Faux Car

[Cirrus Minor]

Hi !
I've tried again. So we need the 32 bits version of Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 in your link to launch it, and then it crashes with this error:


Hard coded path ?

[Hapax]

Looks like it, yeah. I start tests using a pool of generic resources available globally and then copy them locally if I decide to keep on using that generic stuff. Fonts are pretty generic . Obviously, I had forgotten to update this path to the local one. Sorry about that 
I'll rebuild it tomorrow!
Looks like you're the only person who had this problem so you must the only person that has tried it, so thank you for giving it a go 

[Ixrec]

I tried it the other day and got that same error, but something distracted me and I forgot to report it. =(

[StormWingDelta]

If you want to make your own fonts I'd try here: http://fontstruct.com/ . Might help get around generic resource errors like this.  Also my teacher found this one for sound effects: http://www.bfxr.net/ .

[fulldizimcik]

thnaks very good

[ChronicRat]

If you want to make your own fonts I'd try here: http://fontstruct.com/ . Might help get around generic resource errors like this.  Also my teacher found this one for sound effects: http://www.bfxr.net/ .

What a cool sites! Thanks!

[santiaboy]

This is really cool! The acceleration and skidding sounds really remind me of these types of games!

[Hapax]

Thanks

Here's the fixed download:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/pbdt3fidkd7vr1t/Faux+Car+v0.0.5.zip
Let me know what you think!

If you want to make your own fonts I'd try here: http://fontstruct.com/ . Might help get around generic resource errors like this.

The problem here is not that it's a generic resource but that I re-use resources during testing (this is still just a test project). I then only move to a local location as it progresses and I need customised resources, and/or if I'm distributing it. If I'd've created a new font, it'd probably be stored in the resource pool, ready to be used by all of my projects and I therefore would've still forgotten to alter this path

[Hapax]

Worked a little on the way it looks, tweaked a few more things, and added a few things.

Latest version has 3 cameras, road markings, basic background scenery, (adjustable) fade as the track and objects get further away (toggle-able), cruise mode (automatic drive), ability to reset the car back to the centre of the road, ability to show/hide the testing feedback information, basic scoring mechanism, and instant skip-to-end.

The current default camera (camera 1) is the behind the car. Camera 0 is more of a first person/on-car camera. Camera 2 is much higher up and more road is visible. However, their are not any dedicated car sprites for that camera 2's view so they're stretched and red.

Here's a couple of images of what the latest version looks like (click to see full size):



New windows binary
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6xxq9il4ljq97j1/Faux+Car+v0.0.8.zip (zip file: <4MB)

New resources
The car sprites are (quickly) custom edited from a video of a spinning 3d model of a car, found . The grey at the bottom is shadow that wasn't masked out.

The background scenery is cut from this photograph - which is from this page - and edited to tile. It was also scaled inside the program so it's quite pixelated.

The tree scenery sprite sheet (3 trees) was found here.

EDIT: Just updated the binary to fix that horizontal line across the scenery. The scenery is also now smoothed which helps it look further away/out of focus.



Just as an aside, I'd like to mention that the new binary was compiled using the new SFML 2.2! 

[select_this]

It's looking pretty good Reminds me of the many, many hours I spent playing the Outrun arcade game as a kid.

[Tank]

Really nice work.

[Cirrus Minor]

So, I've tried it.
The last version is cute, you really should make a racing game with this engine!
The annoying point is that, most of the time, we don't see far enough to know where we have to turn, but it's just a demo, I know
Good job!

[Hapax]

Thanks for the feedback! 

Reminds me of the many, many hours I spent playing the Outrun arcade game as a kid.

This was one of the games that came up during my research into this era. I must say that it seems to have the best 'look' of them all but it has some extreme weirdness in its code, apparently.

So, I've tried it.
you really should make a racing game with this engine!

It's more of just a class that draws a track depending on which position you say you are in 
I might actually work on some controls for the car etc.. Any suggestions, since you've tried it?

The annoying point is that, most of the time, we don't see far enough to know where we have to turn, but it's just a demo, I know

It's a test/demo of just the track rendering really. It's quite a simple track: right/left/right/left etc.. The hills (at the moment) don't affect speed or grip. The reason it's hard to see where to go is that the test is of extremes; if it was to expand into a game, it wouldn't need so much altitude alteration and the curves probably wouldn't all be that extreme. It's the reason the last third is different; it was a test of more a subtle type.


I think the track code is okay now but it needs more work to generalise the road markings. Currently, they're hard-coded to have a lines on both edges and three lines every alternate segment.

Any suggestions of 'simple' 'gameplay' modifications would be appreciated and considered 

[Hapax]

On this latest version, I've added a few things by progression and also by hacking some features into it to make it slightly more interesting:

• The track is now created from "pieces" of track, which are currently generated at random. Information on the pieces are shown in the console. This means that the track is different every time. It can also be randomised in-game (F2).
• I've rendered the car sprite myself from a 3D model so that the angles of the sprite match the camera angles,
• The HUD now uses a bitmap font to display the text,
• The HUD now includes a simple "mini-map" to show the shape of the road to come,
• The overall speed of the car has been increased,
• The "game" can now be paused/unpausd by pressing F1. When paused, it shows all of the possible controls. It starts paused,
• I've modified some of the road-side objects to move along the road based on the current time. This allows opponent-like visuals. They are still the trees/bushes though - not vehicles. Logic has been added to compare your position amongst them,
• It now "ends" when you cross the finish line. It displays a finishing message,
• The road fade and object fade don't begin to fall off from the very first segment of road as in previous versions,
• You can now toggle anti-aliasing (F3) and full-screen (F8). Be aware that fullscreen mode uses the current desktop resolution.

Here's a couple of images of what the latest version (v0.1.0) looks like (click to see full size):



Here's the download (Windows only, sorry) (zip file: <4MB):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/c1824862oou289i/Faux+Car+v0.1.0.zip


I am moving house and will no longer have access to the internet. I'm sure I just heard a number of sighs of relief that I'll not be on the forum so much; I think I might (unintentionally) irritate some people. I'll occasionally be popping on the forum on my phone but I don't know how much.

Due to that reason, I've hacked my test application to work as a sort of game. You actually get to race opponents (of a sort) and the track is randomly generated. Hopefully, some people (Windows users, since I've only been able to compile it for Windows) will get some fun from it.

It shows the entire control list when the window is first opened so feel free to have a look through them and play around.
Probably the most notable will be:

ARROW KEYS to control the car,
F1 to pause / show controls,
0 (zero on numpad) to reset and race the same track again,
F2 to reset and race a new, random track,
SPACE to reset the car to the centre of the road (useful if far off the side of the road), and
BACKSPACE to change the camera (there are 3).

If you want to just watch it drive itself to look at the track, use cruise mode (F9). You can still change the camera in this mode.

Hopefully speak to you all again soon,
Hapax.

[Hapax]

I have started working on this project again, albeit slowly.

The track engine has been created again - completely from scratch - so there is not really anything interesting to show just yet.

Still, I realised that there was never a video of the perviously latest version (v0.1.0). There is, of course, a download to play that version but it was only for Windows and some people might not be interested in playing it so here is a basic video of that version (that is still available for download):
(note that there is an HD 1920x1080 @60FPS version available on YouTube)