3D Screamers v1.0 ß

This game was written with Virtually Unlimited's "3D Game Machine", a C library for creating lightning-fast 3D arcade games and interactive multimedia applications.

Screamers shows how 3DGM can be used to write an arcade game very easily: It took less than a week to create this demo, including graphics and 3D shapes. There obviously needs some more work to have a real game (like a plot, graphics and sound), but with 3DGM, a little work and a lot of imagination, any good C programmer could write a commercial hit in a matter of weeks.

3DGM features:

- very fast rendering
- simple easy-to-use interface
- full "virtual" 3D worlds with six degrees of freedom
- free-form texture mapping
- flat-shading
- material and light properties
- convex/cave polygons with unlimited vertices
- unlimited light sources
- dynamic hidden surface removal
- special graphic modes for fast full-screen animation
- collision detection
- explosion simulation
- 3D data importing

3D Game Machine is CHEAP ! The basic version costs $299, with a special student discount at $199. The software license includes a 5% royalty on applications developed with 3DGM, professionals can also request the "Zero Royalty License" for a one-time flat-fee.

There's more information about 3D Game Machine and Virtually Unlimited in the "Docs" menu.

About 3D Screamers

Since this is a beta version, there might still be some bugs which will be corrected in the future. Despite the game's loud name, the little red screamers are currently mute (no sound yet). We'll also do a lot more code optimizing on 3DGM for speed, especially for the 680x0 library, basically mean assembly language. A newer version of this game will allow to render off-screen and do a CopyBit() thereafter, instead of writing directly on-screen like now.

Although 3DGM's free-form texture-mapping is only slightly slower than flat texture-mapping on the PowerMac, it is much slower on a 68k, so if you twist the camera on a no-PowerMac the FPS may start to drown.

Screamers uses 3DGM's collision detection routines only for missile/screamer collisions, the others are detected through a simple 2D logical map, this is why you currently can't fly over the tunnel or the towers. Pyramids don't collide with anything so you can see how the screamers fly through. 

Note that this little game is just a demo -- not a commercial program -- so it might get a little boring after a while.

Instructions

Chose the window Size by selecting one of the predefined sizes in the options menu. If you have a big monitor (like 21"), you can try 3DGM's special delta blitter by selecting "Fill Screen" and turning the textures off.

Chose one of the Textures modes, the less there is, the faster it goes.

The Interlace option allows to draw only 1 line out of 2, a bit of contrast is lost, but the speed is almost twice as high.

Precise rendering can be turned off for faster rendering.

The Checkerboard option turns off 1 out of 2 shapes on the floor, which also speeds up rendering.

The Clear Screen option tells 3DGM to erase the whole screen before the game starts.

Once you are done select "Run Game" in the file menu, or press command-R or return.

Controls

4/6                 turn left/right
8/5    

move forward/backward
7/9           

move forward/backward and turn left/right
1/3                 move sideways
cmd 8/5

    

turn up/down
ctrl 4/6

          tilt left/right
z/x or ctrl 8/5

 move up/down
space/mouse button  fire missile
cmd-Q

Quit

If you would like more information about our products, please contact us at :

Virtually Unlimited, SNC
24 Château-Banquet
CH-1202 Geneva
Switzerland
Internet: main@virtually.mcnet.ch
Compuserve: 100423,2721
FTP://FTP.VIRTUALLY.MCNET.CH/virtually
Phone: (+4122) 310-0806 CET (central European time)
Fax: (+4122) 733-3115

This version was released in June 95, if you'd like a newer version or other 3DGM demos check out our FTP site:

    FTP://FTP.VIRTUALLY.MCNET.CH , in the "virtually" directory

This demo is copyrighted © 1995 by Virtually Unlimited, SNC.

(nothing to see here, please disperse)