Volo Airsport Public Alpha 0.01

39 Replies

Today I’m releasing a first playable version of the game for you, which is something I should have done absolutely ages ago.

Download Volo Airsport Alpha 0.01

You’ll recognize the build from last year’s videos. This version is the old prototype I’ve had lying around since that time.

The game can be played with an Xbox 360 pad. For other controllers you’ll have to remap the configuration in the launcher window. Here’s the controls:

Back:               Reset/Respawn
Start:               Pause
Left stick:         Pitch/Roll
Right stick:      Camera
Triggers:          Yaw
A:                     Close Leg wing
B:                     Close Right Arm Wing
X:                     Close Left Arm Wing
Y:                     Close Both Arm Wings

The first times you play you’ll find yourself tumbling down and crashing. This is perfectly normal. The control scheme is complex and gives you a lot of control; but it expects a lot of finesse.

Some tips:

  • A gentle touch is key
  • Pull back on the pitch control slightly maintain an even glide angle
  • Banking turns usually require simultaneous use of the pitch, roll and yaw controls to find the right balance
  • Close wings temporarily for fast manoeuvring
  • Crashing lots is fine

Please send me any feedback you have. Feel free to share the game with friends. And if you think you’ve gotten the hang of it, record your runs and share ’em on Youtube! I’m really curious to see what kind of lines you can pull off.

— Updates —

Donations

By popular demand I’ve set up a quick Donation page. If you donate €15 or more you are entitled to all future releases of the game!

Issues

Controls Configuration

Some folks are having trouble setting up their own gamepads and joysticks. The most common problem is that Unity’s button numbers start from 0, not from 1. So your joystick’s button 3 should be entered as button 2 in the configuration panel. Future versions of the game will have an in-game configuration screen for all this.

Playstation 3 Controller users can use MotionInJoy to map their controls to the game.

Performance

Performance on older or lower-end systems can be bad. If you experience framedrop, shakey bodyparts or stuttering camera motion you are most likely affected by performance problems. Don’t fret about having to upgrade your system just yet! I have lots of optimizing to do, and future versions of the game will likely run both faster and prettier.

Mac & Linux Support

Mac and Linux (ubuntu) versions of the game are on their way. A Mac version of the the first alpha release should be out within the week, but the linux version will have to wait a little longer (have to bring the game up to Unity 4 Beta release for that).

  • Bob

    Nice! Many thanks for releasing this.
    But I don’t have an XBox controller, and nothing seems to work : neither keyboard nor my microsoft plug&play joystick. Not only the axis, but also the actions like closing legs or arms wings. But the pause button and respawn are ok on the keyboard. Weird!

    • Hi Bob,

      Thanks for the feedback, and sorry the control mapping is proving to be an issue. Can you provide me the model name of the joystick you’re trying to use? I’ll see if I can find anything out.

      One of the first priorities is building a better input mapping system for the game. Unity’s default system is kind of horrible.

      • Sam

        is it at all possible to use a keyboard?

  • Bob

    Yeah, actually, I can get a resonse to every movement (control axis and actions) but this is very erratic : the buttons I set on the joystick are not the movements I see on the game.
    For example it seems that when I set “close rarm wing” to joystick button 3, when I hit button3 in the game, it closes legs.
    It’s a SideWinder Force Feedback 2.

    • Bob,

      Oh! I forgot to mention something important! Unity’s button number range starts from 0, not 1. So you should substract 1 from each button number to get it to work. The ‘Y’ button on my pad is 2nd button, so the correct unity button number for it is 1.

  • Neckbeard

    Been following every update you have put out, and your 7dfps project aswell, as allways your work is incredible ;D

    Really happy for the opertunity to test Volo, tried it with an emulated Xbox360 on my ps3 controller, and it worked perfectly.

    The game contols really realisticly, many random factors, such as “turbulence” and stuff like that, that really set a realistic feel to all of it, great details.

    The only thing that drags you out of the immersion is the character, which I still love since its so simplistic and charming 😛

    Since you released this ive played it for over an hour, and it is enjoyable as heck, the sound is immersive, the controllers are really intuitive and great. Really good work! 😀

    Just wanted to give you some feed back, great Alpha release 🙂

    Erling Belsvik

    • Neckbeard,

      Thanks so much! Would you mind letting me know how exactly you set up your PS3 controller? I’m sure many other people would like to know. 🙂

  • Ant

    Hi Martijn,

    Thanks for releasing this. I have been looking forward to this for ages!

    I think my computer is too slow to run the game (Core 2 Duo T7250 2GHz, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 8600M GT 256MB). Even on the lowest graphics settings it stutters a lot.

    I find the wingman flaps and oscillates unless he is slowed down as much as possible straight away. I’m not sure if the “close” commands have any effect – I have remapped them to the buttons on a DualShock 2 controller with Logic 3 USB converter.

    The camera zooms in and out a lot and I am unable to see the wingman about half the time. This makes it impossible to control as I can’t see which way up he is and as you know he can flip over in a fraction of a second.

