Hover Tank 3d 2 Engine & Editor, Save, load, and PLAY your own creations! Options

[FredFredrickson]

Hover Tank 3D 2 Engine with Editor



Alrighty, what can I say, I was excited to get this demo out, so I spent a little extra time tonight to get it out... The level loading is pretty ugly (opens a box asking for a level to be loaded when it starts, and errors pretty badly if you don't load a level...), but the plus side is, you can now create your own levels via the editor and load them directly into the game engine...

The file size has jumped 5 Mb since the last version, but there are a few reasons for this... first, the new build contains a bunch of different skies, terrain, and water textures, so you can customize your levels. Secondly, I have bundled the game engine and the map editor into one ZIP file, so there's only one download. This way, you get it all!

Here's a full list of current features:
� Hover Tank 3D 2 Engine preview build
� Map editor with random terrain generation, grayscale import, and more!
� 10 different backgrounds, 8 terrain textures, and 4 water variations... Thousands of combinations to customize your own levels!
� Dust and water particles have been added to the main engine
� Small arena files, and fast load / build times (encrypted, for your safety)

Controls:
W & S - Thrust backward or forward
A & D - Rotate tank
SPACE - Low friction (hold it down)
MOUSE - Look and aim
LEFT MOUSE - Kind of fire... hehe
RIGHT MOUSE - Fire grenade (might be the standard fire... not sure yet)

HT3D2 Engine & Editor: Click here (7.55 Mb)

Upcoming Stuff:
� Collisions
� Fixed projectiles
� All the other things that will make it more of a game, hehe

This post has been edited by FredFredrickson: May 24 2006, 05:01 PM

[OmicronGamer]

You'll have a lot of work to do if you choose to use that engine.
For starters, your trees and explosions look... well, bad. You will need something substantial to match your original.
As for the terrain, it looks good.

[FredFredrickson]

Well, to be fair I kinda just threw the explosions into it before I put it out... But I'm not quite sure what's wrong with the trees. What in particular did you find so displeasing about them?

[3t3rNAL_Payn]

I like this, alot.

Great graphics. I like them alot.

Bugs:
Upon running into the wall that is at the top of the hill, I fell into the hill and went straight down.
Many views cause me to be seeig through the floor.


Also:
Grenades are great. I like them.
I like the 'kickback' when you shoot.
I like the graphics
I couldn't change the terrain. I deleted the terrain file and made on called hilly.ter, but it wouldn't work... hmm... Maybe I misunderstood something?
Furthermore, I thought the engine was smooth. Not too many glitches, and it was nice.

Suggestions:
Add different "models" of tanks. Like, in driving games where you have different cars. A hover bike, for example, would be awesome in the final game or later demo.
Also, if you do multiplayer again, games with ltos of people are great.
Maybe a racing mode?

eidt:
Yeah, I didn't like the explosions much either, but due to the low-quality, I could tell they were temp. As for the trees, I didn't see anything wrong with them, maybe he thought they were too thin?

This post has been edited by 3t3rNAL_Payn: Feb 3 2006, 10:27 PM

[OmicronGamer]

The main problem with them is that their edges interact poorly with objects behind them. They look like sprites at the moment, and it is not in keeping with the quality of the rest of your engine.
I would suggest that you clear up the edge antialiasing (turn smooth edges off), and add some variety.

I think that you should make the explosions one of the main features of the engine - this game deserves that, and with this engine, large explosions would be fitting.

[Scooternew]

I was wondering - is this engine completely new, or is it a rebuilt version of the old one?

[3t3rNAL_Payn]

I was wondering - is this engine completely new, or is it a rebuilt version of the old one?

it seems completely new, but I'm not sure. I think he might have just imported the model for the hover tank. Unsure though, he could have jsut stripped it down to the core.

[FredFredrickson]

This engine is kind of a synthesis between the old and the new... I started off modifying the DTM example by Mechanikos, and once I got it to a point that I liked, I made the tank object and imported the basic movement code from the old game into it... while adding the new stuff to it too, for Z detection, tilting, flying over hills, etc.

It uses the same model from the bonus game in HT3D, but with a little textureing added.

