In short, it's a random number generator system I use. I have a video that details this. I think it's called "how building are done" or something. I had to search PM's screenshot archive for the video as it's so old (though still accurate as far as the method goes). I found the video - it's the second one on the 31-40 page (and consider that I'm now at screenshot 181).
I'll give you a big hint - it's the name in the title of this video. World 1 is where everything starts and world 1 is called "Jeremy's House" because, well, the character you play as is Jeremy. It's one of my favorite male names.
The landscape spans 58 1/4 miles horiztonally and 40 miles deep. Each world (setting) has 16 levels typically spaced 3.8 miles apart but span only 1/10 mile. Metrics are used - see the video that covers world 7, air taxi, for details. If you want to learn more, visit PM's site. I just posted screenshots 174 and 175 today, showing an enhancement I made to the timer. Once I finish the ground decals for the Sentus Mountains, I'll post a video of this neat feature.
The houses are 2 stories each and they are very closely spaced. The farm fields are part of another region, the Yuris region, of which has different laws and regulations than the Ronnisa region. The Yuris region is otherwise only seen in this world. Closer to the city, multi-story apartments come into view, though they are not visible.
So do you ever plan on making this game interesting or appealing to anyone? It is just a bunch of pointless detail with no depth. What is the purpose? When does the game get fun?
It's already interesting and appealing to several. I can't get actual game play in for a long time yet as I need to do several things. First, I need to almost completely redo the character. Second, I need the rest of the game objects. Third, I need enemies. I need the character redone for cases 2 and 3. Fourth, I need level completion functionality. There are a few other things yet but those are the major ones. I have much higher motive for the scenery right now.
@ulillillia Your motive is pointless, its tons of work on details that are unrelated to anything in the game. The beach in the back, the hills, the clouds, all "polish" and no feature. Guy bounces really high on platforms does not a game make. Give it enemies, goals, a general direction besides again "guy bounces really high on platforms"
I can tell you haven't read the details on PM at all. What you're seeing for most of the worlds now is the finalization for the scenery. Enemies will be present, but, until I redo the character, there's really no point in having them yet, aside from just their basic motions. I can't add in much without redoing the character or my efforts will otherwise be wasted because I'd have to go in and rechange everything again.
@ulillillia Hmm.. don't you think focusing too much on graphics may end up hurting gameplay?
There are a lot of games out there with amazing graphics but when it comes to gameplay, there's not much there. It's so common these days, especially in this era of Xbox 360's and PS3s and "high definition".
Do you have any plans to add parks, shops or air taxi ports in the town, to break up the rows of houses? My favourite part of the background is the farmland because it's less regular and looks more realistic.
I have no plans for adjusting the houses and the design is unlikely to change. I am leaning toward having farm fields in the Sentus Mountains world though because I liked the way they came out.
I have zero experience with big cities so I'm only guessing. I'm using what I know (the roads are almost always empty) and amplifying it based on various factors. There's also the air taxis hovering above as well.
Great work on this one mate, looks fantastic. I just had a nice idea for a finishing touch you could do when you mentioned the character was moving at the speed of an airliner. You could have various little graphics next to the spedometer showing roughly the speed at which you're going as compared to some real life equivalent. For instance a little fighter jet to show that you're faster than the speed of sound, a cheetah for about 70 mph and a turtle for like 1mph.
Who doesn't understand what 600 mph or 268.224 m/s mean? There's also the background scenery that you can reference. Extreme height like this video uses is highly unlikely within the first 50 hours of play. Most of the time, you won't be much more than a few hundred feet above the ground so it's easy to use the background scenery to gauge speed. Speed is of low use though, but there are cases where it is useful such as jumping across a series of platforms where you need to maintain 18 mph.
It was more of a passing thought than a serious suggestion. If you don't see much point in it I won't try and argue the case. Can't wait until its done though.
ulillillia, this looks really gorgeous. I noticed that you made a comment that you want to cap memory usage at 96 MB. I was wondering if there is any possibility that you might increase this? If you Google "Steam hardware & software survey", you will get an idea of what kind of PCs many gamers use.
I've had the 96 MB limit for quite a while, at least a year even. Even then, I'm still nowhere near that point. Remember, I still have sloped platforms, enemies, story-exclusive stuff, more game objects, the redoing of the character, and various other things yet to do. I would like PM to work for fairly old systems as well.
Interestingly enough, it's a purely 2D game engine - not a single 3D game element is used. I have no 3D modeling program (Blender is not an option do to being so slow and frustrating to use) so I have no way to make 3D with (directly that is). I only use AlphaBlend and parallax scrolling, the latter being done in a unique way.
@ulillillia That's actually really impressive, Uli. It looks like a raytraced environment along the lines of Doom or Wolfenstein 3D, and the fact that you've managed to do this on a purely 2D engine (and one that you did completely on your own without using any external libraries, at that) is seriously an amazing achievement.
@ulillillia I know you are not going to college, but do you have anyone in your family who is currently attending college?
Because if so, they could go to Autodesk's website, put in their school ID (usually an .edu address) and get free versions of Maya, 3DSmax and XSI (several others as well!)
I might look into Truespace, but I'd rather finish Platform Masters first. That's at least a year down the road though. I'm making very good progress on worlds 7 and 8 right now. The bulk of world 7 is nearly finished (minus story stuff as usual). Truespace is one I've never heard of though. I have heard of Maya and 3DSMax though, way, way back when I used Gamestudio (I abandoned it in 2006 as I found it too limiting for my needs, especially the programming and modeller (MED)).
Truespace used to be the competitor to all the programs (which Autodesk eventually bought out,) that is until the company that made Truespace suffered a hostile takeover by Microsoft.
Though in retrospect, that may be a good thing since we have an alternative to Blender now.
