51–60 of 67 posts
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Perhaps it's not too late for you. He's re imagined Robotron as a voxel game. Think of other classic arcade games that could be taken to their roots and reinvented with voxels. Any classic could be interesting: zaxxon, donkey kong, Asteroids...
Zaxxon would be an excellent candidate for a voxel re-make, as it had 3d gameplay.
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Very excited to see what becomes of the Atomontage Engine. For years I've been annoyed with static 3D environments where walls don't actually crumble when shot at, and windows never shatter. This engine will change the way we react to realism in virtual environments. Almost so much that it becomes easy to ponder if we're already in someone's 3D simulation ;)
Red Faction: Guerrilla and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 both have pretty decent destructible scenery.
The original Red Faction had largely destructible level geometry as well. However, that was just based on explosions deforming the terrain, rather than a physics simulation of destruction like RF:G. Polygons would fall if they were attached to nothing. The multiplayer level set in the natural canyon/bridge area is a good example of this: the large bridge in the second level (3 paths) is able to be taken out with some rockets and persistence to actually fall into the pit in the center. However, there was a limit to how much the level geometry could be deformed, and after a certain amount, explosions would stop removing sections from the terrain. It takes a good amount of time to get to this point, but it is possible. Also, the developers did a great job of hiding some interesting secrets in the deformable terrain. The multiplayer level with the two buildings on opposite sides and multiple levels with the desert in between has a hidden fusion rocket launcher (BFG, essentially) on the roof that's only accessible by destroying the terrain to get up there if my memory serves correctly. Also, the lobby level has four sections hidden behind walls, and a hidden roof area. Clearly, they put some work into using this feature well.
In Red Faction: Guerilla, only the buildings/objects are destructible, but there's more physics modeling. Taking out key supports will bring down buildings...in theory. I'm not a structural engineer, so I can't speak for its accuracy, but it often seems as if buildings are much hardier than they should be. Still, it's rather cathartic to take down an entire enemy barracks with a few explosives and a sledgehammer.
As for the actual math and methods behind this, I cannot say. I just know how it worked in gameplay from many hours playing the old RF multiplayer, and some recent time put into R:FG. Feel free to ask if you'd like to know more though.
(Huh, I never thought my videogame knowledge would be all that relevant here.)
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It's more than that I think. 8-bit music began as a poor, low-fi imitation of existing music forms for electronic games, because it was all that was possible given the hardware of the time. 8-bit music has been rediscovered by enthusiasts and independent artists, initially due to nostalgia, and that has led to a lot of innovation, exploration, and discovery. Discovery that 8-bit music doesn't have to be merely an imi…
"Innovation, exploration and discovery" were all rampant in the 80-es, especially on European C64 games. Some examples of music that uses the unique noises of the SID chip instead of only imitating existing instruments: - Arkanoid (Martin Galway): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcnDPDdtLg - Gianna Sisters (Chris Hülsbeck): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGxX3lTnHh8 - Commando (Rob Hubbard): http://www.youtube.com/wa…
If you're interested in what can be done with voxels with a more realistic aesthetic, have a look at the Atomontage engine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZIBDt1uM
That's what minecraft should look like.
I wonder what it is that makes 8-bit music so compelling. Just nostalgia?
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Perhaps it's not too late for you. He's re imagined Robotron as a voxel game. Think of other classic arcade games that could be taken to their roots and reinvented with voxels. Any classic could be interesting: zaxxon, donkey kong, Asteroids...
Oh, I'm sure it's not too late... And I'm working on my own projects in my free time. But it's games like this that finally pushed me into doing that. If I hadn't thought 'Man, I wish I'd written that' I'd probably still be doing nothing about it.
The perspective is absolutely brilliant. I love it. I feel stupid for not thinking of it.