JEO 18/46
Jaguar Interactive
Date received: 1/15/98 17:16 from LEGRAND.ag3d.com (Scott Le Grand)
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Important Questions Regarding Jaguar Programming
If I were to go back and do pixel shatter on the Jag (and I considered
doing this effect for Battle Sphere, but we didn't have enough RAM
left), I would render an exploding object into an offscreen buffer at
the moment of its death. Then, I would use the blitter to pixel
shatter it from that perspective for the next 2 seconds or so...
Alternately, I once had a melt-o-vision effect going with the
explosions:  the trouble was it required a 128x128 offscreen buffer
for each explosion.  However, since no 2 explosions were ever the same
and they flowed in the most amazing way, it resulted in the best
looking animated explosions I have >EVER< seen before or since...
Anyway, those are a few of the outtakes from the BattleSphere project
that 4 megs of RAM would have cured... Hell, 2.5 would have cured
it... But 2 was just too close to the edge...
C'est la vie...
Scott
//// AvP Reminiscing
Subject:      Re: CD? Syndrome
From:         danm_die_spam_die@microware.com (Dan McNamee)
Date:         1997/12/02
Newsgroups:   rec.games.video.atari,alt.atari-jaguar.discussion
On Mon, 01 Dec 1997 18:10:58 -0600, Dan Mazurowski
 wrote:
>On the contrary. The Jag had been out for al least a year when AvP was
>released. Atari had sent the program back to Rebellion several times to
>be re-worked, I think Atari put more into making sure AvP was an
>excellent title than any other Jag cart. From what I can recall from the
>time it was being worked on, it was sent back for a major overhaul once
>to increase the detail of the graphics (look at the screenshots from
>early versions on your Jag box - very pixelated). Unfortunately, this
>increased detail meant reduced frame rate, but I'm very happy with the
>final product. Other requested changes I heard about - make the eggs
>part of the game (originally they just sat there - the only face huggers
>you encountered were running around loose, not freshly hatched) and to
>make the game "more immersive" (sounds like a request to make it more
>RPG-ish and less Doom-ish).
Actually most of the graphics were really good, we just added some
additional items and cleaned up some of their stuff that needed a bit
of work.  The really big thing we did was redesign all of the levels
and the gameplay, as well as come up with the entire story line and
the ability to play as Alien, Predator or Marine.
The problem with the levels as originally designed was that they were
HUGE, totally random mazes based on a 64x64 grid.  This caused several
debugging problems since we had to make sure that all of the walls
were actually there.  It also caused problems in that Rebellion's
engine could only handle so many objects on a level, not just
creatures, but all objects other than walls, enemies, medkits, ammo
and scenery items, so it made the levels very sparse so you could
wander around for a VERY long time (sometimes up to an hour) without
running into anything at all, and the random maze layout of the levels
just made it all frustrating.  Anyway, so we reduced the level size to
a 32x32 grid and went from there.  Admittedly, the levels are still
mazes, but we did try to make each level have a purpose as well as a
semi rational layout as a working space station/ military
base/training facility.  We also tried to make each game as different
as possible within the structure of the game engine, so the Marine
game was a bit of a RPG, the Alien game a bit more strategy and the
Predator game more of a shoot-em-up, basically a little of something
for everyone.
>And yes, much of the slow movement is intentional. Look at how fast you
>move when playing the alien! Though as the marine, I think they could
>have let you turn faster, or choose to run, instead of always moving at
>a walk.
Yes, the slower movement was intentional.  All of the characters could
have moved as fast as the alien, but we wanted each to have it's own
feel.  We did complain quite a bit about the turning speed, but were
told that there wasn't anything that could be done with it.  We also
requested a run for the Marine and Predator as well, but it got pushed
down the priority list and dropped due to the need to get the game
out.  We also had a lot of other nifty things we wanted to put into
the game that got cut because of time.
Dan
ex-Atari, Lead Tester of AvP
... The standard disclaimer applies to the above message.
--- JetMail 0.99beta22
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