[froggut198]

Looks nice but like the guy said before, the trees look pretty bad but yeah keep it up and make it better than Hover Tank 3d (not that is was bad, just make this one awsome! lol)

[ChaoMaster]

Terrain is a huge acomplishment, and you managing to do it is amazing and the online features will be greatly improved due to this as more strategy is required. The grenades are a great idea and add an extra layer of strategy to the game while still making it fun. The terrain worked really well and I dont think that you need to change anything about that. Firing with the left mouse didnth show the projectile so Im not sure if it works. A rapid fire should be added instead as the grenadesd work well. But there should be Z aiming as the old system wont work with terrain but seeing what you've done so far this can be easily acomplished. The game so far is really impressive and I know that this will be amazing. The tank model is superb and the terrain looks awesome, and reminds me of a lot of games like hidden and dangerous etc. With this game you should add multiple weapons such as a flamethrower and a group of other guys on your team, like the conquest maps in unreal tournament as singleplayer isnt needed for a game like this, you should make it online all the way with conquest modes and siege, where you have a fort you must defend, so deos the other team and you must capture specific points on the map that give you powerups or mroe units that ssault the enemy base at a regular interval. Its very good this engine, Im impressed. But Z aiming is needed, for the grenades to work and any other weapon you add. Maybe right click could be a secondary fire mode, and ammo would be needed too. I like the fact it feels more realistic than the previous as the cartoony type feel of the previous was lost on a few people but I did like it. However with terrain you cant fire from across the map and calls for one on one combat when nearby. Also, all the models of buildings and stuff would work well in this game as though the terrain and the sky is realistic your models would fit very well without any editing whatsoever. I like the fact that the trees arent modelled as It makes the game have a nice charm to it and they suit the terrain well, I encourage you to add a few more of these 2d images as all 3D doenst look that good as the terrain and sky would fit with it. DOnt know what everyone is saying about the trees, I liked them. The grenade explosion where it left an imprint on the ground was good but it should be longer to stay there or stay there for the whole game as it makes the world look like a battle scarred world which is the intention of your game I believe, all out fighting with Tanks. Just a suggestion, a repair bay so taht your tank gets repaired while online would be good and would allow scouts to work, like run out to the enemy base, see where everyone is and update your teams minimap and run back and repair. This would work well and add extra strategy to the game, as In the previous one its not an all out clickfest, everyshot has to count. If you added this, I also think that making your own tank and upgrading it, except there shouldnt be new ewapons and stuff from winning online, as it would mean a lot of people who have played for ages could just keep winning. I mean theres a set armory, and you have 100upgrade points (just an example) and each weapon cost s so many points, as does armor and speed and power upgrades. You make a tank to suit your needs and you can change it anytime you want. Except maybe unlockable skins and paint jobs from playing a lot as that would work well. But thats just a suggestion. I cant wait for this game to be finished, seeing your cool garages and monoliths over terrain like that is something I cant wait to see. I encourage you to do a lot of online stuff for this game and add pretty much just that as the first one had all these cool features but no-one is online as everyone is doing singleplayer. Anyway I wish you good luck with this game and I cant wait to see the finished product, the demo is really impressive.

Good work!

EDIT - I just thought of osme stuff that needs to be in the game.

I like the grassy hill place but I think that lots of different environments would be good, with snow areas and deserts all teh way to lava fissures etc. ANd I like the walls, you could makea storyline of something like after the defeat of the evil genearls in the previous game the hover tank armada released a training campaign to prepare for any future threats to the peace or something like that as the game would feels like a training course due to the walls, and this is a very very good thing as it looks and feels awesome. A futuristic menu select would work well as Singleplayer would work if you still wish to add it but multiplayer gaming feels good when within an arena such as this, as the previous game felt like islands floating in cyberspace whereas this feels a lot better, like a VR building or something. Its very cool and I cant wait for the next demo and the full version to be released. In multiplayer, you should make it 8v8 or 16v16 as the map feels big and is of a big enough size to play on.

Anyway Im blithering again so Ill stop typig. Good luck with the game.

Im off to try to make my own terrain levels.

