demo
NOTE: It's not yet a game — just a graphical demo!
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Version: 0.15 Required: 1GHz+ PC Win98/2K/XP (or Wine) __________ Or as a screensaver: |
The demo consists of a single executable with no installation required. You just run it. And it probably won't kill your computer. It will start fullscreen in 'auto' mode, which means it will just drive itself around and around. If you want to tinker a bit press F1 to see available key controls.
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DISCLAIMER: I do not warrant that this piece of software will bring you happiness or peace of mind, but if it crashes or behaves badly in any way for you, please let me know.
known issues
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Doesn't play well with multiple monitors
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For a very small number of people the car may tend to veer off in a tight circle... still trying to work out what the problem is with that.
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If you run it and nothing happens, or you get a "Drivey013.exe is not a valid Win32 application", it's possible your download was not complete. Version 0.13 should be exactly 333,230 bytes in size, and 0.15 should be 304,885 bytes.
earlier versions
For posterity?
* requires DirectX9 for sound, and is less graphically nice than the new one.
about
Drivey is an NPR [Non Photo Realistic] driving simulator, which exists mostly in my mind right now. In a nutshell, it is [to be] an attempt to re-capture the essence of old-time video games in the context of fast, ubiquitous computers.
It is very much a personal pet project. Whether or not it will ever develop beyond some basic tests and demos is unsure...
Drivey is not supposed to be "better than" other driving simulators — Just different and hopefully interesting and/or fun.
It was conceived as a driving simulator for old farts like myself, who are kind of nostalgic for the "old days" [ca. 1985] but are not so thick as to believe that the games from the 80s were actually in any way superior to the games we play today. They weren't. Their greatness was all in our imagination. Try playing them now and if you're anything like me you'll be surprised and mildly disappointed that what once seemed so amazing can now appear so boring and ordinary. And I'm talking about gameplay as well as graphics and sound here.
That is not to say that I think modern games are so great. In fact I consider most of them overly complicated, expensive and demanding. So what Drivey is supposed to help me explore is that zen point between realistic and symbolic representation, some concept which might engage your brain in the same way that perhaps a graphic novel might, giving the reader only the visual essence of a world, and letting imagination do the rest, leading [hopefully] to a more engaging experience.
There is also a much more pragmatic reason for exploring such a style: Photorealistic driving sims require LARGE TEAMS OF SKILLED PEOPLE AND LOTS OF MONEY to develop. These are things I don't have, and so it would be really stupid of me to undertake such a project on my own [unless it was to become my sole pursuit, at the expense of everything else].
prior art
At this point you may be thinking, "hey yeah, these images remind me of cool simple driving games from 20 years ago. They were great!"... Well, those games you're thinking of were Night Driver and Speed Freak, and here's what they looked like...
Night Driver
In my mind I remember this game as being mind blowingly cool, because it was the first game I ever saw that gave the impression of depth, with white blobs coming toward you at a smooth frame rate.
It really seemed amazingly realistic to me! But that was then... Now it looks and plays like rubbish. Although the frame rate is great, the blobs are all jumpy and going around corners feel utterly fake.
I guess Drivey is kind of about creating something that matches the distorted and unrealistic memory I have of Night Driver.
Speed Freak
Apart from the strangely touchy steering, this one holds up remarkably well!
The outline of the road is actually projected correctly [unlike Night Driver's bodgy post placement] with the only dodginess being that as the edge of the road exits at the bottom of the screen it gets a little jumpy [ this is due to a half-assed clipping algorithm, similar to that used on early PS1 racing games where the track seemed to bunch up as you drive over it ]
Speed Freak was one of the first vector graphics game, and back then vector graphics were the only way to achieve decent 3D. Vector graphics reached their pinnacle some years later with the release of the the original Star Wars arcade machine.
Donkey
© 1981 IBM
Even though probably no one much ever played this primitive bit of DOS/BASIC demo software [purportedly the last piece of professional software ever written by Bill Gates!], in my mind it does have at least one thing going for it: it uses a very simplistic interface for "steering" the car, in that all you have to do is choose when to switch lanes. IMHO this is actually a very good idea...
