EA Air Hockey: Creating the In-Game Graphics

As noted in the earlier post on EA Air Hockey, all in-game graphics were created in 3DS Max as 3D models and then rendered into 2D images and sprites. This eased the creation of game graphics and animations for the myriad target devices.

The moving objects, which were basically the "puck" (seen here) and the "mallet" were also created in 3DS Max. In this way, I was able to generate objects that were apparently moving in 3D space with the correct perspective.

The mallet changes color as it moves down the screen because in Air Hockey movement of the player mallet is restricted to one side of the table. I created tools to create sprite sheets from these animation frames, once rendered.

Here's how the table looked on our friend the Kyocera KX414 (104x68 pixels, rendered direct from 3DS Max). Scaled up so you can see it, followed by the original.


Here's how the player mallet looks.

Actual size.



If you enjoy my blog, you can help support it by buying me a coffee!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nodes of Yesod : ZX Spectrum Next : Update #4

Image
A Big Change Of Plans! Astro Charlie has a close encounter If you have read my previous updates, you'll know that Nodes of Yesod for the Speccy Next is based on a C codebase. I've discussed details of my progress in that direction in previous posts, tool selection, and various other considerations. I have to share with you that I've had a rethink and there's a big change of plans! As I intend to make this version of Nodes freely available, and since it follows that there's no direct benefit to me financially, building the game has to be a fun and enjoyable endeavor. While I've enjoyed certain aspects of getting a C codebase to compile and run on the Next, I've had a few nagging doubts. C was always going to be a 'heavy' way to do things on an 8-bit Z80 (even with a faster clock), and paging code in and out of 8K or 16K banks does not make things less complicated; however, more than that, I need to personally get something out of this, it needs to be
Read more

Odin Computer Graphics Part One : 1985

Image
"Why don't you come over to the Odin office and see what we're up to with this Nodes of Yesod game?" said Stoo Fotheringham. And so I did. Nodes of Yesod "Welcome to Nodes of Yesod, from the Odin Computer Graphics team!" As I read that, I hear the Nodes of Yesod music  (by Fred Gray) start to play in my head! When I started at Odin, the game Nodes of Yesod was already underway, plenty of the cool graphics (Astro Charlie, etc) had been created, and there was a playable demo (on Spectrum, possibly on C64) already. I have an indelible memory of that somersault animation on that bright blue moon's surface. I think Marc (Dawson now Wilding) was working on the title Stairways  on C64 (released under the Thor label), which was actually the name of a heavy metal club we frequented in Birkenhead. I'm pretty sure Marc cranked the game out very quickly, and if nothing e
Read more

Software Projects : 1984

Image
SOFTWARE PROJECTS The first games I developed were for a British computer system produced by the ubiquitous (if you're British, anyway)  Amstrad plc : the Amstrad CPC-464. The games were " Manic Miner " and " Jet Set Willy ", both "ports" from the original Sinclair Spectrum versions. I had spent the second part of 1983 without gainful employment after discontinuing my Electronics & Electrical Engineering studies at Manchester University after the second year. I was putting the Z80 programming I'd learned at college to use in an attempt to create machine language games on the Spectrum. I had obtained the Spectrum initially to pursue my interests in electronic music (it was easy to cobble various hardware bits onto the Spectrum expansion port). Still, the availability of games for the system was too tempting, and inevitably, I ended up spending more time playing games, disassembling games, etc. I burned many, many midnight hours poking away at th
Read more