Game World R-GW-1,2,3,...,11

Elemental Game

Elemental Game is the entry point to the program.
It should start by showing the TitleScreen until the player presses the Start key.

GameFlow Interface

The GameFlow and EditorMode are designed to be interchangable.
They will use different HUDs and should allow disengagement of the scoring system.
EditorMode may have additional functionality to facilitate Level Design.

Editor Mode

By using textures extensively, we will eventually be able to provide an editor mode by using .Net Forms to edit bitmaps and text strings.
This will allow the player to create there own worlds.

Until such time as this is feasible we are collecting parameters into XML and Textures

XML is used to define Terrain, Sky, Players, Props, and Physics.
Textures are used as a heightmap for the terrain.
Textures are used to supply location starting points for props
All asthetic textures are also specified in the XML

Production Mode

Production Mode encapsulates all of the transitioning operations

The single player game is developed from the multi player game. Single player is composed of the multi player game but rather than opposing human players the opposition will be composed of bots. This will allow all game modes and maps to be played even if there are not other human players available. This will also allow for a training and practice mode to hone your skills in.

Multi-player Combat Mode

Multi-player will feature split screen combat between several human players.
Each player will have there own independent controller.
Several maps will be available for combat.

Low goal – Death match combat
High goal – Other game types(to be determined but possibly including Capture the flag, King of the Hill or other forms of Objective type game play.)

Object Library

GameObject ( Abstract )

Contains data structures and methods that are common to all derived classes

Virtual Properties -

Effect - The shader effect applied to the object
Texture2D[] - Holds the objects textures
WorldMatrix - Used to combine the modelView, projection, and objectSpace transformations
Model - Holds the object's vertices
Mass - Contains properties for the object that relate to its physics methods.

Human and AI Characters - Player : GameObject R-GC-1

The character models for the EleMentals will be created in a 3D rendering program, either MilkShape or CB Model Pro, then textured with UVMapper, and exported to the DirectX format (.x). Most of the characters will be invisible cloaked figures with hats (see the list below).

Player will provide the interface for controlling the game character.
This interface is used by Human, AI, and Network players.
Each Human Player will have a Camera.
Each Camera will have it's own ViewPort.

Public Accessors - Player Harness

Player harness belongs to both Humans and AI's and is accessed by:
gameFlow.objectLibrary.humans[].controllerInput
gameFlow.objectLibrary.bots[].controllerInput

Controllable inputs are:

Model Format

Character model size shall be in the range of:

where x is the width, y is the height, and z is the depth of the model within Milkshape.

Particle Based Attacks and Defences R-W-1a,1b,1c,1d,5

Particle are the basis for weapons and sheilds for Humans and AI's

Direct Attacks -

Attacks using Low-Poly particles of Earth, Air and Water.
Particle scale should be as small as engine stress testing allows.

For example, we eventually we want to create sand size earth particles.
Water should be small enough to simulate a unit of cohesively bonded water.
Air should be small and plentiful enough to float freely around the grid space.

Heating and Cooling of particles is done through the use of the Fire element.
Changing the temperature of an element causes it to begin reversing that change by disappating into the air or to other elements.
Eventually these temperature changes should also propegate to props.

Direct Attack particles react to the environment.
They display real collision physics against other Game Objects.

Attacks will drain manna based on the impact force and heat value.
They can be aimed using the controller and the hud targeting interface.

Area of Effect Attacks

Attacks using High-Poly particles of Earth, Air, and Water.
The player may move in and out of these particles.
If inside, the player is effected by applying damage to health.
If shield is up for the corresponding particle, player gets manna.

Particle scale should grow as effect animation unfolds.
We control this using a radius value that expands over time.

All animations have scale and temperature components to modify the effect.
The radius value is used expand the scale of the bubble and to propegate wave patterns through the effect.
The temperature value is used to modulate between textures applied to the particle.

Earth

Particle effect is a sand storm with a fracturing earth quake.

Sandstorm is done by rotating a semi translucent textured particle using a quaternion.
For added excitement we randomly terrain mod a fracture around the area particle encompasses.
When the particle "pops", the final state of the terrain is kept.

Water

Whirlpool Flood.

