Hogwarts Elite Quidditch

About the game:

Quick Concept

Take to the sky with your trusty broom and join the sports action of Quidditch!  It’s a new exciting game which will mix the exciting experience of the EA game (Quidditch World Cup) with new physics technology and expanded multiplayer possibilities.

More Details

Technology:

Libraries:

OpenGL Graphics : Using OpenGL , GLUT, GLUI , SDL

Aegia Physx : Collision Detection, Forces

Networking: Winsock IP/TCP

FMOD : 3D Positional Sounds

Programming Specific:

Skeletal Torque Force Animations : Using Forces to animate instead of "canned" vertex or joint animation

Neural Network Balancing: Using Neural Networks to balance brooms and maintain skeletal poses

Ray Casting Aiming: Using fast raytracing for aiming

Tools:

Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2003

Autodesk Maya 7.0

Adobe Photoshop CS2

Sony Sound Forge 8.0

Ageia Physx SDK

Concept Screenshots:

Using the same character model with different add-on pieces for different positions.

Keeper Seeker Beater Chaser

CG Screenshots:

Character Model (maya) World (game) World (debug)

Planning :

PDF Click here to look at my Microsoft Project Gantt Chart (planning timeline)

PDF Click here to look at my Visio UML Diagram (Code Structure)

PDF Click here to look at my control scheme (Game Design)

Research:

Books

AI Game Development: Synthetic Creatures with Learning and Reactive Behaviors, Alex J. Champandard (link)

Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied, Andrei Alexandrescu (link)

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, Fletcher Dunn (link)

Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, Peter Shirley (link)

Articles

Proactive Persistent Agents: Using Situational Intelligence to Create Support Character-Centric Computer Games, Brian Mac Namee, University of Dublin 2004 (link)

Object Manipulation in a Dynamically Simulated Virtual Environment, Matthias Baas, Alfred Schmitt, University of Karlsruhe
Institut für Betriebs- und Dialogsysteme, Am Fasanengarten 5, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany 2005 (link)

Learning Force Fields for Limb Control in Character Animation, MIT 2000 (link)

When can I play the game?

Hopefully by December 2006 you can download it here !

Updates:

Game State:

You can currently navigate 1 broom all over the gameworld with the gamepad. You can collide with everything that has a collision box. You can press a button to get a speed boost, you can "score" by putting the quaffle through a hoop, you can catch and drop the quaffle. You can switch camera from follow to mouse & keyboard control. You can interact with pieces using forces. The broom, bludger and quaffle all float and maintain a certain flight level.

Latest Screenshot 9/18/2006 : Broom floating(gravity), Collision meshes, controlled by joypad, autocamera on, HUD score, triggers. Its slowly turning into a game !

 

Look I caught the ball ...magically.

 

Finally a joint chain inside Physx ... can be loaded from file or created/deleted dynamicaly ( The rectangle is not deforming yet, Im working on it!)

Tools Built:

Collision Boxes from Maya to Physx (MEL script) (tested and works)

Skindata exporter (MEL script) (built but not tested)

Tools still to Build & test:

Keys to Torque Exporter (MEL script) (not built or tested)

Features finished (or at least at 80%):

Object Gravity

Balance Broom

Broom Movement

Gamepad Support

Simple Sound Support

Follow Camera

Triggers

Features working on (currently):

Ball Catching (%30)

Aiming / Ball-Shooting (%10)

Smooth Skinned Mesh Deformation (%50)

Controls (%60)

HUD (%10)

Future work:

AI

Aiming Reticule

Animation Forces

More and prettier art (Models, Animation, Textures)

More sounds

Loading Screens, Menus

Particle Effects

Better Lighting & Shadows

Improving Speed / Code Cleanup

(Probably a bunch of things will come up)