The Daily Click

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'Rain' tech demo

Author:

AshleysBrain

Submitted:

29th March, 2008

Favourites:

Genre:

Shoot 'Em Up

Downloads:

228

Rated:

164th Place

(3.73 / 5)

A timely release of a tech demo demonstrating Construct's rendering effects. If you have:

Pixel shader 1.4 or above: Raindrops and player ripple in puddles
Pixel shader 2.0 or above: All effects will display

You can still run this without any pixel shader support (using fallback effects) - it just won't look as groovy. Your shader version is displayed on the title screen.

Arrow keys to move, click to shoot, and try to eradicate all the monsters without letting them touch you too much. Pick your resolution in the title screen and press F to go fullscreen.

Review This Download

http://www.scirra.com/files/raindemo.zip (3.36 mb )

Posted by viNetti

29th March, 2008

Rated :

Thumbs up!

Posted by AshleysBrain

29th March, 2008

Yep, I thought I'd replace the outdated ghost shooter demo. It seemed to be causing a bit of fuss.

---
Clarification edit: 'Ghost Shooter' refers to the Scirra demo found at http://www.scirra.com/demos.php - not the different Ghost Hunter demo.
Comment edited by AshleysBrain on 4/3/2008

Posted by viNetti

29th March, 2008

Rated :

Updates like windows, graphics cards, applications, many retail games (patches) also need? Better give up computers if you don't like updating.

Even MMF2 has updates

Comment edited by viNetti on 3/29/2008

Posted by »xerus

29th March, 2008

Construct seems to be doing well! Cool stuff

Posted by Rikus

29th March, 2008

Rated :

The rain is actually kind of cool. Thumbs up.

Posted by Cecilectomy

29th March, 2008

Rated :

it runs 3fps on my comp.

Posted by AshleysBrain

29th March, 2008

Heh, what's your graphics card? Have you tried 640x480 in fullscreen? That should run fastest.

Posted by Cecilectomy

29th March, 2008

Rated :

its not a bad card. it runs CS, Portal, and hl2 on high.
i havent had a problem running anything before. except for that f1 racing game here on tdc a few weeks back. but that got fixed.

gfx - radeon xpress 200m series with 128mb dedicated memory.
cpu - amd turion64x2 2.0ghz

it says my hardware supports all effects and my shaders are 2.

and yeah i tried it on the lowest resolution. on 1024x768 it ran 2fps.
Comment edited by cec!l on 3/29/2008

Posted by AshleysBrain

29th March, 2008

As far as I can tell from googling the specs, it's only got one pixel pipeline, which I've found seems to be the biggest factor in deciding shader performance. My 8800GT has 112 pipelines, and runs, well, about 112 times faster (300-400fps uncapped). It might be a bug, so I'll check, but maybe this demo is too heavy on shaders for your card

Posted by Dr. James MD

29th March, 2008

Rated :

Constant 50fps, whilst graphically impressive it's only a minor tech demo.

Posted by Cecilectomy

29th March, 2008

Rated :

maybe make an option to turn the shaders off then?
Comment edited by cec!l on 3/29/2008

Posted by Peblo

29th March, 2008

Rated :

I'm definitely looking forward to using Construct with results like these. I don't understand the hostility between Scirra and TDC, it's a bit ridiculous. TDC supports Clickteam, sure, but this kind of reclusive behavior just hurts.

Looking forward to more updates on Construct.

Cecil: You might've just asked him to turn the tech of the tech demo off.
Comment edited by Peblo on 3/30/2008

Posted by Cecilectomy

30th March, 2008

Rated :

lol. well if i cant run it i cant say anything about it. maybe an option to turn certain shaders and effects off? i can judge them individually. it seems like good stuff. this whole confrontation made out between this and the other made me update my construct build. its quite nice. but id still rather do complete c++. total control.

