Doolwind

Microsoft’s Speech API allows me to add voice recognition to CIC so players can give different commands quickly and while using the mouse to do something completely different. I was interested in speech regonition a few years ago when I was making my RTS and so I reused some of my code to get it Read More

So after doing some general testing of CIC I noticed that my environment mapping wasn’t actually working as it should be.  I spent quite a bit of time looking through my code and the examples I had used when putting together my HLSL shader.  The problem was the ray I was using to look into Read More

Things are continuing along steadily towards the tech demo release. I decided to put together a closed alpha test mailing list for anyone interested in getting a sneak peek at CIC. The test will mainly be for hardware compatibility and network testing. I’m upgrading the AI to accomodate the added gameplay features however it will Read More

I’ve added a poll to the forum, let me know what you think by clicking here.

After adding environment mapping I decided I was on a roll and would add ‘gloss mapping’ to my models. The alpha values within the normal map now specify how glossy or reflective that part of the model is. The more reflective a pixel the more of the environment will be reflected from it. In the Read More

On a whim last night I decided I wanted to add environment maps to my spaceships. This may be due to the fact I saw Ysaneya’s new model or that I can never say no to implementing some new graphical feature. What started out as being a small job turned into a mammoth exercise as Read More

I’m looking for everyone’s opinion about the control the player should have over the phalanx system on their capital ship. I’ve implemented a simple system where the player chooses the direction and width to fire their phalanx defence in order to shoot down incoming missiles. The skill comes from figuring out where the enemy is Read More

Just a quick update. I’ve just finished the auto path generation (version 1.0) and it’s working well. You can now choose where on the enemy ship to target and whether to fire directly or indirectly towards the target. The former means the missile will be travelling as fast as possible and is harder to shoot Read More

Normal mapping is now in. If you excuse the dodgy programmer art you can see the difference. Also in the background is my first attempt at a new skyscape.