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Staker v0.6

by Kenneth Eaton

 

01 Apr 2008 (Updated 22 Dec 2008)

Code covered by the BSD License  

Staker is a 3-D artillery game inspired by Tank Wars and Scorched Earth.

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Description

Staker is a 3-D artillery warfare game that was inspired by Tank Wars and Scorched Earth, BASIC games I played many years ago. This is just a beta version, so it doesn't have everything in it that I would like. For instance, there is only one type of terrain to battle on. I wanted to release this version first to get some feedback from people on the basic interface, and to see how well it works in other Matlab versions and on other machines.

This second beta version (v0.6) is the same as the first except for one thing: it can now run independently from the Image Processing Toolbox! You should be able to run it with nothing but core MATLAB functions. If those without the IPT are still having trouble, drop me a comment or email and I can go on a bug hunt sometime after the holidays.

KNOWN BUGS (these haven't changed since v0.5):
1) Button background colors don't render properly in Matlab version 7.1. I believe this has been corrected in version 7.5 and later. However, I accidently happened upon a fix recently. If you issue the command "feature('JavaFigures',0)", the button background colors will display as they should, although the formatting of other uicontrols and text will change a little too. If you don't like these other changes, undo them with "feature('JavaFigures',1)".
2) The bomb trajectories will not impact the stakers. You should aim to hit the spot on the ground that they occupy, not the stakers themselves. I've already fixed this for the next version I'm going to release.
3) If you are ever in a situation where both players have their stakers under water, then there is effectively no way to hit each other. The game has bombs for blasting out of the water and bombs for plunging below the water, but no bombs that can do both (shoot out of and then back under the water). For now, the only way to end a game in such a situation is for one player to forfeit or blow themselves up. I've already fixed this for the next version I'm going to release.

VERSION 1.0 STATUS:
In the past few months I've made quite a number of improvements to the game. Currently, there are 10 unique types of bombs, 2 types of bomb attachments/modifications, 6 battle terrains, completely retooled projectile motion physics and surface intersection algorithms, improved explosion rendering, and greatly improved GUI interfaces, particularly for managing player profiles. There are 3 major improvements left that I want to finish before I release it:
1) The addition of 2 more battle terrains.
2) The inclusion of sound effects.
3) The inclusion of AI profiles so players can play the computer (something I think people really want for the next version).
I posted a few screenshots of the newer version at:

www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/Staker

If you have any ideas about what you would like to see in the game, don't hesitate to post a comment or shoot me an email. I'm very interested in collaboration and am open to any ideas people may have for improving the game.

Have fun!
Ken

Acknowledgements
This submission has inspired the following:
"boundary" class v2.1: a wrapper for surface objects
MATLAB release MATLAB 7.1.0 (R14SP3)
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Other Files
help.txt,
staker.m,
textures/,
textures/beach.jpg,
textures/dirt.jpg,
textures/fire.jpg,
textures/forest.jpg,
textures/grass.jpg,
textures/metal.jpg,
textures/rubble.jpg,
textures/shoplogo.bmp,
textures/silt.jpg,
textures/sky.jpg,
textures/snow.jpg,
textures/stone.jpg,
textures/water.jpg
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Comments and Ratings (15)
03 Apr 2008 Kenneth Eaton

I discovered another bug after I posted the game. If you are ever in a situation where both players have their stakers under water, then there is effectively no way to hit each other. The game has bombs for blasting out of the water and bombs for plunging below the water, but no bombs that can do both (shoot out of and then back under the water). For now, the only way to end a game in such a situation is for one player to forfeit or blow themselves up. I'm already working on a fix for this problem for the next version, whenever I get some time to finish it.

06 Apr 2008 Elmar Tarajan

WOW!!! I'm very impressed!!!

10 Apr 2008 Mike Greene

Very good. Extremely well thought out.

