The Burninating
by Geom · 10/04/2010 (10:23 pm) · 10 comments
Every RTS needs some visual effect to show when buildings are damaged. For Orcs vs. Martians, I'm sticking with the old tried-and-true standard: fire.
There's actually a lot of things going on with this fire as I've got it. As building damage increases:
That's all to get the effect that a barely-damanged building will have just a small flickering flame, but an almost-destroyed building will be engulfed by a roaring fire.
And: the smoke is dynamically re-colored to match the player's color. So when you attack Blue's buildings, you see columns of bluish smoke. When you attack Red, you see columns of reddish smoke.
Video:
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My favorite effect is definitely the player-colored smoke. After I've been battling a wall of enemy fortifications for a while, when I finally break through, it's satisfying to see those enemy towers go up in blue-colored (or whatever enemy-colored) smoke.
When a fire is at its biggest, there's probably about 70 particles simultaneously on-screen, per fire. Which is probably more than necessary--I'm going to see if I can cut that figure down to improve performance.
Fire effect is done with only two particle images. Both are from the Kaboom! content pack: fire_A.png, and smoke_A.png.
Now I just need to play some fire sound effects.
There's actually a lot of things going on with this fire as I've got it. As building damage increases:
- the fire's particle size scales up
- the fire's particle lifetime scales up
- the particle emitter's position interpolates between two points
- a dynamic light source bounces between two more points
- the dynamic light's brightness increases
That's all to get the effect that a barely-damanged building will have just a small flickering flame, but an almost-destroyed building will be engulfed by a roaring fire.
And: the smoke is dynamically re-colored to match the player's color. So when you attack Blue's buildings, you see columns of bluish smoke. When you attack Red, you see columns of reddish smoke.
Video:
-
My favorite effect is definitely the player-colored smoke. After I've been battling a wall of enemy fortifications for a while, when I finally break through, it's satisfying to see those enemy towers go up in blue-colored (or whatever enemy-colored) smoke.
When a fire is at its biggest, there's probably about 70 particles simultaneously on-screen, per fire. Which is probably more than necessary--I'm going to see if I can cut that figure down to improve performance.
Fire effect is done with only two particle images. Both are from the Kaboom! content pack: fire_A.png, and smoke_A.png.
Now I just need to play some fire sound effects.
About the author
My email address is my GG handle, at redbrickgames.com.
#2
10/04/2010 (10:55 pm)
Nice -- I like what you've done with the fire! And the player colored smoke is a nice touch too :) 
#3
Also I'd have to note that this game seems to have been strongly influenced by Warcraft II yes?
3rdly glad to see more of the game in action, to be honest marshens vs orcs didn't interest me at first, but the style seems to be working.
I like your crashed ship as a base neat idea for a structure.
My only question at this point is will there be different types of units being as though I only remember seeing one version of the marshens and one version of the orcs (kork) at this point. And being marshens and orcs I'd say you have a freedom to create unqiue unit varients such as say an 8 legged frog that a marsh rides as a tank unit or something =p.
10/04/2010 (11:49 pm)
I'd have to echo the comments on the player colored smoke being a cool touch.Also I'd have to note that this game seems to have been strongly influenced by Warcraft II yes?
3rdly glad to see more of the game in action, to be honest marshens vs orcs didn't interest me at first, but the style seems to be working.
I like your crashed ship as a base neat idea for a structure.
My only question at this point is will there be different types of units being as though I only remember seeing one version of the marshens and one version of the orcs (kork) at this point. And being marshens and orcs I'd say you have a freedom to create unqiue unit varients such as say an 8 legged frog that a marsh rides as a tank unit or something =p.
#4
10/04/2010 (11:52 pm)
I used to think any old smoke particle was the same as the rest--but that smoke in the Kaboom pack looks really good. It's got those whiter highlights, which show up with the team color.
#5
Yes, OvM has very few unit types. I'm taking a marketing risk by doing that (and honestly, I'm not 100% sure it's the best decision). But each race has only 3 kinds of units: (1) a worker, (2) a melee unit, and (3) a ranged unit.
So with only 2 fighting units, there's not much tactics in the game. Instead, the game is really more about higher-level strategy. Your tactics options are mainly limited to whether you attack with melee units, ranged units, or towers.
I did that mainly because I find tactic-level fighting to be too much like micro-management. I like the higher-level strategy much better. Of course everybody's different. Get 5 RTS players in a room, and there'll be 6 different opinions :)
I'm gambling that there's a (maybe untapped) market out there of semi-casual gamers, who might be interested in an RTS game, except that they are turned off by RTS games' complexity. They don't like memorizing unit capabilities, memorizing tech trees, etc., and all that detail-level tedium. So Orcs vs. Martians is basically trying to deliver a polished, traditional, "hardcore" RTS experience, but minus the complexity and memorization most RTSs require.
