Mach 1 - Combat Flight Simulator Beta released!
by Adam Beer · 11/13/2009 (3:40 am) · 6 comments
Hello everyone,
This is my first blog here on GG or...TP? and I am posting to announce the public beta release of the game Mach. Mach is a modern combat flight simulator that was developed using T3D. I want to discuss 2 things on this blog, first I want to talk about what exactly you can do in the game, and second I want to go over how we actually developed it.
Main Features
Firstly, the beta gives the player access to 2 of the 7 featured aircraft that will be in the final release of Mach. Each player starts with the F16, and once enough points are earned through playing in the combat mode you can unlock the F18. In the combat mode, you can arm your aircraft with the following weapons:
* = Needs to be unlocked
- M61 Vulcan (20 mm Gatling gun)
- Aim-9 Sidewinder (Air to air missile)
- AGM-65 Maverick (Air to ground missile)*
- LAU-61 Rocketpod (Unguided missiles)*
Points for unlocks are obtained though shooting down enemies, destroying the enemies base and turret defenses (SAM Sites and Flak). You can keep track on your points by logging into your game account on the accounts management portal.
Additionally, there is a racing mode in which players can race up to 7 other players in a multiplayer game. The race track level is fairly difficult and might take a bit of practice to be able to master it.
So that basically is a very quick summary of the main features that are in the Mach beta. Before I go into the development part of the blog here is how to signup for the beta:
Go to www.mach-game.com/ and click the bottom tab titled "How do I join the Beta" and follow the link to the account registration page there. Once you are registered, you need to login and click the "Create Mach Profile" button and follow the steps there. Once your game profile is setup, there will be a button you can push to download the game. For those of you who are having trouble with the installer, you can use the following alternate download:
accounts.ignition-games.com/beta/MachBetaInstaller.zip
Please sign-up, test the game out and let us know what you think.
*We have a dedicated server setup right now that can be found through your join game list*
Development Cycle
We first had the idea to make Mach back in February and started developing on TGEA. By that time, T3D was just starting out and I was able to get access to it before the beta's were released which gave us a huge jump start on porting. By the time Beta 1 rolled out our game was smoothly running on T3D. Mach is based off of T3D 1.0 for right now and we have found it to be very stable. There is 1 problem that I wasnt aware of until only a few weeks ago where one of my developers told me that almost every time he exits the game on vista it crashes. I develop on XP and never see this issue so I apologize to all of you on vista who are going to try the game out as I am sure it will be annoying.
First, toyed with the flying vehicle class and figured that if we really wanted to make a serious flight game we would need our own solution. The class that we are using is based off of shapeBase and has no link to the vehicle class at all. We arent using rigid for the physics as it just wasnt doing what we wanted it to do.
Another large task was our whole database system. Alot of the game revolves around information stored on a database. In a nutshell, the game sends a query to a master server that manages communication from the game to the database server. So we have a very secure but very simple solution for grabbing and sending info to/from any database solution. Currently we are using PGSQL but plan to move to MySQL before release.
I cant think of much more to write here as its 2:32 in the morning so if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here, or if you have a more technical question, you can email me at adamb@ignition-games.com. Here are the required images that im sure you would like to see:
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you on what you think of the game.
This is my first blog here on GG or...TP? and I am posting to announce the public beta release of the game Mach. Mach is a modern combat flight simulator that was developed using T3D. I want to discuss 2 things on this blog, first I want to talk about what exactly you can do in the game, and second I want to go over how we actually developed it.
Main Features
Firstly, the beta gives the player access to 2 of the 7 featured aircraft that will be in the final release of Mach. Each player starts with the F16, and once enough points are earned through playing in the combat mode you can unlock the F18. In the combat mode, you can arm your aircraft with the following weapons:
* = Needs to be unlocked
- M61 Vulcan (20 mm Gatling gun)
- Aim-9 Sidewinder (Air to air missile)
- AGM-65 Maverick (Air to ground missile)*
- LAU-61 Rocketpod (Unguided missiles)*
Points for unlocks are obtained though shooting down enemies, destroying the enemies base and turret defenses (SAM Sites and Flak). You can keep track on your points by logging into your game account on the accounts management portal.
Additionally, there is a racing mode in which players can race up to 7 other players in a multiplayer game. The race track level is fairly difficult and might take a bit of practice to be able to master it.
So that basically is a very quick summary of the main features that are in the Mach beta. Before I go into the development part of the blog here is how to signup for the beta:
Go to www.mach-game.com/ and click the bottom tab titled "How do I join the Beta" and follow the link to the account registration page there. Once you are registered, you need to login and click the "Create Mach Profile" button and follow the steps there. Once your game profile is setup, there will be a button you can push to download the game. For those of you who are having trouble with the installer, you can use the following alternate download:
accounts.ignition-games.com/beta/MachBetaInstaller.zip
Please sign-up, test the game out and let us know what you think.
*We have a dedicated server setup right now that can be found through your join game list*
Development Cycle
We first had the idea to make Mach back in February and started developing on TGEA. By that time, T3D was just starting out and I was able to get access to it before the beta's were released which gave us a huge jump start on porting. By the time Beta 1 rolled out our game was smoothly running on T3D. Mach is based off of T3D 1.0 for right now and we have found it to be very stable. There is 1 problem that I wasnt aware of until only a few weeks ago where one of my developers told me that almost every time he exits the game on vista it crashes. I develop on XP and never see this issue so I apologize to all of you on vista who are going to try the game out as I am sure it will be annoying.
First, toyed with the flying vehicle class and figured that if we really wanted to make a serious flight game we would need our own solution. The class that we are using is based off of shapeBase and has no link to the vehicle class at all. We arent using rigid for the physics as it just wasnt doing what we wanted it to do.
