New 4D Game in the works...

Discuss interdimensional programming, Java applets and so forth.

New 4D Game in the works...

Postby pat » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:40 pm

I'm working on a new 4D game. The view into the game world is going to be two 3D slices. The top view will basically be x-forward, y-left, w-up. The bottom view will be basically x-forward, z-left, w-up.

The game is going to be really fast-moving.... ("Sonic with the good shoes"-type fast-moving). There will be obstacles in the game-field that you and your opponents will bounce off of at high speeds. More about the gameplay when I'm further ahead.

At the moment, I've got my first object rendered. To make many of my obstacles (and possibly some of the vehicles), I'm extruding three-dimensional objects into four-dimensions. I read in an extrusion profile that tells me how big to scale the three-dimensional object at different w-values.

For testing, I'm using... (0,0.75), (0.75,1.5), (3.0,0.0) where those pairs are (w,scale). For this particular thing extrusion profile, each vertex in my 3-d object gets turned into three vertexes in my four-dimensional object. So, if the original object has a three-dimensional vertex (1,1,0), that vertex becomes these four-dimensional vertexes (0.75,0.75,0,0), (1.5,1.5,0,0.75), and (0,0,0,3). Each triangular facet in the three-dimensional object then becomes two triangular prisms (technically, truncated triangular pyramids with parallel top and bottom cuts)... one to get from w=0 to w=0.75 and one to get from w=0.75 to w=3.0.

For my test object in 3-D, I've taken "Suzanne" the monkey from Blender 3D and cut her down to 202 vertexes.

If we view a 3-D slice that has constant w, we get the monkey scaled appropriately based on the scaling factor from the extrusion profile. More interesting is when the 3-D slice is not of constant w.... here the 3-D slice is perpendicular to the vector (1,0,0,1).

Image

I'm not sure yet about the holes yet. I'm going to have to look into those (pun semi-intended). But, there you have it... The world's first extruded monkey.
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Postby papernuke » Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:05 am

how do you use the blender thing? i downloaded it except i dont know how to use it
"Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe."
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Postby pat » Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:55 am

I've been using it for about two years now. I went through three or four tutorials and have gotten the hang of it. I recommend starting with the Modelling tutorials on the documentation site:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page

Specifically http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Tutorials/Modelling_A_Cube
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Postby houserichichi » Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:00 am

Hey pat, any idea when the game's release is scheduled? Sonic with the good shoes, eh? Will it have as catchy a soundtrack?

Thank god nobody's extruding my face...that monkey is horrifying. I saved it, blew it up, printed it off, cut it out, stuck it on a stick, and am going out as an extruded monkey for halloween. Well, not really, but if I was going out that's what I'd go out as.
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Postby pat » Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:37 pm

Some play-test versions with non-final graphics and sound will probably be ready in a month or two. I should put up a more recent screenshot sometime soon.

I don't have much time to work on this, but for the most part, it progresses fast every time I get to work on it. So, I'm still hoping for the play-test versions around the holidays.
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Postby pat » Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:13 pm

Here's a more recent screenshot... The top is the XYW space. The bottom is the XZW space. The foreground is the monkey extruded with a rocketship profile. The background is the monkey extruded with an hourglass profile.
Image
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