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View the original Donkey source code © 1981 IBM – downloaded from somewhere or other
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Download the original playable Donkey – an EXE built using good ol' QuickBasic 4.5
screens
Screen shots are taken at various stages of development, which means that what you see here may differ from what you see when you run the demo.
This is a screen shot from new demo 0.13— There's a
sky gradient, and ermmmmm not much else I guess.
Cars are lights instead of bodies— I think there's a lot of potential for this— and the dashboard is no longer neon. Dig the lo-tech headlight reflections a la Driver.
Blobby clouds with chilly colors. Perhaps the fakeness of the new [optional] dashboard can make up for the growing "realism" of the landscape.
Brown, with lights... and cables and extended overpass-y bits.
Tinted monochrome... fast and kinda neat looking.
All this junk looks great when it's moving, although I need to get the frame rate back up.
Shot from the Graphic Test version with added signage.
A kind of poster style graphics, sort of toon-like but trying to lean more towards a screen-printed look.
Whilst pretty cute, this style is getting away from my original idea somewhat, and approaching something closer to what mainstream developers are currently playing with. ie use a standard 3D engine but with special lighting/shaders to produce 2D styles. At this time I don't want to use a 3D engine, because I am a stubborn bugger, and am kind of sick of triangle meshes, texture mapping etc.
Well, ok, 3D rendering is great, but it's just nice to experiment with alternative techniques sometimes, and if you assume that everything must be representable as 3d meshes then you are locking yourself into certain ways-of-doing-things right there.
This shot is probably the closest I want to get to realism. Perhaps it is too real already, what with the pylons and light poles. Always adding more realism is a trap that is hard to avoid in graphics programming.
There are no triangulated polygons here, everything on screen is drawn using 2D bezier paths, just like TrueType fonts. Like a tight-rope walker without a net, Drivey is re-exploring graphics without texture mapping or a Z-Buffer...
Same as above, different colors.
Interesting thing here is the big black blob in the top left, which is the bottom end of a light pole. Why is it floating in the air? Because extruded objects can't currently be drawn correctly unless one end is visible to the observer. The reason for this is remarkably interesting, specific to the weird 2-and-a-half-D rendering system, and pretty much impossible to explain to anyone without a strong background in both 2D and 3D graphics.
*sigh*
oh well, I find it interesting anyway.
Cityscape... you get the idea. Silhouettes for all non-essential scenery, creating a distinctive visual style as well as saving me the trouble of creating textures and geometry for a city. This way each building is just an extrude rectoangle or circle [heights vary], and they even physically overlap is some cases, but that doesn't matter because they're all just black.
Too complex this one, with both cityscape and overpass in view. Even on my 2.8GHz machine, the frame rate drops with this much detail [24 FPS]. After all, it is 1280x1024 and the rendering is software only.
How real should the colors be? Since realism is not the goal, then perhaps bright primaries could be used. But the red in this shot doesn't look so great to me...
This shot looks annoyingly nice to me, very moody, very noir. Unfortunately lighting effects are not part of the plan, and complicate the graphics engine to the point that it makes more sense to just use a stylized 3D engine. I may go down that path or I may not, but at this point I don't want to commit.
This is supposed to be a tunnel. Does it look like a tunnel? I don't know. It's quite pleasing for the sense of motion it gives anyhow. Notice that the lights are a bit chunky, unlike the flat ones pictured in other shots.
Before there were CARs, there were pucks.
Tunnel with fish-eye lens, very neat. No extrusion on the overhead lights on this one.
Reflections, just to try out different styles. This one is like driving on a surreal glass coffee table.
The signs are actually a single character from a road sign TrueType font. I was very excited about them but they are quite hard to read as you whiz by.
Is it only sad old gits who say Hello World these days? I hope not...
Yeah! Classic Night Driver style. This is what I had in my head when I started on Drivey... of course then the whole thing starts mutating and God knows where it'll end up.
