Animated Ragdoll Shooter

[genetransfer]

Hi everyone, this my first post here, and was wondering if anyone would want to test out my animated ragdoll shooter demo. mainly Im looking for how it runs on various machines and how many ragdolls can be on the screen comfortably at decent framerates. to increase/decrease number of ragdolls just modify the number (between 1-25) in the "Number_of_Ragdolls.txt" file. the ragdoll basically run or walk around and you can shoot them.

would really appreciate some feedback on this to see if my method is playable on various machines. I can get 10 animated ragdoll playable at 60fps on my quad core 2.4ghz,4gig ram,geforce 9600gt 1680x1050 AA on vista.

requirement : XP/Vista, video card supporting Shader model 2.0 (i think geforce 6200 and up/ati equivelant)

download here: (3.2mb) Animated_Ragdoll_Shooter_V1.41 (http://www.esnips.com/doc/aeab17e5-de58-4ee6-898a-6da8712efe78/Animated_Ragdoll_Shooter_v1.41)

thanks for some feed back.

edit: just increased the limit to 25 ragdoll, i get 30 - 42fps with 25 ragdolls.

http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pZvONGrHSJBS8Jeji0tGU6ZCG8XV_wXlAuqRZr3ypafHy7h7 7qx6AZf1HgSxbUwJiIVTb87CF0TE

[genetransfer]

oh and they respawn when the camera isn't looking at them and wsad mouse :)

[weerdsta]

one word...
makethisintoagame.

[Gump]

Very awesome m8.
Mine had around 60 fps at 5.
and around 40 at 10 with shadows.
My Computer is 2 years old.

Spec:

Asus A8N-SLI/SE, nForce SLI,S939

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3700+,S939

RAM: G.Skill F1 DDR400, 2X512

EVGA GeForce 6800GS,256MB,PCI-E

My request to you is: make it possible to make balls bigger and meaner. so they do more harm. the dead bodies should also be shootable :)

Thanks alot!

[STEVIE G]

Rediculously slow on my rig - even when only 1 ragdoll on screen?! I suggest you work on improving the speed before you make it into a game.

XPpro, 2mb RAM, Gforce8600gt

[geel9]

Rediculously slow on my rig - even when only 1 ragdoll on screen?! I suggest you work on improving the speed before you make it into a game.

XPpro, 2mb RAM, Gforce8600gt

Obvioously a problem with YOUR computer.

[Sporbie]

What's this made in?

[STEVIE G]

Obvioously a problem with YOUR computer.


Perhaps. Is the render pipeline DX or openGL? Not sure if my GL version is up to date as I rarely use it so that could be the issue - apologies if that's the case. If it's DX then it aint my computer as I have an IntelCore2Duo 3ghz and a decent gfx card.

[genetransfer]

thanks people for the replies!

one word...
makethisintoagame.
@weerdsta :) once i find the optimum number of ragdoll will do.

My request to you is: make it possible to make balls bigger and meaner. so they do more harm. the dead bodies should also be shootable
@Gump, I had actually started the weapon as a basket ball, and it was alot of fun then i turned it into a gun just to see how fast i could throw a physics ball at a ragdoll. I want to make the weapons a little different steering away from traditional guns so you suggestion is a good one thanks.

@STEVIE G - Did you try turning off shadows as they can really slow performance down unfortunately. the latest version of Directx 9 is used for this engine sometimes updating your video card drivers and installing the latest version of directx will help. it seems a bit of a mystery, thank you for letting me know if anyof these things make a difference.

What's this made in?
@Sporbie - I'm using visual C++ express edition 2008 and the 3Impact Game Engine.models made in lightwave 9.

thanks everyone and hope fully a few more people will be able to test it out aswell.

[earlofnim]

2mb RAM

Found your problem

[STEVIE G]

@ earlofnim - Thanks, clearly I meant 2 gb ram.

I have most up to date graphics drivers + latest Dx version but it's still slow, even with shadows turned off. I suppose I'll have to give the game a miss.

Good luck with it though Genetransfer.

[AquaGeneral]

With the exact settings you used. I average around 60fps with 10 ragdolls.

I love the way the ragdolls flinch when they are shot. Very realistic.