Ease of use (MED is good with this, Blender is rock bottom), accuracy (MED is fair with this, Blender is unknown), flexibility (MED is poor with this, Blender is unknown), and speed of development (MED is average with this, Blender is very slow) are the things that matter the most for me. It would be neat to have a full-scale 3D version of Platform Masters though.
@ulillillia Tell me what you think of Truespace when you get the chance.
Obviously, keep your efforts focused on PM. But Truespace could potentially be a good tool for you, who knows?
I hate Blender too, by the way. The program was made by a group of people who refuse to go by the same standards as other programs and instead opt to "reinvent the wheel" so to say. It's a backwards philosophy and it's only exclusive to Blender3D thankfully.
So if Blender irks you, be happy that the ignorance of the Blender developers in terms of making working controls is only their error and has no influence on any other 3D modelling software.
I had no idea on the history of Blender. I was suggested Blender in 2004 or 2005 or something as an alternative to Gamestudio's limited-usefulness MED program. I tried it out and found it very confusing to use, let alone unstable (yep, I remember creating a cube and doing something to cause the program to crash, causing one of those "illegal operation" notices to appear (I was running Windows 98 at the time which may have had something to do with it but don't recall.)).
Platform Masters is roughly half finished at this point. Once I do finish, I've had plans on working on that 2D RPG I've had planned since 2008 or something (my book uses many of its systems). Beyond that, I have no other plans and that might be the transition to 3D. At least with 3D, I shouldn't need to worry much about lighting like I do with 2D. Collision detection is something else that I have to figure out for 3D but I have some ideas that might work. 3D is almost foreign to me.
@ulillillia I think you can do it. You're a savant at counting and detail oriented tasks, that's a rare thing. Though you also have OCD, as a side effect, who cares.
There was once a guy named John Carmack. He was really good with numbers since he was young (but not so much socializing with others). He eventually went on to make the game "Doom" and also made real time 3D games a reality.
You remind me of him in some ways. I think you have both the will and the way. But yes, focus on PM first
Also I must say, I have never seen such extensive use of parallax before in a 2D game.
I honestly cannot recall a 2D platformer that rendered not just the background, but everything behind it with such a far view distance. Pretty much every game just has a flat picture as the background.
Though now is not the time, when you do eventually experiment with 3D, I am honestly excited yet somewhat scared of what you'll come up with. Given enough time and dedication, you could probably shock us all.
I'm a master at 2D. Sure Platform Masters is purely 2D, I've been getting comments on my more recent videos of users wondering if this is a 2D engine or 3D engine - they can't tell that well. That's how extreme my parallax scrolling is. Look at the clouds and the farm fields in this video and you'll think it's 3D. The texture blending and fog exactly mimic 3D games. The ground is a toss-up (it's hard to make out with poor video quality). The hills, buildings, etc. point to it being 2D.
I have advertised Platform Masters as having "20 vast, gorgeous worlds" for a long time (was 18 until I declassified the existence of the special 19 and 20). Look at the Sentus Mountains once - 1.22 million CU is how far the furthest visible mountains are - that's more than 1200 screen widths deep! The furthest visible objects in world 7 go out to 501,818 CU (that's 490 screen widths deep). It really gives a sense of scale and mimics the real world very well.
I've stated "parallax scrolling like never seen before" on PM's site for a long time, maybe even since the initial writing. One look at how the game behaves on this front pretty much says it all. One thing that surprises me is that there are no articles on Wikipedia on Platform Masters. Despite the high publicity and stuff, I'd have expected a Wikipedia article to be present about 4 to 6 months ago.... Maybe it's just waiting for the game to get much closer to being finished, like 80% done?
I'm sure once the final product is released and people have it in their hands, you'll convince more than just your fans and things will change drastically.
A true 3D remake is something I'd be interested in myself, but, without a fast and easy to use modeling program (Blender won't work - it's slow and frustrating to use), it's something I otherwise can't do.
None of them and for one reason - it's just behind the scene (closer than the near clipping range (95 feet is closer than 100, the latter being the "clipping" range)).
I think you should rething the design of the platforms. You have made beautiful landscapes but the bright colored checkered platforms kinda ruins the picture
looks great, but here's some constructive criticism: you should add a jumping animation to the game. everything else in the game looks absolutely fantastic, but the omitted jumping animation makes it look extremely basic and incomprehensive
@ulillillia In that case, I apologize. Again, great job with the game! it's coming along fantastically! I was just being a nitpick about the character design; it's nothing too serious.
Have you considered adding an option for the pixel-precise rendering? One that could be toggled, for high end computers- something that would probably be off by default. Unless it's something that's not really feasible with modern CPUs?
Great video as always Uli! I love the way the coast and farmland looks from above. I don't know how much more work this would be, but it would be really cool to also see the roofs of the houses as you rise above them.
I had Flight Simulator X Deluxe, but the controls were horrible even in perfect weather conditions. If the controls were more like Aces Over Europe (a DOS game I last played probably in 1996 or something), then it would be much, much better.
@ulillillia Did you play the game with a flight stick?
Flight simulators are meant to simulate what it's like to fly an airplane and those tend to control horribly without first learning how to control the plane, and of coarse having the right parts to even control it in the first place.
The only controls I have are the mouse and keyboard. The keyboard worked perfectly fine with Aces Over Europe as it was both fast and swift. It also accelerated (started slow but sped up). FSX is linear instead and this makes control, even in perfect weather conditions (no clouds, no wind, nothing) with the simplest kinds of airplanes (like the Cessna). If I recall, I could land quite well in Aces Over Europe, but it's extremely difficult in FSX.
@ulillillia Aces Over Europe is much less of a simulator and more of a game. FSX is designed to train actual pilots in instrument reading and basic aircraft handling.
