Flight Simulator with AI - Page 4

Dj Tech42 · 08-10-2011, 08:17 PM

7.0 Beta 3 is here! This beta enables the saving functionality (with the iOTool). There is a Windows version and a Mac version due to the file systems being different on the operating systems. Before you start the world, go to the iOTool's properties and change the 6 string variables (current_file and the other file variables) to the file paths you want the files to be in. When you run the world for the first time, it will create the files and ask you to calibrate your mouse. When the calibration message comes up, put your mouse cursor at the bottom-right corner of your screen. This will tell the game what your screen size is, so the new mouse control of the plane will perform correctly. You only need to calibrate once. Do not exit the world or click/press anything until the red message disappears. The red message tells you that the program is loading/saving.

When everything is set up, the world will load its preferences and the calibration. After about 4 seconds, you will be able to start the game. I hope you like the new saving functionality! It is cool how you don't need to set your preferences up or calibrate every time you run the world. It just loads your previous configuration! In the final version, it will record your times and store them in the high scores file so you can look at your best times for each difficulty and compare them to other people.

Thanks to arty for the awesome iOTool and the string to number conversion script used in this version. I hope you guys can test this out so the final version can be relatively bug-free.

Download 7 Beta 3 for Windows:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9210692/Flig...%20Windows.a2w

Download 7 Beta 3 for Mac:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9210692/Flig...%203%20Mac.a2w

Nighthawk0973 · 08-10-2011, 09:55 PM

This sounds exiting. Would you mind me giving it a full review even though it's in 'Beta'? I mean, I'll see how good or bad it is first... if it's really bad I'll just assume it needs more work and give you some feedback.

Dj Tech42 · 08-10-2011, 10:21 PM

Sure! The only reason it is still in beta is because there are 2 more things I want to add for the final version. You can review it now because it shouldn't have too many bugs.

Nighthawk0973 · 08-10-2011, 11:31 PM

Welp than here goes!

Snowfire Games Presents...

Flight Simulator (WITH AI!

)

The Review...

------

Flight Simulator with AI (let's just call it FSAI for short) is a great aproach towards making a flight simulator. However, while it might be in it's beta phase, the 'bugs' are the wors of problems. So is FSAI a good game? Lets find out in this review
---------------------

Presentation
------------
The Presentation of FSAI definately could've been worse. The main menu looks nice but once you start to leave the city there is no detail in the scrolling menu. The fact that you must configure where you want to save the files out of games is a bit sad too. The GUIs are very responsive however, and their design and looks are decent as well. My biggest gripe is probably with the tutorial mode. While it explains the concepts of flying your plane just fine, the fact that your always in the middle of flying while learning at the same time makes learning the game a bit difficult. The game also puts a lot of information in one short time, given the fact that the control scheme isn't very easy to remember, it would've been nice if the games tutorial went at a slower pace. Especially since flying and not crashing while reading text is a nightmare....
--------------
Audio/Video
-----------
My biggest gripe with this game has probably got to be with the graphics. There's no visual design unless your at the city and that means you'll be staring at a lot of the same alice grass... The clouds look nice on the other hand and all of the planes animate smoothly with one exception that I'll talk about later. And while there is no sound effects the music is brilliant and there is more than just one music track.
--------------------------------------
Gameplay
---------
The gameplay isn't as good as it could've been. While all the controls run smoothly it'll take most people a while to figure out the mouse is configured so that idle is in the top-left area of the screen. Provided you remember the controls however getting your camera in the perfect position should only take but a minute. The controls all work smoothly but when your acually shooting it's a bit tougher than you'd expect. First of all your switched to first person mode for percission aiming when you press P. I think you should've been able to shoot at any time. Second of all every time a shot is fired the game freezes up for a split second. I don't know if this is because of a studder in the frame rate of something in the code but it makes Dog Fight impossible to play.
-----
Replay Value
------------
There is definately a lot of modes here and there are different dogfight difficulty levels too. the Problem is sense 'Simulation' is just flying around the dull environments with no purpose, and dogfight lags when you acually shooting, I don't know why anybody would want to play this game. Howeversince there are the difficulty levels for dogfight it would last for a while if you where willing to put up with the shooting problem, or if it doesn't affect you at all.
----------------

The Verdict
-----------

Presentation: 8.5
The Presentations OK but the tutorial could've been better. And the GUI
was almost there too...