Also, could you make it possible to add in more ragdolls than 10? It would them become a nice benchmark.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.3GHz | Memory: 2GB of DDR2 800MHz | Graphic Card: GeForce 9800GTX 512MB @ Core 775/Shader 1950/Memory 2300 (effective) | OS: Windows Vista - Home Premium SP1 | 3DMark06 Score: 13784 |

[What?]

What a great little demo, Works like a treat on my crappy computer with no lag at all. If you put a bit of work into this it would make a great game.

[genetransfer]

I have most up to date graphics drivers + latest Dx version but it's still slow, even with shadows turned off. I suppose I'll have to give the game a miss.

Good luck with it though Genetransfer.
@STEVIE G, thanks very much for trying it out anyway, must be one of those freaky things. I talked to the devs of the engine and they said just what i suggested and just make sure there are no other graphics intensive programmes running in the background but other than that nothing more could be done.

Also, could you make it possible to add in more ragdolls than 10? It would them become a nice benchmark.
@AquaGeneral, thanks for testing, i will make an adjustment to allow for the creation of 20 ragdoll and post it tommorow some time.

What a great little demo, Works like a treat on my crappy computer with no lag at all. If you put a bit of work into this it would make a great game.
@what?, thanks glad you like it:) yeah just wanted to get the tech side down first so ican focus on the creative.

thanks again all.

[zalo]

This is a really efficient engine.

At least 25 FPS (I didn't count) And this is a very Ungood Laptop

1.5 Ghz
512 Mb of Memory
Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS, 910 GML Express Chipset (AKA: Intel Integrated)

If it can run on my computer (and very well infact!) then it can run on any computer... that doesn't have some obscure problem... or virus....

But when I made it fullscreen,
the screen went sideways and
it became very hard to aim and
shoot ragdolls! But windowed mode worked fine.

[edthefirst]

Very very nice. Ran very smoothly.

Specs:

ATi HD 3870
Intel Q6600 @ 2.4
4 gigs of RAM
Running Windowed in Vista.

[genetransfer]

@AquaGeneral, I've updated to allow for 25 ragdoll :)

@zalo, really glad to hear that can run on your system, a bit unsure of the anomoly you described but thanks for testing.

@edthefirst, good news thanks!

[starsky]

I like the demo!!! You should definately make it a game!

[AquaGeneral]

genetransfer - I tried the new version with the exact settings you had (with 25 ragdolls) and I got:

Min FPS: 46
Average FPS: 48
Max FPS: 52

Very nice demo.

[genetransfer]

@starsky, glad you like it! I was working on a physics based boxing game though I just havn't been enjoying it that much, and i started this project just to have some fun and take a break from it, but with this project it didn't feel like work, so maybe that something i should take notice of keep going with it. I was thinking something along the lines of max payne2 and resident evil. exept steering away from guns where possible, and finding some other type of projectile.

@AquaGeneral, Thanks for testing it out, I retested it my self and got almost similar results (30 - 42), I was actually really suprised at the amount that is able to be on screen. looks like this method will be the way to go.

[starsky]

I have an idea... it's always been my dream to play something where you actually PLAY as one of those ragdolls and jump of platforms, buildings, trip over boxes, trip over things and run around from a behind veiw of a ragdoll... if you could create that... Nothing would please me more.

[starsky]

Oh yeah and kinda annoys me when they freeze there after they fall. :/ what file do you delete to get rid of that?

[genetransfer]

it's always been my dream to play something where you actually PLAY as one of those ragdolls and jump of platforms, buildings, trip over boxes, trip over things and run around from a behind veiw of a ragdoll... if you could create that... Nothing would please me more
Nice idea there starsky, definitely something to think about, if i get time I might put a simulation like that together.

Oh yeah and kinda annoys me when they freeze there after they fall. :/ what file do you delete to get rid of that?
unfortunately that was the trade off to keep performance at it's maximum. each ragdol has 17 bodies,16 joints,1 animated skinmesh with 17 named bones for the bodies to seek thier orientations,17 visual skinmeshes and 17 shadow meshes.aswell 17 collision couples with the ground and 119 collision couples with bullets. so what i do is disable the ragdolls after they have hit the dirt. I could allow for them to be reenabled if targeted on the ground though i was think that in game the player would most likely want to move forward. but i'll give that some thought.

next I'm going to add some building to see how it runs in a fuller environment.

