Traffic lights instead of 1, 2, 3, ...

[fraang]

Ok I sat down to make a progress bar type racestart counter and this is what I have done so far:
3
2
1
Of course it fill circular clockwise.

The individual parts:





I hope you like it. License is CC-BY-SA.

[Kinsu]

Great ! I like this

If STK includes this "progress start light" it will be a very nice way to keep along with the start lights tradition in race games, while innovating and being original !

Did you make the animation or juste the images so far, fraang ?
EDIT : forgot the word "tradition"

[STKRudy85]

+1

[fraang]

I made only the images so far. I thought the animation should come from the game itself.

Is there a way to do a transition effect? Like the transitions in the good old Star Wars films?

[Kinsu]

Well, to make a progress-circle that is filled clockwise, I think an animation has to be done. Some transitions may be available in irrlicht, but I don't think we'll find what we precisely need here. Can someone tell me if I'm wrong ? (Good idea anyway )

Maybe you can try with Windows Movie Maker ?

[fraang]

Well, to make a progress-circle that is filled clockwise, I think an animation has to be done. Some transitions may be available in irrlicht, but I don't think we'll find what we precisely need here. Can someone tell me if I'm wrong ? (Good idea anyway )

Maybe you can try with Windows Movie Maker ?

I fear I have no Windows Movie Maker nor Windows.

But I can take look into one of the Linux tools.

[Iridium]

Well, to make a progress-circle that is filled clockwise, I think an animation has to be done. Some transitions may be available in irrlicht, but I don't think we'll find what we precisely need here. Can someone tell me if I'm wrong ? (Good idea anyway )

Maybe you can try with Windows Movie Maker ?

It could actually be done using Stopmotion on WMM or iMovie, but I'd need images of each filling up.

And also at the end of each stage could we have the Green one glow just to signify it?

[fraang]

Ok the glow frame :

[Iridium]

Ok the glow frame :

Awesome!
Should you do one for the end of Red & Yellow? I don't think so but it's possible.

[Arthur]

Well, to make a progress-circle that is filled clockwise, I think an animation has to be done. Some transitions may be available in irrlicht, but I don't think we'll find what we precisely need here. Can someone tell me if I'm wrong ? (Good idea anyway )

How do you think the speedometer is done?
But maybe animating it outside the game would be a cleaner way to do it; I am not sure either.

[Auria]

Please folks, don't do that kind of thing in Windows Movie Maker or anything like that ^^ we can do it realtime in STK.

fraang, I like your ideas however we are not yet ready to code it, especially we need to decide if we use a 3D model. However nice images

[Kinsu]

Nice glow effect (I think it should only be here for the green).

we can do it realtime in STK

Alright, good news :)

Now let's see how Funto will improve the thunderbird, and if it's possible to merge the 2 ideas

[Funto]

Actually I'm thinking of having custom starting animations per track, like having the Thunderbird thing for say Coyote Canyon, the progress bar for a more "technological" track (XR591?), etc.
But that raises 2 problems:
- a bit of work is needed, not sure someone would have enough time to do this
- how could this be made in a "data-driven" way? (i.e. not having specific code for each track...).

For the animation, as said Auria: please, no movie, this can be easily and more cleanly done in code

EDIT: ah BTW Kinsu: any advice on how to improve it? And if someone is interested in improving it, I can give the .blend and .xcf files.

[fraang]

Actually I'm thinking of having custom starting animations per track, like having the Thunderbird thing for say Coyote Canyon, the progress bar for a more "technological" track (XR591?), etc.
But that raises 2 problems:
- a bit of work is needed, not sure someone would have enough time to do this
- how could this be made in a "data-driven" way? (i.e. not having specific code for each track...).

For the animation, as said Auria: please, no movie, this can be easily and more cleanly done in code

EDIT: ah BTW Kinsu: any advice on how to improve it? And if someone is interested in improving it, I can give the .blend and .xcf files.

