Super Boats
Wow, this game is actually fun! Amazing. I made it in about
2 hours, including making the models, and thinking of the
idea in the first place. It show what the engine is able to
do. If its to fast, make the screen bigger, or stick a big
for next loop in it.
You use the arrow keys to move your boat throught the
checkpoints. You are heading towards the checkpoint
with the circle around it. The start/finish has flags on the
top, and you'll get prettly patterns down the side of the screen.
Go throught each check point IN ORDER!!!
Keep going till your power suply is cut off. Your lap count in in
the top corner. Evil Boris is the other boat, and if you let him
win, you are a big fool, and don't deserve have VB on your computer.
Ah well... C Ya l8a.
3333333 Ddddd EEEEngine!!!!!
RRRReeeead MMMeeeeeeee!!
Due to [no] public demand, heres a much more suitable
3D engine, with loads mode cooments, loads let code,
and it should be perfectly possible to make somthing
from it.
There are a few new things to look out for. For example,
before you use the engine, you must create two varibles.
The first is a varible that will hold information on the camara.
To make this varible, create a varible with a suitable name,
and make it of type Camaradis, instead of Integer or Byte.
Next, make an array, and make it of type WorldDis, instead
of Integer or String or anything else. These are the two
varibles that are needed to run the engine. You can make more
than one WorldDis array, and use either of them when ever you
want. Or you can make an array of CamaraDis, and use any
element in the array to hold different camara information.
Now you have the data, you need to set up the engine. The
first command you must use is 'Engine.Make_LookUp'. This is
very important. Nothing will work untill you have run this!
Next, you need to load your 3D models. To make 3D models for
this engine, download AnimationShop from PlanetSourceCode.Com.
[Do a search for DeadFred to find it] Learn how to use it, make
some ace little characters. Save it, with File|Save, so you can
come back to it later. Now choose File|Export. The settings are
fine, don't mess! Press the export button, choose a filename and
save. Wait 10 secs, and your done.
To load the file you just created into the engine, use the following
Command - Engine.LoadCompressedModel [FileName], ModelID -
[FileName] is the name and location of the 3D file
Model ID is a number that will link objects to their model. You
can have many objects in a scene, but they might all share the same
model. If you want ten tanks, you don't want to load the tank model
ten times, you load it once, and then all the tank object have a link
to the tank model. The ModelID can be any number above zero, and you
can load as many models as VB can handle (probebly several thousand)
Now you have your models in memory, you need to create your objects.
It you want 4 helicopters, then you'll need 4 objects. Everything
that can move independently of anything else must be a seperate
object. When somthing blows up, all the little bits flying off
are seperate objects.
Remeber the array you created, of type WorldDis? That array holds
objects. An array 4 elements long can hold 4 objects. A 100 elemnt
long array holds 100 objects. Very simple. To load an object into
the array, use the following
Command 'Engine.SetWorldToModel [WorldID], [ModelID], Array()'
The WorldID is the position in the array that the object will be
loaded. If you have a 10 element long array, its no good trying to
place it at WorldID 11, cos thats outside the array, and will crash
the program :-(
The ModelID is the link between the object and the model. If
you want a helicopter, and you loaded the helicoter model into
modelID 4, then you must also set the ModelID to 4 here. The
Array() is the actuall array that the object will be loaded into.
You can have more than one array in the program, each holding a
different set of objects.
Finally, you need to render [draw] the view. This takes into
account the camara position, the objects and models, and any
morphing effects used, and slaps it all into one command,
abit like this one... _
Engine.RunEngine [PictureBox], CamaraDis, WorldDis()
[PictureBox] is the name of a picture box where the image will
be drawn.
CamaraDis the the name of a varible of type CamaraDis, which
will be used to position the user within the scene.
WorldDis() is the name of an array of type WorldDis. This array
hods any objects that you want to be drawn in the scene.
There are more functions, but these are the basics. Read the code
to learn the rest, its all dead simple. You shouldn't have to go
looking in the module, coz its not labled, not laid out nicely,
and [in my opinion] is very complex code. However, the ret of
the code, is ultra easy to understand, and yet should provide all
that is nessessary to make a simple game, or other 3D related
program...
Thanks for reading, and I hope you find a place for this in your apps.
Magic Mushroom Software