Demo FlightSim Demo 2

[Misty]

I wanted to make this kind of like a classic GMC era game, like That Games Guy style, like in a hypothetic universe where "what if" That Games Guy's flight simulators did not suck.

I lost my license so I can't use YYC Compiler, so if it lags with too many explosions just wait for me to get my license and I will update it with YYC Compiler. Doesn't run too bad on my slow computer though.

This was exported with GM STUDIO and it puts it in Full Screen mode. If you have problems with Full Screen Mode hit F4 to put it in windowed mode. If you still have problems let me know and I will update it with a Windowed Mode Version.
This runs on Windows. It doesn't need any shaders to run.

If I run out of bandwidth let me know and I will host it again.

Also, unlike the last demo, this has a Victory Condition and you CAN beat the demo.

Spoiler: Old stuff

Through the collective effort and ingenuity of mankind, great achievements have been made, both for good and for ill.

One of these achievements is the (?) Combat Flight Simulator for GM 3D.
A joint effort between Mark Overmars, Boris the Engineer's Quaternions, Xot's scripts and Myself, I bring to you
Combat. Flight. Simulator. GM. (Actual name hidden at this time.)

Questions, views, comments. Please report your framerate back to me. It should run at 60 fps.

Version 1 Build X Release 1 (Old Demo)
Compatible with Windows
Exported with GM Studio
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=68569237938763736956
(hostanet is down, but will be uploaded there soon)

Known bugs: A small patch of terrain far in the distance returns incorrect z bullet collision values. Don't ever plan on fixing it, because fixing it may cause unneeded lag in the final game, so expect this bug in final game.
Known issues:
In Real View the sun is invisible. Don't ever plan on fixing this because it is due to the zfar being set to a shorter value for the cockpit znear.


Please report your framerate back to me. It should run at 60 fps.

Controls:
WS Pitch Control (tail)
AD Roll Control (aileron) Note: An aileron roll is not a barrel roll, StarFox is incorrect!
QE Yaw Control (rudder)
CTRL+E Eject


Audio: I have come to the conclusion that GM'S audio basically sucks, no option for walling or anything, so I was wondering about FMOD, would you recommend it and why (I have a buddy who has a Mac computer who is interested in my game.)

 

[Misty]

Not a bad effort so far

Stable 60 FPS here. Couple of little anomalies that you are probably aware of - small view when in full screen mode and being able to see through the runway (bottom of the scree) if you try to pitch down whilst on runway and going real fast.

What would you suggest be solution to this? Seems to be limit of the render device. The znear's and zfars are already at max capacity.

Pretty good though. I like the feel of it

Thanks.

I am gonna try and see if Peter Gabriel will compose the soundtrack to this.

 

[Roa]

For some reason, this reminds me of, and makes me want to play U.N. squadron on the SNES.

 

[Misty]

For some reason, this reminds me of, and makes me want to play U.N. squadron on the SNES.

Never heard of it, but I'm googling it now.

 

[Roa]

Misty, try something like this in the step begin event. The only thing external is that obj_camer.aspect_r goes in the d3d_set_projection where you declare the view ratio

IE: d3d_set_projection_ext(x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2,0,0,1,fov, aspect_ratio ,near_clipping,far_clipping)

if window_get_width()!=view_wview[0]  or window_get_width()!=view_wview[0] then
  {
  view_wview[0]=window_get_width();
  view_hview[0]=window_get_height();
  surface_resize(application_surface, window_get_width() , window_get_height());
  obj_camera.aspect_r=view_wview[0]/view_hview[0]
  }

 

[Roa]

@Jas Oh, I was addressing the view size lmao. Kinda hard on the eyes at 1080p

 

[Misty]

Pro tip! It has nothing to do with the near or far distance.

I thought he was referring to the very bottom part of the runway getting clipped out by the znear.

Oh yeah, the view size is pretty ordinary. 640 X 480 and asking if people maintain 60 FPS. Kinda scary to think it might not get 60 FPS.

You never know with computer systems. It might run at 60 fps on my slow computer, but due to some weird glitch it might run slower on a faster computer.

