Subz_Beta_2

Hey guys, I'd be keen on some bugreporting and general feedback on this. Particuarly Windows and obscure browser (firefox etc) behaviour. Theres a readme with a couple of issues described. If you could tell me if you get those that would be great. When in subcam mode, you can press"k" for framerate etc.

Thanks for having a look.

http://aaronc.kol.co.nz/Subz_Beta2/home.html

AaronCross

 

I can't unzip the file ... error 1 unable to unarchive operation not permitted.

 

I played this back when you emailed it to me and forgot to respond to you! Sorry! I'll tell you what I thought now:

GRAPHICS - Models are great, but terrain is a little too blue and featureless. Try adding some seaweed or landmarks so I don't get totally disoriented (which I did)

CONTROLS - Hard. I don't know if that's what you are going for, but the controls seem to be against you at first, and take a lot of getting used to.

So, good job overall. It is much better than your last beta!

 

Hey guys

Davey-that must have got corrupt through the pipe-weird. Im doing the dialup download thing to check. thanks.

Moldorma-I hear you re. the featureless terrain. The idea was that you have to use the topdown subcam to orient yourself. Whoever figures this out first and uses it gets the highest score. But if I have to explain that, I guess Im missing the point.

Re: the controls, If you could have controls of your choice, what would they be? I'm just used to moving the mouse and pressing w+e together...Again if needs to be explained, I'm obviously missing the point.

Thanks for the fresh eyes on this. I hope to hear from as many people as poss. Cheers.
AC

 

So uh, UT guys, does the 2.0 web player not play 1.x content?

 

In order to make for a better future (and to correct our lack of foresight back when we first released the Unity Web Player), we had to break backwards compatibility this once. We changed the extension for web data files, changed the MIME-type, and the two plugins live side by side and don't influence each other.

As of Unity 2.0, we use a much better compression algorithm for Unity Web Player data files, and the data files can be streamed. We hadn't foreseen this, and there wasn't any clean way to shoehorn this into Unity 2.0.

For Unity 2.0 we put a lot of thought into the future of the plugin, so in the future this should never have to happen again.

d.

 

Maybe you should announce such things better in the future so that they are more obvious and people don't have to stumble about such issues on their own...

 

Can somebody clear this up for me?

Are people with the Unity 2.0 webplayer finding they have to go back to the unity site and download the 1.6.2 webplayer?

I just figured it would work...?. I thought that once I get through the "educating players of the controls" issue, I'd be ready to do something with this..

Theres also the issue of it not working in firefox on windows. I can live with that for now but the issue raised in the previous posts hasnt really sunk in yet and Im a bit worried-What are the implications?

Thanks for the troubleshooting. Much appreciated

AaronC

 

2.0 Web player

Played for a while, clicked on window, bubbles showed text moved, after a while safari crashed

Ray

 

Yep. the link to the game is above that window underlined_here_. I thought the window you refer to would be a nice gimmick, and would load real fast but people think thats the actual game lol


ahhh the joys of it all

Thanks Ray. You have confirmed it works in th 2,0 webplayer, but then again maybe you never uninstalled the 1.6.2 webplayer..? and its using that?

the bit about safari crashing is a worry. Theres no errors in the code...

AaronC

 

I have a fresh install of Leopard with only 2.0 player installed. I get a download link directing to the 1.x player. But now that this is cleared up and I know that installing the 1.x player won't break anything, I'll go ahead and do it.

David, thanks for the info on the player versions.

 

@Targos
I've tried the one which you sent by mail but couldn't start it too.

 

Cheers T I'll have another squiz at it
AC

 

Davey and Taumel, not sure what the story is, the first time I downloaded it I get the decompression failed error, second time it worked fine...Did you have the decompression errors?

Few bumps in the road getting this happening it seems..

Quite possibly a crappy server? Its $9.95 a month dialup with free webspace. Tends to dump my internet connection a lot more than other isp's. Better than nothing though.

I've decided to ditch the "loading" and "loaded" screens for guis that display the control settings. The game works once you get the hang of it, believe it or not...

Anyways, I'm not to sure where to go from here. If anyone wants to see if it works that hasnt tried yet, please do, I'd value the feedback.

Cheers
AC

 

I'll try downloading again.

