Roaming Ralph Revamped

[aurilliance]

I've been working on "Roaming Ralph Revamped" - a remake of RR.



It's *almost* finished, I would appreciate it if people could test the closed alpha for me though. -It's not open source yet, mainly because the code is still ugly as anything

For more information, see the page on my blog: [url]http://aurilliance.p3dp.com/#[[[WIP]%20Roaming%20Ralph%20Revamped]][/url]. Or if you just want to download it, click here.

To run the demo, open a panda3d python session in the same folder as the .pyc, then call

Code: Select all

import roamingralphrevamped

Please report suggestions, comments, glitches, bugs etc back to this thread.

Fixed:
* Compatibility issue with 1.5.4 (Thanks Mindblighter)

Known issues:
* Download size is too large - textures need to be compressed etc
* If you go near the docks (on one corner of the island), it is possible to walk off the island onto the ice.
* Map size means it is easy to get lost, more props / trees should be added
* Lamp post glow should be larger (use MDual?)


EDIT 1: Looks like the FTP upload didn't work. Shall try again.
EDIT 2: Looks like the FTP upload worked ok now.
EDIT 3: The upload after fixing the 1.5.4 bug didn't work (thanks neighborlee). Darn it, FireZilla.
EDIT 4: Upload fixed again

[rdb]

Looks good!
Some suggestions:
- It's kinda empty. You have to search the entire terrain for the lamp post and few trees. I couldn't even find this 'dock' you mentioned.
- The aurora is maybe a bit too colored. Make it one or two colors, it shouldn't look like a rainbow.
- There are transparency issues with the snowflakes on the aurora. Might want to consider MDual.
- The camera controls are still as bad as the original.
- An ambient occlusion map wouldn't hurt.

[aurilliance]

Thanks pro-rsoft and the others who have commented over irc. All suggestions will be considered. However I'm still hoping for a bit more feedback - 103 view and only one reply?

[neighborlee]

Thanks pro-rsoft and the others who have commented over irc. All suggestions will be considered. However I'm still hoping for a bit more feedback - 103 view and only one reply?

That is because your zipfile is invalid.

Try again and maybe you'll have more replys

cheers
nl

[clcheung]

Looks good. Some comments:

1. If you can give a version number on your download file.
2. The scene is a bit dark, can you make it adjustable ?
3. The street light is a bit dark also.
4. The snows seems falling in front of the camera not everywhere.
5. If you can make snow tracks after rr is walking over ?
6. Can the resolution of the terrain be higher ?
7. Can you make an adjustable fogging effect ?
8. It will be great if a shadow is cast.
9. Can you make a snowing effect like the one shown in Nvidia SDK 9.5 ?

[aurilliance]

@neighborlee Thanks for pointing this out. I've fixed the link (again). -I was away for holidays, so couldn't fox it for a few days...

@clcheung thanks for the comments.

1. I could add a version number in the next (probably beta) release if you want.

2. I'm not sure if having it adjustable would be great, but I'll keep it in mind. Either way, it wouldn't be difficult to do. The only reason it's so dark is because of the fog color and the ambient light settings.

3. Fixed

4. That's because the snow *is* falling in front of the camera lol. I didn't want it to fall over the whole map to try and keep the framerates high -it would be nice if the demo runs on somewhat older hardware. The fact that you mentioned this tho, probably means I should extend the range of the falling snow.

5. pro-rsoft mentioned this on irc, something along the lines of the effect used http://www.panda3d.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6002&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=77cf4f3936796b095515b6340c97f55e < there. I'm not sure if this would work... It would be a very nice touch though.

6. The resolution of the terrain megatexture could be higher, but the file size really starts to become an issue then. Atm it's at 4096x4096 (6mb just for the image, let alone the other textures, models etc). I'm actually considering using a smaller, wrapping, texture and vertex-painting as much other detail as possible. Multitexturing is another option, but then compatibility with older hardware is a limiting factor i suppose...

7. "adjustable fogging effect" - not sure what you mean, if you are referring to volumetric / fake volumetric fog with alpha planes, this is one of the effects to be tested before the beta release. I was concerned that framerates might drop if the alpha fog planes cover the whole screen. Perhaps someone can comment on this issue?

8. Indeed it would. I'll consider it.

9. The nvidia snow sdk demo is interesting, however, not high on the priority list sorry. Thanks for pointing it out though! If I get time I'll look into it.

[clcheung]

Well, compatibility is a consideration. But don't you want a nice demonstration rather than an average one but can run on very old machines ?

[aurilliance]

clcheung, yes and no. I probably should have mentioned this above. The aim of the demo is, I guess, to recreate the RR demo, only looking a bit nicer. So the primary purpose is still to show a character running around and colliding with terrain, but you're right, looking good is also a priority.

Apparently the current RR runs very well on older hardware, so I figured it would be worth trying to keep in line with that.

Hehe, i suppose after seeing your demo's, i shouldn't be surprised that you're suggesting all these nice features - you're demos are awesome!

[clcheung]

Thank you !

May be you can make some configurable flags in your program so that you can turn off/on some advanced features by user or automatically by system ?

[aurilliance]

I might do that - it's probably a better solution than having a key the user can press to 'turn off snow' etc

[jwatte]

What I like about Roaming Ralph is that it's small and concise. It shows only exactly those things you need to worry about, and does not have any extraneous things going on. That's what a good sample is all about!