23 Jul 2008 bhavesh dobariya

its vary vary fare

23 Jul 2008 Kenneth Eaton

Incidently, if anyone is interested in seeing some of the work going into the next version (Staker v1.0), check out the GGE page for the game:

www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/Staker

Ken

29 Jul 2008 Ken Eaton

Thanks for the support John. Incidently, if you would like to change the GUI colors for the game, I included a "Preferences" button at the bottom of the main menu that opens a GUI for customizing the display. You should be able to adjust the panel and text colors as well as the font type and size.

02 Dec 2008 Husam Aldahiyat

I bow down to thy MATLAB God.

12 Dec 2008 Guillermo Poltarak

I have an error:

??? Undefined function or method 'fspecial' for input arguments of type 'char'.

Error in ==> staker>generate_terrain at 1522
        nearWater = (imfilter(double(mapHeight < 0),fspecial('disk',10),...

Do you know what could it be? I'm running Matlab v2008a in WinXP.

12 Dec 2008 Kenneth Eaton

Hi Guillermo,

Most likely, you do not have the Image Processing toolbox, which is where FSPECIAL is from. I required some of the functions from the IP toolbox to do a number of things, like generate texture maps for the terrain. Unfortunately, some have found this to be a limitation, since not everyone has access to the IP toolbox. I have been considering writing my own versions of the IP functions I need, although I imagine they may not be as fast as those in the IP toolbox. I probably won't do this for the next version (v1.0) I release, but maybe for versions after that. For now, the IP toolbox is required. Sorry if this is an inconvenience.

Ken

15 Dec 2008 Kenneth Eaton

===ANNOUNCEMENT===

As pointed out in the previous couple of comments, Staker (beta) requires the Image Processing toolbox. I have been looking into some things over the weekend and think that I will actually be able to remove this dependency for the next version. It appears that many of the functions I was using (IMFILTER, IMERODE, IMDILATE, etc.) can be easily replaced by using CONV2 to do the things I want.

So, for version 1.0 (hopefully to be completed within the next few months) you won't have to worry about needing any toolboxes; just standard MATLAB.

Ken

22 Dec 2008 Kenneth Eaton

I've submitted an updated beta version of Staker that should be available within the next day or so (v0.6). This version should run independently from the Image Processing Toolbox, so anyone who only has access to core MATLAB functions should be able to play!

Ken

03 Apr 2009 Shi vera

good job!Thank you for sharing

14 May 2009 linreal Lin

I cannot run the program as I met the following errors.
>> staker
??? Error using ==> figure
Error using ==> figure
Error using ==> figure
UIJ_AreThereWindowShowsPending - timeout waiting for window to show up

Error in ==> staker>make_figure at 3503
    hObject = figure('Units','pixels','Position',position,...

Error in ==> staker>initialize_intro at 241
    hFigure = make_figure([1+(SCREEN_SIZE(3:4)-[300 300])./2 300 300],...

Error in ==> staker at 213
  initialize_intro;

14 May 2009 Kenneth Eaton

Hi linreal,

That's a new one! I've never had a call to FIGURE fail like that. Had you been doing anything complicated in your MATLAB session before running Staker? I've run programs before that changed certain Java settings, which resulted in subsequent figures rendering funny. I would first try closing and restarting MATLAB.

16 Oct 2009 Diego  
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Updates
24 Oct 2008

I've primarily updated the description to discuss bugs and bug fixes, as well as the current progress on the future release of full version 1.0. I also wanted to resubmit it so that the metrics might be reevaluated. They look a little wonky still.

22 Dec 2008

Added functions to make it run independently from the Image Processing Toolbox.

Tag Activity for this File
Tag Applied By Date/Time
games Kenneth Eaton 22 Oct 2008 09:56:04
game Kenneth Eaton 22 Oct 2008 09:56:04
scorched earth Kenneth Eaton 23 Oct 2008 15:51:19
tank wars Kenneth Eaton 23 Oct 2008 15:51:28
3d Kenneth Eaton 23 Oct 2008 15:51:52
projectile motion Kenneth Eaton 23 Oct 2008 15:52:04
artillery warfare Kenneth Eaton 23 Oct 2008 15:53:53
simulation Kenneth Eaton 24 Oct 2008 15:31:30
3d Guillermo Poltarak 12 Dec 2008 07:55:44
 

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