Whirlpool is accomplished by collapsing the particle to approximatly the player's eye level using the vertex processor.
It should be rotated and have a wave pattern that sweeps IN - WARD towards the center.
Forces should be applied to the player moving it in an inward spiral towards the center of the whirlpool.
Rotation should be accomplished using a quaternion.

Air

Lightning Storm with Gale Force Winds

Lightning Storm is accomplished by applying a semi-translucent cloud to the particle and shooting down spikes of lightning using an inverted version of the fire effect.
Gale Force Winds are accomplished by applying random forces to the player.
Forces should be applied to the player moving it in an inward spiral towards the center of the storm.
Rotation should be accomplished using a quaternion.

Shields

Shields allow the player to protect themselves from hostile attacks.
Shields will be implemented using a translucent colored globe dependent upon the selected element.

Shield interaction will occur via the particle system.
When a shield corresponding to the particle is used, player will not be damaged, but instead will gain manna.
Shields are effective for both Direct Attacks and Area of Effects.

Level - Terrain : GameObject R-GW-1

The terrain of the world can be manipulated by the player. The objects on the map can also be moved or destroyed by the player. In this section we will describe how the terrain and object modification will be implemented.

The terrain is loaded from a 2D bitmap image and scaled to create a large playing surface. The height values are stored with black = lowest and white = highest.

The vertices for the surface are generated from the 2D bitmap and stored in a 1D array which stores the normal, position and texture coordinates. This vertex array is then passed to the vertex buffer and an index buffer stores the indices for the triangles.

A collision detection map is also generated from the original 2D bitmap. This is also a 2D bitmap that has been scaled with height values interpolated between vertices to provide accurate terrain collision detection.

To change the height at a vertex, we change the height at the specified position in the original bitmap, recalculate the normals for that position and its surrounding points, and propagate the changes into the vertex buffer and collision map.

There will be various "brushes" that the player can use to modify the heightmap in different ways. For example, they can either just change one vertex at a time to create spikes or use a gaussian brush to raise mounds.

The terrain height map is generated from a gray scale bitmap.
Each pixel represents a vertex and the color value of the pixel represents the y-coordinate height of the vertex.
The vertices are stored in a vertex buffer that is scaled by a preset scale factor when drawn.
This scaling factor is also applied to the collision map.
The Collision map is generated by scaling the terrain height map.
Interpolation between the original values gives us a more accurate collision map to reference when doing Object to Terrain collision detection.

Terrain can be raised or lowered by any Player.
Terrain Modification must change the appropriate vertex's y-value and update the normals, the vertexHeightMap and the collisionHeightMap appropriately

Environment - SkySphere: GameObject

The entire game world will be enclosed in a Sky Sphere.
This is a traditional "sky box", except it uses very large low-poly sphere with a texture to create a more realistic sky.

ParticleManager

The ParticleManager will be the top-level class which will be in charge of controlling all the different sets of particles.
It will contain six main objects - AirAOE, WaterAOE, EarthAOE, AirDA, WaterDA and EarthDA.
These three objects will each be a ParticleSystem class.
The main job of the ParticleManager will be maintain these three objects independantly.

ParticleSystem

Contains three lists of particles - staticParticles, dynamicParticles and thermalParticles.
Each ParticleSystem will be in-charge of maintaining all of it's particles.
The ParticleSystem will handle moving particles from one list to another.
It will perform the following functions for each list separately-

staticParticles - Only a Draw() function need to be called for the particles stored in this list.
dynamicParticles - An Update() function has to be called for these particles in addition to the Draw() function. The ParticleSystem also needs to call each particle's UpdatePosition() function and update each particle's boundingSphere position based on it's new position.
ThermalParticles - An UpdateHeatDissipation() function will be called on these particles. This function will cause the particle to dissipate it's energy either to neighboring particles or to the environment. A Draw() function call is also required for these particles.

A particle is only allowed to be stored in the following combinations - only static, only dynamic, only thermal and dynamic-thermal.

Particle : GameObject

A particle is a simple low-polygon model if its a Direct Attack particle.
If the particle is an Area Of Effect particle then it will have have model with a higher polygon count and scaled.

Physics

<see physics>

Shading details

<see shaders>

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