@XD01Dragonar Of coarse, flight schools do not allow you to substitute the simulation as a replacement for real life flying with a flight instructor. But they do use it to get the basics down.
Again it's best not to think of FSX as a game. It's more of a tool for pilots, or people who want to train to become pilots in real life. It has bad control because real life has bad control. It's not easy to fly an airplane.
There are enemies, I just haven't made any yet. Before I do, however, I'll need to replace the character image so I have the death sequence and many other things. There's no point in programming any further character motions without needlessly undoing what I end up doing anyway (the physical movement (position changes within the scene) is fine, but all animation programming has no point). See PM's site for details on what the game is about (and the kinds of enemies you'll see).
Wouldn't this game be better as an RPG or something? You've put so much work into creating a sprawling world and yet you can't explore it, only see it. As a platformer the design seems to be an after-thought and I personally can't see it being very exciting, especially if you're just looking at the world all the time and not concentrating on landing on platforms etc. If the character could walk through the world and go in houses and talk to people and whatever I'd say that would be a better game
I cannot have something like that until I either get into actual 3D programming or use a top-down view. I do have a 2D RPG planned for rather extensively, but I want to finish PM first.
@ulillillia Sorry I wasn't more specific in my original comment but I meant that the character would move in and out of the screen with the sprites for houses, hills, roads etc. zooming in and out. I realise that full 3D would require a lot more work but what I'm talking about has pretty much already been implemented hence my idea. I guess you're quite stuck on making a platformer having already chosen the name of your game but your 'engine' is there for such a game I'm suggesting in the future.
@ulillillia I would ask if you played Wolfenstein or Doom, but I wonder if those games are too violent for your tastes.
So, hmm.. have you played Catacombs 3D? Or well, I guess any early FPS that simply used 2D graphics in a fake 3D effect. Sorry! I can't think of a good example here.
But if you do know what I'm talking about. Couldn't you do something similar, maybe in a first person view but with fake 2D? It wouldn't require 3D programming at all.
Have you considered making a skydiving game using this technology? Basically youd just start in the air instead of land, maybe code in some hoops ala pilotwings to go through? Anyway keep up the work.
I have a weak CPU; Could you make it so I can disable the parallax background? I prefer a solid black background. I'm sure this won't affect the gameplay. Thanks in advance!
PM requires that you be able to run at 1024x768 at 32-bit color (16-bit color might work, but it's not recommended), at least 20 fps (not recommended), have 128 MB VRAM (96 MB is the limit I've set to provide room for other things), and probably a upper end Pentium 3 processor (or middle Pentium 4). PM is not very demanding. On my Core 2 Duo system, I'm typically only getting about 12% CPU usage (25% on one core; Ronnisa Plains' rain jacks that up but the quality can be reduced).
This is beautiful. It gives a strong impression of distance and speed. In particular, I loved the dive toward ground at the end, since it shows so much of the backdrop very quickly. For a brief moment it's almost like you can see everything.
When your up high flying at 800 mph is also nice, because even though you're flying fast the height gives the illusion that you're only slowly drifting. It's all very relaxing.
If you make the rest of the game with as much care as what you've already made, it will be incredible. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Platform Masters completed.
I wonder what the people inside the air taxis think when they see a man flying past.
Will we be able to jump high enough to escape the planet's gravity? I think it would be neat if we could hit zero-g and keep floating upwards forever. Maybe you could put in an online leader boards so players could compete for the highest space jump.
Base gravity is always the same. Even 5000 miles above, you'll still have full gravity. The change over an otherwise normal span (about 10 miles) is so slight that it wouldn't be noticeable at all. Even with 4000 mph (of which takes a good few years to get), that's still not significant enough (sure 111 1/9 miles is extremely high, you're only looking at a 1% reduction in gravity or something (I don't know this formula)).
I got a question. Since you can run very fast and go very high into the air, will that run the risk of taking the challenge away if a player can get enough speed to jump right to the goal? Or will levels require players to get lots of speed and jump very high in order to complete them?
Will players be encouraged to explore and look for collectible items?
Shortcuts do indeed open up with the extreme speeds. Every special ability has it's pros and cons so make the most out of them but beware of the downfalls (hit a sloped surface (terrain or platforms) when bouncing and you're often in trouble though you could end up finding a shortcut in some cases). There are treasure chests found outside of levels so do consider hunting for them. Most of them are within the levels though, primarily found in the jumbo and supersize levels.
Hey, love the game! But, I'm really worried about it cause there's something very important you got wrong. A sedan has four doors, a coupe has two. Hope you can fix that!
There are 2-door and 4-door sedans. There are 2-door and 4-door hardtops. I can't tell what a coupe is. Cars are not my specialty though - I only know how they work on the basics front. The naming inconsistency doesn't matter in this case anyway - it's only the image that matters.
Parallax scrolling is my specialty. I'm taking it to an extreme. Pixels*Scaling=CU is the whole backend to it - a surprisingly simple formula that's extremely powerful. Even exact side views in 3D games have something very similar to this.
@ulillillia I really love parallax scrolling as well, what you are doing with it is what I expected to see in 2D modern games, most 2D games these days are still look very constrained despite being on hardware magnitudes more power than a Sega Genesis.
I wasn't thinking of Bubsy 3D when I made them. I just looked at farm fields from up close and otherwise just went from there. It's hard to make out, but, if you look closely (you'll have to use the screenshot archive as YouTube's video quality is too poor), you can actually see the banding, especially for the closest fields.
Those houses have nothing in them? You can see straight through them (and see the grass behind them). A real house would have things in between the windows the the grass behind the house, walls, lamps, plants, furniture etc. It looks like they are cardboard cutouts when you've made it so you can see straight through them.
