xkcd

by **Dmytry** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:14 pm UTC

I wrote a 3D space shooter with 100% mathematically generated fractal scenery:
http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/index.html
It looks like this:

I dunno if that should go into mathematics sub-forum here or here into gaming :-)

You can use editor to try various fractal parameters (but you'll need to buy full to save your work or to save images normally without taking a screenshot)

It is not fully finished yet, but mostly works. Tip: switch difficulty to insane if it is too easy.

(I've been lurking on those boards and reading XKCD for a while, and thought it'd be great place to get some testing.)

by **4=5** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:36 pm UTC

It's not working on my macbook, it freezes up when I open it. Interesting idea though. What if you use the player's actions as the fractal's seed?

by **Dmytry** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:01 pm UTC

Well, pretty much random thing happens. I can try make player select shapes he likes and drive evolution, and then switch to liked next level.
What graphics card does your macbook have? I had a positive run report on mac with nvidia 8600 M and above.

by **4=5** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:43 pm UTC

GMA X3100

by **diotimajsh** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:17 pm UTC

Looks pretty from the SS, crashes for me immediately upon opening though.

Vista 64x here, with Intel GMA 3100. (I tried running it in compatability mode too, didn't help.)

by **Awia** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:04 pm UTC

It worked quite happily for me, very pretty, quite fun.

by **Dobblesworth** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:08 am UTC

Much more complete than I would have expected. Nice job. Very free-roaming, not much strain on graphics card and processor yet still an excellent graphics engine. HUD did seem a little clustered.

by **phider2** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:03 am UTC

It gives me the generic "Send Error Report" dialog. I'm running XP SP2 on an AMD Sempron 3100+ (1.81GHz) with 640MB of RAM, and an unknown integrated video card (I *think* it's 128MB). Might be too old/cheap (Sempron/integrated video)?

log.txt:

Code: Select all: app_name=C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial.exe app_path=C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows code=uberwoot Levels::Levels() Levels: 000.txt 001.txt 002.txt 003.txt 004.txt 005.txt 006.txt 007.txt 008.txt 009.txt 1 running in C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows Built for 32bit architecture. Vertices: 42 Faces: 80 Edges: 120 Vertices: 162 Faces: 320 Edges: 480 Vertices: 642 Faces: 1280 Edges: 1920 Vertices: 2562 Faces: 5120 Edges: 7680 Globe vertices: 2562 making context Binding options calling init OnActivate() initializing audio Vendor: SiS Renderer: 760 VGA Version: 1.4.0 Extensions: GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_multisample GL_ARB_multitexture GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_window_pos GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_polygon_offset GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_swap_control GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_KTX_buffer_region GL_NV_blend_square GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_multitexture GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_SGIX_depth_texture GL_SGIX_shadow GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays GL_WIN_swap_hint WGL_ARB_extensions_string WGL_ARB_pbuffer WGL_ARB_pixel_format WGL_ARB_render_texture WGL_EXT_extensions_string WGL_EXT_pixel_format WGL_EXT_swap_control glClampColorARB not available StyleManager::StyleManager OnLevelChanged entering level C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/levels/000.txt glGenBuffers: success World::Rebuild() Attractor size: 8.14453 bulding tree done glBindBuffer: success glBufferData: success ShapeMaker::GenShape() no new seeds for, reusing old glGenBuffers: success glBindBuffer: success glBufferData: success glBindBuffer: success GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_tiny.png) Loading truetype font C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_circle32.png) Loading truetype font C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 resizing to 128x256 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_circle8.png) Loading truetype font C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/slider_bg_line.png) GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/slider_button.png) Loading truetype font C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 Loading truetype font C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 resizing to 128x256 resizing to 128x512 2 running in C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents\Downloads\Polynomial-free-00a_windows\Polynomial-free-00a_windows initializing seeds TestTextureFrameBuffer::TestTextureFrameBuffer glGenTextures: success glBindTexture: success (0):glTexImage2D: error invalid enumerant glTexParameteri: success creating half-float texture: success glGenFramebuffersEXT: success glBindFramebufferEXT: success glFramebufferTexture2DEXT: success glCheckFramebufferStatusEXT: success framebuffer not complete, status: Unknown framebuffer status 0 creating framebuffer: success GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/nebulabrot_composite_final_8.png) Shader '$$data/background_v.glsl' compile failed Shader '$$data/background_f.glsl' compile failed Shader '$$data/test_v.glsl' compile failed Shader '$$data/test_f.glsl' compile failed