    I am sure this is all old news for you but I hope it helps somehow. I love mastering challenging and twitchy control systems and it looks like Volo will be great fun, I just need a system to run it smoothly and perhaps a more suitable pad!

    Keep up the excellent work!
    Cheers,
    Ant

    • Hi Ant!

      I ran into the same problems while running the game on an older laptop I have lying around. Indeed, the problems are all performance related. There’s a lot I can do to make the game run better on low-end systems though, so don’t throw the towel in the ring just yet! The current build is very, very unoptimized. Thanks for the system specs, they give me something to aim for. 🙂

  • garrett

    better control labels would be nice p1_legclose and p2_legclose is unclear.

  • Chibi

    very fun game controlls are very hard (i know u warned us) i must say the stick man is alot better to controll when pressing y all the time maby thats somthing what u could look into 🙂

    owh and btw vind je filmpjes geweldig 😀 egt leuk om te zien hoe games groeien in der loop van tijd

  • Hey Martijn,

    I’m so happy you finally managed to get round to releasing an Alpha.

    If we have any feedback is there a certain way you would like it structured?

    I’d quite like to give some feedback but am unsure on how to go about it, as I’ve never tested anything before.

  • brian

    I think its time I upgrade my computer [amd athlon 64 x2 4200 2.2ghz 2gb ram nvidea geforce 6100]. Even on “fastest” this game is literally playing at about 2fps from the video you posted the game looks awesome though, can’t wait to try it simulators are where it at.

    • admin

      @Brian: I’m creating a new build that will hopefully perform a lot better. Try that before upgrading anything; the game is pretty unoptimized right now.

  • As promised on Twitter, some feedback.
    The physics feel great. I’m not quite sure what effect the buttons do – the triggers seem like maybe the rudder, but the effect seems minimal. Closing the arms seems only half useful; I got the most effect from closing the leg portion. Maybe explain a little bit more how controls can be used for advanced movement, since that’s what I assume they’re for. I was doing “ok” with just the flight stick, but I can see how later on one might want more finesse.

    The rest is mostly gameplay stuff. I love what you did with the topography – it seems to offer a lot of different routes to go. Perhaps highlight a few obvious one with green and red, depending on difficulty, sometime during the flight? I wouldn’t want them on all the time but maybe hints for beginners.

    I’d add a few landmarks to fly by. Some observation towers, maybe a highway curve, a particularly obvious rock formation, etc. Give the player a little more structure, without being obvious about any routing. The more of these the merrier – maybe even tie in some points to them just to show that they’re there and considered a “challenge”. Finally, we really need a way to land. 🙂 Parachute? Add a few landing circles on the sandy part just so there’s something to shoot for.

    That’s all I got. 360 USB controller, worked immediately. Game ran fine on a dual core 3GHz with a Radeon 6850.

    • admin

      @Marcin: Thanks so much!

      Closing the wings should drop lift and air resistance on whichever side you choose, making it easier to do barrel rolls and such. But yes, I admit that it needs work. It doesn’t always do what you expect, and the effect is kind very noticeable yet.

      Landmarks are definitely on the list. I’ve got some ideas for an art style and general theme I’d like to go for. 🙂

  • Steve

    Hi Martijn!

    Awesome game 🙂 Been playing it all morning since i got my PS3 controller set up. Google MotioninJoy for instructions! They work well! Ive found that its alot easier to control the twitchyness of the flyer if i have pitch and roll set to different analog sticks. The camera seems to follow me pretty well when i fly smoothly, so i havent needed to adjust it with the right stick.

    However that leaves both fingers on the sticks with no room to press buttons to collapse wings other than the triggers L1,L2,R1, and R2. I want to set up yaw with L1 and R1 and L2,R2 to close arms with the L3 button closing legs. I feel this would be more intuitive for flying while still being able to fully control the flyer. This would also leave future spaces with the buttons to deploy parachute or whatever.

    I’ve tried to set up my controls this way in the launcher but it seems to not register at all once the game is loaded. What can I do to fix this?

    Thanks again! I hope you pick up where you left off with this as you’d have me and plenty of the guys from Skydive Dubai hooked on it!

    Steve

    • Steve

      So it looks like the loader just wont let me set a button to what is supposed to be an axis, possibly due to it being necessary to have it pressure sensitive? So I could swap my yaw to L2R2 which would be pressure sensitive and closing of arms L1R1 which is buttons. That could work. Is there any way you could implement this without too much difficulty? (I do have sixaxis capability to set up yaw but feel it would get confusing trying to fly with it)

  • Steve

    Sorry for leaving so many comments. Just figuring stuff out as I go along. Seems like the motion detection for SIXAXIS ties in somehow and creates a rolling effect on my flyer so through MotioninJoy Gamepad tool I’ve turned off SIXAXIS completely. I can now fly straight and level anywhere I want without a constant slow roll depending on whether the controller is tilted!
    I’ve managed to get L2 and R2 to work for Yaw but still no luck with L1 and R1 for closing arms or R3 for closing legs. I will remap the buttons to work as triangle, circle, X and square for the time being through MotioninJoy. That should get unity to register them when I press them!
    Video to come 🙂

    • admin

      @Steve: Thanks for the MotionInJoy reference, I’ll put a link to it in the post. About mapping buttons to the primary motion axes: You’ll be able to do this in later versions, but it takes a bit more work to implement. 🙂

      Bring on the video!

