iPhone Rocket App [Was: Starting a new iPhone game, doc...]

Anyone mind if I document the development of my new game in this thread? I've learned much after shipping my first game this past August and, after a short break, have planned a different tack this time around, with the main changes being:

1) A shorter development cycle
2) A game that requires less performance tuning and gameplay balancing than my last game.
3) A game that looks like it's FULL OF AWESOME -- maybe an 'instant buy' if seen in the App Store. Rockets seemed like a safe choice.

I'll post more on the gameplay later, but for now, these are the first screenshots. The rocket model is stock model and just a placeholder. The main focus so far has been getting realistic particle effects for the rocket exhaust, which I think I've got. The recent Ares launch has provide a lot of inspiration and a ton of reference imagery.

November 5th:


November 6th:

 

Should probably go in the announcements or showcase forums.

That particle effect is pretty damn nice though

 

I have completed a first test of the launch animation. The rocket goes from launch to orbit in around a minute.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7b_OEfoRgE



(I had to write a program to make the above contact sheet from quicktime movies.)

 

Wow! That particle effect just blows my mind!

I'd love to see it in Full-Screen!

 

Awesome work on the particles. I love it.

 

Second test animation showing launch to orbit. (Time-compressed to 1 minute). The focus of this round of changes was to add more light atmosphere effects.

The sequence begins with bright daylight and then proceeds through haze, and then finally ends in a zero atmosphere environment. I wrote a shader with special blend modes to achieve these effects.

Everything runs smoothly on my 3GS device; have not tested other devices yet. Animation is captured from the Unity iPhone IDE:

http://vimeo.com/7511513
[UPDATE: Much higher quality Vimeo version]

The next bit of work is for multi-stage rocket sequences: Lower rocket stages burnout, drop off and then upper stages start their burn. Trying to squeeze in as much work as I can before the weekend is up...

 

Looks amazing, especially since it's running on the iPhone.

I'd love to see a high detailed version for PC. Kind of an interactive take-off viewer for real launches.

 

Third test animation, from launch to "launch anomaly". (The launch vehicle is unmanned.)

Framerate is super-smooth on the iPhone 3GS, but on the 1G it's about 1 frame every 4 seconds. :twisted: I don't think I'm going to spend too much time trying to support this device, though.

The explosion animation is still a work-in-progress. The launch pad environment is just a photo that's been matched to the 3d scene.

http://www.vimeo.com/7769719

 

This is the new (probably final) rocket model:



This is an editor screenshot of the particles, post-explosion (atmospheric). It's two particle system's working together: a system of one-shot, falling particles, that have a prefab smoke generator system attached to each particle.

 

Hey thats very amazing quality.

I need this kind of effect for a missile animation in a "birdview" perspective, not so advanced and perfect.

Could give a hint on the Settings of the Particle Engine?
I tried alot of settings but none gave me a good result.

My main problem ist the speed and the spread ...

 

Thanks. It's really a matter of spending mind-numbing hours tweaking the parameters, and also watching lots of YouTube videos of rockets.

Parameter's effect one another in different ways: Param A could be 1.0 and Param B could be 0.0 and it looks great. Flip some values around: Param A = 0.0 and Param B = 1.0 and it looks great in a different way. Continue to flip values around: Param A = 0.0 and Param B = .9 -- a small change, and it looks terrible.

It's really a matter of eye-balling it.

John