Audio/Video: 6.0
The level design is to a minimum and given the fact that there's only one area in the entire game, is just sad. There is a savior to that, and it's probably what impresses me most about this game: the Music, which is brilliant. As with lot's of alice games.

Gameplay: 8.5
The Game runs brilliant. There is no lag you you can tweak camera to your likeing. It's a too bad there's that one problem with the shooting or else this gameplay would almost get a 10.

Replay Value: 6.0
Well, if you like the simulation mode, I guess this could last a while to you. But the dog fight just fails horribly because of the shooting. Still there is the diffcultys if your willing to live with these issues. But in the end a game that's not really playable to start doesn't even have a '(Not Re)Play Value'

Final Score: 7.5(Good)

There isn't much wrong with this game. While some problems could've been fixed most of this runs perfectly. However that issue you get when trying to shoot (or when enemies shoot) is really sad since it prevents the acuall purpose of the gmae from being fun. Sadly, this is not a good enough game to keep it loaded in my Alice for a while. In fact this is one of the worlds that will be deleted when I get around to cleaning my Alice Save Folder, if I get around to it.

Dj Tech42 · 08-11-2011, 12:08 AM

Thanks for the review. I will work out whatever is causing the freeze with the shooting.It doesn't seem too bad on my computer, but I did notice it a little bit. I will also work on making the level(s) more interesting. I would like to add building collision detection, too, to add more of a challenge. Possibly some heat-seeking missiles. You can shoot whenever you want. I guess I didn't make that clear in the tutorial.

Well, now I know what to work on. I hope I can make the dogfight mode really fun in future versions.

zero00 · 08-11-2011, 02:24 AM

Incredible game!

Also, good job using Arty's IO Tool! Wish I knew how to use it!

Also, I thought I could help out with the game a little. I took a copy of your game and changed the main menu a little. I replaced the 3D text objects you used in the main menu and replaced them with billboards. Nothing else was changed. If you want, I could do some more UI design.

You can download it Here!

BTW, regarding the warning in the main menu about not clicking on anything while the IO Tool is working. Could you make the main menu buttons invisible until the IO Tool is finished, then fade them back in the view?

Dj Tech42 · 08-11-2011, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zero00

Incredible game!

Also, good job using Arty's IO Tool! Wish I knew how to use it!

Also, I thought I could help out with the game a little. I took a copy of your game and changed the main menu a little. I replaced the 3D text objects you used in the main menu and replaced them with billboards. Nothing else was changed. If you want, I could do some more UI design.

Looks cool. Thanks! It would be great if you could help with UI design.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zero00

BTW, regarding the warning in the main menu about not clicking on anything while the IO Tool is working. Could you make the main menu buttons invisible until the IO Tool is finished, then fade them back in the view?

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I will definitely implement that for the 7.0 final version.

zero00 · 08-11-2011, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dj Tech42

Looks cool. Thanks! It would be great if you could help with UI design.

Sure!

zero00 · 08-11-2011, 01:09 PM

I'll keep working on the copy of the game I posted above.

Also, I think I found a bug (or something). If you stay on the main menu for too long, the camera flies through the sky.

Dj Tech42 · 08-11-2011, 02:24 PM

Can somebody give me the AlicePreferences.xml file? Somehow I lost it and I can't enable scripting anymore.

