United3dArtists Archive

Seeing as though I have no formal site anymore...I need a home for my game....I will use this thread to keep a sort of journal of my game dev. Below is my "OLD" game. I am working on a new version(yes, to those who know me....again or 3rd-4th iteration) and will post more soon.
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Here is my new terrain workflow......
PT 1
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PT 2
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OK, this may seem odd showing blender screens, but I use blender for my texturing and animation, maybe if Jack finishes his FBX import/expor plugin I will go back to tS....For now I am using blender modeling was done in tS7.61...so this is fairly new. Pay no attention to the semi large face count, He has already been triangulated...basically doubling the quad count.

Here...http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6869 ... june09.png is the link to the full image...since it is small here.

Really cool man! If I remember correctly you are using torque game engine? Really great work, Glad to know you will still be working this game

3dgamestudio actually....I thought about torque for a long time and stuck with 3dgs since it was going to use C and compiles on the fly. Now it is using C and you can create MFC files and other win32 programs with it as well as game programing.

Is it your own design RPG system?

I think my Last real attempt with 3DGS was one Venture was on the go A5?

Ahhh, I remember Venture...mostly from the tutorial stuff(very old stuff, but useful still)...., but this is my design. The video is vastly different from what is going on now....not that vastly...it is an RPG still, it is still about freedom, character development(though skill and point spending), and of course, story.

Before I went on to use Awakening I looked at A7, but I have loads of display issues with a lot of 3D software on my crappy Vista PC, the work area freezes, I did have chance to checkout some tutorials on adventure systems in the 3DGS online mag which looked promising, maybe once I get a better video card and sort the pc I might have a look back.

There's a big "to do" before then though! Finish my Flash game, finish the Awakening version of the flash game, the 2 or 3 TS projects I'm supposed to be doing, rebuild my website, and the 1001 jobs the missus has for me!



The game looks great, it would be great to see a playable demo

I would love to work on something more formal, but not having much time hurts. I promise when this has ANY playability I will upload something...BTW here is my current work for the Protagonist "Guss"...Not a lot going on, but I was playing with his range of motions for a few days until I settled on this rig. It is fairly normal actually.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9928 ... june09.jpg

To elaborate a bit...
The time I spent playing with the rig was due to a shared rig system...fairly standard really.
You animate one rig with a wide range of movements.. stand(various), walk, run, jump, attack(several), cast(self/touch/ranged), and various activities...e.g. sweeping/grinding a sword...
and share this rig with the other "Actors". Using this method you need only animate once. Once I finalize mechanics and story I can complete animation....here is the catch...I have not finalized everything....
I'm moving this to a fairy tale RPG so I want to incorporate the more fantastic...Dragon riding....fairy citidel..things of that nature....this leads to catch number 2...more places and mechanics = more story = more quests....so....lol. I'm up to my neck in it.

I decided to make the move today to Blender 100% for my modeling needs. It makes much more sense to use Blender for everything, and I see no forseeable support for tS it just makes more sense to get comfortable with it now.....
So.....If anyone feels I should post no more here, based on my software choices....then speak up. I know this is a tS forum so...fair is fair.

On a side note, most of the animation is done. I am now testing workflow to use Earthsculptor as a terrain editor/OR sculpt in Blender alone for creating terrain......still undecided.

I don't see why you should stop posting, I think you opinion is valued around here
As far as models go in games you can use any software to get a similar effect inside the engine, I think most people need to use another type of software to get animation right, or convert the mesh to the correct format, Blender does seem a lot better at removing that need.. for me Blender could lose all the addition work for awakening, its just a shame I haven't had chance to learn it

I agree. Prodigy has already said that he wants to transition this forum to a general 3D forum, so post away!

I too think that it would be great to allow to show off work done in other 3D applications. The strong point of this community are the people, not the application. Since a lot of people use various apps I´m sure there´s a lot to learn from. Keep on posting

Thanks for the feed back, I will put something new together for terrain later on for now I must re-fuel my cells.

If you look at the first post again, I added 2 videos on how I am editing the terrain now inside of blender....took a while to go through different methods, in the end I settled on using the sculpt tool(think z-brush/silo terrain editing).

I am quite certain that the purpose of this forum is to retain the TSCommunity from the Califorums regardless of future project/product choices. The most valuable part of the Truespace experience was the way the members of the community supported each other through education, criticism and praise.

It is my fervent hope that the future will allow us to continue motivating and educating each other and that we may find more reasons to work together.

The future of TS beyond those who have the product now is in question. The future of those who have the product now is in the grasp of those who have the product now. Who knows, if we start showing the world what can be done with TS and Trueserve in a big way, especially with some of the new plugins, we may get enough users from the 5 million downloads make life interesting for the devs (devs , please note this is one reason to be ready to support 7.6 in the future).

On a personal note NWB, you have been a great contributor to the community and we would really miss your participation. I expect that there will be a number of us that will be adding Blender to the pipeline. There will be an audience here that will certainly appreciate your help in developing that skill.

Well stated my friend. I'm going nowhere(brain).

I have been diligently working on the terrain for the main area "Banderdale" a WIP name... I thought you may like a screen grab.

and here is the full size.http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/7020/banderdale00.jpg

That looks quite nice already. I can make out some paths that are passable for the player and a waterfall. I suppose the colorshader is a placeholder or a map for texture splatting?

