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[Xsera] [ANN] Xsera Demo 2 Another technical demo, sorry still 10.5 or greater

#1 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 29 August 2009 - 09:19 PM

August 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM PST - California

Hi everybody, I'm very proud to announce the release of the second technical demo of Xsera. You can download it here. There's too many improvements (and hidden features) to list here, so I won't bother trying. Here are the key controls:

WASD - movement
IJKL - navigate panel menu
Space - Fire PKBeam
Z - Fire Cmissile
Tab - Warp
+ and - - Zooming
Esc - menu

Here's the deal: a Gaitori Carrier protects a planet that you have to capture. You first must destroy the Carrier before landing a transport on the planet.

Please note that the transport landing sound "SpaceWoosh" as well as "Teletype", the typing noise are both placeholders taken from EV Nova for this demo.

New Graphics:
Shlimazel and I were in the process of updating his new graphics when the demo was finished, so the new graphics are not on display in the game, unfortunately. When Shlimazel and I get that done, I will post on how to add those graphics into the demo.

Enjoy!

adam_0

This post has been edited by adam_0: 30 September 2009 - 09:52 AM

... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#2 User is offline   prophile 

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Posted 29 August 2009 - 09:49 PM

w00t
"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak

"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin

#3 User is offline   JacaByte 

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Posted 29 August 2009 - 09:53 PM

Where the hell were you during all this, prophile? I want 10.4 support!

#4 User is offline   prophile 

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Posted 29 August 2009 - 10:07 PM

10.4 support means changing three options in the project settings. Three! How could you overwork me like that sad.gif

EDIT: that being said, this zip here might contain a 10.4 compatible version of Xsera. Perhaps. >.>

It might also require an Intel Mac or a high-end PPC Mac (ie a G5) using 10.4.11 or greater to run properly.

This post has been edited by prophile: 29 August 2009 - 10:17 PM

"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak

"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin

#5 User is offline   JacaByte 

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Posted 29 August 2009 - 10:32 PM

Uh, oh. Boy. Three, then? I thought it'd be harder than that, sorry for being dense. sad.gif

404 error! *dies*

...I'll go to bed, and wait till I wake up to sort this all out.

This post has been edited by JacaByte: 29 August 2009 - 10:32 PM

#6 User is offline   gavin83209 

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Posted 30 August 2009 - 12:11 AM

Yay, a release! My Radeon 9000 is still incompatible, though. *also dies* I'll be sure to test this the next time I have access to the G5 I normally test Xsera on.

Prophile's link works again.
"Examine all obstacles carefully. With a little ingenuity, they can often be turned into levers." -Grand Admiral Thrawn
"Reality doesn't care if you believe it." -Boba Fett

Ares X

#7 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 30 August 2009 - 01:24 AM

QUOTE (prophile @ Aug 29 2009, 08:07 PM)
EDIT: that being said, this zip here might contain a 10.4 compatible version of Xsera. Perhaps. >.>

prophile, you are a good man. Except I didn't commit the final changes for the demo yet ohmy.gif

EDIT: I had trouble pushing my commit because of your changes. I'm going to try to figure that out ASAP

EDITx2: Haha, your demo doesn't have one of my Lua flags set, so it has access to the underpinnings of Xsera. Not that I'm going to tell anyone how to *work* those underpinnings, but still.

This post has been edited by adam_0: 30 August 2009 - 01:26 AM

... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#8 User is offline   redsteven 

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Posted 31 August 2009 - 01:57 PM

Not that I doubted you guys, but.... never in a million years did I expect this project to make it to this level.

Bravo, bravo.

#9 User is offline   NMS 

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Posted 31 August 2009 - 10:39 PM

Very nice work. No performance issues like I had with the first demo. I do have some suggestions/criticisms, though:

- I noticed some odd behavior with the braking. Sometimes instead of coming to a stop, my ship starts vibrating back and forth. It stops if I keep holding brake for a couple seconds, but if I let go it starts moving slowly either in the same direction as before or the opposite direction.

- Sometimes the direction indicator triangle turns one position but the ship graphic does not.

- Long range icons should be fixed size.

- When dropping out of hyper, ships should decelerate smoothly from hyper speed to max normal speed (or less if you brake between when you release the hyper key and when you warp out).

