Visionire - Project Development

http://i.imgur.com/fx2Zj.png

Hello there,

I know this isn't the best place to post a development blog, nor anything related to another project in development. However, now that I come to think about it. This is the best place! There are some talented people on these forums and there are tons of users whom want to be apart of something much greater. With that in mind... I would even say, there are some people whom also think outside of the box.

I myself am one of those people whom continue to innovate and motivate myself and the team I work with -- to try and reach for the stars, develop a product that we all can learn from and enjoy.



Brief History and plan?
A little about myself. I'm a Shockwave developer and pixel artist; I don't claim to be the best at anything, but I am dedicated and a self-motivated person. I've been working on this project for quite some time. I can not say that we've gotten far, nor have we even begun to touch the surface. Though, what we have done was test out certain features and functionality that we do wish to further pursue.

Visionire will be a 2D.5 endless world environment. A game that will feature a 3D engine in a 2D perspective. Over the past year or so this project has become more than just a simple social platform. We want to do more than just have a social and gaming experience. We want a sandbox environment thats rich with SNES old school style graphics mixed in with new school shading. Oh, lets not forget the 3D like environments!

The client will be developed in Shockwave for durability and simplicity. Not a fan of Flash, so that's a far shot. It's not a 3D game, nor do I wish to fake 3D in Unity (www.unity3d.com). Not my cup of tea!


The sandbox environment concept is based on popular games such as Terraria and Minecraft to just name a few.



Well, I guess that's enough of my rambling. For now anyways! I mainly want to get from this forum a bit of views of what others think about the plans, the graphics, the style, etc. Of course, I haven't gone into too much details about the actual plans nor concept for the project. I figure I'll try to throw some eye candy out and get some feedback then perhaps jot in some ideas, plans, etc.


Character Sprites:
http://i.imgur.com/81l7y.png


Fully functional sprite animation rotate application. Used to aid in shading and the animating of the sprites:
http://www.visionire.com/private/character/rotate.html -Requires: Adobe Shockwave Player (http://get.adobe.com/shockwave) So much more work to be done. [Work in Progress]


If you guys have any ideas you'd like to see, go ahead and shoot me a post or a PM.


Whatcha' think?

Would not really call Shockwave "durable". Technologies like Shockwave and Flash are dying out (Especially Shockwave, hell I don't even have the plugin installed any more). For a 2.5D sprite game you could quite easily target modern browsers and create it in something like HTML5 and Javascript without too much hassle. There are plenty of Javascript frameworks out there that are designed for working with 2D graphics, animations, sprites, etc.

I'm not saying that Flash/Shockwave is completely pointless quite yet. However, you seem to be placing an emphasis on the ability of your chosen technology to continue to prove useful in the future and in all honestly I don't think you're going to find this in technologies like Shockwave or Flash. From what I can see from the type of project you are planning on working on there does not appear to be any technical limitations that would prevent you from implementing the project using HTML5's canvas element along with some Javascript.

You don't seem to mention anything specifically about any Multiplayer component but this would not prove to be an issue either as you can use websockets for communication. In fact you could even create the server backend in Javascript by using something like node.js with socket.io.

My use of durability was more targeted at the lag intensity of Flash. With the major footprint this project will put on the screen. Flash will not be able to handle it. Just viewing youtube content, Flash lags majorly. Even in some Facebook apps 'Farmville', etc.

HTML5 and Javascript isn't my target and at this point will never be. That technology is no where near adaptable. This thread isn't about comparing oranges and apples. It's on about feedback retaining the project not what its being developed in. Of course, it's nice to get some views on the subject.


NodeJS, javascript for a backend is too slow to handle the data. I've already been there and done that. Migrating to Erlang VM.


For the 2D.5 world environment. The world will be chunk down into map segments. Of course not a lot of thought have went into storing the data 'dirt, sand, water, etc', in which I'm looking forward to implementing later on. As mentioned above, I was inspired by Terraria and Minecraft, mainly Terraria since I never played Minecraft -- just I can see the similarities.