by **Dmytry** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 9:59 am UTC

Regarding crashes:
Thanks for the reports.
Sorry, Intel GMA and other onboard adaptors generally do not support required extensions :/ Unusual rendering methods require programmable hardware. I can try to implement compatibility mode with reduced quality, but it would somewhat suck graphically.

Also, by the way. I need to build some list of cards that run it and cards that don't.

by **Gowerly** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:48 am UTC

Looks like you'll just need to find what shader version you're using, and list the cards that have that or newer.

by **Dmytry** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:55 am UTC

Gowerly wrote:Looks like you'll just need to find what shader version you're using, and list the cards that have that or newer.

Sadly, its not so simple... There's issues such as 16-bit float textures, availability of filtering for 16-bit float textures, max number of samples, and so on.

by **Ended** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:10 pm UTC

Nice job, very cool and polished. Worked fine on 64-bit linux, NVIDIA GTX280.

by **Game_boy** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:10 pm UTC

Linux (Ubuntu 9.04) with ATI Radeon X1950Pro (radeon driver) failed with segmentation fault.

Code: Select all: dumping dodecahedra static const HalfEdge edges_[60]={ HalfEdge(1,0,2), HalfEdge(0,1,10), HalfEdge(0,0,4), HalfEdge(2,2,17), HalfEdge(2,0,6), HalfEdge(3,3,23), HalfEdge(3,0,8), HalfEdge(4,4,29), HalfEdge(4,0,0), HalfEdge(1,5,35), HalfEdge(1,1,12), HalfEdge(6,5,9), HalfEdge(6,1,14), HalfEdge(7,10,39), HalfEdge(7,1,16), HalfEdge(5,6,40), HalfEdge(5,1,1), HalfEdge(0,2,18), HalfEdge(5,2,20), HalfEdge(9,6,15), HalfEdge(9,2,22), HalfEdge(8,7,45), HalfEdge(8,2,3), HalfEdge(2,3,24), HalfEdge(8,3,26), HalfEdge(11,7,21), HalfEdge(11,3,28), HalfEdge(10,8,49), HalfEdge(10,3,5), HalfEdge(3,4,30), HalfEdge(10,4,32), HalfEdge(13,8,27), HalfEdge(13,4,34), HalfEdge(12,9,53), HalfEdge(12,4,7), HalfEdge(4,5,36), HalfEdge(12,5,38), HalfEdge(14,9,33), HalfEdge(14,5,11), HalfEdge(6,10,57), HalfEdge(7,6,42), HalfEdge(16,10,13), HalfEdge(16,6,44), HalfEdge(15,11,59), HalfEdge(15,6,19), HalfEdge(9,7,46), HalfEdge(15,7,48), HalfEdge(17,11,43), HalfEdge(17,7,25), HalfEdge(11,8,50), HalfEdge(17,8,52), HalfEdge(18,11,47), HalfEdge(18,8,31), HalfEdge(13,9,54), HalfEdge(18,9,56), HalfEdge(19,11,51), HalfEdge(19,9,37), HalfEdge(14,10,58), HalfEdge(19,10,41), HalfEdge(16,11,55)}; static const int vertice_ledges[20]={ 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 14, 10, 12, 20, 18, 26, 24, 32, 30, 36, 42, 40, 46, 50, 54}; static const int face_ledges[12]={ 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 21, 27, 33, 13, 43}; StyleManager::StyleManager StyleManager::StyleManager GL_VENDOR ./bin/Polynomial32 app_name=./bin/Polynomial32 initial_cwd=/home/alex/Desktop/Polynomial-free-00a_linux app_path=./bin app_name=./bin/Polynomial32 app_path=./bin code=uberwoot Levels::Levels() Levels: 008.txt 009.txt 007.txt 001.txt 000.txt 006.txt 004.txt 002.txt 003.txt 005.txt 1 running in /home/alex/Desktop/Polynomial-free-00a_linux Built for 32bit architecture. Vertices: 42 Faces: 80 Edges: 120 Vertices: 162 Faces: 320 Edges: 480 Vertices: 642 Faces: 1280 Edges: 1920 Vertices: 2562 Faces: 5120 Edges: 7680 Globe vertices: 2562 making context Binding options calling init initializing audio Vendor: DRI R300 Project Renderer: Mesa DRI R300 20060815 x86/MMX/SSE2 TCL Version: 1.3 Mesa 7.4 Extensions: GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_ARB_imaging GL_ARB_multisample GL_ARB_multitexture GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_shadow_ambient GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_MESAX_texture_float GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_window_pos GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_blend_logic_op GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_EXT_convolution GL_EXT_copy_texture GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters GL_EXT_histogram GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_polygon_offset GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_subtexture GL_EXT_texture GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_texture_rectangle GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_APPLE_packed_pixels GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3 GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_INGR_blend_func_separate GL_MESA_pack_invert GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture GL_MESA_window_pos GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_light_max_exponent GL_NV_texture_rectangle GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_NV_vertex_program GL_OES_read_format GL_SGI_color_matrix GL_SGI_color_table GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_SGIX_depth_texture GL_SGIX_shadow_ambient GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays glClampColorARB not available StyleManager::StyleManager OnLevelChanged entering level ./bin/data/levels/000.txt glGenBuffers: success World::Rebuild() Attractor size: 8.14453 bulding tree done glBindBuffer: success glBufferData: success ShapeMaker::GenShape() no new seeds for, reusing old glGenBuffers: success glBindBuffer: success glBufferData: success glBindBuffer: success GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_tiny.png) Loading truetype font ./bin/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_circle32.png) Loading truetype font ./bin/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 resizing to 128x256 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/button_border_circle8.png) Loading truetype font ./bin/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/slider_bg_line.png) GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/slider_button.png) Loading truetype font ./bin/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x16 resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 Loading truetype font ./bin/data/DejaVuSans.ttf creating texture resizing to 128x32 resizing to 128x64 resizing to 128x128 resizing to 128x256 resizing to 128x512 2 running in /home/alex/Desktop/Polynomial-free-00a_linux initializing seeds TestTextureFrameBuffer::TestTextureFrameBuffer glGenTextures: success glBindTexture: success (0):glTexImage2D: error invalid value glTexParameteri: success creating half-float texture: success glGenFramebuffersEXT: success glBindFramebufferEXT: success glFramebufferTexture2DEXT: success glCheckFramebufferStatusEXT: success framebuffer not complete, status: Unknown framebuffer status 0 creating framebuffer: success GLMTexture::LoadFromFile($$data/nebulabrot_composite_final_8.png) Shader '$$data/background_v.glsl' compiled successfully Shader '$$data/background_f.glsl' compiled successfully Program linked successfully. Shader '$$data/test_v.glsl' compiled successfully Shader '$$data/test_f.glsl' compiled successfully Program linked successfully. Polynomial32: line 2: 5218 Segmentation fault LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./bin/lib32 ./bin/Polynomial32

by **Dmytry** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:22 am UTC

Game_boy wrote:Linux (Ubuntu 9.04) with ATI Radeon X1950Pro (radeon driver) failed with segmentation fault.

Hmm, looks like that graphics card doesn't support HDR framebuffers. Dunno why it segfaults tho, it should not. Can you get some stacktrace, i'm curious if it segfaults in the gl driver or in my code.

by **lulzfish** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:45 am UTC

Works beautifully here at 60 FPS on the default settings.

Kubuntu 9.04 x64
Core 2 Duo / Geforce 7900 GS with nvidia binary drivers

by **InfamousAnarchist** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:05 am UTC

Runs very slowly for me. When I try to adjust the "display" under the options menu, it won't select, nor will it do much of anything except highlight random things.

Windows XP. NVidia video card. Am I missing the "golden key" that lets me select things?

by **Dmytry** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:20 am UTC

InfamousAnarchist wrote:Runs very slowly for me. When I try to adjust the "display" under the options menu, it won't select, nor will it do much of anything except highlight random things.

