1. #1

    EF's tutorials - now unavailable

    All my tutorial videos are now unavailable as I have closed my YouTube account.

    Other Useful Threads
    Setting the difficulty of your track
    Workshop of Secrets Elevator Tutorial (with images) Adv.
    Share this post

  2. #2

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    heres a good checklist JORMA wrote


    Can you continue from each checkpoint? Also, is it more difficult to continue from a checkpoint instead of not faulting in that place in the first place?

    Is there enough of checkpoints? Is there a place that feels like you just did something difficult and you still have to do another difficult spot? Add a checkpoint already!

    Are there any misaligned objects causing the bike to bounce where it is not supposed to be? Nothing is more annoying than misaligned floor causing a bump that takes your speed away before a big jump.

    Can you play every intended driving path smoothly?

    Does the game lag at any point? Also check situations like explosions, bike being on fire and heavy bike collision. Physics, particles and rendering require partially distinct resoures so figure out what the bottle neck is. Lights are rendering heavy. Particles (explosions) also cause some extra rendering work on top of being a task of their own (setup and animation). Lights and lots of particles is usually a bad thing.

    Is there any blockiness in the rendering? This is caused by too many lights in that area. Some of the effects like small fires are lights too.

    Does the camera go through objects? Is the player view blocked at some point? Custom camera might be needed.

    Is custom camera used in a bad way? Do not use special camera in hard places! This can make the obstacle much much harder.

    Does the difficulty match the description? If you aim for medium there shouldn't be any hard parts. If you aim for hard, there shouldn't be any extreme parts. Generally try to keep the track difficulty equally hard for the whole track.

    Do you have to wait anywhere for physics to do something? Players don't usually want to wait no matter how nice your physics thingy is. Try to trigger your physics earlier if this is the case.

    Is the driving path clear? Is it not clear where to continue? Add some direction signs. This might actually be a problem in your level design if this is the case.

    Is there any flow in the track? Are there places that are annoying or cause most of your faults? Do the jumps match the landing places? Can you continue the track smoothly even without doing the jumps or tricks perfectly? Is there enough of driving in the track or is it just physics trick after physics trick?

    Is there only one way to clear a obstacle? This can be hard to tell as you usually know how the obstacle needs to be played, but it can be extreme annoying for other players to try to find the one way to clear a hard obstacle even if you think it is very easy. Especially, if you have trouble passing your obstacle with the way you intended, you probably should tune it down a bit so that it can be passed with more general skill set. Generally you should avoid hard obstacles that look easy and aim for easy obstacles that look hard.

    Is the track fun? Not every track need to be a 'challenge'.

    Is the track technical enough for your target audience? Even the easiest tracks can have places where skill brings some time savings.

    Is the track too short / too long? Not every track need to be maximun length. 10 seconds one obstacle tracks aren't that much fun either.

    Does the medal limits match the track? Platinum should be pretty hard and be the target for your friends, maybe even your own record from testing. Gold should be a reasonable good score. Silver limits should be something reasonable to aim for during the first few runs. (not like 5 faults, 2 mins in an extreme track that takes 200 faults for the first try).

    Does the track look nice? Who cares. Well, you could add some explosions for the graphics junkies.
    Share this post

  3. #3

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    Nice one 420.... these pointers are exactly what I follow and I am pretty sure you do too seeing as we are quite similar in our methods.
    Share this post

  4. #4

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    how to use hard and soft points.. for example, making a draw bridge fall, instead of balancing it and using boxes to stop it sliding away and explosives to open the drawbrige on a trigger. it prob sounds stupid but i can get one side to work in a test but when i glue my object to where i want it, either it stops working or whole thing just falls out the sky . as it is for a lot of cool stuff ive made then deleted in all in one press pissed off because it was working just fine 'before'... also rotation hinges
    Share this post

  5. #5

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    If I was going to make a drawbridge I wouldn't use hard/soft point to point. I have never used the point to point tools in a track as they are not as useful as the hinges but the work in a similar manner.
    I would use a limited hinge at the base of the drawbridge instead. Have physics turned off on it and have it leaning slightly forward to where you need it to drop and just use a trigger to enable physics.

    Alternatively you could use the powered rotation on the bridge instead of a limited hinge and use a trigger to enable the hinge and bridge piece to have physics and then it should just drop at a consistant speed.
    I will have a look at this to see if it works first. In theory it should work fine but I will knock up a quick test and get back to you.


    Personally I see very little difference between limited hinges and free rotation hinges other than the limited hinge cant rotate past the opposite side of the hinge. Free rotation hinges can spin around the axis indefinitely.

    I'll put together some videos on these points to help explain some more so keep an eye on this thread over the next couple of days
    Share this post

  6. #6

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    Ok I have created both types of drawbridge and they both work fine.
    The powered rotation version is a little more complex but both ways yield very similar results so I would recommend sticking with the limited hinge version as it uses less parts and triggers and as such is easier to set up.

    The powered rotation hinge can be a little buggy to say the least and hinges dont particularly like having their physics turned on by a trigger but like I say they both work.

    I'll capture both types tomorrow and put them on YouTube so you can see how they work.
    When the videos are up I will add them to my first post and will do the same for any future videos so they will be easy to find.
    Share this post

  7. #7

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    First tutorial is complete. Video is up on YouTube and the first post has been updated.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WM0ebKixxQ
    Share this post

  8. #8

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    nice..... good to see the community working together here.. thanks
    Share this post

  9. #9

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    Hey Raist, did the tutorial cover everything you needed to know about drawbridges?
    Share this post

  10. #10

    Re: Euphorics Tutorial Thread

    hey euphoric, i use hard hinges instead of soft or limited rot. the hard hinges aren't as flimsy, and work better than the others for most things. but its all about what you're trying to make, everything has its use. the flimsy bouncy properties of the other ones work for some things. just throwing that out because you said you use limited for everything. basically the only physics objects i REALLY need are the hard hinge and the free rot. you can make anything you want just using those creatively.
    Share this post

Page 1 of 9 123 ... Last ►►