A 2D.5 world doesn't mean its a 3D world. It's in-fact a 2D world with 3D schematics. Rotatable worlds will be restricted to 8-4 rotations. Even though the example here shows a full rotation: http://www.visionire.com/private/terrainedit.dcr

Zooming in/out (+/- keys) - will be implemented in the actual game except the game will start out stretched and you'll be able to zoom out from that point on. Thus, having a full screen enabled experience (optional).

I would have to agree with you Jrel, shockwave is the way to go. I like the old school feel of shockwave, the simplicity of it is just great. I like your idea of implementing the 2D.5 world your wire frame terrain was interesting... I am curious how this will all come together with your sprites and such. Do you have a game concept floating around. I know you said something along the lines of Terraria.

Dottz,

Thank you for your feedback. I've known Director/Shockwave since the mid 1990's. Even remember playing with it in my early school years. Though I didn't know what it was. I actually started learning and doing pixel art in 1999. I was horrible but I did better graphics than you could see in Habbo at that time. From then and now. A lot has changed over the years. Of course, not a whole lot have been changed since Adobe bought it. In the since of it being on stall development terms... but, I feel soon that shall change. Since Director/Shockwave is taking the mobile platform direction now. Should make its debut in Director 12 or 13. We shall see!

There is no game concept floating around. There is tons of games online that you can easily compare our plans for this project with. Minecraft/Terraria/Ace of Spades, The Sims, Habbo, Harvest Moon, Wonderland Online, etc.

We're currently working towards a voxel implementation of the current terrain framework for the current client release. Not focusing on the server-side elements just yet. So we're working in the offline mode in the client: http://client.visionire.com/ (Once the console widget appears, type "client" in the text field without the quotes and then press enter. Type in a random user then password and you are set to go.

The current client demonstrates map segment rendering. Which its rendering a 2147483647x2147483647 map. The visual map is quite small. If you used the arrow keys and scrolled the map. You'll be able to see how huge it is. There is no optimization done to this client. So there will be some jerking on lower end and some higher end machines.

Pathfinding is also being demonstrated here as well. The character sprite was downloaded on one of those free graphic sites and the test art was created by us to have something random to play with. All of it will be changed out once the sprites are complete.

Your domain has expired; is this still going?

Yes, still going.

Currently working on the zoom in/out feature. Also the character sprites were added into the client. Will require some more work towards the base sprites to make them more appealing. A few directions were done quickly and seems a bit sloppy. So that must be fixed. I'll be ordering a dedicated server later on to start rehosting the project.

This is a spare-time project. Any free time after work, or from my partners schooling we dedicate some time to the project. Most changes are small and some are major.


A few changes have been applied to the overall design of the project. Later on down the road this game will be more than just a editable world with chatting features and manufacturing. It will become a RPG. In which leveling your character and doing quests will be essential. Since this is a browser game. Running multiple game instances would be redundant for those whom want characters for different purposes. The plan is that we'd introduce what I call 'multi-character sessions'. Which is basically allowing the user to create many characters under their account and then being able to have 1-3 characters in-game that they can control simultaneously. Kind of gives a RTS like feel. Of course, not so much! :P


Finished remaking a old furniture suite. Since the sitting sprites are around the corner -- at least they're the next thing on the todo list.

http://i.imgur.com/mkuXg.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jrel

My use of durability was more targeted at the lag intensity of Flash. With the major footprint this project will put on the screen. Flash will not be able to handle it. Just viewing youtube content, Flash lags majorly. Even in some Facebook apps 'Farmville', etc.

HTML5 and Javascript isn't my target and at this point will never be. That technology is no where near adaptable. This thread isn't about comparing oranges and apples. It's on about feedback retaining the project not what its being developed in. Of course, it's nice to get some views on the subject.