They're too distant (200 feet from the camera) and they're also significantly dimmer than compared to the outside. The green windows comes from the reflection of the grass. The color is fixed though.
what determines the colors of the houses? random chance? or did you choose the color of each house one by one?
ZeavoTown 5 months ago
In short, it's a random number generator system I use. I have a video that details this. I think it's called "how building are done" or something. I had to search PM's screenshot archive for the video as it's so old (though still accurate as far as the method goes). I found the video - it's the second one on the 31-40 page (and consider that I'm now at screenshot 181).
ulillillia 5 months ago
What is the persons name in this video? I mean the person you are controlling?
Dagyo23 5 months ago
I'll give you a big hint - it's the name in the title of this video. World 1 is where everything starts and world 1 is called "Jeremy's House" because, well, the character you play as is Jeremy. It's one of my favorite male names.
ulillillia 5 months ago
The levels must be huge but they are mostly empty, it seems. What is there for the player to do in these huge worlds?
Also you should use IS units instead of imperial.
Flackon 5 months ago
The landscape spans 58 1/4 miles horiztonally and 40 miles deep. Each world (setting) has 16 levels typically spaced 3.8 miles apart but span only 1/10 mile. Metrics are used - see the video that covers world 7, air taxi, for details. If you want to learn more, visit PM's site. I just posted screenshots 174 and 175 today, showing an enhancement I made to the timer. Once I finish the ground decals for the Sentus Mountains, I'll post a video of this neat feature.
ulillillia 5 months ago
Looks great, can't wait to play.
somatic77 5 months ago 2
Comment removed
SoApBoX 6 months ago
If space is at a premium, why did they build all single-family detached homes and no multi-level apartments or condominiums?
Shahamu 6 months ago
The houses are 2 stories each and they are very closely spaced. The farm fields are part of another region, the Yuris region, of which has different laws and regulations than the Ronnisa region. The Yuris region is otherwise only seen in this world. Closer to the city, multi-story apartments come into view, though they are not visible.
ulillillia 6 months ago 2
actually my mistake, Truespace was released as freeware in May 2009.
The company was bought out by Microsoft and disbanded. Their website and everything is still up though and it's a very capable program.
machriderx 6 months ago
the game is coming along great!! I love the Busby influence in this game.. Btw is there momentum in the jumping!
EternalREWIND 6 months ago
Looks, good! :D
PikminWorldCreations 7 months ago
So do you ever plan on making this game interesting or appealing to anyone? It is just a bunch of pointless detail with no depth. What is the purpose? When does the game get fun?
atomicmask 7 months ago
It's already interesting and appealing to several. I can't get actual game play in for a long time yet as I need to do several things. First, I need to almost completely redo the character. Second, I need the rest of the game objects. Third, I need enemies. I need the character redone for cases 2 and 3. Fourth, I need level completion functionality. There are a few other things yet but those are the major ones. I have much higher motive for the scenery right now.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Your motive is pointless, its tons of work on details that are unrelated to anything in the game. The beach in the back, the hills, the clouds, all "polish" and no feature. Guy bounces really high on platforms does not a game make. Give it enemies, goals, a general direction besides again "guy bounces really high on platforms"
atomicmask 7 months ago
I can tell you haven't read the details on PM at all. What you're seeing for most of the worlds now is the finalization for the scenery. Enemies will be present, but, until I redo the character, there's really no point in having them yet, aside from just their basic motions. I can't add in much without redoing the character or my efforts will otherwise be wasted because I'd have to go in and rechange everything again.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Hmm.. don't you think focusing too much on graphics may end up hurting gameplay?
There are a lot of games out there with amazing graphics but when it comes to gameplay, there's not much there. It's so common these days, especially in this era of Xbox 360's and PS3s and "high definition".
f4ls10n 7 months ago
Do you have any plans to add parks, shops or air taxi ports in the town, to break up the rows of houses? My favourite part of the background is the farmland because it's less regular and looks more realistic.
SABushcraft 7 months ago
I have no plans for adjusting the houses and the design is unlikely to change. I am leaning toward having farm fields in the Sentus Mountains world though because I liked the way they came out.
ulillillia 7 months ago
If this town is so densely populated then why isn't there more traffic on the road?
TomeOG 7 months ago
I have zero experience with big cities so I'm only guessing. I'm using what I know (the roads are almost always empty) and amplifying it based on various factors. There's also the air taxis hovering above as well.
ulillillia 7 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
ht*p://djsaint-hubert.bandcamp.com/
supergrandmatales267 7 months ago
Bah forget it. I'm gonna have to sleep on this one.
WSWarthog 7 months ago
Comment removed
WSWarthog 7 months ago
Forget the previous comments I made a mistake somewhere.
WSWarthog 7 months ago
Great work on this one mate, looks fantastic. I just had a nice idea for a finishing touch you could do when you mentioned the character was moving at the speed of an airliner. You could have various little graphics next to the spedometer showing roughly the speed at which you're going as compared to some real life equivalent. For instance a little fighter jet to show that you're faster than the speed of sound, a cheetah for about 70 mph and a turtle for like 1mph.
WSWarthog 7 months ago
That idea is practically pointless.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia
The point would be that people who don't have as big an appreciation for numbers can get a rough idea of how fast they're going.
WSWarthog 7 months ago
Who doesn't understand what 600 mph or 268.224 m/s mean? There's also the background scenery that you can reference. Extreme height like this video uses is highly unlikely within the first 50 hours of play. Most of the time, you won't be much more than a few hundred feet above the ground so it's easy to use the background scenery to gauge speed. Speed is of low use though, but there are cases where it is useful such as jumping across a series of platforms where you need to maintain 18 mph.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia
It was more of a passing thought than a serious suggestion. If you don't see much point in it I won't try and argue the case. Can't wait until its done though.