I can't figure out how to increase the resolution beyond 640x480, and when I go to fullscreen it is never centered. Btw I am not drawing the scene regularly, I am using application_surface in the draw_gui event. I am also not using views, but room_width and room_height.

 

[Misty]

As I said, it has nothing to do with znear.

Im talking about prior to liftoff, sometimes the bottom of the runway gets clipped. If youre talking about camera dipping under as the plane noses up, that's a different story altogether.

 

[Misty]

So, option 1? I like the camera z where it is, but I suppose i could change it to higher.

 

[NoobsWeStand]

How big is the terrain? I cheated my throttle up to 2000 and it just kept on going
Also, what do you use for your collisions? Is it a dll or some custom crazy math skills?

Looking good so far. I noticed that I don't gain a lot of speed when I tip my plane down and don't lose speed when tipping it up
But, it is a good start for sure! Feels really nice

 

[Misty]

How big is the terrain?

It is infinite (in the positive direction). But if you leave your computer running for days you should be able to exceed the bounds of the terrain, it only has 9000 negative repeats or so, which is only about 1 million miles in the negative direction (behind the airport).

I cheated my throttle up to 2000 and it just kept on going

How did you cheat your throttle to 2000?

Also, what do you use for your collisions? Is it a dll or some custom crazy math skills?

No dll just gml. Crazy as my math skills are, there is a small patch of terrain off in the distance that returns incorrect bullet z values. Its hard to find and I dont ever plan on fixing it, its not a game breaking glitch.

Looking good so far.

Thankyou.

I noticed that I don't gain a lot of speed when I tip my plane down and don't lose speed when tipping it up

Try it without the throttle at 2000.

In real life jet fighter planes don't usually lose speed when they tip up, they lose acceleration. Keep an eye on the vel bar, it should accelerate slower when your nose is up. Also if you exceed 10000 feet you stall, which is the losing speed you were talking about. Also if you are going near mach you should lose speed when you tip up, the vel bar should go down.

And your plane gains speed when it is pointed down, that is a trick you can use to gain more speed. Keep in mind that it has to overcome air resistance to gain speed, the plane is already well past free fall speed of a human, so even if the nose is down it can sometimes lose speed if you dont throttle enough.

But, it is a good start for sure! Feels really nice

Thankyou.

 

[NoobsWeStand]

It is infinite (in the positive direction). But if you leave your computer running for days you should be able to exceed the bounds of the terrain, it only has 9000 negative repeats or so, which is only about 1 million miles in the negative direction (behind the airport).

How did you cheat your throttle to 2000?

Try it without the throttle at 2000.

In real life jet fighter planes don't usually lose speed when they tip up, they lose acceleration. Keep an eye on the vel bar, it should accelerate slower when your nose is up. Also if you exceed 10000 feet you stall, which is the losing speed you were talking about. Also if you are going near mach you should lose speed when you tip up, the vel bar should go down.

And your plane gains speed when it is pointed down, that is a trick you can use to gain more speed. Keep in mind that it has to overcome air resistance to gain speed, the plane is already well past free fall speed of a human, so even if the nose is down it can sometimes lose speed if you dont throttle enough.

I just used a memory editing tool (like cheat engine)
Oh. I don't play a lot of flight sims. Good info to know

I managed to get my plane stable while at 50,000 throttle. The fps tanked to around 30 and the cpu usage skyrocketed
Although it wasn't really eating up any memory. Either you must dump the terrain that is really far away or you repeat it a lot (although the terrain did seem a bit repetitive when going 1,000,000+ velocity)

Are you going to implement anything like g-forces? Like you get too many, and your pilot passes out, and too much and your pilot dies XD

 

[Misty]

I just used a memory editing tool (like cheat engine)
Oh. I don't play a lot of flight sims. Good info to know

I managed to get my plane stable while at 50,000 throttle. The fps tanked to around 30 and the cpu usage skyrocketed
Although it wasn't really eating up any memory. Either you must dump the terrain that is really far away or you repeat it a lot (although the terrain did seem a bit repetitive when going 1,000,000+ velocity)

The terrain goes 128 miles before it repeats. It can theoretically, be infinite*infinite terrain. I could generate a terrain that spans 512*infinite miles. If I had a super computer, I could make a terrain the size of the universe. Generating the terrain takes a long time but there is a fast way to load it. Terrain chunks that are far away are not rendered, so you could have a terrain the size of a planet without it eating much memory at all.

