Zulu Hour

Our website has been updated!   We added a new video and a few pictures, and we have more coming.  Also, check out our team bios.

My god, I’ve implemented the Phong model on a real-time ray tracer in CUDA, but damn if I can get it working in HLSL. WTF is going on?

That’s right, I thought specular was working…I was wrong.

Yeah, I figured this might happen.  How do people keep up with blogs?  Who has the time?

Anyway, been working like nobody’s business recently (both the real job and on ZH).  I’ve made some fine additions to the game since my last post post, probably the biggest being the HUD.  We’ve got health, we’ve got missiles, we’ve got inventory (complete with a slick little scrolly animation); what more could you want?  well, i want a better-looking missile lock visual, current points, and i don’t know, it needs something else.  gotta consult with karl.

on the functional side of things, both missile systems work, which is a load off.   Missile lock still needs work though.  I’m trying to make it very top gun-ish with a square you directly control and a circle that follows it.  when both doo-dads are on a target, fire away.  the “follow” part is what’s being a pain.  i tried a basic pursue/approach algorthm.  that didn’t work.  then i added velocity, acceleration, and and turning speed to it, but that didn’t work either.  at least if i ever need something to go i random circles and figure-8s, i’ll know how to do it.  so, i have to rework that a bit.

tonight i added specular highlights.  i may just be tired, but i really think it helped the overall look of the game.  Nice.

read an article today by XNA Forum regular, Catalin zima, on deferred shading.  SUCH a good article, and SUCH a cool technique i almost want to rewrite my engine.   almost.  i will tuck it away and hopefully use it someday.

on a similar note, i really want to add HDR.  maybe this weekend.  or maybe i’ll implement some more weapons.  or flesh out the first level.  or work on the HUD….

oh yeah, i really need to listen to justin’s new/old songs.  sorry justin.

lol, if i get bored maybe i’ll add some much needed content to this site.

Wow, my latest work actually makes a difference in the game!  There’s nothing like instant gratification (instead of, “This will make level editing much easier in 3 months”) to get you excited about your project again.  Using Karl the Artist’s beautiful icons, enemies can now drop items such as better guns and health, and the player can consume them.  It’s looking more like a “game” every week…

next up is work on the HUD, which should give a big change in how the game looks and feels.

As a side, terrain needs help.  We need to figure out how to make it look great but still be flexible.  Use a heightmap or model it as a mesh - that’s the question.

Gonna try to get it to a point where my dad and brother can do some beta testing tomorrow, and not give the “Is that it?” look.

Whew, I just committed a sizable addition to the game. Zulu Hour has just been retrofitted with an extensible event system, which should provide much more dynamic levels. For example, enemies’ spawn times were based strictly on time, whereas now they come in waves, where one wave only occurs after the last has beeen destroyed. I also just about finished integrating the event system into the level editor, which is pretty slick.

of course, after all this coding, the game itself looks exactly the same as it did before. hopefully i’ll be ablle to work on weapons this week.

as a side note, i got some art and music from the team this weekend. it is AMAZING. thanks guys!

Zulu Hour finally has a home! This is more of a promotional website, but maybe I’ll catch on to this blogging thing. We shall see.

Anyway, this site is about our new game, Zulu Hour, which is under development right now! Check it out, and feel free to comment any praises/questions/grievances/bashes/whatever!