I think we should not make it to different on every track because of consistency. This could confuse players. I would go a variaty of progressbars/characters for each track. This way the player "knows" in every track what indicates the countdown.

Maybe we can combine the two ideas like this:
The Thunderbird carries the progressbar. And for each level another character and/or progressbar is used. What do think of this?

[Funto]

Seems fair
Now, what kind of other character could handle a progress bar, except Songbird as hiker mentioned...

[fraang]

Seems fair
Now, what kind of other character could handle a progress bar, except Songbird as hiker mentioned...

Hmmm... what's about Ice Dove?

In sum we have 3 birds: Thunderbird, Ice Dove and Songbird

[Kinsu]

Actually I'm thinking of having custom starting animations per track, like having the Thunderbird thing for say Coyote Canyon, the progress bar for a more "technological" track (XR591?), etc. [...]

[...]
I think we should not make it to different on every track because of consistency. This could confuse players. I would go a variaty of progressbars/characters for each track. This way the player "knows" in every track what indicates the countdown.

Maybe we can combine the two ideas like this:
The Thunderbird carries the progressbar. And for each level another character and/or progressbar is used. What do think of this?

I agree with fraang : the start animation must be some kind of standard, as it helps players to get familiar with the game. Keep the same progressbar is a necessity I think ^^

Regarding the character that shows the progress bar, why not changing it... This character is a kind of referee for races, so as long as people understand what's its role, it's OK.
However, making 1 different character for each track is a lot of work, for a (very) little feature. If someone has the will to work that much, I think it would be much more useful for STK to have Mozilla improved, for instance.
What could be done is a kind of "collection" of (flying) referee characters, that includes the ones you stated. But here again this is some work, and think that to begin one character is enough (maybe more later ? ).

I would love to see the "reset" button replaced by the referee (a little as the old flying Tux)

ah BTW Kinsu: any advice on how to improve it?

I'll doodle a little tomorrow to structure a little my ideas about it

[Funto]

Hmm...you're right ^^

[hiker]

Actually I'm thinking of having custom starting animations per track, like having the Thunderbird thing for say Coyote Canyon, the progress bar for a more "technological" track (XR591?), etc.
But that raises 2 problems:
- a bit of work is needed, not sure someone would have enough time to do this
- how could this be made in a "data-driven" way? (i.e. not having specific code for each track...).

We could add this to the xml file, but I don't think it's worth doing.

I think we should not make it to different on every track because of consistency. This could confuse players. I would go a variaty of progressbars/characters for each track. This way the player "knows" in every track what indicates the countdown.

Maybe we can combine the two ideas like this:
The Thunderbird carries the progressbar. And for each level another character and/or progressbar is used. What do think of this?

I would prefer to stay consistent - it's a lot easier to get used to one look than to have a change for each level. Also in terms of work it's just easier. So I'd say one character, and one kind of traffic light/progress bar.

Brainstorming: what about a 'reverse' progress bar: the light comes on full, then it fills to less and less. So we start with a full red, which goes to 0 (while the first ping is played). This is then replaced by a filled yellow, which goes to 0 while the 2nd ping is played. Then we have the full green (only, no animations - it will be on the screen for say a second or so) with the last ping. The advantage of this is that if a player starts to early we can freeze the clock for that player, showing exactly how much too early the key was pressed.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

Brainstorming: what about a 'reverse' progress bar: the light comes on full, then it fills to less and less. [...]

I'm not sure I understand well your idea : are you talking about progressively reducing the color's opacity to 0% (in this case it would rather be a kind of traffic light than a progressbar), or a real progressbar that is "unfilled" clockwise to let the next color (or the dark background, if the next color only comes at the beep) appear ?

This question brings me another idea : how about combining those two solutions (maybe that was that you really meant ) ?

