So the thing that most people would use assembly for...optimizing graphics code...you use ddraw, and use assembly for everything else? kinda backwards isnt?

bogdanontanu,

how do you create your shadows?

I know how to blend them, but how are you preparing them?

are you creating a black mask graphic beforehand for each
sprite, which would mean you have to create a mask for every
single tile graphic, or are you creating the mask in software
from the image itself?

bogdanontanu, your screen shots are very impressive.
But air units will infact have a smaller shadow then an equal sized unit that is on the ground. The higher up you are, the smaller your shadow you will be.

Possibility

very impressive indeed. The art is good, but your rendering needs some work. Look at the buildings - the shadows don''t line up with the bottom of the building where it touches the ground. The terrain is very tiled-looking, and where it changes it is in right-angles, losing all hope for forced perspective. My hint: for ground units, go from bottom to top of the sprite, like you are doing, and for each line you move up in the sprite, make the shadow lean that much farther to the side.

PS. how do you put pics on the message board? I have some low-res screen shots on my web page at www.geocities.com/benbeandogdilts/downloads.html
if you care. That is for my RTS game, BeanWars. It is, regrettably, almost 100% C++. However, it is the first large project I have ever worked on in C++, so I am learning the language and DirectX (ugh) at the same time while writing a project. Going is slow, but steady. I''ll put up some hi-res screenshots if you want (I''ll probably finalize it at 1024x768, or maybe selectable). You can see how I smoothed the terrain (I worked on that for days). Tell you what, I''ll give you my way for smoothing terrain for your pathfinding!

Good luck on the project!

~BenDilts( void );

Bean Dog

BeanDog: regrettably C++?????

write in whatever language you want - it's your game, personally i cant write in anything but C++ (preference, not ignorance)...but this is completely off topic...

bogdanontanu: nice, but lose the tiny grass texture.

you draw the sprites yourself? (i cant draw to save my life most art in my games is *cough* borrowed *cough* from other places )

Edited by - POINT on June 3, 2000 6:44:39 PM

bogdanontanu, your game looks pretty damn good.
The one recommendation I have is that, if you can write so much in pure assembly, why not have some kind of alternating grass texture?
Besides that, it''s looking good.

Possibility - maybe he meant that you can see all the shadows, instead of just parts as with units on the ground.

Take it easy,

-Mezz

Yeah, I sort of meant that. The way everything has a shadow, I can''t tell from just screenshots whether or not a unit is on the ground even!

Seriously, where do you get your art? Do you use some CAD program (3DSMAX?) or do you just draw them (no way, that''s impossible).

Just curious,

~BenDilts( void );