Times of War Development Team

I THINK you would pass in "D3DCREATE_PUREDEVICE" or "D3DCREATE_HARDWARE_VERTEXPROCESSING" when you create your D3D Device. Look in the Documentation under the "D3D.CreateDevice()" function.

Z.

I updated it a lot now, it looks better.
I have also decided to use TnLHAL if the card supports it, rather than let the user decide.

'kay peoples

I want a status report, please check in, I'm tired of waiting for posts!

Could you guys post more often (and work more often) I am working so I would like to know if you are too....

Okay Psyvision havent heard from you at all of late, how is the C++ DLL going?

i think we all know how it is during wekk of finals well thats been the past few days for me. i got some code at home and my mom doesnt want to let me usethe computer for a while so when i get back on most likly ill have the code to move the units around and attack things.

Hey, im not working on the C++ dll at the moment, though i am getting a book soon that may help with this so when it arrives i shall take another look.

In the mean time, anyone with some docs on Direct Play would b e nice.

http://www.vbexplorer.com/directx4vb/

Need I say more...?
I'm compiling my SasSmooth Algo. into a DDraw DLL, as to brush back up on my ddraw skills (learner app)

I'll try to use DPlay, I'll play around with it (no pun intended)

Sas. Here is a little app ive been working on. Tell me if this is sorta what you had imagined for the 3d stuff.

Z.

Yep Zaei it's pretty good, but, you need to be able to assign textures to coordinates, and also you need to point & drag (not select, change option, drag)

Psyvision:
http://rookscape.com/vbgaming/

Great tutorials they have.

In TOW, we'll be having Blacksmiths make armour. This armour is seperately fitted on units, adding to the base armour of the unit.

There are two diffferenet %s for armour; AR and AC. (Armour Rating, Armour Coverage). Armour Coverage is a percent that determines if the weapon hit the armour. Armour Rating is how much damage will get through should the weapon hit the armour. So damage:

VB Code:

Function Attack(Unit as Long)
Dim Hit as Boolean
Dim Dmg as Integer
 
   Randomize Timer
   If Int(Rnd * 100) <= Units(Unit).AC Then Hit = True
 
   If Hit = True Then
      Dmg = Atk * (100 / (100 - Units(Unit).AR))
   Else
      Dmg = Atk * (100 / (100 - Units(Unit).UnitType.Armour))
   End If
End Function

i'm over at a friends house sad thing is i cant do any programing
and im not able to look at the file. i might be getting the internet at home. :) im really happy about that when i get it ill be able to upload the app's that ive worked on. (i think theres three of them.

Wazupguys- Great!

I think we should turn this into a fully 3D rts before doing the graphics, it would be easier (faster, looks better) in the end. Also that way we could use point sprites, alphablending, fsaa, etc. and we wouldn't be overshadowed by War III as much. (although I know we will)

So what do you guys say?
Also, I made 2 "Crystal Rain" intro screens.
Here they are:

Here is the second:

I find if you use tissues and lotion.............oops wrong thread, must be a bumbling fool:rolleyes:

Let's see if i can reply this time...

I can do the 3D graphics. Just tell me what you want, and I will tell you what can be done.

Z.

[edit]
And if you guyd want, I can post some screen shots of what I've done, so you can see what it can look like.

Psyvision said he was looking into doing DX8 with C++, you guys could get together and get it started.

• Ability to have multiple terrain heights
• Particle Effects (billboarded & point-sprites)
• User-Definable Z-Buffer!!! (I cannot stress this enough, see below)
• Dynamic Lighting
• FSAA and large texture support (upt to 1024x1024)
• Hardware T & L

* I have a Savage4 Card. I runs everything fine. In D3D, if there is no Z-Buffer (a certain kind, i think 24bit Z buffer) other than a 24 bit z buffer, all of the polygons will flicker, causing me to writhe in horror. So I need this Z-Buffer. And apparently, the company that makes the card doesn't support it. Nobody does. Therefore in 2 days I am buying meself a little ol' GeForce 2 Ultra...

Ive got the terrain thing implemented in C++ already. As I said, I can post some screen shots if anyone wants to see them.

Z.

[edit]
And you would be hard pressed to find a 3D card that DOESNT support 1024x1024 textures.