 

Hey guys,

I've moved this into its alpha testing phase now, and would welcome any feedback. Ive added controls and objectives guis, replaced the code that prevented it from working in internet explorer, and have got the last bugs out...

I havent changed the terrain, as I feel the simplicity is quite important, and I havent changed the controls, as they always worked well, its just people didnt take the time to press the "i" button to see what they were... :roll:

I'd be especially interested to hear from people who havent tried it yet, to see if they can follow the controls, and I'd be interested also to hear if anyone has better suggestions for controls. Hopefully I've made things a bit easier to follow this time..

Cheers
AaronC

http://aaronc.kol.co.nz/Subz_Beta2/home.html

(theres a link on that page to the download)

 

in general the controls are fine IMO, a couple of notes on it though:

- i'd add in a sensitivity slider for the mouse turning, on my mac turning 90° was alot of drag-lift-dragging.

- not sure if its the sub movement or a camera follow issue but sometimes pushing forward or back would make it seem like the sub is going up or down instead.

regarding the terrain, i don't think the geometry needs to change as much as it needing a texture with some variation to it (even if its subtle) - the monotone color it is now gives no sense of shape, distance or movement - very disorientating if you're low close.

i'll play it more later tonight.

; )

 

Thanks Dr J

>"- i'd add in a sensitivity slider for the mouse turning"
(Aaron lies in huddled up foetal position twitching and frothing at mouth while he contemplates how to implement this...)

(1.6.2)

>" not sure if its the sub movement or a camera follow issue but sometimes pushing forward or back would make it seem like the sub is going up or down instead. "

Hmm, I'll try and check this out. Remember my first beta, when you noted the subs "bum" filling up the screen? If I bump up the damping too much I get a side effect simmilar to window shake, and it looks terrible..I hear you but Modding the camera might not make it into the final build.

"regarding the terrain, i don't think the geometry needs to change as much as it needing a texture with some variation to it (even if its subtle) - the monotone color it is now gives no sense of shape, distance or movement - very disorientating if you're low close. "

I think I can remedy that. I agree with you there.
If you do play it later, can you see about wiping out subs and bases, and tell me if the high score screen works ok?

Thanks heaps
AaronC

 

Yeah, I'd agree with some way to increase sensitivity; turning was too slow here. Some other comments:

• The "objectives" screen popped up first thing just for a split second. Is it supposed to? (You do see it properly later.)
• No blob shadow for your sub? I think that would largely fix the terrain thing by itself, without having to change the terrain. Although that's still not a bad idea.
• I missed some sort of missile launching sound effect.
• Damage indicators? I was hitting the base an awful lot but it never blew up. Ditto for my sub...I abused it quite thoroughly but didn't even get dented. I was able to blow up the smaller subs though.
• The sub pilot looks kinda scary psycho.

--Eric

 

actually any form of gui for it would be fine (click arrows etc.) - guess i'm just in that 2.0 mindset now ; ) in my game tests i've seen huge differences in mouse speeds from one computer to the next.

yeah i have that issue as well - i've been trying to get a decent smooth follow script going that works with high velocities quick changes in height or rotation with no real success so far. seems to be a very tricky thing to do (or i just don't get it ; )

i've taken out both bases quite a few subs but i can't get the last three with my mouse turning being slow. i still think the subs move quite fast too so when there's only a few of them the difficulty goes up significantly. its definitely easier to play now though (i really like that 2nd cam effect)

; )

 

Thanks guys.

You have to hit the door of the base to blow it up...

If your running away from subs using the "subcam" you can middle mouse and use the rear camera..

I'll have a go at a gui button setup for multiple mouse sensitivities...Im not sure how to "fit it in" though...

Great feedback, thanks heaps!
AC

 

I've got this far, a generic script for a guitexture that we click to set rotation sensitivity, with piblic varible for said speed But Im getting a weird error:

Code (csharp):

1.     var object : GameObject;
2.     var RelevantTurnSpeed : int=1;
3.  
4.  
5. private var script : SubSpeed = GetComponent (SubSpeed);
6.  
7.  
8.  
9.  
10. function Awake ()
11. {
12.    
13.    script = object.GetComponent (SubSpeed);
14.  
15. }
16.  
17.  
18.  
19.  
20. function OnMouseDown(){
21.    
22.     script.TheTurningSpeed=RelevantTurnSpeed;
23.  
24. }

And this is (part of) "SubSpeed" script on the "object"

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. var turnpower=100;
4.  
5. private var TheTurningSpeed=100;
6.  
7.  
8.  
9. function FixedUpdate () {
10.        
11.        rigidbody.AddRelativeTorque (Vector3.up*turnpower * TheTurningSpeed* Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X"));
12.        
13. }

Am I going the right way about setting "TheTurningSpeed" in the bottom script by triggering OnMouseDown in the top one?