Good eye, especially on the waterfall! Yes, the color map will not be like the image you see...where the grey areas are will be red and brown = blue, green will remain..then there will be black for roads....these will all be layering maps...
red=rock
blue=dirt
green=grass
black=sand....
It is essentially the same as in the first video in this thread of the old game, but here is an image to show a more clear example. I could also use the alpha channel to bleed through another 4 textures, but less=fast...so I trade a little. BTW this is a mock up, not the actual shader at work.

I am possibly going a little overkill on these updates and may slow down soon, but when I get an idea in my head I just have to hammering away until I see fruit...I was thinking about a lumber mill today so....

It is not much, but this is all realtime no pre-rendered stuff(it would look much better then... I hope.).
I would show you some gameplay, but all I have ATM is a box that moves around on the ground and a chase cam....it will still be a while before anything of real interest comes out.

The green might be a bit to florescent.

...just a bit, but this is not the actual terrain texture. this is just for level editing and idealization of the world. I will use a different shader(like the old games).

looking forward to see how this progresses. Eventually I'm going to have to decided on an SDK and approach for my likely never to see the light of day RPG, lol. Will be cool to know that there's an option that is workable and has someone I know who knows how to work it.

I'll post a link and some concept art one of these days if I ever get my personal website redone.

I'm available whenever you need, put me at your disposal...
Are you more of a scripter or programmer if you are comfortable in "C",. you should look into lite-c.
http://www.conitec.net/english/gstudio/litec.php.
It is what I use.

...Anyway...
Here is the first in game terrain shader at work...nothing special and the green is still a little on the saturated side, but here it is.

nowherebrain wrote:I would show you some gameplay, but all I have ATM is a box that moves around on the ground and a chase cam....it will still be a while before anything of real interest comes out.

Don´t worry about not showing crowd simulations, it´s the process of making a game that´s interesting enough. Besides, I´ve always had a special interest in environmental shots, I find those games that do them well more appealing than "royalty" gameplay and crappy grafix Moody outdoor scenarios pared with a good supporting soundtrack are making up for many mistakes gameplay wise (to a certain degree of course). But maybe that´s just me.

@GraySho: I myself am a dedicated dork. if it is shaded solid with a wireframe overlay, animated, interactive, and has a bunch of numeric data in the view....I'm all about it.
remember the game everyone wanted to make on the tS4um?..that may be a shot in the dark for most of you....lol, it was a while back....like in the 90's. Some of us were around back then....just curious.

Sorry have not been around in a while.
I have been very busy with work, but also writing a new camera code...I just started fiddling and I continued fiddling and now I cannot stop...It is nothing ground breaking, but it is working very well and better than the old one.

Good to hear from you NWB... hope all is well.

I'm still working on it...lol I may have a new screen by the weekend...but I may be attending a picnic...uncertain...

I am still alive an still working on the game...lol
I am currently implementing the dreaded "inventory system" this has been a PITA for me every time....as this is not my first go at it...
, but everything seems to be going pretty well this time around. This is due to the fact I have come up with a extremely simple implementation...so good times, I tested it and it works...so I am just building assets ATM.
you can see some of the progress on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/nowherebrain

Very smooth! good to hear you alive and still working on it
My game with Awakening hasn't really got very far, ours is more an adventure system a bit like the recent Tales of Monkey Island, we just got the chararacter walking more randomly, the first version only walked to waypoints, now he'll walk to to were ever you click on the ground, we now have multi language support by included text files, the big problem is I still suck at characters and bones, Poser sh*t isn't ideal and illigal to use the geometry anyway

maybe one day I will do a rigging tutorial for gamers using blender(not tS....never had any usefull exporter for anim)...I will wait for a stable blender 2.5 so everyone can make their own custom key maps.

Sounds great nowherebrain.... I hope things are going well and that we see more updates on VB soon.... BTW is this a coincindental use of abbreviation (VB)....

No, why? what is VB?...I seriously have no clue...and VB has been my game since...around 2004, when I first started to develop it(the first time...lol)

Visual Basic? Is that language still around?

Viral Bronchitis?

Visual Basic is likely, although I am using standard "c" code and some headers and such from 3dgs.

Well...., It has certainly been awhile. I had an anonymous publisher contact me and I had been belting out code and resources(models, textures etc...)...suffice it to say the game is drastically different now.....multi-player for one thing...and I am not sure how much I can discuss...well I know not much...lol, but the publisher is enthusiastic...although I have not seen much in the form of funds yet they are a trusted name, and I have faith things will work out...stay tuned.


.....I am still alive BTW.

Very good news! I hope you make a bundle of money and that this leads to more work doing games and 3D.

Welcome back nowherebrain! I'm glad you still drop by because you are missed!

Congratulations on finding a publisher and good luck with the game.

I too am glad to see you visiting us again.

Well thanks!....did not take any of you long to reply....in the meantime I have been lightly flogged for "mentioning anything at all" and some of the properties will not be mine in the end, to me this is of small consequence....the more ideas I have laying around the less creative I am, I find it is more useful to throw stuff out and start from scratch from time to time.
Also, for the record I should note...the publisher is in no means as big as say EA, or Ubisoft..... I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about the level of commercialism this has reached...it is still very "indie"...e.g. not a blockbuster....lol...anyway be back soon.