Posted by Flava

30th March, 2008

Rated :

I don't understand why people are giving it one star..
It is pretty impressive in my opinion

Posted by Tommy66

30th March, 2008

Rated :

Good stuff

Posted by Guru Rinpoche

30th March, 2008

Rated :

I really like the zooming effect...neat.

Posted by Attan

30th March, 2008

Rated :

Found a computer with pixel shaders to try this on. Kickass! I'm also glad the upload wasn't deleted. I'm happy to see that TDC support other game-creation tools even if there is a "click" in the name

Posted by MBK

30th March, 2008

-Mr. Sneezer- All you have to do is find the .dll file that is missing ... d3dx_30.dll in my case.

Maybe you need a few more things, I dunno, but, just google what ya need, toss it in the same folder with the demo, and you're set to view.

Back on Topic:

I don't like the effects. Everything is too blurred.

The laser looks good, but I can't seem to kill the monsters for some reason. Does it even harm them ?

For an effects showoff display, it shouldn't try to be a game at the same time. That makes it hard to pay attention to the effects.

What is this pixel shaders thing ? ... Do I need to get that to view it right ? .. is that why it's so blurry ?

Well, I can't rate this, cause I don't know what I'm looking at.

Posted by AshleysBrain

30th March, 2008

Blurred? That might be a bug - compare it to the screenshot. IMO that's not blurry, but the background texture could be higher quality to prevent linear 'smoothing'. If the game does look blurrier than the screenshot, I'd be interested in your specs esp. graphics hardware. The game turns effects on or off depending on if your hardware supports them, so it should look alright on any hardware.

Hold the laser over a ghost to hurt it... guess I should've made them weaker...

Posted by Dr. James MD

30th March, 2008

Rated :

Oh no I think it's very impressive. I wish MMF2 could do this kind of thing, I gave it 1 star because it's a very limited demo with virtually no gameplay and no music(?). It isn't open source (obviously) so theres nothing to learn.

I don't even think I've handed out 5 stars to a game yet, don't know why I'd give 5 stars to something as little as this.

Posted by AshleysBrain

30th March, 2008

This demo uses features in Construct 0.94 which isn't released yet - I'll put up the .cap file when it's out. (There was the source for an early version of the demo on the forums, but I took it off when I started using 0.94 features

)

Posted by Cecilectomy

30th March, 2008

Rated :

when will construct .94 be releeased?
im starting to get really interested in using this more since it has python scripting (yay

) and a c++ sdk (double yay

) although i will probably still purchase mmf and most likely go for the developer version.

Posted by AshleysBrain

30th March, 2008

It's nearly ready, so I'd say within 3 days.

Posted by MBK

30th March, 2008

the blurring happens whenever a monster touches you... but it starts me out with a monster on me all the time, so it's usually blurred

and it's difficult to aim, and difficult to know where you are moving

I have to go into the black in order to line up a shot at the monsters

I finally killed some, and it wasn't a satisfying feeling at all, it just disappeared.

I hate that blur effect.

Posted by MBK

30th March, 2008

you would have been better off keeping the monsters stationary, so you can show off all the effects

after playing it over and over, I finally see some of the effects, the Zoom is the one I am interested in.

Nice zoom. Did I see a Lightning flash in there too ?

Posted by AshleysBrain

30th March, 2008

Yeah, there's lightning flashes. I'm guessing your shader model is earlier than 2.0. There is an intentional warping effect when the monsters touch you (I was thinking along the lines of 'soul draining' effect

) but where it's not supported, it falls back to a frame-feedback blur effect, which doesn't look great I guess. I was hoping everyone had PS 2.0, heh.

Posted by SuperV

31st March, 2008

Awesome!

Posted by Johnny Look

31st March, 2008

Rated :

Sometimes I can't believe how people I used to have some respect for have such a atitude... oh well.
Adam before voting one star can you tell what's wrong about it ? Other than representing a rival of MMF2, of course.
It make me wonder, specially when you voted 5 stars for the ghost hunter demo.

