[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

i shouldn't be showing this, it's really not ready... but what the heck... i showed it on a development forum, so naturally, it has to be shown here as well...

the textures aren't complete, the sound is a temp sound, the actual instruments aren't in place, and the character anims aren't done...

...but this is the point at which i finally got that immersiveness i was looking for... that confined look and feel of being inside a submarine...

it's still got a ways to go... so don't rag it too much... here's a real short clip (750k)...



home.att.net/~subbase1/ControlRoom.wmv

you are inside the control room of a WWII fleet sub... the whole thing is actually moving at about 90 scale feet beneath my ocean waves...

the player will be able to roam the interior of whatever spaces are modelled, but only the Captain will be able go into the Captains stateroom and you will have to be at certain positions to control the crewmen assigned to you...

the conning tower and forward battery spaces are done as well (models and some textures) and i'm still debating whether or not to go aft and include the crews mess, engine and manuevering spaces...

sorry i didn't include a climb up to the conning tower in the vid, but the sequence i did capture was really choopy, so i left it out...

at this point, the torpedo rooms probably won't be included as they would be redundant (nothing for any players to do in there)... plus, the current models of the fwd torpedo room i have done are really poly heavy...

depending on how things progress though, i may rethink this also... would be nice to peek in there now and then...

also... the crew will be animated a bit... turning the wheels, reaching for switches, looking around... some will walk around the cabin depending on what they're doing...

so far RAD is hangin in there... i just wish the graphics were a bit better...
oh well... still i think it's acceptable... close to the level with the original MOH graphics...

please comment, critique, and add suggestions

--Mike

[Deamon]

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

thanks for taking a look, and for the critiques D
i'm regularly post on the following dev boards...

3DRAD forums http://www.3drad.com
the Blitz3D forums http://www.blitzbasic.com
the DarkBASIC forums http://www.darkbasic.com
the GarageGames forums http://www.garagegames.com

look for Mike Hense or my alter ego, Red Ocktober

plus, i'll be getting my site up soon to support the upcoming release of the demo and the sim... http://home.att.net/~subbase1

ok... here's something i forgot to show above...



control and the attack center in their relative positions during the game...
whatever compartment you are not in will not be rendered during the actual gameplay as to save a few cpu and gpu cycles...

--Mike

[Letum]

If you ever want more detail in the 3d work, I'm your man \
Ive got tonnes of spare time and anything I make goes into my portfolio, so Im happy to help!

[TLAM Strike]

Looking good Mike! Very good!

Will the post war boats have the Attack Center/Radar Room below the Conn in the old ammo locker? :hmm:

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

thx for the input guys...

something Ettiene said a while back...

[XabbaRus]

Very cool

What's happening with your Cold War subsim?

I hope you release this WWII one soon, I have ben following it for years.

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

the follow up version... i got it all planned out on paper...

and planned out... and planned out... and....


things are moving faster than ever now... i've reached the point where the thing is taking on a life of it's own... neve before have i ever looked at it and felt that it was actually where i wanted it to be...

inspite of going without the state of the art graphics that took so much of a toll on me, and delayed me for over a year, i think i've finally captured the feel of being aboard a sub in the game... i just hope i can make the action exciting enough, and the game interesting...

back to the question... WWII in the Pacific is first, followed by the early cold war, US vs Russian subs, then the fast attacks, UK subs may enter the picture there, and finally, all the way up to the 90s...
so at leat 4 in the series is planned right now...


but lemme get this first one down the ways first


--Mike

[Jamie]

Hey Mike,

I saw that you mentioned GarageGames... is this current version using their Torque Engine? If so, how do you like it?

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

hiya Jamie... unfortunately, i'm still on the mid level of the learning curve as far as Torque is concerned... and the curve just seems to be growing each day... but i did do a lil workup thing with the Torque Engine, and i managed to get the basics of what a sub would need up and running, with limited player movement inside it...

Torque's best feature, overall, is it's clean and fast networking framework... which is built into the heart of the engine...

when i was on dial-up, i managed to join in games where 16 to 20 people were running around shooting each other... and with hardly any noticeable slowdown (although in time when more people logged on, the lag became apparent and i volunteered to log off so the broadband people could enjoy themselves)... now that i'm on broadband, there's no problem...

the down side of Torque is that it is a full developed game based engine... based on a fps... so, if you are writing a fps, then it'll go a lot easier than if you're writing a naval simulation...

but it still can be done...

the programming info that you'll need is scattered all over the place... mainly in the forum though... and the Ken Finney book (links on the forum) is the best way to start out (using version TGE 1.3) and describes the system very well and in plain language... and gets you going using the scripting language, which, if you don't need to mod the engine, is all you'll need to know...

(also... i think an early picture of one of my subs is on page 6 of the book )

but so far, TGE is still a lil overwhelming for me to develop in... or maybe i'm trying to do too much of the wrong thing with this... at any rate, i'm cleaning up some existing code i did in 3DRAD, streamlinging it, and getting it ready for a release...

i managed to get an entire sub interior done, and the player can walk around in it as it moves around the game world...

if the engine hangs in there it'll be up and running soon...

hey, i hope i don't embarrass you by saying that part of my inspiration has been the great stuff you guys over at Sonalyst have made for us virtual sub and naval captains

it's great to have you around...

--Mike

[timmyg00]