Xwing Something (working title that rhymes)

Here's some screenshots of my Xwing/Rogue Squadron project. Been doing it about a couple of months now, got quite a bit of the core programming side of things done like ship movement/firing, AI, Gamecontrollers, collision damage, destrucible ship models etc.

This is my first attempt at a game, been messing about learning how to make games for the past couple of years in my own spare time and decided it's finally time to put it into practice. I've taught myself programming (somehow) so not experienced in it any stretch of the imagination but I've managed to write everything I've done so far, no copying pasting of other people's code.

Basically I've created everything with own dirty bare hands so far (apart from the Star Wars models). Graphics wise its all placeholder stuff so far so plenty of use of stock particle effects that arn't particuliary great

Just to clarify, this is more a project to put into practice what I know and also a further learning tool for myself, I won't be selling this or making any money from it it will be totally free. (obviously I get sued by old Mickey Mouse if I do try to make any money out of it)

still, have a gander at some rather bland screenshots of some early builds running in the editor and let me know what you think:

 

Dovonobob, It looks like it will certainly look great when it's completed. I've always loved the Star Wars series, and I'll hopefully be having a play around with this in the future! [When it's completed of course]

 

Cheers man I'm quite shocked how far ive got in quite a short space of time. Pretty happy with it so far so fingers crossed it might materialise one day in a playable state

Just need a damn At-At so I can get an epic hoth level going on and make the tie fighters a bit more dumb, im struggling to have em they're devasting.

 

How did you do the AI and movement? Conventional wisdom ways you start with steering behaviors and such, but I've not had good luck with that in the context of a space game. For higher-level AI, I've had good luck with simple state machines. But for actual movement, it can be challenging to get it to "look right", especially if you use real physics with forces and torque.

 

well I suppose not having had any training in programming I'm probably not doing it in the most conventional ways

In terms of AI and movment, I basically use the same code for the ship movement in the player and the AI scripts. I'm basically faking input when it comes to AI as I wanted the AI to move in the same way as the player.

so say I'd have a base class script for ship movement, then derive a player and an AI script from there. Not sure if this is the right place to be putting code but here it is broken down into as simple terms as possible.

In the update function it runs two functions, a function to get the input and also a function to set the movement. I use forces and relative torque to achieve this, it takes a bit of fiddling with the rigidbody values to get it moving how you want, depends what you're going for, mines quite arcadey with a hint of inertia.

You notice the get input function is blank in the base class

Now I'd have a player class that derives from the ship class:

The script has the get input function filled in but no need to bother with the movement side of things because that was taken care of in the base ship class.

So when it comes to the AI script you write the get input function slightly different but achieve the same results, I havn't really got the time to explain how I do it so I'll write this is psuedo code (i think that's the right expression)

in regards to AI deciding what to do, I've made a state machine probably similiar to how you're thinking, it's all controlled through ENUMS and switch statements and co-routines. That just follows a logical path really, if the AI is in attack mode, it looks for a target, if it finds one it flys towards it and shoots.

Hopefully that makes some sense

 

A quick few updated screenshots of the latest goings on. Bit of pure space action with some poor rez Star Destroyers:

and yes the black Xwing probably wasn't the cleverest choice for these screenshots.

 

a dodgy captured video:

[video=youtube_share;AgRbKOUsX3A]http://youtu.be/AgRbKOUsX3A

 

How are you getting on with this? Looks great so far!
I've been trying my own for a couple of months now, but nowhere near as progressed as yours. Mine is going down the multiplayer road though, with 1st person cockpit view.

 

Hey! I really love where your going with this! As a long time fan of the Star Wars universe and long time player of many of the games (Republic Commando, KOTOR, KOTOR2, Battlefront1/2 and others) I love whats happening here. Would love to try it some time soon.

I saw that you mentioned earlier that you want an AT-AT model... well be amazed!
http://www.yobi3d.com/#!/search?q=ATAT
Found these guys on a model searcher that some other game dev made. I fully expect some type of recognition for finding this!

Great job,
NickHaldon

 

Nice... It reminds me when I played rogue squadrons back then, except that this one has waaay better graphics...