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SWAP is a first person puzzle game, where the player must use a mechanic called SWAPPING to progress threw each level. SWAPPING allows the player to select a object or colored tile then select another object or colored tile, and then the two objects or tiles *will SWAP places. However not all objects are SWAPABLE, and each object has a purpose or a thing it can do. You must construct a way to pass each level by using the unique properties of each object combined with the ability to SWAP them throughout each level.
BACKGROUND OF THE GAME
The year was 2200 and are once peaceful world was crumbling apart, and human existence was quickly dying out. There was no direction to turn, and no foreseeable hope to the madness. 200+ thousand years of human existence, gone to waste. However there was one tiny little fraction of hope, something to give us another chance at doing things right.
A research project that showed some promising possibility was used. A random boy was taken and placed inside of a manufactured duplicate world or ‘dimension’. They called this new dimension, ‘New Hope’. Then time in ‘New Hope’ was turned back to the year 2040, just before the madness began. They hoped that the boy would rewrite history and save humanity in this new dimension. *And that some day it would open and merge back with the original dimension and, humanity could keep its place in the universe. They released the new dimension deep into space far from destructive planet of earth. And in time it would return to open and fill the spot where earth once was.
‘New Hope’ was constructed within advanced computer technology, essentially on a data cube the size of a corn flake. This meant that all aspects of the world within this dimension could be programmed and altered, to some extent. So some things were added like rapid aging of the chosen boy, changing the year back to 2040. And most important of all… a technology that gave the boy the ability to manipulate or to SWAP random objects. In theory the boy could achieve anything. He could solve any problem, with just the swapping of *inanimate objects. However its not as easy as it sounds. First the boy once fully grown, had to train and become familiar with the fundamental mechanics of SWAPPING, first with basic objects. Inside a isolated place deep within ‘New Hope’. That’s where the first installment of the SWAP saga takes place.
It looks pretty good for me. I notice that your framerate’s quite low - what’s the face count of your level (or specifically, the bounds of your level - the walls and floor)?
well just about everything is made of a plane witch has 9 faces each and then all the ones that are non swapable are joined together but still makes a high poly wall i guess so all together i guess atleast a thousand faces will it run faster when its compiled?
also the shadow spotlight drops the framerate pretty good but without it its around 35
There shouldn’t be too much of a difference if its run from the blenderplayer.
It does look nice, I like the style. However, even 35 is still a bit low. Those cracks in between tiles, you have done those as geometry? They would probably be better off as a normal mapped surface.
its hard to say, i think that your scene is very simple and your framerate is low but maybe that is because of your hardware, if that is the problem then maybe you could bake the shadows and anbient occlusions for it, that way it would increase the speed of the game and even the graphics.
I never understood why we need the 60 fps most new games runs on my computer at 25 to 30 and I play them very well, dont bother about the framerate, your computer is your computer and you cant make games like 10 years ago, so keep up iprove graphics as you like even if the framerate drops even more, you only need to understand what are you doing and what computer the playr ll need to play the game.
ok well my computer is a lenovo thinkpad SL510 its an 2009 model with a intel centrino 2. somthing ghz dual core 2 gigs of ram
and a onboard intell graphics.
Mokazon i would really like to use skype but well i know this sounds retarted but im only 18 and my parents wouldnt let me talk to people i dont know, no affence even thow i know your not a stalker or a kidnapper witch your not right… haha so ya they wont let me they dont even no im on this forum witch they wouldnt like but i know what im doing and there just a little well over pretecive you could say so ya
also leonn would having that much normal map slow the game aswell cause i have to have all the swapable objects as single objects but i can join all the non swapable ones together or just switch them out for a plane with the normal map but so far having tried that it doesnt look the same.
and thanks ill continue to improve it and if you guys have any ideas of where i could improve let me know
Sidenote: You tend to say the Planes have 9 Faces. I only can guess that your Planes are bevelled at the Sides as well the Corners, so that you get the Number 9. But be aware that the Game Engine always, like any Polygon Game Engine, thinks in Triangles. So all the Quads on your Planes are no single Faces, they are two at a Time. So, your Planes would not have 9 Faces but 14, actually. Except for when you were aware of that Rule, and counted the Tris of a Plane that is only bevelled at the Sides, but would give 10 Faces, so I doubt that.