WSWarthog 7 months ago
ulillillia, this looks really gorgeous. I noticed that you made a comment that you want to cap memory usage at 96 MB. I was wondering if there is any possibility that you might increase this? If you Google "Steam hardware & software survey", you will get an idea of what kind of PCs many gamers use.
tehclam 7 months ago
I've had the 96 MB limit for quite a while, at least a year even. Even then, I'm still nowhere near that point. Remember, I still have sloped platforms, enemies, story-exclusive stuff, more game objects, the redoing of the character, and various other things yet to do. I would like PM to work for fairly old systems as well.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia That is definitely fair enough. I can't wait to finally it.
tehclam 7 months ago
"My name is Ulillillia, and I like to emphasize EEEEEEVERYTHING, and I mean everything."
lol just kidding
great video as always.
grindstone1 7 months ago
looks really nice. though the city loosk like a huge camping zone
kaktuzz 7 months ago
i like there part where u bouncy xD
cartotbotom 7 months ago
Dang! I showed this to my African American friend and we both agreed that this game looks pretty super-duper. I would love to play this game!
ssjlegolasaznkitten 7 months ago
Great job Uli. Realistic animations would greatly benefit though, and prettier platforms.
PanicAttackRelief 7 months ago
Is this running on a 2D engine or a 3D engine?
SeanTucker858 7 months ago
Interestingly enough, it's a purely 2D game engine - not a single 3D game element is used. I have no 3D modeling program (Blender is not an option do to being so slow and frustrating to use) so I have no way to make 3D with (directly that is). I only use AlphaBlend and parallax scrolling, the latter being done in a unique way.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia That's actually really impressive, Uli. It looks like a raytraced environment along the lines of Doom or Wolfenstein 3D, and the fact that you've managed to do this on a purely 2D engine (and one that you did completely on your own without using any external libraries, at that) is seriously an amazing achievement.
SeanTucker858 7 months ago
@ulillillia I know you are not going to college, but do you have anyone in your family who is currently attending college?
Because if so, they could go to Autodesk's website, put in their school ID (usually an .edu address) and get free versions of Maya, 3DSmax and XSI (several others as well!)
machriderx 6 months ago
Also if that doesn't work out for you, it turns out that Truespace (a once commercial program) is now completely free (since 2008).
machriderx 6 months ago
oh and all of Truespace's tutorial content has been released free to the public too, which is also a plus!
machriderx 6 months ago
I might look into Truespace, but I'd rather finish Platform Masters first. That's at least a year down the road though. I'm making very good progress on worlds 7 and 8 right now. The bulk of world 7 is nearly finished (minus story stuff as usual). Truespace is one I've never heard of though. I have heard of Maya and 3DSMax though, way, way back when I used Gamestudio (I abandoned it in 2006 as I found it too limiting for my needs, especially the programming and modeller (MED)).
ulillillia 6 months ago
@ulillillia Yeah, good idea.
Truespace used to be the competitor to all the programs (which Autodesk eventually bought out,) that is until the company that made Truespace suffered a hostile takeover by Microsoft.
Though in retrospect, that may be a good thing since we have an alternative to Blender now.
machriderx 6 months ago
er, sorry. "All the programs I just mentioned" (maya, 3dsmax, and XSI once belonged to competing companies)
machriderx 6 months ago
Ease of use (MED is good with this, Blender is rock bottom), accuracy (MED is fair with this, Blender is unknown), flexibility (MED is poor with this, Blender is unknown), and speed of development (MED is average with this, Blender is very slow) are the things that matter the most for me. It would be neat to have a full-scale 3D version of Platform Masters though.
ulillillia 6 months ago
@ulillillia Tell me what you think of Truespace when you get the chance.
Obviously, keep your efforts focused on PM. But Truespace could potentially be a good tool for you, who knows?
I hate Blender too, by the way. The program was made by a group of people who refuse to go by the same standards as other programs and instead opt to "reinvent the wheel" so to say. It's a backwards philosophy and it's only exclusive to Blender3D thankfully.
machriderx 6 months ago
So if Blender irks you, be happy that the ignorance of the Blender developers in terms of making working controls is only their error and has no influence on any other 3D modelling software.
Sorry for double posting all the time, haha.
machriderx 6 months ago
I had no idea on the history of Blender. I was suggested Blender in 2004 or 2005 or something as an alternative to Gamestudio's limited-usefulness MED program. I tried it out and found it very confusing to use, let alone unstable (yep, I remember creating a cube and doing something to cause the program to crash, causing one of those "illegal operation" notices to appear (I was running Windows 98 at the time which may have had something to do with it but don't recall.)).
ulillillia 6 months ago
Platform Masters is roughly half finished at this point. Once I do finish, I've had plans on working on that 2D RPG I've had planned since 2008 or something (my book uses many of its systems). Beyond that, I have no other plans and that might be the transition to 3D. At least with 3D, I shouldn't need to worry much about lighting like I do with 2D. Collision detection is something else that I have to figure out for 3D but I have some ideas that might work. 3D is almost foreign to me.
ulillillia 6 months ago
@ulillillia I think you can do it. You're a savant at counting and detail oriented tasks, that's a rare thing. Though you also have OCD, as a side effect, who cares.
There was once a guy named John Carmack. He was really good with numbers since he was young (but not so much socializing with others). He eventually went on to make the game "Doom" and also made real time 3D games a reality.
You remind me of him in some ways. I think you have both the will and the way. But yes, focus on PM first
machriderx 6 months ago
*but who cares (I meant that as in, that's nothing to worry too much about)
YouTube character limit messed me up there
machriderx 6 months ago
Also I must say, I have never seen such extensive use of parallax before in a 2D game.
I honestly cannot recall a 2D platformer that rendered not just the background, but everything behind it with such a far view distance. Pretty much every game just has a flat picture as the background.