Windows XP. NVidia video card. Am I missing the "golden key" that lets me select things?

Press for longer than a frame time. e.g. if you have 1 fps, press for over a second...
Which nvidia card btw?

by **SlyReaper** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:05 am UTC

I'll have to give this a go when I get home. Will it work under Windows 7?

Edit: it does work. It should have some cheesy techno soundtrack though.

by **Toeofdoom** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:14 pm UTC

It works on my desktop (9800GTX, 8gb ram) with only a very rare and short lag spike, even with >100 enemies on screen. I like it alot, although it clearly isn't a finished, structured game. Seems like you've got something though. The number of hud elements to draw defaulting at 12 doesn't really seem sufficient though, because without a hud element an enemy is basically invisible at times. Maybe try rendering just a single small diamond for things out of that range, or have an option to do so?

by **Dmytry** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:37 pm UTC

Toeofdoom wrote:It works on my desktop (9800GTX, 8gb ram) with only a very rare and short lag spike, even with >100 enemies on screen.

Yes, I think it because it sometimes makes really huge explosion with far too many fragments. I'm planning for automatic detail level adjustment to keep framerate above 60 at all times.

I like it alot, although it clearly isn't a finished, structured game.

Thanks. Yes, as I realized, it needs "you must finish this level before next" thing to make people play different arenas at all, and fewer levels (like 5) in free version if I want to make okay sales on full. I'm working on multi-player as well.

Seems like you've got something though. The number of hud elements to draw defaulting at 12 doesn't really seem sufficient though, because without a hud element an enemy is basically invisible at times.

Hmm. It used to default to 40, which was kind of too much. I'll try 24 on next iteration. With a lot of HUD elements, you don't see what bonuses are closest any more, its too visually confusing. With max items = 12, it draws 6 closest 'ally' items , and 6 closest 'enemy' items (but if there's only 3 friendly items, it'll use up unused slots and draw 9 enemy items), which is about as much as I want to see anyway because I'm interested in shooting the closest first because those are most likely to shot me.

Maybe try rendering just a single small diamond for things out of that range, or have an option to do so?

That could work yes - but your range is very big in this game, you can snipe stuff from over across the map when zooming in.

by **Toeofdoom** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:48 pm UTC

Dmytry wrote:
Seems like you've got something though. The number of hud elements to draw defaulting at 12 doesn't really seem sufficient though, because without a hud element an enemy is basically invisible at times.

Hmm. It used to default to 40, which was kind of too much. I'll try 24 on next iteration. With a lot of HUD elements, you don't see what bonuses are closest any more, its too visually confusing. With max items = 12, it draws 6 closest 'ally' items , and 6 closest 'enemy' items (but if there's only 3 friendly items, it'll use up unused slots and draw 9 enemy items), which is about as much as I want to see anyway because I'm interested in shooting the closest first because those are most likely to shot me.
Maybe try rendering just a single small diamond for things out of that range, or have an option to do so?

That could work yes - but your range is very big in this game, you can snipe stuff from over across the map when zooming in.

Actually I meant "out of range" as in outside the 12 full detail ones, so you would still see just how many enemies there are, but you get big diamonds for the ones that are close. If the problem isn't performance, make it so that outside close range it scales the diamond down or dulls the red/green colour (or both) but still display heaps of them.

For example if you look at freelancer, every enemy had a small hud element, but your main target had an expanded one. Eve online has a symbol for each enemy ship, while making the ones you have a lock on far more obvious.

by **headprogrammingczar** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:59 pm UTC

Or make the enemies more visible (a bloom effect or larger particles might work).

by **UmbralRaptor** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:14 am UTC

Crashes on startup for me:

Windows XP SP3, ATI X300, 1 Gig of RAM. My drivers should be up to date...

by **Alasseo** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:48 pm UTC

you got rps'd http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/06 ... polynomial

by **InfamousAnarchist** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 4:25 pm UTC

UmbralRaptor wrote:Crashes on startup for me:

Windows XP SP3, ATI X300, 1 Gig of RAM. My drivers should be up to date...