  • mARC

    Dude Awsome work!!! keep it up this is intence been looking everyday for this release thx

  • Nono

    Hi ! Well done for this try !!! I have only one problem, I have a thrustmaster dual analog 3 and I can’t manage to set the buttons correctly… 🙁

    • admin

      Hi Nono,

      What’s the problem you’re running into? Are the axes ok, and just the buttons problematic? Both? One problem could be to do with the button numbers. You need to substract 1 from the numbers, so your gamepad button 4 would become button 3 in the game config window.

  • Steve

    Is there any chance you can integrate different maps to the current 0.01 detail but with 0.02 flight characteristics? 🙂

  • Steve

    The maps in the concept trailer look cool 🙂

  • Chris

    This game is the best I have seen with the base aspect.
    Great job mate, Norway mastering a basejump into flight and off down
    Into the valley below to a safe landing under a canopy.
    I hope this game gets to that stage.
    Get the Redbull team involved!!!

  • Chris

    Your cliff formations need to be much higher even if they become unnatural, add a really scetchy basejump sequence that you must pan out from, desend down into your unrealistic Valleys for a good minute or longer.
    The parachute landing in the valley base will be great !!!

  • Sam

    I’m using a logitech wingman force 3d joystick, and while the button configuration works fine, the axis settings don’t work at all. The character wobbles a lot, and just plummets straight down, the joystick barely has any input into how the character moves, and it’s very erratic.

    Any ideas how I could it working?

  • Brian B

    Which file do you go in to edit the controls?

    • Sam

      I didn’t realise you could edit the controls in a file?
      I just use the control settings menu before I launch the game.

  • Brian

    Found this on Reddit and thought I’d try it out. Loved the video posted on line.

    I’m running on a Windows PC and here’s my dumb question…..My system recognizes the Xbox controller but when I try to map the inputs, the system isn’t recognizes any presses on the controller. I’ve never actually used my controller on my PC before so perhaps I’m missing a step? Thanks in advance.

    • Brian

      figured it out. The charge cable for a wireless pad doesn’t work for this. Have to use either a wired controller or get a wireless reciever. Well, I learned something today. 🙂

      • admin

        Ah, yes! It’s a bit of a shame Microsoft force you to buy yet another thing instead of letting you use the Play & Charge kit for PC connectivity. Oh well..

  • Ollie

    Absolutely beautiful! Love the work, love the difficulty too, provides a challenge!

  • Euan

    This game is superb. It all works beautifully with my wired xbox 360 controller. It feels really nice finding a sweet line and kegging it down the slopes. I’ve actually played multiple hours on this, and even been playing it with housemates, 1 run each! We all really love watching close-proximity wingsuit video’s anyway, so it’s become way more fun and immersive playing this game, especially due to the use of proper physics, making it feel particularly realistic. The sound modelling you’ve done is also incredible, creating truly tense moments when you just scrape over a ridge.
    I’d love to see a few more maps, with more interesting valleys and such, perhaps more geographical landmarks such as more trees and waterfalls, and the odd structure. Is it possible to have a randomly generated map that will continuously update with a suitable gradient to provide an “endless flight”?
    I’m looking forward to seeing where you take this! I’d certainly pay for the end product.

    • admin

      I’d love to do procedural level generation, but I’m afraid I have to focus on other stuff first. Doing procedural levels will take quite a lot of time, and I first need to nail the elementary components of the game. So yeah, the levels will be static content for now.

      That said, I do have ideas for more abstract, endless levels that are easier to implement that full procedurally generated nature environments. They would be kind of like the VR missions in Metal Gear Solid. 🙂

  • Tyler Knight

    Hi!
    This game looks fantastic! I recently started learning unity and downloaded it after hear about it from a friend. Currently I’m on an old computer so its running at about 5 fps, but I’ll have to try it at home. I too am having input control problems as I don’t have a console controller. I understand you are working on it, but in the meanwhile, could you publish a suggested input setup for keyboards? I just don’t know what to set as what for easy control.
    Keep it up!

    • It’s hard to recommend any setup for keyboard currently. You’d have to use an external application to map keyboard input to joystick axes, but even then controlling the simulation that way would be very cumbersome.

      As a tip though: instead of trying to use keyboard keys, use the mouse! I’m not sure there are apps that allow you to convert mouse input to joystick, but it would be better to use that than your keyboard. In fact: For Volo’s official keyboard and mouse support I’m focusing on mouse input to do most of the steering.

  • Barry

    I am very interested to license this game out as a mobile version next week is it possible?