TMC's Shoot Em Up Construction Kit - Dev Diary

[Prime_8]

wing commander used 'skeewd sprites to emulate perspective .

::  quats' are a more precise way to describe attitude in 3d .   
euler is imprecise as it is effected by order of opperation .
ie the order you apply the rotations can effect the final orientation of your object .

quats' don't suffer any order issues.    point at a vector and roll on local z axis .  that's  it .
most 3d formats that use quats for animation data for lower filesize and higher precission .
in animations they assume normalized vector component , and relative to object position ..  but ...
i have hit soem that use quats as a look at ( stilll some what valid ) with a z roll .
the idea is there , in that animation teh object points at a given point regardless of origin . LOL

[T_M_C]

I think i prefer Quaternions over Euler, but i still find it useful to think of things in terms of yaw, pitch and roll.

Another great advantage is that you can convert a Quaternion into to a Euler Rotation Matrix and back again.

Which makes things a lot easier.

I do have code that allows for rotations about an arbitrary angle with a rotation matrix, which gets around gimble lock, but Quaternions are much more simple and elegant solution.

I loved the idea of Wing Commander and i was the Biggest Origin fan ever, being brought up on Ultima, but i never got to play Wing Commander on the Amiga or PC at the time so really missed the boat there.

I did get to play the game many years later and thought it had aged quite badly.

TMC

[fog]

I did get to play the game many years later and thought it had aged quite badly.

Early 3D games, however the effect was achieved, really have aged horribly.

Many games from the Amiga era when most were 2D still look fantastic today and many could be released now, but the generation after that like the PSone which were mostly 3D look awful.

The strange thing is that in most cases that applies as much to the gameplay as it does to the graphics.....and I still haven't quite figured out why. 

[Prime_8]

it was a cash grab on 2nd gen , or 2nd run items .

[fog]

it was a cash grab on 2nd gen , or 2nd run items .

In some cases hat's no doubt true.  In classics like GTA:Vice City though it was brilliantly playable at the time and, while it remains one of my favourite games of all time, I tried to play it again recently and it was truly awful.

I just think the elements that make up 3D gameplay (controls, camera etc) have evolved and improved a hell of a lot over the years and that's the main reason early 3D games feel horribly dated.  IMO  

[Prime_8]

heres one for you .. when i gotn into rendering my own 3d scenes on high end art aps ..

i became dissinterrested in lower rez games.. almost disgusted in pixel art ... then one day i was " wow i have become a bit depth digital snob . " LOL ,, and though i re-respected teh pixel art and such  i still found lower graphic quality when it was not intended game style dreadfull .

+ when i figured how some of the 'tricks of how 3d worked ..  i became eveless impressed at obvious rushed products .  the magic was gone .

now with teh current generation of games , they are visualy gripping and draw you in .. when done well . .. i'm sue in 10 more years we will be like " i can't belive we liked that ... we did not even ha holographic voxel displays ! "
LOL

[TheKhakinator]

it was a cash grab on 2nd gen , or 2nd run items .

In some cases hat's no doubt true.  In classics like GTA:Vice City though it was brilliantly playable at the time and, while it remains one of my favourite games of all time, I tried to play it again recently and it was truly awful.

I just think the elements that make up 3D gameplay (controls, camera etc) have evolved and improved a hell of a lot over the years and that's the main reason early 3D games feel horribly dated.  IMO  

It is weird how you say that, but I played GTA:SA... then tried to play GTA 3. The gap is huge.

[fog]

It is weird how you say that, but I played GTA:SA... then tried to play GTA 3. The gap is huge.

Yup there's a big difference and I didn't realise it at the time.  In fact I would have sworn the mechanics of the gameplay were identical.