Remember the famous Chinook helicopter from Meteor 2? Here it is in 3D format in a Msfit3Ds.

When asked about R3D's relationship to Meteor 3, James responds, "Rod tests the new M3 approach, in both technical and user terms (is it doable and do people like it?). It is however a very basic game although it's come a long way in a week and will include new stuff like scripting and waypoints. The scripting will be quite similar to that of M2, but will utilize two separate scripts – one for map-specific events and one for game-wide ones.”

A little bit about my personal experience with R3D: Remember the 2D graphics making up walls and cars in M2? Now imagine looking down from a helicopter while flying over New York. Combine those two scenes, and you're looking at what I was. I tapped a key and my view suddenly shifted from top to third person, giving a whole new aspect to the game. The 3D graphics looked to be tile-based, meaning that it was Meteor 1's tiles with a height property. James says, "Rod 3D uses tile based maps but M3 will feature stackable sectors in 3D along with the more complex features seen in M2 today." This means that the creation of 3D environments is probably going to be just about as easy as that of M2.

Rod 1 - Where it all began.

In terms of stability, Rod 3D is quite a step up from previous versions of Allegro-based games. Rod 3D features object-based C++ rather than straight C.

Editing for object classes/types, powerups, and map lists will be done out-of-game in a single file using notepad. I speculate that this will be a bit easier than doing it in game, as making changes in bulk will not require so many clicks.

It's been over 10 years since Rod 1 was released. We've come far, and I anticipate this to be a pretty revolutionary change to a 3D setting. While many will find 3D modeling new and perhaps challenging, it's gonna be awesome to put detail into your vehicles.

Very excited about the future of Meteor! R3D in-game screenshots to come very soon. Check back in a few days.