5 ms·

Show HN: Bosconian (1981), in 3-D

49 points by nolannicholson 6y ago

nsajko 6y ago
Sadly, I just get a black screen with a white rectangle in the lower-left corner. Chromium 81.
- nolannicholson 6y ago
  Hmm, bizarre. Thanks for letting me know. The white rectangle is a loading bar - it should stretch across the bottom of the screen as the game loads. I've had it hang once or twice, but a page refresh fixed the issue in those cases.
- nsajko 6y ago
  It may be something to do with audio, see Chromium's console: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gpEX5mTiDO7hkJEkOzqhbSBnbWQaVnrM https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gpEX5mTiDO7hkJEkOzqhbSBnbW... Does the entire web page depend on audio working?
- bartread 6y ago
  I get that occasionally in Chrome 81 as well but refreshing usually fixes.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
ignoranceprior 6y ago
This is such a great 3D version, very faithful to the original game. Awesome work.
benrbray 6y ago
Great! I would love to see more classic games in the browser. The controls really throw me off though--do enough people really prefer inverted vertical controls for it to be the default in so many games? UP to go down, DOWN to go up?
- flanbiscuit 6y ago
  It made sense to me. I guess it's how you interpret the controls of an actual aircraft and how they map to keyboard controls. In aircraft controls it's "pull back" to increase altitude (up) and "push forward" to decrease altitude (down). I imagine it this way, each direction key maps to a part of the topside of the aircraft - up: front/nose of aircraft, pressing up pushes pressure on the nose which would make it tilt downward, hence going down or losing altitude - down: back of aircraft, pressing down pushes pressure on the backside of the aircraft which would make it tilt upward, hence going up or gaining altitude same for left and right
  - bartread 6y ago
    Yeah, it's funny. For anything involving controlling an aircraft or spacecraft I prefer aircraft style controls (i.e., pull back for UP, and push forward for DOWN). For FPS I prefer the opposite: forward is look up, back is look down, with very few exceptions. I'm not really sure why this would be but it throws me completely if I try to play most FPS (and even some six-axis games) with aircraft style controls. Felt very natural with Bosconian 3D though.
    - pvg 6y ago
      Your own descriptions suggest the underlying reason for this - e.g. 'pull up' - the controller maps to the orientation of the thing you are controlling vs 'forward is look up' - the controller maps to where you want to look.
- throwaway17_17 6y ago
  There are two theories as to the origination of the inverted Y default. First, the standard in aeronautics has always been inverted Y controls, this carried over into flight simulators and games like Wing Commander. For FPS specifically, I have always supported the theory that with the massive popularity of N64 007 Goldeneye amongst a large segment of the game playing and development community during the later half of the ‘90s is responsible. Goldeneye was inverted Y by default and a large group of gamers and devs got there first exposure to FPS via N64 multiplayer Goldeneye.
kiawe_fire 6y ago
Nice work! I really like the art style. It captures the minimalism of the original, while not resorting to voxels or a "hipster flat low poly" look.
wavesplash 6y ago
On Brave, pressing SPACE just destroys the ship?
- Recursing 6y ago
  Same on firefox
yborg 6y ago
Kind of boggles the mind that we've had video games for over 40 years.
lowwave 6y ago
Nice work! Is this first made in blender and then exported JS HTML5?
- nolannicholson 6y ago
  Thanks! The models were made in Blender, but the engine was made from scratch in vanilla JS using WebGL. The code is public: https://github.com/NolanNicholson/bosco-3d https://github.com/NolanNicholson/bosco-3d
scoopdewoop 6y ago
I am really digging the code. Clean, modern, vanilla js! The amount of polish in this game is very appreciated! I see that the assets were made in blender. I hadn't thought to use pixel-art textures with low-poly in that way. It looks fantastic, especially with the low-res rendering.
- nolannicholson 6y ago
  Thanks - I really appreciate it! I got a lot of inspiration for the model style (and a helpful making-of timelapse) from @librorumque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/librorumque/status/1205080756508352512 https://twitter.com/librorumque/status/1205080756508352512
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

nsajko 6y ago

Sadly, I just get a black screen with a white rectangle in the lower-left corner. Chromium 81.