Are you going to implement anything like g-forces? Like you get too many, and your pilot passes out, and too much and your pilot dies XD

It already has it. But you have to change the view to first person. And no the pilot will not die from G-Forces, this is a combat simulator not a medical simulator.

Also I forgot to mention, CTRL+E Ejects.

 

[Roa]

views are required in 3d.

 

[Roa]

Since when?

Since anyone had any sense of scaleability and not wasting render time

 

[Roa]

News to me. I never use views and can manage to maintain 3000 FPS with a crapload of polys at full HD.

You actually render the room size?

 

[CyberTwister]

Well done, Nice project
However, if it was me, i could'nt have some know bug (or glitch) and don't solve them before a final release ...
But great work

 

[Misty]

I was told views lose speed, because they do. So I don't use them.

Far as bugs go, lots of older games have collision errors and places you can go to glitch the game. At least the plane collisions aren't bugged, only the bullets in some places.

If my back didn't hurt so much maybe I'd fix it.

 

[Roa]

views and port views limit the internal render to the view parameters, that's definitely not a loss of speed lol.

 

[Misty]

My room size limits it to the internal parameters.


Also my calculations were incorrect, the terrain is only about 40 miles not 128 miles.

 

[Misty]

I know this is a double post, but I just wanted to state, that underneath my apathetic exterior, I took some advice to heart, I pushed myself and I am very enthusiastic about what I did.

What I did is I made the terrain collisions "pixel perfect" now, so that glitch I mentioned earlier about the bullets having incorrect z in the terrain is going to be gone in future versions.

I know I said I would never fix it, but the perfectionist in me gave me no choice, so I fixed it, we listen to our fans and we take quality control of our creations to be of the utmost quality.

 

[Roa]

I know this is a double post, but I just wanted to state, that underneath my apathetic exterior, I took some advice to heart, I pushed myself and I am very enthusiastic about what I did.

What I did is I made the terrain collisions "pixel perfect" now, so that glitch I mentioned earlier about the bullets having incorrect z in the terrain is going to be gone in future versions.

I know I said I would never fix it, but the perfectionist in me gave me no choice, so I fixed it, we listen to our fans and we take quality control of our creations to be of the utmost quality.

Give us something to shoot at

Also, its not breaking the double post rule if its been 48 hours(maybe 24 now?). If you have something meaningfull to add then its not really a big deal, but counter wise, even if you are not the last poster, you should refrain from having back and forth comments constantly every couple of seconds that end up bumping a thread. Its more of just a rule of excercising common curtisy to other people's threads. Not that I'm encouraging it, but It was more of an issue on the old forum software. I think this forum sorts activity in the recent post by time between active post when it decides to bump.

 

[Misty]

Give us something to shoot at
.

I willl, next demo there will be more shootable objects.

Right now I have a system where the bullets have realistic pixel perfect collisiions, its not like a bounding sphere like Ace Combat or Snoopy, where you just aim in a general circle, your bullets actually have to it the target.

 

[gitwalrus]

Wow. Great job! I can see this becoming a great game. As a real life pilot one thing is bothering me. The rudder animation is backwards. The controls themselves work fine but the animation is backwards. Other than that great job!

 

[Misty]

Wow. Great job! I can see this becoming a great game. As a real life pilot one thing is bothering me. The rudder animation is backwards. The controls themselves work fine but the animation is backwards. Other than that great job!

Darn, I should have looked at some videos first. Thought it was the other way around. It will be fixed in the next version, thanks.


Can you find me some videos of f14s or f15s yawing? I want to confirm this to be 100% sure .Can't find any on youtube.

 

[gitwalrus]

Darn, I should have looked at some videos first. Thought it was the other way around. It will be fixed in the next version, thanks.


Can you find me some videos of f14s or f15s yawing? I want to confirm this to be 100% sure .Can't find any on youtube.

I'm on vacation for the next couple of days. I'll try to remember when I'm back but you may have to remind me.

 

[Misty]

I'm on vacation for the next couple of days. I'll try to remember when I'm back but you may have to remind me.