Though now is not the time, when you do eventually experiment with 3D, I am honestly excited yet somewhat scared of what you'll come up with. Given enough time and dedication, you could probably shock us all.
machriderx 6 months ago
I'm a master at 2D. Sure Platform Masters is purely 2D, I've been getting comments on my more recent videos of users wondering if this is a 2D engine or 3D engine - they can't tell that well. That's how extreme my parallax scrolling is. Look at the clouds and the farm fields in this video and you'll think it's 3D. The texture blending and fog exactly mimic 3D games. The ground is a toss-up (it's hard to make out with poor video quality). The hills, buildings, etc. point to it being 2D.
ulillillia 6 months ago
I have advertised Platform Masters as having "20 vast, gorgeous worlds" for a long time (was 18 until I declassified the existence of the special 19 and 20). Look at the Sentus Mountains once - 1.22 million CU is how far the furthest visible mountains are - that's more than 1200 screen widths deep! The furthest visible objects in world 7 go out to 501,818 CU (that's 490 screen widths deep). It really gives a sense of scale and mimics the real world very well.
ulillillia 6 months ago
@ulillillia Yes. I'm impressed. I can't think of any other game that does this, that's all I'm saying.
machriderx 6 months ago
And indeed, I too thought that the game was 3D at some point. You've got some amazing talent. I look forward to your further endeavors.
machriderx 6 months ago
I've stated "parallax scrolling like never seen before" on PM's site for a long time, maybe even since the initial writing. One look at how the game behaves on this front pretty much says it all. One thing that surprises me is that there are no articles on Wikipedia on Platform Masters. Despite the high publicity and stuff, I'd have expected a Wikipedia article to be present about 4 to 6 months ago.... Maybe it's just waiting for the game to get much closer to being finished, like 80% done?
ulillillia 6 months ago
@ulillillia Well, I think the game has to be released in order to gain notability, which is Wikipedia's requirement.
Don't get too far ahead of yourself though, focus on getting your first game done before you think about having your own Wikipedia article, heh.
machriderx 6 months ago
I'm sure once the final product is released and people have it in their hands, you'll convince more than just your fans and things will change drastically.
machriderx 6 months ago
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SoApBoX 6 months ago
Would the farms get flooded when the tide comes in?
Vespercake 7 months ago
The tide would have to rise about 40 to 50 feet before that would happen.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Great job dude! I wish you see through the eyes of the character when flying to get a real perspective on speed!
canadiangeo 7 months ago
A true 3D remake is something I'd be interested in myself, but, without a fast and easy to use modeling program (Blender won't work - it's slow and frustrating to use), it's something I otherwise can't do.
ulillillia 7 months ago
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magemog 7 months ago
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magemog 7 months ago
which house is Jeremy's?
BiffJohnston2 7 months ago
@BiffJohnston2 yeah which one im dying to know uli
twat1 7 months ago
None of them and for one reason - it's just behind the scene (closer than the near clipping range (95 feet is closer than 100, the latter being the "clipping" range)).
ulillillia 7 months ago
I think you should rething the design of the platforms. You have made beautiful landscapes but the bright colored checkered platforms kinda ruins the picture
KoRL12 7 months ago
The platforms will remain as they are outside the addition of sloped platforms that I have yet to program in.
ulillillia 7 months ago
looks great, but here's some constructive criticism: you should add a jumping animation to the game. everything else in the game looks absolutely fantastic, but the omitted jumping animation makes it look extremely basic and incomprehensive
yyoomadtho4 7 months ago
I've stated several times that the character needs a major overhaul, even in my April 2011 blog.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia In that case, I apologize. Again, great job with the game! it's coming along fantastically! I was just being a nitpick about the character design; it's nothing too serious.
yyoomadtho 7 months ago
@ulillillia by the way, i'm yyoomadtho4. i have multiple accounts.
yyoomadtho 7 months ago
Have you considered adding an option for the pixel-precise rendering? One that could be toggled, for high end computers- something that would probably be off by default. Unless it's something that's not really feasible with modern CPUs?
ExodusC 7 months ago
Although AlphaBlend supports it, it's very tedious to set up which makes it otherwise not worth doing.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Great video as always Uli! I love the way the coast and farmland looks from above. I don't know how much more work this would be, but it would be really cool to also see the roofs of the houses as you rise above them.
Maldunn 7 months ago
I really don't have a way to do that effectively and without going beyond my 96 MB memory limit I've set.
ulillillia 7 months ago
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Maldunn 7 months ago
Do you like flight simulators?
s99bf19a 7 months ago
I had Flight Simulator X Deluxe, but the controls were horrible even in perfect weather conditions. If the controls were more like Aces Over Europe (a DOS game I last played probably in 1996 or something), then it would be much, much better.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Did you play the game with a flight stick?
Flight simulators are meant to simulate what it's like to fly an airplane and those tend to control horribly without first learning how to control the plane, and of coarse having the right parts to even control it in the first place.
machriderx 7 months ago
The only controls I have are the mouse and keyboard. The keyboard worked perfectly fine with Aces Over Europe as it was both fast and swift. It also accelerated (started slow but sped up). FSX is linear instead and this makes control, even in perfect weather conditions (no clouds, no wind, nothing) with the simplest kinds of airplanes (like the Cessna). If I recall, I could land quite well in Aces Over Europe, but it's extremely difficult in FSX.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Aces Over Europe is much less of a simulator and more of a game. FSX is designed to train actual pilots in instrument reading and basic aircraft handling.
XD01Dragonar 7 months ago
@XD01Dragonar Of coarse, flight schools do not allow you to substitute the simulation as a replacement for real life flying with a flight instructor. But they do use it to get the basics down.