nolannicholson 6y ago
Hmm, bizarre. Thanks for letting me know. The white rectangle is a loading bar - it should stretch across the bottom of the screen as the game loads. I've had it hang once or twice, but a page refresh fixed the issue in those cases.
nsajko 6y ago
It may be something to do with audio, see Chromium's console: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gpEX5mTiDO7hkJEkOzqhbSBnbWQaVnrM https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gpEX5mTiDO7hkJEkOzqhbSBnbW... Does the entire web page depend on audio working?
bartread 6y ago
I get that occasionally in Chrome 81 as well but refreshing usually fixes.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ignoranceprior 6y ago

This is such a great 3D version, very faithful to the original game. Awesome work.

benrbray 6y ago

Great! I would love to see more classic games in the browser. The controls really throw me off though--do enough people really prefer inverted vertical controls for it to be the default in so many games? UP to go down, DOWN to go up?

flanbiscuit 6y ago
It made sense to me. I guess it's how you interpret the controls of an actual aircraft and how they map to keyboard controls. In aircraft controls it's "pull back" to increase altitude (up) and "push forward" to decrease altitude (down). I imagine it this way, each direction key maps to a part of the topside of the aircraft - up: front/nose of aircraft, pressing up pushes pressure on the nose which would make it tilt downward, hence going down or losing altitude - down: back of aircraft, pressing down pushes pressure on the backside of the aircraft which would make it tilt upward, hence going up or gaining altitude same for left and right
- bartread 6y ago
  Yeah, it's funny. For anything involving controlling an aircraft or spacecraft I prefer aircraft style controls (i.e., pull back for UP, and push forward for DOWN). For FPS I prefer the opposite: forward is look up, back is look down, with very few exceptions. I'm not really sure why this would be but it throws me completely if I try to play most FPS (and even some six-axis games) with aircraft style controls. Felt very natural with Bosconian 3D though.
  - pvg 6y ago
    Your own descriptions suggest the underlying reason for this - e.g. 'pull up' - the controller maps to the orientation of the thing you are controlling vs 'forward is look up' - the controller maps to where you want to look.
throwaway17_17 6y ago
There are two theories as to the origination of the inverted Y default. First, the standard in aeronautics has always been inverted Y controls, this carried over into flight simulators and games like Wing Commander. For FPS specifically, I have always supported the theory that with the massive popularity of N64 007 Goldeneye amongst a large segment of the game playing and development community during the later half of the ‘90s is responsible. Goldeneye was inverted Y by default and a large group of gamers and devs got there first exposure to FPS via N64 multiplayer Goldeneye.

kiawe_fire 6y ago

Nice work! I really like the art style. It captures the minimalism of the original, while not resorting to voxels or a "hipster flat low poly" look.

wavesplash 6y ago

On Brave, pressing SPACE just destroys the ship?

Recursing 6y ago
Same on firefox

yborg 6y ago

Kind of boggles the mind that we've had video games for over 40 years.

lowwave 6y ago

Nice work! Is this first made in blender and then exported JS HTML5?

nolannicholson 6y ago
Thanks! The models were made in Blender, but the engine was made from scratch in vanilla JS using WebGL. The code is public: https://github.com/NolanNicholson/bosco-3d https://github.com/NolanNicholson/bosco-3d

scoopdewoop 6y ago

I am really digging the code. Clean, modern, vanilla js! The amount of polish in this game is very appreciated! I see that the assets were made in blender. I hadn't thought to use pixel-art textures with low-poly in that way. It looks fantastic, especially with the low-res rendering.

nolannicholson 6y ago
Thanks - I really appreciate it! I got a lot of inspiration for the model style (and a helpful making-of timelapse) from @librorumque on Twitter: https://twitter.com/librorumque/status/1205080756508352512 https://twitter.com/librorumque/status/1205080756508352512

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]