Downloaded Janes Combat sims, it turns out you are right.

 

[Andy]

Great work so far! I love simulation games, and I can see you put a lot of work into this. Great attention to detail.

 

[gearmex]

Excellent work, Sims are the best!

 

[Paolo Mazzon]

Good:

• Smooth 60 on my garbage hardware
• Doesn't feel wonky at all
• Visually pretty good; could use some cool effect shaders
• The first person view is cool; I love that the HUD is drawn on the green thing

Bad:

• Don't use the default font ever
• Don't use Windows Dialogs (show_message) ever
• Textures are extremely low res

 

[Misty]

Great work so far! I love simulation games, and I can see you put a lot of work into this. Great attention to detail.

Thankyou, the next demo is sitting on my computer, has even more detail, didn't release it yet due to the hubub of the game jam.

Excellent work, Sims are the best!

Thankyou. They are.

Good:

• Smooth 60 on my garbage hardware
• Doesn't feel wonky at all
• Visually pretty good; could use some cool effect shaders
• The first person view is cool; I love that the HUD is drawn on the green thing

Bad:

• Don't use the default font ever
• Don't use Windows Dialogs (show_message) ever
• Textures are extremely low res

Strangely enough, I kind of like the default font of GM STUDIO. It is pretty much the only default font I like.
But I am an open minded person...what font would you suggest to replace it?

Reason I use Windows Dialogs is to break the fourth wall...it signifies that "hey...this just got real...signifing you are out of the cockpit, and in the real world...these messages are used for hardcore events such as player death and such, to signify - hey this just got real - you are out of the game."

As for the textures, I had a high res version of the terrain texture somewhere but I will probably never find it. I release the low res versions for dev purposes, quicker load times for each run.
As for the plane, if you want to retexture the plane I can send you the original texture and you can upgrade it for me if you like.
As for the runway textures, same deal.

 

[Paolo Mazzon]

Strangely enough, I kind of like the default font of GM STUDIO. It is pretty much the only default font I like.
But I am an open minded person...what font would you suggest to replace it?

Reason I use Windows Dialogs is to break the fourth wall...it signifies that "hey...this just got real...signifing you are out of the cockpit, and in the real world...these messages are used for hardcore events such as player death and such, to signify - hey this just got real - you are out of the game."

I really couldn't care less what font you use, as long as it's not the default one. When I boot up a game and see the default font and Windows dialogs (Is this the right homonym of the word..?), I immediately pass the game off as amateur at best, as do many others. I also don't care what benefits you think the Windows dialog brings to the table, they all mean null when compared to the disadvantages. Windows dialogues block the entire game, cause issues when activated in fullscreen, aren't consistent in style across different versions of Windows, and make you look like you don't know what you're doing. Honestly, there is no situation where the Windows dialog should be used in a game.

As for the plane, if you want to retexture the plane I can send you the original texture and you can upgrade it for me if you like.

I'm afraid I'm not your artist; besides, I was only talking about the ground. While we're on the topic of the ground, added foliage, perhaps even a lake or two, could do wonders for the visuals.

 

[Misty]

I really couldn't care less what font you use, as long as it's not the default one.

Fonts can ruin a game atmosphere, so I am careful about them.

I'm afraid I'm not your artist; besides, I was only talking about the ground. While we're on the topic of the ground, added foliage, perhaps even a lake or two, could do wonders for the visuals.

There is a lake, you gotta fly to it. Hit T for time dilation.

I am afraid foliage might lag it, but describe to me the exact manner of foliage you desire. Billboard trees kind of look awful, so what do you recommend?

 

[NoobsWeStand]

I am afraid foliage might lag it, but describe to me the exact manner of foliage you desire. Billboard trees kind of look awful, so what do you recommend?

With some sort of lighting, the billboards could look great. Take for example this shader: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=604811

 

[Misty]

With some sort of lighting, the billboards could look great. Take for example this shader: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=604811

I smell a lag spike going to be coming from this...

 

[Paolo Mazzon]

Fonts can ruin a game atmosphere, so I am careful about them.

If you were careful about them, you would not be using the default font.

