Cricket Heroes - testing & feedback

[kurtkz]

Hi everyone,

apologies for the delay, I just noticed some balancing issues. I'm sorting those out now and I'll try to upload the public beta tonight (failing that, tomorrow morning).

Cheers
K

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Hey Kurt just went through the pages and it looks fantastic. The cam angle looks amazing.

Will be here testing the game now

 

[kurtkz]

@rahulkhush: That's great news. I'll hopefully have the demo ready some time tonight.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

No problem buddy Will be waiting for a release. The current release from the website does not work for me and the game crashes

 

[kurtkz]

Hi everyone,

the public beta is now available. You can grab it here. Give it a spin and let me know what you think

Cheers
Kurt

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

The game is dead slow for first thing first.

Second game crashed giving me this error.

RUN @ 12/10/2012 4:02:19 PM

VERSION: 2.0
REGISTERED: True
PROFILE: Parth

MESSAGE: The given key was not present in the dictionary.

STACK TRACE:    at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowKeyNotFoundException()
   at System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary`2.get_Item(TKey key)
   at Cricket.Main.GameStateSquadSelection.Process(Single ms, Int32 overrideIdx) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameStateSquadSelection.cs:line 820
   at Cricket.Main.GameStateSquadSelection.ProcessInput(Single ms) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameStateSquadSelection.cs:line 1032
   at Cricket.Main.GameStateTournamentTeamSelection.ProcessInput(Single ms) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameStateTournamentTeamSelection.cs:line 229
   at Cricket.Main.GameInstance.Loop() in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameInstance.cs:line 11261
   at Cricket.Main.Game.Main(String[] args) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\Game.cs:line 2953

Created a tournament of 6 teams, selected the team and clicked OK

----------

Just tried simulating another game with disabled intel HD graphics.

RUN @ 12/10/2012 4:05:24 PM

VERSION: 2.0
REGISTERED: True
PROFILE: Parth

MESSAGE: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

STACK TRACE:    at Cricket.Main.GameStateDeliver.ProcessInput(Single ms) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameStateDeliver.cs:line 12232
   at Cricket.Main.GameInstance.Loop() in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\GameInstance.cs:line 11189
   at Cricket.Main.Game.Main(String[] args) in d:\Projects\Cricket Heroesv3D\Cricket Heroesv3\Cricket Heroes\Main\Game.cs:line 2953

 

[kurtkz]

Thanks for the error reports, rahul. I think I've fixed the crashes now, but I do still need to optimise the rendering engine. In the meantime, can you try to delete the files in ./models/stadium/punjab/ and ./models/stadium/iqbal/? That should disable the stadium model which is quite high poly. Hopefully that'll give you a bit of a speed boost.

 

[kurtkz]

Hi everyone,

it appears as if there are quite a few of you out there with Intel integrated gfx - I'll be spending the next few days optimizing the engine to make it playable.

Cheers
K

 

[Pat]

I just played a game (T20) on Easy mode and I was struggling to score runs. Need to practice more and play more before I can give proper feedback. Some things from the back of my mind:

1. I run the game on a dedicated graphics card, yet the game performs poorly. I think it needs the optimisation you just spoke about.

2. Auto-hide function for the buttons does not work that well. Mouse cursor gets stuck at times and the buttons go off even if the cursor is on them.

3. I feel the power of shots could be increased slightly. Even on fast mode, it appears that a perfectly timed shot (especially aerial ones) takes more than 5 seconds to reach the boundary. This could be due to "slow" overall performance due to the 3D camera, I am not sure.

4. Button combos involved in bowling need to be reworked. Currently lot of keys need to be pressed for different thing and the entire thing does not feel intuitive. Also, is it possible to adjust bowler speeds? Currently, 145/150 kmph deliveries do not feel threatening. I would like to increase the pace such that it is actually difficult to face such deliveries. This could again be related to point 1.

5. 3D Camera: Can we have a new camera angle similar to Bowler camera (or tweak Bowler camera itself) with the difference that when the ball goes into the outfield, the camera follows the ball. For e.g. currently if the batsman plays the ball into the outfield, it is difficult to judge from the pitch if the fielder will be able to cut the ball off or complete the catch. A zoomed view of the ball in the outfield should look good I guess.

Will post more when I get time to play. Cheers on the great update so far. Luckily, no crashes so far and the 3D camera has been a wonderful addition.

 

[kurtkz]

Thanks for the feedback, Pat. I think most of those issues are related to the graphics performance. I'm working on that at the moment and have already increased performance quite a bit. I'm trying to optimise the stadium model at the moment and the pipeline I'm using to import them.

If you like you can try deleting the contents of the stadium folders. This should disable stadia in the game and should make it run a little faster.

 

[kurtkz]

Alrighty, I think I've more or less completed the optimizations. The game runs much faster now. As a by-product of this process, I can also apply shaders to the game. I'm going to release an update on Friday which should hopefully be faster and better looking

 

[kurtkz]

Hi everyone,

I haven't quite managed to get around to prettifying it, but it should be a heck of a lot faster. If the game doesn't run for you anymore, run the launcher and disable GLSL shaders.

Link

Cheers!
Kurt

PS - the game now uses an SSAO shader. The difference is subtle, but effective. I'll be introducing more effects in the next few days and then I'll get back to work on career mode.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Fantastic. So far so good. Playing the third over in a one day international and its working good. Not smooth but its working faster then last time. Scored 6 of the first 3 overs without the loss of any wicket. Vaas is really bowling good

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Well OK, I batted for 5 overs in HK6 and then when it was my chance to bowl it crashed. Happens in all formats. After first innings the game crashes if we play

 

[kurtkz]

@rahul: Did it show the error message dialog or did it just dump you straight to the desktop?