It should be in your .alice2 folder

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	#31 (permalink)
Dj Tech42 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 203 Join Date: Feb 2011	08-10-2011, 08:17 PM 7.0 Beta 3 is here! This beta enables the saving functionality (with the iOTool). There is a Windows version and a Mac version due to the file systems being different on the operating systems. Before you start the world, go to the iOTool's properties and change the 6 string variables (current_file and the other file variables) to the file paths you want the files to be in. When you run the world for the first time, it will create the files and ask you to calibrate your mouse. When the calibration message comes up, put your mouse cursor at the bottom-right corner of your screen. This will tell the game what your screen size is, so the new mouse control of the plane will perform correctly. You only need to calibrate once. Do not exit the world or click/press anything until the red message disappears. The red message tells you that the program is loading/saving. When everything is set up, the world will load its preferences and the calibration. After about 4 seconds, you will be able to start the game. I hope you like the new saving functionality! It is cool how you don't need to set your preferences up or calibrate every time you run the world. It just loads your previous configuration! In the final version, it will record your times and store them in the high scores file so you can look at your best times for each difficulty and compare them to other people. Thanks to arty for the awesome iOTool and the string to number conversion script used in this version. I hope you guys can test this out so the final version can be relatively bug-free. Download 7 Beta 3 for Windows: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9210692/Flig...%20Windows.a2w Download 7 Beta 3 for Mac: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9210692/Flig...%203%20Mac.a2w Flight Simulator with Dogfight Modes: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6840

	#32 (permalink)
Nighthawk0973 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 240 Join Date: May 2011 Location: In front of my computer.	08-10-2011, 09:55 PM This sounds exiting. Would you mind me giving it a full review even though it's in 'Beta'? I mean, I'll see how good or bad it is first... if it's really bad I'll just assume it needs more work and give you some feedback.

	#33 (permalink)
Dj Tech42 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 203 Join Date: Feb 2011	08-10-2011, 10:21 PM Sure! The only reason it is still in beta is because there are 2 more things I want to add for the final version. You can review it now because it shouldn't have too many bugs. Flight Simulator with Dogfight Modes: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6840

	#34 (permalink)
Nighthawk0973 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 240 Join Date: May 2011 Location: In front of my computer.	08-10-2011, 11:31 PM Welp than here goes! Snowfire Games Presents... Flight Simulator (WITH AI! ) The Review... ------ Flight Simulator with AI (let's just call it FSAI for short) is a great aproach towards making a flight simulator. However, while it might be in it's beta phase, the 'bugs' are the wors of problems. So is FSAI a good game? Lets find out in this review --------------------- Presentation ------------ The Presentation of FSAI definately could've been worse. The main menu looks nice but once you start to leave the city there is no detail in the scrolling menu. The fact that you must configure where you want to save the files out of games is a bit sad too. The GUIs are very responsive however, and their design and looks are decent as well. My biggest gripe is probably with the tutorial mode. While it explains the concepts of flying your plane just fine, the fact that your always in the middle of flying while learning at the same time makes learning the game a bit difficult. The game also puts a lot of information in one short time, given the fact that the control scheme isn't very easy to remember, it would've been nice if the games tutorial went at a slower pace. Especially since flying and not crashing while reading text is a nightmare.... -------------- Audio/Video ----------- My biggest gripe with this game has probably got to be with the graphics. There's no visual design unless your at the city and that means you'll be staring at a lot of the same alice grass... The clouds look nice on the other hand and all of the planes animate smoothly with one exception that I'll talk about later. And while there is no sound effects the music is brilliant and there is more than just one music track. -------------------------------------- Gameplay --------- The gameplay isn't as good as it could've been. While all the controls run smoothly it'll take most people a while to figure out the mouse is configured so that idle is in the top-left area of the screen. Provided you remember the controls however getting your camera in the perfect position should only take but a minute. The controls all work smoothly but when your acually shooting it's a bit tougher than you'd expect. First of all your switched to first person mode for percission aiming when you press P. I think you should've been able to shoot at any time. Second of all every time a shot is fired the game freezes up for a split second. I don't know if this is because of a studder in the frame rate of something in the code but it makes Dog Fight impossible to play. ----- Replay Value ------------ There is definately a lot of modes here and there are different dogfight difficulty levels too. the Problem is sense 'Simulation' is just flying around the dull environments with no purpose, and dogfight lags when you acually shooting, I don't know why anybody would want to play this game. Howeversince there are the difficulty levels for dogfight it would last for a while if you where willing to put up with the shooting problem, or if it doesn't affect you at all. ---------------- The Verdict ----------- Presentation: 8.5 The Presentations OK but the tutorial could've been better. And the GUI was almost there too... Audio/Video: 6.0 The level design is to a minimum and given the fact that there's only one area in the entire game, is just sad. There is a savior to that, and it's probably what impresses me most about this game: the Music, which is brilliant. As with lot's of alice games. Gameplay: 8.5 The Game runs brilliant. There is no lag you you can tweak camera to your likeing. It's a too bad there's that one problem with the shooting or else this gameplay would almost get a 10. Replay Value: 6.0 Well, if you like the simulation mode, I guess this could last a while to you. But the dog fight just fails horribly because of the shooting. Still there is the diffcultys if your willing to live with these issues. But in the end a game that's not really playable to start doesn't even have a '(Not Re)Play Value' Final Score: 7.5(Good) There isn't much wrong with this game. While some problems could've been fixed most of this runs perfectly. However that issue you get when trying to shoot (or when enemies shoot) is really sad since it prevents the acuall purpose of the gmae from being fun. Sadly, this is not a good enough game to keep it loaded in my Alice for a while. In fact this is one of the worlds that will be deleted when I get around to cleaning my Alice Save Folder, if I get around to it.

