creating an FPS mode

[paul424]

I thought about adding an FPP mode to the game .... would you aid me in doing this when I got stuck ? few things must be done :
1) creating a new InputMode for keyboard and a mouse
2) disabling the animation and the creatures "brain"
3) attaching the camera to the point of creature sight ...

[Danimal]

Hi Paul, sadly the project is dead at the moment, and the team scattered with the wind; i myself cant muster the will to open blender anymore, in the last 2 years i have only made two really simple models and everyone else must have just moved on to warmer lands/projects. You would just be wasting your time here, you better search for an alive project to contribute to and forget OD as well.

[charlie]

That's very negative Danimal. Nobody will ever revive OD if you take respond to them that way when they try.

[Danimal]

If someone ever wants to they will have my support and guiding

[hwoarangmy]

Indeed, Paul seems to want to work on the project and oyvindln also seems to be around. For my part, I stopped because I have less time and because it was not fun anymore with the team scattering. But I guess that if 1 or 2 motivated people would like to work on the project, it could revive.
In any case, I would try to help and maybe even participate from time to time.

Back to the question, the FPP mode would be really hard to implement, if not impossible. The problem is that all decisions are made on the server side. On client side, you would have to send requests to the server when the player moves and wait for the answer before seeing your unit move. That will introduce an unacceptable lag since decision making are done every 0.7s only. Because of that, you would have to do like any FPP, assume what the server is doing, including other units movements and try to synchronize when you were wrong.
That's really like implementing another game in the game but with additional constraints not related to the game.
In my opinion, it would be better to improve the current gameplay trying to make it feel more like a game and make it more fun. The FPP mode would be a lot of work for a small improvement (when I used to play DK, apart at the beginning to test the feature, I almost never used the mode). Moreover, it would not make the game more fun and, thus, it will stay a game nobody plays even though you would have worked for weeks/months.

[Danimal]

Sup Hwoarangmy, i do feel a bit guilty about the project stoping but rouhgly about a year ago i just turned a leaf on my life and felt i had to tackle more important things. What are you doing nowdays? did you get into another project?

[hwoarangmy]

Hi Danimal,

Well, this is an open source project. We all spend the time we want to in it. If you don't want to be part of it anymore, for whatever reason, you don't have to feel guilty. And it is not a matter of how much time you spend in the project. Actually, that's a good thing with open source projects in my opinion. If you want to do something, even if it takes you weeks, that's ok, you are not paid for that and no boss will come asking for anything.
About myself, no, I'm not in another project. I came to OD because I wanted to improve my C++ skills and try some new tools. From that point of view, I was satisfied after a year. But since the team and the project were cool, I stayed to improve the game. We will see if motivation comes back ^^

What about you ?

[Danimal]

Actually nothing, i just made a couple of really simple pixel art models over the last 2 years and couldnt find the motivation to finish a third. OGA community being mostly dead doesnt help either, if i ever get to game making again it will probably be my own project on unity3d (if i ever get to it), no project has been able catch my eye for now.

[Oetelaer]

For FPS mode, the mouse should work.
I downloaded Open Dungeons version 07.1, would run it in Windows 10, there is no mouse available to move around with, only arrow keys.
Mouse movement in DK was very well scripted, you could also adjust the sensitivity of the mouse.

In DK, walking in FPS means using both the mouse and the arrow buttons. Can be used for reconnaissance, you can use it for imps to run over lava until they die there after 4 or 5 tiles. Some secret levels and one Deeper Dungeon level can not be completed without the FPS mode, several custom maps use FPS mode also.
FPS mode takes over a creature completely, and uses lenses where very creature has a different filter to the camera. I found a nice examples of lenses to maybe use over here, made in Ogre3D Compositor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQyXeSgle7c

Except for the camera from the instance of the creature, the tab on the creature's properties was visible next to the FPS view.

I did not see any portrait of any creature yet in Open Dungeons, at best they could be made by using renders from Blender.
In DK, every creature had a name, and their properties where a databank of facts.
Except maybe for the blood type, this will have been added to fill up a slot, or to make the game more impressive, the creatures more real.

Another problem for an FPS mode, is the ceiling.
The ceilings in DK, can only be seen in FPS mode.
Ceilings where scripted to become higher, once the space between walls was wider.
Ceiling has to be implemented also, to create the FPS mode.

[charlie]

Ceiling has to be implemented also, to create the FPS mode.

I disagree with that. I mean, ideally it should be there but I don't think it matters that much if there is no ceiling but black instead.