Comment edited by -Mr. Tickle- on 3/31/2008

Posted by Cecilectomy

31st March, 2008

Rated :

that isnt flaming adam.
wikipedia - "Flaming is the hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users."
Nny ain't bein hostile.

ashley does some good work. construct and this demo shows it.

great job

i still havent found a computer to run it well enough to enjoy all the effects but i did manage to get it to run at aroound 22fps. enough to see what its capable of.

Posted by The Chris Street

2nd April, 2008

"Yep, I thought I'd replace the outdated ghost shooter demo. It seemed to be causing a bit of fuss."

That's quite an immature and petty outlook IMO. You're not exactly selling Construct to me... out of principle you make me want to stick with Clickteam products when you act in such a pompous and arrogant way.

If you play nice, you might win yourself back some of that respect that many of us lost for you.
Comment edited by Chris Street on 4/2/2008

Posted by AshleysBrain

3rd April, 2008

Chris - I will gladly take up any queries not relevant to the 'Rain' tech demo via PM, email or on the Scirra.com forums, thanks.

Posted by AshleysBrain

3rd April, 2008

Rikus and I have discussed the matter of staying on-topic in comments on his site, and I respect that. Again, please find me on my own forums or PM/email if you want to take this up with me.

Posted by DingDong

3rd April, 2008

Rated :

Sweet tech demo

But sorry I couldn't resist...

@Chris, thats a bit of a sad and childish statement really isnt it?! You are just looking for a way to attack (not literally) ashleys work.

@Adam, stop being such a fanboy!

And don't start arguing with me because I stuck up for construct! Thats just a little sad...

Posted by The Chris Street

3rd April, 2008

Not at all. I think Ashley is very talented and think that Construct has huge potential. However the guy in my eyes clearly feels he has something to prove and has a chip on his shoulder, as demonstrated by his original comment.

There is nothing wrong at all with Sphax example yet he feels the need to dump on it simply because it's been done in the "inferior" MMF2.

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything, but these sorts of comments just annoy me. As I said I feel Ashley is talented but his arrogance gets to me a bit.

I haven't tried out either example by the way, hence no rating. I'm not going to give Ashleys example a poor rating just because I don't like his comments.

Posted by AshleysBrain

3rd April, 2008

Well, since as far as I can tell you have neglected to email, PM or sign up to my forums, I shall reluctantly respond here.

Construct is free, open source, and made in my spare time, if you don't like it, don't use it. I am not trying to 'sell' it to you or force anyone to use it, and I don't owe anybody anything.

Re: Sphax's demo, I think you came a bit late to the party, but check out the Scirra.com demos and see if you can make some kind of deduction for yourself. For the record, I have no real problem with the demo itself (it's clearly nicer than my one). In regards to the "outdated" remark, I was referring to my original 'Ghost Shooter' demo, which was put up some months ago, and was the cause of some controversy over Sphax's demo.

Posted by The Chris Street

3rd April, 2008

Ah ok fair enough - I put my hands up and apologise.

Posted by Sphax

4th April, 2008

Originally, I would not post any comments here but since I was involved in some comments, I do...

"Sphax's demo"
I think Construct's people don't understand it but this is not my demo at all, I've only helped for creating shaders, no more, look at the credits.

About this Construct demo, I think it's a nice one, but it's nothing that MMF2 can't do itself because this is just a pixel-shaders demonstration.

Posted by clement

4th April, 2008

This demo is very cool O_o

Posted by Attan

16th July, 2008

Rated :

@Chris Street: wow, i nearly lost all my respect for you.. until i realized it was all a big missunderstanding. Thank you for not letting me down.

Posted by Ski

22nd July, 2008

Rated :

Why does your respect matter?

Posted by -Nick-

23rd July, 2008

Rated :

Ran at an unplayable speed using a 8800GTS and a 3.2Ghz Core2 Duo... the window was filled with a blurry mess. Completely useless considering this machine can run Crysis on High to Very High settings at a decent framerate.
Comment edited by -Nick- on 7/23/2008

Posted by Codemonkey

11th November, 2008