Ouch, my eyeballs! Testing road markings at different heights, as well as mockup signs
Clean and simple, except for the ginormous yellow sign hovering ominously above the road.
source code
You can download the source + the interpreter to run it as a zip file.
faq
Q: Why don't you finish the damn thing? Or have you abandoned it?
A: It's just not that simple. Drivey is more an idea than reality right now, and sometimes when you make an idea reality you kill it, because it doesn't come out like you imagined. Even though I've spent less time coding on Drivey than just about any project I've ever worked on, I've spent more time thinking about it— it's still my pet project.
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Q: Why is there no collision detection?
A: There is but it's off by default and is pretty damn awful. If you manage to switch it on and find yourself on the wrong side of the fence [only happens if you are going very very fast] just press <home> to return to the track.
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Q: What plans for future versions?
A: There are no fixed plans— To date Drivey has evolved through tinkering and experimentation, and this pattern will likely continue...
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Q: Isn't it tilting the wrong way around corners?
A: Nope :) But many people believe it is, so there's an illusion which is worth investigating further... (the car tilts out on the corner, just like it is on gushy suspension)
feedback
You can contact me using this form.
the author
Mark Pursey is a programmer [among other things] with a history of dabbling in computer graphics and never finishing anything. As Jujusoft he also writes some more regular style software, which is all, like, 75% complete.
Find out more at intepid.com...
news & history
(RSS feed for news of updates)
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Yes, it has been a while. Yes, I totally failed to ride the wave of enthusiasm from last year. I am a bit of a thicky like that. I have finally got around to restoring the "normal" page at least. No new updates yet, and when they eventually come I'm still not sure whether it will be an extension of current form (written in JujuScript) or the new more powerful C++ version (which will be different in many ways).
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Lotsa feedback so far, and more than 70,000 downloads [!] of 0.13, so I thought I'd post a new version in response: 0.15.
This version has no sound [thus avoiding the DSOUND.DLL problem], but it was pretty boring anyway so probably no one will miss it too much. Also offers Left-Hand-Drive and the road turns to the right for a change. Collisions are now off by default, and the "veering" problem of 0.13 is fixed.
Some options can now be saved in config file [color, roadtype, left/right drive]
All text disappears after a few seconds— it's more like a screensaver. At this point I will leave it to individuals to rename it to SCR and install it though, since it doesn't behave like a normal screensaver [you still have to ESC out of it].
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Holy crap! Switching to low bandwidth page...
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
New demo available, not necessarily amazingly different, but has sky gradients, and some craptacular collision detection.
Sunday, May 8, 2005
Ok, huge amount of time has passed etc etc... still no new version for download, but I have posted a Drivey screencast on my blog, where I sort of ramble about my thoughts on the state of things.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Aw cripes, it's nearly April! Seriously, how does anyone get anything done ever when time moves this fast? I really do want to update the current JujuScript demo, but technically the advances are fairly minor (some collision detection and better map generation), while aesthetically I know that any change in the two-tone scheme will take away from the current simplicity. It's so bloody hard to make up my mind how many/which colors to use.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Gawd time moves fast doesn't it... Still not fully operational in C++ [no rolling demo], so hacking a bit back into JujuScript version [and will probably continue to use it for rapid prototyping]
Thursday, February 10, 2005
1300 downloads, averaging around 30 per day right now.
Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Have added a new drawing primitive — pointy things! — and am also using a basic sort [damn... hoping to never have to deal with depth issues] to allow for the fact that for the moment, everything is NOT in silhouette.
Monday, February 7, 2005
Chugging along, robustifying some of my 2D code to handle
segments and loops properly [was a bit buggy]. Currently
working in full color, which currently eats up most
of the performance boost given by moving to C++
Friday, February 4, 2005
Road segments and junctions are the new priority [for C++ development]... I need to be able to easily build complex roadways [with intersections and lane merging]
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Hey, I'm actually working on this C++ port... who'd a thunk it?
Problem now is, do I slavishly recreate what I've already done in Jujuscript, or do I just go where I feel like as though it was a whole new project. The latter feels like the best option, but at the same time if I don't recreate what I've already done then I can't technically guarantee that what I create will be as good. I may "miss" somehow...
