Gloups is the very first 3D game I've coded using Delphi, OpenGL and the Delphi3D components.

It's an adaptation of a classic video game, this game where you're a snake (or a worm) which must eat objects appearing randomly on the screen, but which must not hit the walls (actually, the screen borders), or bite itself.

Gloups takes these base concepts, but adds realtime 3D rendering, true color graphics (32-bit) and sound support.

You must move using the arrow keys to eat donuts which will increase your score... but also your weight, as you're growing! The game ends when Gloups is on the whole screen surface (no chance) or when it bites itself or hits the borders of the screen. At the end of the game, you can save your score into the high-score table if you're among the best ones...

The game offers a relatively large number of options to customize it, like adjusting snake's speed, background textures (which can be displayed randomly) and music support (can play a large number of music file formats - randomly or not - or an audio CD), antialiasing support (blends pixels to make them more discrete), etc. These options can be modified and applied even while a game is running.

You can freely import your own textures and music into the game, as long as the format is supported (PCX for the textures, and a large choice for music: MP3, WAV, MIDI, MOD, S3M, XM, IT...). Gloups adapts itself to the background texture's color. You'll find on this page some music and texture packs which can be directly added to the game.

The game uses the FMOD library for sound rendering, and the rhGL library from RabidHaMsTeR. FMOD offer a wide range of sound settings, from the mixing frequency (from 8 KHz to 44 KHz) to the sound drivers (Gloups supports A3D 3.0, Windows Multimedia et DirectSound).

The game can be played in windowed or fullscreen mode, and the game window automatically fits to your screen and desktop resolution. Hence, you can play in 640x480 or in 2048x1536 if you want to... it only depends from the limitations of your monitor and graphics card!

The game doesn't requires a powerful machine to run. It runs perfectly on a Pentium 233 MMX machine, it only requires a 3D graphics card supporting OpenGL with at least 8 MB of video RAM recommended.

However, it REQUIRES the GLUT library, which brings new features to OpenGL. A Windows version of this library is available, GLUT32.DLL, and this is the version required by Gloups. You can download it from this page. The game will not run if GLUT32.DLL is not installed on your system!

Features of version 1.0

* Realtime 3D game using OpenGL.
* Sound support through FMOD library, which offers many options: up to 16 bits and 44 KHz (CD quality), several drivers including Windows Multimedia, DirectSound and A3D, several mixing routines, EAX 1 and 2, geometry, interpolation...
* Customizable background texture (PCX 256x256, 8-bit format).
* Customizable background music, multiple formats supported (MID, WAVE, MP3...).
* Uses various graphics effects such as lights, shadows, textures...
* Can be played at any screen resolution supported by your machine.
* Fullscreen or windowed modes support.
* Light requirements, only a 3D card supporting OpenGL is really required.
* Customizable snake speed.
* Saves the best score.

New features of version 1.1

As you can see, the amount of updates from version 1.0 to version 1.1 is very huge. I hope I did not forget anything...

* A brand new interface, using a black texture identical for all menus, and new flat controls (buttons, checkboxes, etc.). Really better!
* The game display is now rendered in a separate window. Which implies some changes:
  - menus are always displayed at 640x480 resolution.
  - display options can be modified even if a game is running.
  - it should help to increase framerate and game rendering speed.
  - it may also help to avoid some bugs.
* Added an antialiasing feature to increase graphics quality.
* New in-game score display, using transparent frames.
* Added an high-scores table. You can now leave your name with the score.
* Added an option to display or not the score while in-game.
* Support of several music and texture types. Thus:
  - Thanks to the new "By default" option:
  > You're no longer obliged to use a custom music or texte.
  > The options menu does not appear anymore if no music or texture is defined.
  - New "Aléatoire" option available for textures and music.
  - Audio CD support while in-game.
* Easier and enhanced sound configuration for beginners:
  - The game can automatically configure the options after having asked for confirmation
  - Two configuration modes: custom or predefined.
  - Added an option to reconfigure (or not) the sound at next game startup.
* Can choose between windowed or fullscreen mode at any moment, even while in-game.
* New help system:
  - No more ugly tabbed interface, but a textured button system.
  - The help is now read from an external text file (available from the Data folder).
* Music is played in realtime: for example, it is played as soon as it is reactivated, or as soon as you select a new one from the options menu.
* New menu music, less repetitive.
* Optimized and enhanced game textures and images, nicer-looking.
* Windows XP theme support.
* The file lists from the Options menu can be refreshed.
* The window is now displayed on top of the other windows and the taskbar, no matter its settings.
* Game is automatically paused if the game window becomes inactive.
* Changes on the ruler to modify Gloups' speed:
  - Now inverted, but more logical: left for slower speed, right for faster speed.
  - Corrected a bug on speed levels
* Removed the ESS & OSD sound drivers, unavailable under Windows.
* The scores file cannot be modified anymore. No more cheating allowed...
* Asks for confirmation when the window is closed while in-game.
* Moved the small logos from the configuration window to the "About" page.
* The log file from the rhGL library is now automatically moved to the Data folder.
* Updated contact information, links and Arachnosoft's logo.
* Some bug fixes.

* When you uncheck the Sound checkbox from the sound configuration window, all the sound options are correctly grayed out in the Options menu, but the dropdown list allowing to choose the texture is also grayed out, which shouldn't be.

* It's not really a bug, but when you reactivate this Sound checkbox after having disabled it, the options to activate sounds and music stay disabled (but not grayed out) in the Options menu.

* The current implementation of the antialiasing feature is somewhat experimental and buggy. Actually, it behaves very randomly depending of your configuration. For example, with some graphics card (like NVIDIA's: GeForce, Riva TNT...), it'll work only with some versions of the drivers, more and less slowly; with others, it works, but very slowly; and with other cards, it does not work at all. Some cards even apply it even if the "Antialiasing" checkbox is not checked. So, please use this feature carefully, and do not hesitate to tell me how does it works with your system.

I want to thank all the authors of the components I've used to create this game: Tom Nuydens for his Delphi3D components, Nate Robins for his GLUT for Win32 platforms library, the FMOD library team, as well as the Shockwave-Sound.com website on which I found the background music used in the version 1.1 of the game. And with all my greetings to Peter who greatly helped me to code some OpenGL effects used in the 1.1 version of the game.

IMPORTANT To work correctly, the game requires the GLUT32.DLL file to be placed into your Windows\System (Windows 95/98/Me) or Windows\System32 (Windows NT/2000/XP) folder. You can download the ZIP archive containing this file here.