Heya.

Not too much going on in my life, except for the fact I've just finished my school certificate exams; got 100% for IT Studies, the rest I'm not sure yet.

So, seeing as I'm not too busy at the moment, I thought i'd boast some of the cool stuff the new CO demo will have to offer… this time, I'm comparing some of the weapons and looks between the old engine and the new engine. Funny thing is, I see people commenting on how good the effects are in the demo… and I'm like "Yeah, I'm quite proud of it!", then I realise, this is on the OLD Demo, like, the million year old demo. So that's why I'm trying to promote the new look as much as I can without releasing a demo so early. Before we start, I do apologise for the large file sizes; enjoy the thumbnails if you're running on dial-up. Oh, and, I'm happy to say the CO Website has reached 1,000 unique visitors today.

Round One: Incendiary Grenades

The Incendiary Grenades (they explode, fire goes everywhere, looks cool) have been improved greatly for the new version, with some more realistic looking particle effects.

Left: Old Incendiary Grenade Explosion

Right: New Incendiary Grenade Explosion

Round Two: Minigun

I played around with the minigun; and now, it looks much nicer than it did previously. The old version drew simple little grey lines to depict the minigun.

Left: Old Minigun being Fired

Right: New Minigun being Fired

Round Three: Rocket Launcher

Looking back on the time I was working on the old CO Engine, I was hella proud of my Rocket launcher explosion… but now… I can't believe how crappy it looks; at least compared to the new one.

Left: Old Rocket Exploding

Right: New Rocket Exploding

Round Four: Smoke Grenades

It has been really difficult to make the smoke grenades fast, useful (large enough to be able to make use of it), and looking nice. Finally, I have managed to get it right. The old version was very slow, and didn't span out enough.

Left: Old Smoke Grenade releasing Smoke

Right: New Smoke Grenade releasing Smoke

Round Five: Overall Look

This round includes obstacles and overall map look, such as obstacles, terrain, and any other sprite-related content. Oh my, check it out!

Left: Old Dense Area of a Map

Right: New Dense Area of a Map

So yeah, I can only say I'm glad I rewrote the engine. Not only does all this look nicer, both my high and low-end computers run the new engine at 60/60 fps, where as the old engine ran at 38 on my new computer, and 14 on my old.

Ciao

-Rhys

PS: Oh, you know that poster I showed you's in the previous blog? They printed it off professionally, and there is a HUMONGOUS poster on the doors to my school theatre…. its' freaking awesome seeing a poster I made proudly showing itself on the doors to my school theatre hall. Beautiful.