3D Pool in a weightless environment

[kolaas]

Hi everyone!

For some time I have been chatting with Lucien Fatima about the idea to create a 3D pool game that is played in a weightless environment. We are thinking about making this to a game, but it will be costly. So before doing so I'd like to know what you guys think about it. Would you want to try it? What would you be willing to pay for such an App (assuming that it works good)? Any other ideas?

Some things we have been discussing:
- pockets: 1 in each corner (=8 cornerpockets), 1 on 1/2 of the ribs (=4 sidepockets)
- english: will be added as if the cuaball have friction like on standard cloth. So draw and follow will be possible.
- # of balls in an 8 ball game: Lucien had the good idea to add 4 balls: -1, 0 and 16, 17.
This would make the 'table' not to crowdy, but not as empty with 15 balls.
- and other possible games: getting bonus pockets, bigger/tighter pockets, etc.

Images made by: Lucien Fatima

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

[kolaas]

Other image doesnt work?

 

[Atlatlien]

Seems like a neat concept that I would enjoy trying. That said, I have never paid for an app in my life and really don't intend to start.

Ad-supported maybe?

 

[rayjay]

Sounds like fun, great idea! I paid around $30 for VP4, doubt if I'd pay any more than that, but not for a smart phone ap...it would have to be on my pc.

 

[victorl]

Without gravity, aren't the balls going to be constantly moving after you smack them open, cue ball included?
Also, I think when playing regular pool in video games it's already hard enough to fiddle around with the camera to see the angles to make the balls, so I can't imagine doing that with a 3D environment on a 2D screen. Just my opinion though.

Sounds interesting though, good luck with it.

 

[George Fels]

Seems to me Victor L is right. If you're in a weightless environment, how do you expect the balls to stop moving after the break? GF

 

[AtLarge]

Seems to me Victor L is right. If you're in a weightless environment, how do you expect the balls to stop moving after the break? GF

I imagine the "table" would be the interior of a rectangular (6-sided) box. The balls would rebound off all sides.

No, such a game would not be of interest to me.

 

[MoneyBox]

Can you add friction while cancelling out the weight? I imagine playing pool in a giant box full of clear Jello pudding. Now I'm hungry.

 

[kolaas]

Without gravity, aren't the balls going to be constantly moving after you smack them open, cue ball included?
Also, I think when playing regular pool in video games it's already hard enough to fiddle around with the camera to see the angles to make the balls, so I can't imagine doing that with a 3D environment on a 2D screen. Just my opinion though.

Sounds interesting though, good luck with it.

That would be the case if it was in a vacuum. Air has a bit more density, water even more and the jello that was mentioned perhaps even more. On a normal table the ball is mostly slowed by the rollingfriction of the cloth. I think its best to make the "air" in the pool as dense as is needed to get roughly the same speeds. (it wouldnt be fun if the balls responded very different from what they do in real life)

Draw and topspin would theoretically be impossible as there is no cloth for the spin to catch on. Here this will be possible though.

Good comment about the camera. I wouldnt want to play a game where getting the camera right is frustrating.

 

[bcadren]

Developer Entrance

Hi I'm Luc Fatima; original creator of the images at the root of the page. Set up an account on this page just to discuss the idea. You can find me around the net under the screennames 'Bcadren', 'lord_lucien', 'male-gardevoir', and 'pixelicdarkmatter'.

For a bit of personal background. I'm American, only really familiar with 8-ball and used to play on an old table while I was growing up; old enough that the felt was torn in several places, the plastic cracked around the buckets and we just left it like that. It and the phonograph are about all that we keep around of my greatgrandfather's things. The only pool-related computer game I've seen extensively and played with was the old Yahoo pool that used to be available through Yahoo Instant Messenger back in the .NET era. I'm 22, recent graduate of the Game Design Program at George Mason University; capable at 3D art, sound recording, game programming and design.

I prefer to work in the Unity3D game engine; partially because it allows me to easily for PC, Mac, Linux; Mobile (Android); and online (flash) with few issues. It also actually could publish for even the upcoming PS4, but that takes a lot of funding and contracts. And partially because I've become accustomed to it's programming interface and using other engines would take time from me to learn their language and processes before I could take off running.

At all the concerns about the balls not stopping from moving; weightless doesn't imply frictionless; having drag is actually how spin may also have an effect and the drag could be any value I set it from vacuum (which would take a really long time to stop, yes) to what the ball would actually face in a fluid such as water to...as much as a parachute. The lower the amount of fluid friction, the more collisions it'd take before the balls stopped and the less effect spin on the ball would have and vice versa. I'm not certain if it'd be a value I set as default be the end-all be all amount of drag or I'd leave it to the server player to set it for the game.

At the camera; what I've found to work well for a 3-axis camera in the past is; mouse control; as well as having constant orthographic cameras in the sidebar to allow the player to see what it looks like from the outside. In that case of this work. The perspective 'main' camera would use the cue as the center of it's world; zoom in and out with mouse scrollwheel. Regular mouse angling sets as X and Y rotation of the camera (roll and pitch) holding mouse-1 changes to Z and Y rotation (yaw and pitch). I've had that work before.

Beyond camera, probably looking at 3 parts to control. Point on the ball to hit; angle to hit it at and amount of force/speed to apply. Amount offcenter controlling how much goes into spin as opposed to direct force. Angle and force are self-explanatory.

As to resources/funds; honestly to publish singleplayer vs. computer only with no custom art (only default cubes and spheres like in the mockup); I need pretty much nothing other than a reassurance that people would actually play such a thing. For networked play; add about $15-30 for month of it being up for me to pay for a server to host the game. To release to iPhone I'd need one of an Apple's licensing ($99). For any real custom 3D art and effects; quickly talking up to $4000 in proprietary art technologies; I'm trained in 3D Studio Max, but need a pro-licensing to publish things using custom art I make with it.

 

[j0hnny8875]

Trying to grasp the physics of this is hurting my brain