7 replies to this topic

[Menno]

Hey all,

I rewrote casio pool into an SDK add-in, it now features a very realistic collision model with angle and impuls distribution . The SDK enabled so much power the game is now played with 10 balls and one white ball.



The game is easy to operate,

when starting you need to place the white ball along a line with the up and down arrow. When you have placed the white ball, press enter, now the cue appears, with the left and right arrow keys you can set the angle of the cue.

With the up and down arrow you can set the force of the the hit. press enter and be amazed about the high reality collisons and movement of the balls (it took me a while to get it this way )

The bar that represented the force of the hit now represents the balls that are in the pocket. When you pocket a white ball you can place it again along the line




so the main keys are up down left right and exe

with menu and exit you exit the application

please try the game and tell me if you like it (rate it, comment it whatever )

[Menno]

added functions:

optn key while aiming shows trajectory

limited white balls

some bugs caused intercollision, fixed

[alias4399]

Hey Menno!

I haven't played this game yet, but it looks great!

And real collisions eh? I'll have to see!

Glad to see there's a skilled programmer in the industry

-Alias

[Menno]

Heya

well i tried really hard to implement the collision and angle distribution in a natural way, please tell me what you think it took me several different physics and math sources (books and sites) before i got it right ... it was hard (i am ages away from my last math and physics lesson... so i almost had to re-invent my own math skills )

[Menno]

hey thanks

1) No problem, i am still tweaking the model it is all a compromise between processing time and natural movement. (long story but collision checking is an processor intensive task, each ball knows which ball it has been colliding with the last instance, when they are apart from eachother more than 2 times the radius of a ball they forget it, this works in 95% of the cases, i could get it to 99% but then i need to tweak some more to keep the game flow natural).

1b) I know about that problem and i am still thinking about a solution for that one. if i am getting you right you mean when the white ball has been pocketed and there is a black ball on the line of placement you can locate the white ball inside a black ball, that problem will be tackled though, I am just wondering how to solve it, i guess i will just force the white ball in a different position when that occurs, or i could give a signal like "illegal white ball placement, try again sucker"

2) I havent seen that effect yet, i have played it a couple of times, bughunting (i should get myself a Discovery series now i think of it, like Rex, Menno's bughunting adventures wehehehe okay okay, not that funny)

3) I made the game for untweaked cpu's, you must understand i cannot include every possibility now with kucalc's CPU overclock util. In the most positive way ment, you are not supposed to play the game on an overclocked cpu. I wonder though, do you still see the white ball moving, because i limited the speed of movement after making the game on the SDK (on a computer it was all very see-able, but playing it on my calc i wondered where the white ball went, and then i knew, it was there but moving so fast you could faintly see it....)

Then about updates, there are some changes comming (not this weekend though):

- 2 side holes as an option
- the possibility to choose 4,6 or infinite whiteballs
- carambole billiards

planned bugfixes:

- a tweaked collision checking mechanism, (extra prevention of intercollision and prevention of balls moving into eachother)
- the whiteball placing problem.

And to you all, please report problems or idea's you have, i need user input

[Menno]

But I found another bug:
Reduce power to (almost) zero and strike the white ball - it'll always move to the right (and not to the direction you wanted).

you are absolutely right :| i wonder.... i will checkthis is not supposed how it should be hmmm

it will be fixed

[Menno]

game update 2 (v3.1):
I have added the option to play with 6 holes
I have added the option to play with 8 whiteballs instead of 4
I have added the option to play carambole (no gamerules yet)
I fixed the bug where you could place a white ball in a black ball during whiteball placement (thanks CFX Master)
I fixed the bug where the ball would shoot full speed when selecting speed 0 (thanks CFX Master)
I fixed some intercollision problems
I fixed the bug where sometimes a ball dissapeared in the side (got caught)

have fun

[Menno]

Hmm, the menu arrow is missing when selecting "Carambole".

That is not a bug when selecting carambole there is nothing to "arrow"

But maybe these things can improve usability:
1) You should add an exit function to the main menu. (I think you just forgot it )
Perhaps you can also modify the current exit algorithm:
- e. g. : pressing exit/menu quits the game and returns to the (game's) main menu, pressing exit/menu again exits the game normally

That is a good idea and will be included in the next version (in which i will add carambole rules and a two player option for carambole also)

2) Can you also change the default cue direction ?
- e.g : the white ball lies on the right side of the table so the cue should aim to the left side
- you could also distinguish between the upper and lower side
I think this would make it more realistic as you cannot always strike the ball from the left (table) side.

I could do a few things about this:
1 leave the cue at the last angle before the ball stopped
2 as you suggested

i don't know if i will change it though maybe when the game is perfect and final this is the last thing to do

thanks for bughunting and thinking with me i really like that