[starsky]

So no disabling freezing? ok it dosen't make me mad or anything just iv'e made them in some pretty ockward stances :/

[genetransfer]

no sorry, but I might change the freeze from a timer to a body velocity. so that when the bodies of the ragdoll stop moveing they disable rather than just become ragdoll for a few seconds. that might be a compromise.

[spacemarine9]

This game is awesome!
You could possibly implement more weaponry like Missile launchers, machine guns etc.
Overall it's a good job.

[juju02]

very nice. runs good on my crappy laptop. but you need to be able to shoot at anything ,and you need props.

[Wetto]

When I try opening it it says "Could not open source 'cursor.x' file!"

Then it stops working.

[genetransfer]

just downloaded and tested it and it worked fine, might be related to your system. supports XP/vista, latest video card drivers, latest version of direct x and a video card that supports at least shader model 2.0.

[starsky]

When I try opening it it says "Could not open source 'cursor.x' file!"

Then it stops working. Ok, that happened to me when you open it make it say: full scene, 800x600x6 (i think it was a 6) and don't check "don't show this panel again."

[genetransfer]

thanks starsky, you can also delete settings.bin and the windowed file if you do select don't show this again or to give yourself a fresh start with the settings.

[Wetto]

Ok, that happened to me when you open it make it say: full scene, 800x600x6 (i think it was a 6) and don't check "don't show this panel again."

Nope that didn't change anything for me.

[OkumTheLostNinja]

So no disabling freezing? ok it dosen't make me mad or anything just iv'e made them in some pretty ockward stances :/

Awkward, not Ockward. Anyways, what is that game in your Avatar?

[starsky]

Awkward, not Ockward. Anyways, what is that game in your Avatar? Sorry a miss spelling and i just look up "euphoria avatar" on google

[meow-muffin]

Good but a couple of times the freezing caused a ragdoll to stop with its arms in the air. :p

[Spencer135]

When I tried to run it, it said - "The dynamic link library 'd3dx9_27.dll' could not be found"

Looks like I'm missing a file, I'll try re-installing.

[OkumTheLostNinja]

Thanks. Also, I don't have shaders. Do I need them to play Ragdoll Shooter?

[genetransfer]

@Spencer135,yeah it requires the latest version of directx 9c, that should solve the problem. here is some info (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/d3dx9_27dll-dll.htm) on the 'd3dx9_27.dll' could not be found'

you can down load the latest version of directx 9c '2008' here. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Browse.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2)

@OkumTheLostNinja,yes it requires ShaderModel 2.0 (geforce 6 series and up, ati equivalent)

@meow-muffin, this version is timer based, the new version (have not uploaded) wait's for the bodies to become fully rested before disabling physics for each ragdoll.

[Zatochu]

@Okum/genetransfer: Actually, you can run it without a card supporting Shader Model 2.0. I'm using an integrated card(teh suck) that doesn't support it, but it still ran for me. Just without any special shader things, such as anti-aliasing.

[Soulmuffin]

Make this a zombie game!

[futuramaguy42]

Rediculously slow on my rig - even when only 1 ragdoll on screen?! I suggest you work on improving the speed before you make it into a game.

XPpro, 2mb RAM, Gforce8600gt

Do you mean 2 gig ram?

[AquaGeneral]

Do you mean 2 gig ram?

I am more than certain he did.

[geel9]

If not, no wonder he's lagging.

[genetransfer]

just incase anyone's interested thought id show off my new fluid shader.

here's a couple of vids with it in demo stages and in use with this ragdoll demo. at the moment it's a shader model 3_0 effect, done by manipulating the normal map.

Video 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzD0yidqYNM)
video 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4tfY4PuoNg)
edit : latest verion with refraction Video 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx1rhvMb3QM)

http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1p_fE_rriCFFuzGu4XnXIwPTBofxK49okoqsRXNgqF6plFTb_ GsKDH-vwxua1wrokDzUhCmSNvzjY