I am afraid foliage might lag it, but describe to me the exact manner of foliage you desire. Billboard trees kind of look awful, so what do you recommend?

I'm afraid literally anything you add to the game will cost clock cycles. Again, I'm not your designer, I gave a simple suggestion, it is your job to interpret it and add it if you feel it would benefit your game.

 

[Misty]

If you were careful about them, you would not be using the default font.

I disagree. GM studio has a pretty good default, I don't even know what font it is that's how good it is.

Now if you were talking about something like Project Spark, that is a corporation that tried to make money from a service that forced game creators to use a default font....and yes their default font was terrible and you couldn't even put a border around it. I don't know what they were thinking.

 

[ConsolCWBY]

I liked it. However, the flight model feels a little loose. I don't know how else to explain it but it makes it hard to land it. The runway is at the bottom of a mountain... anyway, it's a fine job and a great effort in GM:S.
On Ground or Flying Fame rate: 60 solid fps
Above Clouds or Ejecting Frame rate: 58 fps

 

[Misty]

I liked it. However, the flight model feels a little loose. I don't know how else to explain it but it makes it hard to land it. The runway is at the bottom of a mountain... anyway, it's a fine job and a great effort in GM:S.
On Ground or Flying Fame rate: 60 solid fps
Above Clouds or Ejecting Frame rate: 58 fps

Lost my license so I can't use YYC compiler. Otherwise it would neever dip to 58 fps.

Flight model is supposed to be loose so its more realistic.
And next version will have a joystick so it will be easier to land.
And you are supposed to approach the runway from the other side lol?

 

[ConsolCWBY]

Lost my license so I can't use YYC compiler. Otherwise it would neever dip to 58 fps.

It wasn't a steady 58 fps, so it could be the crappy machine I'm borrowing. Believe it or not, my olde netbooke can't run GM:S. It's great for being on the go, but it's old.
Playing your game again, I still think the model is a little bit off. Could be the cheap keyboard. It's not Falcon 4.0, of course, but with the joystick I'll be able to tell.
(I'm very impressed, btw - Your skills in GML are formidable. I gotta get off my rear and get something decent together instead of playing around with all the procgen b.s. I've been experimenting with this week... How do you keep yourself focused??)

 

[Misty]

It wasn't a steady 58 fps, so it could be the crappy machine I'm borrowing. Believe it or not, my olde netbooke can't run GM:S. It's great for being on the go, but it's old.
(I'm very impressed, btw - Your skills in GML are formidable. I gotta get off my rear and get something decent together instead of playing around with all the procgen b.s. I've been experimenting with this week...

Thankyou. However I must mention I spent many hours working on the procgen terrain of this game, so one should not diss procgen.

How do you keep yourself focused??)

The long story is, I don't. I am always working on random, unrelated projects.

Playing your game again, I still think the model is a little bit off. Could be the cheap keyboard. It's not Falcon 4.0, of course, but with the joystick I'll be able to tell.

One of these days I am going to put in Joystick support and I am gonna test it. Then I may PM you it and see your opinion (with the gamepad support.)

 

[Fern]

Makes for a cool tech demo in terms of what GML can do. It also goes to show one of the many reasons why nobody uses GMS for 3D. Graphically, it is uncanny. I've seen some really well done 3D GMS projects but they used it in small corridors and avoided doing anything too ambitious which works well with the lacking 3D engine GMS provides. The physics behind the jet were pretty solid and that is why I say that this shows you GML can do just about anything any other language can achieve.

 

[Misty]

Makes for a cool tech demo in terms of what GML can do. It also goes to show one of the many reasons why nobody uses GMS for 3D. Graphically, it is uncanny. I've seen some really well done 3D GMS projects but they used it in small corridors and avoided doing anything too ambitious which works well with the lacking 3D engine GMS provides. The physics behind the jet were pretty solid and that is why I say that this shows you GML can do just about anything any other language can achieve.

GMS just uses D3D 9 though, other flight sims use D3d 6,7,8 and 9, and don't have zfighting issues, but I don't know how they get around the zfighting issues.

 

[gamedev4life]

great work, you've got some serious skill!

 

[Misty]

great work, you've got some serious skill!

Thanks!

