Hi everyone, I am interested in making a game like F-Zero and Mario Kart, you know, a 2D racer which uses clever scaling techniques to look like it''s 3d just like F-Zero and had a few questions for you to help me on my journey 1) I need a good web-site for that kinda information. Where can I go to? 2) Does anyone have any idea how to represent a 2D 2x2 map of a level in perspective like in mario kart so that as you look at the road ahead it appears to be converging into the centre of the screen (I hope you know what I mean..you know, perspective view) 3) About artificial intelligence and making other racers follow the track. How would YOU go about coding the AI so that CPU racers appear to be racing and following the track but with a few behavioural differences, so they don''t always take the same path as each. 4) Scaling sprites so that they look like the are infront like in the distance like in Mario Kart of F-Zero when vehicles get smaller as they advance into the distance. 5) Designing the level in a 2D editor and then including racing track attributes like bumps and ramps, which make the car jump up abit. How will I give the illusion of a car bumping up on a ramp or bump. 6) How would you suggest I design a level editor so that it''s very easy to make good race tracks 7) If I use a 2x2 matrix to represent the track and level, then how to I get curved roads as the player turns if all level entities will be orthahonal (that''s the first time I am using that would and I am assuming it means that objects are 90 degrees to each other. Correct me if I am wrong please). F-Zero has curved roads which leads me to wonder how their levels are stored. 8) About spacing with all the race entities and collision detection. The track I create in the track editor may have each road segment or racer spaced by 1 block in the map, but when it comes to translating the spacing when it comes to rendering the screen and all racers. That''s about it.... I have never made a trick 3d type game like doom or Wolfenstien and I know the involve raycasting or ''tracing techniques and I am not too sure about them but my game specific ignores walls and trees and rocks I just wanna know how to translate a 3d map into perspective and make it look kinda 3d well the race track anyway. --CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES --------------------------------------------- I just want every to know that I have finished college and am totally happy that I am free !!!!! (Just like MYA Lol) and I am starting unoversity this September doing a Comnputer Science course in graphics and games I am so happy. I have got a whole holiday of 3 months to begin on this new game YEAAAAAAAAAAH !!!! WHO''S BAD ???!!!!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry enough of that... I sure asked a lot of questions but you don''t need to answer then all just as many as u can or u want to. If you have any helpful source code can I have it. If you know of any interesting sites with this kinda game production please can you tell me? Any help is good help !!! Thanks in (Gameboy) advance Dark Star UK

1. Here?

2. To be honest, I think the easiest way would be to use OpenGL or DirectX. You wouldnt need to do anything too complicated, just textured quads (bilboards) for the game tokens (the cars, the logs, etc.) and a simple (flat) textured map for the track. Stick check points across the track to force the player to stay on it and you''re sorted...

3. There was an article on gamasutra a while ago on the AI for Midtown Madness - probably overkill for your purposes but it should give some ideas.

4. See 2.

5. When the car hits a bump, it moves up for a bit, then comes down again. You could model it with proper physics, but it probably isnt necessary, it will just follow a parabolic path.

6. My suggestion would be to design a set of bitmap tiles. The tiles can be arranged how you like, saved as a big bitmap, and used as a texture for the ground. Features such as checkpoints and logs and barriers could be added as a seperate layer.

7. The roads are whatever shape you can make out of the bitmapped tiles. The checkpoint system ensures that you stay on them.

8. Not sure what you mean here. You could probably get away with just checking overlap of bilboards for collision detection, provided you ensure that you arent colliding with cars in the distance.

Hope this helps.