Thanks
AaronC

 

Any hints to what this error means?

error BCE0120: 'SubSpeed.TheTurningSpeed' is unaccessible due to its protection level. (Filename: Assets/_Subz_/GuiSetMouse.js Line: 23)

Protection level?

Thanks
AC

 

You're trying to access a private variable from another script...can't do that.

--Eric

 

Ahhh cool, thanks.
Man I must be close to getting this..Coding makes me 98% less productive as an artist..Argh..

Cheers 4 that
AC

 

Targos!

Thanks for the awesome demo, I have a couple of things to mention-

macbook (integrated gma chipset) - graphics are too slow, this is a common issue with Unity, just thought you should know that macbook graphics arent enough for your game!

terrain- I think someone already mentioned the seaweed thing- I wouldn't approach the solution that way, as thats a lot of objects to add, but I agree that some type of visual enticement would be nice for the seafloor (even if it was just some bizarre shader fx). I think that perhaps making the terrain really crazy in certain parts would be benefitial- undersea tunnels here or there, at least landmarks.

input- ahh yes this is always an issue, isnt it? I would go for more of a decent based input scheme. You do a great job of labeling the controls, but perhaps the AWSD letters should take a strafe left/right plus forward and backward positioning. I think the key is to ask, whats fun about this enviornment? Since we're not controlling a giant sub, "zippier" movement might be nice, outmanuevering torpedoes might be more fun if the real thrill of the chase was there!

finally

Subz Logo!

great game, but your initial screen should be as slick as the rest of your project. Something about the texture on the Subz! logo reminds me of bad powerpoint. I'm looking at again now, and i think it that the front of the logo is a giant texture, while the sides of the letters are very dark. I would light it in a way that makes the texture more thematic with your game, especially since that fade in/out part is totally slick. Perhaps a more indirectly lit logo with a texture that doesnt look so "flat".


Keep up the good work!

 

ok now i played around with the controls some more

perhaps allowing the up and down with the mouse? why ask someone to run to the shift and control buttons...?

 

Hey guys

Well thanks to Neil Carter I got the settings for the mouse sensitivity working-many thanks Neil..

The blob shadow is working on the player sub again, and Ive let a little more detail in on the terrain.

aschwem said"
macbook (integrated gma chipset) - graphics are too slow, this is a common issue with Unity, just thought you should know that macbook graphics arent enough for your game! "

Cheers. I made a build with no pixel lights and minimal textures not long ago, and a guy with a g4 ibook was getting 12 fps out of it. Not flash but playable, you really couldnt expect much out of a 32mb older card. I'll have a shot at writing some code that reads the card and turns off pixel lights accordingly. Should be possible. Could you possibly go to subcam mode and press "k" to identify exactly what the graphics card is? that would help.

Aras, are you there? do you have a list of video cards that I could use in code, so I can set the pixel lights accordingly? I have a feeling doing this manually will be quite efficient, but theres no doubt at least a couple of dozen videocards to consider.

@Aschewm. The Input controls do strafe, but in an impulse sense. I really didnt want the sub to feel like a first person controller. The problem with using the mouse on all kinds of axes meant that "up" was rarely up, and once you start rotating on all three axes wildly, its just maddness. So this time round, I think I'll leave this setup. I will lookut for "Descent" though and try it out.

Making this game "fun" has been a challenge.

And a couple of questions for the UT guys:

Ive been working on a cd case, as I hope to sell a few hard copies, and I wanted to check if it is okay to put a unity logo on the back? Heres a picture of the back of the cd jewelcase.

Also, how would you guys feel about me bundling the 1.x webplayer installer on the disc? I just thought it would be easier for the end users (on windows) to play the game..? Im interested to hear your thoughts..


Getting there...
Cheers
AaronC

 

hey targos just an FYI there is some graphics card code in the island demo you could check out for now, its in the PerformaceTweak.js ; )