 

[Misty]

Bump. Has anyone beaten this demo yet?

 

[Paolo Mazzon]

Version 1.0.0.1 Update? Colour me intrigued.
Complaints 1.0.0.1

• Let me turn this music off, there is never a point when programming I don't have my own music playing
• Text box won't go away
• Screen turns red but doesn't tell me why
• Apparently this plane can't go above the clouds
• Lock the cursor
• Default font

Good 1.0.0.1

• Base looks kinda cool
• Still smooth 60
• Views are cool

 

[Misty]

Version 1.0.0.1 Update? Colour me intrigued.
Complaints 1.0.0.1

• Let me turn this music off, there is never a point when programming I don't have my own music playing

• This is a video game. Video games tend to have background music.

• Text box won't go away

  It is a tutorial. You dont want the textbox to dissapear in order to prevent the player from forgetting the instructions and failing the tutorial.

• Screen turns red but doesn't tell me why

  It is called red out, the opposite of black out, when you push the nose down and blood rushes to the brain. It is in all flightsims so it doesn't really need explanation.

• Apparently this plane can't go above the clouds

• Yes it can. Please explain what you are doing because it can do it even at 80 percent throttle with the landing gear down.

• Lock the cursor

  You should not lock the cursor for several reasons. 1. it is not an FPS so there is no actual need, 2. It is better in cockpit mode when you know the cursor position. 3. It is jittery. 4. Window_get_focus() rarely functions properly forcing you to ctrl+alt+delete it

• Default font

  Most flight sims use Arial which is a default font.

Good 1.0.0.1

• Base looks kinda cool
• Still smooth 60
• Views are cool

Thanks. Did you beat the demo?

 

[Paolo Mazzon]

• This is a video game. Video games tend to have background music.
• It is a tutorial. You dont want the textbox to dissapear in order to prevent the player from forgetting the instructions and failing the tutorial.
• It is called red out, the opposite of black out, when you push the nose down and blood rushes to the brain. It is in all flightsims so it doesn't really need explanation.
• Yes it can. Please explain what you are doing because it can do it even at 80 percent throttle with the landing gear down.
• You should not lock the cursor for several reasons. 1. it is not an FPS so there is no actual need, 2. It is better in cockpit mode when you know the cursor position. 3. It is jittery. 4. Window_get_focus() rarely functions properly forcing you to ctrl+alt+delete it
• Most flight sims use Arial which is a default font.

Thanks. Did you beat the demo?

Jesus are you allergic to criticism? I don't want to listen to the generic music in your game, I want to continue listening to my album which every game downloaded on Steam right now lets me do -- and they all have background music. I don't need to see the textbox displaying no useful information the entire time, I've already read it. Give me a button to toggle it. I am not a flight sim player, and thus I do not understand red out and neither do a lot of people. It is not so iconic that it goes unsaid. I was unable to go above the clouds, but you say I can so I'll give it another go later. You should lock the cursor for many reasons, including that it adds nothing to the game and is disorienting. I don't care about arial being a default font in some other program, I am talking about the default Gamemaker font.

Nope, I didn't beat it.

 

[Galladhan]

Bump. Has anyone beaten this demo yet?

Oh yeh! And i had fun playing it. I summarize my feedback:

Atmosphere
I like the idea of the "flying instructor" who explains the pilot's tasks in a sarcastic, over the top, way. Nice touch. I would expand on this.

Graphics
I guess it depends more on GM:S 3D limitations than on your graphics skills, but i don't dislike the retro feeling. I would go with a different approach (if possible) though. Maybe using voxels (no idea if it's doable) or don't know... old school "vector/wireframe" graphics?
Something like the good old Star Wars coin-op by Atari:



Again, my knowledge about 3D is non-existent, so i don't know if it's doable in GM:S, but i would totally adore something like this.

Physics
Wow! You did a great job with them. It's a pleasure to pilot the airplane.
There's just one thing that could be improved, in my opinion: speed.
But maybe you're still working on it? Maybe you could make it faster changing the graphics style approach?
No idea, i just have the feeling it should be a bit faster, especially when you're flying very low (maybe you could use blur effects for it?).
What about afterburner? :3

Kudos, anyway!