Starting light + progress bar schema

[Funto]

I like those ideas, I think we are coming to something

Here is my new suggestion:
- Thunderbird (and only him, no other bird) holds a kind of reverse progress bar
- At each transition (there are 2 of them: ready -> set, set -> go) the player has to press the accelerate button to get an additional speed boost. This adds a new challenge to the game: if the player is synchronized, he gains a speed boost, but if he fails, then he gets a penalty. During the first time he pressed the button (ready -> set), there could be some smoke coming out of the kart to show the success of failure of the operation.
- The boost could be accompanied by a lightning coming from the bird ("thunderbird"...), but I don't see how this could be done when there are several players...
- Thunderbird could be used as well when we are rescued. I think this keeps the game consistent, as you have the same character who is somehow "managing" the race.

Any thoughts?

[Kinsu]

- Thunderbird (and only him, no other bird) holds a kind of reverse progress bar

+1 (I'm going to make some design suggestion for that soon)

- Thunderbird could be used as well when we are rescued.

+1
This is what I called the "referee" above

At each transition the player has to press the accelerate button to get an additional speed boost. [...]

This is not a bad idea. Maybe a little complicated for casual players (as they are used to the "don't press before go"), but with a tutorial animation this should be fine.

However : I think keeping the "don't press before go" AND adding the additional boost would make it too... twisted : "don't press before go EXCEPT if you press within the half second following the beeps, to have a big start boost".
I'm not sure the "don't press before go" feature is really useful (why stopping people from making a little bit of noise before the race ? -- of course with disabled acceleration ), and this double boost could be funny

The boost could be accompanied by a lightning coming from the bird

Indeed, there is a need to graphically show this feature if it's implemented. I'm not sure making the bird glow is the best way for this. I think it's better to show an effect coming from the concerned kart (so no more problems in multiple player games), maybe some smoke from the exhausts, and a kart rumble (some little translations of the chassis in Irrlicht ) could do it ?

But the eternal problem : who can give it a try ?
EDIT : English error

[Funto]

However : I think keeping the "don't press before go" AND adding the additional boost would make it too... twisted : "don't press before go EXCEPT if you press within the half second following the beeps, to have a big start boost".
I'm not sure the "don't press before go" feature is really useful (why stopping people from making a little bit of noise before the race ? -- indeed with disabled acceleration ), and this double boost could be funny

Hmm you're right: that's part of one of the weaknesses of STK: being slowed down for several reasons (the anchor being the most frustrating, but this one is as well). Not being able to start because we pressed the acceleration button sooner is no fun ^^

Indeed, there is a need to graphically show this feature if it's implemented. I'm not sure making the bird glow is the best way for this. I think it's better to show an effect coming from the concerned kart (so no more problems in multiple player games), maybe some smoke from the exhausts, and a kart rumble (some little translations of the chassis in Irrlicht ) could do it ?

I would go for smoke with different colors: black for a failed attempt to get the boost, yellow when we succeeded, etc. Also having the kart go on its back wheels would be fun when starting the race (I know there is some debate on this point, as "wheelies" have been removed from previous versions of STK...).
About the bird, I didn't think of making it "glow", but rather have a lightning (éclair in French, maybe you misunderstood?) go out of it and hit the ground.
But as I said, that doesn't work when in multiplayer, if say one player gets the turbo and the other one doesn't...
And I don't think having one bird per player would be a good idea (many birds in front of each player, that would be just weird ).

But the eternal problem : who can give it a try ?

When I get time I would like to

[Kinsu]

About the bird, I didn't think of making it "glow", but rather have a lightning (éclair in French, maybe you misunderstood?)

Ah yes, sorry ^^'

The smoke colors idea is cool . Yellow would be strange I think, maybe simply white for success & dark for failure could be fine ?

The wheelie would graphically bring an issue : some karts just can't make one without having the back of the kart hit the ground -- the new Blinky is a good example...

When I get time I would like to

It would be great !

[Funto]

Maybe play a wheelie animation instead of doing it directly in software? Note that this would not change the physical model at all, which might be a good thing I think...