Again it's best not to think of FSX as a game. It's more of a tool for pilots, or people who want to train to become pilots in real life. It has bad control because real life has bad control. It's not easy to fly an airplane.
XD01Dragonar 7 months ago
Have you considered adding in a sonic boom effect when you break the sound barrier?
meganube 7 months ago
This is a very pretty game, and I love how high up you can go in the sky!
lordgoku420 7 months ago
PM is unique in the way that it has seemingly no limits. Want 1000 miles of height? Go for it!
ulillillia 7 months ago
Are there enemies in this game? What is the objective of each level?
yahdudenoway 7 months ago
There are enemies, I just haven't made any yet. Before I do, however, I'll need to replace the character image so I have the death sequence and many other things. There's no point in programming any further character motions without needlessly undoing what I end up doing anyway (the physical movement (position changes within the scene) is fine, but all animation programming has no point). See PM's site for details on what the game is about (and the kinds of enemies you'll see).
ulillillia 7 months ago
This is awesome, it's really coming along. Keep up the good work!
huffindicks247 7 months ago
do you have plans to make the game easily modifyable on release? this game looks amazing but I'd love to be able to make my own worlds
shinymans 7 months ago
You won't be able to modify the game in any way, sorry.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Wouldn't this game be better as an RPG or something? You've put so much work into creating a sprawling world and yet you can't explore it, only see it. As a platformer the design seems to be an after-thought and I personally can't see it being very exciting, especially if you're just looking at the world all the time and not concentrating on landing on platforms etc. If the character could walk through the world and go in houses and talk to people and whatever I'd say that would be a better game
MagikGimp 7 months ago
I cannot have something like that until I either get into actual 3D programming or use a top-down view. I do have a 2D RPG planned for rather extensively, but I want to finish PM first.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Sorry I wasn't more specific in my original comment but I meant that the character would move in and out of the screen with the sprites for houses, hills, roads etc. zooming in and out. I realise that full 3D would require a lot more work but what I'm talking about has pretty much already been implemented hence my idea. I guess you're quite stuck on making a platformer having already chosen the name of your game but your 'engine' is there for such a game I'm suggesting in the future.
MagikGimp 7 months ago
@ulillillia I would ask if you played Wolfenstein or Doom, but I wonder if those games are too violent for your tastes.
So, hmm.. have you played Catacombs 3D? Or well, I guess any early FPS that simply used 2D graphics in a fake 3D effect. Sorry! I can't think of a good example here.
But if you do know what I'm talking about. Couldn't you do something similar, maybe in a first person view but with fake 2D? It wouldn't require 3D programming at all.
f4ls10n 7 months ago
this is amazing uli
great job
symnzXx 7 months ago
i'm in parallax heaven
synthem 7 months ago
Will you release this game on steam? It's the most popular place to buy pc games and you're bound to get many sales.
TheCrazyMuffin 7 months ago
Your level is beautiful!
Ashleytb 7 months ago
i think i just listened to the tiny toons theme song a few dozen times and was too distracted to hear anything you just said.
Onipa 7 months ago
Have you considered making a skydiving game using this technology? Basically youd just start in the air instead of land, maybe code in some hoops ala pilotwings to go through? Anyway keep up the work.
bmd103 7 months ago
I have a weak CPU; Could you make it so I can disable the parallax background? I prefer a solid black background. I'm sure this won't affect the gameplay. Thanks in advance!
neilpatrickstewart 7 months ago
PM requires that you be able to run at 1024x768 at 32-bit color (16-bit color might work, but it's not recommended), at least 20 fps (not recommended), have 128 MB VRAM (96 MB is the limit I've set to provide room for other things), and probably a upper end Pentium 3 processor (or middle Pentium 4). PM is not very demanding. On my Core 2 Duo system, I'm typically only getting about 12% CPU usage (25% on one core; Ronnisa Plains' rain jacks that up but the quality can be reduced).
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia Does the game support widescreen (16:9).
It's very hard to find old 4:3 monitors these days.
f4ls10n 7 months ago
@f4ls10n er, sorry that was meant to end in a question mark (?).
f4ls10n 7 months ago
This is beautiful. It gives a strong impression of distance and speed. In particular, I loved the dive toward ground at the end, since it shows so much of the backdrop very quickly. For a brief moment it's almost like you can see everything.
When your up high flying at 800 mph is also nice, because even though you're flying fast the height gives the illusion that you're only slowly drifting. It's all very relaxing.
AstonishingAce 7 months ago
If you make the rest of the game with as much care as what you've already made, it will be incredible. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Platform Masters completed.
I wonder what the people inside the air taxis think when they see a man flying past.
AstonishingAce 7 months ago
Will we be able to jump high enough to escape the planet's gravity? I think it would be neat if we could hit zero-g and keep floating upwards forever. Maybe you could put in an online leader boards so players could compete for the highest space jump.
SaintIsz 7 months ago
Base gravity is always the same. Even 5000 miles above, you'll still have full gravity. The change over an otherwise normal span (about 10 miles) is so slight that it wouldn't be noticeable at all. Even with 4000 mph (of which takes a good few years to get), that's still not significant enough (sure 111 1/9 miles is extremely high, you're only looking at a 1% reduction in gravity or something (I don't know this formula)).
ulillillia 7 months ago
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WSWarthog 7 months ago
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WSWarthog 7 months ago
If land is at such a premium, why is there a huge field right behind it?
silentman0 7 months ago
Your work on the backrounds of the levels is probally the best part about this.
willfullcookie 7 months ago
I got a question. Since you can run very fast and go very high into the air, will that run the risk of taking the challenge away if a player can get enough speed to jump right to the goal? Or will levels require players to get lots of speed and jump very high in order to complete them?
