TAOC Discussion

[legend_master]

TAOC is back, baby

The game is not being shelved :

Here's a teaser to prove it. More coming very very soon

FIELDER TEASER. Beware, this is a VERY short glimpse. It is just to prove that things have not stalled or been shelved. This has taken a LONG time to get right and im pretty happy with it. Of course there's still much refining to do, but hey, the guts of it work pretty darn well i must say. Will answer more comments tomorrow. Cheers, all.

http://www.mediafire.com/?twzt3fli69d

OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jnmtFIQvkg

* Mediafire link is better quality.


LM

 

[Ricky_Ponting]

Nice timely update!!

Nice spin by the fielder!

plz make sure it doesn't do when game is completed.

 

[lazy_chesnut]

plz make sure it doesn't do when game is completed.

You think?

 

[isrararrafi]

i must say i did not have great expectations from fielding animation but that was actually pretty good.


***edit after looking at the better quality video it did not exactly look like the ball hit the bat...:S

 

[Jit]

great work LM and good to hear from you

 

[legend_master]

Of course the slight 'spin' from the fielder will be corrected, the point here is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. The fielder in 'the best position' to intercept the ball is chosen and runs for the ball, intercepting it and prepares to throw back. You have no idea how hard it was to get that to work...:crying

What the fielder does now is kinda the easy part, just some 3d rotation modelling issues to correct with the animations and Bob's your uncle.

I must remind everyone that this vid is also at 30fps. If i had run it at 60fps like the actual game speed then it would have been a very short video lol, so remember that little glitches like the ball not being exactly on the bat or tiny animation frames not flowing exactly etc will be very hard to detect at 60fps.

I think it would be almost impossible to get it completely perfect, but in the heat of the game at 60fps, i can assure you that you will not notice little imperfections such as these. Of course ill do my best to eliminate the worst of them though.

So what happens now? Now i add more fielding 'stopping' animations to the engine - animations are done, just need to integrate them. This includes: sliding (sideways and head first), easy pickup, pickup and shy on the move if batsmen are running, etc. I will also be fixing up little animation glitches like the fielder 'spinning'.

Ill be releasing a few more small videos over the next few days in anticipation of a big new gameplay video. Please remember though that this fielding almost had me beat, and it is in no way perfect and glitch free. Ive done a fair bit of testing and most cases sees the fielder behave correctly and well, though there are times where he may move a tad erratically, though i dont believe it worsens the playability or experience any.

edit> i just watched it again myself and there does seem a bit of a glitch with the collision there (where the ball hits the bat). Ill fix this tonight - i know what the problem is.

cheers,

LM

 

[lancashire666]

great news that you have overcame the difficulties and getting the fielding done, everyone is just glad that the game hasnt been shelved and we may one day get to play it, any small glitches wont even be noticed if we can finally play a cricket game which is fun, something EA and codies forgot to add in there games!

 

[legend_master]

great news that you have overcame the difficulties and getting the fielding done, everyone is just glad that the game hasnt been shelved and we may one day get to play it, any small glitches wont even be noticed if we can finally play a cricket game which is fun, something EA and codies forgot to add in there games!

Thanks, dont worry, wont be shelved. Pretty sure the fielding was the biggest hurdle in the entire process. Now that it's out of the way it should be all systems go.

 

[Jit]

Thanks, dont worry, wont be shelved. Pretty sure the fielding was the biggest hurdle in the entire process. Now that it's out of the way it should be all systems go.

great so small things are left right?

 

[legend_master]

great so small things are left right?

hmm, well i wouldn't say that lol, rather that no more 'near-impossible' hurdles

Still have AI etc to go...

 

[Gilly Fan]

Hmm, Are you going to do diving where they dive, and knock it on and the still get a single? Stuff like that?

 

[Cricketdude]

Not sure if that is a joke or just a misunderstanding.

It was a joke.

 

[yusuf_m]

Well done LM!

I hope people realise how difficult this mjst have beenf or you. Intercepting a projectile in three dimensions is hard enough in real life with the processing power of the human mind ...imagine if you had to program that in yourself!

Anyway, great video and looking forward to the next few. The major game mechanics seem to be up and running so now only the massive task of gameplay, AI, beta-testing...easy?!

GLad to hear there are lots of fielding animations in the pipeline, I feel this was where other games really were lacking. Hopefully there should be a few "casual" fielding animations where the fielder just jogs up and lobs the ball in if there is an easy single or just a normal long barrier or perhpas the fast bowlers stop the ball with their feet more. Maybe fielders picking up ans shining the ball?

All these things would add a lot of atmosphere (in my opinion)

Well done again!

Yusuf

 

[manee]

Good luck LM.

 

[MattW]

Well to solve a problem that never existed, a TAOC supporters group has been created, join it here: http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/group.php?groupid=20