Plasma Pong

SteveTaylor · Site Admin Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 240

Hey all,

I haven't updated the website lately as I've been pretty busy with the next version of the game. So far I've gotten a huge performance jump (%50-%100) in terms of framerate, so I intend to keep things that way. I've written the game over again competely from the ground up, prototyped code tends to be messy so I needed to start fresh.

I'm almost finished with GUI, so expect everything to be extremely customizable. One area I'm paying strict attention to is performance, so I've dedicated a complete option pane for optimizing performance on the spot. Also I'm doing some research on guassian winds and vortex creation (edit: both are just now implemented and working), so this should open up some doors for really amazing effects. Also I'm looking into streamlines/streaklines/pathlines/contours, which could also add some really cool visualizations.

I'm entering my game into a contest next week, so expect the new version to be out immediately afterwards. Almost every area of the game will be improved in some way, so be patient =). I've included a couple screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

Let me know what you think!

xpss2001 · Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Posts: 109

NICE! cant wait to try it out Razz

Looks like you cleaned the GUI up alot. Nice job.

I especially like the music pitch increment option. Say no to chipmunks!

What contest are you entering?

SteveTaylor · Site Admin Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 240

Its called Innovations 2006, it's hosted by GMU and there are cash prizes for each catagory. Hopefully I'll win something =).

Bigfoot TI · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:35 am Post subject:

The screenies alone blow me away, and I thought 1.0 was cool.
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eater · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 1

hey your games so awsome i created an account on the forums to ask you if the contest has a website i'd love to see what they have to say about it after the contest is over.

FriendlyFire · Joined: 15 Apr 2006 Posts: 2

Not to be buggy, but it has been 9 days and I would really like to play V1.2 Very Happy

SteveTaylor · Site Admin Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 240

Very soon =) I'm still juggling between school work and development but I hope to get the next version out by next week. Hang tight.

-Steve

Mogzilla · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 18 Location: Milky Way Galaxy

Yeah! Maybe my computer would be able to run it! Laughing

LuminaryJanitor · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 152

The new features sound awesome. Looking forward to it (especially the params GUI Wink

).

A couple of questions:

Temperature shader. What is it? Does the fluid actually have a temperature property, or is it just something unrelated, shaded with the Predator colour set?

And what kind of system are you running? 'Cause unless you got your hands on a Blue Gene or something, 208 fps indicates some pretty impressive optimisation Very Happy

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SteveTaylor · Site Admin Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 240

Luminary,

Since the calculations for the density are exactly the same as the temperature, I decided to save performance and just use the density values for any temperature calculations (like buoyancy). The temerature shader simply shows the intensity of the density. At a later date I may add an independent temperature field.

208 fps is not true =P. I had paused the game before the shot which caused the framerate to skyrocket. On average I've been seeing about 10 fps jump from where it was in the previous version though, and performance is much more scalable this time.

Bigfoot TI · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:14 am Post subject:

the screenies are broken
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LuminaryJanitor · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 152

Bigfoot TI · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

Must've been something on my end, or in the middle, because the screenies are back. another site was acting up, as well. Oh well.

[voice=sarcasm]maybe if you turned the grid down to 10...[/voice]
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xpss2001 · Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Posts: 109

haha

I know someone with a supercomputer.. maybe ill get them to try this Razz

Dynamic viscosity sounds really awesome.. too bad

Ever thought of making the two different plasmas react with each other like in a chemical reaction? I dont know how you would do it, but it would be really cool Razz

Bigfoot TI · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:35 am Post subject:

since we're on the topic of distant tech, why not spring for a 3d holo view of it? go deep!
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