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Commentaire de l'auteur :

Just a little lousy text file to explain what is this about.

I gave it a bit thought and decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to release a preview of this engine I had been working all these years. I know what they say about previews that they are lame and such, but since I wanted finally some CPCists to publicly move around the maps, finally see them besides some videos, in their current form. Also just in case I get bored with this project and abandon it, it's ok for me to show something for now.

I did start working again during last year's game competition but we never finished anything (and this year's is too close, I don't have expectations). But one thing that happened is that I ported my engine to work with 64k CPCs and also GX4000 cartidge image. Meanwhile it was decided then to do a dungeon crawler with the engine instead of an FPS. All these six versions are inside the zip.

Some details
The FPS versions are abandoned with the old textures. The RPG versions are using some textures sigh from cpcwiki provided, so credits due. Only the knife is ripped by me from wolfenstein 3d.

The 64k versions might flicker since there is no double buffering anymore (but I am thinking that at least in cartidge format I can move some static data to the cartidge and have flawless double buffering on GX4000 and 64k plus machines if ran from cartidge).

The RPG versions are currently using some experimental technique for fading the walls to dark by distance which basically consumes more memory, look ugly and buggy and could use better colors. Maybe it will be easier on the plus palette (which I don't support yet) to have smooth colors (there are only 3 or 4 shaded versions of the walls). This also allowed me to do another trick which is to stop the raycasting after 4 blocks of distance since it will turn to darkness then and no need to step more, thus the speed is kinda faster now (but there are glitches here and there). Not sure whether I will keep this, it does give a moody feel, but takes more memory and kinda looks ugly. I know now too why some other glitches appear, they have to do with some optimizations for faster raycasting. A lot can be done to improve, only if I get motivated again.

Personally I am more enthusiastic to work on the RPG game. But the wolf engine preview is also here just to see that both engines are based on realtime raycasting and no animation.

Keys
For the FPS: arrow keys to move, Right Shift to run, Enter to strafe (just because it's on the same position where Alt was on PC when I was playing Doom :)
For the RPG: numeric arrow keys (just like I used to play Eye of the Beholder, 4 and 6 are strafing, but 7 and 9 are rotating left/right and 8 and 2 is forward/back), space to attack (also open door blocks).

Joystick is also supported because of GX4000 but any joystick with preferably 2 buttons should work on regular CPCs too. Here, I put some thought of how to do actions with just two buttons. I have a scheme that makes sense. On the FPS now, Button 1 will run, Button 2 and left/right will strafe. But running the engine I noticed the walk speed is too slow, so maybe a good idea would be for the future, Button 1 shoot weapon, Button 2 hold to strafe. That's what I do on the RPG version, Button 1 attacks with knife, but also will do other actions like open doors if in front. Button 2 hold will strafe with left/right. Left/right will rotate this time. Maybe in the future I will think what I can do with only two buttons (or maybe the start button of GX4000) to bring up inventor or map (pausing the game). It's challenging and interesting how to tackle such games with only two buttons.

So that's it. I was thinking to write some more technical infos and thoughts on my blog computerhermit.blogspot.com. I wanted to write this before releasing the preview but maybe I'll do at some point later. There are a lot more cool things this engine can do with a system of column offset mapping I use (also used for the effects on Wolfenstrad) and other future elements I think to add, and at the same time there are a lot of technical issues and memory limitations that makes things frustrating atm. I think I won't release any other official previews before finishing the RPG game (maybe just a youtube video here and there or blogpost for progress updates).

Optimus

La continuité de ce qui avait été annoncé dans la démo "Wolfenstrad"

Groupe : Dirty Minds
Auteur : Optimus