	#35 (permalink)
Dj Tech42 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 203 Join Date: Feb 2011	08-11-2011, 12:08 AM Thanks for the review. I will work out whatever is causing the freeze with the shooting.It doesn't seem too bad on my computer, but I did notice it a little bit. I will also work on making the level(s) more interesting. I would like to add building collision detection, too, to add more of a challenge. Possibly some heat-seeking missiles. You can shoot whenever you want. I guess I didn't make that clear in the tutorial. Well, now I know what to work on. I hope I can make the dogfight mode really fun in future versions. Flight Simulator with Dogfight Modes: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6840

	#36 (permalink)
zero00 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 300 Join Date: Oct 2009	08-11-2011, 02:24 AM Incredible game! Also, good job using Arty's IO Tool! Wish I knew how to use it! Also, I thought I could help out with the game a little. I took a copy of your game and changed the main menu a little. I replaced the 3D text objects you used in the main menu and replaced them with billboards. Nothing else was changed. If you want, I could do some more UI design. You can download it Here! BTW, regarding the warning in the main menu about not clicking on anything while the IO Tool is working. Could you make the main menu buttons invisible until the IO Tool is finished, then fade them back in the view? ==============Some of my Games and Ideas=========== Sky Warrior: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6291 Health Bars: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?p=36968#post36968 Sky Warrior: Dual Force: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=7174 Want to make your own space game? http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6389

	#39 (permalink)
zero00 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 300 Join Date: Oct 2009	08-11-2011, 01:09 PM I'll keep working on the copy of the game I posted above. Also, I think I found a bug (or something). If you stay on the main menu for too long, the camera flies through the sky. ==============Some of my Games and Ideas=========== Sky Warrior: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6291 Health Bars: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?p=36968#post36968 Sky Warrior: Dual Force: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=7174 Want to make your own space game? http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6389

	#40 (permalink)
Dj Tech42 Senior Member Status: Offline Posts: 203 Join Date: Feb 2011	08-11-2011, 02:24 PM Can somebody give me the AlicePreferences.xml file? Somehow I lost it and I can't enable scripting anymore. It should be in your .alice2 folder Flight Simulator with Dogfight Modes: http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=6840