Will players be encouraged to explore and look for collectible items?
daytimesky 7 months ago
Shortcuts do indeed open up with the extreme speeds. Every special ability has it's pros and cons so make the most out of them but beware of the downfalls (hit a sloped surface (terrain or platforms) when bouncing and you're often in trouble though you could end up finding a shortcut in some cases). There are treasure chests found outside of levels so do consider hunting for them. Most of them are within the levels though, primarily found in the jumbo and supersize levels.
ulillillia 7 months ago
The detail you have put into this project is amazing.
AndygamesOfficial 7 months ago
Wow, looks fantastic!! Like you said, almost photo-realistic!
Obakedake 7 months ago
Where can I download this game?
AxeInfection 7 months ago
Hey, love the game! But, I'm really worried about it cause there's something very important you got wrong. A sedan has four doors, a coupe has two. Hope you can fix that!
Slaer07 7 months ago
There are 2-door and 4-door sedans. There are 2-door and 4-door hardtops. I can't tell what a coupe is. Cars are not my specialty though - I only know how they work on the basics front. The naming inconsistency doesn't matter in this case anyway - it's only the image that matters.
ulillillia 7 months ago
I noticed you were listening to Buster's Hidden Treasure music while making this video. That really took me back
cool progress, by the way
Momotombos 7 months ago
And here I thought that I was tired of parallax scrolling! You are doing a beautiful job with it
AndrewDeIong 7 months ago
Parallax scrolling is my specialty. I'm taking it to an extreme. Pixels*Scaling=CU is the whole backend to it - a surprisingly simple formula that's extremely powerful. Even exact side views in 3D games have something very similar to this.
ulillillia 7 months ago
@ulillillia I really love parallax scrolling as well, what you are doing with it is what I expected to see in 2D modern games, most 2D games these days are still look very constrained despite being on hardware magnitudes more power than a Sega Genesis.
AndrewDeIong 7 months ago
why dont any of the houses have chimneys?
BiffJohnston2 7 months ago
so.. which one is jeremy's house?
twat1 7 months ago
What are the 10 debug test variables?
daytimesky 7 months ago
The farmland squares off in the background look like a nod to bubsy 3d, neat uli :)
geyote23134 7 months ago
I wasn't thinking of Bubsy 3D when I made them. I just looked at farm fields from up close and otherwise just went from there. It's hard to make out, but, if you look closely (you'll have to use the screenshot archive as YouTube's video quality is too poor), you can actually see the banding, especially for the closest fields.
ulillillia 7 months ago
When you're finished, you should put this game on Steam!
calgore21 7 months ago
Ulillillia, what are your thoughts on mode7?
neilpatrickstewart 7 months ago
I actually don't know how to do something like mode 7. Bubsy's desert world uses it along with Final Fantasy 6's overworld and a few others.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Very impressive!
david10808 7 months ago
release it already!!!!
damazywlodarczyk 7 months ago
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neilpatrickstewart 7 months ago
I was wondering if you could create a level that takes place at the gates of hades
baphomet58 7 months ago
some of those colors seem pretty outlandish for someone to paint their house!
KingBuffer 7 months ago
I just used a random number generator type system for that. I have a video probably a year old that explains how I made the houses.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Wow, the farmland and clouds is a very impressive visual effect!
exactspace 7 months ago
The clouds were the very first thing I programmed into the game engine. Look at screenshot 1 (way back in April of 2009) and you'll know what I mean.
ulillillia 7 months ago
The farm sections are some of your best stuff to date.
wildblur 7 months ago
Are you planning on adding any extra effects when the character pass the speed of sound?
wisedude1234 7 months ago
I'm highly doubtful I will besides maybe the flare effect.
ulillillia 7 months ago
this is awesome I love it
alakazam9891 7 months ago
This is beautiful. Thank you ulillillia.
CBoyardee 7 months ago
pretty great stuff
graffitiproof 7 months ago
Those houses have nothing in them? You can see straight through them (and see the grass behind them). A real house would have things in between the windows the the grass behind the house, walls, lamps, plants, furniture etc. It looks like they are cardboard cutouts when you've made it so you can see straight through them.
GigaBoost 7 months ago
They're too distant (200 feet from the camera) and they're also significantly dimmer than compared to the outside. The green windows comes from the reflection of the grass. The color is fixed though.
ulillillia 7 months ago
Seeing you jump that high made me think of going into space. Will there be any map filled with stars planets and galaxies?
KoRL12 7 months ago
Looking great, Uli
Microwavish 7 months ago
Please answer back. When will this game be complete it looks epic :P
FullOnyxProductions 7 months ago
When will you release this game? I am ready to be a platform master!!
fenderjerk 7 months ago
It's leaning toward the middle of 2012 though I have no guarantees on anything.
ulillillia 7 months ago
your game reminds me of bubsy :), keep the good work ^^
sheepow2 7 months ago
Looking good! Can't wait to play the final product.
VoidReala 7 months ago
Platform Masters is probably my most anticipated game of all time.
somekindawizard 7 months ago
It's looking very good. Excited to see what you'll do next.
Nagoragama 7 months ago
All these locations you make up and their details are so interesting.
This game has a lot of heart put into it.
LeGigify 7 months ago
you should be an urban planner uli
UltraBibendum 7 months ago 11
I wouldn't know how I'd do on that kind of thing. I don't have a license for one and I don't have the neccessary college courses needed either.
ulillillia 7 months ago 20
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CCArchive 7 months ago
Wow, it looks really nice now! Great job!
Stavekoff 7 months ago
That really is a beautiful view you've created. Bravo.
Have you considered making a level where you're going past the farmland? I think that would just be a treat for the eyes.
The8thHost 7 months ago 2
PM is purely 2D and thus, I have no way to add such a feature. It seems 3D because of the extreme use of parallax scrolling.
ulillillia 7 months ago 2