Xenocider/Project Q

[DCGX]

I'm cool with the polishing. Plus I'm gone that last couple weeks of June anyway lol

[hombreimaginario]

Xenocider meeting. A good start, I would say.


Juanjo shows off some really cool equipment none of us understands a word about. He's currently working on the music for the bonus stages.


Chui (Linux), Abel (Windows) and Carlos (Mac). Time for lots of tests, tweaks, arguments, and pizza.


So, while I'm busy with some layout design tests, apparently Abel's phone is warning him to update his watch? What a strange world we live in.

[Bob Dobbs]

Love the PAL Jewel case option. It keeps with the original feel of the Dreamcast era. Nice job, keep up the good work. Also, nice studio setup, as I am an Audio/Video engineer, so the complement is from an engineering level.

[hombreimaginario]

One of our first "real" physical tests for the Steelbook Edition. High quality vinyl over a slight relief on the surface (both front and back covers). Other options being explored at the moment
Only 8 copies still available! http://retrosumus.com/product/xenocider ... k-edition/


Accessing the bonus stage by reaching a high score or finding a specific item? More enemies or just stronger ones? Power-ups or upgrades between levels? Decisions, decisions...


"See? The blue logo makes the whole thing look so cool".
-Chui

Love the PAL Jewel case option. It keeps with the original feel of the Dreamcast era. Nice job, keep up the good work. Also, nice studio setup, as I am an Audio/Video engineer, so the complement is from an engineering level.

Thank you!

[hombreimaginario]

My personal favourite version (all my DC games are japanese, or indies with jp-style covers):



And from our Xenocider work weekend, a couple teasers of stage 7...





We have a very nice reveal coming later too

[DarkSynbios]

In first photo this boss like Joker

[111]

@hombreimaginario
not sure if it was asked before, but how come textures quality is so bad? Don't you know anything about VQ compression or something?
I've been following this project for some time, but as I see, no further improvements are planned regarding graphics. Although lowpoly meshes is an understandable choice (but it is possible to do much better while maintaining 60fps, considering rather simple gameplay mechanics etc.), there is no excuse for blurry textures that look worse than in most N64 games.

Don't take it as an insult, I just have not seen any reasonable explanation regarding bad graphics (but to each their own, I know)

[hombreimaginario]

@hombreimaginario
not sure if it was asked before, but how come textures quality is so bad? Don't you know anything about VQ compression or something?
I've been following this project for some time, but as I see, no further improvements are planned regarding graphics. Although lowpoly meshes is an understandable choice (but it is possible to do much better while maintaining 60fps, considering rather simple gameplay mechanics etc.), there is no excuse for blurry textures that look worse than in most N64 games.

Don't take it as an insult, I just have not seen any reasonable explanation regarding bad graphics (but to each their own, I know)

Ok, I'm doing my best not to take your comment in bad way, but i find it a bit hard when you keep chosing to pass judgements such as "so bad", "don't you know anything", "there is no excuse", "look far worse", etc. So, I won't take this personally as I'm not the 3D designer, but if you accept an advice, I'd suggest you work a bit on your emotional intelligence. Or just your choice of words.

That being said, since I'm not taking this as an insult or anything, I'll just quote you (from your game's thread):

all I can say is that achieving stable 30fps is really hard without significantly reducing graphics quality (mostly related to number of triangles per model), which is not an option for me. But we'll see.

So, we're going for fluid animation (or, doing our best anyway) and frankly quite a lot of enemies on screen sometimes, while at the same time keeping a fast action pace and achieving stable 60 fps and quick-responding controls. I'm sure, if graphics are "so bad" you feel they need "any reasonable explanation", there's probably one there, and there's definitely more constructive ways to express such opinion.

What do you think?

Best regards,


Carlos

[111]

all I can say is that achieving stable 30fps is really hard without significantly reducing graphics quality (mostly related to number of triangles per model), which is not an option for me. But we'll see.

So, we're going for fluid animation (or, doing our best anyway) and frankly quite a lot of enemies on screen sometimes, while at the same time keeping a fast action pace and achieving stable 60 fps and quick-responding controls. I'm sure, if graphics are "so bad" you feel they need "any reasonable explanation", there's probably one there, and there's definitely more constructive ways to express such opinion.

What do you think?

Best regards,
Carlos

First, the quote you posted here is related to KGL version of my game, which is canceled, because KGL is slow and buggy, I've already said enough about that. Why do you think I ended up writing my own engine?

Second, VQ compression is a gpu feature, it has nothing to do with transforms and lighting (which is done entirely on cpu), therefore has no impact on performance. Many (if not all) commercial titles used compressed PVR textures. KOS can handle those without problem, example code is also available.

Third, you can use triangle strips, direct render, and other tricks to get decent performance without reducing graphics quality. It's a typical stuff, nothing really advanced (compared to coding in SH-4 assembly), I'm not a programming expert, but even I managed to understand how to use those.


And yes, the game does not look good, and it is not just my opinion. It has no lighting (even vertex colors are missing from what I've seen), primitive geometry, horrible textures. It's hardly dreamcast worthy.

And you should really stop with that "it's not our fault, dreamcast is just too old and weak!" attitude, I know what I'm talking about. Just because your game is 3d does not mean it should not look decent.
However, if you really think your game is a commercial quality product, then good for you, no more questions (feel free to shitpost about my project, if that makes you feel better).

[DarkSynbios]

Hey guys you dοnt need be argument. You are both devs and the best is to corporate and help each other on advices. Peace