EDIT2 - Just changed the gif file, and made it a smoother level with less hills. All I did was load up a some gif Image I found and used it, adn with less hills I was able to see many of the features of this demo not seen with all the hills. The slightly bumpy terrain I made felt nice, and with it and its gentle slopes you could see that the tank reacted like a car would with its tilting, which was nice. I also like the fact that objects dissappear and fade in and out in the background. It was very nice. However with the walls it didnt look that great as you could as you could see them all the time but they scaled funny and were blurry, they lost too much color. But apart from that, this game is flawless and is absolutely amazing. I just realized you have slight Z aiming but you cant aim high enough, it should bea bit higher. Aiming where to put grenades was fun, but they should be circles not squares. The game had all the charms of the original and with the cool trees felt even better, Its just amazing.

EDIT3 - I realized that if you made it online which I know you will, you need the players name being drawn above your players head. I never got to play multiplayer in the original as there wasnt enough games up but this one will attrack more players as it feels more like an army skirmish now tehres terrain instead of a bumper car arena game that didnt have much action except for a few shots. Though it was good, there werent enough features to make it a huge online game, but I reckon this one will rememdy that.

EDIT4 - I was thinking, what do you edit in the gif to make the levels rough and hilly? Is it dark colours and light colours that make it work, or is it the amount of colors in one section? It woudl be helpful if you told us how it exactly works, but its a cool feature none the less.

EDIT5 - Thought of a odd feature, a small unit that flies near you and provides you cover fire and shoots the nearest enemy, even though its not powerful it is still helpful. Its just a suggestion. IT levels up slowly from winning but its power level raises very minimally and is more of a diversion. Those upgrade points I mentioned earlier would work, by providing it with weapons. Kinda like the combat bots in Ratchett Gladiator, it would add a cool feature to the game.

EDIT6 - Will there be custom music in the game? The previous games music was pretty good however it wasnt exactly amazing. This game feels more fast paced, with the new weapons etc it needs to be fast paced danger music, kinda like the music from Megaman Zero. I know you're all for custom music so I was wondering if you have started on the new music or are planning on using the old types?

EDIT7 - Last Edit I promise, Im taking up too much room in your topic but Im anxious to know about the game. Will there be a fire engine, with setting trees and bits of grass on fire, as well as opponents? With explosions present it seems like a good idea to me as it would add strategy with setting up fire traps and would look really cool. The explosions look fine to me sofar, but this is just a suggestion as you seem to be making the game more realistic and cooler.

As for buildings, will they be descturctable? They look awesome and I know you'll get the collision with objects parts done soon, so will you be able to blow the heck out of the buildings? This would work in singleplayer and multiplayer versions of the game. The buildings look sweet but half destroyed ones would be cool and add a sort of player customization to the game if you know what I mean.

As for death, will you lose health from falling a long distance from terrain? And will there be hazards such as fire traps and spike pits etc on the map so you can kill yourself by accident? It would be a cool feature and I was wondering if you were considering it. The old death animation was kinda lame in the first one, there needs to be more sparks and explosions and the ability to seriously damage other tanks when online and enemies when offline, as a sort of suicide plan would be good and it worked well in games like Worms.

As for enemy models if you choose to have an offline version, what will they look like? The old ones, especially the Ray Shooter Thing werent exactly amazing and though they fit the style of that game I doubt they will fit the style of this one. Either tanks or something like that would work well as the terrain is very cool and the enemies from the other wouldnt fit.

I cant stress to you enough how cool I think the terrain is. I cant wait for different types like ice terrain that makes you slide around the map more and sand that does the opposite. I mean heck, whats a sequel without improvements? This game has already started that and so far its very impressive, the graphics overhaul you have done makes the game feel mroe professional and I am dead pleased to see it.

Good luck with the game
ChaoMaster

This post has been edited by ChaoMaster: Feb 4 2006, 02:57 AM

[qwertyuiop23]

3 words: O MY GOSH. this demo is totally amazing. Ic an't get over how good it id ia m stunned. I ahve seen sum gud games in my time but this man it betas the lot. I though HT3D thte one in the creations section was gud but this. I honestly though you had some how copied unreal tuornament or counter strike becasue i ran so smoothly man i still cannot get over it. IF you amde this into a game i am 500% positive you could sell it. I am still thouroughly amzed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DarksideX]

I had a little fun with your terrain editor




This is pretty neat

Keep it up!