Why exactly am l receiving email about this thread. Don't do games programming:confused:

You kinda posted as a bumbling fool.... =P

And Zaei bring on the screenshots

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3

Vol. 4

Vol. 5

Shot 1 shows a wireframe view of the scene.
Shot 2 shows the fully rendered scene.
Shot 3 shows the menu system.
Shot 4 shows the GUI, and context menus.
Shot 5 shows how the GUI is fully user configurable.

Each shot has a few extra lines in it, the red line goes from the current position to the destination of a unit, the yellow goes from the origin to the unit position, the green line goes from the unit position to the current mouse position in world space.

Z.

Could we perhaps change the ground textures and menus, because that looks kind of futuristic.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Sastraxi
You kinda posted as a bumbling fool.... =P

---

Thanks, some one is going to get a good slapping for using my login again.

Could we perhaps change the ground textures and menus, because that looks kind of futuristic.

The ground texture is just a test that I created (thats why it looks like crap =). I can easily texture the menus/windows, I just havent done it yet.

Z.

Hey, the screen shots look nice but we need some new textures :d lol.

I got my open gl game programming book and can make a particle engine for us ? i can only do it in open gl atm coz i dont know how to use direct x in C++ too much like alpha blending etc. But ! if anyone know this stuff then they can redo the render function ???

Um the game is leaning to C++ here atm, do u want this ?

Correction: the GRAPHICS are leaning that way...
But if you want, we can do it all in C++, just I won't do any programming (I can't)...

Would that be okay for you guys? Except in this case wazupguys' code modules would be lost (unless there is a conversion to C++)

I can probably do the particle systems. Actually, it was what I was about to start working on.

Psy is right, though. The project is really looking pretty C++-y at the moment, but if someone wants to see what they can do with that map edtor i posted a while back, i can put up some source code. Let me know.

If someone is feeling kind of bored, try writing a texture blending program. Have fun...

Anything else, just let me know. My email, as always, is [email protected] .

Z.

I dont mind doing all of the programming with Psy. I dont know how everyone else will feel about that, but its fine with me.

If Psy doesnt mind, we can just start with what I have down so far, and build on it.

Z.

I have some algos that do grayscale surface & colour surface -> alpha channel texture (from lucky's vbgaming), and I can easily implement vbDABL to do the alpha-blending. I could store these all in a class module, along with the infamous SxGraphics Algo.... (originally known as SastraxiSmooth)

Jorj has started to make some SWEET concept art. I have done some work as well (art). We really need a 3DSMAX developer in this project...

I also have a good idea, with DX8 and OGL we could provide the best experience for our users, just have the same 'inputs' to VB or whatever in your DLL, and then draw it using DX8/OGL depending on a value, such as glOGL or glD3D passed to a renderer value.

I had the strangest idea that I should post who is doing what and what positions need to be filled. Sorry if this is redundant, but a six-page discussion is sometimes hard to wade through.

MAIN TASKS

VB programmer to do main DDraw loop - wazup guys
3D modellers to make models from 2D unit graphics - ???
General programmer - Zaei / PsyVision
Gameplay, interface programmer - Zaei
AI coder - Zaei
Terrain, unit graphics - Sastraxi
C++ DLL - D3D & OpenGL - PsyVision / Zaei
Level Design - Jorj so far...

SMALL TASKS

Manual - Jorj / Sastraxi
Website - Sastraxi
Concept art - Norman_Nomein / Jorj
Particle systems - Zaei
Texture blending - ???

If you see any errors, please notify.

A small update:

For the 'real-world' campaign(s), if Sastraxi has told you about the campaigns, I have made a mission outline, complete with maps, objectives, strategies, et cetera.

I have also made two Saxon units in concept art: the Fyrd, and the Housecarl. I hope they will be posted on the website soon.

That is all. Valete!

I forgot one thing. Since we are moving to 3D, we can't have a whole lot of units on screen. I suggest a max of 20 Units per level, although I havent tested it yet. Also, since we cant have as many units, it may be a good idea to move away from a true RTS, into what Blizzard was planning for War3, more of a RPG/RTS game, you know, with stats, levels, and all of that stuff.

Z.

We could keep the LOD low. Very low. Such 200 face charas. With imaging technology what it is now, I dont think we'll have a problem. You may think it'll be a problem for your card, because as you said earlier you test on a 8mb card...