Concept Phase Oct09-May12

[Daan Timmer]

Sounds fair enough.

Besides, wouldn't really work in isometric version.

Unless the object is rendered 3D with isometric view on Then you can also make use of GPU acceleration to display objects which nullifies almost any excessive memory usage for sprites and does not require CPU power at all *just a thought*

[smallfly]

Sounds fair enough.

Besides, wouldn't really work in isometric version.

Unless the object is rendered 3D with isometric view on Then you can also make use of GPU acceleration to display objects which nullifies almost any excessive memory usage for sprites and does not require CPU power at all *just a thought*

sounds like a potential future feature. but for the first release i want to keep the game as simple as possible. sprites are easier to code and handle.

[smallfly]

Why don't you use one sprite that spins around it's centre? That'd be smoother.

Also keep in mind the vehicle lights. There are multiple additional light layers which can be displayed independently. For example the aircrafts have about 5 additional light sprites sprites for each vehicle sprite (since they flash with different frequencies respectively are only active in different situations)

//edit: plus shadow sprite. but i think ill merge vehicle and shadows

tileset_mediumplane_v2_preview.png (51.45 KiB) Viewed 5926 times

(larger version attached)

[Zephyris]

If you don't merge the vehicle and shadow sprites then it might be easier to do day/night transition, no shadows at night and all that.

[smallfly]

If you don't merge the vehicle and shadow sprites then it might be easier to do day/night transition, no shadows at night and all that.

Look at this image:

http://www.tt-forums.net/download/file.php?id=159669

Its night. The shadows are visible too. For two reasons: The flood lights generate shadows. The shadows let generate a nice 3d look. Thus i could merge them without any problem

[FooBar]

When the aircraft takes off, the shadow will likely move relative to the aircraft. So I think the shadow needs to be separate. With trucks and whatnot they can be attached to the vehicle sprites, as those don't fly

Since you're putting in a day and night cycle, how about a moving lightsource and moving shadows of all objects?
Yes, that costs CPU, but since you're putting in only three aircraft and all these different railway curves it appears that you're going for looks rather than gameplay anyways...

[smallfly]

but since you're putting in only three aircraft and all these different railway curves it appears that you're going for looks rather than gameplay anyways...

stop, stop, stop. im going for looks rather than gameplay?? thats wrong. its the other way round! im just not willing to draw dozens of different vehicle types. if there are users who want more vehicle types they can draw them and upload them to a public server. the game will offer a menu where you can select user objects to be used by your copy of p1sim. something like that.

for me, gameplay is much more important than graphics. but of course some eyecandy is necessary for a game.

When the aircraft takes off, the shadow will likely move relative to the aircraft. So I think the shadow needs to be separate.

sounds fair

Since you're putting in a day and night cycle, how about a moving lightsource and moving shadows of all objects?

i like the idea and will keep it in mind.

[FooBar]

stop, stop, stop. im going for looks rather than gameplay?? thats wrong.

I was hoping to hear that

[smallfly]

I switched to coding now. The graphics tool helped me to go on with the concept but now I want to test stuff like animations and construction, which cannot be done using GIMP.

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[LocoMH]

Simply amazing! I'm hoping to see great stuff in the future and I can't wait to!

[smallfly]

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[smallfly]

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[LocoMH]

Weren't you going to use C#? I thought I remembered something like that.

[smallfly]

Weren't you going to use C#? I thought I remembered something like that.

that was the plan some time (some long time) ago. but i decided to switch to java and i am VERY happy with the decision

[smallfly]

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[smallfly]

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[Nordic Dragon]

Looking forward to this, Keep it up!

[smallfly]

I could finally decrease the loading time from 7 seconds to below 1 second. I had several surfaces for the gui elements and now Im using only a very few surfaces (gui, terrain, etc.)

[smallfly]

Unless the object is rendered 3D with isometric view on Then you can also make use of GPU acceleration to display objects which nullifies almost any excessive memory usage for sprites and does not require CPU power at all *just a thought*

By the way, the current version already uses GPU acceleration to draw the sprites. Technically the sprites are drawn on quads using the LWJGL library.

[smallfly]

I uploaded all concept drawing with the correct grass design and with a visible grid to http://www.p1sim.org

Thanks to the grid, the object proportions get clearer.