Yeah, me too. It's beautiful when it works, though, which is what counts I guess.

by **Dmytry** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:42 pm UTC

Guys, can you all try this?
http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/public_temp/Polynomial-free-00a_linux.tar.gz

http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/public_temp/Polynomial-free-00a_osx.tar.gz

http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/public_temp/Polynomial-free-00a_windows.zip

before I publish it as stable. It should say bad stuff about your graphics card if it is not supported rather than crashing, and ideally even draw something playable at lower quality. Those for whom it works should better test it too because I might have introduced nasty regressions.

by **dasada122** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:05 am UTC

It is beautiful. It would work better as art, I think, with a camera just flying around at random.

by **Sir-Taco** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:41 am UTC

Played it, and loved it. The only thing that irked me is a lack of sound other than the pop, but as the game progressed, the pop's sounded very natural and oddly relaxing. In all a very elegant and beautiful game. As dasada said, its very nice as art too, even as a screen saver. But keep with the game idea, maybe multiplayer even? But that may be stretching it.

Vista x64 Laptop @ 2.2ghz AMD Turion X2 / ATI Radeon 3450

by **mrbaggins** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:01 am UTC

Running an 7600GT here... 3GB Memory on Win 7

Looks superb (Is it C++ with OpenGL? Or DX?)

However, every 5-10 second it will drop from 60fps to 44~ then 25~ then 8~ stay there for a second, then work its way straight back up to 60. No discernible reason. I'm happy to run a debug version if you have one/want me to.

Whats the lightning bolt icon?

by **Dmytry** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:52 am UTC

mrbaggins wrote:Running an 7600GT here... 3GB Memory on Win 7

Looks superb

Thanks

(Is it C++ with OpenGL? Or DX?)

Yes, C++ with OpenGL.

However, every 5-10 second it will drop from 60fps to 44~ then 25~ then 8~ stay there for a second, then work its way straight back up to 60. No discernible reason.

Enemy spawning?
I do not have any other periodic processing in the game itself, so I'm entirely lost as of why it could be happening. Do you have singlecore or multicore? Maybe CPU affinity would help - setting it to use 1 core.
I'm interested in finding a workaround even if slowdown is not in my code.

by **Dmytry** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:56 am UTC

Sir-Taco wrote:Played it, and loved it. The only thing that irked me is a lack of sound other than the pop, but as the game progressed, the pop's sounded very natural and oddly relaxing. In all a very elegant and beautiful game. As dasada said, its very nice as art too, even as a screen saver.

Thanks. Actually, there's shooting sound as well, and impact sounds - maybe audio is bugged for you? It is hard to debug the audio on other systems.

But keep with the game idea, maybe multiplayer even? But that may be stretching it.

I'm working on multiplayer now, actually :-)

It is planned. As well as extra gameplay modes.

Vista x64 Laptop @ 2.2ghz AMD Turion X2 / ATI Radeon 3450

Nice, so the new test version (from public_temp folder) worked too? ( http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/publ ... indows.zip ) . I need to be sure it works on ATI.

by **SlyReaper** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:40 pm UTC

I think he's talking about the lack of ambient sound. This is the sort of game I would normally expect to come with some cheesy techno soundtrack.

by **cycoden** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:49 pm UTC

Pretty. I get occasional crashes though

(MacBook Pro3,1, NVIDIA 8600 GT)

Spoiler:

by **Sir-Taco** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:20 pm UTC

Dmytry wrote:Thanks. Actually, there's shooting sound as well, and impact sounds - maybe audio is bugged for you? It is hard to debug the audio on other systems.

Ah yes I forgot to mention those, audio works fine then.

Dmytry wrote:I'm working on multiplayer now, actually It is planned. As well as extra gameplay modes.

Sounds great!

Dmytry wrote:Nice, so the new test version (from public_temp folder) worked too? ( http://dmytry.pandromeda.com/games/publ ... indows.zip ) . I need to be sure it works on ATI.

Yep, test version works. So far so good, smooth and runs fine in all setting configurations.

SlyReaper wrote:I think he's talking about the lack of ambient sound. This is the sort of game I would normally expect to come with some cheesy techno soundtrack.

