Tank Universal - new demo

Hi all

Am releasing a new demo for Tank Universal.
Controls are WASD to manouever and mouselook for the turret.
Hold the LMB down to charge a shot.
Q to stop or hold position on a slope.

I've also changed the control scheme to a simple mouselook (the previous control scheme proving so unpopular!)
If you've not played before, suggest you have a look at the training level first (and remember, take out turrets from a distance!)

demo is 92megs
(link removed - WinXP issues with demo)
(unzip to directory of your choice - game is moleboxed)




A few things about this demo.
There's three levels included (training level, level 10 & 11). Level 10 is one of the largest battles in the game and it can start to chug on my Athlon64 2ghz, 7600GT during the heat of the battle, but I've included this level as I want to gauge how well it will run across the range of machines.

There is a glowfx (ala Tron) but it takes a chunk of fps, so only recommended for faster machines - it's off by default, but you can turn it off/on midgame, same with the complex sky.

Hit escape in-game to change options. I'm aware I need to include some sort of key mapping (sorry lefthanders!), also a few more 'Are you sure you want to exit?' messages, but the options/escape menu is working. Also need to include a save game function.

Music is by Arteria.

I've also included a number of people in the credits.
If you are one of those people, please let me know if you're ok with that, or want changes made to the wording.
The credits list reads;

.CREDITS_DATA
Data "Tank Universal"
Data "An independent gaming project"
Data "Designed and programmed by Phil Jones"

Data "Powered by Blitz3d"
Data "Blitz Research Ltd"
Data "www.blitzbasic.com"

Data "Music by Arteria"
Data "www.arteria-gaming.com"
Data " "

Data "Model and level design by Phil Jones"
Data "George's head by Mark Shahan"
Data "www.gamasutraexchange.com"

Data "Additional programming and utilities:"
Data "AniBrush: Shawn C. Swift"
Data "AStar Pathfinding: Patrick Lester"

Data "BlitzGrass 3d and BlitzTree 3d:"
Data "Ronnie Smith"
Data "www.aliencodec.com"

Data "Blitz Launcher:"
Data "Michael Wilson"
Data " "

Data "GUI: Shawn C. Swift"
Data "Lightning fx, adapted from code by:"
Data "EdzUp and Zenith"

Data "Particle fx:
Data "Mike Dogan, Particle Candy "
Data "www.x-pressive.com"

Data "Static fx : Big10p"
Data " "
Data " "

Data "3D World Studio:"
Data "Leadwerks Corporation "
Data "www.leadwerks.com"

Data "B3D Tweak: Michael Reitzenstein"
Data "LWRigid: Lee Page - aka Terrabit"
Data " "

Data "Giles - Global Illumination Editor"
Data "Mikkel Fredborg"
Data "www.frecle.net"

Data "Goldwave Audio Editor:"
Data "Goldwave Inc."
Data "www.goldwave.com"

Data "Ultimate Unwrap3d:"
Data "Brad Bolthouse"
Data "www.unwrap3d.com"

Data "Game testers:"
Data "Tester ?"
Data "Tester ?"
Data "Tester ?"
Data "Tester ?"
Data "Tester ?"

Data "A big thank you to the Blitzbasic community"
Data " "
Data " "

Data "And remember, support indie gaming!"
Data " "
Data " "

Data "Bye now!"
Data ""

Looks good, I might have to wait to the weekend before downloading it. I'm interested to see how it performs on my machine.

Played the tutorial but I wasn't too sure what to do, the tut needs to hold your hand more e.g. tell you what key to press to move forward and what a glyth is.

I was left in the tut being told to find more glyphs but as far as I know I had found them all.

Now and then the sound crackles.

When I tried the demo level I got a MAV.

Apart from that it had a good feel to it, the movement of the tank was smooth and easy to control, helped by the radar and the graphics were really good.

Shambler

What's your specs?

Athlon 2700+
1GB Ram
Geforce 6800GT
M-Audio Delta 1010LT Sound

WinXP?

Also, if you could do me a favour and reboot the demo up again. Just retry that demo level option - does it crash everytime?

If it does, could you go into the dir and delete the cfg file and rerun? Still crash?

Do you have anything running that might interfere? (or which might not like molebox?)

Has anyone else tried it and had the same prob?

Yup WinXP.

Crashes every time on demo level, deleted .cfg file no change.

It finalises then I get the receeding green circle graphic then it gives the MAV dialogue box.

Nothing else running to conflict with the game.

Thanks for that.

Can anyone else confirm this problem?

Looks great. Unfortunately, I can't try the demo as my PC is too long in the tooth, I think. I've also had probs with molebox'd app on win98SE. Don't really want to dl 92megs on my measly 1meg connection, only to find I can't play. ;)

P.S. You don't need to credit me, but if you insist, what you have is fine. :)

Shambler

Oh crap - just realised I'd not switched off a debug feature meaning the training level event sequence was not working properly (the harvesters wouldn't arrive meaning the next event was not triggered). That could also explain the crash you were experiencing with the demo level.

Really sorry about that - I'll re-upload. Would you be ok to retry once it's back up?

MAV after I click play or start.

Yavin

Hold on - am reuploading. The ftp transfer wasn't sucessful.

Yavin/Shambler

Ok, have corrected the file, uploaded (and done a download test run) - everything seems ok now.

http://www.tankuniversal.com/TUDEMO_MAY07.zip

Could I ask one of you guys to give it go?

Shambler
There's a short delay after you've activated the hub (when the tutorial asks you to find more glyphs), but the harvesters will arrive soon after now and the rest of the tut should run as normal - just give it a minute or two. Could I ask you to give it another shot?

Downloading now...

Thanks mate - looking forward to your feedback.

Tutorial works now, but it still MAVs after loading the demo level.

Bugger - what would be really helpful here is to know if someone else with XP is also experiencing the crash. Obviously I'm not, but I'm running W2000.

Can someone else with XP (or w2000) give it a go?
www.tankuniversal.com/TUDEMO_MAY07.zip

(at least the tutorial worked for you!)

I get a MAV too, after the loading screen for the demo level. WinXP SP2.

Anyway, the game looks really cool.

Ok, thanks kragoth - looks like I'll be getting a WinXP box for testing purposes.

Think I'll take down the link until I've resolved this.

Wasn't there an issue where if you assign a resource like a graphic file to float it would work on some OS's but not others. Probably not the issue here but you never know... Looking forward to trying it out, I have Vista here so will test on that.

Pete

Yep - but can't see where I'd have done that.

Will be testing it today on another W2000 box. If it crashes on that then it's not an OS specific issue. If it doesn't then I'll be getting that WinXP box.

Thanks for the Vista test offer too.

downloaded and (quickly) tried your demo 21 hours ago... didn't notice any crashes, Am running XP SP 2, looked very polished to me. Didn't soak test however....

Really? And the demo level ran without problems?
Well that muddies the waters.


(If you get the time, would really like to know how the demo level runs for you in terms of fps - and any bugs that pop up)

Its broken (the link)

Gobbo

There's a prob with the demo - have taken down the link till it's resolved.

Didn't realize I was in the credits! thanks :D
I don't even recall what it was, this lightning code :D
Can't wait to try the latest version! The last one I played was solid then!

Zenith - not a prob.
http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=439
(basically added branching to the lightning and a few extra tweaks)

About the demo, need to buy a test box this week (W2000 -> WinXP, Nividia -> ATI), and then I can re-release the demo.

ah I remember that, gotcha :D