but from first person perspective. A radar should be quite easily possible, and Ithink we could do cones of vision for the enemies. As for the enemies, I was thinking humans, but quite tough, so you would need to shoot them several times to kill them.
For controls, we would have normal navigation, plus a movable crosshair for targeting.

Go to kimber-ja.demon.co.uk and click on the link to the raytracer!

I think a FPS would be a great idea and would love to help but at the mo cant lend any particular skills to the game since i dont no much JS or DHTML and dont know any where near enuff OpenGL (N.B. I have read Poi post about not needing OpenGL).

Anything I can do to help?

Sure Zyler, welcome on board, Im sure we can accommodate you Poi, do you have a link to the sort of engine we will be using?

Wrayal

Go to kimber-ja.demon.co.uk and click on the link to the raytracer!

Great. I'll see what I can do.

Andy