I know some other RTSs have tried to go the "simpler" route. Tribal Trouble comes to mind. But Tribal Trouble (and no disrespect intended to the TT team) achieves "simple" by sacrificing most of the traditional RTS experience: no fog of war, no real upgrades, etc. I'm trying to achieve "simpler", while still delivering a full-on, robust, pulse-pounding RTS experience. (Well, except for tactics I guess.)
10/05/2010 (12:13 am)
Some influence from Warcraft II. But mostly, I'd say OvM has been influenced by StarCraft 1, Earth 2150 (not very well known), and Empire Earth 2. In approximately that order.Yes, OvM has very few unit types. I'm taking a marketing risk by doing that (and honestly, I'm not 100% sure it's the best decision). But each race has only 3 kinds of units: (1) a worker, (2) a melee unit, and (3) a ranged unit.
So with only 2 fighting units, there's not much tactics in the game. Instead, the game is really more about higher-level strategy. Your tactics options are mainly limited to whether you attack with melee units, ranged units, or towers.
I did that mainly because I find tactic-level fighting to be too much like micro-management. I like the higher-level strategy much better. Of course everybody's different. Get 5 RTS players in a room, and there'll be 6 different opinions :)
I'm gambling that there's a (maybe untapped) market out there of semi-casual gamers, who might be interested in an RTS game, except that they are turned off by RTS games' complexity. They don't like memorizing unit capabilities, memorizing tech trees, etc., and all that detail-level tedium. So Orcs vs. Martians is basically trying to deliver a polished, traditional, "hardcore" RTS experience, but minus the complexity and memorization most RTSs require.
I know some other RTSs have tried to go the "simpler" route. Tribal Trouble comes to mind. But Tribal Trouble (and no disrespect intended to the TT team) achieves "simple" by sacrificing most of the traditional RTS experience: no fog of war, no real upgrades, etc. I'm trying to achieve "simpler", while still delivering a full-on, robust, pulse-pounding RTS experience. (Well, except for tactics I guess.)
#7
Seems as though you've got a decent variety of buidlings though huh?
10/06/2010 (2:00 am)
Hmm 3 units, hmm. I personally enjoyed being able to build up my bases so I could get upgraded units suchs as rangers and the like. Would the 3 unit types have different attacks or just your basic gather/repair, attack sort of thing.Seems as though you've got a decent variety of buidlings though huh?
#8
Can you briefly talk about your fog of war implementation? Is it an old school "on/off" shroud effect (totally black if not explored, totally visible if explored) or some type of 3-stage system (black if not explored, grayed out if explored but no units nearby, visible if units nearby)?
Also, what about the technical side of it. The fog of war effect seems to hug the terrain which is interesting. Are you using some kind of dynamic texture applied to the terrain? Adjusting the terrain vert color? Just a really neat effect. :]
10/06/2010 (4:06 am)
Geom,Can you briefly talk about your fog of war implementation? Is it an old school "on/off" shroud effect (totally black if not explored, totally visible if explored) or some type of 3-stage system (black if not explored, grayed out if explored but no units nearby, visible if units nearby)?
Also, what about the technical side of it. The fog of war effect seems to hug the terrain which is interesting. Are you using some kind of dynamic texture applied to the terrain? Adjusting the terrain vert color? Just a really neat effect. :]
#9
That's the way I render fog of war now; I actually used to do it using the dynamic texturing approach that you mentioned (I had one of my 8 terrain textures be black). That worked ok, but it was a bit of a performance hit.
10/07/2010 (12:04 am)
Adjusting the terrain vertex color, via OpenGL glColor() calls. I modified terrRender.cc. Whenever terrRender.cc specifies a terrain vertex, it first calls into my game code to ask for the vertex color. My game code looks at the fog-of-war map, and then returns white (visible), black (never seen), or grey (not currently visible but seen earlier). terrRender.cc then glColor()s the terrain vertex with that color.That's the way I render fog of war now; I actually used to do it using the dynamic texturing approach that you mentioned (I had one of my 8 terrain textures be black). That worked ok, but it was a bit of a performance hit.
#10
I implemented the dynamic texture method in my own game and ran into some slight performance issues as well (which makes sense, I suppose). My next attempt was going to involve glColor'ing the terrain verts so I'm glad to hear it's working for you. :)
Any word on when the next test will be? I missed out on the last one and now I've got the Orcs vs. Martians itch.
10/07/2010 (3:21 am)
Ah, definitely a clever approach. I implemented the dynamic texture method in my own game and ran into some slight performance issues as well (which makes sense, I suppose). My next attempt was going to involve glColor'ing the terrain verts so I'm glad to hear it's working for you. :)
Any word on when the next test will be? I missed out on the last one and now I've got the Orcs vs. Martians itch.
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
Less particles always means more performance, especially if you have a fair few on the go at the same time, you can probably thin the larger fires out a little and use larger particles to compensate.