A project for CS378: Game Technology Game: TronRevRelease.zip Source: TronRevSource.zip Old Version of this site Screenshots Powerpoint Poster Yes, I'm a fan of Tron. I admit it. I'm an especially big fan of the lightcycles game, and the first time I found a playable version my friends and I spent several days playing it. The game never had the reflexive feel of the movie version though. The linearity of the controls usually forced us into separate sides, and the competition became a slow one of space packing. I've long since thought that free turning radius controls would restore the game to its twitchy glory. So along came this game class. I switched out of another programming class on the advice of my friend Howing, to join him and his team in CS378. Our original plan was to make a smashy arcade game called "Hammer Calamity" starring my diminutive roommate and his 4 foot tall Warhammer (yes, he really owns a 4 foot tall warhammer. It's called "The Law"). Fast forward not quite two months, to spring break. My whole team had dropped or was dropping the class, and I had spent several days emailing the professor about it and working (unsuccessfully) on Hammer Calamity. I decided to drop the course. I liked what I had learned and wanted to keep programming games. I decided I should drop the old game with the course, and I thought back to the light cycles. Now I had the technology to make the game I was thinking about. So, about 2 days later, I had the core of this game. A week later I showed it to Dr. Arikan and he said I could stay in the course and do Tron as a one person project. So, here it is, with big thanks to Okan, our, TA Paul Navr‡til, my advisor, Roger Priebe, and of course my friends/roommates cameron Gibbs and Joey Carlin for their playtesting and input. If you've ever seen Tron or played the light cycle game, you have a decent idea of how this works. All I've done is programmed the bikes to turn freely. Gone are the rigid lines of the old game, replaced by harmonious curves. I think of it as Tai Chi Vertigo on bikes. If you've never seen or played Tron, the idea of the light cycles game is this: two or more players drive motorcycles in a big low-res virtual room. Each bike creates a trail of light behind it. The object of the game is to force your opponents to crash into the light walls. You win if you are the last survivor. This mode is 1-3 players, or one player vs one (crappy) AI. I also added a "Grand Prix" mode (really more of a simple vs mode) where you can race one other player on a track. This mode is heavily modelled after F-Zero 64 and Extreme-G. Sadly it's in a very unfinished state. After this class I hope to improve on the imitation, with looping, corking tracks and cameras that don't jitter like crazy when they follow. A lot of the difference right now is simple math I didn't have time to add. I calculate bike and camera angles based on some hack interpolations instead of properly examining the local track. The third and last mode is a Level Editor for the Grand Prix mode. You create a track by driving around; the Level Editor paints the track behind you. In the future I hope to modularize this; you will be able to add Loops and Curves and Corkscrews as pieces, like Hot Wheels tracks. The most difficult thing (that I got to work) was by far the AI. I still can't make an AI that can beat the player. I have some ideas, but they'll have to wait for after the class. The most difficult thing that didn't work was Networking. It's just a bigger piece of technology than I realized :-) The easiest technology was sound. It's real low hanging fruit; I used a fantastic API called FMod. After this class I'll likely have to remove all the fantastic music I put into the game, just so I don't get sued. I'll post a list though, for interested downloaders. It should be noted that you can replace the music I used. For instance, replace "Music1.mp3" with your own personal file, and it will play in game. Many pieces of this project are not mine. Credit for them is given in the source. However, I would like to specifically credit http://www.ultimategameprogramming.com and http://nehe.gamedev.net for tutorials and source code, GLTron for the idea, the bike model, and the driving sound, and Reynolds Engineering and Design as the inspiration for whatever AI I have working right now. Last Update:5/4/06 Plans: I intend to keep working on this game after this class. You can expect me to have better AI, better graphics, some collision physics, better single player race mode, and networked multiplayer, even if it takes me a bit longer than I originally intended :-) Game: TronRevRelease.zip Source: TronRevSource.zip

© 2006 Matthew Carlin
Home