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Over 1000 demo downloads!
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Hey wow, getting a sudden increase in downloads and some great feedback [ie some nice things being said on referring sites]
686 dowloads in the last 2 days!
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Yadda yadda I suck, am lazy bastard etc...
Playing with gradient fills, not really a drivey thing so much as a cleanup of general purpose rendering code.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Ah... the time, it is passing...
Still working on it, but spending some time cleaning up some maths stuff and some functions which were never working as well as they should have been.
Also loading up the "industrial" map with stuff including some transparent fencing, so now I have a lot more incentive to optimize the renderer...
Optimization is something I've been meaning to do for ages but in truth I suspect I will not get much of a boost out of it [although I may be able to further enhance quality without losing speed]
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil"
- Donald Knuth
I left behind my facination for optimization when I stopped coding in x86 assembler — and really there is only so much you can do when your screen has more than a million pixels on it and you are using a software renderer.
Thursday, November 4, 2004
Have been doing some tinkering with the auto driving AI, making all cars use the same steering model and basically play the simulation in the same way that a person plays... I added an onscreen steering wheel for testing and it's quite interesting watching the thing swivel back and forth around corners, and also appear to do quite a good job coming out of a slide.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
New demo posted, with numerous little tweaks to the system: automatic road tracking is better, and still works when in high speed mode. Fullscreen is by default, and gerenally there is much better support for fullscreen. Wide view angles are handled a little better and when in manual steering mode the screen can tilt. Wow.
BTW Drivey is still written in JujuScript. That whole C++ conversion thing... er... you know how it is...
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Have to keep reminding myself that I am not working on a "real" driving sim... so perhaps less is more where color is concerned. Looking at simple black and white rendering, with silhouettes.
For some reason grayscale on white background looks 10 times more interesting than grayscale on black background.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Changed the color scheme of this page to a sort of garish red... noice! Also changed all the screen shots from png to gif format... because PNG just isn't that great... all these images are about half the size when in GIF format, and they load better in IE too.
And to round off this incredibly productive day, I'm off now to kick Shaun's ass at Dead or Alive 3... UPDATE: Mission accomplished!
Monday, October 18, 2004
More downloads than expected, so I've put up slightly new version of demo, with Cars changed back to text [for fun, although wll probably run a little slower than previous demo] and some signage. Resizable window and fullscreen support [press 'F' to toggle]
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Oh screw this! Poor old Drivey has been left languishing for like FIVE MONTHS before I even got any serious work done on it... To try to make up for it [at least in part] I think I'd better post a demo, and try to get reinspired again.
Oh yeah, the conversion to C++ is going really great, and I'm really not being sarcastic when I say that, not one bit...
Monday, May 10, 2004
Well, no code written, but a nice inspiring motto/subtitle for the project may help to focus: A road less travelled. Maybe I'll start work on the box designs next ;)
Also rearranged the page a little, to allow dynamic content to sit beside relatively static stuff. This way my ravings don't shove more substantial or interesting content off the page quite so quickly.
I'm building up my strength for the big push to C++. Once I'm done [especially getting steering control and sound working as they do in JujuScript] I will make fabulous advances, I nearly guarantee it... I just haven't been in a coding mood lately.
Sunday, May 9, 2004
Currently stalled halfway through a port to C++ [from JujuScript]. This is incredibly irresponsible of me; somewhat like walking out of a transplant operation half way through. The C++ version currently only has about 20% of the original functionality, and is just so uninspiring. The reason the conversion has to happen is that JujuScript is not nearly fast enough to handle the complex number crunching required by the physics and AI systems. It's seriously slow compared to C++, and therefore completely inappropriate for a high frame rate game like Drivey. *sigh*
Saturday, May 8, 2004
There were just screen shots occupying this space, with no text, but then I realized that I was doing absolutely zero work on this project. I figured that maybe if I wrote a bit about it I might get a little inspired to get working on it again.
copyright © 2004-2006 Mark Pursey