Xenon Demo

[kevin]

Xenon Tech Done
==============

While I guess it sounds like the Multi Camera Xenon tech has taken ages to write.  I guess it has :) , but like most, if not all the included sources with PB,  the tech was written as proof for Pb it'self.  A lot of issues have been resolved through tinkering with it.  

Anyway, the demo shows a simple main selection menu, which lets you select single / two or quad player mode.  There's not much to play mind you, but you'll get the idea !.

By default,  player one (camera one) is set to use the arrow keys for it's controls.  It's worth noting that players 3 and 4 (in 4 player mode) also use the same keys.  So they will appear to follow player 1.  Their not linked to player at 1 though.  To show this,  Player 2 uses the WASZ keys..  

The source code for the demo is about 1200 / 1300 spaced lines (I think).  There's a bit of bloat from pasting a simple button gui at end of the code. But ya get that :) 

Well, now that's done.. It's news letter time. This issue will contain this tech demo (yippie :) and of course it'll officially announce were looking for Play Basic  BETA TESTERS...

Now I'm nervous :)


Video Of Xenon V0.10

[darryl_bartlett]

Just downloaded the tech demo here in work and just tried it out.  Wow!!  Very very impressive.  

I switched off the limit frame option on the main menu and even with all those aliens, bullets etc. I was still getting a frame rate which averaged about 110.  

My work spec is 2.4GHz with 760 megs of RAM with a 64MB Intel 82845G/GL graphics card.

[las6]

funny, seems like someone's 800Mhz P3 can run it as fast as my 2700+ Athlon. :P But that just means that it will work very well on lower spec comps. ;)

[darryl_bartlett]

@las6 - Good point.  It is all well and good running demos on fairly souped up machines but you do have to consider the lesser spec machines.  Up until 6 months ago, my home PC was a P450 with 256 megs of RAM (how did I survive?!!! :P).  I have given this PC to my wife.  I will try running the tech demo on this machine tonight and see what results I get.  I will also try it on my new home PC which is a 2.8GHz with 512 megs of ram and see if there is any great difference.


@Kevin - Just out of curiosity, obviously this tech demo runs in windowed mode.  Is there any signficant difference in the frame rate if run in full screen mode?

[kevin]

Darryl,

 On my system I don't really any difference in speed between windowed / full screen exclusive. If anything it's a little faster in full screen here. Not too surprising on a duron 800/ with GF2 mx200.  

 Spec wise, it should run 'fairly' well on older machines. The lowest i've tested is a p2 300mhz running the 500 sprite tech, which ran fine.   I'm not suggesting that should be taken as rule however.

[darryl_bartlett]

Kevin,

Just a bit of an update regarding frame rate.  I tried the tech demo on my home PC - 2.8GHz, DirectX 9, 9600 Radeon graphics card - and got average frame rate of 210 in one player mode and 150 in four player mode.

I've also tried it on my wife's PC - 450 MHz, DirectX 8, GForce 4 MX graphics card - and got 150 in one player mode and 60 in four player mode.

[kevin]

Darryl,

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm pretty happy with that result.

[ATLUS]

And Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6jSaP_fGNY&feature=youtu.be