- Acceleration (but not braking) is disabled while entering hyper in Ares.

- Energy regeneration is way too slow (it should almost keep up with firing the rap PK continuously).

- Some of the sidebar colors are a bit off. It would also look better if all the bars and gaps in the resource meters were the same number of pixels. I'll include a screenshot comparing Xsera with a recording of Ares.

This post has been edited by NMS: 31 August 2009 - 10:41 PM

#10 User is offline   gavin83209 

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Posted 31 August 2009 - 10:41 PM

QUOTE (redsteven @ Aug 31 2009, 11:57 AM)
Not that I doubted you guys, but.... never in a million years did I expect this project to make it to this level.

Bravo, bravo.


I don't blame you (two links). I am very impressed with Xsera is doing. It's truly incredible how Ares has now at least partially survived the Intel transition, OS X and something nearing ten years of no development. Now, it can be (partially) run on Leopard, complete with an AI. All since November, barely ten months. I honestly didn't expect my original Ares X post to gain this much momentum.
"Examine all obstacles carefully. With a little ingenuity, they can often be turned into levers." -Grand Admiral Thrawn
"Reality doesn't care if you believe it." -Boba Fett

Ares X

#11 User is offline   NMS 

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Posted 31 August 2009 - 10:52 PM

Forgot one:
- Left channel audio is much louder than right.

#12 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 01 September 2009 - 02:46 AM

Thanks for the feedback, NMS. A few comments...

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- I noticed some odd behavior with the braking. Sometimes instead of coming to a stop, my ship starts vibrating back and forth. It stops if I keep holding brake for a couple seconds, but if I let go it starts moving slowly either in the same direction as before or the opposite direction.

This is a known bug.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- Sometimes the direction indicator triangle turns one position but the ship graphic does not.

This is due to the fact that there's a limited number of graphics that the computer can use, so it only switches when the angle is sufficient. This is easier to see on a higher resolution display.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- Long range icons should be fixed size.

Known bug, although I haven't logged it.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- When dropping out of hyper, ships should decelerate smoothly from hyper speed to max normal speed (or less if you brake between when you release the hyper key and when you warp out).

- Acceleration (but not braking) is disabled while entering hyper in Ares.

Acceleration is working as a temporary mechanic right now, we're working on making this more accurate with Ares.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- Energy regeneration is way too slow (it should almost keep up with firing the rap PK continuously).

Unknown bug, although energy regeneration was experimental and just a placeholder right now.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:39 PM)
- Some of the sidebar colors are a bit off.

Colors are not final, I plan on importing the Ares CLUT sometime in the near future.

QUOTE (NMS @ Aug 31 2009, 08:52 PM)
- Left channel audio is much louder than right.

Known bug. I believe we're going to be replacing our current audio system with something else, but I'm not exactly sure on that.
... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#13 User is offline   Two Jacks 

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Posted 01 September 2009 - 12:51 PM

Will Xsera be OS 9 compatible?




















tongue.gif

#14 User is offline   prophile 

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Posted 01 September 2009 - 02:18 PM

No. Neeeeeext!

Also: the left volume channel problem maaaay possibly be my fault. More on that later!

This post has been edited by prophile: 01 September 2009 - 03:01 PM

"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak

"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin

#15 User is offline   Rickton 

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Posted 01 September 2009 - 03:08 PM

QUOTE (Two Jacks @ Sep 1 2009, 01:51 PM)
Will Xsera be OS 9 compatible?

Just play Ares, you palooka.
Currently making Possession 2, a game where you play as a ghost and possess your enemies.

#16 User is offline   Lord Commander Anic 

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Posted 13 September 2009 - 04:06 PM

Ah, Demo 2. It's getting bigger too.
Nicely done. will test and report any bugs smile.gif
.
.



QUOTE (Rickton @ Sep 1 2009, 09:08 PM)
Just play Ares, you palooka.

Lol tongue.gif
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

#17 User is offline   Lord Commander Anic 

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Posted 13 September 2009 - 04:28 PM

Ok. not sure if it is working right for me. Have I missed any controls?
Testing on a MBP 2.6 GHz 4GM RAM.

