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Geek Culture / How did they make games like Road Rash?

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Fallout
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2011 23:42 Edited at: 22nd Jan 2011 23:46
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I thought it might be cool to try and recreate a 3D looking 2D game of the likes of Road Rash one day. It'd probably be on a mobile device. Having studied some old Road Rash videos though, I can't figure out how they've done the roads. Anyone have any clue?

My best guess would be they have a "skew" engine, which can take a 2D image and stretch/skew it, to simulate 3D perspective. They then just draw from the back (horizon) to the front (bottom of the screen), with some maths to calculate skewing etc. Anybody know the real answer?



Edit: Typically, after posting I find something on google! But it might be cool to discuss this anyway.
http://www.gorenfeld.net/lou/pseudo/

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AutoBot
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2011 23:51
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Your guess is as good as mine!


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Phaelax
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2011 02:58
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I dunno, but I loved road rash 3d on playstation

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
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Fallout
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2011 11:47
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I read up on it last night. The really basic approach is to make a road image that disappears into the distance i.e. has the correct perspective. You then draw each horizontal line of this road independently. If you want to simulate a left turn, you slowly offset the horizontal line drawing more left, as you go up the screen. Same for the right direction. If you want to simulate a hill, you decrease or increase the distance of where you draw the line up the screen.

After you've got this in place, you need to resize scenery as you move it towards you, as well as cycles the road texture vertical drawing offset point, to simulate the road coming towards you.

Anyway, I'm glad I posed and answer my own question.

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French gui
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2011 18:20
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Yeah, but you have also to change these 'sprite lines' shapes depending on the angle. The effect is clearly visible on Atari 2600 Pole Position:

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=364
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2011 22:51
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You can do some 3d projection calculations to see exactly how far apart it all should be.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 24th Jan 2011 09:40 Edited at: 24th Jan 2011 10:02
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Alright Fallout. How's it going? How's the car?

I have had *exactly* the same thought for my next iPhone project in the last few days. Check this thread out:-
http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=5556.0

Should give you a start.

Ah, missed your edit the first time. Still, the GLB post does have a link to the old C code that with any luck expands on hills and the like.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Van B
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Posted: 24th Jan 2011 09:59 Edited at: 24th Jan 2011 10:02
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I used to really like these games, especially the Lotus series. I remember dragging my ST round to my mates house, linking with his ST, and playing 4 player split screen mode. Good times. Vroom is probably the best example of this tech though, total forgotten classic that one.



They used this method because computers like the ST were quite slow at pasting offsets, the Amiga had a blitter, but that could only help a little in this case. It was easier to just have transitions, like imagine a 16x16 image with a diagonal line, one half grey, and the other half green, then another for the opposite side of the road. Then the actual X position of the line would decide which slice of the image got copied. The 16-bits were real quick at copying blocks of memory, so drawing the road like that was the fastest possible method.

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Fallout
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Posted: 24th Jan 2011 11:42
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@Dazzag

I wrote the car off chap. Then downgraded to an older style Cupra R. So I still have some poke, but much more practical. I'll get another one, one day.

Yep, it appears I've been looking at the same links as you. It's good to see a video of a simple implementation though. I'd like to have a try at vertically scrolling a simple texture, but I think performance is always going to be the main barrier with thing like that.

@VanB - I remember Lotus Esprit Turbo. The tracks and hills were epic! I've noticed with Road Rash though, it's the music that makes it special. When you're canning along at break neck speeds to tracks like the below, it's really puts you in the zone ...



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bitJericho
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Posted: 24th Jan 2011 12:02
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I've always wanted to make an old-style racer. Maybe once AppGameKit is released I'll give it a go.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 24th Jan 2011 15:53 Edited at: 24th Jan 2011 15:53
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Wrote it off? Not good. Same thing happened to my father-in-laws AC Cobra he build from scratch. Well, the person who bought it off him did. Got to hurt. I'm leaving it a little bit (weddings are expensive) before getting new tyres (about £1200 for a new set from a really cheap place too) so I might as well be in a Golf or somesuch these days the way I gingerly (in comparison) drive it around (plus jamcity these days). £1.39 a litre also does little to help (jams help there with rubbish mpg).

Look at the GLB link I posted again. They have found another, potentially better link, from someone else. And they share code a bit better from the looks of things. Cool.

Lotus was awesome, and I played it to death, but Enduro Racer was my favourite of this sort of game. Ooh, I can ever hear the music in my head... ah no, that's Outrun...

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Jeku
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Posted: 26th Jan 2011 02:31 Edited at: 26th Jan 2011 02:32
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@Fallout - You should check out the music for Road Rash on the 3DO.. it even had super cheesy FMV cutscenes with Soundgarden!



Ahhh, the memories. I'm going to hookup my 3DO tonight and play this bad boy.


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