Mini Users Guide

    Getting Started
  • Controls:
    • Main character movement: W,A,S,D
    • Cursor movement: Mouse or mouse pad
    • Other controls: Space Bar for activation of fire legs ability, Tab cancels the fire legs ability and F is to focus
    • Game Playfield
  • Environment Objects:
    • Some objects you can interact with in the game are: Barrels, Crates, Swinging Platforms, Spike Smashers, as well anything else in the game playfield
    • Enemies: The enemies will patrol around a certain area, if they find you they will begin to chase and shoot you!
    • About the Game Mechanics
  • Mental Deterioration Bar (MD Bar):
    • The MD Bar is located at the top of the in game HUD. This bar will slowly fill up over time and once is full you die! Another event that causes your MD Bar to fill up faster is taking damage from enemies. Once you get hit the bar will flash red alerting you that you are taking damage. The bar will also begin to flash red if the bar is close to filling up.
  • Focus Ability:
    • Holding down the focus button will decrease your MD. As a result the transformed objects will also revert back to their normal state.
  • Fire Legs:
    • To activate fire legs press the space bar. Use the cursor to choose a direction to use the ability in. The fire legs will let you travel various distances based on how much MD is present. Once in the ability is activated a line will appear in the direction of the cursor to help you choose a direction to use the ability in. To cancel fire legs you can press the Tab key. Some preconditions to using this ability is that you must be on a surface to use fire legs. Also once fire legs is used controls are disabled so choose your direction carefully. Click the left mouse button to use fire legs and watch your character soar through the air with an amazing fire effect!
  • Combat:
    • To shoot enemies aim the cursor at the given enemy and left click on the mouse button to fire your weapon. The enemy will disappear when killed.
    • Winning and Losing
    • To win a level you must successfully reach the end of the current level!
    • You cannot lose, in the game the only thing that happens to you is getting resetting back to the spawn point.

Technologies List

  • Particle System - GLSL vertex and pixel shading Ability to display various particle effects, such as sparks and fire.
  • Texture mapping - MIP maps utilized to improve the rendering of the 2-D textures and images Normal mapping applied to objects to provide increased lighting detail.
  • Octree - Spatial data structure containing information of objects Maintained and organized according to object's bounding boxes.
  • View Frustum Culling - Culling according the camera's view frustum using the hierarchical architecture of the octree
  • Collision Detection - Collision between projectiles and combat objects utilizing the octree.
  • FBX Animation - FBX animated models applied to game characters. Not yet optimized.
  • Implementation of the Bullet Physics Engine - Real-time physics simulation and interaction within the environment.
  • Level Editor - Fully functional level editor capable of manipulating objects and environment to develop levels for Third Degree.
  • Artificial Intelligence - Enemy movement and combat – patrolling, chasing and attacking the enemy.

Resources

  • Akenine-Moller, Tomas, Eric Haines, and Naty Hoffman. Real-Time Rendering. 3rd ed. AK Peters, 2008. Print.
  • Anonymous. "Object FIles (.obj)." Web log post. MartinReady. 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. [http://www.martinreddy.net/gfx/3d/OBJ.spec].
  • Autodesk. "FBX Sdk." Autodesk - 3D Design & Engineering Software for Architecture, Manufacturing, and Entertainment. 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. [http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7478532].
  • Bullet Developers. "Bullet Documentation." SDK Documentation. 15 Feb. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. [http://www.continuousphysics.com/Bullet/BulletFull].
  • Dunn, Fletcher, and Ian Parberry. 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development. 1st ed. Vol. I. Sudbury: WordWare, 2002. Print.
  • McShaffry, Mike. Game Coding Complete. 3rd ed. Vol. I. Charles River Media, 2009. Print. Shirley, Peter, and Steve Marschner. Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. 3rd ed. K Peters, 2009. Print.