1. I have no mouse control: ie cannot select anything with mouse. Is this as it should be?
2. Can't build the transport. What is the "Do" key after I have selected the transport in the build menu?
3. My processor runs very hot when I run the game. Is this normal behavoiur.
4. Ship behaves fine, carrier destroyed. Carrier doesn't react to me.

I won't mention issues previously raised above.

Nice work guys. Finally I feel I might be able to retire my OS9 machine soon biggrin.gif
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

#18 User is offline   prophile 

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Posted 13 September 2009 - 06:00 PM

QUOTE (Lord Commander Anic @ Sep 13 2009, 10:28 PM)
1. I have no mouse control: ie cannot select anything with mouse. Is this as it should be?


We haven't done mouse control yet.

QUOTE
2. Can't build the transport. What is the "Do" key after I have selected the transport in the build menu?


Right, I believe.

QUOTE
3. My processor runs very hot when I run the game. Is this normal behavoiur.


This happens when you run something CPU-intensive.

QUOTE
4. Ship behaves fine, carrier destroyed. Carrier doesn't react to me.


Carrier hasn't had its AI written yet.

"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak

"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin

#19 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 17 September 2009 - 05:33 PM

QUOTE (Lord Commander Anic @ Sep 13 2009, 02:28 PM)
2. Can't build the transport. What is the "Do" key after I have selected the transport in the build menu?

QUOTE (prophile @ Sep 13 2009, 04:00 PM)
Right, I believe.

Actually, it's not "right", it's "l", which is the sit-in for the "right" key. Having just discovered how to use arrow keys instead of IJKL, computer control will be the arrow keys in the next build.
... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#20 User is offline   DarthKev 

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Posted 01 October 2009 - 01:08 AM

Ok, time for my review.

• No music during level. I assume this will be fixed/put in eventually.
• Controls are poor. The player will be able to choose what does what later, right? I'm fairly certain if the Carrier had AI, I'd be dead.
• Nice touch with the Main Menu. Looks great.
• Love the DBZ reference.
• Zoom to Hostile, Closest, and Friendly are missing. I also assume that will be added later.
• A 'Command Q' option for quitting doesn't exist. Is it complicated to do that? In fact, the entire menu for Xsera is empty. There's nothing in it.

That's about it. It looks fantastic for v0.0.2. This is the kinda quality I'd expect from maybe v0.1 with most things. Wonderful job, guys, keep it up!
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#21 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 01 October 2009 - 08:39 AM

Thanks for the input, but you basically said "Xsera doesn't have feature x". Xsera isn't feature complete yet, so I could list a good deal more things that Xsera doesn't have.

Those things will be coming in the future.
... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#22 User is offline   DarthKev 

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Posted 01 October 2009 - 09:26 PM

Alright, I see your point. I look forward to future demos, if there are any...
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#23 User is offline   redsteven 

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Posted 11 October 2009 - 10:02 PM

There will be more.

I'm pretty impressed with the progress myself considering that this project is being done by a handful of people in their spare time.

While the demos certainly are missing a lot of features, they're not really meant to reflect the final version in any way.
They're more technical demonstrations of progress thus far than anything else.
The lack of mouse support, for example, is reflective of the fact that our developers had not yet written that code yet (they're putting this game engine together from scratch).

And thanks for checking out the latest demo. Some day soon ("soon" being a relative term, lol) Xsera will be much more feature-complete smile.gif

#24 User is offline   adam_0 

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Posted 12 October 2009 - 01:19 PM

QUOTE (redsteven @ Oct 11 2009, 08:02 PM)
The lack of mouse support, for example, is reflective of the fact that our developers had not yet written that code yet (they're putting this game engine together from scratch).


Actually, it's not being written from scratch - we're using OpenGL; however, implementing it with the Apollo engine is going to take us a little while.
... my other ride is an Ishiman Heavy Cruiser.

(x)enos. Awesome in a can. Without the can, though.

#25 User is offline   n00ser 

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Posted 15 October 2009 - 07:14 PM

Missile behavior is weird. I shoot a missile and it curves off in one direction or another for seemingly no reason.
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View PostGray Shirt Ninja, on Oct 27 2009, 06:15 PM, said:

No, I meant clawpenis.

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