Ali.

[LauriP]

Well, now it looks good, with the textures and the terrain,
but its a little buggy, you should really fix the movement a little bit..

The crosshair was a bit odd, and the shooting stopped the hovertank from moving.
Fix the movement on the terrain a little bit, fix the shooting and do the crosshair a little better..

You are going in to the right direction, keep it up !

[BenRK]

I looked at the top screen shot and I thought "Looks like Zelda OOT."

Downloading...

EDIT

Well, I like it other than a few things.
1.) The tank just dosen't look like it belongs in there.
2.) Some rotation problems (but you mentioned this before).
3.) The trees outlines.

Other than that, I think this is off to a great start and I like how it runs smoothly on my crapy computer (as most 3D examples on this forum don't sadly).

This post has been edited by BenRK: Feb 4 2006, 08:07 AM

[Fluffy Bunny Nin...]

Well if you've played Freds previous 3D tank game, I think it's safe to say that he'll do a pretty top notch job and not release something half finished like most of us do.

[emwearz]

Great work Fred's, keep it up (you are the only person releasing 3d games worth playing).

[mr.cooljamesbond]

the first one was pretty good, this one is simply FREAKING AMAZING!

Like, theres no baddies to shoot but theres freaking terrain with insanely good physics! like one time i did the anti gravity thing and i got some SWEET AIR off a hills edge. Then I like how you took what i said into consideration and gave it partial zaim! that was awesome... just like the crosshair... And i love the new driving, its so much more smoother and better, no more of that frictionless crap found in mealsy HOVERTANK 1, now that was annoying. Plus it ran at like very good FPS! and now i must go over to the bads (least to greatest.)

-Trees were okay, not really either too bad or too good, so you dont have to change them it wont affect the funness of the game.
-Explosions werent that bad, but nothing to die 4 either, but agian, like the trees, they dont hurt the funnes of the game.
-For the primary fire mode, that gunflash was kinda "game maker-like" bad. I dont want to sound like a cheesy entreprenuer (whatever that is) but if you give me the gm6 and i can understand the programming of the flash i can easily make a much better one.
-secondly primary fire had no projectiles.
-The fullscreen resolution wasnt the greatest.
-The trees and towers had no collisions whatsoever, and the buildings at the end i could go through a couple of them

SUGGESTIONS (tadadada!)

1. That you let me help u with the gunflashes.

2. That cannon shells are the primary fire, and create a dirt-splash effect when hitting the ground

3. There should be a tertiary fire when pressing the middle mouse, of like, a chain gun perhaps?

4. In the menu a screen resolution option.

5. Enemys and multiplayer of course!

6. Possibly some tank upgrades in single and multiplayer, and maybe some weapons pickups?

7. In multiplayer there should be different tanks to choose from, but you need more money to purchase them, of course you get more money the longer you survive, the more tanks you kill, the more shots you hit, ect.

If i had to compare this to HALO, i have to say I like this engine a tad bit better than HALO so far!

This post has been edited by mr.cooljamesbond: Feb 4 2006, 01:54 PM

[FredFredrickson]

Thanks for the compliments guys, I am glad you enjoy flying around... I have spent quite a long time just flying around too, it's pretty fun!

I will be addressing many of the requests you have posted eventually, I have been working on a few other things on the side too, and I want to give HT3D1 it's own time in the spotlight.

I will post more here as there are significant updates!

[Dr. BenX]

This is sweet . I liked the HT3D very much. You have really outdone GM. And to tell a fact, maybe use Ivan The Mage's engine for the trees. They are really easy to insert into a game and is compatible with D3D. I use 'em in my 3D racing game (it gives a nice pixel shading look, because they look like they are real plants not some blended sprite) . Keep it up, and I hope to see HT3D 2 finished soon. Good luck!

[Game Fortress]

I think up and down aiming needs to be in this one. It will make it harder to aim, but more fun to play. Then you could lob grenades and other explosives. Also, a large selection of tanks would be awesome.

This post has been edited by Game Fortress: Feb 4 2006, 07:47 PM