Yeah, that or even something new age sounding. In the meantime I'll subsist with Calvin Harris on shuffle.

by **Dmytry** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:15 pm UTC

cycoden wrote:Pretty. I get occasional crashes though

(MacBook Pro3,1, NVIDIA 8600 GT)
Thread 3 Crashed:
0 ...pple.audio.units.Components 0x7003b0f6 AUPeakLimiterEntry + 5958
1 ...pple.audio.units.Components 0x7003f6f2 AUMixer3DEntry + 6236
...
24 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91474b8b HP_IOThread::ThreadEntry(HP_IOThread*) + 17
25 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91469171 CAPThread::Entry(CAPThread*) + 93
26 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90023d67 _pthread_body + 84

Thanks for the report. It is a crash in Apple's implementation of OpenAL, unfortunately. The kind of thing which makes OS X especially hard to support. Most often software is ported by large teams which are capable of finding a workaround and whom would get it to work no matter how many bugs are lurking in the system, so there's little incentive to fix those. You can try reporting this to Apple anyway.

by **Dmytry** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:29 pm UTC

mrbaggins: also, try switching to Arbitrary framerate (in Display tab). It disables some powersaving, and generally makes it more jittery as well, but could fix framerate shutter if that is caused by task scheduler (with Display's framerate, it has same framerate as your display, and uses very little CPU time. Windows task scheduler seem to do weird stuff to processes that use little CPU time - such as tossing those between processors, or ignoring them when deciding to downclock the CPU).

Sir-Taco wrote:Yep, test version works. So far so good, smooth and runs fine in all setting configurations.

great, I'll publish the update.

SlyReaper wrote:I think he's talking about the lack of ambient sound. This is the sort of game I would normally expect to come with some cheesy techno soundtrack.

Yeah, that or even something new age sounding. In the meantime I'll subsist with Calvin Harris on shuffle.

Yes, that's certainly something to be worked on - I'm going to employ my brother actually - he's musician.

by **mrbaggins** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:29 pm UTC

going to work now, but will check this evening.

by **Dmytry** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:21 am UTC

Zomg. Yesterday I found some people (softonic) are trying to sell the free version of Polynomial (technically, a 'download' of free version, but page creates impression as if i authorized this somehow, and serves free download from my site with an artificial delay introduced with a script). I was about to ignore what looked like a tiny ripoff business, but found that softonic is #1 visited site in spain.
I also found that big game site gamespot (in the top 200 sites on the Internet) mirrors the download but does not link to my site. They also do not list anything relevant - no screenshots, no review, no system requirements, nothing. The problem is that such BS appears above my own site on Google.
I sent cease and desist to softonic already, but I don't know how to react to gamespot and whenever I should react at all. I asked a friend to post comment here specifying the author's site.

I'm bit lost what else I can do. With Gamespot situation is not clear cut. I would indeed benefit from any extra downloads as I have "get full version" button inside my game. Still, I would rather have official site on top of search. I do not want people to download preview version when I release final version. They do not mark preview as preview - just "demo". All I can do is discuss this stuff online and try to make the difference.

by **SlyReaper** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:37 am UTC

Yeah that softonic thing definitely sounds outright illegal in the opinion of this armchair lawyer. Gamespot, I'm not so sure about. If you contact them, they may be willing to update the page with information you provide. As for google searches, I have no idea what to suggest because I don't know how google sorts its search results.

by **mrbaggins** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:38 am UTC

You could put public comments on the google results?

Sorry haven't been checking it, been busy with work... dual core, for the record. Also, it refused to run on work computers (IBM Lenovo workstations, integrated graphics chips that are usually quite good). Generic windows "This program has encountered an error and needs to close" message. Not sure at all on why.

Also http://www.geeks3d.com/20090624/polynom ... s-objects/ from google "Fractal shooter". At least they do it in a semi-nice way for you.
And that site apparently found it here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/06 ... olynomial/
Which apparently found it on indiegames here http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/06/ ... l_dmy.html

Edit: Looks like you've already hit the indiegames post.
Lots of comments for your testing purposes

Maybe you should put a little phpbb forum on your site and invite all testees to it?

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