NodeJS, javascript for a backend is too slow to handle the data. I've already been there and done that. Migrating to Erlang VM.


For the 2D.5 world environment. The world will be chunk down into map segments. Of course not a lot of thought have went into storing the data 'dirt, sand, water, etc', in which I'm looking forward to implementing later on. As mentioned above, I was inspired by Terraria and Minecraft, mainly Terraria since I never played Minecraft -- just I can see the similarities.

A 2D.5 world doesn't mean its a 3D world. It's in-fact a 2D world with 3D schematics. Rotatable worlds will be restricted to 8-4 rotations. Even though the example here shows a full rotation: http://www.visionire.com/private/terrainedit.dcr

Zooming in/out (+/- keys) - will be implemented in the actual game except the game will start out stretched and you'll be able to zoom out from that point on. Thus, having a full screen enabled experience (optional).

---

Haha, Flash is not too laggy. I see no lag in Flash at all actually, and I've seen some pretty graphic intensive Flash creations. Just look at Zing.com, the design for that was pretty graphic intensive and combine that with MANY users, it handled it very well.

Look at Flash rendering HD video, it does it VERY well. I experience NO lag on Youtube at all.

NodeJS is too slow to handle the data? Apparently you're trying things out in a very wrong way, because NodeJS has handled more data for me than a game could ever provide. That's what it is designed for.

I'm sorry to say, but Director and Shockwave are outdated.. Flash is left and HTML5 is coming in. I think Director and Lingo is all that you know, so you're going to argue till the end of the world at how great it is and how bad everything else is. Reminds me of most Perl developers.

Shockwave just seems like a dumb idea, nobody wants to be forced to install a plugin just to use your service - nobody uses it anymore. If you want a playerbase that'll grow you need to either use flash (Which is also leaving soon) or HTML5, using shockwave is like a stubborn death wish.

Flash is no longer slow, it's more efficient than it was and most machines nowadays do GPU acceleration so it's not hitting the CPU any-more.

From that you act like you're head over heals for Flash. Which that's fine. I have no problem with you voting your opinion. For what I wish to do. It's too laggy for my needs and we'll leave it as that.


Anyways, more on the project:
Figured I'll show the testbench that we're using to test out the animation of the sprites. There are some views that needs correcting. Once I get time I'll have a crack at it myself. Keep in mind, no optimization was done. The new terrain engine will be implemented when completed and take the place of the current. Yay for a voxel 3D engines!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33555494/index.html
-Requires: Adobe Shockwave Player (http://get.adobe.com/shockwave)


I am also working on the back view of my furniture suite. Once I get finished with this suite. I'll be able to make other sets. Hopefully some which will be more functional.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33555494/updated-2.png



Other news:
Ordered a dedicated server. Seems like it was a decent deal for the server I got. Will be set up and ready to go tonight. Too bad I'll be at work when it gets set up.

Anyways, until next time.

"I was horrible but I did better graphics than you could see in Habbo at that time."...

U'm sorry, but these graphics on Habbo are a whole lot better than your pixel art.. even in V1..

http://i51.tinypic.com/15xpzqh.png

Let me get this straight:

a) This is a solo project
b) This is a crowded market
c) This is a dying market
d) Your artstyle is hard on the eyes

And you think it's a good idea to not only pay for a pricey dedicated server but also to limit your playerbase.

Also fyi your client is broken in chrome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chippiewill

Let me get this straight:

a) This is a solo project
b) This is a crowded market
c) This is a dying market
d) Your artstyle is hard on the eyes

And you think it's a good idea to not only pay for a pricey dedicated server but also to limit your playerbase.

Also fyi your client is broken in chrome.

---

Client works for me ;)
Johnathan has been telling me about some pretty awesome **** for Shockwave manipulation in terms of client<->server apps, such as Visionire.rla
Also, he's working in a team of 3, :P

@node.js fans
Write a scalable server with any language (Java, Erlang, C(++), etc) and watch it out perform a javascript-based server.