I also think you should rather use Normalmaps. Then you also can do a whole Wall of static (not swappable) Planes with just one Quad by scalin’ the UV over the Image Borders – a neat »Trick«.
Concernin the Style, I think you should decide yourself. The Style should not be a Product of what the Engine gives you, but what you force the Engine to give. If you want it to look toony, then well, though I don’t think it was the initial Idea – however, if you like a toony Style more eitherway, then well.
That’s probably your problem right there. If it’s not a dedicated graphics card like NVIDIA or ATI, it’s probably going to have trouble on even simple scenes. By the way, what exactly is the face count for your scene? It shows up at the top of the Blender Window.
wow ok well i got it lookin somewhat more of what i had before but with usin noraml maps and so far i can make a pretty decent sized room and still et 60 fps and as for the swapable tiles, i guess ill just do what i did for the others but just one sinces its just like 1 tile.
Hi mrn, first, congratulations on your work so far - the attached picture does look great! Second, can you please link me too the old thread (just to have a read). Third, I’m honored you wanted me to make a game with you now!
That is good News. (That you get such an Increase on your Framerate I mean.)
Concernin’ the »its nothin like the other way«, be aware that:
The Normalmap’s Lighting must always be so that the bright turquoise Color is at the Top and the Magenta is at the Bottom.
That you have »Normalmap« checked in the Image Sampling Option as well.
Right now you have a Problem that I had to struggle with for quite a long Time: The Normalmap seems to be inversed on that Screenshot, so you might check whether both 1) and 2) are set correctly.
About »sleek glossly look« I suggest you also play around with any Spec Option you can find (Material (for example Ramps), Texture (Influence), Nodes). You can achieve some interestin’ »Glosses« by just tryin’. (And also if you use a cloudy Normalmap or even a Normalmap over a Reflection Map.)
(One more Performance Tip, but the Influence might be not that much: I have once read that on absolutely every Texture that does not support an Alpha Channel you should uncheck the Alpha-Checkbox at Texture’s Image Sampling. As said, the Influence will not be that strong, but it is good to know.)
(Also, you say you get 60 fps. For Testing Purposes (rather than for actual Gameplay) you might as well uncheck the »Use Framerate« Option at the Render Panel’s Performance Options, so you can see how much you actually can get. I know I have once displayed a rather decent Model with some simple Logic and Lights and achieved about 300 to 500 fps. Not that this would happen very often.^^)
ok ill try that i think i did actually turn off the use alpha thing but ill check again and also ill post a 2 screenshots of a same level one with glossy look and one with the tooney look to compare them.
So here is a pretty much complete level and its all with normal mapping
there is actually no shadows becasue that drops the framerate to 30 but im thinking about talking about it in the story how the material the place was built out of is shadowless or something like that for some scientific purposes. idk sound weird that way people wont wonder why there isnt shadows that or i could bake them but there wouldnt be any shadows for the objects that you can swap around is the only problem.
anyways let me know what you guys think
But if the Material is shadowless, how can one Half of the Block be darker than the Other? o_o
(Also keep in Mind you can/should keep the Resolution of Spotlightshadows as low as possible.)
Looks proper – what do you think what fps would you have had with your Levelstructure before on that Scene?
EDIT: And if that Chamber is a whole functionin’ Level already, then how about sharin’ it so the Insight might allow us to give you more Tips on any Kind of Performance Issue? Practically a WIP-Demo to get some technical Feedback.
…erg your right i didnt think about that duh haha
the fps would be around 25-30 depending on where you looked but now with just using normal maps its 60 and may be even higher like you said before if i turned the limit frame rate off.
ya i think ill do that i just have to
add a fan in that square hole
finish the logic for the wind generator and the lazer emitter and reciever
and it think thats it oh and do you happen to know how to turn lights on and off?
Ingame? Look up the Python API, there is a whole Game_Object Part just for Lights. (look for: KX_LightObject)
(So via Python you can set a Light’s obj.energy=0, for Example – but I don’t know whether this is what you have in Mind.)
EDIT: If you would want Lights to be turned on and off in Order to keep the Impact on the Performance low, then you might rather use a few Lights in a Level and change their Coordinates et cetera due to where in the Level Player is – that would be »economic«.
