csisland improvement

Hi,

The GSoC page of Crystal space calls for some ideas on improving the demos
available with crystal space (namely csisland,csbias and crystal trade). I
have some ideas regarding csisland.

First of all, I believe there are some issues regarding the frame rates. I
have an Nvidia Geforce GT 610M and the frame rates are at times jabby. The
demos definitely work fine but when I use ctrl + arrow keys in csisland to
make the camera go faster, there’s a pause (probably to calculate some
stuff) after 2 seconds of fast camera movement.

Now the game idea , I do not know if I have to come up with a background
story as well but this is what I have in mind ;)  :

1.       The user controls a vehicle that starts very close to the peak of
the volcano. At the beginning of the game, the volcano erupts, sending out
chunks of burning rocks into the air (basically orange colored
spherical/rectangular things covered in flames). The goal of the user is to
navigate the controllable object to a particular position in the map.

2.       Optionally, the map will have to be made somewhat larger for this
one to work, or the user will find himself in water 3 seconds after the
game starts. But I guess creating maps won’t be a problem. I came upon L3DT
(large 3d terrain editor) while I was experimenting with panda3d and it
allows the user to create large, somewhat detailed, maps (with water) quite
easily. (link here). But I guess the given map is large enough J

3.       Okay, so the vehicle,  moves across the quite rough terrain, all
the while dodging  chunks of flaming rocks falling all across the terrain.
Chunk falls on head = game over

4.       After sometime,  the vehicle/character falls into the water
(hopefully, with a splash).

5.       Now comes the interesting part. The vehicle folds its tires up and
converts into a boat sort of thing (more or less like the ‘seaways’ cheat
in GTA vice city, was quite fun a few years back ;) )

6.       The objective is to reach a particular point in the sea (where the
guy/gal inside the boat/jeep will be rescued). But en route, the burning
chunks fall in the water nearby and sends ripples in every direction. The
craft sways to the ripples (like a boat, of course). Larger chunks cause
more awesome ripples. The user will have to steer the craft avoiding those
larger chunks to reach the destination

7.       Steer too close to a gigantic ripple and the crashing waves will
cause the craft to topple – game over.

8.       Decals representing where the next chunk is going to hit.

9.       Get to the destination = win the game.

So that’s basically the idea. Now as to how exactly the game will showcases
the ‘features’ of Crystal Space. I’m not exactly sure what the features are
and I’d be glad if someone can tell me which features I should be
concentrating on. But here’s a basic idea :

1.       The vehicle moves in rough terrain. There’s a chance the vehicle
can topple over on land thus causing an early demise of our hero. Physics.

2.       There are flying flaming chunks of rock. I believe the fire
effects can be made pretty cool.

3.       Explosion when the chunk hits the ground. Again, a lot of particle
effects

4.       Splash when vehicle hits the water – particle effects again. It’d
be awesome  if those splashes can reflect sunlight but I don’t know if it
would ‘too much of an improvement’ ;) .

5.       The craft sways to the waves created by chunks falling in the
water. Takes some physics, I guess.

6.       And the ripples. Waterdemo has some really nice ripples. Imagine
them on a far grander scale.

7.       Input output. The user controls the vehicle.

8.       Decals

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