Another large task was our whole database system. Alot of the game revolves around information stored on a database. In a nutshell, the game sends a query to a master server that manages communication from the game to the database server. So we have a very secure but very simple solution for grabbing and sending info to/from any database solution. Currently we are using PGSQL but plan to move to MySQL before release.
I cant think of much more to write here as its 2:32 in the morning so if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here, or if you have a more technical question, you can email me at adamb@ignition-games.com. Here are the required images that im sure you would like to see:
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you on what you think of the game.
About the author
Adam is the owner of Ignition Games, an indie game and software development company.
#2
11/13/2009 (8:54 am)
Hey looks good, congrats! 
#3
First of all, I didn't read the instructions. I was hoping to be able to log in without a username and a password, but that seemed to freeze the login menu.
After that I created an account with you, but had to go back to your site because I didn't have a profile yet. It would have been cool if this would have been done through the game gui.
Finally, I was able to create a server and log in. I've played on a relatively strong iMac, but the game wouldn't move for a while. When it did, the plane had already crashed. After a few seconds, it looked like everything was fine though, and I was able to fly around.
The controls were a bit hard to get used to. I was expecting the control stick representation in the lower right corner to return to a middle position. It was hard for me to control the plane this way, and I did crash a few times, although I used to be pretty decent with flight sims.
Other than this, the game looks and feels awesome. I enjoyed flying around. I even made a weak attempt to land at an airport, but failed miserably. :)
All in all, a great beta, I'm looking forward to trying it in multiplayer sometime!
11/13/2009 (9:04 am)
The game looks great, Adam. I've given the demo a try.First of all, I didn't read the instructions. I was hoping to be able to log in without a username and a password, but that seemed to freeze the login menu.
After that I created an account with you, but had to go back to your site because I didn't have a profile yet. It would have been cool if this would have been done through the game gui.
Finally, I was able to create a server and log in. I've played on a relatively strong iMac, but the game wouldn't move for a while. When it did, the plane had already crashed. After a few seconds, it looked like everything was fine though, and I was able to fly around.
The controls were a bit hard to get used to. I was expecting the control stick representation in the lower right corner to return to a middle position. It was hard for me to control the plane this way, and I did crash a few times, although I used to be pretty decent with flight sims.
Other than this, the game looks and feels awesome. I enjoyed flying around. I even made a weak attempt to land at an airport, but failed miserably. :)
All in all, a great beta, I'm looking forward to trying it in multiplayer sometime!
#4
Konrad, I was thinking of adding in the profile creator through GUI but never got a chance to do that. As for the controls, they do take a while to get use to. As a developer that only uses the mouse joystick, it took me a while to get use to, but I now can't stand not having it!
11/13/2009 (11:33 am)
Thanks for all of your comments guys!Konrad, I was thinking of adding in the profile creator through GUI but never got a chance to do that. As for the controls, they do take a while to get use to. As a developer that only uses the mouse joystick, it took me a while to get use to, but I now can't stand not having it!
#5
Thanks for the comments everyone.
11/13/2009 (1:48 pm)
Ok, if anyone wants to test a multiplayer game, I have setup a dedicated server on our NYC box that will be running throughout the beta. You can find the game under the join game list and the server name will come up as "Mach Beta Server- Race".Thanks for the comments everyone.
#6
So here's a few notes from our session earlier. Most of these we already discussed in-game but I'll list them here so you can reference them later.
The first thing I noticed is that there needs to be some text for the player when they crash. It was unclear how long death lasted or if any action was needed. I did figure out I needed to press the fire button eventually.
The joystick sensitivity you already know about, don't forget about that resetInput() on enable/disable joystick. I'm using a really old MS Sidewinder.
Moving the respawns out of the loops. For seasoned players I think respawning there won't be a problem, but it definitely was for new players unfamiliar with the controls.
An odd bug I came across shortly before the server wigged out on us was the loadout GUI didn't pop. The race started just before I clicked Done and it was stuck onscreen until I crashed. This was while I was still using a joystick so that may or may not be related to it.
Something that may be worth experimenting with would be to put the mouse position GUI in the center of the screen, maybe find a way to incorporate into the targeting HUD. That may help the controls be a bit more intuitive for new players.
I think that covers my observations. Like I said, once I started to get the hang of it the game was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to the next release.
11/13/2009 (4:56 pm)
For a beta I'd say it was pretty solid. The controls were a little tough to pick up at first but once I started getting the hang of the controls it started getting fun.So here's a few notes from our session earlier. Most of these we already discussed in-game but I'll list them here so you can reference them later.
The first thing I noticed is that there needs to be some text for the player when they crash. It was unclear how long death lasted or if any action was needed. I did figure out I needed to press the fire button eventually.
The joystick sensitivity you already know about, don't forget about that resetInput() on enable/disable joystick. I'm using a really old MS Sidewinder.
Moving the respawns out of the loops. For seasoned players I think respawning there won't be a problem, but it definitely was for new players unfamiliar with the controls.
An odd bug I came across shortly before the server wigged out on us was the loadout GUI didn't pop. The race started just before I clicked Done and it was stuck onscreen until I crashed. This was while I was still using a joystick so that may or may not be related to it.
Something that may be worth experimenting with would be to put the mouse position GUI in the center of the screen, maybe find a way to incorporate into the targeting HUD. That may help the controls be a bit more intuitive for new players.
I think that covers my observations. Like I said, once I started to get the hang of it the game was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to the next release.
Torque Owner deepscratch
DeepScratchStudios
well done, looks like lots of fun